CSS 105 – Project #4

 

Animation and

Movement with Constraints

 

Assigning Date: May 8, 2007

 

Project Due Time: 11:15 AM May 22, 2007

1. Project e-submission

2. Hardcopy Report

** Remember**: No late assignments will be accepted!

              

Purpose:

In this project we will practice the technical details involved in setting up animations and constraint movements. The major goals are:

 

  1. Appreciate the fact that any attribute that can be specified by number can be animated (e.g. shader color, etc.).
  2. Transform objects and/or group of objects in meaningful manner.
  3. Constraint the movements such that we can associate simple semantics with the movements (e.g. move forward while keep the camera fixed on the light bulb, etc.).

 

In Project-2, we have spent some time investigating the details of how to model objects based on NURBS surfaces. In project 3, we spent time studying how to create interesting materials and lighting environments for our objects. In this project, we will learn how to approach moving the different elements in the scene. Once again, think about the story you want to tell in your final project, think about what kind of movements would be involved and how you want your audiences to experience (think camera animation). You want to practice the techniques involved in this project.

 

Remember: the important lesson we want to learn here is how to specify/control movement (and shader changes).  If you like playing with creating interesting geometric models, I appreciate that very much, but how about consider practicing the animation skills/concepts first, have that nailed down, and then replace your geometries with something fancy? J

 

Once again, creating a highly realistic image is very difficult! Our goal is understand the process, and not necessarily knowing how to create realistic looking objects.

 

Scene Element: We will use the word “element” to mean items in a scene (e.g. geometric objects, lights, cameras, shaders, etc. etc).

Tutorials:

Before you begin working on this project, you should read through the followings. In lectures, we have learned the technical models and the why (e.g. motion path), the main goals of the following tutorials are for us to learn the how-to (e.g. associate transform with the motion path). Because of the complexity of the Maya system, the tutorial can get tedious at times. We want to approach the tutorials with the understanding that, “we understand the concepts behind the techniques; we want to learn sufficient such that we can achieve our goal”. In this case, our goals are to accomplish the specified project to demonstrate our understanding of the subject. We want to approach the tutorials using the criteria: “have I obtained enough to work on my project”?

 

  1. Maya->Help->Tutorials->Getting Started With Maya->Animation (the first four lessons)
  2. Maya->Help->Tutorials->Getting Started With Maya ->Animation (lesson five is optional)
  3. Maya->Help->Tutorials->Character Setup (optional – try it this is fun!)

 

  1. LMF: Lessons 9&10. For time efficiency, I recommend reading these two lessons (rather than following through the tutorial step-by-step). The important lessons we want to learn from here are :
    1. Lesson 9: This lesson talks about skeleton joints, skinning and IK. I am not sure if we will have time to cover these, but these stuff is fun! Project 4 does not require any knowledge from this lesson.
    2. Lesson 10: This lesson talks about how to fine-tune the keys in keyframe animations. This is important stuff! We will not cover deformation, so you can skip this part.

 

Once again, remember, we are not here to learn how to create nice looking animations; rather, we are here to learn the process of creation. Follow through these tutorials remembering that you are learning how to use the tools and not how to create the exact same objects/images as in the tutorials.

 

Once again, here is one approach you may consider:

  1. Read through the tutorials (do not follow the steps).
  2. When you are reading, take down notes on the interesting capabilities of the software (I have listed some of the major, and more interesting ones above).
  3. Read the Project specification requirement carefully.
  4. Compare to your notes on the capability of Maya, notice what is important to complete this project.
  5. Create simple scene that is sufficient for you to follow/practice what is described in the tutorials.

With this approach, you can practice using the software, re-affirm concepts discussed in the lectures, and complete the project all at the same time! J

 

Statement of Work:

Create a new project, name it: Project4_YourName  (where YourName is your name).

 

Remember, we want to demonstrate two main learning goals:

  1. We understand what it means to say “all attributes are animatable”.
  2. We can control the movement of individual object or group of objects (make sure you understand what are the pivot positions!).
  3. We know how to constraint our movements such that the movement reflects some kind of simple semantics.

 

For this project, you are free to create and use any objects (or you can choose to use your objects from Project 2/3). However, you must generate images with the following requirements:

 

  1. Shot Camera:

Your scene must have at least one target shot camera where final animation will be generated from.

    1. Motion Path: The positioning/orientation of this camera must be constraint to a predefined curve using the motion path tool.
    2. Additional Constraint: The camera’s look at direction must be under another constraint (e.g. I used the Aim constraint in my demo project), you are free to use anything you choose.
    3. PlayBlast: Create a Maya playblast .avi file of hardware rendering. Name this file: ShotCamera.avi. Your hardware must be displaying in shaded mode with using all lights, and file texture options switched on.
    4. Animation: Create a 150 frame animation of your scene in avi, 512x512, production quality from this camera.
  1. Director’s Camera:

Your scene must contain one more camera, where this camera is as close to the elements in the scene as it can get while still be able to see all the elements.

    1. Shot Camera Representation: Create a simple object representing your Shot camera. This object must not be symmetrical (e.g. not a sphere, or a square, I used a cylinder and a rectangular object to represent my lens and camera). Your geometric representation of the Shot Camera should follow the shot camera movement exactly.
    2. PlayBlast: Create a Maya playblast .avi file of hardware rendering. Name this file: DirectorView.avi. Your hardware must be displaying in shaded mode with using all lights, and file texture options switched on.
    3. Animation: Create a 150 frame animation of your scene in avi, 512x512, production quality from this camera.

Note, you should switch off the visibility of the Shot Camera geometric until you are ready to generate the animation from the Director Camera. Otherwise, your Shot Camera geometry will block the Maya camera!

 

  1. Shader Animation:

We will use shaders to demonstrate the idea behind “animatable everything”:

    1. Texture Placement: you must include at least one shader with at least one file texture. You will animate the texture placement (coverage, and the location of the file texture) over the animation.
    2. Color: Change one color of one shader at least three times during your animation. The change must be graduate (e.g. gradually from red to blue, then to yellow).

 

  1. Simple Keyframe Animation of Geometry: You must create group(s) of geometries. In our case, a group must contain more than two geometries. In you scene, you must
    1. Animation of Component: Create keyframe animation of part of an object. For example, the swinging hair-dryer blower rotating over the handle.
    2. Animation of Group: While the component changes its position/translation/rotation, the whole object should also be animated. For example, while the dryer-blower is swinging, the entire dryer is rotating.
    3. Number of frames: The above component and group object must be moving throughout your entire 150-frame animation sequence.

 

  1. Animating light source: you should create a geometry representing one of your light sources, and you should animate this light source/geometry pair.
    1. Light Requirements:
      1. Must cast shadow that is visible in all frames in the animation
      2. Position or orientation of the light source must be always changing throughout the entire animation (we must see the shadow moving throughout the animation).
    2. Geometry for the light: Create a geometry representing your light (e.g. cone for spotlight, light bulb for point light, etc.). The geometry must follow the light exactly showing to your audience how the light position/orientation is change throughout you animation.

 

Project Submission:

 

E-submission:

Copy your entire project folder structure over to \\Hermes\Classes\CSS105\Project4. By default your root project folder will be created in MyDocuments\maya\projects\Project4_YourName. Under this root project folder, you can find many sub-folders (e.g. clip, data, fur, etc.). Your scene files should be located in the scenes folder, the rendered images should be in the image folder, the play blast avi files should also be located in the image folder. Here are example animations I created: ShotCamera animation, and my DirectorView animation.

 

Hardcopy report: Submit a report describing your scene. Unlike Project2 and 3, you are not required to relate your scene to real-world objects. However, in your report, you are required to highlight to me where I can find the various technical requirements. Here is an example report showing how my scenes/animations satisfy some of the technical requirements.

 

Credit Distribution:

 

Shot Camera View/Animation

Camera Following a motion path

One constraint on the camera look at

PlayBlast: ShotCamera.avi

Aniamtion: 512x512, jpg, production quality

Artistic: scene is well lighted with all important elements visible

 

 

5%

5%

5%

5%

10%

15%

Director Camera View/Animation

Shot Camera geometry and animation

All elements visible throughout the animation

PlayBlast: DirectorView.avi

Animation: 512x512, jpg, production quality

Artistic: scene is well lighted with all important elements visible

 

 

10%

5%

5%

5%

5%

20%

Shader Animation

Texture placement: position and coverage changes over the animation

Color: takes on at least three different values

 

 

10%

 

5%

 

15%

Keyframe on Geometry:

Component animation throughout the entire animation

Animation on the entire object throughout the entire animation

 

 

10%

5%

10%

Animating Light Source

Animation position/orientation throughout the entire animation

Cast Shadow, with shadow distinctly visible throughout the animation

Appropriate geometry representing the light with corresponding animation

 

 

5%

5%

10%

 

15%

Hardcopy Report

 

 

20%

Proper Submission

Proper project name with recognizable names of group members

Maya project folder structure is correct (with _all_ sub-folders)

 

 

 

 

 

5%

 

This project contributes 15% towards your final grade for this course.