The bone tool!

In class I learnt how to use the bone tool; this could prove to be a very useful tool when animating characters animals, anything which has limb like movement. The bone tool allowed me to put ‘bones’ into an object which then allowed me to move and animate the object so it gave it a realistic limb action movement.

 To do this, firstly I created a cylinder. I then went to ‘Systems’ in the ‘Create’ panel, and then selected the bone tool, once this was selected I could then draw arrow like shapes, which are the bones. In this example I drew two bones.

I then selected the cylinder by itself and went to the modifiers drop down, animation and then selected ‘skin’.

This then brought up the different options on the right hand side, this allowed me to add bones to the cylinder, opening up a ‘select bones’ window, I could then selected the bones which I drew to attach them to the cylinder.  

Once I had attached the bones to the cylinder this then meant that I could individually select a bone, and move and manipulate the movement, this allowed me to bend the cylinder like it had a joint in the middle and gave it a limb-like effect.

For ease of use, it was much more convenient to use the wireframe view so that I could easily select the bones individually.

Explosion!

Week 2 of learning animation techniques and today we learned how to create an explosion to an object; firstly I created a sphere which I later went on to make explode.

I then went into particle systems and drew a PArray, and picked the sphere as the object to connect it to. I then went into the modifier list and was able to change the settings of the explosion, there is a never ending list of settings which could be changed to the explosion, I firstly changed the particle type to object fragments, this just meant that fragments of the object would be the pieces being ‘blown up’.

To create a more ‘chunky’ explosion I then changed the size of the particles to make them larger, this would be best suited for exploding bigger objects like cars or in my case for this assignment, a spaceship.

I also changed the speed of the explosion making it slightly faster, again depending on what is being blown up; different speeds would suit different objects. I could also change how much the pieces spin as they fly through the air if desired.

I was happy learning this technique because I will hopefully use this in my final animation, and discovering all the different settings means that I can generate a more realistic explosion to my scene.

Motion Paths!

Motion paths.

In class we learnt how to animate an object by assigning it a path to follow; this will be very useful in my animation where I will be making the Naboo fighter fly in space.
Firstly to practice, I drew a sphere which I was going to make follow a path, one I had created my sphere I selected ‘Shapes’ in the modifier list, and then chose circle and drew a circle around the sphere, this would be the path in which the sphere would follow, so it would do a full 360 degree movement, it I wanted to I could have uses the ‘line’ and drawn my own freehand path for the sphere to follow.

I then selected the sphere, and went into the ‘Animation’ drop down menu, then from here I selected ‘Contraints’ and then selected ‘Path constraints’ this then gave a dotted line from the sphere indicating that I had to select the path in which I wanted the sphere to follow, I then selected the circle which I previously drew.

This now meant that the sphere would follow the path of the circle, and when I moved the timeline at the bottom the sphere did a full 360 degree circuit of the circle which I drew.

I will definitely benefit this technique, as I will want to animate my naboo spaceship, I will be able to draw it a path by free hand, and then allocate that path for it to follow.
I was very pleased once I learnt this technique, as it deemed quite simple, yet very effective and useful, I am looking forward to putting this into practice with my own animation.

Environment and background!

Today I have been working on a background and area for my models to be animated in.
I was looking for try and create space, with planets and stars so that my Naboo fighter can fly in.

I looked for tutorials online to aid me with creating a planet, and I discovered a great tutorial on YouTube (see links below) for creating planets, it gave me the option of creating various planets and I decided to go for a lava type material to make it look like mars. Here is the step by step for what I did:

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 * Create a geosphere and scale to large size.

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 * Open material editor and import the materials to a composite layer, and assign the layer as a diffuse colour in maps.

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 * I then added a second material to a composite layer and changed the setting to average. I then assigned it to a self-illumination in the maps, and changed the amount to 15.

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 * I added illumination and gave it a falloff map, changed the type to shadow/light, and changed the mixed curve, which changed the amount and harshness of the shadow on my planet.

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* I then added another material to the bump map, and changed the setting to 5.

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 * I added a reflection map and chose mask, and in that tab chose the falloff map, I then changed the colour to go with the planet, so I chose a mango orange colour, and set the fall off type to Fresnel, I then added a mask to this material which I then set to shadow and light.

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*  I then again changed the mixed curve to give it a rounded line by right clicking the line and choosing Bezier smooth.

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 * I then added an Omni-light and placed it really high above the planet and to the side slightly which then gave me a great shadow on it once it was rendered.

 I had successfully created my planet and now needed a background for it; I wanted to create a galaxy and area with lots of stars. I was fortunate enough that the previous tutorial leaded onto creating the space with stars, so I again followed the step by step for creating an atmosphere with stars. To do this:

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* Opened material editor and open environment under the rendering tool bar.

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 * I then chose an environment map, and selected Noise.

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 * I then dragged it across into my material editor and copied it as an instant.

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   * I then changed the settings for the size 0.2, high 0.8, and low 0.7.

Materials:
Online home us, 2010. Sheol Texture Download [Online] Available at: http://s92198053.onlinehome.us/html/sheol.html
[Accessed, 14/03/2013]

Planet:
Youtube, 2012. How to create your own space battle.... part 1 [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El83lonSgYk

[Accessed, 14/03/2013]

Stars:
Youtube, 2012. How to create your own space battle.... part 2 [Online] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otAfWkovhuY
[Accessed, 14/03/2013]

Summary.

Overall here is a list and brief description of some of the techniques I have learnt:

* Chamfer - This allowed me to round specific edges and faces of shapes. This tool was good for rounding objects which had straight edges and faces, I used this on R2D2 legs, as I used a rectangle shape and then used the chamfer shape on the bottom edges to round them.

* Extrude - This allowed me to create more polys and extend shapes, by doing this in small increments each time I could manipulate the object easier later on. This is probably the most heavily used tool as you can use it to manipulate most shapes into whatever is desired.

* Bevel - This is very similar to extrude however after extending the object I could create a point, for example the aerodynamic points on the engines. This tool was good for creating spikes and doing it in steps created a better effect.

* Pro-boolean - This allowed me to cut shapes in to other objects. This tool was good for creating shapes which would be quite difficult to create any other way, plus its a quick alternative.

* Glow effect - This was a material which I applied to specific objects to create a nice glowing colour. This effect is great and could be used for multiple materials such as lighting.

* Free transform - This was a technique which allowed me to individually manipulate polys, edges etc. This tool was good because it allowed me to make the object more realistic and accurate, however can be frustrating if you're trying to get the same effect on an opposite side of an object, this is when the symmetry tool works well.

* Soft selection - This tool allowed me to view which part of the shape I am manipulating, will be effected the most, and which parts will be affected the least, this is indicated by the colour Red for the most affected and Green for the least affected.

* Symmetry - This tool was good because it allowed me to copy an object and mirror it, this also meant that whatever I manipulated on one object would do the exact same on the mirrored object. I didn't really get on with this tool, as it took me quite a while to master it.

Applying Materials!

Today I was finishing off my models and applying materials, I had already applied the materials to my light saber in the first couple of weeks of modelling, so I didn't need to worry about that model.

I started off with R2D2, I must admit that I haven't achieved the outcome I was aiming for when I first started off creating R2D2, however adding the materials do make it look a lot better, there is definitely room for improvement, and I know this, I am hoping to go back over it soon and give it more detail and make it look more accurate to the real thing.

I used a variety of material colours for R2D2, White, Silver, Blue, Red and Black, I set the specular levels high for things I wanted 'glossy' and also set the glossy level high too, these settings were appropriate for the black glass 'eye' and for the white body, to have a shiny finish.

I then moved on to my Naboo fighter and concerntrated quite highly on this, as I have done throughout, I tried to keep the colours as accurate as possibly and I feel like I have managed this quite well, I assigned quite glossy materials, silver, greys and yellows to the model to give it realistic look, I also experimented with a glow effect taking on the same technique I used to my light saber, to do this:

* Create a material and change the I.D to a specific number, I used 3.

* Go into rendering and click on 'effects'

* Click the 'Add' button and add a lense blur and press the glow button.

* Change the colour to desire.

* Click options, and change the Material I.D to match the one in the materials (3).

* Change the settings to create the desired glow, in-tenseness, size etc.

* Assign the material that was created to the section which is going to glow, in my case it was the circular shape at the rear of the engines.

I was very happy with the outcome of the glow effect, and I am very pleased that I learnt the technique quite early on in the module, I was approached by a couple of colleagues to help them create the effect in their models.
In the print screen above, you can also see the indentations I created using the pro-bolean tool I talked about in the previous post.

Still learning...

Today I continued with my models, and I've concluded that creating the Naboo fighter has been the hardest model I've attempted, I'm going to be honest this process of creating the Model has been extremely frustrating and time consuming.

The outcome of the model is a positive as I am really pleased with what I have created. Today at university I was carrying on with the model and the computer crashed after working on it for quite a while, of course this meant I lost all the work I had done to the model in that time, and I was very close to losing my temper and going home, fortunately I cooled down and went and sat on a computer away from everyone, and started again. I must admit the second attempt was probably better, so the computer crashing worked in my favour, strangely.

I finally learnt how to use symmetry and mirror tool correctly, so that whatever I did to one object it 'mirrored' it and did to the other side, I did this by clicking on the modifier list, and finding the symmetry option, chosing this option and then selecting mirror, I could then drag across the object on whatever axis I wanted, this meant I could manipulate an object and get the exact same results on the clone symmetry object too.
I used this technique on the V shape of the model connecting the engines and wings.

Another technique which I used today was the pro-bolean tool, this tool allowed me to indent a shape into the body of the model, I needed to create two grooves in the front of the ship, I created a sphere and shrunk it to the shape I desired, I then placed the shape on the front of the ship where they needed to be located, I needed two of these so I simply copied the shape across, and placed them both in the correct positions, I then selected the pro-bolean option and clicked on the 'start-picking' option, I then clicked on both the manipulated sphere shapes which deleted the shapes and also deletes the indentation on the primary shape, this gave me the grooves I was aiming to achieve.

Naboo fighter continued.

I have recently been trying to create the pod/seating area for my naboo fighter that I have been modelling. When I looked at colleagues models, I was advised to try manipulate the model by moving polys/edges/points etc, so I tried doing that, I moved individual points of the model to try create a rounded pod shape, I found this very hard and time consuming, and especially hard to get a symmetrical shape. I decided to create the shape I was aiming for by inserting a sphere, and then squashing it to the desired shape. I was going to use the boolean technique to get a flat edge on the shape I was hoping to create, but instead I learnt that I could select the part of the shape I wanted to manipulate, and use the resize tool to drag the shape down and it gave it a straight edged finish. Another technique I learnt from a colleague was the symmetry tool, by just creating half an object, or if I wanted to created the same object, I simply select the part I want to symmetry and then under the modifier list select symmetry and mirror the object.