Evaluating

From looking at the initial brief and then at my final animation, I am confident that I have produced a high quality piece of work and that I have learned a great deal about Character Animation from doing so.

I was a bit of a learning curve for me at first because I had never really modelled people before. I made sure that I did this first as a practice so that my final models would look realistic and in proportion. The man that I made at the beginning of the semester was made from a box. I found that this method of modelling suited me well and I continued to use it for most other models. I really enjoy modelling heads now. I find that getting the character of the person in to the face to very challenging but also very enjoyable. I am particularly pleased with 'Brenda's' face. The expressions that I achieved using the 'Morpher' look realistic and effective. I deliberately exaggerated the expressions for a more comical effect. This can be noted when 'Brenda' becomes very angry with the Rocker towards the end of the sequence.

Animating using boning and skinning was also very new to me. I have experimented with it before but could never get to grips with it. In this module I had to work hard at it to get it right. I found the boning relatively simple. The use of the IK Limb solver did make animating the arms of the characters much easier. I did however have a number of problems with the envelopes. I found this to be quite tedious and time consuming. It was more of a problem with Brenda because she has a fat body. Her upper arms are quite close to her upper body and this meant that the bone in her arm was affecting the arm and also her body. Eventually I got round the problem and Brenda's body movement is probably the most realistic in the whole animation.

I have picked up a number of useful skills when it comes to rendering and putting sequences together. I found out how to properly compress the renders to achieve a higher quality and I furthered my experience with Adobe Premier to produce a sequence which flows correctly.

I do feel that I have put a great deal of character in the models that I have produced for this module. I also think that good research into the characters has helped me to properly convey their traites and personalities. One concern is that I was unable to model hair for the Rocker. I originally wanted to have the Rocker as an older man with long grey hair. I was going to use the 'Hair and Fur' tools in 3D Studio Max but this was proving to be a huge problem when it came to rendering, as it was taking far to long. Instead I decided to go for the punk style hair. This certainly negated the rendering problem, but it does make the Rocker look considerably younger than was initially intended.

If I had more time, or If I was to do this animation again, I would make a few changes. Now that I have more experience with modelling I would make more realistic hands for the characters. People show a lot of emotion through their hands and this emotion would be great to inject in to the characters. I also need to learn more about lighting. I have used really quite simple lighting effects in the animation and this is something that can make animations look highly realistic if done properly. Although I do think that having music alone in the animation is quite effective, I would like to try adding dialogue. This would also give me an opportunity to experiment with lip syncing techniques.

Putting the clips together

I animated my sequence in small chunks. This meant that the render times were small (no more than 3 hours) and I could easily adjust the flow of the sequence in editing software afterwards. I used Adobe Premier. This is a very 'easy to use' program and I recommend it to everyone. I imported all of my finished renders and while consulting my story board I put each scene roughly in place on the timeline. Thankfully I stuck to my story board, this made this stage much easier.

Then I set about shortening the clips to make then flow correctly. I also used cross fades between a couple of the scenes, as they a very effective for conveying passing time. This took a few attempts to get right. When I added the music I did have to fiddle about with the scenes again. i sort of used cues in the music to determine when the scene changes should happen.

Because some scenes show the burger van far away (like at the start, when the Rocker is walking past in the distance) I adjusted the volume of the music to make it louder the closer the camera is to its source. (the radio in the burger van) This gives the sequence much more depth, It sounds like the music is part of it rather than just being played over the top.

With premier I did have a few problems when exporting. I found that the quality of the finished sequence wasn't as good as that of final renders. Does anyone know how to adjust the compression settings in Premier? I'm not sure if it is the compression that is the problem, but I think it may have something to do with it.

Finished render 3

Here is a finished render of the rocker. As you can see he is getting a little carried away with the music from the radio.

The song that I have chosen to use to accompany the animation is 'Sweet Child 0' Mine' by 'Guns 'n' Roses. This is because it is from the same era as the rocker and also because it has an awesome guitar solo for him to air guitar to!

Again I tryed to get as much movement in to the scene as possible. The shoulders of the rocker move back as the head tilts foward and vice versa, To make some realistic human motion.

Video Compressor

Hey everyone, just a tip.......

If you haven't already rendered your scenes (Bit late if you haven't) Marc mentioned to me that using a different compressor is very good for dramatically improving the quality of the renders. I found that changing the compressor to 'Indeo 5.10' made a huge difference, and strangely the file that it produced was smaller in size than the one that the standard compressor produced!

In case anyone doesn't know how to do it, Here's how...

Select 'Rendering' and then 'Render' (Or simply press f10)

Then scroll down to the save file option, Click on the grey box that sais 'files'

Now you will choose the name of the rendered file (I'm sure everyone knows how to do this part anyway)

When you chose the type of file, you want to save, choose .AVI

At the top of this dialogue box there is a drop down menu of different types of file compressor. From here select 'Indeo 5.10' If you have it. Let me know what you think, or if you come across an even better one let me know!

Finished render 2

I also really like the look of Brenda's skin. Because the shading, she looks hot and sweaty!. Nice!
I worked hard to make sure there was lots of movement in each scene. I concentrated on getting the facial expressions right and I feel that they are realistic. I considered Brenda's weight in the scenes that she is in, from doing so I made her head and body move as if she is breathing heavily.

Finished Render 1

Here are a couple of finished renders of Brenda. I am really happy with the lighting. As she is standing inside the burger van the Shadow of the roof of the van covers part of her face. I like the fact that this adds to her angry and miserable persona.

Rock on!

For the animation there will be a scene where the rocker gets a bit carried away with his air guitar! Enjoy!