video editing

Video editing

Now I have made all of my animation clips, what I need to do is to put them all together and edit them. Video editing is a very important part of the animation industry. To start off with I open “Window movie maker”. After I imported all of my clips as shown in the image below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I started to add sound, which is also very important as it enhances the clip even further. 

 

 

 

I finish adding and editing the sound.

 

 

 

Now the clip is finish here is a link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6r1Ndu6ZRQ

setting up

Setting up the animation blog

In this section of the blog I am going to talk about setting up a background for my animation scene. This is important as it acts of a visual element for an animation scene, like when you think about “Pixar” films  like “Toy Story” where the toys are in a kids bedroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start off with I created a cuboid and rotated it so it would look like a wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is also important to add texture for visual aid to further enhance the fact it is a wall. The film my animation is based on is the “Matrix” and is the scene where the female lead character “Trinity” fights the police; in order to make the wall look more like the one in the scene I print screened the movie clip and edited out the wall in “Photoshop”   

 

 

 

 

 

I applied it to the wall but it came out the wrong way

 

 

 

 

To solve this I flipped the uv’s .

 

 

 

 

 

Next I created another wall and applied the closet pattern to the wall from the film I could find.

 

 

 

 

Next I created a floor and applied a tile texture that was close to the one in the film.

 

 

 

 

 

I then started on the table.

 

 

 

 

I started making support beams by copying the top of the table.

 

 

 

 

I then resized the piece and attach them together and applied a concrete texture to it.

 

 

 

For filming different parts of the animation I added more walls and a city background.

 

What I learned

By doing this I learned how important setting up a background for an animation as it further adds the visual side of animation. Without a background I couldn’t imagine many 3D films working and even being watchable. I planned to do more background work in my animations in the future, in order to give my viewers a better sense of the scene.    

running animation

Running animation

As part of my four animations in the 3D for animation that I am currently doing, I decided to do a running cycle. A running cycle is similar to a walk cycle however the movement is more exaggerated; I have attempted to make a running cycle before however it fail due to the fact that I didn’t key everybody part in all of the key frame and copying them over didn’t work.

To start off with I gather reference material.

The reference material above shows each position the body moves in while running. By using this information I created a running cycle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Q3Ztxfcws

I don’t think it was too bad for a second try and I felt it was a big improvement over the first one I had created. However despite this I could still see it wasn’t right; however I couldn’t understand why it look that way, in order to get a better insight I spoke to my tutor who told me the problem was that there were too many frames and there were not even. The tutor also said that it was better suited for a wounding animation. Following my tutor advice instead of spending a lot of time adjusted and probably starting again, I decided to change it into a wounded run cycle. Here it is

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWKTqNj6er8

What I learned

I find this useful due to the fact that rather throw away an animation that you spend quite some time on. It can be useful if it is adjusted into something different, it has make me think about going back on old projects that I have abandon and trying to adjust them in some way.    

      

jump kick and camera's

Jump kick animation

As part of my fourth project for 3D animation, I am doing a jump kick animation based on the matrix, where the female lead character jumps and kicks a police man. To start off with I made the characters legs more bent.

 

 

I decided that frame 10 should be the start of the jump, so I adjusted the mesh slightly.

 

 

 

On frame 16 I made the character legs bent in order to make it look like he was about to jump.

On frame 48 and 54 I placed the character in the same position as the film, the reason those frames are in the same position as those in the scene in “The Matrix” that the viewer will undoubtedly be familiar with this iconic scene. There is a pause before they do the kick. 

 

 

 

 

Finally on frame 56. I will talk more about this kick later on.

 

Part 2 setting up cameras

Cameras are going to be used in my animation clip. There are 3 types of cameras in “Maya” camera, camera aim and camera aim and up. In this blog I’m going to be talking about two of them.

The first is camera, by going on create and select camera it will appear on screen. This camera will allow you to create a clip from one angle unless you use keys. To work this camera go onto panels and select the camera and it will allow you to adjust the angle.

Here is an example of using this camera

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDSXMyb8kr0

The next camera I am going to talk about is the camera aim. This camera is useful for making zoom in or zoom out and also spinning. This works in a similar way to the other camera but you also get a sphere. The sphere represent the camera focus point is. To start off with get the camera focus point and position it on the character, then key the camera and then go to a different frame, when you have go to a different frame move the camera and them key it again. Doing it this way I manage to create this animation.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0qS3mcx1_c

 

 

What I learned

By doing this I learned how to work camera in “Maya” this will be very useful in my animation clip I am creating for the module. Learning how to use camera aim was the most useful because with it I can make my animation more similar to the film “The Matrix”

using the graph editor

3D animation using the graph editor

In this session our tutor showed us how to use the graph editor. The graph editor is useful for tweaking your animations.

In order to help us learn about the graph editor we were set a task.

 

1. To start off with we created a ball and opened the graph editor. Key frame one where the ball is on the ground.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Move the ball diagonally upward on frame 5 and key frame it.

 

 

 

 

3. Go onto frame 10 and move the ball diagonally downwards. 

 

 

 

 

 

4. On frame 15 repeat what you did with frame 5.

 

 

 

 

 

5. On frame 20 repeat what you did with frame 10. You should now have a bouncing ball animation. 

 

 

 

 

6. Now go onto animate and select ghost, once selected then click onto custom frame step. In ghost options set step before current frame and set it to 10. Also select steps after current frame and set that to 10. 

 

 

 

 

7. With ghosting active you’re animation should look like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Now go onto graph editor and adjust the frames, as you can see below the bounce on my ball is noticeably uneven.

 

 

 

 

 

9. Now just adjust it so it looks even.

 

 

 

10. By pressing F it will allow you to focus on the frames.

 

 

 

By moving the ball manually we can change the timing. Below is an image of it before.

 

 

 

Here is it now, if you notice it has changed.

 

 

 

 

 

11. Go to frame 15 in the graph editor.

 

 

 

By using the middle mouse button you can change the direction of the tangent.

 

 

 

12. Now right click on frame 15 and select brake tangent and it should go blue.

 

 

 

 The line has now gone a light blue.

 

 

 

 

You can now move one tangent.

13. I am now going to show you how to change their size. Go onto curves and click on weighted tangents.

 

 

 

14. Now go onto tangent and click on free tangent weights.

 

 

 

 

 

You can now edit their size as well as their direction.

 

 

 

What I learned

By doing this, I learned how to use the graph editor which will be very handy for creating animations, in the way of manipulating movement and scale. I plan to use what I have learned in my four animations in my 3D animation project.