Below you will find all the projects I have done in this class for the semester.
My Projects
Project #1 - Lamp
September 26, 2012
Description: A model was created of a desk lamp and had to use polygonal modeling, NURBS modeling, or a combination of the two.
Animation Style Sheet (Different Views):
Link: http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mack6/cpsc807/lamp
Model Animation Style Sheet (Different Views):
Animation Style Sheet (Details):
Procedures:
First, I created the base, I used a polygon cylinder, cube, and sphere. I used the bevel tool also. Then I created the lamp pole which was made out of a polygon cylinder and the soft select tool was used for that. When making the lamp shade, the NURBS CV curves were used and then converted to a polygon. The light bulb was made using a sphere. The inner ring of the shade was made from a torus and the holes in the back of the lamp were made using the boolean function. Lastly, I used a cube to make the power cord in the back and tweaked the vertices to give it the bend.
Project #2 - Pixar Virtual Character
October 17, 2012
Description: Character modeling is an essential part of any computer-animated production. A model of a Pixar character was created using different tools learned throughout the class.
Reference Images:
Link: http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mack6/cpsc807/mike_w
Model Images:
Procedures:
When creating my character's body I started off by using a cube. I used the following tools to make my character's body: extrude, interactive split tool, insert loop edge, delete edge/vertex, and merge.
When making my character's eyeball I started off with a sphere and
added different materials, shadings and colors.
Project #3 - Unicycle Animation
November 05, 2012
Description: An animation lasting 10-20 seconds was created showing
an object following a path. An unicycle was shaded for this animation.
Link #1:
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mack6/cpsc807/unicycle_animation.mb
Link #2: http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mack6/cpsc807/unicycle_animation.mov
Animation Frames:
Animation Video:
Procedures:
My animation scene consist of a road and a unicycle. The unicycle was given but I did change the shading.
To construct my road I created a CV curve and then attached it to a cube the width that i wanted the road to be and then I extruded the face of the cube along the CV curve. When that was done I placed 2 edge loops one on each side of the road and extruded from the divisions it made to create the lift that signifies the edge of the road. I then changed the shading and then also changed shadings to make the middle road markers.
When the scene was completed I then began to work on my animations.
First, a motion path was created and then attached to the unicycle. The wheel and pedals were then animated. Once the movement along the path and the rotation of the wheel and were correct I then started to set keyframes for my animation. Throughout the animation process I used the graph editor to make the animations more precise and cleaner.
When the animation was completed I then added 3 point lighting and shadow effects using a to my animation.
Disney Animation Principles Used:
* Squash and Stretch * Anticipation * Exaggeration
* Slow Out and Slow In * Pose to Pose * Secondary Action
Project #4 - Character Skinning and Animation with Motion Capture Data
November 19, 2012
Description: Motion capture data was used to animate a character. A model of a virtual character, a skeleton, and several motion files were given.
Skinning Images:
Skinning Animation:
Motion Capture Animation:
Procedures:
This assignment has been the most difficult so far. Although I have learned alot that may not be reflected in the video above.
First, I constrained all the v files to the skeleton file. I did this by point and orient constraining the locators to the skeleton and then baked the the animations. I then deleted the locator data and saved each to its own Maya file.
Next I skinned the ROM skeleton and smooth binded the MiaModel onto the skeleton. Afterwards I used paint weights to get the ROM animation to look as real as possible. This was the part that took me the longest but I learned alot.
After getting the skin on to the skeleton as good as I could I then tried to combine 3 motions in the Trax Editor. This took some time because I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. Eventually I got the motions to play back to back even though they weren't smooth.
Next I tried to get the combined motions onto the skinned character. That was an EPIC FAIL!! I couldn't get that to work for anything. So then I tried exporting the combined motions and importing them into the skinned character file and them tried to put it onto that skeleton. At first it gave me some trouble but then I got it to work, well at least the motions were on the skeleton.
I then worked on getting the motions to transition smoothly between clips. That part wasn't so bad but the body starts deforming at the end and I don't know how to fix that. I tried and had no luck.
So in conclusion I learned how to work with v files,skin, smooth bind, create, import, export and combine clips using the Trax Editor but at the end of the day I could not figure out how to make the body not deform for the way it does.
Project #5 - Final Project: Character Animation
December 14, 2012
Description: A short animation has been created and the focus is character animation with a little dynamics at the end.
Link #1:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/to9l9rjic2z1zgg/final.mb
Link #2:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5sq4asqts8i90m/final.mov
Animation Video:
Procedures:
This final project has been very interesting to say the least. I chose to focus on character because it is the area that I enjoyed most during the class.
I decided to use my previous unicycle animation and to add on to it. I thought it would almost be a walk in the park....NOT!! It was the total opposite.
I wanted to put a character on the unicycle and have them do tricks on it while going down the street. The final idea I came up was a young boy riding his unicycle in front of his house doing tricks and at some point fireworks go off behind his house so he stops and focuses on the fireworks that are going on.
I started off with the alien given on the class website page but using that model was not a very good idea for what I was trying to do so I chose to use another character that I found on the web. Although this character gave me some trouble it was better than the alien.
First, I got my unicycle animation and cleared all keyframes and just kept the road and the motion path.
Next, I went on to attach the character to the unicycle. I created a controller for the unicycle and one for the character and then parented them to each other for an easier process for creating my animation. Oh what joy I had when I realized that in order to get the characters feet to pedal correctly on the unicycle I would have to keyframe the movement myself. For the right foot it wasn't too bad. The left foot gave me trouble but at the end of the day I got it done.
After the feet and pedals were moving in sync with each other I then proceeded to do my motions for the tricks. I decided that the character would do three different tricks, a horizontal flip. a vertical flip, and mini up and down jumps, which in included squash and stretch animation principle.
When the flips were done I then worked on the secondary motions. I tried to make them as realistic as I could even though the motions for the first flip didn't go as I wanted to but I did the best that I could to my own knowledge.