CAGD 340 Quick Motions

Quick Motions

Week 10-11

This week the assignments got changed up a bit.  Each day we practiced something different, animating video game actions.  Video game actions are meant to be fast and responsive in real-time.  For each new day, we worked on a new type of animation.  The first was based on a "superhero" jump and landing.  We were to adapt a reference into something one would find as an attack or jump or something of the like in a video games.  The second quick motion video game animation was based on a reference we found in a video demonstration.  This was based around the concept of limiting blocked poses.  This meant having a just a few poses to invoke the idea of a real action.  We experimented with A, B, and C poses from the example.  This all takes place within 24 frames, give or take a few.

CAGD 345 Story Project One

CAGD 345

Story Project One

For this big story project, we got to create a short one minute story animatic from the ground up.  There were many steps to get from start to finish.  The process went from brainstorming and conceptualization, to outlining and beat boards, to scripting, then storyboards, and finally the animatic.

My project is titled Daredevil Ball.  It tells the story of Red, a rubber ball who has a goal of going to the moon.  They are going to make many attempts which include a trampoline, a jetpack, and a seesaw, and finds that there is a big challenge ahead of them.




 This is the final one minute long animatic for the project.  This was, in my opinion, one of the easiest tasks to accomplish.  The biggest problem was syncing up the audio and video, but otherwise, operating with the storyboards in Premiere was simple.  In addition, any edits that needed to take place outside of the video were manageable.



 This is the slideshow of storyboards put together to demonstrate and present the semi-complete project.  Later down the line, more in-between shots were added to transition into the animatic.  The toughest part here was making sure the storyboards lined up,m and the designated timespans of each shot fit.  For the most part, I believe I was able to keep all of my original shots, and just had to expand and add on more to convey the story.  I didn't have to cut any out and the closest to such was simply altering shots to fit suggestions.



The script was another piece of the assignment that came pretty easy.  Expanding upon the beat boards and outlining the story as a whole.  It was fun to flesh out certain parts, even if this was only to be a minute long.  Visualizing came pretty easy, so sharpening it down to the right script size wasn't too tough.  Of course, later down the line there would be alterations to the script when the storyboards came along, but luckily the basic premise was kept consistent.




 The first stage of the story project was forming an initial idea, and making loglines, a general summary, and a beat sheet.  This was a decent next step in creating the story.  While the brainstorming phase went on, overall conceptualization of this story was fairly simple.  Knowing a  beginning and end came along fast, which put most of the emphasis on developing the middle scenes.


Throughout the project, I would say there were only a few minor bumps in the road.  Nothing was too much a challenge over the course of creating and priming the project.  The biggest problem I encountered was the aforementioned organization of shots and timespans of each.  A lot of shots shifted around and changed timing from one part to the next.  It was about determining whether a shot was too short or lingered too long.  Later on for the animatic with in-between shots, it was also a bit challenging to fit everything on top of the original shots.  Another related minor task was finding and syncing proper audio clips in the animatic.  I used a mix of background sounds and ambiance that I had on hand and found in the lab database.

Tiger Walk

Week 9

This past week, the new project was animating a Tiger walking.  This was something quite new but also familiar as the next step in animating things other than bipeds.  In this assignment, we are learning to work with more joints, and more segments in order to make a natural walk cycle.  Throughout the week, we practiced the typical process of blocking out poses and adjusting based upon reference.  The next step is splining and forming overlap to further progress with a proper walk cycle.  The main focus was taking the reference and visualizing what goes where, then learning hos it translates to animation.

Weight Lift

Week 8

In this assignment, we learned how to animate with parent objects.  We learned how to operate with basic parent functions between objects, hands and blocks/balls in this case.  The main goal was to animate a character picking up an object and showing such with a certain heaviness to it.  The effects of lifting a heavy object should be felt and visualized throughout the arms, legs, and so on.

Game Scene

Week 1: Concept and Blocking Out
In this project, we get to team up with other students to model out a game scenario.  Each member is to create a structure, a building to populate the final scene.  There are requirements for UVing, modeling poly count, and so on.  Of the specified game world options, our group decided on Red Dead Redemption, each of us taking on a structure with the wild west theme.

For my personal section, I am working on the saloon.  Instead of taking on the whole reference, I am working on an altered, as in smaller and more compact design to ease the process.  Hopefully it will work out in the overall scene.  As a backup, I also have the option of adding on other smaller shops if need be.

Original Reference

For week one, it's back to the beginning with blocking out and conceptualization of what we are to make.  I took the usual path of starting with the larger more monotonous and consistent parts, then moving into smaller, more intricate pieces.  Things like supports, doors, and railing were easy to block out and visualize despite the further modeling necessary later on.  Scaling and dimensions were the priority to sort out.

Original Block-out

Week 2: Modeling and UV Prep
For this week, the focus was on further modeling.  The goal was to get more and more objects referenced and into the scene, and start molding the specific details on the blocked out pieces.  Further goals for the week include the beginning of UVing and texturing if possible.  At the very least, concepts for UVs.  Also, continuing to gather references and textures to use.

Further Modeling

For my progress, a lot was put into making sure all objects were accurate and represented in the scene.  I did work on modeling the supports and wood framing around the building.  The windows, doors, and railing were also given a bit of work.  I will need to figure out how to go about giving them personality in the final result, as in texture my modeling or by UV and bump map.  In addition, as an update of last week, now everything has been scaled to properly fit real life measurements.

Emptied Out Back

Modeling Details

I focused on setting up UVs.  I made sure what faces were going to be visible in the final scene, and deleted those that were unnecessary.  That really helped with the poly count.  I had to determine what fit best for the UV editor, so there is a mix of simple and planar UVs.

Week 3: UVing and Texturing
For this week, my main focus was formatting and applying the UVs to the scene.  Following up last week's progress, I wanted to get all of the available UV's in a reasonable position, and a comfortable stance to properly apply a picture.  The project requires two or less full sheets of UV's to be used.  As of now, my model will take up at most one and a half sheets.  With that said, once I organize everything, it may be able to fit on one sheet.

The First UV Test Sheet

I was mainly working in Photoshop to fit the UV sheet correctly.  This is probably the part that I fear the most, but with the recent preparation, things seem like they will work out.  The guidelines for the UV single sheet of 2048 x 2048 pixels seems plenty enough for the model.  As of now, I have room for more objects if need be.  That said, I do believe I will put in more details on a sort of second run-through.  As a result, I did a test run of applying the recent UV sheet just to see what needs to be adjusted.

Model With Test Sheet

Week 4: More UVing and Texturing
This week was all about formatting the UV sheet for the project.  I mainly spent time adjusting and readjusting in Photoshop, using what pictures I could find online and reference to get as close to the original model as possible.  I worked my way from the major pieces in.  Most of the repeated objects in the scene needed to be centered or resized so the UVs fit correctly.
I also worked on the texture/bump map as the UV sheet came together.  There was a lot of visualization of what areas needed to pop out more or sink in more, and overall what did or did not need to look flat in the final product.

Test UV Sheet

Week 5: Texturing and Lighting
This week, the focus for the project was finishing UVs, texturing, and lighting.  In addition, the goal was to start thinking about how converting the scene as a whole into Unity.  A lot of work still went into adjusting UVs, but for the most part, the process was straightforward, and concerned minor details as a sort of polish.  So far, all of the UVs fit into the sheet, and accurately transfer over to the model.  The objects themselves have undergone some further specifications or their own to accommodate the UVs and textures.  Overall, it's the little things here and there that are in need of attention.  Things like beveling, moving around objects, and scaling objects to get closer to references is a tough but worthwhile job.

Next up, as I finalized my UV sheet, I moved on of the texturing and bump map.  This was particularly challenging because I had to determine what pieces needed more texture and what parts needed less.  Considering my model is fairly smooth and flat at the start, there was a lot to consider in bringing it closer to the reference standards.  I also had to begin setting the materials and bump map.  So far it has worked out well, but much is to be done for the next part which is importing into Unity.

Full Model With Final UV Sheet and Preliminary Bump Map

Week 6: Finalization
This is the last week to work on the project.  For my model, the first goal was to finish UVs and textures once and for all.  It mainly came down to what was worked on last week, so formatting and dividing up objects into their proper material group.  Furthermore, each object needed the corresponding level of bump mapping.
As a final preparation, I had to go back in to readjust UVs, and polish up some of the object models in the scene.  Nothing too major, but it took a while to fully get to where I needed to be.  Everything now seems to be in place and ready for finalization.  Overall, the progress on this model was as finished as it could be for now.

Full Finished Model

Close-Ups

On the last day for the project, I got together with the team to group everything together.  All of the UV and bump sheets needed to be properly formatted and named.  Everyone's individual buildings needed to be grouped up and ready to go.  Once everything was put in place, export and import from Maya to Unity was the next step.  One challenge upon coming into this new territory was transferring over textures.  A little searching around and testing was necessary to make sure all was ok.
Once the group got together, it was pretty hectic.  Making sure all files were where they needed to be, and moving throughout Maya and Unity took quite some time.  Luckily, it all worked out, and the models fit together just fine.  For the final snapshots and arrangement, it all looked pretty cool.  Overall, everything fit fairly well, and the project was a success.

 Final Unity Snapshot

Dining Scene

Week 4: Finalization and Presentation

This was the final week for the project, and the goal was to finish the scene.  A presentation including various renders, references, and included elements was to be made to cap it all off.

Week 3: Texturing and Lighting

For the third week, the focus was to be on lighting the scene, and further UV'ing and texturing.  My scene's lighting is still fairly basic, but I plan to have more detailed and specific shading later on.  As for texturing, this is another section where there is not much to go off of from the reference.  To compensate, I mainly went off of objects that the reference includes, and found a real-world equivalent to base texture on.  For example: the booths and chairs were definitely eligible for some wood texturing.  On the other hand, things like the counter and tables needed to be smooth, so no real help there.  In addition, I also started to UV and texture the walls and floor, the ceiling to come soon after.

The lighting so far has been tough to get a hold of.  For the first few renders, I was mainly working with directional lights.  Now that there's an area light to partially illuminate the majority of the scene, the main challenge now is to create the little lights here and there to fully fill the scene.

For the next and final week of the project, I will definitely have to dial it in and get to work on the extra specifics.  That means the aforementioned lighting, better UVs, and more of the smaller objects to fill the space.

Week 2: Modeling and UV'ing

In the second week of the project, the more specific modeling and UV texturing took place.  For my scene, I focused on accuracy and consistency in the modeling.  The objects that were most time consuming were the seating arrangements, which had a lot of components alone.  Otherwise, altering sections here and there and, getting as close to the reference as necessary, was fairly easy.  The next step which was finding, arranging/fitting and applying UV textures was pretty straightforward, but definitely time-consuming.  I mainly focused on making sure the UV's fit, and that the pictures I used to map out looked alright.  Getting as many of those specific UV's over with first was my plan.  As for the parts that will probably only use simple shaders, those I will come back to.

Week 1: Blocking Out
For the first week of the project, the required amount of progress was to block out the scene.  Using polygon primitives and simple manipulation, the main components of the scene needed to be represented in some capacity, with realistic measurements.  Specific details were not the top priority, instead there needed to be some form of indication an object exists and sits within the environment.
For my scene, I feel like I covered most of the elements well.  More individual objects will come later, but the bulkiest parts are present.  My reference location is a LEGO cartoon scenario, which depicts a restaurant.  The scene consists of plenty of chairs, tables, and booths.  It also includes many banners, a counter, hanging lights, and wall decorations.  I chose this because while the scene is fairly simple, I think that will allow me to take a few liberties with texturing and UVing.  I think I can manage a mix of generic and referenced images for texture.

Primitives

In this project, we were to create/recreate a scenario in Maya only using primitive polygons. Through use of polygons, we had to build up the scene without any effects or alterations to the primitives.  That meant no modifying faces, vertices, and so on.  One or more reference pictures were needed as a basis.
For my primitives scene, I picked a simple picnic layout.  It consists of a blanket on the grass, a basket, apples, grapes, melon, some bread, bottles, and a few other objects.  I chose to arrange the objects in the scene as organically/naturally as possible to match the reference picture.  The same goes for the camera angle in attempt to imitate the original.  Not all of the pieces fit perfectly, but for a primitives arrangement, the scene turned out decent.  The limitations of the project were simply due to the circumstances.  No further alterations and edits to the primitives were permitted, some of which would have easily pushed the scene closer to the look of the reference.  Shaping and further texturing is probably the most lacking feature.