Final Review - 16/12/2011

The final rendered animation is very different from what I imagined it would look like when I was designing it in the storyboard. For example, I would have liked it to have more foliage growing in the scene when the colour hits them like bushes and grass, however time restrictions prevented me from trying to complete this and the computers I was using did not allow the use of plugins on3Ds max which played a big part in creating the realistic looking foliage. Also, I have added new things into the scene which I didn’t plan to such the hills which come out of the ground and the skybox in the background. I added these in later because I felt that the scene was too empty when I was creating it and these objects helped fill out the blank areas and add some more detail into the scene.

I think that it is suitable to be shown on E4 since it does not contain any gore or offensive content  in the animation and it is also not too long as it is 20 seconds long. I also think that the colours suit the theme of E4 and the animation doesn’t contain any copyrighted material such as well-known songs or models. My animation uses many different techniques to make the animating easier, for example I have used a path and dummy to move the meteor across the sky since it is quicker to animate a complicated flight path and it can be easily edited later on. Plus, I have used the morph modifier to animate the branches coming out of the tree; I have done this since it is quicker and provides an easier way of animating complicated looking branches, especially if the parts of the branches spread out in different directions.

To manage my time I had created a schedule to keep me up to date on what work should have been completed for when and help me spread work out effectively. I also updated my blog with what I was going to do next. I also described what I had done that day and how I had done it so that if people wanted to create what I have created they have a brief tutorial there. Finally, on my blog I posted pictures of my animation at different stages so that I could see how fast and far I was progressing in my project.

Review - 16/12/2011

Today I created a skybox by finding an image of the sky on the internet that could be used as a texture on 3Ds max without it looking like it was repeating. I then create a sphere that was bigger than the scene and then used a shell modifier to hollow out the middle. Finally, I used the material editor to apply the texture to the inside of the sphere and then changed the tiling so that the clouds had a realistic size.

For the rendering I clicked rendering then render set up and then turned on active time segment. Then i went to render output and clicked  files and saved the movie file as a .AVI file becuase it is the most common type of file they had avalible.

Targets - 16/12/2011

Today i am going to create a skybox for my scene and edit it so that the colour light does not affect it. I will also render out the final video of the animation and then finish off any unfinshed work so that it can be handed in on time.

Review - 09/12/2011

Today i finished reducing the amount of polygons on the buildings by selecting the spare polygons and deleting them. Then to fill the hole I used the cap holes modifier. After that I started on the E4 logo by saving a picture of the logo to my desktop and then uploading it to 3Ds Max and applying it to a box shape. Then, I used splines to trace around the logo and then converted it to edit poly and extruded it. I then apply the texture to the new shape and used UVW Map to fit it correctly over the shape.

Day Targets - 09/12/2011

Today I am going to finish reducing the amount of polygons on the buildings to improve the performance and then complete the animation by making the E4 logos grow onto the trees. If i am finished before the end of the day iw ill update my folder and complete unfinished work.

Review - 02/12/2011

I have made the windows appear on the buildings and made the building gain more detail when the colour hits them. I have done this by extracting the polygons on the cube (where I wanted the window) by 0.01 and then moved the polygons back inside the building, I then dragged the keyframe from the start of the animation and moved it to where I wanted this animation to begin.

After that I move on to creating the trees. I did this by creating the trunk of the tree and then extracting out of it to make the branches. Then to make the branches grow out the tree I used the morpher modifier and made a copy of the tree and put all the vertices of the branches together on the copy. Then, with auto key on, I choose the copy using the modifier and increased the amount of morphing on the object.

Day Targets - 02/12/2011

Today I shall complete the windows in the buildings by animating them do they appear when the colour hits them. I will also make detail appear when the colour hits them by adding spires and ledges. Also, I will create the trees and animate them so that the trunk grows out the ground (using melt) and the branches grow out the trunk (using morph).