Animation – path constraints & dummy

The first thing I did was group the object together in order to manage them better.  Then I had to adjust the size to make it look realistic.  I made the building bigger.  The picture below is the result:

Using the path constraints I drew and adjusted a path using breeze to make it smoother:

I then applied dummy to see how it plays out.  The dummy is located in the create, helpers tab as the picture below demonstrates.

I then linked the man and glider to the dummy:

The next thing I did was check on follow and bank (motion tab) and slightly increase the bank so that it would bank slightly harder to the right.

Alternative

I thought about using the biped as a replacement for the person, but due to the fact that I’m running out of time, again, I felt it was the right decision to stick with the other model. Despite my slow start I felt that I have achieved the storyboard’s objective.  Especially, the part where the glider takes off from the building and pretends to fall.  The basic outline of the animation is done.  Now I have to animate and show how the person flies the glider.  It might be that I will have to use the biped as it will involve the person trying to fly and this moving his/her hand and feet, the model that I did will probably not be able to do that as it is too rigid.

morpher

 

In order to import the file that I needed to work with, I had to log in to the lab machines so that I could import it and save it, then transfer it so that I could work on it with my laptop.  This is due to the fact that my laptop would not let me import it as is evident by the picture below. 

I then made four copies, naming each one so that I would know what one is what. 

After naming them I had to zoom in very close and select the following polygons by holding down CTRL and selecting them:

 

As you can see ‘ignore backfacing’ is checked.  With these polygons selected I clicked on grow 3 times.

 

Until I turned the head around and realised that if i pressed it one more time it would go above the bottom jaw like so:

So I manually selected them, both sides:

Next I selected the move tool and adjusted the mouth to make it appear it was talking like so:

After selecting Morpher from the modifier list, i right clicked on the first ‘empty’ button and selected the ‘pick from scene’ which finally allowed me to select the ‘open mouth’ head.

As I increased the number, the mouth moves, or it looks like its moving:

 

I did the same for the eyes and eyebrow:

 

 

Finally, I applied turbosmooth from the modifier list and rendered it:

introduction to animation on 3d

Animation basics

In the picture above I have moved the Time Slider to 20/100, and clicked on Auto.   Note that there is a red rectangle on 0 (blue means that the object is uniforming and green means rotating), which means that the object has been moved, it’s also the ‘key frame’ where it will show that the object has gone a different direction as I shall demonstrate now. 

To get a better control over my object(s) I clicked on the open mini curve editor, which is located at the bottom-left corner of the screen ().

As you can see from the picture above, I have modified it so that it moves in all direction. 

In order to extend the frames to 300, I had to click on time configuration (), which is located in the bottom right hand side of the screen.  The picture below shows the time configuration.

Path constraints

Fist I drew a couple of objects so that the camera can focus on.  Then I drew a circle from the shapes tabs.  I first tried to edit the vertex poly so that it would give the camera more of a view.   But that didn’t work as is evident by the picture below.

Turned out it was meant to be ‘edit spline’ not ‘edit poly;

Nevertheless, I went back to basics and this is what my path is looking like:

Camera tab:

Target:

Drag from the circle to the centre like so:

Animation >constraints > path constraints

Click on the circle to make the camera follow the path.

In order to see the camera perspective I press c as is evident by the picture above.  To zoom in or out (camera lenses) I clicked on the modify tab, as is evident by the picture below.

 Apply almost the same thing for free camera, press ‘free’ instead of target.

Evaluation first 6+1 weeks

Disadvantage

Despite all the disadvantages I’ve had to deal with I feel that I’ve achieved more than I thought was possible.  I feel a lot more confident in using 3DS Max now, which is quite an achievement as (like most in the class) I’ve never used 3ds max before I started.  As I’ve never used a software as complex as 3DS Max, I needed to keep up and attend all lectures and tutorials, which is another disadvantage I had to deal with.  The other disadvantage I had to deal with is the fact that my condition prevents me from using all the functions available on 3DS Max such as the use of the scroll or the right click on the mouse which makes me twice as slow as everyone else.  As I was falling behind every week I adopted the ‘waterfall model’ approach whereby I kept moving forward, which consequently meant that I couldn’t apply the details needed especially the first and third model.  The details includes materials and lighting.

The best model

My best model is obviously the glider as I’ve almost done it to perfection.  The pulley that I did was the start of me being more confidence in using 3DS Max.  I felt that I needed to focus all my focus, time and energy on this model as the assignment is based around da Vinci’s ‘machines’.  The thing that is preventing the glider from being perfect is that its missing the texture i.e. no use of the mapping technique.  The other thing is the wings look a different colour (black and red), again had I’ve applied the texture   

The worse model(s)

The other two were not so good.  The building is not even complete; there are loads of things missing such as windows, statue at the top of the dome, and texture.  The fact that it was my first model and that I was not at all confidence in using the software played a significant part.  What also played a part is the fact that the target weld wouldn’t work and that was when I adopted the waterfall model.  The third model was not that good either as I was rushed due to the deadline that was looming.  I would think that the third model needs more work than the building because the camera will be focusing on the glider and thus the person.  It would have been better had I’ve done the person first due to the restrictions I put on it in terms of its size.

3rd model - person/Crash test dummy

INTRODUCTION

My third model will be a person flying the glider.  In order to get a great deal of accuracy I will attempt to create this model inside the glider. 

FREEZE

Before I started on the person i had to make sure to first of all save the glider (obviously), and then i had to come up with a way to ‘lock’ all those entities/objects as i would do for in Photoshop or Flash.  I did some research and came up with this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voxomHt7pkU which really helped.  The picture below is an example.  

I did this by selecting tools>Display Floater>selected all my objects>clicked on the button under the Freeze – Selected.

The picture above shows the most basic of layouts of the.  It is far from the finished article as i now have to shape it in order to make it look like a person.

In trying to make the body fit through the ring I had to select the edge mode after I converted it to editable poly and drag the x inside like so. 

I did the same for the other 3 edges that needed to be tucked in and this is my outcome.

My finished article

The person on its own in the picture below.  Granted it doesn’t really look like a person, it can however be considered a crash test dummy.  The reason it looks rushed is because it WAS rushed as I was under enormous time constraint to get it done.  I think if had a little bit more time, I’d have definitely made it better.