Introduction

After Completing Puppet Master I have decided to explore blender more and create a short animation which is a sci-fi cut scene. 
This animation is not part of the assignments criteria although it is a animation which I decided to do within my own time because I wanted to explore 3D animation a lot better and create a mini animation to show the skills I have learned.
In these tasks I have used some materials and textures which are not mine as well as using Plugins from blender which I have never used before. The reason I created this animation was to test my skills and have a bit of fun using blender modelling program. 

Task 10 - Evaluation


Introduction

In this task I will be identifying my strengths and weakness within designing my animation.

Evaluation

Overall I am satisfied with the final cycle movement which I have produced. I found creating the animations more fun than difficult. I have previously had experience with rigging a mesh on blender so creating a basic walking cycle was something I am used to. This is why I decided to add a 'twist' to my animation for example I didn’t have a basic walking cycle I also added a wave animation to make it more interesting. However the most difficult situation I came across when creating the animation is creating the lunge for the lunge animation, I found it difficult to get the lunge position perfectly how I wanted to and to be honest I think I could improve the lunge movement by creating a few changes to the animation although I think my final animations meet the aim of the project and I am pleased with my final results. 
I used a YouTube tutorial to create the human mesh and I didn't have a problem creating the actual puppet although I had some problems when creating the clothes for the puppet. I originally had a skirt and a top which you can see in the puppet build but when I joined it to the mesh it messed with the armature and if I moved the puppets arm it also moved the puppet skirt, I tried fixing the problem by using adjusting it with weight paint but unfortunately it was too complicated. To fix this I crated a dress and parented the dress to the mesh Instead of joining it, this means that the dress will still be stuck to the mesh but it isn’t joined so if i wanted to move the dress individually then it is possible to do so. 
Other than the problems I have already explained, I didn’t really struggle with this assignment. I have asked teachers and other students their opinion on the animations and I haven’t had any complaints or suggestions on changing the animation.

Task 9 - Presentation

Introduction

I have rendered each animation movement and uploaded it to my you tube account. 
You can see each animation below. 

Jumping


Spinning

Walking

Lunging

Spinning


Task 8 – Production



Introduction

In this task i will be explaining how I created the different cycle movements, for instance I will be including a screen shots of my production and explain the camera angle, the lighting and the different animation techniques I have used to create my final 3D animation.

Walking Cycle

To create the walk cycle, first I had to rig the puppet to walk. To do this I used the walk cycle image aligned to the right as a guide on how to animate the puppet.
I found the walk cycle fairly easy although I decided to use a curve path to make the puppet move as this is a lot more effective and easier to do.


1) Puppet stood normal (straight)
The first key frame I did was make the puppet stand normal and straight.

2) Move back leg slightly back
The second key frame was the puppets left leg being slightly behind the right leg. To do this I just move the upper legs bone slightly back. 

3) Move back leg slightly In
The next key frame is to move the leg slightly closer to the other leg. The left leg (Back one) is also slighted like the puppet is lifting up their foot. 

4) Move forward & bend
The fourth key frame is slightly moving the leg closer again, this time though the  knee is a bit bent. to do this i move the lower part of the leg slightly behind the upper part of the puppets leg. 

5) Move leg in front of the left leg
carry on moving the left leg so it is in front of the right leg, Once you are happy with your position key frame the puppet. I am doing my key frames In 3's so the first key frame would be on 0, the second key frame is 3 and the next is 6 and so on. I do this because it reduces the amount of frames within the animation which makes the rendering progress obviously a lot faster. 

6) Move right leg behind the left leg & tilt the left leg up
This is probably the most complicated key frame within the walk cycle. Basically I moved the the left leg so it is pointing straight and the toes are pointing up. Then I moved the right leg behind the left leg and moved it so the toes are pointing towards the floor. 

7) Bend both legs
For the final key frame I positioned the legs like I did in the screen shot below, This position is basically the legs being a bit bent. I think this the transition back to the first walk cycle. 

8) Check Dope sheet
Below you can see the dope sheet for the walking animation. The dope sheet shows all the different key frames for that animation, At the beginning I had only the 7 key frames from the walk cycle although I have duplicated the key frames several times till I get a full walk cycle. 

9) Add Path
I prefer Using paths to make the player move because otherwise It is a lot more difficult. I created the path and adjusted it on the 'stage' (production of the stage is shown later on). I then selected the armature as a object and then Shift selected the path, pressed CTRL P and told it to follow the path.

9) Key frame the path
The puppet automatically followed the path although it moved way to quickly for my preference so I added several key frames to the path to make the puppet movement slower. For example In the screenshot below you can see that the animation is on key frame 60 although the evaluation time in the path options is set as 50. this is because I added several key frames which is 10 frames behind the original frame so the puppet is moving 10 frames slower in a sense.  

10) Adding a wave
I decided to add a wave animation. To do this I created a new animation  by selecting action editor in the dope sheet and adding a new animation which I called 'Wave'. The wave animation makes the puppet stand up straight and turn around so it is facing the audience, I then moved the arm bones to make the puppet move its hand in a waving motion. I then made the puppet put his hand back down and rotate back to its original walking position. In the NLA editor I placed the walk cycle first and the wave cycle next to it so it automatically plays the wave animation and I then placed the walk cycle directly after the wave so the puppet carry's on walking. 

Running Cycle

Once I created the walking cycle the other movement cycles became a whole more simpler. For example the running cycle is simply the walking cycle but the puppet is moving a lot faster and has no time to wave. As you can see below the key frames are similar to the walking cycle although the evaluation time on the path is only slightly behind the original frame instead of being 10 frames behind. I still made the animation a bit slower because at the original speed the puppet moves to fast to be noticed.


Lunge Movement

The lunge movement is the walking cycle which turns into the lunge and he stands back up and carry's on walking. As you can see in the screen shot below, I placed the lunge action which is named as meta rig in the middle of both of the walk cycles. You can also see the dope sheet for the actual lunge. 

Spinning Movement

The spinning movement is the walking cycle which turns into a spin and carry's on walking. As you can see in the screen shot below, I placed the spinning action which is named as meta rig in the middle of both of the walk cycles. You can also see the dope sheet for the actual lunge. 



Scene Creation

To create the scene I simply used two different planes and textured the top plane as a wall and the other as the floor. I then added another plane to create a poster. The textures I have used are linked below. 



*I changed the poster after the walk cycle*

Task 7 – Legal and Ethical Checklist

There is a lot of regulations which involve licenses and certain restrictions which we have to follow. This means there is guidelines and specifications which we must listen to or else it could result in legal punishments or being fined. This means that assets such as characters and designs need to be considered because of copy right which protects a individual or group original work/idea. This means you can not copy images or sounds used in a game although their is ways around copy right. For example someone has made a similar game to PAC-man because their copy right did not protect the idea of a player controlling the character who eats dots in a maze game. They simply changed the colors and characters and made a game similar to PAC-man without breaking the law. 
 In this assignment I created the puppet all by my self, I have also written all of the written work on my own using references which I have sited on my blog. 






Task 6 – Storyboard

Introduction

In this task I will first begin by creating a basic story board for the following movement cycles;

  1. Walking
  2. Running
  3. Jumping
  4. Lunging
  5. Spinning

I created these story boards using adobe Photoshop. These particular story boards are basic and do not show a lot of the action although I am only using these story boards to plan out each movement. I will be creating a more detailed story board which will include the time frames. 

Annotation

Walking
In the walk cycle, I want the puppet to walk past the camera and do a simple wave to the audience and then walk off the scene.

 Running
The running cycle will be similar to the walking cycle although the movement will be a lot faster and I wont be including a wave. I want the player to rush past the camera like its running away from something.

 Jumping
The puppet will walk on to the scene and simply jump onto a box and back off the box. 

 Lunging
The puppet will walk onto the scene and stop in the middle to do a lunge and stand back up to walk back off the scene.

 Spinning
The puppet will walk onto the scene and begin to spin when they are in the centre of the scene. The puppet will suddenly stop spinning and walk off in the direction it is facing in i.e if the puppet stops spinning when facing in the left direction then the puppet will begin walking in that direction. I might add other animation effects such as the puppet being to dizzy to stand up and begin to wobble. 

Task 5 – Puppet Rig

Introduction

Within blender I constructed a rig for the puppet model. I used bones to create the rig so I am able to animate my puppet using key frames. 

Creating Bones

To start with the rig, you first need to start placing the bones within the mesh, To do this you can add the armature by pressing SHIT - A and selecting bones.
In edit mode extrude the bones to where you would have bones in your real body for instance have a separate bone for your upper and lower thigh. This would make creating the animation a lot easier and more realistic. 

Weight Paint

Go into pose mode and try moving a bone, if you bone moves the part of the body you expected then you can skip this step although if your bone is moving something it shouldn’t be moving then this step is necessary to do. I had a problem when rigging my bone, whenever I moved the right leg the bottom leg also moved.
To fix this you need to choose the particular bone within pose mode and then click the mesh (Leaving the bones still in pose mode). Once you have chosen your mesh, go into weight paint. Weight paint allows you to see which part your bone effects the body.

  For instance in the image below you can see that there is green and red on both of the legs, this means that the bone is effecting the red area, if the area is yellow/light blue it means its only just controlling that area although if it is dark blue it means that it has no effect at all.

To fix this you need to press 'T' and within tools select subtract and rub off the 'paint' until it is blue, If you need to add weight to a bone then simply choose 'add' within tool options and paint it on until you have control of the bone. 













Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)