Friday, 18 December 2015

References

References

Photos-public-domain.com,. "Sky Pictures | Free Photographs | Photos Public Domain - Part 2". N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.

Terrain.party,. "Terrain.Party". N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.

Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back. George Lucas, 1980. DVD.

Williams, John. The Battle Of Hoth - Medley. 1980. Online.

 Soundsnap.com,. "Auto Mechanic Drill Without A Bit Servo Sound 1 Sounds". N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.

Soundsnap.com,. "Explosion Car Vehicle Fireball Fire Debris Auto BLASTWAVEFX 31031 Sounds". N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.

Soundsnap.com,. "Spaceship Fighter Blaster Sounds". N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.

Final Evaluation

Having completed the animation, I have decided to do a conclusive final evaluation of the finished result:

Challenge


The biggest challenge was achieving the walk cycle for the ATAT. Despite the flexibility of the manual approach, this was time consuming and required the lining up of the keyframes of the legs. Different scenes also required different speeds or particular parts to move in a certain way. Though simplistic in itself, clever use of camera angles shows the movement as it should look and hides the simplistic overall look.


Look and feel

As stated in the initial design, I feel the scene successfully represents the underdog beating the odds in harsh conditions. The consistency of the scenes was mostly thanks to the snowy texture that was able to be imported to each scene and used in the hangar and terrain alike. This really helped portray the setting. The use of a similar noise map on some of the diffuse channels added to this consistency as the models looked 'in place' with the environment. The big explosion at the end is satisfying to the audience and acts as the pay off for the tension before


What I've learned
The most substantial technique I feel I have taken away from this process is the path deform for 'growing' the tow cable. This has not been covered in the practicals and required my own research to find the quickest solution. I value this because it is likely I would have attempted a worse way of achieving a similar effect simply using scaling and keyframes. This has instead taught me an efficient solution that looks impressive.

Success
I feel the texturing was one of the most successful parts of this process. I am particularly pleased with the snowy effect on the snowspeeder body and the reflective metal on the grills. Achieving the growing tow cable also turned out very well considering I had never done it before. The use of ambient occlusion in all of the shots was time consuming but resulted in a far better looking animation then without in terms of shadows and lighting.

Strongest shot

I feel my strongest shot is the first. Though just a fairly simple tilt up looking at the ATAT moving, it turned out as intended visually and works well the dialogue clip. I also feel it matches the actual shot in the film well thanks to the binocular overlay.

Weakest shot
I feel my weakest shot is the one where R2D2 repairs the the snowspeeder gun. I intended to do more with the scene and have a mini explosion and send him flying back however it turned out more practical to keep the scene as it is. The movement is all quite rigid would benefit from more of a curve like in the second shot.


Improvements


Here are some improvements about different parts of the whole thing:
  • Physics simulation on falling snow
  • Two separate splines for growing tow cable and ship path constraint effectively lined up 
  • Less rigid movement of R2D2




Audio


When choosing the audio for my scene I had to decide what the best methods. It was important to consider what would be appropriate for my scene and what would be feasible to get. I came to the conclusion that using dialogue from the Star Wars Episode 5: Empire Strikes Back DVD and royalty free sound effects such as explosions from the internet would work best. 

I also used William's 'Battle of Hoth Medley' (Williams, 1980) as this piece is used in the same film scene. I chose a 30 second section to match my sequence which uses the motifs of the main theme and Luke's theme 'Binary Sunset' as I feel this matches the heroic feel and context of my scene.

As show below the music track runs the whole 30 seconds and is the first green bar. I changed the volume property on this so the dialogue stood out over it. I also added a fade out at the end. This dealt with the issue of the clip suddenly stopping as it was taken from the middle of a medley. The second line of light green sections is the dialogue from the DVD
(Lucas, 1980). Lastly, I used Soundsnap.com for realistic sound effects of explosions, blaster shots and a drilling noise for R2D2 (Soundsnap, 2015).


Good parts:




  • Adds to the animation by giving context to the sequence or highlighting certain important events
  • Music helps to invoke a certain mood, which in this case is one of heroism and the underdog winning 
  • Sound effects from Soundsnap have no interference or background noise behind them
  • Duration of clip is adjustable in Premier Pro - this came in useful for the two blaster bolts

Improvements:
  • Dialogue audio clips has music from film playing behind them
  • Timing is not as smooth as it could be as the sequence uses different parts of the Battle of Hoth sequence and hence does not allow for getting one solid 30 second clip

Progress Diary: Shot 9 (Final)


The final shot in the sequence delivers the conclusion of the events and actions leading up to it from all previous shot. As mentioned before, if this was real life the big explosion scene would be considered the 'money shot' with a lot of budget invested in creating big spectacle for trailer worthy shots. An interesting parallel to the world of modeling maybe considering the budget or 'money' as your rendering time and general efficiency in the scene. High quality, small file size is the goal. 

My shot is positioned at floor level, sometimes known as to as the 'tatami shot' coined by Yasujirō Ozu in reference to the Japanese mat of which the camera is meant to be from the perspective of someone kneeling on one. This makes the audience literally feel on the same level as the now defeated ATAT. This also helped in setting up the camera to be easily engulfed by the whole flame effect.

Having experimented with spherical explosions before, I felt something flatter would better suit an explosion that will engulf the rectangular shaped screen. The downside of using a box shape is that you can see the borders of it too clearly and it creates a weird effect all together. The most efficient result as shown below was the cylindrical shape. This effectively grows out from the centre and only really shows the sides from this perfectly side on angle. 

 


 Using a mesh bomb I was able to explode some of the geometry into broken parts too. I decided I wanted the main explosion to come from the centre of the body and hence this is the part I chose to blow up. To prevent the result of the parts just breaking off and falling straight down I tweaked the fall off parameters. I intentionally chose a low number of poylgons to give the impression large panels were being blown apart.


The final result is shown below in this gif:


Good parts:
  • Realistic and visually engaging effects that stand out against the rest of the scene and are built up to
  • Efficiently uses the position of the falling ATAT from the previous scene by importing rather than manually setting this up again
Improvements:
  • Components of body break apart more realistically e.g. whole side panels attatched as one item
  • Flame could engulf whole screen so nothing is shown

Progress Diary: Shot 8


While this shot on the face of it seems relatively simple, keeping everything in proportion during it's movement was a challenge. The cable is able to remain static in the sense that it does not need to grow, but as the ATAT falls, it needs to move realistically to match this while maintaining it's origin a the front right foot. I chose a mid shot pan for both technical and artistic reasons. Focusingnon the centre while showing all the action helps the other wise stiff movement look realistic as the audience does not see what is happening with the feet.

As with the path for the snowspeeder in the previous shot, it was important to not keep the spline from which the cable is made flat on the z axis. It needed to wrap up the leg to mimic the motion of the ship. Simply adding thickness using the 'Show in viewport' rendering option created the cable shape.


As shown in the final render below, it was necessary to move the cable manually in some shots similar to the growth in the previous shot. Simply linking the cable object and setting its pivot to its origin meant it would inherit the feet's rotation and have the cable suspended in the air. Manually specifying the rotation and in some cases scale every 10 or 15 frames was the most efficient fix for this. As before, the pan effectively frames the shot so as not to show the necessary but in some cases unrealistic movement of the cable.


Good parts:
  • Camera movement and angle shows all of the action while using a closer camera angle than the usual wide shot
  • Easy and quick creation of realistic looking cable using spline that can have each of vertices manipulated even with the thickness rendered.


Improvements:
  • If the previous shot used a separate spline for the cable this could have been imported here to save time
  •  

Thursday, 17 December 2015

Shot 7

Shot 7
The seventh shot in my sequence was an interesting challenge. Using the unusual camera angle of a birds eye view to capture the action allows the viewer to look on with omniscience. While quite a satisfying to achieve in 3DS Max using a lesser known tool, I feel the final explosion shot would be considered the 'money' shot' over this - the last shot contains big explosions and fire effects.

Using the same process as the previous shot, the tow cable grows along the spline as shown below. For maximum efficiency, I also had the Snowspeeder itself follow this using a path constraint. While this saved time and was ultimately the neatest way to do it, it did result in the cable being pulled around far away from the leg. This can be accused by the length of the shot and suggesting that when the ship circles a second time it would tighten the cable. The snowspeeder required some rotating to make sure it started in the appropriate direction and continued to do so.




As shown  in the two images below the vehicle looks rather flat when flying. Though shown quite far away in the shot the movement does not too realistic. Experimenting with the parameters revealed a 'bank' option which tilts the object when going round a corner - much like a roller coaster would.


An issue arose when animating the tow cable to follow the snowspeeder. While complete accuracy was not required as the cable could 'hide' inside the snowpseeder model slightly, simply setting the end stretch amount to the same frame as the vehicle's final destination resulted in it being out of time and hence appeared to detach. This was solved by manually setting it's stretch amount along the spline every 10 or 15 frames to asure it was touching or slightly inside the snowspeeder. Considering this is a three second clip, this was not too much of a time consuming fix.

The finished sequence is shown below with some improvements made to the animation shown above. The model has been made smaller to be in more realistic proportion to the ATAT. The Snowspeeder also subtly banks as it goes along.
 

Good parts:
  • Continuity with previous scene as the tow cable originates from the front right foot
  • Interesting and unique tool used to create the tow cable
  • Though subtle the guiding spline goes slightly up vertically as well as wrapping around which is confirmed in the following shot of the detached cable
Improvements:
  •  More detail on the top of the ATAT as most is found on the side or front and is hence hidden by this shot. However, I feel my other shots sufficiently show all angles of the ATAT
  • More realistic wrapping around of tow cable using separate spline, though lining this up with the path of the snowspeeder could be problematic  

Sunday, 13 December 2015

Progress diary: Shot 6


This shot begins the climax of the whole animation. The tow cable aims at the foot and hits it mid motion. Having the foot move along as the cable is shot creates tension and the audience is not sure whether it will connect or not. A high angle has been used to suggest that the snowspeeder is now the dominant force and to gives the viewer the perspective of the ship. 

The shot uses the path deform technique from the previous test. A spline was set up at a 45 degree angle from the foot and has been curved along the way. This creates a much more interesting motion for the cable rather than shooting straight forward.

Good parts:
  •  Complex and interesting movement helps important part of sequence to stand out
  • Use of same model and terrain makes for easy set up of new scene for this shot while still allowing new models such as the tow cable to be added 

Improvements:  

  • The motion could be quicker, but i wanted the audience to savor the shot and feel on edge before it connects
  • The stationary camera does not highlight the impact of the tow cable which is the most important part of the shot. This will however be exaggerated through audio

Growth along spline test

Before attempting the fifth shot with introduces the tow cable, I have decided to research methods of growing object along a spline. This seems the most appropriate means of shooting out the tow cable as simply moving it with keyframe animation would look too stiff. 

The path deform tool allows you to grow an object along a spline. This seems the most effective solutions to simulating the tow cable. I will be able to use this in both tow cable shots - the first where it hits the foot and then when it wraps around the legs. Starting off with a cylinder the tool allows this shape to deform and grow until the end of spline. 


I had an issue where the growth just resulted in a straight line from the starting point to the end. The solution to this was to add more segments to the cylinder as it needs more parts to define the bend. The advantage of using non destructive modifiers such as this means I could simply go back to the cylinder stack and change this property.



The below gif shows how the modifier can be used together with keyframe animation to produce a growing effect:


Good parts:

  •  Realistic growth animation compared to just moving something offscreen into shot using movement and keyframe animation
  • More control over the where the cylinder goes due to the editable spline that can be postiioned anywhere in 3D space

Improvements: 
  •  Smooth animation requires many vertices on spline and many segments on cylinder

AO test

Ambient Occlusion

Ambient occlusion is the process calculating the distance of the surface from the camera to better define the shadows. As shown below it creates a white effect with darker parts. This is where the shadows are defined. Once combined with the colour render of the sequence it massively increases the quality and appearance of the lighting in the scene. Combining them involves using multiplication blending in photo or video editing software.
 
The below example from my third short shows an example of what needs to be removed when rendering the ambient occlusion. The most important thing to apply this it to is this models. The process requires removing all lights from the scenes as this can contradict the calculations of the material. It is also necessary to remove any encasing shapes e.g. skydomes or the hangar walls as this can affect the lighting. The example below simply required the two models to be shown but still renders their full animation maintaining the camera angle and movement. If this changed at all the image sequence of the ambient occlusion would be out of sync and creating a complete mess as they would not overlap at all. 

   


The below gifs show the difference between my third shot with and without ambient occulsion.










Progress Diary: Shot Five

Shot Five

The focus of this is shot is to introduce the conflict between the two characters. It is a wide shot to capture all of the action including what the ATAT is shooting and also the interaction between the encroaching Snowspeeders and the ATAT. There is also a slight high angle looking down to suggest the tides might be turning and the Snowspeeders may be about to win.


The blaster bolts were created in the same way as the practice test. The advantage of using keyframes for animation means even things that don't have obvious movement e.g. cameras or effects like this can be moved in the same way. The animation manipulates the cylinder, and the glow applies to it's material. This was also a simple animation as it only needed it's start and end position defined. However there was flexibility here to delay when the shoot happens by making another keyframe at the desired frame using the start position. This meant it would only move toward the end position from this frame.





 An issue arose when animating the bolt in terms of the visibility of the object. The object needed to only be visible when moving however remained visible when stationary. After some research, I found that a visibility track can be added in the curve editor. This meant I could specify the exact frames I wanted the bolt to be seen. This required some tweaking however. The curve editor naturally creates a curve between two points so simply setting viability to 0 on the first frame and 100 on the first movement would mean it would slowly fade in to full visibility. The solution to this was to have the frame before the movement be set 0 and then have a linear gradient toward 100 in the space of frame thus minimising the transition. I was able to quickly duplicate the first bolt and move it's position with it only requiring offseting the visibility and timing of the movement to shoot at a different time. 
 


The first attempt shown below had some issues. The movement was too fast as it shows all four legs moving. While I chose to keep this for the first shot to exaggerate the movement, it seemed out of place in this high angle view. The second gif shows these improvements.



The full sequence is shown below in this gif:


Good parts:
  • Use interesting effects such as glow which stand out against white background
  • Realistic movement with slow ATAT 
  • Show full scene with power generator and resolves ATAT's purpose of walking e.g. shooting power generator

Improvements:


Progress Diary: Shot 4

Shot 4
To resolve R2D2's haste and 'mission' this shot shows the Snowspeeder taking off after it's repair. I chose a wise shot to frame all of the action with consideration of the composition of the other props. The previous shot does not show a single light or other vehicle. In this shot it was important to show more of the hangar for context.

While Max's natural ease-in/ease-out animation suits this sequence of the Snowspeeder starting it's vertical ascent, that alone seemed far too simple to be the only thing that happens in the sequence. Following a class practical, i decided to experiment with the noise control. This created random movement in all axis and with a low setting of two created the effect of the engine making the ship rumble a bit.

It soon became apparent that use of the noise control meant I could no longer use keyframe animation. After researching a solution, I found out about the 'list control', a tool that allows you add additional controls after the first chosen one. This allowed me to have the noise control and one for 'position XYZ' which the default one that is able to be keyframed.






To smooth out the animation and assure everything was equal I used the curve editor. This allowed me to see the state of the noise strength at every second of the time line in a graphical manner. I was able to select all the keys and set them to two which gave a subtle shake. It also allowed me to easily delay the shake for around five frames to give the impression it was building up in power.

 

The full sequence is shown in the below gif. Though subtle, I have added a slight glow to the lights to give the impression they are actually lit.


Good parts:

  • Uses the hangar again but shows more of the scene
  • More complex movement than simply rising up through use of noise controller
  • Movement stands out against stationary snowspeeder to left
  • Stationary Snowpseeder gives the impression the base is bigger and more busy than what is shown on screen

Improvements:

  • Glow could be more obvious

Saturday, 12 December 2015

Progress diary: Shot 3


Shot 3




The above gif shows the sequence in the third shot. I chose to not use a spline for the path movement as in this scene it is quick and need only be straight forward. The camera starts with a long shot to capture the whole of R2D2 and his location and with a pan to the right moves into a close up to better see the action. The speed of the pan suggests the haste of the situation. The purpose of the shot is to clarify what exactly it is the character is rush to do - in this case repair the snowspeeder that is about to take off. 

The pan effectively matches the movement of R2 as this is the focus of the scene. To compound the idea that he needed to abruptly stop, the camera also slows down the pan. This is due to to the fact the target of the camera is linked to the model. 

To save time on modeling the panel opening for the extending repair tool, the angle has been cleverly chosen to fully capture what the tool is doing without seeing exactly where it came from.

Good parts:


  • Simple animation without need for splines and path constraint
  • Makes us of two models and allows both to interact with another
  • Camera angle and movement effectively invokes sense of rushing in audience

Improvements:

  • More realistic movement with repair tool e.g. going into panel on snowspeeder and rotating
  • Faster movement at start to better highlight he was in motion before shot



 

SFX test: Explosion and blaster


Explosion

For use in the final shot and when R2 gets blown back from the repair going wrong, I have experimented with creating explosion effects following this tutorial (). For the test, I used a spherical explosion shape, however for the final shot it may necessary to use a box shape to engulf the screen and the low positioned camera. For the purposes of the repair shot a small sphere shape as shown below will suit. 


According to the tutorial the lower the size of the explosion, the more realistic it will be. I tweaked the settings and decided that a smaller explosion close up had the most realistic effect. When I had a radius of around 300 the particles were too fine and looked more like sparkling than a fireball.


The result of a 100 frame explosion is shown below in this gif from Premier Pro:


Good parts:
  • Quick and easy set up of a realistic effect
  • Can manipulate size and shape to suit different needs

Improvements/Issues: 

  •  Can't see in scene, must render each time to test

Blaster bolt
The blaster bolt will be mostly used in the shot where the snowspeeders are first shown to be attempting to attack the ATAT. The ATAT will also fire blasters at the power generator. As show below I have started with a light red cylinder and applied a glow effect to it. Tweaking the settings was necessary as the glow was very intensive and just appeared as large sphere initially.

An issue that became apparent with the glow was that the further away you are the intensity spreads further. This will require some tweaking in the scene where it is used but can still use this base template.






The effect is shown below rendered on a black background to best highlight it:


Good parts:

  • Glow effect makes the bolts look more realistic than using a solid colour cylinder
  • Adds interesting and different appearance to break up scene





Improvements:

  • Inner shape could be less visible

Friday, 11 December 2015

Progress diary: Shot Two

Shot two

My second shots focuses on R2D2 hurrying down a snowy tunnel to the hangar as he gets hit by falling snow. The camera remains stationary to best capture the whole scene however the final frames result in a mid shot of R2 to clearly see his head.

After experimenting with it on the camera exercise, I felt a path constraint for R2's movement seemed most appropriate. Drawing the spline through the middle worked well as the tunnel itself is simply a thickened spline. After first setting this up, it became apparent R2 needed to change his orientation to follow the spline as well. The 'follow' option under the path constraint settings mostly achieved this.


 Following a practical session covering how to make asteroids I felt I could apply to this to creating realistic snowballs rather than using just a plain sphere. Applying a fractal noise modifier with around 75% roughness and a strength of 3 in all axis worked well. Though subtle and only a small part of the scene this does add to the realism.


The first attempt shown in the below gif shows the snow hitting R2 at the end. Though the falling of the snow has the desired effect, I feel the sequence is too fast. R2D2 is meant to be rushing but it feel too fast and unnatural. The speed of this scene also does not allow for any use of anticipation of the snow hitting him.


This second attempt is a big improvement through subtle changes. The snowballs have been scaled up, though this required setting the scale for each keyframe of them falling. They also now fall separately - one toward the start and one toward the front. His head now also rotates in response and this will be reflected in his beeping. The rotation happens slightly before it hits as a means of anticipation. 


Good parts:
  • Use of anticipation in R2D2's head for more realistic animation
  • Snowballs with interesting shape made quickly and easily
Improvement:
  • Snowball movement is unrealistic and would benefit from physics simulation of gravity rather than manually moving it to the floor after it hits the head
  • Rotation of R2 could follow spline better

Animation progress diary: Shot one


Shot one

My first shows the ATAT from the perspective of the heroes near the power generator of their base. I have used a low angle shot to give the impression that this enemy is huge and to be feared. I also intentionally chose a wide angle shot to convey the full size of it and how far it is from the base at the start. I feel this shot nicely catches the terrain and the far off hills which effectively disguise the intersection of the sky dome and the terrain.

For more realistic movement on the ATAT, top part of the model moves slightly upwards each time the leg moves. Though subtle, it effectively breaks up the otherwise unrealistic movement of the body moving forward with the legs.

In much the same way as the model, I have used the key frames to change the rotation of the camera at certain times. Slightly before the last frame of the walk cycle the camera finishes it's tilt upwards.

Though often much slower, I felt it necessary to speed up the walk cycle so the shot captures most of the legs lifting up to give the impression it is actually moving.
 

To further replicate the scene I decided to add a translucent image over the 3 second clip. This is simply a simple rounded rectangle with a zoom blur, some science fiction-esque text and numbers around it and a translucent blue back layer with some noise distortion. I feel this effectively gives the impression of futuristic binoculars as seen in the film and helps to frame the shot.



Good parts:
  • Tilt movement combined with low angle wide shot effectively connotes the ATAT's size and the intended feel
  • Use of image sequence and Premier Pro allowed for easy overlaying of binocular image
  • Opacity of image allowed it added without any need for tweaking in Premier Pro

Improvements:

  • To better match the actual scene and further highlight the size and power of the machine, the shot could start from a close up of the feet and dolly out as it tilts up

ATAT walk cycle

ATAT walk cycle

Due to the fact the walk cycle is likely to be one of the hardest parts of any of the model's movement, I decided to experiment with different solutions.

I first experimented with the reaction manager in 3DS Max to get the desired effect. This tool allowed me to rotate other linked parts of the leg to a certain angle when the 'master' rotated to a maximum angle. Because how the animation works, the inbetween motion is smoothly automated. However it soon became apparent when doing the keyframe animation that this did not give me enough freedom in rotating back or any other angles other than those specified in the manager. I decided manually changing the rotation while taking advantage of the linking set up in the previous method was the most suitable solution.

The animation simply rotates the top hinge and bends the leg before doing the opposite to return the leg to the up right starting position. Another issue that became apparent is the need to move the ATAT forward during this cycle. Of course the issue with that is the movement of the main body in a realistic and synced manner. Moving the two separately and tweaking the speed so that he circle legs connections meet at the same place became the solution. However this does result in the issue of the hinge sliding along the hinge as shown below. This is however under the hood and none of my shots use an angle that will show this.



The below gif skips a part of the cycle to best show most of the legs move. As can be seen below the top movement appears to be just be sliding along. While this is the case, the inherent slow movement of the ATAT does help to disguise this.



Good parts:
  • Simple walk animation that could still be done with manual rotation without taking too long
  • Simulates slow movement of the real thing

Improvements:
  •  Unrealistic movement detaching from hinges though this will not be seen from the right angle
  • Legs other than the one moving should bend and the moving one should go further forward. This level of realism would have simply taken too long

Thursday, 10 December 2015

3DS Max Tips #6: Camera basics

  • Layer manager 
  • Scene explorer extension 
  • can turn off render, freezing etc
  • move things into own layer to keep default layer for unsorted things
  • can  hide without needing to group in the conventional way
  • By object/by layer on properties menu to change whether it inherits ;ayer [rp[ertoes or objects themselves

  • Two types of cameras - 
  • Target cameras have aim points for when the cameras dont move
  • Free camera move by direct rotations for moving camera - e.g. tilt, dolly
  • create in top or front view for correct orientation
  • Click on view name panels and chose that camera in drop down or press C
  • C cycles through cameras too
  • Third person movement in normal views, movement in camera view is first person
  • Click camera manipulation buttons in bottom right for dollying etc
  • fly out can dolly camera and target for example
  • Pan button does actual panorama
  •  
  • Aspect ratio is fixed so press shift f so viewport is cropped to ratio of render frame
  •  Action safe - cyan rectangle will always show important action even when ratio is stretched in cinema for example
  •  Title safe shows margin for text (best practice)
  •  
  • aspect ratio width divided by height
  •  Render set up (dialogue bog with teapot in top right of screen), output size can be set here 
  • Presets for ratios
  • Field of view - field of view icon at bottom right - use on camera view in iewports
  • Frustum shows whats in the field of view
  • short lens - low focal length and opposite for close up shots etc
  • tick show horizon for guide
  • Free camera for animated shots or looking straight up or down 
  • Control rotation of camera using third person method by being in gimble mode and change rotation order - motion panel - rotation - ZXZ best for this

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

3ds Max tips #7 Keyframe animation

  • Rescale to change start and end frames while it already is animated
  • ping pong loop
  • can set time tags on certain frames as indentifiers 
  • can move and copy keyframes
  • convert existing spline intro trajcetory to have more control over it
  • Follow/bank utility should be used for correct orientation on path 
  • ghosting shows previous frames position and later frames
  •  frame rate times length of shot gives you total number of frames needed
  • key filters - chose one type e.g. position
  • show cone always shows frustum even if not selected
  • set key after dragging to desired frame
  • time config - turn off active viewport only if not intensive
  • rectangle select both if changes are to be made to both
  • trajectory shows path of already made animation
  • select particular frame to move paths position on tha
  • spacing of dots indicate space of motion
  • object properties - trajectories to see
  • objects naturally eases-in eases-out moves quicker in the centre
  • curve editor can change this to constant rotate - button top right
  • time runs left to right, vertically is value of movement 
  • rectangle select over lines and chose staright line tangent option for linear
  • set back to original behavior with auto tangent 
  • ctrl alt middle mouse to zoom
  • lines need to be same length
  • auto key - set first key manually then drag later point and move to where desired
  • edit keyframe if that frame is selected with autkey on
  • toggle keyframe button for snapping next skip to frame next
  • Layers - doing pos then rot
  • turn position off and rotation on
  • right click rotation button to see actual values
  • offset position and value slightly for realism
  •  

Tuesday, 8 December 2015

3ds Max exercises 7.1: Path animation

Path animation

As in some real circumstances, the camera can follow a track to automate it's motion. This useful as it saves manually moving it and makes the movement process smoother. Simply setting a destination using keyframes would move the camera toward it without any room for rotating around bends. As shown below, following the drawn out spline allows me to specify exactly where I want things to go, and with the target camera, what I the camera to to focus on rotate and rotate around

                                            

The result of the camera following this flat spline while always focusing on the model is show in the below gif:


As demonstrated below, the path animation method can also allow the camera to smoothly across even vertical curves. This would be useful in a pov shot of a ship moving around a lot. In terms of my animation, this will be useful for the POV of the tow cable where the camera follows it's motion. The result is shown below:


 In preparation for the final animation, I did a test render of the simple 360 around the box. Exporting it as an image sequence has it's benefits, as with my larger scenes this would save the issue of losing progress if for whatever reason the render was cancelled or stopped prematurely. Rendering directly as a video file would have to start from the beginning in that situation. I have used Premier Pro and intend to use this for blending the ambient occulison map and adding in audio.


Good parts:
  • This method saves on moving the camera manually
  • Can follow complex yet smooth paths using splines
  • Is not limited to flat movement

Improvements/Issues:

Camera animation techniques

Offset movement: R2D2 is likely to use this when moving. This may subtle in the first scene and simply hint he has about to turn round the corner by first turning his head then the rest of his body. This may be an issue as it may go unnoticed and hence is likely to be more obvious if used when he looks at the ship he must go to repair.


Vertical movement:
As the Snowspeeder takes off, it is likely to employ this technique. It's movement will slowly get faster and speed up right at the end. This will be important as unlike something like a rocket, there are no jets at the bottom to indicate is taking off vertically in a realistic manner. The relatively low ceiling may be an issue in giving it enough space to show off this technique, however the shot will not be too long


Anticipation: Having the tow cable suddenly appear in this most important shot will not create the desired effect. This needs to be suggested to the viewer that it's about to happen. Moving from an over the shoulder shot of the tow cable gun into a POV track of the cable attaching to the ATAT leg will allow this as maybe the gun could shake or expand.


Exaggeration: For comical relief, the scene towards the start where R2D2 repairs the idle snowspeeder will have him electrocuted and thrown back. While this wouldn't necessarily happen in reality, I feel this is an appropriate time to use exaggeration while maintaining realism within the rest of the scene. Coupled with the famous robotic Wilhelm scream I feel this will be an effective shot.



The following are the main camera angles and movement I aim to use

Low angle: This shot will mainly be used for the ATAT. Even next to a power generator this vehicle is massive and that impression is added to by seeing it from a low angle looking up. It allows the audience to see it's size from the heroes perspective but also invoke a similar feeling of dread and belittlement


High angle:
Interestingly, the reverse of the previous shot is to be used when the tow cable successfully attaches to the foot of the ATAT. This is to suggest the weak spot they have found is small and give the impression that the heroes have triumphed, that they are now the bigger and dominating side. This will hopefully be an effective contrast compared to the previous
Close up:
This type of shot will mainly be used to help the audience see any specific action better. For example, R2D2's repairing of the snowspeeder will require this. This will also add to the surprise and comical effect of him being suddenly knocked back as is not being anticipated by a wider shot. To see this however might require zooming out or a pan to left depending on the position of the camera 

Birds eye:  This slightly more abstract type of angle will be important to capture the action of the tow cable wrapping around the ATAT. This will be the best angle to see the whole motion of it wrapping round the legs but may go unnoticed if the body is much wider than the legs. A different type of shot may be necessary but I intend to experiment with this one I first intended to use



Pan: I aim to use this to show the immobilised AT-AT. This will allow me to cover all the action and detail I need to do on the ground, as well as still suggest the huge size of the model


For the Birds


Offset movement has been used here to suggest the bird's intentions of carefully landing on the wire. He hovers above the wire looking down at in anticipation. Though this all happens very quickly it makes the movement more realistic and suggests what is about to happen.

Anticipation is used here to suggest something is happen off screen. The birds who were bust playfully bumping into one another suddenly all look to the right even though the audience can't tell why. It suggests the birds have noticed something and prepares the audience rather than abruptly cutting to it which would suggest the birds hadn't noticed it.


Exaggeration is used when the large blue bird sits on the wire to suggest it is much heavier than the others. While comical in itself, it also sets up the use of exaggeration later in which the birds go flying and lose all their feathers.


In a similar way to before, the eyes are an important part of employing anticipation. If it wasn't already clear, the face of dread on each bird suggests something bad is about to happen.


A subtle use of vertical movement can be seen in the screenshot below where they jump around in panic. Realistic movement is achieved by speeding up toward the pinnacle of their jump movement.


3DS Max Exercises 6.3: Cameras


Cameras



Monday, 7 December 2015

Lighting and skydome test

The next stage of setting up the scene was to create a skybox. Considering the relatively flat terrain it soon became apparent seeing where the skydome hits the snow would be an issue. As shown below an unrealistic and undesirable effect resulted from the sample sky texture (,2015).



I researched other sky textures and decided a more flat image (public domain.com, 2015) of the sky manipulated with uv mapping would work better. Using a cylindrical UVW map with the fit tool result in a nice effect. To better hide the intersection of the geopshere and the terrain I added some hills with the soft selection tool on the vertices. 

In terms of lighting, an omni light was used to light this scene. Though this quite obvious from the section near the power generator, it does give the impression there is one big light source such as the sun gleaming on the solid colour snow.


A subtle omni light seems to fit the purpose of the snowy tunnel best. Though the location of it can be seen where the highest intensity is, moving this out of shot will allow me to use the otherwise effective


As before, the screenshots of the hangar demonstrate experimenting with the best placement of of the omni light. Though the first covers everything more evenly, the latter benefits from having no obvious centre of intensity. This is because the two lights are in front and behind the hangar respectively - albeit providing noticeably less light on the floor. It is likely a balance between the two will be met in final tw



This final screenshot demonstrates my experimenting with the spot lights. To give purpose to the ceiling lights, I have included this type of light to illuminate the ships stored under them. This serves to both highlight them to the audience among the similarly white background, but will also benefit when R2D2 goes to repair the ship.


Good parts:
  • Sticking to the fairly standard omni and spot lights shouldn't affect render time too much
  • Lights serve to better highlight parts of the scene or even specifics on the models as well having context in the scene
  • Experimenting with different affects has resulted in the bets solution for each scene's need
  • Lights compliment metal texture seen on snowspeeder grills and floor lights in hangar

Improvements:

  • Seeing the source of the omni light takes away from the realism of the scene in places. Though where possible this has been moved out of scene or shot this has been necessary in others and will need to be cleverly avoided in the camera work
  • Multiple lights in the scene could cause issues with shadows