Week 12

Evaluation

The biggest problem of the evaluation is that the animation is not smooth. This was a big mistake as this was done because of a stupid mistake that i forgot about the time configurations early and then forget that I could carry on with the selected animation and then render in different camera angles. However doing this was easier as the program kept crashing and was very slow, which should not happen but this was partially fixed by changing the display drive to software but this made the program hard to use as the graphic for modelling and animations was difficult to work with. However there is a range of camera techniques which makes it alight.

A technique that i should of added was a particle system called P Array





This technique would have been used to make an object explode as you can change the particle colour and with the object breaking in pieces, this could be used at great effect while animating the object and then you animate the object to disappear with the explosion to give the shock effect to the audience. However due to time constraints unable to achieve and trying to add that to the storyboard.

Week 11

Maya vs 3ds Max



It seems that the modelling the games assets is easier in 3ds max but the animation and rigging is better in Maya.
The reason for this is that the interface suggest that their is less emphasises in modelling because in 3ds max you can select an object and then you can edit  polygons, vertexes and edges, also add lots of modifiers. However in Maya there is less emphasises in editing the model as there is not as much tools to use when editing. In my opinion is suggested that 3ds max is more for modelling as the default view has four view points which increase accuracy instead of the single view port by default.
The animation on the other hand, Maya seems to have a lot more tools for animation and riggings, and having more emphasises using python coding to help doing this,as the coders could possibly make their own tools, while there is less coding in 3ds max as the default window is small for coding and there is less tools for animation.


In my experience 3ds max seems easier to learn as it is more descriptive and less reliance on icons, also the modelling tools in 3ds max is easier and therefore might as well do the animation there as well. However the games industry can depend on what program they use but they might go and use 3ds max as it has a 'larger user community' (Techy Help,2014).
Research used:
using both programs
Mark Masters, Januray 2015, 3ds Max vs Maya,[online] http://blog.digitaltutors.com/3ds-max-vs-maya-is-one-better-than-the-other/ [avaliable :10/12/2015]
Techy Help, March 20th 2014, should i learn 3ds max or Maya [video on-line]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9lkPiGdDRA  [available 10/12/2015]

Week 11
Having discover the animation time constant the construction of the animation has increased even those having to redo the animation.

The first part is the close up of the tie interceptor as this will give the audience shock and horror of seeing an evil character as the close up of the vehicle makes the vehicle look big and menacing.


The second part is a close up to the side of the landspeeder and then the camera moves to a medium shot of the landspeeder in where the landspeeder moves. This shot was to show the reaction of the landspeeder and to introduce the landspeeder as quite weak as the camera is looking down to the landspeeder. However the animation is good until the end because at the end the movement stops so when this transitions to the next scene it will look unrealistic which will lower the quality of the animation.


part three was a back view of the action as it showed the tie interceptor chasing the land speeder and some lasers shooting from the tie interceptor . this scene has the same problem as in scene two as in the end the landspeeder came to a stop as it was the end of the animation, this can be solved in the video editing by cutting the clip or by extending the animation and then rendering less.
The camera change might not be great when putting it together as camera transition like the change from 2 to 3 would be ok, if the clips was shorter in length as that will show and give the viewer the feeling of action. However as scene three is longer it looser the feeling of 'on the edge of you seat' as referenced from the mood board. The lasers could also have the intensity of the glow effect or having the laser a bit bigger to make it easier to see the lasers in this scene as the camera shot is quite wide.

The lasers missing the target was planned as every enemy in star wars can not hit the target.


Part four was when the landspeeder had a near miss of a laser and this shot would give the feeling of the mood board which was the animation target. This scene could be improved if the laser hit an engine and then us MASS FX rigid body to have the engine explode into pieces but due to time constants and it was not planned in the storyboard means that is was not done,



Part Five is the worst as the scene drags on as this is shot in a wide shot it shows the how insignificant the battle is as they are two objects in a large land. However the shot is poorly done as the movement of the tie interceptor is janky when it does the 360 spin to get behind the land speeder and then does movement which would not be possible on a ship and this decreases the quality of the animation. The good thing is the camera moves as well with the objects to help capture the action without the use of animation the FOV which will make the objects even smaller.




Part Six is an extreme close up of the X-wing with the camera following the x-wing. At the start of this part, the camera is just staring at the sky which gives tension as the viewer will not be expecting what is in the clouds. Then the camera is an extreme close up to the x-wing.

Overall the animation needs more polish but due to time constraints and problems with 3ds max will no be able to. The Major problem of this animation is the camera transitions as some of this could be better instead of having a new work file with a totally different angle. The good thing is that there is a range of camera angles and positions which shows the diverse knowledge of camera work.

Week 10

Shows a close shot of the tie interceptor which when the ship moves past the static camera the view gets wider. The ship moves on a movable spline. The ship moves a bit unnatural as there is a lack of rotation in the ships move and the lighting is a bit unnatural but the camera work in that scene works as it give the sense of power as the ship looks big as it take up a lot of the camera and is travelling down as it is looking like it is about to chase or attack a target.

The use of the path constraint instead of the set key, key, do the action and set key, can be more useful as using a ground vehicle on an uneven surface would have a need of the auto grid to avoid movement through the ground.

To add to the animation there will be laser fire from the tie interceptor. To make this is by assigning a material id to an cylinder while painting it white then add a lens effect called glow on that id to give the laser its glow. This should be added in the final animation.


In the second scene the camera has a close up on the land speeder and it then zooms out by changing the FOV by animating the FOV by using AutoKey. This will give the viewer the expression of danger and shock which was an objective from the mood board to achieve. And then later on the Land speeder Moves away quicker than the tie interceptor initially to give a sense of anticipation as the viewer would expect the tie interceptor to follow the land speeder imminently.

After that in the third scene there is a mixed of a close up and a wide shot as the camera moves to another position quickly to capture the land speeder and the tie interceptor. This was planned to be a first person shot from the tie interceptor but the doing the shot was difficult while rotating the tie interceptor and the program keeps on crashing. I also found out a 3DS Max code to delete all frames at once by using 'deletekeys objects # allkeys'
The movement of the objects have been difficult to get it persice as even those I have locked axis so the depend on the object can not move along that locked axis, the program is still slow and jumps. A reason by this that using the display drive of Direct3D 11.0 for AMD HD cards seem to be not optimised as AMD has not realised an update for their cards that will work well with 3DS Max 16. another possible reason is that using the a height map for the ground has resulted in too many polygons and therefore requires a lot more resources on the animation.