Final Animation

Below is the final animation that I created using Autodesk: Maya. I am extremely happy with the final result as in the beginning I didn't have any idea how to use the software and also hadn't ever done any 3D modeling or 3D animation to this kind of standard before. Using what I had learned throughout the course of the project I was able to apply these skills into finishing my final piece to a high enough standard which I am immensely happy with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3MnHoKTjOg&feature=youtu.be

Moving Truck

Just as little bit of extra research into how to create moving objects on Maya I quickly added movement to the truck that I created. I first started by taking the textured truck that I edited previously and first of all just set it to move in a straight line across the screen to give it a sense of movement; the playblast of this is seen below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL47Qfa-h04

After looking back at this I realised that it needed some more movement in it to make it appear to be rolling as at the movement it didn't look very realistic. So this time the playblast below shows the truck, again moving forward, but this time with the wheels rotating to show the movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFcVJ0lSok8&feature=youtu.be

As it wasn't all that clear that I had got the wheels to move I then quickly added a different coloured stripe going across all 4 wheels so that they would show the rotation more clearly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlZOjWVDUT8&feature=youtu.be

Truck Texturing

Once I was confident with adding textures onto basic shapes I then started to add some colour to the truck that I had previously made at the beginning of the project as I wanted to practice adding colour onto particular sections of a model and not just one shape.

Here is the steps I took to adding the textures onto the different parts of the truck as well as the final look to the truck, once all the colours had been applied; to which I stuck to using the colour swatches Blinn and Lambert.

Rolling Ball

The next mini task that I did as research was practice making a simple ball shape roll across the screen so that I was able to learn how the general movement would look. I also wanted to do this so that I could get an idea about how fast the ball would need to roll in order to move and also so that I could practice using a simple movement that would apply the easing in and out principle. It was important to apply this principle to this kind of animation as, like the way a car would move, it starts and ends slowly it doesn't just stop and start instantly maintaining the same speed; which also gives the illusion of a real ball rolling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYs1pi4iNRU

Texturing

The next thing that I wanted to do was look at different 2D and 2D texturing that Autodesk: Maya had to offer as the range of different materials that I could apply onto my models was rather extensive. To do this simple exercise I first started by drawing out several spheres so that I had a surface that the textures could be added onto.

I then navigated into the Hypershade menu, which will give me the options I need to be able to apply different textures. In this menu I started to look at the different 2D and 3D textures and put a couple into my workspace so I could edit them.

I then edited the colours of the textures before applying them so that they looked more interesting for the audience.

Below is the final image of what the complete spheres looked like with their different textures. By doing this simple task I was able to get used to the menu and layout and also learnt how to apply the textures to the different objects.

 

CGI Landmark: Lord of the Rings (2001)

The last film that I want to talk about on the CGI landmarks best films is Lord of the Rings. Not only does this film visually look amazing due to all of the scenery, most of which isn't CGI due to extensive filming locations in New Zealand, but it also includes a revolutionary piece of technology in the form of motion capture. As previously explained in the Animation Techniques section for motion capture this was a huge advancement in the CG industry as it takes mapping of the human face and allows the animators to be able to manipulate the features to be able to create a particular face, in this case Gollum. He is an interesting looking character that still has some of Andy Serkis' characteristics but with the motion capturing the animators have been able to give his a thinner and more boney appearance that is what makes his character really come alive in the films and allows this to be a break through in technology based film.

CGI Landmarks: Toy Story (1995)

Another utterly fantastic film was the original Toy Story, along with being the first full length animated feature film, it is humourous, well executed and has a cleaver storyline to boot. As the first animation feature film it really set the standard high for any other animations following it due to the high quality and also how well it has been written. Not only is the animation beautiful but all the characters have also been wonderfully put together and each have there own personalities as not just toys but also with real human emotions and feelings which really adds more to this film. During this film it also shows many examples of using the principles of animation and it also includes wonderful rendering and lighting on the characters that really give them more life and there is a wonderful use of shadow as well.

CGI Landmarks: Jurassic Park (1993)

Probably one of the greatest films, in my opinion, ever made was the first Jurassic Park film. This film was genius and played on the novel created by Michael Crichton, and follows the story that Dr John Hammond, a slightly crazy scientist who has found the formula to create dinosaurs in the modern world; to which this obviously fails in the end. This is a brilliant film and is the first to use photo-realistic creatures to create the mood of an actual Lost World. During the production of this film the dinosaurs are actually created using two different methods. The first being regular CG m9odelling to be able to create the larger animals, especially in the scene shown below, whereas in scenes such as close ups with the Tyrannosaurus Rex, heavily robotic puppets where used that were controlled during some shots where lots of detail needed to be used.

 

CGI Landmarks: Terminator 2 (1991)

Possibly one of the greatest breakthroughs in CGI is during the Terminator 2 film due to the high quality and realistic looking CG human that they created for it.  This is an expertly crafted piece of work and is a definitely must see film due to the funny humour that the Terminator has now that hes good and trying to look after them, and also because of this wonderful CG moment where a human has been created to look like he is made out of liquid. The image from the film below is probably the best example of how the character works as it shows that he is able to sink down and also copy other objects around him and then morph back into either his character or any other character.

CGI Landmarks: Luxo Jr (1986)

In the same year as Labyrinth along came Luxo Jr, which has now become the general logo for the company Pixar. Luxo Jr is a small table or desk lamp that has been fully animation into 3D and is a fabulous animation short to watch. It combines whitty humour and has been beautifully rendered to show the moment of both of the lamps and also the ball which Luxo Jr plays with. Throughout the animation as well there are definitely examples of the principles used here, again like most 3D animations the squash principle has been used on the ball, especially when Luxo Jr is balancing and jumping on it, but the true reason as to why this animation short isn't down to how wonderful and funny it is; its down to the shadows. Luxo Jr was the very first CG animation to include and successfully use shadows in there animation. There are clear examples of this running through the animation the clearest being when anything is in the larger lamp's light as this casts a very heavy and also very obvious shadow onto any other objects that past through it.

CGI Landmarks: Labyrinth (1986)

Labyrinth is quite possibly one of the weirdest films that you will ever see, obviously due to the fact that it was made in the mid 80s some of the CGI is a little rusty in places but this is also part of the CGI landmarks in the fact that it had the first photo-realistic looking CGI animal. When actually watching the film it is very hard to tell where this animal is due to the fact that it is a very strange film that includes puppets and interesting looking creatures that makes it difficult to pin point the animal.

CGI Landmarks: Adventures of Andre & Wally B (1984)

Moving on over 10 years later came the very first 'kind of' Pixar film in the form of the Adventures of Andre & Wally B. This is a fantastic piece of 3D animation that was also the first CG animation with motion blur and the use of the squash and stretch principle to be produced which definitely gives this a title of being a CGI landmark. Created by Lucasfilm and produced by John Lasseter, who later on went to work for Pixar, this is a cracking little animation about a bee and a person who end up in a chase scene, but the real reason this is a CGI landmark is due to the principles of animation it demonstrates. When watching is is clear to see that the squash and stretch principle has been used but there are also examples of staging, anticipation and slow in and slow out.

CGI Landmarks: Metadata 1971

Metadata is a very experimental 2D animation short drawn on a data tablet by Peter Foldes. What makes this a member of the CGI landmarks group is due to it was created on the world first key frame animation software which was invented by Nestor Burtnyk and Marceli Wein. This very short animation only last around 9 minutes but is an excellent example of the first kind of animations that were out in the industry in the early 70s. Due to the fact that it is very different to watch in some places it was a good idea that it was an animation short as otherwise some areas of it can give you a headache due to the amount of colours and different figures and shapes used and how they are all woven into each other using early forms of stretching and the other principles. Although some aspects of it are painful to watch aspects of this animation are in fact beautiful to watch as elements of shapes move around to create different patterns and you can really appreciate how much effort went into creating it.

Animation Techniques: Stop Motion

Stop motion is an animation technique to make a object appear to move on its own. Photographs will be taken for every frame, moving the object slightly every time, and then the frames are played back as a consecutive sequence to make it appear that the characters are moving.

Stop motion technique can be applied in a number of different ways and one of my favourites is puppet animation and this typically involves stop-motion puppet figurines that interact with each other and things in an environment. Usually they have small joints so that there arms or leg are able to move in a way in which normal limbs would, they also have the ability to be firm and steady this way.Probably one of the best examples of this can be seen in most Tim Burton animations, and my favourite being The Corpse Bride.

Another interesting example of stop motion animation is using clay, known more popularly as claymation.  This concept uses figures made of clay or a similar material to create the frame by frame animation. Like the puppet animation the clay models could have a wire frame inside of them to be able to keep them steady and upright and so that they can be manipulated effectively. Probably the most well known animation for using clay models, which coincidentally is also one of my favourites, is Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit.

Animation Techniques: CGI Cut Out

Cutout animation is a technique that uses flat characters, props and background cut out from different flat materials, usually paper, card or fabrics, and some of the worlds earliest films where known to be cut out animations. Today instead of using cut out pieces of paper a computer is now able to produce this in a much faster way using scanned images or vector graphics. The best example of this transition happening is the popular TV series South Park, which is created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

South Park: First Episode 1992 (The Spirit of Christmas)

South Park Preview "My Buns"

Animation Techniques: 3D Animation

Probably the most common animation technique that is used today as it has suddenly made a breakthrough into the cinema film industry due to the fact that when correct it has the potential to look amazing. When looking at how the computer generated graphics have influenced the film industry it makes it clear to see which films have excelled in applying this technique into the production.

When having to pick the best 3D Animation I instantly will say the Toy Story series every time as this is a beautiful example of how 3D computer graphics have been implemented into a massive Pixar film which is still watched even over a decade later due to the brilliantly rendered graphics and the impressive storyline that follows the toy characters Buzz and Woody as they argue until they eventually become friends.

Animation Techniques: Flash Animation

The next animation technique that I looked at was flash animation as this is another big movement in the industry but is mainly constricted just to the internet and also adverts as it creates an interesting effect and can be used in colourful and imaginative ways.

A flash animation is an animated film and is usually created using Adobe Flash or similar software that can produce the same outcome. A lot of flash animation are usually quick rugged around the edges and imperfect but that is what gives them a unique visual style. It was first developed in 90s by Macromedia, which was later bought by Adobe as they brought out the relevant software to go with it so that ammeters could give animation a go without needing high end software. Below is a short example of a flash animation made for general viewing on YouTube.

Animation Techniques: Flip Book

The next animation technique that I wanted to look at was flip book animation. Flip book animations have been around for a number of years now, and although they are no longer used to produce any cinema worthy animation they are still used in some smaller cases.

Flip books have been recorded well back into the 19th century as a basic and primitive form of animation, much like the zoetrope in the way in which it uses numbers of pictures that are shown in order very quickly to give the appearance of movement. The earliest recorded flip book was in 1868, patented by John Barnes Linnett under the name of a kineograph; which means moving picture. Below is a video, taken from YouTube, showing Keith Haring's work; in which I am very interested in. He is a well known artist and also animator, and has created some beautiful little animations as seen below.

Animation Techniques: Classic Hand Drawn

Once I started making my own animation I wanted to make sure that I knew some of the more well known animation techniques that have been used throughout the recent years where the animation industry has really developed further than ever. To begin with I decided to look at the traditional animation technique of hand drawn animations.

Traditional animation, sometimes known as classical or hand-drawn, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand; in which this technique was the dominant form of animation in the cinema. This is actually a very well known animation technique and can mainly be seen in many of the Walt Disney films that were created either in the 50s or 90s; the most popular including The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.

12 Principles of Animation

After I knew what I was going to be doing I wanted to be sure that I knew some background to the animation industry starting with the 12 main principles of animation. I wanted to be able to know these principles so that I could then apply to them to my own work when I start to create it.

Squash and Stretch:
This first principle is used to exaggerate movement in an object that usually doesn't have a lot of movement to it, such as a ball. This also gives the object a comedic effect and I will be able to use this in my own work to be able to give more movement to the ball in my animation. 

Anticipation:
This principle is used in animation to be able to guide the audiences eyes to where action is about to happen. It is used for creating surprise and also adds suspense when watching the animation as the audience will try to anticipate what is about to happen. A good example of this principle is horror and thriller films as these will constantly switch back and forth between anticipation and surprise.

Staging:
Staging is about creating a mood in an animation based on the scene and relating to specific character positions and action. Staging can also be added with cinematic techniques such as slow motion, frozen time, motion loops and hand held camera moves.

Straight-Ahead and Pose-to-Pose:
During the days of hand-drawn animation pose-to-pose action became a standard animation technique as it broke down the motion into key poses, whereas in straight-ahead action the character move spontaneously through the action one step at a time.

Follow-Through and Overlapping Action:
These two techniques give an animation a much richer and fuller look to it by adding in extra detail and subtlety. Follow-through consists of the reactions of the characters after an action and it usually happens to let the audience know what the character is feeling. In overlapping action multiple motions influence, blend and overlap the position of the character, such as motions of the characters hair and clothing.

Slow-In and Slow-Out:
This principle consists of slowing down at the beginning and the end of an action, rather like you would so in real life, as this will bring that appearance to my own animation. This principle can be seen most effectively with a car, it will be slow at the beginning while it is speeding up, fast in the middle when it will have reached the speed it wants to, and will slow down at the end to be able to stop.

Arcs:
Arcs are used to animate the movements of characters to be able to achieve a natural look as most real creatures move in curved paths, never in perfectly straight lines. These curves can also be edited using graph editors to be able to fine tune them and make them look as real as possible.

 Secondary Action:
This consists of smaller motions that can be used along side a dominant one. This can be for example a layer of hair, a layer for the characters hat or other item of clothing.

Timing:
Timing is something that is not only essential in animation but also for the rest of the film industry as it is the amount of time a character spends on a particular action. Timing also adds to any emotion that the character is trying to portray. This can be added to facial expressions or can be something added to the way they move or how long they spend on an action, for example if they are scared they make take longer to complete an action as they do not want to move.

Exaggeration:
This principle is something usually found on cartoon characters to add to the essence of an action and make it seem more exciting to the audience; the most common example of this being achieved by using the squash and stretch principle as this is very over-exaggerated to see as objects will be stretched in a way they are not usually done so. This can definitely be applies in my animation due to the fact that I definitely want to add some kind of comical value to the final piece.

Solid Modeling and Rigging:
This was originally called solid drawing in the 1930s, emphasizes shapes in an animation that brings the character to life. This helps to convey the weight, depth and balance of the character so that again they look as realistic as possible to the audience. This is also something that I will need to think about during the process of my animation as I want the skittles in my final piece to fall over in a way in which real skittles would if they were knocked over.

Character Personality:
Character personality, or appeal as it was originally called, is the emotional connection between the character and the audience. This means that the characters must be well developed and have an interesting personally to be able to show there true nature so that the audience can connect with them better.