Evaluation

Critical Evaluation

As the name of the module is 'Virtual Environments' the group and I wanted to emphasis our efforts on this aspect. Although this module is comprised of the combination of modelling and animation we wanted to have the main focus on our environment, ford island.

I believe that our animation skills aren't as developed as our modelling skills and therefore our animation aspects suffered making the end result not as impacting as the still shots of the environments and models. Our animation does tell the story of Pearl Harbour but doesn't deliver the shock effect when watching it, however I think the models and the environment make up for the animation.

As a group we wanted to include human activity to make the animation more realistic, so having them walk around the harbour and then start running when the explosions started really enhances the animation effect.

As mentioned in a previous post it is important to set the scene for the entire animation at the start, we decided that panning shots of the harbour allowed the audience to appreciate the modelling techniques used as it shows the environment and the individual models.

Including the LEGO theme allows the animation to be watched and appreciated by both children and adults whilst remaining educational. Although are sound is comprised of sound FX that we downloaded from freesound.org and apple loops in LOGIC PRO it still informs the audience of the events of Pearl Harbour. In our animation we tried to stay accurate to the events in 1941 by using the sun to illustrate the time of day.

Upon completion of this process I believe our group as created a effective animation that informs the audience of the events of Pearl Harbour. If we had more time we would have developed the animation aspect further and included more scenes. We did have issues with our explosions changing colour when panning across the environment because of the sun effect we had included - this is something we would have explored in more detail if we had a longer time-frame. The combination of sounds, models and animation we have created an animation that shows our skills as modellers and animators.

If I were to do this module I would concentrate on the animation aspect a little longer, rendering issues and explosion issues meant that we had less time to animate.

Time spent animating: 6 hours
Time spent rendering: 30+ hours (Computers left overnight)
Time spent compiling animation scenes: 4 hours
Time spent adding sound: 2 Hours

From completing this module I have learnt not only more skills with animating, like using splines and water effects, but organisational, timing and adaption skills. I have learnt that if you come across a problem you can use it as a positive with your animation.

Animating - LEGO people

Animating the LEGO people

As a group we wanted to create the LEGO people to make the animation look more realistic however that only improves the animation so far, to really enhance the animation I needed to animate them walking around the harbour. 

 To animate the LEGO people was simple, on one key frame I would animate the left leg positioned upwards and the right arm, then I would swap the legs and arms over.

Animating

Animating - The Establishing shot

With any animation or film, and particularly in this animation, it is important to set the scene to allow the audience to understand where they are giving them a hint as to what is happening. Undoubtedly the audience may not understand that this is an animation of Pearl Harbour just from the shot of the harbour but you are able to see that it is a small island surrounded by land and holds a harbour and airstrip.

To start animating I firstly opened the environment and then saved it as 'SCENE 3 V1' - doing this enables me to make changes to the scene, start animating, and know that if I make a mistake I still have the unedited environment to start over with. 

The only movement in this scene is the camera panning over the island, so I placed a target camera in the scene and positioned it where appropriate, constantly rendering out the scene from the camera to be sure I had placed it correctly. 

I used key frame to create this scene and did so by placing the camera, and placing a key frame along the timeline when I had moved the camera to the next position. 

These are a few still shots of the animation scene. 

Recap - Creating an Explosion

Recap of Creating an Explosion

Before any animating I wanted to take a quick look at explosions - although my scenes may not require this it is important to know to help others.

Creating an Explosion

Now for something that is a little more trickier. I don't think that I will be making the use of an explosion for my animation however it is something useful to learn, and could possibly be implemented elsewhere or for future.
First of all, get the basics done. Open up 3DS max and create a standard primitive. For this exercise I have chosen a box, with segments 5x5x5. I coloured the box pink because I like the colour pink. Under geometry, on the drop down box, you will find 'particle systems', click this. Seven options should appear, I won't bore you by naming them all but select 'PArray. When you draw a PArray it will show a little box, I drew mine small and to the right of my pink box. Attaching the PArray is really simple, just select 'Pick Object' under 'Basic parameters' then click on your box, or object. Now if you move along the timeline you will see little particles coming from the box.

'Particle Generation' is where you can make adjustments to the particles. I didn't make too many changes to my explosion, all I did was to increase the 'Emit stop' to 30, 'Display Until' to 100 and 'Life' to 100.

Under 'Particle Type' is where I made most of my changes to the explosion. Instead of using 'standard particles' I chose to use 'Object fragments'. I also ammended the 'amount of chunks' used from 100 to 60. Shamefully, I spent a fair few minutes deciding how many chunks to use.

With any good explosion you will see that the debry spins and rotates. After a little digging around on the internet I found that you can adjust the spinning of exploded segments under 'Rotation and collison'. I set the speed to 1 and the variation 4.0.
I haven't explored explosion throughly as it isn't an aspect that I will be including in my animation.

Recap

Recapping on Animation

As I am not a professional animator it was important to run through the basics to refresh my memory.

Camera's and Path Constraints
Taking a quick look into the use of camera's in 3DS MAX, I placed a 'target' camera into the scene after creating a simple teapot. I then dragged the line from the camera onto the teapot.
After this I went into 'create' then 'shapes' and create a circle around the sphere. At the top of 3DS max, along the grey toolbar with white writing is a drop down option called animation. From there I selected 'constraints' then 'path constraint'; this will allow for you to connect the dashed line to the circle previously created. If successful, it will move the teapot or object you have created to the circle line.
Pressing play will then move the teapot around the circle line on repeat.

Auto Key
Autokey is an animation technique, I have briefly looked into this. Creating a green cone under standard primitives and placing in the scene. At the bottom of 3DS max should be a grey toolbar which displays three buttons, a key, Auto key and Set key. For the time being I am just looking at Auto Key. Selecting the cone then clicking on auto key, the screen and toolbar should highlight red. I think this is very beneficial as it indicates that your in animating mode so you can't forget. Abov the autokey is the timeline, it should already be at 0 if you click along the timeline and move the cone then unclick autokey and press play it creates a sequence. To view the sequence simply press play.

Set Key
Set key is similar to autokey to a degree that it is a form of animation however the differences are that autokey is automatic and set key requires more input from the user however allows you to control the animation further.
Using setkey doesn't differ from autokey and great deal; it just requires a little more clicking. For no purpose what so ever I decided to create a different shape I used previously in autokey, a pyramid.

After creating the pyramid I selected it, clicked on setkey (found directly under autokey and to the right of the key symbol) Again, the bar and screen will go red. Once it's red, press 'K' on your keyboard then move along the timeline, spin, rotate and move your object and press 'K' again. This will, like earlier, create a short sequence which will display when the play button is pressed.




Something else I think is worth mentioning is how to save and render a quick animation. After you have completed the animation and saved it. To be able to watch the video without the use of 3ds max, click render setup. Under the tab 'common' scroll down and click 'acttive time segment' found under 'Common parameters'. Then lower down under 'Render output' select where you want to save the file. I always save onto my desktop and then move the file later on. Once that is complete click 'Render', render the video and your video is saved.

SWOT

SWOT Analysis

Below is a basic swot analysis of my work. It doesn't fully explore each section, but briefly highlights the aspects of my good that are advantageous and the sections that I need to improve. It also highlights things that could hinder my work as the animation progresses, doing this has enabled me to establish each problem that I could face and bare these in mind whilst continuing on with the project, it is also important to consider ways to overcome any problems.

Animation Research

Understanding the movement of Planes

Before I started to animate I wanted to conduct some research on the movement of planes so when I was creating the scenes it would be as realistic as possible.

When looking online I came across these photos that gave indication on how pilots move the planes to steer them in different directions - it was important to understand this process before I started animating.

 

This picture shows the basic specifications of a plane's movement.

 

 

This photo goes into more detail into the subject and will be kept in mind when animating.

 

It is important when animating to remember research completed earlier to help the process.

 

I have also looked into some previous animations shown below:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SioHE5U2dfk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAX1ryHdoHg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh8XrQa9yhU