Week 11

Exercise 1

Process

Upon opening the file provided, I obtained this.

Starting off, I located the key positions and began positioning them and setting key frames.

After doing that, I had to make it look more natural and by opening the graph editor and setting the editor to show only my translate X and translate Y, I obtained this.

Using the scale tool, I made the duration shorter, from the animation ending at frame 72, to ending at frame 48. After which, I broke the tangent of point at the valley at Translate Y and using the move tool, moved both tangents such that it had a sharper V.

Finally, I broke the tangent at the first point of translate Y and using the move tool, moved its "right-tangent" and the "left-tangent" of the point at the valley to give it a nice curve. I did the same to the other curve at the end. Also, I deleted the three points in between the first and last point of translate X as they were not needed.

With that, I obtained the animation shown above.

Exercise 2

Through the animation chart from week 10's lab, I set key frames at areas where my key positions had to be set, namely at frames when the ball was either at its peak or when it bounces. I used the grid as a base to check and ensure that the ball bounces in a correct direction.

Next, using the graph editor, I broke the tangents of the points at the valleys and using the move tool, moved them so that a sharp V is made.

After doing it for all of the valley's points, as well as shift it slightly so as to obtain a I achieved this.

With that, I obtained the animation shown above.

Lab 2

Exaggerated Ball

Not Exaggerated Ball

After creating a sphere and grouping it together twice, as well as modify > Center pivot the 3 selections, I parented a Nonlinear > Squash attribute, called squash1Handle to translate_ball_gp.

I then created a base using a plane polygon, giving it color by assigning it a new material.

I then begin setting key frames at key positions, namely the peaks and bounces.

And just like the other exercises, I used the graph editor to break the tangents of the points at the valleys and using the move tool, moved the tangents to give it a sharp V as well as a nice curve at the top.

Finally, by changing the rotated Z attribute of rotate_ball_gp at frame 1 to 1 and frame 100 to -1200 , the ball rotates while it moves and with that the ball bounce sequence is completed. For the squash and stretch effect, I simply changed the squash1handle's attribute called factor to suit the condition, -1 being that of when it is squashed, 0 when it is normal or at its peak and 1 when it is stretched.

For the exaggerated ball, I made the numbers have a larger difference from one another so that the effect is much more stronger and the difference between positions is very vast.

For the not exaggerated ball, I made the numbers have a smaller difference from one another so that the effect is not as strong and the difference between positions in more subtle.

With that, I completed this lab too.

Reflection

I love the graph editor. It simply makes animating so much more easier and natural looking. Simply by breaking a tangent and shifting it, I can make a ball seem more realistic in terms of its bouncing motion which is very pleasing to see. Also, what I have learnt in week 10 is brought forward. Setting of key positions allows me to know where I have to aim for.

Finally, I feel that applying the squash and stretch effect is rather difficult in terms of capturing the proper effect that skilled animators are able to do. I feel that I will need more experience and time to actually animate a decent squash and stretch effect bounce.

After getting feedback from my teacher, I realize that there are ways to improve my work for this week. One being that of the camera angle, where he told me that when looking at a squash and stretch effect, it would be better to look from the side view as it enables the viewer to actually see how the ball maneuvers through each frames; the amount of squash and stretch effect applied.

Another method of improvement would be that of the effect itself where my teacher told me that the effect was applied throughout in an up and down motion and not that of in the direction of the ball. Meaning, for my animation, the squash and stretch effect is seen as stretching up and downwards rather than that of slanted slightly in the direction of the ball. This was something which I did not know and would embed into future assignments.

Why is squash and stretch so useful in animation?

I feel that it is useful as it allows for our animations to look natural and life-like as well as allows us to leave our audiences with a stronger impact if we choose to exaggerate the action.

Think of a situation in which extreme squash and stretch could be applied to a character

Seeing that I am someone who is interested in very exaggerated animation, my choice of situation would be that when an energy bolt is being controlled by a caster into attacking his enemy whom is continuously pummeled by this one bolt. The effect is applied mainly when the bolt collides with the enemy. Other than the obvious squash being applied when colliding and stretch when moving, another area where this effect can take place is upon collision when the human's skin has a slight squash effect due to the blow, and a stretch effect upon the ball leaving.

Think of an animation example where squash and stretch would NOT be appropriate.

I feel that a squash and stretch effect would not be appropriate for animations that have no form of contact or impact in it such as flying with no wind resistance.

If squash and stretch doesn't really happen so obviously in real life, why do you think is it so effective in animation.

This allows our animation to look more lively as what we are animating are merely a combination of polygons. Also, it allows us animators to carry out certain animations which leaves a stronger impact on our audiences, making our animations much more nicer and possibly, natural or realistic.

Week 12

1) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 2D animation? Explain your view.

Yes, as I feel that one indeed needs to draw well to create a good 2D animation as I feel that although many teachers tell us that we do not need to be good in drawing to excel in designing, animation being one of these factors, being able to draw allows one to create beautiful images that will entice his audiences. Furthermore, by having this ability, mixed in with effort and understanding of animation that can be obtained even by those who do not excel in art, beautiful 2D animation can be created. Where on the other hand, people who have the same amount of effort and understand but lack the talent, will create only decent animation that gives off a natural feel but will be unable to entice its audiences due to the poor drawing that would make it not captivating.

2) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 3D animation? Explain your view.

Although it is animation as well, my answer slightly differs from that of my first question as now, have different opinions. On one hand, I feel that one does not need to draw well to be able to create good 3D animation as primitive shapes and simple tools are present in various animating applications, like MAYA, that allows the person to easily create a proper model and animate it, given the right skill and understanding.

On the other hand, I also feel that one needs to draw well to create good 3D animation as although these tools are given to them, this lack of skill might prevent them from creating excellent models using this primitive shapes as they are unable to fully picture or create the a beautiful model of what they envisioned in their head, unlike that of someone who possesses the skill of art who can full draw out what he has envisioned and thus, also allow him to create that via MAYA.

3) What do you think would separate a piece of poor animation from a piece of good animation? In other words, how would you go about deciding if a piece of animation is good or bad?

Effort and time aside, I feel that i can determine the quality of the work based on how natural it looks and the emotions that it makes me feel, whether it moves in a certain and proper way and whether it makes me feel sad or happy when I have to.

4) In 2D animation, you need to be very aware of timing at a frame by frame level, using timing charts and other techniques - but for 3D animation, this is handled using the graph editor, which is more concerned with manipulating rates of change over time.

Does this affect how you approach your animation work? Explain.

No it does not. Bluntly, I have to say that initially, I have no experience in animation whatsoever, being so, these information that clearly shows that there is a difference in method of animation between the two however, having no experience before, I am simply learning what I have to, be in 2D animation or 3D, thus, not affecting me at all.

Judging by the terms used however, I feel that 2D animation requires more precision as compared to 3D. Being so, I feel that I would approach 2D work much more carefully while approach 3D less on the careful side but more on increasing my pace of doing the work as it seems that 3D animation requires more work.

5) Give a brief critique of Maya as an animation tool. Don't just say Maya makes animation difficult, or easy, or that you need to learn a lot of stuff to use Maya - explain what Maya does well and not so well in terms of creating animation.

To start off, Maya has a variation of shortcuts to carry out any given particular task where we, the users, have to find the right shortcut that suits us. Even the basic aspect of modeling the object is made easy through the various operations available, ranging from apply a surface that comes in a variety of different types like blinn, to simply extruding it. Add this on to the also highly sophisticated animation operations, which also has its large variations, ranging from having a mini-camera which users can move to achieve the desired camera angle, to simply creating a path for the object to move on, and one can easily create a decent animation in no time.

Week 10: Animation Lab 1

Exercise 2

Anticipation

By squatting down, audiences will anticipate that a jump will follow up.

Squash and Stretch

Upon squatting down, a squash effect is present as I am, in a way, compressed, after which, when I jumps, a stretch effect is shown as the length of my body seems to be lengthen.

Staging

Just by looking where I am positioned, as well as the two doors, mixed in with my starting motion which creates anticipation for the audiences to know that I will be running, it is made clear to them that I would be running towards the doors.

Follow through and overlapping action

When punching someone, his entire body does not stop upon contact. When his fist comes into contact with the person, he will still continue to have a twisting motion as his waist and arm follows through with the motion. This is the follow through. For overlapping action, it is that his entire body does not follow up immediately when he winds up his punch, it follows up a few frames later.

Arcs

When punching, the punch does not randomly move up and down as it travels towards its target. It follows an arc of motion that keeps it looking natural. Meaning, when punching something, the fist will travel in that direction in a fixed direction making it look natural.

Secondary action

The punch in this video was the primary action, while the fierce and angry expression on the person's face is the secondary actions as it is not the main action but it contributes into telling viewers the current mood of the person, enriching the reason of the action. With these two actions working together, it allows the action to leave a stronger impact on the audience.

Exaggeration

In terms of animation, if i wanted to give the video give off a very strong impact, I would exaggerate his range of motion, increasing the duration of his starting pose, make it seem like the punch would be a strong one, as well as the arc of motion, extending it so that he has a stronger looking start and finish.

Solid drawing

When animating the bounce, solid drawing is needed when applying the squash and stretch effect on the ball as it bounces to ensure that it looks natural and that the volume of the ball remains constant as, for example, when a squash effect is applied, the width of the ball is extended while its height is decreased and solid drawing is needed to ensure that the ball looks the same despite the effect applied.

Timing

The ball has to travel at an increasing velocity and timing is very important when animating this action as the ball has to fall and rise at an appropriate looking speed and this speed is shown through the timing of the animation.

Straight ahead and pose to pose

To make the animation look natural, I would draw 3 main poses which is the initial starting position of the ball, when it lands and when it returns back up but at a lower height. By creating these three positions, I can animate the ball much more easily as I know which 3 areas I am suppose to aim for, and following up with straight ahead, it allows the motion to be very natural.

Appeal

The character has appeal as he portrayed a large amount of aggression and hostility making him seem evil, much like a villain.

Slow-out And Slow-in

When doing the robot, he eases out from one pose and eases to another.

Exercise 3

This exercise will be focused on the fight from 1:30 to 2:00.

Follow through and overlapping action

When the archer squats down, her cape continues to fall despite her actions coming to a stop.

Staging

At 1:48 when the archer's arrow as well as the battle is shown, the perfect stage is shown as the audience can clearly see what is going on, as well as allows them to understand the emotions, plan, attitude and idea of the situation.

Anticipation

At 1:48, viewers have a sense of anticipation as the archer draws her arrow as it allows them to anticipate that she would be firing it.

Straight ahead and pose to pose animation

At 1.52 when the archer stands up, it would seem that there were two main poses, that of when she was squatting down and when she stood up, and followed up with straight ahead where it actually showed that she moved from her initial position to her ending position rather than having a suddenly change of position if straight ahead was not used.

Exaggeration

At 1.53, when the arrow travels past two other characters, the time is slowed down to exaggerate the moment, making the moment seem more eye catching and intense due to this exaggeration.

Appeal

From the start of the video to the end, the purple character can be seen to be rushing to his hands aid giving off a strong appeal as a heroic character. At 1.53, during the slow-mo, it further improves his appeal as he is able to work well with his teammates much like a leader.

Process

First, I analyzed what each of the 12 terms meant, through the websites given as well as with the help of my teacher.

After which, I analyzed each of the videos taken as well as review many of the videos I have watched over the years, chose carefully, and embed the terms which I thought were best suited for that particular video.

Reflection

Through this exercise, I realize that there is more to animation than meets the eye. Initially, I though it was merely moving an object from one position to another. Now, I see that various principles are used in each animation to make it look natural like as if it were happening in real life.

Also, I would like to thank my teacher here as initially, I was quite unsure of what each term meant. Although there might be some errors in how I describe the terms above, I am confident in saying that I am more sure of them with my teacher's help then when I did not ask him.

Assignment One

For this assignment, I decided to model Bomberman. Now, I will take you through the steps of which I took to eventually achieve the model shown at the end of this post.

This assignment took me three days to complete but I will compile everything into one post, stating when and where I stopped for each day.

Day one

I started off my creating planes 640x480 and attaching my pictures to it by "assigning new material".

After which I arranged them to positions that I preferred and started modelling. I started off with the round body which I created through resizing a sphere.

Simple! After doing that, I had to do the ball which is launched from the stomach. I hid the body and created another sphere and likewise, positioned it based on the pictures which are used as guidelines.

I usually position each piece according to the front and handle the proportion of it by the other sides. After which, I "showed" the body and positioned them accordingly.

Initially, I tried using boolean > difference but I realised that the ball fitted snugly into the hole in the stomach and thus, there was no need to do so as there was no spacing at all between the hole and the ball. After the debate, I decided to call it a day.

Day two

Moving on from where I ended, I decided to do the head, where I simply created a cube and smooth it to give me the shape I wanted. It seemed odd at first but I soon realise that the angle of which I took the picture was not front but a little above and eventually, I decided to keep it as that.

Next, it was the arms. I hid the body and head and started working on the arms. I simply created a sphere and two cylinders of which is arranged nicely and scaled accordingly to achieve the results below.

Thus far, I feel like I am building a lego model, simply making simple polygons and arranging them accordingly. After doing the arms, I went on to the feet which was the tricky bit.

Ultimately, the best solution I could come up with was by bevelling the edges of a cuboid a few times, like so..

followed by trying to achieve the foot shape by extruding and rescaling of the faces and edges, ensuring that I pressed "3" to see how it looked like when smoothed. When satisfied with the look, I rotated it sideways to fit the picture that was used as a guild line for the bottom of the model.

I continued experimenting, extruding and smoothing, to try and achieve the desired look. I extruded the bottom to give it a flat like base and moved the top upwards to make the shoe looks bigger.

Finally, I created a duplicate of that "shoe" and rotated it to fit the other side. I added a cube in the middle to create that "one-piece" look.

Now for the actual legs. I simply created two cylinders and positioned them accordingly.

After everything, I "showed" everything and ended day two.

Day three

I went on to do the detailing of the stomach where it looked like there where two lines across it. I tried using the insert edge loop and extruding the faces as well as bevelling and extruding. None of it worked. In the end, I settled for boolean > difference, where I created a Torus, positioned like around the model and scaled it down so that only a portion of it is "inside" the model. Finally, using boolean > difference, I removed the portion that is overlapped giving me the design I wanted.

The last thing I had to do was the back. This was the trickiest of them all in my opinion. I first created the head piece which was simply a sphere and a cuboid linked together. The hard part was the hollow area. I made a cube, smooth it and extruded and scaled various points to finally achieve the shape below.

After which, I positioned it at the back of the head and used boolean > difference, giving me that hollow look.

With that, I was done with all the pieces.

Finally, I repositioned everything again, scaling some of the pieces to its appropriate size as the four pictures used as guide lines were not of the same size, eventually, getting this final product.

Extra work

I went ahead and played around with Maya, putting in colours and textures. Having learnt that Anisotropic was that of plastic, I went ahead and used that, changing the colour, ambience, angle, etc. Eventually I got this.

And this is how I did my model.

Research

Before doing this assignment, I did research for material, only the realise that I simply could not find any. Being so, I decided to consider what information I was lacking. Through the maya lessons, I was taught almost everything I needed seeing that my model is simply an arrangement of shapes as well as boolean> difference which is also taught. However, I felt that the shoe would be a problem for me and thus I searched for ways to do it and found this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfjuKY1jN6Y

Through this I learnt that instead of presetting the values for bevelling, I could extrude and scale it several times to get the same effect as a bevel. Through this knowledge, I was able to experiment and instead of extruding many times, I tried bevelling several times and by combining both of them, I was able to create the shoe of Bomberman. Without this, I am sure that I would have lots of trouble modelling it.

Self Critique

Looking at the pictures shown above, I feel that my work is not too bad, out of the four views, only one, namely the side view, was obviously different to that of the actual model.

Whereas the others were still quite good. Looking at them, I feel quite happy that they look rather similar to that of the real thing.

Having said that, part of me is quite upset with my work as in all, after much comparison with other course mates, I realised that my model is quite simple seeing that most of the time I am simply repositioning pieces and creating pieces. It is only about two steps did I struggle to find ways to achieve the desired look. Take this image for example.

This was considered to be the hardest task and looking at other people's work, this is only a small problem to them. Here, I spent about an hour experimenting with different ways to achieve the hollow look, from cylinders to a boolean > union of a sphere and a cube. There is hardly a proper way to find ways to improve on this as this is ultimately, how the model actually looks. It seems that my choice of toy also affected the amount of effort I seem to put in.

Despite saying that my model is quite similar to that of the real model, it hurts me to say that I feel that I did not put in enough effort. If other course mates could model objects to the extend that it looks identical, despite them being much more complex then mine, why am I unable to? Truth be told, part of the reason is because I am lazy and another, because of my lack of art sense which I feel plays a key role in this assignment.

A final observation which I noted was that of colour.

comparing it to that of the Nerf-Gun on this website: http://in3dp11xuanhao.wordpress.com/ which is that of one of my course mates.

His work is extremely well done, well modelled and coloured with as much precision as possible. It can be told that he put in a lot of effort into doing his work. Mine on the other hand seems to be rushed and with little effort spent. Firstly, I did put in effort in doing this however I feel that my lack of art sense caused my downfall. I feel that instead of trying to duplicate the model which is quite dirty. I should have made it look more bright looking to attract the viewer's attention. Also, I could have tried to better arrange the angle of the light reflection to give it a more realistic look.

Ultimately, I do rate myself a 7/10 as my task was to create a model similar to that of the real thing. My model is indeed quite similar and I have graded it based on that. However, if I were to take into account how much effort it looks like I put into this, I would give myself a 5/10 as although I did try my best to create a nice piece of art. My lack of skill prevents me from doing so and made my work seem as if I did not bother to do it properly.

Research

I was looking around for better ways to move the camera about and came across this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAsTLW81U4M

First thing I noticed from this was that the camera icon was very cute. On a serious note however, this is a great function. Rather than using the standard Alt + left-click function. I feel that by using this(camera, camera and aim, camera, aim and up) , I will be able to know where exactly my camera is aiming at when looking from all four view points ( front, top, side, perspective). Initially, I can only shift the camera one view at a time which I feel is tiresome. However, this allows me to shift the camera on the perspective view and have it reciprocate on the other views which I feel will make work easier and more precise.

This is really a great find.

~Project Journal~

ITS BOMBERMAN!

Story

In the Jason's room, the rat has been playing all day, from made up fight stories with Jason's action figures, to throwing balls around. He was racing on the track against his toy friends in his newly made mouse-trap car when suddenly, he heard Jason return home!

Quickly, he made his way back to his rat hole only to realise that his car could not move. He started to panic for he knew he could not reach his rat hole on time on foot. Just when all hope seems lost, he felt a hand grab his waist, slowing lifting him off his feet. He turned around slowly and his faced turned pale as he came to realise that it was Bomberman grabbing him.

"Oh no..Not this again.."

With the bomb-throw power-up in possession, Bomberman tossed the frantic rat back into his hole, just before Jason entered the room.

"Whoa, did something crash?"

Shape

I feel that my model would be fairly challenging considering my current skill in Maya. Almost the entire model has a curve and I feel that it is harder to work with sphere like objects as compared to squarish ones.

The main shapes that will be used for my model will be that of spheres, cylinders and the occasional cubes. My model is simply an arrangement of various polygons and boolean>Difference of areas where parts are actually fixed together to form the entire model, being that these parts have holes and by using the boolean> Difference function, I can easily get those holes and designs that I want.

Ultimately, that is all there is to my model. The only extra challenging thing I foresee is that of the shoes of the model, as looks something to that of a cylinder with a flat bottom and an uneven top and bottom. I feel that I will not be able to create something identical, however, I can create something similar using the smooth and extrude function.

Design

FRONT VIEW

BOTTOM VIEW

BACK VIEW

SIDE VIEW

WIREMESH

BREAK-DOWN

~Thinking Outside the Traditional 3D Mindset~

Does multi-tasking give you a real or false sense of having accomplished something?

Ultimately, I feel that this is based on a few aspects. Firstly, are we sacrificing effectiveness by increasing out efficiency. Simply put it, by multi-tasking, we are doing many different things at the same time, increasing our efficiency as we get things done much faster. However, through this action, many, including myself, would agree that the outcome of whatever we are working on or looking at, be it a product or an event, would not be as good than if one concentrated solely on it. Even if we choose to believe that despite multi-tasking, we are able to produce the same 100% as when we focus on it solely, the reality comes down to it being untrue.

Here is an example. Picture two men, A and B, having to complete 3 tasks in 3 days. A decides to complete one task per day, concentrating whole-heartedly on that one task for that day, while B decides to do one-third of each assignment amongst the 3-day duration. Although ultimately, both of them will complete their tasks, A in my opinion would have done a better job. Despite the numbers adding up, showing that they completed their assignments at the same time, the amount of effort and focus put in is very different. Factors like being tired and restless does come into play here. Imagine that the ability of a person can be displayed in a form of a number. A starts of with 100 points, doing his entire work for that day with that 100 points, which depletes over time. B too, starts with 100 points for his first task. However, when he reached his second task, he would have approximately 67 points left, meaning, the effort and focus he have for the second task would not be as much. And focus is only one of the many factors.

Being so, although multi-tasking does improve efficiency, effectiveness is some how affected negatively, and being a perfectionist, I strive to score in everything I do thus, I feel that by multi-tasking, it gives me a false sense of accomplishment.

Is learning 3D and design different from learning programming, or is all learning the same?Why?

In terms of the content, yes, what we learn is quite different, 3D and design being that of learning things on the graphical side, being creative in our ideas and giving opinions. Programming on the other hand is more on the theoretical side, maintaining focus and understanding of the different type of keywords and patterns to solve question as well as knowing the steps and following them, making minor changes to the already set procedures.

In terms of learning on its on however, my answer would be no. After all, all these are just subjects. They have grades, difficulties and knowledge to learn. Simply because I prefer one subject over the other would I give a different kind of attitude when learning it.

The article states that “Learning is actually a very complex operation for an individual”. Do you agree with this? Do you feel that you approach your learning in the best way – if yes, how, and if no, how can you change your work style?

I have two different opinions on this. On one hand, it is a very simple operation, simply picking up a book or file and reading from it, studying the things we have to. However, on the other hand, it is also very complex, seeing that I feel that it takes effort to actually pick up the book or file to begin with.

On the whole, it is a simple task but to reach this task and continue doing it, that part is complex. To all who know me, I excel in procrastination. Even when it was clearly stated that completing a particular task in one day was impossible, I still delayed my work till the very last minute, and the funniest thing is, I never, throughout the entire time, from receiving my assignment to the day before submission, stopped trying to do my work. I would attempt it every single time but fail to do so due to my "skill" in procrastination. This is my example. Being so, to me, it is a very complex operation to start a simple task of learning.

What are your thoughts about the last paragraph in the extract?

To be honest, the last paragraph is quite difficult to understand but I feel that from it, my thoughts would be that, instead of wasting time by pretending to do something boring, one should use that time to do something more productive and decide for themselves whether or not that "boring" task is important to them. I do not mean that they should ignore the task because it is difficult, rather they should be discipline enough to decide for themselves the right thing to do, to decide if that task is worth their time.

Should your lecturers also focus on your work attitude, or just leave you to sink or swim on your own? Why

I feel that lecturers should focus on our work attitude rather than let us handle things on our own. It is very easy for us to follow a PDF file and complete our assignments but that would just make everyone equals, same knowledge, same marks, in a sense at least. However, by focusing on our work attitude, it gives those who are morn willingly to learn the opportunity to excel over those who are not as willingly. I feel that this is only fair.