Tutorial 4 - Using Reactor

In this tutorial, we had to learn how to use Rigid Body Collections and Soft Body Collections in order to create an animation. The example we were given to start off with involved two blocks, with one block colliding on another. Reacto allows you to modify the gravity of the object and control how an object falls during an animation. There are three different modifiers which can create difference effects; mass, friction and elasticity. The mass of an object controls the amount of gravity that the object has. The friction controls the amount of kinetic energy which passes between the objects. The elasticity of an object gives the object a bounce appearance. After adjusting this options, the video below is my finished result for this part of the tutorial:

Next, we had to apply this knowledge in order to create a realistic bowling alley. The objects were imported into 3D Studio Max and a collection was created. All of the objects within the scene were added to this collection. The blue symbol indicates the collection however when the animation is rendered, this is not displayed onscreen.

The mass of the ball and the pins was adjusted. Then, using autokey, I moved the ball forwards over 5 frames. To add a more realistic effect to the movement of the ball, I slightly rotated it during this 5 frame period to give it spin.

After applying materials to the objects, creating the animation and then rendering it, the video below is my final result:

Tutorial 3 continued.. Yawning man

Here is a video showing what I achieved in the last tutorial:

Tutorial 3 - Head Morph

In this tutorial, we learnt how to animate a human head realistically.

The first step I took was to download the human head object which was already uploaded on my tutor's blog. The image below shows the head imported into 3D Studio Max.

I then created 3 copies of the head which I had to make adjustments to. These would then be implemented in the animation. In the image below, you can see that the first head has had it's mouth widened, the second head has his eyebrow raised and the third head is like the original.

I then decided to try and implement blinking into the animation. This involved converting the head to an editable poly and adjusting the edges and polygons to make the eye lid come down over the eye. This was quite difficult to do because the eye is curved so it meant that the x co-ordinates needed to be modified. The image below shows the head with the eyes shut.

The original model was then Turbo Smoothed and key frames were added to the timeline in order to create the animation. Using the morph tool, I selected the expressions that I wanted to animate and added them to the channel list. These could then be adjusted to different amounts during the animation.

Tutorial 2 - Bones

In this tutorial, we had to animate a human torso. In this post, I am going to describe and show how I did it.

First of all, I imported a sample torso into 3D Studio Max. After smoothing it to make it look more realistic and less angled, I used the Bone tool to create the arms and give them a realistic shape. The image below shows the bones that have just been created in all 4 view ports.

Next, I made the body transparent and added fins to the bones. This is so that the bones move with the skin and gives the skin its shape. The image below shows this. Then I had to use the IK limb solver to make the bones move in a more realistic way.

I had to create a bone which runs through the body which would connect the shoulders. This way, it will give the torso more realistic movement as well when the arms move. Again, bone fins were added and extended so that they were touching the skin. It does not matter if the bones extrude because when the shape is eventually rendered, they are not displayed on screen.

 

As you can see from the image below, when the envelope view is selected, and the arm is moved, it is still not moving in a natural way. Using envelope view, you can adjust how much the movement affects the other connecting parts of the arm.

The idea is to create the most red around the joint as possible and becoming more yellow and blue as it travels outwards. The two images below show the envelope view of the torso.

007 Logo Version 2

When I received my feedback, I was told that my 007 logo was not ideal to animate because it was made up of different shapes. Therefore, I felt it would be better to start this model from scratch.

The first step I took was looking at the logo I created before and finding ways of improving what I had already achieved. Upon this reflection, I decided the best method of action would be to create an outline for the logo in Illustrator, import it into a new 3dsm file and then extrude it.

Here is the outline I created using the pen tool:

This is how the outline looked after it had been imported into 3D Studio Max. It did not matter if the outline was horizontal or vertical because this could be easily modified afterwards. The next step was to add a modifier called Extrude on the logo in order to make it 3D. 

 

This is the result of using the Extrude modifier:  

 

As you can see,the images below show the same shot however on the second image, a smooth modifier has been used in order to smooth the polygon edges around the outside of the logo. This is important because it makes the logo look neater and will render better when it is animated. 

 

Then, I added the material to the logo and rotated the logo to 90 degrees. The image below displays the final result:  

I am satisfied with the results because the logo looks more professional and has demonstrated two more techniques which I had not used previously; Smooth and Extrude.

Refelection upon the first 6 week mark

Today, I received my mark for the first 6 weeks of modeling. I was slightly disappointed with my result because although I had missed a lot of tutorial time due to illness, I hoped that I managed to make up for the time I missed but evidently I hadn't. Therefore, the next 6 weeks are going to be crucial to improve my models and demonstrate new techniques when it comes to animating.

3D Animation - Tutorial 1 - Bouncing balls

Today is the first day of the tutorials where we learn to animate objects within 3D Studio Max. This will be very import for our trailer because the objects will have to be able to move around onscreen. The first technique which we have learnt is using the auto key and set key with the timeline.

The video above demonstrates my final mini clip of my first animation. Key frames were created and then the objects were moved during the keyframe. To make the balls bounce more realistically, I used the dope editor and the graph editor and made adjustments to the curve. Making it more into a bubble shape will make the ball travel slower when it bounces up and faster when it's coming back down again.The image below demonstrates the timeline with the keyframes on it.