Overall I feel I have created three unique idents which, similar to BBC Four's actual idents, are unrelated to each other but share the three core themes I identified when researching the topic. Based on idents I viewed such as this one for Bravo TV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML3ys1a2Azc) and this Sky One ident (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_jtQjGt1t0&feature=related), the average length seems to be 10 to 25 seconds. My idents fit within these times so would not be too long for use on a TV channel.
In terms of 3D techniques, I have used many more than I did last semester and I feel my work is now of a much better standard. However, there are still many more features in 3DS Max I have yet to learn and my work will continue to improve as my knowledge of the program increases.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Writeup: Ident 3- British Sci-Fi Season
This ident is for a British Sci Fi season and is my first attempt at mixing 3D animation with real video and using UVW mapping and IK bones. It starts with a person walking towards the camera when he hears a jet fighter roar in the sky. He looks up and three spacecraft fly overhead. Inside one of the ships, an alien finger presses the ejector seat button. An alien wearing a Union Jack waistcoat then drops into a garden and waves to the camera, saying "four" in an alien voice. The BBC Four logo then appears.
Inspiration: When designing the alien character, my main inspiration was "Elvis" from the Nintendo 64 game Perfect Dark, who looked like a stereotypical "grey" alien and wore a Stars and Stripes waistcoat. I decided to adapt the waistcoat idea to reflect the "British" part of the sci fi season.
For the design of the spacecraft, I decided to use Perfect Dark's "Skedar" spacecraft and Elvis' flying saucer as inspiration- the swooping shape of the Skedar ship and the domed cockpit of Elvis' saucer helped me create a recognisably alien craft for my ident. The boosters at the back were inspired by the Space Shuttle's rear booster engines which made the spacecraft look more "realistic" as the viewer could imagine how they work.
Modelling: To create the spaceships, I drew the wings with the Line tool then extruded them. The nose was created the same way then was TurboSmoothed into an aerodynamic shape. The cockpit is created from two spheres and the rocket boosters are cylinders.
When creating Elvis, I used an image as a background to draw over with the Line tool. I drew the body and arms separately then extruded and MeshSmoothed them. The head and eyes are made from edited spheres. I then added some bones, applied the Skin modifier to Elvis' right arm and keyframed a waving movement. A side effect of the bone placement was that Elvis appeared to grow a finger out of his hand. I kept this as it was quite effective and looked like Elvis points to the sky as he waves.
Above: Reference image of Elvis
The interior of the spaceship is created using a basic plane with a button plane on top. The alien hand is a TurboSmoothed box with a TurboSmoothed cylinder as a finger. The finger has bones inside and a Skin modifier applied to create the "pressing" movement. To create the effect that the Eject button had been pressed, I moved the first button plane behind the wall and replaced it with a second plane (the red button) within the space of 2 frames.
The "shield" which covers Elvis when he falls from the sky is a sphere with a semi transparent texture.
Textures: The texture for the spaceship body was created by cutting a section from the reference image of the Skedar ship and applying filters. The texture of the cockpit dome was a simple material with a blue diffuse colour and a reflection map of clouds. This material is re-used for the shield which protects Elvis as he falls. The rocket boosters used the aluminium texture I created for the slopes in Ident 1. The wall of the spaceship interior is an original texture, as are the button images and the alien's skin.
Elvis' arms had the "alien skin" texture applied, but creating Elvis' body texture was my first experience of UVW mapping. I used a tutorial to teach me how to create a texture map from a model. I then created a Union Jack waistcoat using a found image of the flag then applied this to the texture map along with my "alien skin" texture and found images of "moon boots". An image board of all the textures can be seen below, followed by the found "clouds" image used for the spaceship dome and Elvis' shield:
Compositing and Editing: Once I had filmed the "real video" sections, the next step was to match the camera panning in the video in 3DS Max. This was a tricky process and required some small adjustments in the editing software Sony Vegas as well. The 3D video was rendered with green screen backgrounds so it could be keyed out in Vegas and overlayed on the real video track. For the smoke and flames which appear when Elvis lands, I used stock footage which was overlayed and edited to match my video. Colour adjustment and blur effects in Vegas were the last step in making the 3D match the real video. Sound effects for the spaceships were taken from various "jet fighter" sounds and edited heavily in Adobe Soundbooth to create otherworldy sounds. The "four" sound the alien makes is a heavily edited recording of my brother
Step By Step: Mixing 3D with Real Video
1. Video scene filmed on digital camera
2. The spaceship model is built in 3DS then cloned to create a fleet. The spaceships' movement is then keyframed. As can be seen in the real video image, the sun is facing the camera and the spaceships will be flying left to right across the screen, so the lights in 3DS Max are placed to the left of the spaceships to ensure shadows are cast in the correct direction. The camera panning is then roughly keyframed to match the camera movement in the video.
3. The 3DS animation is rendered with a green background.
4. The animated clip is placed on a layer above the real video in Sony Vegas. The green background on the 3DS clip is removed using chroma keying, which removes a certain colour range from the video. Linear blur and film grain are applied to the 3D animation to match the natural motion blur and grain in the real video. The colour balance is also adjusted in the 3D and real video to create a more movie-like tone and remove overblown whites and blues in the real video. These techniques were also used to overlay the stock footage smoke and fire in the final scene.
5. To fine-tune the camera movement in the 3D clip, Vegas' Pan and Crop feature is used. In this example, a section is cropped from the top of the 3D clip to ensure the spaceships appear at the top of the visible image. Pan and Crop is heavily used in the final clip of the video to ensure Elvis and the smoke effects stay in the same position relative to the real video scenery.
Evaluation: Although this video took a lot of work to make it look "right", I feel the end result is well worth the effort. I also managed to learn about and incorporate two new 3D techniques when creating this video, which I can apply in future.
Inspiration: When designing the alien character, my main inspiration was "Elvis" from the Nintendo 64 game Perfect Dark, who looked like a stereotypical "grey" alien and wore a Stars and Stripes waistcoat. I decided to adapt the waistcoat idea to reflect the "British" part of the sci fi season.
For the design of the spacecraft, I decided to use Perfect Dark's "Skedar" spacecraft and Elvis' flying saucer as inspiration- the swooping shape of the Skedar ship and the domed cockpit of Elvis' saucer helped me create a recognisably alien craft for my ident. The boosters at the back were inspired by the Space Shuttle's rear booster engines which made the spacecraft look more "realistic" as the viewer could imagine how they work.
Modelling: To create the spaceships, I drew the wings with the Line tool then extruded them. The nose was created the same way then was TurboSmoothed into an aerodynamic shape. The cockpit is created from two spheres and the rocket boosters are cylinders.
When creating Elvis, I used an image as a background to draw over with the Line tool. I drew the body and arms separately then extruded and MeshSmoothed them. The head and eyes are made from edited spheres. I then added some bones, applied the Skin modifier to Elvis' right arm and keyframed a waving movement. A side effect of the bone placement was that Elvis appeared to grow a finger out of his hand. I kept this as it was quite effective and looked like Elvis points to the sky as he waves.
Above: Reference image of Elvis
The interior of the spaceship is created using a basic plane with a button plane on top. The alien hand is a TurboSmoothed box with a TurboSmoothed cylinder as a finger. The finger has bones inside and a Skin modifier applied to create the "pressing" movement. To create the effect that the Eject button had been pressed, I moved the first button plane behind the wall and replaced it with a second plane (the red button) within the space of 2 frames.
The "shield" which covers Elvis when he falls from the sky is a sphere with a semi transparent texture.
Textures: The texture for the spaceship body was created by cutting a section from the reference image of the Skedar ship and applying filters. The texture of the cockpit dome was a simple material with a blue diffuse colour and a reflection map of clouds. This material is re-used for the shield which protects Elvis as he falls. The rocket boosters used the aluminium texture I created for the slopes in Ident 1. The wall of the spaceship interior is an original texture, as are the button images and the alien's skin.
Elvis' arms had the "alien skin" texture applied, but creating Elvis' body texture was my first experience of UVW mapping. I used a tutorial to teach me how to create a texture map from a model. I then created a Union Jack waistcoat using a found image of the flag then applied this to the texture map along with my "alien skin" texture and found images of "moon boots". An image board of all the textures can be seen below, followed by the found "clouds" image used for the spaceship dome and Elvis' shield:
Compositing and Editing: Once I had filmed the "real video" sections, the next step was to match the camera panning in the video in 3DS Max. This was a tricky process and required some small adjustments in the editing software Sony Vegas as well. The 3D video was rendered with green screen backgrounds so it could be keyed out in Vegas and overlayed on the real video track. For the smoke and flames which appear when Elvis lands, I used stock footage which was overlayed and edited to match my video. Colour adjustment and blur effects in Vegas were the last step in making the 3D match the real video. Sound effects for the spaceships were taken from various "jet fighter" sounds and edited heavily in Adobe Soundbooth to create otherworldy sounds. The "four" sound the alien makes is a heavily edited recording of my brother
Step By Step: Mixing 3D with Real Video
1. Video scene filmed on digital camera
2. The spaceship model is built in 3DS then cloned to create a fleet. The spaceships' movement is then keyframed. As can be seen in the real video image, the sun is facing the camera and the spaceships will be flying left to right across the screen, so the lights in 3DS Max are placed to the left of the spaceships to ensure shadows are cast in the correct direction. The camera panning is then roughly keyframed to match the camera movement in the video.
3. The 3DS animation is rendered with a green background.
4. The animated clip is placed on a layer above the real video in Sony Vegas. The green background on the 3DS clip is removed using chroma keying, which removes a certain colour range from the video. Linear blur and film grain are applied to the 3D animation to match the natural motion blur and grain in the real video. The colour balance is also adjusted in the 3D and real video to create a more movie-like tone and remove overblown whites and blues in the real video. These techniques were also used to overlay the stock footage smoke and fire in the final scene.
5. To fine-tune the camera movement in the 3D clip, Vegas' Pan and Crop feature is used. In this example, a section is cropped from the top of the 3D clip to ensure the spaceships appear at the top of the visible image. Pan and Crop is heavily used in the final clip of the video to ensure Elvis and the smoke effects stay in the same position relative to the real video scenery.
Evaluation: Although this video took a lot of work to make it look "right", I feel the end result is well worth the effort. I also managed to learn about and incorporate two new 3D techniques when creating this video, which I can apply in future.
Writeup: Ident 2- Nature
This ident, based around a Nature theme, features two penguins on a snowy hill in the arctic. After one penguin slides down the hill, he looks up to find the iceberg floating in the ocean is melting. The ice melts into the shape of a "4" and the BBC Four logo appears.
In Detail:
Planning and Early Versions: As seen in the storyboards below, the original plan for the ident was to have the penguins standing on the iceberg next to a temperature gauge showing the temperature rising. The penguins would then look worried before the ice melts and they fall into the sea. However, the temperature gauge sequence felt unrealistic and was unnecessary padding in an ident. The penguins were also moved to a snowdrift next to the iceberg as I could not make them fall off convincingly!
As can be seen earlier in this blog, the first "complete" version of this ident was much simpler than the final version- the snowdrift was simply a plane with a static plane background of mountains behind it, the sky was a background image and the sea was a flat texture. Also, the penguin did not slide down the hill- they were just standing by the shore. I decided this needed an overhaul and set about creating some polygonal hills, original textures, flowing water, added some particles and made the penguins more animated for the final version (more detail on these later). Another alteration between the first complete and final versions of the ident was that the early version used Radiosity and Daylight lighting. However, Radiosity did not really work with the scene as it made the penguins appear "shiny" and using Daylight lighting without Radiosity equalled huge rendering times and did not give any visual advantage over the Omni light used in the final version.
Modelling: The hills the penguins are standing on was created from a plane which was converted to an editable mesh and soft-selected into a hilly shape. I then applied a MeshSmooth and edited some more before applying TurboSmooth to give the final result. The penguins in the animation were created using edited spheres for the body, head and eyes as these created an effective cartoon style look. The flippers were drawn with the Line tool then extruded. For the iceberg, I started off by drawing a 4 with the Line tool and extruding it. Because morphing requires that the start and finish objects have to contain the same amount of vertices, I created a copy of the "4" and converted it to an editable poly so I could shape it into an iceberg. I then applied the Morpher modifier to the iceberg and selected the "4" as the target.
Animation and Cameras: I relied heavily on traditional keyframe animation for this scene to move the cameras, rotate the penguins and make the sliding penguin go down the hill. I had originally planned to use IK bones to make the penguin's flippers move as he fell down the slope, butdecided to keyframe this movement in the end as using bones caused the mesh to deform and did not give a visual advantage over keyframing. I used multiple cameras to add variety and make the sequence visually interesting. The second camera angle is from the sliding penguin's point of view as he gets back on his feet- I used this as animating the penguin standing up from a third person perspective would have been difficult to make it look convincing.
Skydome: The sky in the final version is a "skydome", a sphere with a Normal- Flip Normals modifier (which applies the texture map to the inside of the sphere) and a non-original panoramic texture of clouds applied. Thanks to Robert for showing me this technique :)
Water and Textures: The water is a plane with a clever texture applied to give the impression of flowing, reflective water. This was achieved by creating a material with a high specular and gloss level which used Noise as its bump map and a Flat Mirror as its reflection map. The Noise creates the flowing effect and the Flat Mirror reflects the skydome which gives the water effect.
The textures for the hills and penguins are original and created in Photoshop to look as close to the non-original textures used in the early version as possible. The texture for the ice consists of a heavily edited non original diffuse texture and a non original bump map. An imageboard of the textures used in the final version can be seen below:
Particles: This ident is my first animation to use particle effects. Originally, I had planned to have falling snow in the scene but instead decided to have snow "kicked up" from the ground as the penguin slides down the hill which begins to settle as he reaches the bottom of the hill. To achieve this, I created a "Snow" particle system which follows the penguin down the hill and adjusted the settings to create the desired effect.
Lighting: Lighting in this scene is achieved by the use of simple Omni lights to make the scene evenly lit and clear to the viewer in each shot. For the sunrise, I used an additional Omni light with "Glow" and "Ray" lens effects to create a "sun".
Evaluation: I am pleased with how this scene looks. I used different .max files for different parts of the animation, which was useful as editing certain shots did not affect the rest of the sequence. However, keeping track of which changes have been made where and ensuring a consistent look between shots was confusing at times. This ident has been a good opportunity to explore 3DS Max and experiment with techniques I haven't used in the past.
In Detail:
Planning and Early Versions: As seen in the storyboards below, the original plan for the ident was to have the penguins standing on the iceberg next to a temperature gauge showing the temperature rising. The penguins would then look worried before the ice melts and they fall into the sea. However, the temperature gauge sequence felt unrealistic and was unnecessary padding in an ident. The penguins were also moved to a snowdrift next to the iceberg as I could not make them fall off convincingly!
As can be seen earlier in this blog, the first "complete" version of this ident was much simpler than the final version- the snowdrift was simply a plane with a static plane background of mountains behind it, the sky was a background image and the sea was a flat texture. Also, the penguin did not slide down the hill- they were just standing by the shore. I decided this needed an overhaul and set about creating some polygonal hills, original textures, flowing water, added some particles and made the penguins more animated for the final version (more detail on these later). Another alteration between the first complete and final versions of the ident was that the early version used Radiosity and Daylight lighting. However, Radiosity did not really work with the scene as it made the penguins appear "shiny" and using Daylight lighting without Radiosity equalled huge rendering times and did not give any visual advantage over the Omni light used in the final version.
Modelling: The hills the penguins are standing on was created from a plane which was converted to an editable mesh and soft-selected into a hilly shape. I then applied a MeshSmooth and edited some more before applying TurboSmooth to give the final result. The penguins in the animation were created using edited spheres for the body, head and eyes as these created an effective cartoon style look. The flippers were drawn with the Line tool then extruded. For the iceberg, I started off by drawing a 4 with the Line tool and extruding it. Because morphing requires that the start and finish objects have to contain the same amount of vertices, I created a copy of the "4" and converted it to an editable poly so I could shape it into an iceberg. I then applied the Morpher modifier to the iceberg and selected the "4" as the target.
Animation and Cameras: I relied heavily on traditional keyframe animation for this scene to move the cameras, rotate the penguins and make the sliding penguin go down the hill. I had originally planned to use IK bones to make the penguin's flippers move as he fell down the slope, butdecided to keyframe this movement in the end as using bones caused the mesh to deform and did not give a visual advantage over keyframing. I used multiple cameras to add variety and make the sequence visually interesting. The second camera angle is from the sliding penguin's point of view as he gets back on his feet- I used this as animating the penguin standing up from a third person perspective would have been difficult to make it look convincing.
Skydome: The sky in the final version is a "skydome", a sphere with a Normal- Flip Normals modifier (which applies the texture map to the inside of the sphere) and a non-original panoramic texture of clouds applied. Thanks to Robert for showing me this technique :)
Water and Textures: The water is a plane with a clever texture applied to give the impression of flowing, reflective water. This was achieved by creating a material with a high specular and gloss level which used Noise as its bump map and a Flat Mirror as its reflection map. The Noise creates the flowing effect and the Flat Mirror reflects the skydome which gives the water effect.
The textures for the hills and penguins are original and created in Photoshop to look as close to the non-original textures used in the early version as possible. The texture for the ice consists of a heavily edited non original diffuse texture and a non original bump map. An imageboard of the textures used in the final version can be seen below:
Particles: This ident is my first animation to use particle effects. Originally, I had planned to have falling snow in the scene but instead decided to have snow "kicked up" from the ground as the penguin slides down the hill which begins to settle as he reaches the bottom of the hill. To achieve this, I created a "Snow" particle system which follows the penguin down the hill and adjusted the settings to create the desired effect.
Lighting: Lighting in this scene is achieved by the use of simple Omni lights to make the scene evenly lit and clear to the viewer in each shot. For the sunrise, I used an additional Omni light with "Glow" and "Ray" lens effects to create a "sun".
Evaluation: I am pleased with how this scene looks. I used different .max files for different parts of the animation, which was useful as editing certain shots did not affect the rest of the sequence. However, keeping track of which changes have been made where and ensuring a consistent look between shots was confusing at times. This ident has been a good opportunity to explore 3DS Max and experiment with techniques I haven't used in the past.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Writeup: Ident 1- Discovery
This ident features a Rube Goldberg machine which has been constructed in a classroom/bedroom/lab. The purpose of the machine is to hit a power switch which turns on a laptop with the BBC Four logo on. A ball is dropped from above the table, it rolls down a block of wood before making its way down a sequence of slopes stacked on top of some books. At the end of the slopes, the ball flies off and hits a domino which starts a chain reaction. The last domino hits a measuring cylinder which flips and lands on the power switch. The camera then follows the snaking cables to laptop. Zooming in on the screen, the BBC Four logo can be seen fading in.
In Detail:
Physics: The animation was created using the reactor physics engine built into 3DS Max. I started off building the slopes the ball would travel down using cubes- these objects were reactor solid bodies but did not have any mass so they "floated"- in real life, the slopes would be attached to the table using clips or really strong Sellotape. The first slope, the triangular block, was created with the Line tool and extruded.
I then created the solid body dominos and measuring cylinder. The measuring cylinder was created using the Line and Lathe tools- the first example of this object featured a "spiky" core as I did not use the Weld Core option and did not know only half of the object needs drawing with the line tool- the final object corrects these mistakes. The dominos and cylinder did have mass and were placed upon a "floating" plane which would be the floor.
The final object to be added was the ball, which was a solid body sphere with mass. A video showing early "just physics" versions of the animation can be seen earlier in this blog. To make the ball successfully complete the run, a lot of adjustment such as tilting the slopes and changing the spaces between and layout of the dominos (which were the most challenging part of the animation) was required.
Camera: Originally, I used a single camera on a path which followed the ball down the slope (as can be seen in the original goldberg.max file). However, this did not provide a very good view of the action and most videos with a Rube Goldberg machine use cameras which are quite far back "observing" the action instead of being in the middle of it. For the final version, I stuck with using a single camera but decided it would follow the ball from the side as it rolled down the slope so the action was clear before rotating and moving backwards as the dominos collapsed first towards then away from it (to give a dramatic, "cool" angle). It then pans up to follow the cylinder then returns to a side on view to zoom in on the laptop. I used keyframes for the final sequence instead of a path.
Other Modelling: The table was constructed from a cube and four cylinders and the books were simple cubes. However, using minimal, simple in "background objects" still looked good and ensured the focus stayed on the action. The walls were a mixture of cubes and planes- the wall that cannot be seen which casts shadows on the back wall is a cube which I converted to an editable mesh then deleted faces to create four "windows"
Lighting: I am proud of the lighting in this sequence as it is my first time using the advanced Radiosity feature in 3DS Max, as well as the Daylight system, to create softer, more realistic lighting. I used a tutorial on Escalight (http://www.escalight.com/tutorials/3dsmax-tutorials/lighting-a-bedroom-part-2.html) to help me create the lighting in this scene.
Textures: The first version of this scene used textures which were found on the Internet. However, I wanted as much of the scene to be my own work as possible so all the textures in the final version of this ident were created entirely by myself in Photoshop- except the books (which use a modified "For Dummies" cover). The textures used for the laptop and floor come from photos I have taken. I used semi transparent textures for the dominos, ball and cylinder to give a "glass" look. The cylinder and dominos use an original environment map to simulate reflection. An imageboard with all the original textures can be seen below:
Below is the edited "For Dummies" cover:
Music and Editing: The music chosen for this scene was "Lukis Covert Op" from PS2 game "The Bouncer". I chose this for its relaxing, lounge music style. The video's speed is adjusted in two places- the playback speed is increased when the ball rolls off the third metal slope so the ball keeps a constant speed in the video. In the original render, the ball is "sticky" and rolls very slowly on this part. The video is slowed down when the measuring cylinder flips as this part happens too quickly to be clear in the original render. The video is rendered at PAL resolution.
Evaluation: I am pleased with this ident as it is my first animation using reactor and Radiosity, so I have learned a lot about using these features. Also, creating my own textures was important as I did not create many custom textures last year, so this year I wanted to show my skill in this department. Although the modelling was relatively simple, it does not look too blocky or unrealistic.
In Detail:
Physics: The animation was created using the reactor physics engine built into 3DS Max. I started off building the slopes the ball would travel down using cubes- these objects were reactor solid bodies but did not have any mass so they "floated"- in real life, the slopes would be attached to the table using clips or really strong Sellotape. The first slope, the triangular block, was created with the Line tool and extruded.
I then created the solid body dominos and measuring cylinder. The measuring cylinder was created using the Line and Lathe tools- the first example of this object featured a "spiky" core as I did not use the Weld Core option and did not know only half of the object needs drawing with the line tool- the final object corrects these mistakes. The dominos and cylinder did have mass and were placed upon a "floating" plane which would be the floor.
The final object to be added was the ball, which was a solid body sphere with mass. A video showing early "just physics" versions of the animation can be seen earlier in this blog. To make the ball successfully complete the run, a lot of adjustment such as tilting the slopes and changing the spaces between and layout of the dominos (which were the most challenging part of the animation) was required.
Camera: Originally, I used a single camera on a path which followed the ball down the slope (as can be seen in the original goldberg.max file). However, this did not provide a very good view of the action and most videos with a Rube Goldberg machine use cameras which are quite far back "observing" the action instead of being in the middle of it. For the final version, I stuck with using a single camera but decided it would follow the ball from the side as it rolled down the slope so the action was clear before rotating and moving backwards as the dominos collapsed first towards then away from it (to give a dramatic, "cool" angle). It then pans up to follow the cylinder then returns to a side on view to zoom in on the laptop. I used keyframes for the final sequence instead of a path.
Other Modelling: The table was constructed from a cube and four cylinders and the books were simple cubes. However, using minimal, simple in "background objects" still looked good and ensured the focus stayed on the action. The walls were a mixture of cubes and planes- the wall that cannot be seen which casts shadows on the back wall is a cube which I converted to an editable mesh then deleted faces to create four "windows"
Lighting: I am proud of the lighting in this sequence as it is my first time using the advanced Radiosity feature in 3DS Max, as well as the Daylight system, to create softer, more realistic lighting. I used a tutorial on Escalight (http://www.escalight.com/tutorials/3dsmax-tutorials/lighting-a-bedroom-part-2.html) to help me create the lighting in this scene.
Textures: The first version of this scene used textures which were found on the Internet. However, I wanted as much of the scene to be my own work as possible so all the textures in the final version of this ident were created entirely by myself in Photoshop- except the books (which use a modified "For Dummies" cover). The textures used for the laptop and floor come from photos I have taken. I used semi transparent textures for the dominos, ball and cylinder to give a "glass" look. The cylinder and dominos use an original environment map to simulate reflection. An imageboard with all the original textures can be seen below:
Below is the edited "For Dummies" cover:
Music and Editing: The music chosen for this scene was "Lukis Covert Op" from PS2 game "The Bouncer". I chose this for its relaxing, lounge music style. The video's speed is adjusted in two places- the playback speed is increased when the ball rolls off the third metal slope so the ball keeps a constant speed in the video. In the original render, the ball is "sticky" and rolls very slowly on this part. The video is slowed down when the measuring cylinder flips as this part happens too quickly to be clear in the original render. The video is rendered at PAL resolution.
Evaluation: I am pleased with this ident as it is my first animation using reactor and Radiosity, so I have learned a lot about using these features. Also, creating my own textures was important as I did not create many custom textures last year, so this year I wanted to show my skill in this department. Although the modelling was relatively simple, it does not look too blocky or unrealistic.
Writeup: Choice of Channel and Planning
I chose BBC Four as my channel to create idents for as it is a "different" channel to mainstream terrestrial or sports/music stations as its programmes cover a wide variety of topics and interests, which gives plenty of scope for creating original and imaginative idents. In the past, its idents have generally been based around three topics: Discovery, nature, and knowledge. All the idents are set in relaxing scenes- there is no dramatic action (except in some "special season" idents) or fast-paced music. Specific idents used by BBC Four have been flowers with bees in a field, a massive bookshelf with people selecting books, a Thunderbird 2 special, a "zoom out through ages of children's TV" special, birds flying, and drops in water. All these idents conform to one of three main themes.
I decided my idents would fit the "Discovery", "Nature" and "Knowledge" themes and made some initial notes:
1. Science/Discovery
Rube Goldberg device. Ends with turning on PC screen with logo. Ball, dominoes, tubes, knocking things over. Glass textures? One camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p81xqfQYuo0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnPW4lcqIxQ&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_4VZOjKRxA
On table in classroom/lab.
2. Nature
Two penguins on ice. Temperature gauge rises, they look worried. Ice shrinks to "4" shape. Zoom out from top, BBC logo appears above.
3. Knowledge
Books fall off bookcase. BBC 4 logo is written on wall behind. "The home of knowledge"?
I decided my idents would fit the "Discovery", "Nature" and "Knowledge" themes and made some initial notes:
1. Science/Discovery
Rube Goldberg device. Ends with turning on PC screen with logo. Ball, dominoes, tubes, knocking things over. Glass textures? One camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p81xqfQYuo0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnPW4lcqIxQ&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_4VZOjKRxA
On table in classroom/lab.
2. Nature
Two penguins on ice. Temperature gauge rises, they look worried. Ice shrinks to "4" shape. Zoom out from top, BBC logo appears above.
3. Knowledge
Books fall off bookcase. BBC 4 logo is written on wall behind. "The home of knowledge"?
I then storyboarded idents which are based on these themes, which can be seen below:
However, after planning these idents I felt the third one- knowledge- was too similar to the existing "Books" ident and did not offer enough scope for showing technical competence, so I came up with a new idea- to create an ident for a "British Sci-Fi" season (which BBC Four had done in the past). I would use this as an opportunity to use my imagination as well as explore new advanced techniques such as character animation and mixing 3D animation with real video. My storyboard for the new third ident is below:
However, after planning these idents I felt the third one- knowledge- was too similar to the existing "Books" ident and did not offer enough scope for showing technical competence, so I came up with a new idea- to create an ident for a "British Sci-Fi" season (which BBC Four had done in the past). I would use this as an opportunity to use my imagination as well as explore new advanced techniques such as character animation and mixing 3D animation with real video. My storyboard for the new third ident is below:
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Ident 2 First Draft and Ident 1 Draft in HD
Above is the first draft of my second ident for BBC Four- two penguins turn to watch as the sun rises over an arctic scene and melts a nearby iceberg into a "4" shape. This scene made use of the "Morph" technique in 3DS Max and was challenging to create as the iceberg and "4" needed to have the same amount of vertices for the morph to work. The lighting is provided by a daylight system and the lens flare was created using Max's built in Effects system. The first scene was rendered with Radiosity lighting, the other scenes were not as Radiosity doesn't seem to work when objects in a scene are morphed. Music is an acoustic version of "Superman" by Joe Brooks.
I also rendered the first draft of my first ident in 720p resolution High Definition, which can be downloaded at www.tjmortimer.com/files/identhd.wmv or by clicking the image above. The file is a 47MB WMV, rendering time was around 3 hours!
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Ident 1: First Draft
This is the first "Complete" version of my first ident. It is set in a science "lab" where a basic but carefully constructed Rube Goldberg machine has been set up in order to turn on a laptop which then displays the BBC4 logo.
All modelling is original and the physics objects were set up from scratch, but textures are adapted from found images. The lighting uses the Radiosity plugin and Daylight (IES Sun & Sky) features built into 3D Studio Max- the tutorial I followed can be found here. This was my first time using these features. Rendering time for this 320x240 @ 30fps video was 15 minutes (I will render in PAL or HD resolution for the final copy). The music is "Lukis Covert Op" from PS2 game The Bouncer.
Further improvements to the video I am considering are tidying up the wires and power switch, making the wire going into the laptop more obvious, and adding some supports for the aluminium slopes. I may also make 100% original textures.
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Completed Physics
The physics for my first ident are "complete" (but still in need of refinement, for example the first slope is too sticky)- the scenery still needs building, texturing and tidying up and camera angles still have to be done. In the storyboard, the measuring cylinder another cylinder, which then hits the ON button for the TV. In the animation, I have changed this so the first cylinder flips to hit the ON button (the brown cube). The ON button will be connected to a TV which displays the BBC 4 logo when it turns on.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Ident 1 Beginnings
Above is the current stage of my first ident. It will eventually show a Rube Goldberg machine (a complex device designed for a simple purpose) which will turn on a computer screen showing the BBC 4 logo. To start with, I am building the environment and making sure the physics work then I will tidy up the models, add textures, lighting and create an interesting camera angle.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
reactor Physics
Today in class we learnt how to use the reactor physics engine built into 3D Studio. It is based on the popular Havok physics engine so it is easy to use- simply add the reactor properties to the object then adjust the parameters to create the desired effect.
After learning how to use reactor by making a basic bowling lane, I tried something more sophisticated. The ball weighed 1kg and was a rigid body object, the soft body mattress weighed 6kg and the "brick wall" 350kg. The friction was low (0.1) on the ball and high (0.8,1.0) on the mattress and wall. The ball hits the mattress which deforms then bounces off the brick wall. To start the ball moving, I created an auto key sequence which accelerated the ball. The reactor sequence started halfway through the keyframes so it kept the momentum.
Although the settings are not accurate/"earth" numbers, they still look reasonably realistic apart from the gravity. This is because the scene is so huge that reactor's default gravity looks slow. To adjust this, I would change the scale (it is currently 1 unit = 39m) or turn the gravity up.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Favourite Idents
For my ident I hope to create something truly original which is visually interesting and represents the channel of my choice well. A couple of channels which have had unique imaginitive idents include:
Sumo.tv (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tb3qxDrsA0M)
And of course, the BBC Three blobs! (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1zccNjxOaEY&feature=related)
Sumo.tv (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tb3qxDrsA0M)
And of course, the BBC Three blobs! (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1zccNjxOaEY&feature=related)
Semester 2: Animated Idents and Bouncing Teapots
For this module, the task is to create an 'ident' for a television channel. To produce this, we are learning basic animation techniques such as using auto and set key frames and gaining knowledge of the curve editor and dope sheet, which will enable me to fine tune my animation.
My first experiment with the curve editor and dope sheet was creating some bouncing Utah teapots. The boucing animation doesn't look that natural, but thanks to this exercise I now know the purpose of these functions and how to apply them in future.
My first experiment with the curve editor and dope sheet was creating some bouncing Utah teapots. The boucing animation doesn't look that natural, but thanks to this exercise I now know the purpose of these functions and how to apply them in future.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Overall Evaluation
I am pleased with the images I created and feel much more confident using 3D Studio Max than I did before starting the module so I am well prepared to create more complex images and animations next semester. Throughout the creation of these images, I asked family members and colleagues for feedback on my images and their advice was behind most of the changes I made to my images to create the final product. I believe asking for advice and opinions throughout made my images much better as a result.
April in Detail
The Easter image was quite simple yet still included advanced 3D Max functions.
Grass: The grass was created using a flat plane with a grass texture which I then applied soft selection to. I used a Hair and Fur modifier and changed the density and colours to look like grass.
Egg: The egg was a simple sphere with a colourful texture applied.
Background: The background was a plane with a cloud texture and the sun was created in 3D Studio Max using the Effects tool. I applied the Lens Flare effect to my Omni light in Max.
Lighting: I had one Omni light as the sun which cast ray traced shadows over the egg and the grass which gave a nice gradation of colour.
Potential Improvements: Although this scene is relatively simple, I am pleased with how it looks and it gave me a vital opportunity to get used to the hair and fur modifier as well as the effects built into 3D Studio. I would move the camera and objects so I could use depth of field if I was to create this again as I tried using it in this image but wasn't satisfied with the result.
Grass: The grass was created using a flat plane with a grass texture which I then applied soft selection to. I used a Hair and Fur modifier and changed the density and colours to look like grass.
Egg: The egg was a simple sphere with a colourful texture applied.
Background: The background was a plane with a cloud texture and the sun was created in 3D Studio Max using the Effects tool. I applied the Lens Flare effect to my Omni light in Max.
Lighting: I had one Omni light as the sun which cast ray traced shadows over the egg and the grass which gave a nice gradation of colour.
Potential Improvements: Although this scene is relatively simple, I am pleased with how it looks and it gave me a vital opportunity to get used to the hair and fur modifier as well as the effects built into 3D Studio. I would move the camera and objects so I could use depth of field if I was to create this again as I tried using it in this image but wasn't satisfied with the result.
Final Image- April
This is my final image for the month of April. It shows an easter egg in a field to represent a classic easter egg hunt.
A detailed writeup about the image can be found above.
August in Detail
The summer image was quite difficult to get the scale and "look" right as I didn't have very much reference material.
Pier and Road: The pier and road was created from cubes and initially textured with default textures. Over time, I adjusted the height of the pier and the width of the road as well as adding textures created from found photographs.
Pier Decoration: At first, the pier building (a cylinder) had a very basic texture on and was out of perspective compared to its surroundings. I resized the amusement arcade and added a texture taken from a photo of the Gherkin building. This looked okay but didn't say "amusement arcade" and didn't look like glass. The final texture I created was a mix of the Gherkin texture and a concrete image to make it look like a real building. The text on the side of the building was created in Photoshop and applied to a plane which stands next to the building with an opacity map. The ferris wheel was created as a "tube" with "capsule" shapes applied around the edge to make the pods. Originally, the centre of the ferris wheel was made of four planes stuck together as struts. However, looking at images of ferris wheels, the centre appeared to be made of thin metal spindles. To replicate this in my image, I removed the struts I had made and inserted a plane in the centre of the wheel then applied a customised photo texture with an opacity map. Like the amusement arcade, the scale of the ferris wheel changed to create the correct perspective.
Background: The background of the cliff and sunlight was created in Photoshop from a photo I had taken. I added lens flare and clouds then applied the image to a plane at the back of the scene. I also added a flat plane with a sand texture along the bottom of the cliff to add consistency to the visual style.
Beach and Sea: The beach is a flat plane with a texture on- it took a few attempts to find a good photo texture, early attempts looked like the beach was made of wood. The sea started off as a flat plane with a blue diffuse map and default noise bump map then evolved into a soft-selection modified plane with a diffuse and bump map created from a found photograph of the sea.Lighting: Originally, the light source was at the other side of the pier but this cast a shadow onto the the background plane, so I moved the light source to where the sun should be. This created a much more realistic ray traced shadow.
Potential Improvements: Throughout the creation of this image, I was never happy with what I had done- the sand could always look better, the buildings could always look more realistic, the sea could be more bump-mapped etc. However, I feel that I have reached a point with this image where I am as happy with it as I can be without doing it from scratch. If I was to create this image again, I would create an entirely different scene as the lack of reference material and the difficulties of creating a realistic looking scene were more challenging than I had expected.
December in Detail
The winter image is made of many different components to create a photorealistic feel.
Snowmen: The snowmen are made of two spheres which were scaled to create their basic shapes. I used soft selection to add the small dents and imperfections on the surface and MeshSmooth to smooth them. The snowmen are textured with a small "snow" image cropped from a found image. This same image is also used as the bump map to add texture to the surface. Their noses are made of cones with an orange texture. Their eyes were added in Photoshop with a basic brush as I could not get 3D eyes to look "right". I removed the 3D mouth and eyes seen in the first few WIP images as they didn't look good or realistic.
Ground: The ground is a plane with soft selection to add a bumpy look. At first, I used default textures to create snow-covered grass and had pavements on top (again, with default textures) going through the garden. I decided to find a more realistic image for the grass and found the image seen in the final product of grass covered in melting snow. I removed the paths as they did not "agree" with the soft selection when it was added- the pavement disappeared under bumps and protruded out the other side, so I felt the image would look better if they were removed.
Fences and road: The road surface and fences between the gardens did not change between the first and last images- they always seemed to look okay and fit with the rest of the image. The road is a default concrete texture and the fence texture is taken from a found photograph.
Trees: At first, as can be seen in the video, I used default trees so I could see how the image looked with foliage in. When I created my own trees, I drew the basic shape as a spline then used the Lathe tool to make it 3D. I then applied a photograph "tree trunk" texture. The branches at the top of the tree are a plane with a texture of branches applied. I created an opacity map so the spaces in between the branches were transparent.
Background: The houses in the background are a custom texture on a plane created from many images. There is an opacity map on this plane so the gaps inbetween roofs are transparent. The trees in the background are a background image found online and set in 3DS Max.
Lighting: Initially, I went for a dramatic look with long raytraced shadows extending from the snowmen towards the camera. However, this meant I had to add another light which didn't cast shadows behind the snowmen otherwise the rear of the snowmen and the houses would be black. This combination of two light sources looked wrong, as there was now an unexplained light source behind the snowmen. I removed the second light and moved the shadow-casting light to behind the snowmen which illuminated everything and cast realistic shadows.
Potential Improvements: If I was to create this image again, I would create eyes and a mouth for the snowmen in 3D Studio as well as make the house and background trees truly 3D instead of relying on flat planes. However, this would require a lot of time and skill and may not look much better from the selected angle. A scene with all true 3D objects would look a lot better in an animation as using flat planes falls apart if you move the camera.
Final Image- August
This is my image for August, showing a typical British seaside scene with an amusement arcade and ferris wheel in the early morning sun before the tourists arrive.
Above is a video showing the summer scene from the first out-of-perspective attempt to the finished scene.
Like the winter scene, I'll make a post above explaining how each part was created and changed from start to finish.
Final Image- December
This is my final image for the month of December, showing four (worried) snowmen looking across the road as the snow begins to melt on a frosty morning.
Above is a video showing the December image in various stages of completion, starting with the initial render and ending with the finished image.
I'll make a post above detailing how each part of the image was created and how they changed from start to finish.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Seasons
The seasons I am choosing for my renders are August, December and April. This is to represent three seasons- Summer, Winter and Spring. These seasons generally produce the most evocative memories and images, I didn't choose Autumn because there are no major events in the season and it feels like a transition between summer and winter.
August: The month of my birthday and when I go on holiday so it holds many happy memories for me.
December: Christmas month! Although the 'magic' feeling of it fades when you 'grow up', it's still a time of year for family and friends to get together and celebrate.
April: Traditionally easter time, it is a typical spring month when the days get longer, the flowers grow and the "easter story" represents a new start.
August: The month of my birthday and when I go on holiday so it holds many happy memories for me.
December: Christmas month! Although the 'magic' feeling of it fades when you 'grow up', it's still a time of year for family and friends to get together and celebrate.
April: Traditionally easter time, it is a typical spring month when the days get longer, the flowers grow and the "easter story" represents a new start.
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