Week 10. Animation techniques

Before we start animating the scene we need to set up some cameras where the animation will be viewed from. For this animation I will be using two types of cameras; a free camera, which has a position and orientation, and a target camera. The target camera also allows the camera to focus on or target an object or location in the scene. This has the benefit of focusing the audiences attention to a particular object or action in the scene. 

I will elaborate more on specific camera angles and shooting techniques i using and what i am trying to achieve to employing these techniques as i talk through each scene. 

Moving onto animation I started exploring different methods and techniques of  moving objects around my scene. 3Ds Max has an auto key feature which allows for easy basic movement of objects, we can just switch this auto key feature on and specify what we want to happen and when on the timeline with key frames. .     

Timeline

The time line is measured in frames not seconds, so we can choose how many frames we want per second in the set-up and then work to that scale. For the purpose of this animation I will be using 30fps ( frames per second ).

First I needed to just get the wings of the shuttle to open smoothly and evenly as possible and to get a mechanical style movement.   

Practicing paths and shuttle wings opening

 

Still getting to grips with the animation techniques I started to move objects around the scene using path constraint which allows an object to follow a 2d spline. This method gives a much smoother movement path as opposed to manually changing its position using the drag and move tools. It also allows you to plan ahead in your scene and make an entire flight path or movement in one go.

I created some basic planet models and textures and introduced them into my scene. As the entire animation sequence is in open space i feel like the planets will help show the audience that all these ships even if not all them are in view at one time are actually occupying the same area. 

Planet and Moon

I added lights to act as a glow using the same method as i did when adding the engine glow to the tie-fighter, this is meant to act as a representation for the atmosphere or environment for the planets, which just adds to the overall realism of the scene.

I am going to take this time to explain that this assignment we had the choice to re create a scene from one of the star wars films or to create our own original scene. I am not all that familiar with the star wars films and i wouldn't know what scene i could find that would include the three ships i chose to model, hence i am creating my own scene form scratch. 

I am hoping this will not become too much of an issue as this is my first animation i have ever attempted having a scene to follow might help me with things like direction and camera angles which i am inexperienced in. But on the positive note this does leave a bigger scope for creativity.

In my scene i plan to focus on an imperial shuttle which is being escorted by two friendly Tie-Fighters, i then introduce a small fleet of X-Wings who are interested in stopping this escort and apprehending the shuttle for themselves. 

I feel like an opening scene just depicting the planets and space will help set the scene and quickly establish the theme of the scene and animation. I am hoping this will help exaggerate the feeling of a vast and open space ( it is of course taken place in open space).

   

Opening scene camera pans over planets and open space

The next scene will introduce the shuttle to the audience, i feel having it the first ship to appear will tell the audience that this is a ship we are interested in, and it is clearly is of some significance.

Shuttle entering over planet 

I want to switch this shot half way through to a different camera that shows the shuttle flying right over it. This not only helps show the model up close in detail but also makes the audience feel intimidated as the shuttle feels like it is coming towards them. The idea is that with the ship looking down onto the camera and audience the and ship is a superior entity. By just shooting the same sequence twice from different camera angles i can then switch the shots when i come to edit the whole animation.

Close up fly by of shuttle 

After the initial shuttle scenes i need to introduce the escorts (Tie-Fighters) to show the audience that the shuttle is not alone, and the fact that it has escorts must mean it is of some importance.

I want the detail in the models and materials to come out in the animation so position cameras at the rear and the front of the cockpit shows this detail well. Also during the animation sequence switching to a camera on the front or just to the side of the cockpit gives the audience a view similar to the pilot of the ship making them feel part of the action.  

Rear Tie-Fighter camera sequence

A potential drawback i have spotted with this particular scene is that without a point another point of reference in the camera view the audience might not grasp where the Tie-Fighter is going or what its intentions are. The shuttle very briefly comes into view but only for a second, and that's the only point in the scene where we realize that this ship is in fact in the same area and is linked in anyway to the opening scene. I like the view as its a nice angle to see the Tie-Fighters detail and texturing, but from an animation perspective giving this clip context in relation to the entire scene might prove difficult. I will go back and address this when i start to edit the individual scenes together if it does in fact prove the case.

Tie-Fighter fly by scene

I need to introduce the two tie-fighters into the animation so i made a clip of the them flying towards and over the camera to join the shuttle. I am trying to up the sense of urgency here in this scene by having the tie-fighters move quicker than the shuttle has been previously. I found a similar problem here as in the previous scene as there is no clear indication of what these ships are doing or what there relationship is to the shuttle, Again the shuttle is not actually visible in the scene. I like the camera angle and the urgency that it it starts to create, but it feels a bit like an airshow or a showcase, the ships are just flying over each other which looks nice, but i'm not sure it adds much to the animation as a whole.      

Tie-Fighters enter shot and escort Shuttle 

Showing the shuttle flying with the Tie-Fighters indicates that the ship is being escorted and the tie fighters are friendly to the shuttle. This scene is think is necessary to establish the relationships between the ships, ie friendly or hostile. 

Initially i was going to just have the shuttle and its escorts in the scene and then cut to a different shot of some x-wings entering the scene. I was again going to use two or three different camera angles one side view so we can get a nice view of the ships and switch to a cockpit camera which again puts you almost at the pilots perspective bringing the audience into the action more. 

Introducing X-Wings 

I feel while this shot is aesthetically pleasing i might be looking at this animation the wrong way, while i am eager to display the models as best i can i need to think more about how the scenes link to each other and what they are contributing to the overall animation.

NOTE: You might see that the X-Wings have a flame output form the engines i will discuss how i made these in the next blog entry.  

X-Wing Cockpit Camera

An issue with my materials surfaced after i shot this particular scene, i noticed that as my screen materials opacity is not at %100 we can see directly through the screen and out the other side. And as the polygons are only rendered from the outside we can see all the way though to the space background and the planet. I just simply solved this by adding a cube inside the cockpit. I could of in theory have changed the materials opacity back to 100 as well.

With the scenes i have shot so far i edited together couple a draft animations. 

Draft animations

The first 3 scenes, the pan over the planet, the shuttle flying over the planet then flying over the camera i think work. They set the scene a little, only a little as i only have 30 seconds. But i still want some context given to the scene. The audience feels relaxed at first and then things start to happen more ships tart appearing and it grabs your attention.

But while the rest work well individually, im not sure they link up well enough to the rest of the animation. I am going to shoot some scenes again and i might shoot some new ones. I just feel i can do better.

I am still learning as i go and with each animation i watch back i have learned a little bit more and think i can improve upon it.

Skydomes

I wanted to add a night sky/space background to my scene. The simplest and most effective way i found of doing this is to was to add a geosphere to my scene and simply apply a tiled night sky texture.

The texture appeared slightly deformed at the top and bottom points on the sphere however so by scaling down on the z axis i was able to reduce the amount of distortion present.

Shuttle with lit skydome 

Week 9, texturing Tie-Fighter

Taking note from when i textured the shuttle the first thing i wanted to add to the Tie-Fighter was an engine glow. I wanted to keep it simple so i experimented with omni lights. Omni lights spread light equally in all directions, and you can specify and modify the attenuation, which is essentially how far the light will spread. By reducing the start and finish points of the attenuation of the light i made it so the glow would only protrude slightly form the rear of the engine. By adding a volume effect and adding noise to the light i can make the attenuation visible to create a dome like glowing effect. I also made sure that this particular light did not effect any other objects in the scene as i will rig up other lights for that i want this light to just interact with the Tie-Fighter itself.      

Positioning engine onmi light inside fuselage 

Engine glow 

I approached the Tie-Fighter slightly differently to previous models. I have been using the UVW Unwrap modifier up to now, but i can see problems arising with this model. The main sphere that is the fuselage has been heavily modified and sliced and cut, and i know i am not going to be able to get a workable template as the polygons are irregular and numerous. So the Tie-Fighter is going to use mainly procedural maps created in 3ds Max. 

I still detached parts of the ship that were going to have different materials or variations of materials. I also added some more geometry to the wings to better fit the source images. I did try to achieve this wing detail with materials and maps but to no success. I did however get an idea for the main wing panels though while experimenting with bump maps.   

Detaching roof

Detaching main wing

Detaching guns mounts

As the inside of the cockpit has no detail in it i made the glass texture for the view port completely opaque and reflective. If i decide to develop these models further past the assignment i would like to add some cockpit detail and make the glass see through slightly. This would add to the overall realism of thee models.

  

Making use of the numerous maps slots in the material editor you can start to build up realistic and reactive surface textures. Starting with a basic diffuse texture created in gimp and then adding a dent bump map the solar panels on the wings start to look quite realistic, as the map gives the illusion of depth without the geometry. The bump map channels when used effectively can give a high level of detail without adding excess and numerous polygons. The number of polygons i would need to modify to get a similar effect with geometry would severely impact my overall efficiency of the model. I still have a lot of control over the material in the editor i can specify the tiling the angle and the offset, all without having to wrestle with the UVW maps.

Another reason why i chose this method is that when i made the model, unbeknownst to me, the wings somehow became overlapped, and there was polygons occupying the same space. This was the first model i made so mistakes were inevitable. I think this happened when i applied the symmetry modifier, i wasn't particularity comfortable with it at the time, and although it looks OK at the time, when i looked at the wings from certain angles the geometry would strobe. I did try to export the map, paint it, then apply it back on, but the textures just did not display properly because of the geometry.

Creating wing panel material

Adding a reflective map on the wing panel material really brought the texture to life for me, and made it look realistic. It will react with the light and other objects in the scene which is how the material would react in real life. 

I chose to use a different darker metal material on the detached parts of the fuselage and cockpit. Originally i had all the materials the same through out the main part of the ship, but i found this approach did not bring out the detail in the separate parts of the model. By having a darker material on the roof hatch, the view-port rim, small panels on the fuselage you are forced into paying more attention to these parts of the ship. And the contrast means you can clearly see that these parts are in fact separate, where as with one main material the colours and geometry just seemed to blend in. Hence i lost some the detail i put so much time into. I also found that making another colour material for even smaller detail on the detached parts of the ship helps bring these details to the audiences attention. 

Using  glass effect texture on the rear lights and the guns again helps distinguish between these details and the main ship. Such small detail is in danger of being overlooked so enhancing its reflective qualities and using a bright colour makes these details stand out. Its true that this is how the original is textured also, but changing the other parameters and not just the colour i found makes a real difference and certainly improves the quality of finish on the models.      

Variation of metal material on Fuselage

Rear lights material being added

Gun material clearly distinguishable 

Overall i fell the materials i have used really does the model justice, no detail is lost and they look quite realistic when rendered. In fact i think that look more realistic than the textures i made i GIMP for the previous models. I was more restricted with the detail i could ad however. I will be interested to use a combination of the two methods in future projects.

Finished Tie-Fighter (Rendered Views)

Week 9. Unwrapping & Texturing Imperial Shuttle

Applying the same methods i discussed in the last blog entry, i moved on to texturing the Imperial Shuttle. While the process is very time consuming it is vital you spend this time if you want your models to look as realistic an accurate as possible. 

The slight difference with the shuttle as apposed to the X-Wing is that the shuttle is mainly comprised of grouped objects instead of one large main mesh. This certainly beneficial and saves you some time when it comes when in comes to unwrapping the parts of the ship.  

Detaching wing panels for texturing  

There was still times when i decided to detach individual panels of the ship, on the wings for example. This just makes working in Gimp much easier, as when i was creating a weathered and scratched surface i wanted these details to be all facing the right way, ie, from the front to the back of the ship. This just ensures all the textures are uniform. This also allows for a cleaner more precise texture when there is a variation on the colour on certain panels of the wing.   

Unwrapping the main wing 

Wings fully textured 

I added a reflection map to the glass to clearly differentiate the the metal and glass textures. I also lowered the opacity setting slightly, not too much though as the original source images clearly show a tinted translucent effect. The reflection makes the material look a lot more realistic and might have some nice effects when i start to add a skybox and lights to my scene. 

Editing and applying screen material 

For the smaller less significant parts of the ship a basic texture could be applied without the need to unwrap and export a UVW map. I have seen previously that the time spent doing this on the the small complex and insignificant objects on the ship does not justify the final outcome and my time is better spent elsewhere. So for the small detail at the rear of the fuselage and the gun barrels a basic texture was applied. 

Shuttle fully textured

Rendered views of finished shuttle 

When the texturing was complete i started to have a little play with the wings on the shuttle. I plan to animate the wings to show them opening during flight. This is when grouping parts of the model together as opposed to attaching them to be one larger mesh becomes significant as i can isolate the wings and manipulate them individually. 

Rendered views of ship with wings folded in 

The only thing i would like to add  is when i move onto adding lights in the scene i will try and create some sort of engine glow for the rear engine. As without it the ship appears to have to propulsion which will look unrealistic when i start to animate the ship.  

Week 8, Texturing X-Wing

Once i was comfortable with the different techniques regarding creating and applying material to objects i started with my first model the X-Wing.

Learning form previous exercises i decided that to get the most control and the highest level of detail to do my models justice, that using the unwrap modifier would be the best way forward. I have also learned that as my model is highly complex and i made its mainly one large mesh apart form small details, I would break down the model into smaller easily distinguishable parts. Then when i apply the modifier the polygons will be fewer and much easier to paint on. This will also help me get nice clean lines on different parts of the ship.

The first step was to break the model down as if it has literally been assembled in a physical sense. Again this greatly improves the precision i will be able to get when applying the materials.

I identified the parts of the ship that would have different colors and textures and separated them individually.

For example the roll cage of the cockpit is a different color to the main fuselage and a different material (ie, metal and glass) to the screen, so i detached this from the main mesh.

Detaching cockpit roll cage 

Painting Rollcage map in GIMP

Detached back of Fuselage 

  

Sometimes even when the materials are the same like on the front of the fuselage or parts of the wings, as it has different colored panels, i decided to remove the panels individually in some cases this gave me cleaner lines and textures on the objects.

Main panels and red side panels being detached individually 

Red wing panels being textured separately

When i had rendered the templates i could take them in to Gimp and start building up paint layers and applying effects to the materials. I used a noise map effect to give the metal textures an authentic brushed metal look, and used different style and sized brushed to create a weathered effect on parts of the fuselage. When you paint these templates in Gimp it gives you a lot of freedom to create individual and realistic looking textures. And because they are all unwrapped using the UVW modifier when you apply them on them model they fit perfectly and look quite realistic. 

Fuselage map and material before application 

     

X-Wing with front of fuselage and cockpit materials applied 

I could also add more effects in the material editor in 3Ds Max to get a more accurate representation of the materials. For example changing the specular and gloss levels on the material to give the metal a shiny and reflective appearance. Also with the glass i changed reduced the opacity slightly and increased the reflection parameter to make the glass look more realistic. If i had time with the models i could of introduced some geometry inside the cockpit and then i could have it so you could see through the glass completely and into the pilots bay.   

Continuing the method of detaching and unwrapping individual parts of the ship, although very time consuming starts to give a realistic looking ship. 

Engines Textured 

Fuselage fully textured 

There are times when the UVW Unwrap modifier has its downfalls though. For small and high poly objects the maps sometimes become highly complicated and impossible to distinguish and work with.

Unwrapped polygons 

  

In this example the polygons are for small wires and details on the ship and due to their size a UVW unwrap is not only overly complicated but unnecessary. I can just apply a basic material to these smaller less conspicuous objects and still get a realistic overall effect by using reflective maps and bump maps.

When the entire ship was textured to my satisfaction i could start to re-attach parts of the ship back together. In some cases i decided not to re-attach and just group objects, as the model was originally mainly one whole mesh, which i now know is not always best practice. Especially when it comes to the animation, when i might want to animate individual parts of the ship like the wings folding out for example.  

Rendered Views of fully textured X-Wing

I am pleased with the final model now its textured, the materials look realistic and reflect accurately the original source images and models i have been working with. The detail i was able to achieve by unwrapping each part of the ship and texturing individually is definitely something i will use again in my other models. Although i might experiment more with the different map channels that are available within the material editor. Overall though the first model was a success.