Final Animation

This is my final animation. In the end I had a total of seven different cameras set up (using camera and aim) so I could render the animation in separate scenes rather than all at once to lower the risk of computer crashes. It turned out a little shorter than I planned back when I did my animatic, but by the time I'd realised this it was too late to plan, model, and animate any new content, so I decided to focus on animating what I had planned as well as I could.

Overall I think it turned out quite well, though unfortunately I couldn't animate everything to the level of detail I'd have liked because I ran out of time due to how long it took me to get the hang on the program and model everything. If I had had more time I would have animated the trowels so they move independently of the coat hangers while the the mobile spins, to make them look less stiff. But since they're heavy objects and the mobile only spins very slowly, I don't think they would have moved very much... So hopefully they don't look too bad since the camera doesn't focus on them long.

However I do feel that I've learnt a lot this module, even if it is only the basics. Considering that I knew absolutely nothing about Maya or CG modeling and animating before this project, I've found it both a challenge and a great learning experience which I hope to expand upon in the future to help me improve.

Bucket Swing Test

I had a lot of difficultly animating the bucket to make the ball roll out after the block is catapulted into it, mostly because I discovered that my original bucket model was far too deep to allow this to happen. I couldn't justify the bucket tipping far enough to make the ball roll out with such a little block of wood, but I couldn't make the block any bigger otherwise it wouldn't fly and fit in the bucket. So in the end I made the bucket much shallower so it could tip enough to let the ball roll out without looking weird and unrealistic. I also had trouble getting the right amount of follow-through animation after the ball had fallen out, since I needed both the bucket and the rope suspending it to swing back and forth a little before they came to a stop. This took a while to get right and was done mostly through trail and error with key framing. In the end I had to move and rotate the bucket and rope slightly and key frame each of them for every single frame, because if I left Maya to he in-betweening it was impossible to get the timing right and they moved separately from each other. In the end I'm quite pleased with the result though, as I think I managed to get the movement convincing enough to make the bucket look like it has appropriate weight.

Finished Set

Here's my finished set with all my models imported and placed for animating. I added directional lights to stop the final render from being too dark since I'll have a ceiling on as well (I made the ceiling layer invisible for this shot so everything can be seen clearly), and a spotlight for when the light bulb switches on at the end. For this I created a new, Surface Shader material for the bulb so it looks white and lit up when rendered rather than dull and semi-transparent. I followed the last few parts (Step 35 onwards) of this tutorial to create the bulb material and set the lights, since I wasn't sure how to do so before:

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Modeling-a-table-lamp-Tutorial-for-beginners/33940

Falling Block Test

I wanted to make a tall, thin-ish block of wood fall of the edge of a shelf to knock into the trowel-coat hanger mobile to make it spin round a little, but I wasn't sure how the wood should fall to make it look realistic. To find out I tipped a book off the edge of my desk several times to get a feel for the timing and the movement, which is how I discovered the book/wood should spin/flip on its way down due to its unbalanced weight. When animating the block I started it falling a little slowly as it was losing its balance, then faster once it had cleared the edge of the shelf and had nothing blocking its path anymore. I rotated the block at certain points and key framed them to see how they would spin. At first it didn't look right because it didn't fall fast enough due to me trying to add more rotations, so I cut out some key frame which made it flip less but fall faster. I think this makes it look more natural and like it has weight. Overall I'm pleased with how this test turned out, and I plan to use it in my final animation.

SeeSaw Model

I needed a seesaw to catapult a block of wood into my bucket, so I decided to model a simple child's toy version. Since all the references I can find seem to be of full sized adult ones, I changed and simplified the design a little but kept the same principle structure. I used Booleans-difference to cut out the top and middle of the base, added a long, blinn material pin through the centre to keep it all together, and added a bevel to make the edges smooth.

Light Bulb Model

The bulb was made by revolving a curve path that I made beforehand, then adjusting the vertex to get the correct shape. I added a white blinn material and raised the transparency to make it appear more glass-like. The base is simply a polygon cylinder with the top faces extruded and scaled several times to meet the bulb. I added a phong material to make it look plastic.

Reference Image (I know its not a real light bulb, but its has a good base shape):

Trowel Model

For the spade of the trowel I created a long, flat cuboid and used 'Subdiv Proxy' again to edit it into the correct shape, but this time I inserted more edge loops as well as adding more sub-divides to the proxy box to help me edit its vertex. Overall I think the result was much better this time, as I was able to get the middle to dip and the edge to curve upwards, and well and make the tip of the trowel into a point. The twisted chord through the handle was made in the same way as the springs/coils I made previously, except I scaled the circle down much smaller and rotated the extruded surface a lot more to get the tightly twisted rope effect. I then just adjusted the vertex of the original line path to get the correct shape and created two small torus' for to tie the cord together that the top.

Reference Image:

Coathanger Model

I created the coathanger entirely from extruded circular curves along paths. I made the large, triangular part first, then the hook and positioned it on top. I then made a mini spiral using the same method as earlier and scaled it down so it would fit around the base of the hook, to look like it was the end of the triangular part twisting round. Next I duplicated the triangle and rotated it 90 degrees so it would fit inside the original like the image above. Lastly I created two small torus', scaled them down and positioned them over the cross where the two triangles overlap at the bottom to make it look like they were tied together. I added a blinn material to everything to make it look metallic.

Reference Image:

Domino Test

A quick test to try out the domino effect before I start animating the final piece, since I wasn't sure how to animate the tiles falling into each other. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would, I just have to make sure I remember to key frame each tile for each movement, otherwise they'll fall through each other as though they're not solid. Overall I think this test turned out okay, so I'm not too worried about animating the tiles later on. I used the graph editor to make the tiles fall a little faster at the end since there's nothing left to hold them up.

Roof Tiles

Here are the roof tiles I've modelled for my domino effect. To make them I created a polygon pipe and scaled the bottom inwards a little, then created a large cuboid and used it with Booleans-difference to get the half pipe shape. I admit they're very simple, but from the reference images I've looked at, there's little else to add in way of detail other than a realistic texture, which I'm avoiding due to rendering times. I intend to duplicate the tiles as often as required for my domino effect.

Reference image:

Broom Model

The broom was simple to make since its basically just a couple of cuboids and a long cylinder. I extruded the top faces of the pole a few times and scaled them down to make it appear rounded. I used a small, blinn cone for the part where the pole meets the base of the broom. Unfortunately I have no idea how to make bristles for the brush part of the broom, and looking for tutorials on how to do so on the Internet didn't provide any simple solutions. So I decided to keep things as simple as possible by just having the brush as a solid object, that way it'll be easier to animate and quicker to render.

Reference image:

Spade Model

I found the flat spade itself very difficult to model since I wasn't sure how to get it both flat and curved at the same time. At first I tried lofting a series of curved but that didn't work out well because it was too thin and was difficult to edit into the correct shape. So in the end I created a polygon cuboid and used 'Subdiv Proxy' and the 'Insert Edge Loop' tool to get a decent shape, though even then I found it difficult to make it curved so its a little flatter than it should be... If I have time I might go back and try to edit it some more, but for now I'm reasonably happy with it so I'm going to make the other models first so I don't run out of time to animate. I added sub-divides to the handle to curve it.

Here's the reference I used:

Spring Bounce 2

I re-key framed some parts of the spring bounce to give the spring more weight. I also tried to make it look like it was resisting more to being squashed since its supposed to be made of metal. I think it looks a little better now, though still not perfect... but I won't be using this bounce in my final animation, so I'm going to concentrate more on the animation I do need.

Door Model 2

I added hinges and a keyhole to my door model to make it more detailed. The keyhole was made using Booleans difference. The hinges where made by creating a small cylinder and adding a bevel to get the indentations, then duplicating it four times so they sit on top of each other. I parented the five small cylinders together, then duplicated the set twice to make the other two hinges and places them accordingly on the edge of the door. A small polygon sphere scaled to appear flatter was used to the head of the long 'pin' that goes through the hinges. Lastly I added a blinn material to them all to make them appear metal.

I took a photo of the hinges on my bedroom door to use as a reference:

Bucket Model

At first when I tried to make this bucket I used curves and tried the revolve function, which worked perfectly well in creating a soft, vase-type shape, but no matter how much I tweaked it I couldn't get the hard edge that I needed for my metal bucket. So in the end I remade it completely using polygons which I think created at more solid look. The bucket is basically a polygon pipe which I scaled up at the top to make it wider than the bottom. I then made a flat-ish cylinder for the base and two torus' for the rings and the top and bottom on the bucket. The handle is an extruded curve and the hook-holes were make using booleans-difference. Lastly I added the Blinn texture to make it look metallic. I'm quite pleased with how this model turned out.

Here's the image I used as a reference:

Door Model

Here's the door to the garage that will start off my animation. (Its supposed to be the back/side door rather than the big slider doors that you usually get at the front of garages for the cars to drive through.) I modelled it using both my door in my bedroom (for the handle and door frame), and the my actually garage door back home (for the door panels) as references. I originally intended for there to be a glass window in the top panel, but even after searching online and trying out a tutorial, I still couldn't make a decent pane of glass. In the end I decided to just stick with a plain door since glass will probably take a long time to render and I fear my laptop wouldn't be able to cope with it if I'm forced to render my animation from home.

The door its self was made simply by adding sub-divisions to a cuboid and then selecting the faces I wanted to extrude inwards to create the panels. The frame was made using two separate cuboids and the booleans-difference effect to cut out the door shape so the door can be animated swinging open. I added bevels to the door and frame to make them appear smoother, as well as some textures since I haven't tried playing around with them much before. I wasn't really sure which textures to use so I went with Lambert for the door and frame. The door handle is Blinn since that looks more metallic, and was made by extruding a circle around a curve. I took a photo of the handle on my bedroom door to use as a reference:

Camera Test

We were taught how to set up and animate cameras in Maya in class, so I decided to do a test for practise since I'll need to used cameras a lot for my final piece. I was trying to get the camera to follow the ball down the spiral and then move underneath, but I found it difficult to keep the ball in sight of the camera, so I'm not sure how well it works... the camera may sweep too much at the end. I'll practise more with cameras after I've completed modelling.

Animatic

This is my storyboard/animatic for my domino effect idea. In the end I decided to go for the garage/garden shed theme where opening the door triggers off a chain reaction to switch on the light. Unfortunately there aren't any sound effects in the animatic because I'm having trouble downloading them from the Internet, so for now I've just left them out so I can can get a feel for the timing. The timing will probably change as I start animating as right now this is just a rough estimation.

Pendulum Swing

In class we were taught how to use and animate joints to swing like a pendulum, so here's my quick animation test. After key framing each joint I used the graph editor to make the joints fall faster in between the high points of the swing to give it more weight.

Spiral Motion Path

Since I want to have a ball roll down spiral rails in my animation, I did a short test using a motion path to see how it would work. First I made two spirals using the same method as before, then scaled the second one down so it fit inside the first to create the tracks for the ball to roll down. The ball is a simple nurbs sphere that I attached to the motion path and assigned the blinn material to make it appear metal. I made the path itself by selecting one of the spirals, changing it to Isoparm, then duplicating a surface curve. I scaled the curve so it fit between the two 'tracks' correctly and positioned it and the ball slightly above the spirals so the ball appears to roll along them.

Despite how simple the process sounds, I actually found it quite difficult to get everything looking right, especially since the ball always rolled down far too fast and at a constant speed, which didn't look very realistic. I added more frames to the timeline to slow the ball down, then used the graph editor to level out the speed of the ball at the top of the spirals. This made the ball start off rolling slower, then appear to gather speed on its way down. Its still not perfect, but so far I'm quite pleased with the result. I think perhaps the ball still needs to roll a little slower...

Spiral Bounce

I made the spiral by creating a straight vertical path with a circle curve at the base. I then selected them both and extruded the circle the create a cylinder, then rotated it 3600 degrees and scaled the circle down to make the spiral. For the animation test I used the same method as the ball; key framing then scaling to add squash and stretch, then adjusting the timing using the graph editor. But despite my adjustments, I still think it looks rather weightless... I think it needs to fall quicker. I'll try to amend this later.

Bouncing Ball 2

This is my second test. This time I scaled the ball as it hit the grid to create the "squash and stretch" effect as it bounces. I think it look a lot better now, and more like a rubber ball.

Bouncing Ball

Here's my first animation test of a ball dropping and bouncing. I key framed it first, then used the graph editor to tweak the timing so the ball slowed in the air at the top of a bounce, then fell and struck the ground faster. I think it looks okay, but the ball looks too stiff, as though it's made of a material that wouldn't bounce.

Chair Model 2

Here's my original chair model again, but I added a bevel to it to make its edges look more finished. I tried to make the cushion look softer, but it still needs a lot of work before it looks like an actual cushion... but still, I think its an improvement, and it shows I'm slowly getting the hang of how to use Maya for modelling. I also learned how to group and parent objects in class yesterday, as well as camera tracking which will be useful for when I come to animate by domino effect.

Mind Map

I started looking around my room and flat for household objects that could possibly be used in my domino effect. I also studied my dad's garage when I went home over the weekend to help me get a better range of ideas. I then had a brainstorming session and created a mind map of the possible themes, situations, and outcomes I could think of for my domino effect. So far I think I like the idea of opening curtains, pulling back bed covers, or watering a plant as outcomes of the domino effect, as they're not too complicated...

Domino Effect Research

Here are some video references of different types of Domino effects. I find them really useful for generating ideas because they use simple household objects (which is what I intend to use for my own domino effect) in a variety of creative ways to achieve a simple goal. I also looked at the way domino effects are used in animation, such as Wallace and Gromit; since Wallace is renowned for his mad inventions which do the simplest things (and often go wrong at the end for humorous effect). The Wallace and Gromit trailer also demonstrates interesting camera angles and slow-motion scenes to make the action seem far more dramatic than it actually is. Because of this I think it looks more interesting than just watching the domino effect play out from above.

Chair Model

Here's my first ever attempt at modelling in Maya. As expected for my first try, its not very good... but I feel like I've learnt a lot from it. We were given the challenge of creating this chair in two hours in class, but because I've had no experience with Maya before and it always takes me a while to get the hang of new programs, I didn't finish it in time. I worked on it more at home after class, and in total it took me about four hours to finish... First I created the back of the chair (back legs included) as one solid cuboid and used booleans to cut out the middle sections from the top and bottom. I then created the seat of the chair and the front legs separately, as well as all the curved bars on the back of the chair. I then used scaling to get the correct shapes. The cushion was made by extruding another cuboid on top of the seat. Here is the reference we had to work from:

Even though I found it difficult and had some problems with the faces/vertex and made plenty of mistakes; I've learnt how to extrude, mirror, scale, insert edge loops to shapes to make them curve, and how to cut out shapes using booleans while modelling this chair. The cushion doesn't look much like a cushion because of the sharp edges and hard surfaces, which is something I intend to correct once I have learnt more techniques in Maya. But for now, I'm quite pleased with the result.