My Thoughts?

I really don't think the end result of this module reflects my ability to use 3DSMAX.
I think that if I were to do it again, I would definately look into using a better computer to render my animations on, as the computer I am currently using is just not powerful enough, and did not allow me to have my animation in as high quality as I would have liked, and also didn't allow me to have some of the envireonment i wanted.
I'm not overly pleased with the final animation, but at least it represents the fable well in my eyes.

Finished Animation

Finally Finished the Animation, after waiting hours for renders to finish.
Here it is after I uploaded it to Youtube.

Piecing the scenes together...

I chose to use Windows Movie Maker to piece together the animation. As I am more familiar with this programme, I felt more comfortable using it, and as my animation is relatively simple and to the point, it didnt need many effects or special features.
Here is a screenshot of me using it.

The time it takes to render...

I know I should have allowed for the time it takes to render a scene, but 3 and a half hours for an 8second clip is rediculous!
I'm going to have to reduce the quality of my renders and remove items from the environement to get it to run faster.

Scenes

Just some random screenshots from different scenes.

Adding Cameras

I have decided to add a camera to just a couple of my scenes, to give variation throughout the animation. Here is an example of one of the cameras I have used.

Lighting and its concequences...

I tried to create an extremely realistic lighting technique for my scenario.
However, once I had done this, I found that for a single frame to render, it would take 3 and a half minutes. This doesn't sound too bad, but when you have around 300 frames a scene, it will take a long time to render!
I think this is due to my environment for the animation. As i have included a large number of trees, and I enabled shadows, I think it is that that takes the time to render.
Maybe I should make my animation into a night scene...

Cameras

The use of cameras definately helps out alot when you are trying to make one scene look completely different to another. In my scenes I hope to incorporate just a couple of cameras, so that the enitre animation does not look the same and become tedious.

The Scenes

Here is a list of scenes I want to include in the Animation.

• 3 Buffalo Drinking
• Lion Sneeking Up
• Lion Roar
• 1 Buffalo Runs
• Buffalo Eaten
• 2 Buffalo Drinking
• Lion Roar
• 1 Buffalo Runs
• Buffalo Eaten
• 1 Buffalo Drinking and Eaten

With this I will include a title at the beginning and a small credits at the end.

Final Characters

Here are some screen shots of the finished characters for you to see.
I will be using 1 instance of the Lion and 3 of the Bull.

Titles and Credits

For my short animation, I have considered Titles and Credits at the beginning and end.
I don't really want the titles to take away too much from the animation itself, so I have chosen to keep all titles short and sweet.

In addition to this, I have decided to overlay text for each scene, as if the characters were speaking in a silent movie!

Rendering...

Unfortunately I think I have made the mistake of trying to work from home on my home computer. And by doing this, my render's are taking forever. Its probably just the RAM in the system getting clogged up.
Luckily enough the render's are working eventually, but just taking a bit longer than usual!

The story so far...

Right now, all the characters and the environment are finished. Now to start animating. The first of the tasks is to create all the expressions for the characters, for instance, the Lions bite.
After creating the expressions, I then need to make the characters move around the scene. As I have chosen to create my characters as simple head designs, their method of movement will be bouncing.

Creating the Environment.

For the setting of my animation, I wanted a desert-like scene, with a few trees, and a watering hole.

The buffalos will be based around the watering hole in a group, with the lion sheilding himself behind the trees.

This is what I have created so far.

How I created my Characters - The Lion

Here is a quick guide to how I created my Lion in 3DSMAX.
For all of my Characters, I decided just to model the heads of the animals.
I thought that by doing this, I could concentrate more on the appearance of the face, and the expressions on the characters faces rather than try and manipulate a whole body.
In my opinion this would help me portay the fable better.

To create my Lion, I started off with a Sphere.
Using the Editable Poly mode, I created the basic features of the Lion's head, the eye sockets, the jaw line, and the ears.


The next step was to create the other rather basic features of a Lions head.
The Eyes and the Mane.
To create the mane, i used a series of spehere that I modelled and then cloned, turning and twisting each one around the Lions head. The Image below shows the Mane half complete.
I also used simple spheres for the eyes.
During this step, I made some basic colour renders that I applied, so I could see what to do next, and what I needed to alter.


Once I had finished the mane, I moved onto creating the mouth.
Here is the Lion with the mane complete and the mouth complete.


Now I moved onto to 2 other details, the nose and the pupils of the eyes.
I used spheres for all of these details, leaving the pupils as exact spheres, but modifying the nose sphere into the correct shape.


Added more mane as there wasn't enough around the front of the head.

Colours in my Animation.

The scenary my animation is set in is an African desert type scene. Long withered grass, withered tree, lots of yellows and pale greens.
For the characters, I will use dark brown for the Buffalo (Bulls) with Ivory coloured horns and for the Lion I will use a combination of yellows, golds, and brown to create a fur like effect.

Photos for Inspiration.

Having problems with images.

For some reason I can't upload images into my blog.
This is quite annoying seeing as most of my posts include images!
I'll have to talk to Richard on thursday about this and see if I can fix it.

Storyboard.

Here is a simple storyboard to show what I am aiming to portray in this animation.
At the start, 3 Buffalo will be drinking from a watering hole.
A lion will then scare one of the buffalo into running away, where he is then eaten. This will be floowed by a cut to black, and then restarted showing 2 buffalo at the watering hole. This will then repeat until there are no buffalo left.

Reactor.

Today Richard gave us a lesson on using the Reactor mode in 3DSMAX. Reactor is an external piece of software which is integrated into the 3D software.
We were first shown a tutorial about reactor which involved creating out own bowling alley, and using reactor, making the bowling ball launch down the alley and strike the pins.





Then we were given the oportunity to play around with reactor ourselves.
I decided to play it simple and just make a couple of angled shelves which a teapot would fall onto as gravity affected it.

Animating a Head.

Finally I can blog from in class.
Today we were taught how to animate a head.
Richard gave us the head as a starting point and we were asked to animate it in different ways.
At first we duplicated the head 5 times, so we ended up with 6 identical heads.
Then we changed each head into different facial expressions.

Choosing a Fable.

With literally hundreds of fables to choose from, it isnt the easiest task narrowing it down to one set story, although I did come across one that I liked.
Its called 'The Lion and the Three Bulls'

The Lion and the Three Bulls


THREE BULLS for a long time pastured together. A Lion lay in
ambush in the hope of making them his prey, but was afraid to
attack them while they kept together. Having at last by guileful
speeches succeeded in separating them, he attacked them without
fear as they fed alone, and feasted on them one by one at his own
leisure.


"Union is strength."

I think this kind of fable would be really fun to animate. i could simplify the characters in the scene down alot, but still get the message across, which I like.
For now, I am sticking to this one, but I will still be on the lookout for other ones that i like.

Last Class.

Last week, Richard gave us a Tutorial on how to create a Camera in the Animation scene.
There are 2 different types of camera you can use within 3DSMAX. One is a target camera, which fixes its viewpoint on a set target, and will follow that target around the scene.
The other Camera you can use is the Free camera. This works by following a path you have created, so you can use the camera to looks around your entire scene, kind of like a tour of your scene.
We tried out both of these cameras, around a little city scene we each created.

*Note*. Unfortunately due to the fact I can't access my blog in class, I have no screenshots at this time.

Problems in Class...

Been having problems with the computers since we got back from the Christmas break. It seems everyone but me can access their blogs. Which is rather annoying, as i can't upload snapshots of what i am doing at the moment in time in class.
I'm sure it will be fixed soon... well at least i hope it will!

Back after Christmas...

Well the Christmas break is finally over, and we are now back at ARU, raring to go!
Got out brief from Richard on Thursday during the lecture, which describes our work for this semester, which is to recreate an Aesop Fable, using 3D Studio Max Animation.
I think this semester is going to be a good one, and recreating one of these short stories is going to be fun.

Had problems with my computer in the lecture on thursday, which meant i couldn't create my new blog then, so I'm writing this now.


Researched a bit today. Just abit of background information on Aesop.
He was born a slave in Ancient Greece, and became known for his fables that he told.
There is a website which contains many Aesop Fables.
The website is www.aesopfables.com

Not sure which fable i am going to choose yet. There are just so many, I will have to try and pick a unique one.

Looking foward to what the next lecture brings.