The module overall

Overall

Overall in this second half of the module I have really enjoyed it, when I first began modelling and creating the different models for my animation, I really didn’t like 3DS max, I found the program really hard to use, I found modelling really difficult and it seemed that a lot of people in the class were immediately at a much higher level of using the program than me, which in way I was jealous and frustrated of, I pictured animating to be just as difficult.

When it came to learning the different techniques I did really enjoy the outcome, I found the animating fairly straight forward, and most things just seemed to click into place, I found the animating much more easier than previous flash animations I have created, I believe that I have created a good piece of work, and much better than I was expecting to create, I feel that if I could have had longer on modelling I probably would have become better at the using the program and produced even better models, although looking back I feel that my models were sufficient and I created a few extras after the first half of the module anyways, such as the sceneries, planet and meteorites . If I had longer to complete the module I think that both the models and the animation would have been at a high standard.

I mostly enjoyed learning the bomb animating as I was really pleased with the outcome and it helped me create the exact part of the animation I set out to do. When I was initially looking at the star wars films, I wanted to do the battle of naboo scene, however I haven’t replicated that scene, this was because the time limit of 30 seconds, I couldn’t create a very exciting piece of that scene with the models I created, instead I created my own scene improvising by making new models such as the planet and the meteorites, which meant I could create a more interesting animation with explosions, which I really enjoyed producing.

One thing I would like to change for my animation is that I had more space craft’s flying in space, and with all the techniques I learnt I could have easily create a battle scene, however when I was thinking of a story line, it felt this was a bit cliché.
Another thing which I couldn’t change, but would like to have, have changed is the time limit, I don’t feel that 30 seconds is a sufficient amount of time to get a storyline across or produce a high quality animation, 1 minute would have probably been better, although I do believe I have created a good piece of animation for my first production on 3DS max.
I am very pleased with the outcome this half of the module and I truly believe that I have excelled myself.

Premiere pro

Premiere

I had finished creating all of my videos that were necessary for the production, I had a little bit of difficulty rendering, as the play back was really jolty, so I played around with the render set up settings and rendered the clips in lots of different formats until the play back was sufficient, I ended up rendering the clips as .MOVs as it deemed to be the best playback quality, despite other colleagues managing to render out in .AVI

I imported all of my clips into premiere pro and then arranged them according to the story line, I clipped out all of the unnecessary clips, because I made sure that I had enough time to cut clips. I staggered the clips in premiere so that they were easier to work with and view, I arranged all of the clips and then I needed something to break the clips up from one another instead of just jumping to the next clip, to do this I went into the effects option and here I could add video transitions, there is a wide variety of transitions which I could have placed on my animation, I tried lots of different ones, however because the animation is only 30seconds long plus the introduction, they couldn’t get the full effect, so I had to use simple ones like fade in, or dip to black, these still gave a great effect and made the clips interlink much smoother and more professional looking.

I then needed to search for music and sound effects, I searched for ages online looking and listening to loads of different effects, and I struggled to find sufficient sounds for my animation, so I decided that I would try and get the actual sounds from the film, to do this I went onto YouTube and found some star wars scenes, and used a YouTube converter to use the sound, I then cropped the MP3 so I could use specific parts of the sound to fit the animation. I also found Music which fitted perfectly in the animation, however it was far too loud and overpowering the sounds, so I managed to change the settings and reduced the volume of the music so that it was just in the background.

Youtube, 2012. Star Wars The Phantom Menace Battle of Naboo Scene [Online] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qZJ85MdS-g
[Accessed 09/05/2013]

Youtube, 2011. Star Wars Music Medley [Online] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apQV73pHBQ0
[Accessed 09/05/2013]

Youtube, 2012. Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Music (OST) [Online] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMICaNfZc_U
[Accessed 09/05/2013]

Laser!

Today I created the laser beams which the Naboo fighter shoots at the rocks which explode, to do this I had a couple of options, one was to create the beam in 3DS max by applying the glow effect to an object and moving it across the screen, or I could create the laser beam within Adobe After Effects.
I opted with using After Effects, because I fancied a change of animating rather than using 3DS max all the time, I also believe that because After Effects is for creating special effects to existing clips, it was my best option.

First of all I imported my clip which I needed the laser to be in, and then I clicked on layer and created a new solid layer, I then clicked the option in the layer panel to allow a 3D layer, this meant that when I got round to positioning my layer that I could have it in whatever position I wanted, if I hadn’t checked the 3D option, then the laser would only be able to move up and down, and couldn’t rotate forward as if it was moving away into the distance.

I then resized the layer into a small rectangle, and I then in the effects and pre-sets panel I found the ‘CC cylinder’ option and dragged that onto the stage on top of the rectangle.

I then had to add the glow effect to the rectangle, I clicked on the effect menu and then went onto stylize and chose ‘glow’.
I then adjusted a variety of the settings of the glow effect, to get the desired effect that I wanted my laser to have, I changed the colours to green, colour A being a light green, which would be the inner and outer of the glow, Colour B being a darker more prominent green which was the main green of the glow.

Other settings which were changed were the glow threshold and glow intensity.

Once I had the laser beam created, I was only left with animating, do to this I dropped down the transform option in the layer options, and here I could play around and change the positioning settings, I changed the orientation, and all of the axis to position the beam in the correct starting position, I then set the key frame. I then moved along the time line and positioned the beam at the rock where it would finish, and then set another key frame, when the animation played the Naboo fighter moved in space and then as approaching the rock, fired a laser at it which disappeared at the rock explodes. I decided that I needed more than one, so I duplicated the layer which gave the exact same settings as the previous one I animated, and I then tweaked the settings in the layer options, I moved the key frames so that the second laser was slightly after the first, and it missed the rock and carried on into the distant.

I am extremely pleased with the outcome of what I created in After effects, it is the first time I have used the program properly and I found it okay to work with, the lay out and menus etc. are a little bit alien, however I was able to create the laser easily enough. I feel that it really topped of the animation, and finished it off nicely.

Loop the loop

Loop the loop

In part of the animation in space I made the naboo fighter do a loop the loop, it took me a while to get this correct, I used the path constraint animation technique, and used the smooth and Bezier option for when creating the path line.
I had difficulties getting a smooth line despite using the appropriate line options, so I decided to try create more points on the line so that I could then manipulate it if I needed to, I clicked several times on the path so it created more anchor points, I then made the naboo fighter follow the path, with the amount of anchor points on the line, I was able to move the fighter along on the time line, whilst slightly moving some of the anchor points if necessary. I had to adjust the position of a few of the points to get a smooth finish and to make the loop look a lot more realistic than just doing a back flip sort of movement.

I got a really good outcome for this part of my animation, I feel that I have created a really good realistic loop the loop by modifying the line by its individual points, even though it was difficult at first, with a bit of patience and time, it really pays off. 

Gradual Glow

Gradual Glow

In the opening scenes of my animation, when R2D2 approaches the Naboo fighter and gets in it, the engine of the fighter then starts up. To show this, I animated it so that the glow on the back starts really dim, and gradually gets brighter.
To do this I had to use the key framing technique, on the first frame I went into the effects menu, turned the intensity to 0, and then set the key frame, I then went along 20 key frames, turned the intensity up to 20, and set the key frame, I repeated this process to 100 key frames so that the intensity was back up fully. The outcome in the animation, shows the fighters jets gradually turn on, I was really pleased with the end result of this.