Final Project

For the final project, I decided to add something to my midterm project.  This time I wanted to focus more on animation, so I created a robot to be my main character.  I wanted the robot character to somehow interact with my midterm project.  I had multiple scenarios planned out, and finally chose one to write down on my storyboard.  Unfortunately, because of time constraints and difficulty with rigging, I had to take an alternate route.

To make the robot, I used the extrude tool.  I wanted to make my robot convincing, so I gave him a surreal appearance.  I made the legs in two different sections, and gave him claw like fingers and toes.  I also gave him a jetpack, which would be a key factor in the animation.  I chose to give him orange blinn textures so he would be easier to see on the screen.  The next part of the project proved to be daunting.  I was very interested in experimenting with rigging, so I decided to make a skeleton for my robot.  After parenting the model and skeleton, I realized that there were a few major problems.  Some parts of the model would move when I would move an unrelated joint.  I had to use the component editor to weigh down multiple parts of the model.  The jetpack was also a hassle to fix, but in the end it was done.  I attached a pair of torus rings to the jetpack, so I could give them fire effects.

I initially wanted my robot to barely catch the ship and be victorious.  But because of time and technical issues, I had to go with the sad ending.  I made my robot get his jetpack started up, and reach up in an attempt to reach the flying ship.  The ship flies away just as the robot is reaching for it, but misses it.  As the robot is floating, he bows his head in defeat.  Even though I was not originally going to use this scenario, it ended up working out very well.  It gave me more opportunities to animate my robot, and show his feelings through his actions.  

I am proud of my final results, since I had so much difficulty with rigging my robot.  I could not get my robot's legs working the way I intended, although it was not that important in the final animation.  I wish I had more time to animate the original scenario I had in mind, but I am pleased with the one I have now.  I think I could have done more with the effects on the jetpack.  For example, I wanted to experiment with smoke and sparks.  I also think that I could have used different camera angles to give a different perspective to the video.  I am glad that I improved on my animations from the midterm.  I incorporated the bobbing motion that aircraft have when in motion, and used that in both models in the final project.  I believe that actions can speak louder than words at times, which is why my robot model can easily express his emotions despite missing facial features and dialogue.

Lowman Rigging

I animated lowman so he would do a flip kick.

Midterm Project

For this midterm project, I decided to construct an aerial vehicle from polygons.  I wanted to use a lot of the things I learned from the tutorials and decided to implement them into this project.  At first, I wasn't sure what to create for this project.  While playing video games with my friends, I decided that one of the stages in the game would make a great model.  "Great Fox" a stage in Super Smash Bros., didn't look like the typical aircraft, so I decided to use this ship as the inspiration for my new model.

I used the extrude tool a lot to create many parts of the ship, such as the wings, the head of the ship, and the fins.  The extrude tool was also very useful in making the ship bay (the opening at the bottom of the ship) and the attachments in front of the wings.  The rocket boosters and lasers guns were also created using similar techniques, involving extend and scale tools.  I decided to give the aircraft simple colors, since I wasn't sure on how to create my own textures.  I gave it mostly red and white colors so it could be seen with the dark background, and also to give it a "robotic" appearance.  Texture maps were added to give reflections based on light.  I used the smooth option to give the ship a less jagged appearance.  I added fire effects on the boosters as well.  I animated the ship to make it seem as if it is traveling in the air, bobbing up and down like most aircraft do in the air.

I am happy with the final results, however I did have some minor problems involving the extrude tool.  I ended up learning and using the bridge tool because of this, and it mostly fixed the problems I had.  I also wish I could have created my own texture map to use, but I am not experienced in that and I did not want to jeopardize my project.  I wanted my airship to look intimidating, which is why I created the laser guns and giant rocket boosters, and I think I pulled that off well.  If I could have planned this out better, I probably could have done a better job shaping the ship, and made it look better appearance wise.  I think I could have done a better job with the fire effects, but I am inexperienced with these special effects.  I also wish I could improve the animation somehow.  I would proceed by improving the animation of the ship first.  I think that I could give it a more realistic bobbing motion, or maybe make it do complex maneuvers, such as a barrel roll.

A frame of the completed bouncing ball tutorial.

Polygonal Ship

I followed the tutorial to do this.  I learned a lot about polygonal modeling while doing this.  I used many tools such as extrude, and lattice.  I also learned new things about textures, such as bump mapping.  I used parenting at the end so the ship would have dirt on it at all times.

NURBS Primitives Airplane First Model

I started this model by creating a rectangle from the NURBS primitivesmenu.  I selected specific points on the lower left side of the rectangle and pulled it in to give it a curve.  I also did that on the tail wing, to give it a more aerodynamic appearance.  I added two sets of rectangles to make up the wings afterwords.  I made a sphere and cone to represent the cockpit, and the nose of the plane respectively.

Mushroom

I used the curve and rotation tool to create the base part of the mushroom.  I added nurbs spheres to represent the bumps usually seen on a red mushroom.  I am planning on making improvements to this model as I become better with the curve tool.  I am also planning to make some kind of landscape for this mushroom.