Unit 67 - 3D Animation: Task 4

Introduction

In this Task I will be showing the production of the final 3D animation. I will be presenting the production by showing pictures that show each scene progression. I created the 3D scenes by using techniques which I have learnt as well as sometimes using video tutorials and reference images as a guide. I have created the models myself and have used blenders Add-ons to its best advantage.

Scene One - Space Fly Through

In this Scene the space ship will fly through space, dodging meteoroids and heading towards planet earth to bring the aliens they have uncounted and Kidnapped to bring back home to earth. The Camera will be following the space ship until the spaceship speeds off and fly’s towards earth until it cannot be seen by the cameras perspective.

Creating Space Ship

First I am going to show how I created the space ship. I created this space ship by following a tutorial and using my reference images in task one to inspire the spaceships appearance.

1: Create a Cube
Create a cube mesh In the centre of the grid.

2: Add a loop cut in centre & delete one half.

Go into edit mode and add a loop cut in the centre of the cube. Once done, select one half of the cube and delete it. This should leave you with half a cube.

3: Mirror Modifier

Add a Mirror modifier along the X axis to the cube to make it look as if the cube is full again.

4: Add A Subdivision surface

Add a Subdivision surface with the view and render at 4. Make sure this modifier is below the mirror modifier.

5: Extrude edges

By going into edit mode I extruded and scaled the edge of the cube to make it look like wings. I then did the same to the front of the cube to add a head to the space ship.

6: Extrude & Add Indents

For step 6, I first extruded the wings again and made them a bit longer. Once I was happy with the length I dragged it along the Y axis to give the wings more of an interesting shape. To add the indents on the wings as you can see in the image below, first extrude the face at the top, scale it, extrude again and this time move it along the Z axis and bring it lower than the original face.

7: Adding extra detail

To add the window at the front of the space ship I simply went into edit mode, selected the faces where I wanted the window to be. I then Extruded the faces out to how Big I wanted the window to be and extruded again and scaled it down to create a bevel illusion on the window. For the tail of the space ship I extruded the box at the back and scaled it up.

8: Space Ship Bottom

Once I created the box at the back, I extruded it again and scaled it in on the Y axis to create a dint at the bottom of the ship where the flame would usually come from. I then added two cut loops at the top of the box and extruded and scaled it out until it had two little pipes/Tails on top.

Spaceship Finished

Creating the Space Scene

This is how I created the space scene for my animation.

1: Create Image Backdrop

First I created a Image to be the back drop to my scene, I created this image by using Adobe Photoshop.

2: Create a Sphere & Prepare Backdrop

Place the back drop image into the scene and then add a sphere mesh by pressing Ctrl A.

3: Add Material

In this step you need to add a material to the sphere. These spheres are going to be my asteroids which are floating throughout space. I used several nodes to get a material with an effect which I personally think looks like an asteroid ball.

4: Position Asteroids and camera

Once I was happy with how the sphere looked I duplicated it three times. I then took each sphere and started moving random faces in edit mode to give each individual sphere a unique, distorted appearance. I then duplicated these three spheres until I was happy with the amount of asteroids; I proceeded by positioning these asteroids and placing the camera where I want the space ship to come from.

5: Key Frames

The final step is to add a key frame and add animations. I made the asteroids move up and down to add a floating effect and added several key frames to the space ship to make it 'fly' through space.

Spaceship Smoke Attempt

I attempted to add a fire effect so I could add it to the space ship. I did achieve creating the fire and the smoke although whilst animating I found it difficult to keep the fire attached to the space ship. In the end I used a different technique to add fire to the space ship; this technique is a plane with an image of a fire with the emission effect to make it glow.

Scene Two - Cock Pit

Human Progression

I made my human characters by using the make human tool from blender. To use this tool you must first turn on the add-ons from user preferences in blender. *Make human Helps you edit your human's appearance.*

1: Turn on add-on

First turn on the add-ons by checking the little boxes next to the add-ons name.

2: Edit your character &Export

Open up make human and go through the options to model your character. For instance you can change the gender, age or even body size and clothes.

Once finished go to the export tab and click export as a MHX human file.

3: Import Character

In blender click on file and scroll down to import, to import your makehuman file you need to click import makehuman (mhx2). Once done you need to find your exported character file and click Import.

4: Final Result

Cock Pit Scene Progression

In this section there will be images showing the progression of how I created the scene for the cockpit animation.

1: Open reference Image
I used a reference image and placed it as my background image by using blender’s options.

2: Create a Cube

I decided to create a cube and use edit mode to arrange the cube over the picture by extruding and moving the vertices.

3: Creating scene

Use the cube to create the basic scene by extruding and scaling the cub until it looks like the reference image in the background. I used several cubes to make it look more 3D.

4: Add backdrop & Detail

First I added the space image I created in Photoshop on a plane which is placed just behind the windows in the cockpit to create an effect that the spaceship is near planet earth. I then materialised the cubes and added pictures to make an interface on the cubes. I then added two small cubes as lights above the windows by adding the emission material to the cubes.

5: Final Touches & Add Characters

I imported the characters and I also created a chair by using a sphere and cylinders. I then placed the characters to make it look like they are sitting on the chair.

Final Image

Animation Progression

For this scene I wanted the male character to stand up and walk out of the room. This is how I created the animation.

1: Walking

I went on google images to find a picture of a walk cycle. I then placed my character infront of the walk cycle, went into pose mode and adjusted each pose until I had a completed walk cycle.

2: Dope Sheet

Because My walk cycle only included 5 different positions the animation only showed a small, brief step. To make the walk cycle longer I went into the dope sheet and dupilcated the keyframes.

3: Graph Sheet

I noticed that the animation started slowly and then it gradually got a lot faster. I wanted my animation to be a steady speed. To fix this I went into graph editor and noticed that the animation graph line began at the bottom and went up diagonally although the line was not straight and had a slope at the top as you can see below

This means that the animation speed is not steady. To fix this I adjusted the line by using the handles and made sure that the line went into a straight diagonal line. This made the animation stay at one pace and not suddenly 'slope' and go a lot faster than the beginning.

4: Movement

Now I have my character doing the walk cycle I need to make the character move. The walk cycle animation just makes the player walk on the spot so I had to find a solution in making the character move Whist still stepping to the walk cycle. The easiest solution was by clicking CTRL A and choosing a path which is under curves. After That I positioned the path to start in the middle of the characters legs and went into edit mode to move the end of the path to where I wanted the character to walk to. Once I was happy with the curve I clicked on my characters bones and shift clicked the path, make sure you click the bones first! Once you have selected both object click CTRL P and choose follow path. You can adjust how the player follows the path in the options right of blender as you can see below in the image.

Once finished the character should follow the path whilst doing the walk cycle animation, giving the illusion that the character is walking by its self.

Scene 3- space Hallway

In this scene the character will be seen walking through a sliding door which leads down a hallway.

Creating Scene

This scene is quite complicated to do and required a lot of my time.

1) Add a plane

First add a plane and rotate it so it’s standing up. Once done go into edit mode and add five edge loops and double click.

2) Delete bottom half of plane

Once you have added the edge loops, delete the bottom part of the plane by going into edit mode.

3) Add Mirror Modifier & Delete other half

Add a mirror modifier to plane, choose the object to be mirrored along the Z axis. Then create another edge loop going down the centre of the plane and delete the opposite half.

4) Add mirror modifier Y Axis

Add another mirror modifier for the Y axis. Your plane should now be full again although the Z and Y axis are now modified to mirror which will make it easier and a lot faster to create this model.

5: Add width

Go into edit mode and select the side of the plane. Extrude it until it is the width you personally want. I created a layered effect by extruding and scaling the side several times as you can see below.

6: Add Rod Detail

On the front bit of the 'door' I choose one of the faces and extruded and scaled it until it had a box appearance. Once Finished I added a rod and duplicated it twice.

7: Extrude walls

To extrude the walls you need to go into edit mode and select the edges which we have just used to create the width. Select these edges and extrude them along the Y axis.

8: Array & Mirror Modifier

First in your mirror modifier make sure the X,Y and Z axis are checked as well as Merging, Clipping and vertex. After click on the array modifier and move it so the modifier is below the mirror modifier. Change the Y axis value to 1.000 and the Z and X to 0 to make sure the array goes along the Y axis. I chose to have the count as 6, this means the array will repeat it self 6 times.

9: Floor and roof Plane.

To create the roof I simply added a plane and adjusted it so it was at the floor I then added it to the mesh which instantly made it add to the roof too.

10: Floor and roof detail

I then added a loop cut to roof and floor and extruded it out so it created a path in the floor and a vent in the roof. For the roof I also added a cylinder to act as a pipe.

11: Position Camera

I made sure the camera was positioned so I knew what the audience can and cannot see. For instance from the cameras perspective you can’t really see much at the back of the corridor so there is no need to decorate as much down there because the player won’t be able to see it.

12: Creating wall Panels

I choose the face on the wall and duplicated it so I had a template of how big the walls are. I then extruded and scaled the wall to give it more thickness and a bevelled effect. After, I created cylinders and boxes to create sci-fi objects on the panels for example I used cylinders as pipes and wires.

13: Place wall Panels into position

Once I was happy with the wall panels I decided to place the panels onto the wall where the audience is going to be able to see them. Make sure you press ALT and duplicate instead of CTRL and duplicate. When you press ALT and duplicate the objects are linked up so if you change one of the panels, the rest will change. Instead of CTRL D which means you may have to change each one individually which is time consuming.

14: Add Material

Add material to the panels and the halls. I used basic red, green and blue materials for rods and certain sections of the panel.

15: Create more panels

I created One more panel so all the panels on the wall didn’t look to symmetrical. Once I had two different panels I then took sections of the panels and duplicated them to create 2 mini panels which will go along the bottom side of the hallway.

16: Create a Cube & Edge loop

First create a cube and scale it so it is big enough to be a door at the bottom of the hallway.

Go into edit mode and add 6 edge loops horizontal on the cube. I then added two edge loops vertically. Once done, click on the vertical edges and move them into a zig-zag position.

17: Add more detail to the door

I added a handle to the door by extruding the faces outwards and adding more edge loops. To create the thickness of the doors I clicked the outer edge extruded it out, up and back again to create a border effect around the door.

18: Position Door

Simply just move the door to your desired position, In my case this was at the end of the hallway.

Walking Animation

The animation for this scene is quite simple. I used the same technique as I did in the previous scene. Using the same walk cycle and placing the path to where I wanted the player to walk to, which in this case is straight down the hallway.

As the character moved their way down the hallway I wanted the door to slide open. I did this by creating a separate animation for the door to move from right to left.

Final Image

Scene three - Escape Scene

For this scene I wanted the player to walk down the 'prison' hallway and walk past the captured aliens. I then want the aliens to break free and kill the character.

Alien progression

This is how I created the alien.

1: Add sphere

2: Adjust sphere shape

Make the sphere look more like a head by slightly moving it to add a chin.

3: Cut head in half

4: Add mirror modifier

Add a mirror modifier along the X axis. We are doing this because a body and face is normally identical to its other half.

5: Extrude Neck

Extrude the neck down the Z axis.

6: Create torso

Create the torso by extruding the neck down to where the torso should end and then extrude and scale along on the X axis to create the width of the body.

7: Create thighs

Go into front Ortho and choose the bottom of the torso and extrude down the Z axis to create thighs.

8: Loop tool - Circle

Open up the special menu whilst still selecting the bottom of the thighs, in the special menu move to loop tool and choose circle. This changes the bottom of the thighs to a more circle shape than the default shape which is more of a hexagon.

9: Finish Legs

Extrude down the Z axis until you have your total leg length, Go back and add more detail by making some parts of the legs thicker than others. Once the legs are finished simply just extrude the bottom of it along the Y axis to create feet.