Animation Complete

Below is my final animation complete in low quality so that it can play within blogger.... Enjoy!

Final thoughts and reflection

The animation is now complete, and as such, I thought that it would be a good idea to reflect upon how the project went for me.
First of all, I need to mention the vast amount that I have learnt this semester. Having used 3Ds Max last semester for the first time, I had no idea how I would tackle this project, particularly having no idea how to create a character. As the weeks went on, I learnt so much, and I was able to create my character. Having spent many hours on this assignment, I am please with how my character turned out. The tutorials that Jo presented were extremely beneficial and help me so much. Next was the animation segment. Again, my experience with animation was virtually non-existent other than the animation I did last semester. This was overcome primarily by spending many hours setting and playing around with key frames and animating the body and props step by step as I went along.

As with any project there are things that worked well, and some things that did not seem to go quite to plan. The character that I created looks realistic, and the way that he has been animated is very life-like, especially the way he takes off his glasses, lays down the cards and contemplates what cards to lay down. I am a little disappointed that I could not animate his facial expressions. This could not be done because of the way that the head was skinned to the bone when it already had various other modifiers applied. However, I knew this from the beginning and that is why I decided to concentrate solely on the body animation and movements. Although there is some crimping in the mesh of the character shirt, it is far better than it was originally, and it is now minimal. I could remove this completely in the newer version of 3Ds Max, where there is a rotation modifier that would allow me to rotate the arm without altering the mesh. My main aim throughout this project was to match my character as close as possible to the original footage that I took of friends playing cards. I feel that I have managed this well, especially down to certain details like pushing his glasses up his nose, tapping his fingers on his mouth and wiggling his middle and index finger whilst he contemplates what card to lay. I am also pleased with the post production, where I have managed to use the camera angles effectively and the music that I chose suits the mood of the animation, I feel.

there were many sections that I struggled with. Creating the mesh was very time consuming and difficult to model so that it looked like the characters clothing. The toughest part was skinning the mesh onto the bones. I spent hours increasing and decreasing the strength of vertices so that the mesh only pulled where it was necessary. I am pleased with the amount of detail that I have used and how I have been so specific with the modelling and animation. The glasses were created with great detail, as were the props, bow tie and hands. Having looked at other 3D animations on youtube of poker games, I feel that my animation is equivalent to them and am proud of the work that I have created, particularly as this was my first attempt. I have enjoyed this module and found that by putting in lots of hours, it is possible to achieve good results from my work. Despite some difficult areas where I struggled, I have manged to create an animation that I am proud. I shall certainly try and create some more character animations in the near future as I found this very enjoyable.

Animation explained

Now that my animation is complete and the video has been created, I thought that it would be a good idea to create a short commentary on it to explain what the character is doing and what he may be thinking.

Firstly, I chose a piece of music called 'Moten Swing' by Oscar Peterson. This is a lounge jazz track which seemed to suit the mood of the video.
It starts with a pan of the area where three players are playing cards.
As Maverick leans forward to pick up the cards, his glasses fall down his nose. This idea was obtained from my original film that I made a friend who had the same problem of glasses falling down his nose. He then pushes them back up.
Trying to bluff the other players, he risks all of his chips, hoping that his opponents will fold. Getting slightly edgy, he takes off his glasses to try to concentrate more. As he taps his two fingers around the mouth area, he discretely looks to his left to see what his opponents face looks like. Wiggling his fingers now, this idea was again taken from the original video that I took of friends playing cards. After he has laid his chosen card and the other players have laid their cards, he realises that he is not going to win. (Starts shaking his head).
In anger, he throws down his cards and pushes his glasses off of the table.
The final shot is of Maverick exclaiming that he could never have won with the poor hand that he was dealt. He shakes his head in disappointment and disgrace, whilst holding out his hand to show that he is annoyed with the cards he had.

This week's animation

Below shows the animation that I have created so far. There are still many additional elements that need to be added yet.



Again, there are still the inevitable problems which I have encountered. Perhaps it is me just being too accurate with it, but I like to make the final animation as exact as possible. The cards are still not picked up as they should be. I think that I will have to leave this as it is because many failed hours have been spent trying to sort this out. Because I have used a head that I created with many polygons and because it has been skinned to the bones that I created, for some reason I am unable to animate the face to make the character smile or close it's eyes. As such, I have decided to focus more on the body language of the character which I obtianed from the original video footage that I took, ensuring mannerisms and personalities were captured. The poker tiles now look more realistic when they are pushed forward, and one of the red one's falls off of the top of the pile. I am pleased with the way that I have got the character to contemplate his next move and they way that I have moved his fingers to show this. I am also very pleased with the way that my character throws his card down.
Overall, I am pleased with my animation, and am proud of what I have created. There are always going to be some problems with it as it requires so many key frames and there is so much going on during every second of the animation. I feel now that the hours that I have put into creating this animation are finally paying off.

Storyboard

So that I can plan out my animation sequence, I have decided to create a storyboard to show what will happen. I shall try to stay as close as I can to this storyboard, although my ideas may change or develop as time goes on. The image below shows step-by-step what my character will do throughout the animation.

Animation and problems so far.

Over the last couple of days, I have been working on the animation. I have found this particularly hard due to the lack of exposure I have had to animation. I feel confidant now at modelling, but do find the animation aspect far more difficult, and especially more time consuming.
Below shows what I have managed to create so far. There are some areas that I need to improve as they are a little bit ropey, and I have found that some of the shirt mesh does not look quite as I would like it to look. Either way, I am happy with the work that I have produced and am hoping to continue this animation over the coming weeks.



There are several areas that I am not happy with inside of my animation. Firstly, the mesh pulls when the arm is rotated. This is caused due to the fact that I am using 3Ds Max 9. If I were using 10, there are features that allow me to rotate the arm without the mesh being pulled. However, where the arms crease, this sometimes looks quite natural which can be used to my advantage. Secondly, the body becomes thinner when the character moves forward. Again, this is because 9 is not cabable of moving the bones without the mesh being pulled in an unusual way. When the character picks up the cards, it looks a little robotic. I have spent several hours trying to change this and make them smoother, but it is almost impossible without making the cards dissappear into the table top when they are picked up. I am, however, very pleased with the way that the character pushes the glasses up his nose and also the way that he takes them off.

Making the character sit down

Now that the props have been created, and my character is created with bones, I thought that it would be an ideal time to make my character sit and be ready to play cards. This meant that I now had to skin the mesh to the bones of the legs. I decided to do it this way simply because there was no need for me to skin the entire body, so I skinned the legs and will do the arms later. The rest of the body will remain static. So, I first started by selecting the mesh on the legs. (This included the trousers and shoes). I then went to the modifier list and selected 'skin'. Within the parameters, I was able to select the bones that it was to be skinned to. Having selected the relevant bones, I then used the envelope tool within the skin sub-menu. This then enabled me to choose the vertices that were relevant to that particular bone. This took a very long time and a lot of trial and error. Often, I was unaware of how the mesh would move when I moved a bone until I actuallly moved it. After a lot of trial and error, I was then able to make the legs to be roughly at a right angle.

It made sense to place the character in it's correct location where it would appear for the entire animation. Placing it amongst the crops that I had already created made my character come to life, and I can now vision how the final animation will look.

Having had endless problems with rigging the leg mesh to the bones, I was hoping that the arms would be slightly easier. This was not the case. The first thing that I noticed with the arm bones was that when I moved them, they grew in length, to the point where when they were vertical to his body, they touched the floor. Having spent a couple of hours trying to overcome this, I decided to delete the current bones and create new ones. I then attached them to the previous bones and linke them in the correct fashion. Fortunately, they now work as I had hoped. Yet again, I had endless problems with the envelopes on the bones, and it took a long time to select the relevant vertices and ensure that they are highlighted in the relevant colour so that the mesh picks them up correctly. After a very long time, the arms finally moved as I required. However, there were some unacceptable creases on the arm mesh that I needed to sort out. Even though there are still some creases in the mesh, these look realistic as with any clothing a character will have some creases. Below shows how the character now looks:

Boning and skinning the hand

In order to make the fingers of the hand move, I first needed to create bones for it. So, I ensured that there were 3 bones in each finger. This was done using the bone creation tool. Next, I Selected each bone in the finger and assigned it to the relevant helper that I created at the end of every finger. Assigning them enabled the finger to move simply by using the helper, rather than selecting each individual bone.

The next task was to sort out each vertex so that the fingers did not pull on other fingers. To do this, I selected the mesh and in the modifier panel selected envelope under the skin sub-title. From here, I was then able to select the surrounding vertices of each bone that should not have been selected, by ensuring that they had no colour, where as the selected ones needed to be red. (Shown below). This section was especially time consuming because it was very tricky trying to get the fingers to move without affecting any of the other surrounding vertices.

Now that the fingers move exactly as I want them to, the final task was to simply use the key frames to create a short move to see how they look when they are all animated together. The final outcome looks pretty effective.

Creating the glasses

Deciding that my 3D character would have glasses, and probably at some stage take them off, I started to create the frames.

In order to do this, I first started by drawing a standard square with approximately 6 length and width segments and 1 segment for the height. I then created another box slightly smaller, but with additional depth. Using the pro-boolean tool, I then cut the small box out of the larger one, leaving me with what is in effect, the frame around the lens. I then shaped this object so that it resembled the shape of my glasses.

Next, I created an arm by drawing a simple box that contained lots of width segments. This box was very thin and long, resembling the arm of the glasses. To do this, I used the side viewport.

Selecting the relevant vertices, I then adjusted each section so that the arm was the correct shape (i.e. it bent at the end and became slightly wider). In order to create the lens, I simply drew an object that fitted with the frame.

I then extruded the polygon twice that was on the inside of the frame near the nose, and shaped it up and over the nose to create the bridge. I then used the symmetry modifier to duplicate what I had made and changed the lens colour to black.

The final task for this stage was to simply change the black material to Opacity=64, and increase the reflection. This then made the glasses slightly see-through and to reflect the light.

For something that I thought would have been relatively easy, this section was fairly time consuming and it took a long time to get everything modelled correctly so that these glasses were accurate. However, I am please with how they now look, and the will play a vital role within the animation itself.

Character profile

At this stage, and before I come to actually animating my character, it would be a good idea for me to give some credentials to my character so that he has a personality, and also so that this personality can show through.


Name: Maverick
Born: 19th January 1981
Age: 29
Height: 6 foot, 1inch
weight: 71kg
Likes: Winning
Hates: losing
Hobbies/interests: Playing Cards, water-skiing and golf
Favourite drink: Dry Martini
Favourite breakfast: continental
Transportation: Lexus LS 450
Best qualities: A good laugh to be with, popular with the ladies, generous with his money
Worst qualities: Often takes a joke too far, too competitive, poor judge of character
Career: N/A - All his money is made from gambling and playing casino's
Prejudices: Hates slow drivers and rugby (doesn't understand the rules)
Weaknesses: Sometimes struggles to get out of bed before midday
Most memorable moment: Earning 54k at a casino.... Only to lose it all again the following day at the same casino.

Video of expressions

Below is a video that I created. This has been cut down a lot from the original take, where I have taken the best parts that I recorded. I shall be using this video in order to animate my character, using the same characteristics from this video, focusing particularly on body language and facial expressions.

Props

Although no marks are given to props in this module, I thought that it would be necessary to create some so that the viewer knows exactly what is going on.

So, first I started by creating the table. To do this, I simply created a standard cylinder, and converted it to and editable poly. Using the scale tool, I then pulled the top three lines of vertices inwards towards the middle of the object. I then pulled the top row up higher than the rest, which created the stand for the table.

I then drew a larger cylinder to create the table top.

Having researched other poker tables on the Internet, I was able to see what they look like. As such, I drew a torus around the table, and found some textures that suited the look of the table. Below shows how the table now looks:

The props on the table were created relatively simply. I first drew a thin box and applied the 'back of card' material to the back polygon and a particular face to the front polygon (i.e. king of diamonds). To create the poker chips, I simply drew a cylinder in the shape of a poker chip and applied the material. I managed to find material that had several different colours for the poker chips, so that I was able to introduce a variety in the colours of chips, which will be added later. All that was left now was to duplicate the cards and chips with the variety of materials, which I would do at a later date.

To go with the table, I decided to create a chair. Something simple but effective was what I wanted to create. So, to start with, I created a simple chamfer box and pulled the vertices together at the top slightly. This created the base of the chair.

To create the back of the chair, I used a similar method, first creating a chamfer box, but making sure that it was slightly thinner. I then pulled the vertices in slightly at the top-middle of the object, so that it created a nice curve on the top. I also pulled the vertices in slightly on the sides at the bottom to give the chair more shape and character.

The last task was to create the legs. To do this, I started with another chamfer box, and drew a basic leg. I then pulled the vertices in gradually at the top so that it created and arc. Using the extrude tool, I then made the leg run along the underneath of the chair. Similar to the way that I rounded the adjacent corner, I continued extruding down to the floor again.

The hardest part for this section was trying to get the leg to line up with the chair itself. The reason being that the leg protruded further at the back of the chair. To overcome this problem, I pulled the back leg in slightly towards the middle of the chair on both sides. The final outcome is shown below as a rendered image. I shall add materials at a later stage.

I shall now copy this chair another three times and place it around the table so that another 3 players can play cards alongside my main character.

Below is the final image of how all of the props look. I will inevitably add more things at a later stage, but I now have the basic props that my character needs in order to play cards.

Bones

Another new technique which everyone else seems to have used before but I was unfamiliar with was 'bones'. Not knowing what they were or what they would be used for, I just followed the tutorial that Jo gave, and worked through it to see what happened in the end.

So, to start with, I created four bones down the centre of the torso. To do this, I went to create, then systems, and simply drew the bones in, as if I were drawing a box or something similar.

I then selected each individual bone and gave it extra dimensions on all sides by selecting bone fins within the modifier panel. This then left me with bones that have fins sticking out on all sides:

I then repeated this process, adding another small bone in the neck, and a larger one for the head. I then created bones for the arms, ensuring that there was one for the shoulder, one for the bicep area and one for the forearm. This made sure that the joints were in the correct places (elbow and shoulder).

To do the leg bones, I used the side viewport. In the same way as I did the arms, I ensured that there were four bones, with a knee joint, ankle joint and toe joint. At the very end I created another very small bone which protrudes outside of the body. Presumably, this will be used to move the character, so that I have something to select.

Once all the bones had been created, all that was left was to create the hands. This is going to be a little more tricky and will be created hopefully next week. The bones at the moment look like this, and will be added to the mesh later on.

The main problem that I had completing this stage was ensuring that all of the bones were linked together correctly. I had to use the link chart in order to arrange the links in the correct order, as some were incorrectly linked. Making sure that the fins did not protrude too far either was very important, so that they were contained within the mesh.

Shirt detail and belt

Next, I decided to add some more detail to the shirt and include a belt, primarily so that the models trousers do not fall down.

To create the additional shirt detail, I first used the cut tool to add 2 extra lines running down the middle of the shirt. I then selected these polygons and pulled them out. This gave the effect that the middle of the shirt protrudes slightly where the buttons would go.

To create the belt, I started with a standard tube shape the fitted roughly around the hips of the model.

I then re-positioned the vertices so that they were as close to the body as possible. This took quite a long time because both the top and bottom vertices of the belt had to be positioned individually.

Now, to create the buckle. First, I created a standard box shape in the middle at the front of the belt. I ensured that there were two vertical lines running down the middle of it. I then pulled these vertices out so that the buckle became rounded.

At this stage, I thought that it would be beneficial for me to add the head that I created last semester, and see how everything looks once it is all put together. The image below has not been turbosmoothed yet, so it still looks rather rigid:

Collar, bow tie and belt

Now that the main modelling aspect is coming to completion, I decided to add further detail by creating a collar and a bow tie.
In order to create the collar, I first started by by deleting a couple of polygons located at the top of the shirt.

I then selected the edges around this deleted area and extruded them upwards. I then separated the front two vertices.

From the side, the collar now looks like this:

The next task was to arrange the front of the collar so that there was a slight gap where the bow tie would go.

To create the bow tie, I started off with a standard chamferred box and scaled it to an acceptable size.

The next task was slightly more difficult. In order to create the triangular section of the bow tie, I created another chamferred box, and scaled the inside vertices towards each other to meet the first chamferred box I created in the last stage. I then selected the edges either side of the middle of the triangle, and pulled them in (also pulling the middle out). This gave the ripple effect of the bow tie.

Simply by cloning the triangle and rotating it 100 degrees, I was then left with what looks very close to a bow tie object. The ripple in the tie looks very effective, and I am pleased with the way that this has come out.

Creating the hands

There are several ways to create the hands, but I followed this particular method because it seemed the most practical way to do so.

So, firstly I started with a box in the centre of the hand that had 4 segments vertically and 3 segments horizontally:

Next, I selected the polygons where the fingers protruded and extruded them all very slightly. I then made another extrusion, followed by 2 very small extrusions. This then created the knuckles. I then repeated this process to create the final joints at the ends of the fingers then finished the fingers by using the chamfer tool. Once done, I could then re-arrange the edges and vertices etc, so that the fingers gradually chemferred towards the ends instead of being straight blocks. I then modelled the hands slightly so that they curved, also instead of being square blocks.

I then used the mirror modifier to replicate this hand over to the other side where the other hand needed to be.

This section was specifically difficult because it required a lot of careful modelling. Where as the trousers, boots and shirt were all relatively simple objects, the hands were more complex, needing greater detail to ensure that the curvature of the hands were correct and also that the small extrusions were where the knuckle joints were located.

I then decided to add more edges to the hands so that they could be modelled more accurately to represent a hand. This was done using the cut tool. I then moved these edges around, primarily so that the fingers became more rounded etc.

And finally, when a mesh smooth modifier was applied, it then looked as shown below.

Creating the hands proved very time consuming. To get them to look as accurate as they do too so long because there were many vertices and edges that needed to be moved around so that it modelled the hand accurately. I am now very pleased with the way this now looks, and feel that it is a good and accurate model of my hand.

Creating the model

Now that I knew the method of how to link mesh to a biped and make it move, my next task was to create boots, trousers and shirt for the model. The steps below show this process.

Firstly, I created a small box that filled the heel of the boot. Selecting the top polygon, then using the side view , I extruded the box up 2 times then across 3 times from the middle extrusion. This created a 'sideways T' shape. I then selected each vertical line and used the connect tool, which then created another line leaving me with 8 segments to the boot:

Now that the general shape of the boot had been created, I then moved the edges and vertices around so that the boot looked more realistic. I then simply cloned this boot onto the other foot:

To create the legs, I first started with a small cylinder:

Next, I selected the top polygon of the cylinder and extruded this once to make a large extrusion. I then made 2 more small extrusions that would become the knee joints. Using the same method, I then continued up to the groin area, and then right up to the top of the hips where the trousers would finish. I then re-selected the top polygon and deleted this, and did the same for the bottom polygon. This then made the trouser leg hollow.

Using the clone tool, I then copied this trouser leg onto the other side so that both legs were complete. The final task now was to arrange the vertices so that the trousers were the correct shape that trousers should be. Primarily pulling the vertices out slightly on the buttock area as this is the most protruding area. Also, pulling the central groin area in towards each other and ensuring that the hips were slightly wider than the waist. I moved these vertices about mainly by using the select and uniform scale tool, but also using the move tool if I only wanted to move the vertices rather than scale them in or out. Eventually, I finished with the image below, although I shall come back at a later stage to re-shape the trousers to look even more realistic:

The next task was to create the shirt that my model would be wearing. This would be slightly more difficult than the trousers were to create.

So, I started by creating a single plane with no additional segments (reduced vertical and horizontal segmentation to 0).

I then selected the edge of the plane and extruded it up 4 more times to the top of the body. Then, selecting the edge again, I extruded the plane across the body (over the shoulder) and 5 more times down the back. This created something that looked like a brace:

Selecting the edge of the object, I then clicked the 'loop' button. I have never used this before, but have now found a far easier way of selecting the entire circumference of a group of objects. With these selected, I then extruded the planes to the sides so that there were 6 segments across the body. Down the sides of the body, I bridged the ends. To do this, I selected the adjacent edges and the clicked 'bridge'. Again, this is another tool that I have never used before, so something else new learnt there!

I bridged 4 segments together, but left the top one open so that the arm could be extruded further. In a similar fashion to before, I selected the edges around the arm area and extruded them out twice to make an object that looks like a t-shirt:



Making another large extrusion for the main part of the arm, I then made another 2 small extrusions where the elbow joint is. This would make things a lot easier when my model moves around. I made another large extrusion, then another 2 extrusions for the end of the arm. Repeating this on the other side created both arms for the shirt. The final task, as always, was to re-arrange the vertices and edges so that the arms of the shirt were the correct size and shape. This was done using the scale and move tool. Although not very difficult to do, it is very difficult to arrange everything in such a way that looks realistic:

Introduction to Bipeds and Mesh

So, the first lecture has been done and now the work begins. Again, I am a little apprehensive about this module because of my lack of experience using 3D Studio max, but I'm sure that I will once again have information overload and learn a lot from this module.

My task for this assignment is to firstly record or find 3 videos of people showing expression. From this, I must then choose one of these expressions and create an animation of around 30 seconds. This animation must show this expression in great detail.

Sounds easy?...... Highly unlikely. This assignment will certainly test not only modelling and animation but also my skills at portraying particular facial expressions.

My first task this week is to use the biped to make a practice model with skin and make him walk and move.

So, to begin, I opened up 3D Studio max and drew a simple biped. I did this by going to 'create' and then 'systems' and selecting 'biped' in the object type menu. I then drew a biped on the stage which left me with the model below:

Within figure mode, I was then able to make alterations to the biped (ie to give him a longer neck) so that he fit my model.
I then started to create a skin for the model.

Using the box technique I gradually built up my model around the biped, keeping the skin as close as possible to the biped to reduce problems further down the line. To use box technique, I simply create a box and then keep extruding it to gradually build up the model.

I started with the feet:

Then, I gradually worked my way up the rest of the body:

I did the same on both sides of the body and then extruded more boxes to create the arms:

I then reduced the mass of the entire skin model so that it only just covered the biped. This made my model look thin but reduced any problems when I used the physique modifier. This is how my model now looks when I used a turbosmooth modifier:

Finally, I then had to connect the skin to the biped. this was done by selecting the skin and applying a 'physique' modifier to it. I then selected the 'attach to node' option, clicked on the biped and chose 'initialise' from the physique initialisation dialogue box. This then connect the biped to the skin model. From here, I could then select the biped, go to 'motion' then 'footstep mode' and using the 'create footsteps option, I could lay down where I wanted the model to walk to. Once the footsteps were laid, I then chose 'create keys for inactive footsteps' which then made my model move ready to walk when I pressed 'play'. A short movie is displayed below to show how this looks at present: