CSS 305 – Final Project

 

Tell us your story!

 

Assigning Date: Nov 15, 2004

 

Project Due Times:

1. Storyboard submission:          3%          3:30pm Dec 6, 2004

2. Final presentation:                   3%          3:30pm Dec 15, 2004

3. Final Project Submission:       15%        3:30pm Dec 15, 2004

 

**NO** Hardcopy Report for final project J

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

               

Purpose:

This is it! After all quarter of learning how to creating nice looking media, THIS IS IT! This is our big chance to show/tell the story we want to tell!

 

Think about the four projects we have done so far, think about the functionality you understand, now think about the story you want to tell, and viola! J Let’s do it!

 

WARNINGS:

1.        DO NOT be too ambitious! Tell your simple story, and/if you have time, then increase the complexity.

2.        Final Rendering will take about 10-times as much time as you thought it would! And this time, you will have to render from multiple cameras, and edit your final results into a movie. Make sure you reserve at least one entire day for your final rendering!

 

Other than these warnings, go and have fun … except, we need to make sure our final project has some respectable complexity.

 

Here is my final project (be careful, this animation is rather large) about a mouse wondering around in the wrong place. Even as I create the animation, I wonder if the mouse knows that there is danger right behind it!

Statement of Work:

 

  1. Interesting Storyline:

Your storyline should be the most important component of your final project. You must be trying to say something and/or express something, in a coherent manner. Your priority should be placed on how to create the simplest object to tell your story, rather than beautiful objects that doesn’t do anything. In the minimum, you should consider:

    1. Story Setup: This is like the introduction of your story, setting up your audiences’ expectations.
    2. Build up of plot: Present reasons for your audiences to continue to pay attention to your work.
    3. Conclusion: What happened in the end?
    4. Animation: You must tell your story in no-less than 300 frame animation. If you have multiple cameras it is ok for the cameras to overlap in the time-line (e.g. camera1renders frame 1-100, camera2 renders frame 50-150, notice the between the two cameras you have rendered 200 frames, yet, time-line only covers 150 steps).

 

  1. Storyboard due time and presentation (3%): The storyboard for your story is due on Dec 6 at 3:30pm. You should include at least 5 different sketches to tell your story. These should be hand/rough sketch/drawn pictures showing the key shots in your story. You have to scan these pages into electronic files (e.g. jpg image files) and copy these files to the \\Hermes\Classes\CSS305\Storyboard submission area. During class on Dec 6, you will present from your submitted storyboards. Your peers and I will evaluate your presentation. This is the evaluation form we will use.  Notice that you will be graded on clarity of storyline, interesting story, balance of complexity (not too simple, and not too complex). Each group will have 5 minutes, and here are what you should talk about:
    1. Storyboard presentation: Go through your submitted sketches, and fill-in what is missing for us. After your presentation, we should have a very good idea about what is your story and how you are going to tell it.
    2. Technical Challenge: Tell us what you think will be the most technical challenging aspect in your final project.
    3. Rough schedule: Tell us what your tentative schedule is. Please use this opportunity to think about what you have to do in these final few weeks of the quarter and tell us a schedule that you plan to follow.

 

  1. Multiple Cameras:
    1. At least two: You must use more than one camera to tell your story. We don’t have an upper-limit here, just more than one camera. Think about different viewpoints, and if you can enhance your story telling by overlapping the camera shots in time.
    2. At least two animated cameras: At least two of your cameras must be animated (e.g. move).

 

  1. Animation of Geometry:
    1. Complex Object: your scene/story must contain objects that are composed of multiple components (groups of geometries).
    2. Animation of Component and Group: At least one component/group in your world must have animation defined on it (e.g. moving feet on my mouse).

 

  1. Animating light source:
    1. Light Animation: Position or orientation of the light source must change during the animation.
    2. Shadow: At least one shadow casting light.

 

  1. Final Rendering:
    1. Images: 640x480, Production Quality, in jpg format
    2. Movie File: You should use software (e.g. Windows Movie Maker) and convert all images in your final rendering from different camera into one final movie.

 

  1. In Class Demo (3%): Your peers and I will evaluate your project according to this evaluation form. Each group will have 5 minutes, and here are what you should talk about:
    1. Story: Tell us what your story is.
    2. Technical Challenge: Tell us the most technically challenging obstacle you have to overcome in your project. By that point, you (and everybody else) will have encountered numerous frustration with the software and the tools, please avoid the temptation of whining. Technically challenging is not your most frustrating experience, we know what those are. Tell us the accomplishment(s) you are most proud of. For example in my final project, I am most proud of the animation sequence on my mouse. I followed the tutorial and learned the Trex editor.
    3. Animation Movie: Make sure you have your final animation movie ready for showing the class.

 

Project Submission:

 

Storyboard:

E-submission:

Create a folder with your name and place all your scanned-in storyboard images in this folder. Copy the folder over to \\Hermes\Classes\CSS305\FinalProject.  Remember, the due time for the storyboard is 3:30pm on December 6th.  If you don’t submit your storyboard by the due time, you will not be able to present and you will lost the 3% credit.

 

Final Production:

E-submission:

Copy your entire project folder structure over to \\Hermes\Classes\CSS305\FinalProject. By default your root project folder will be created in MyDocuments\maya\projects\FinalProject_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 movie (wmv) file should also be located in the image folder.

 

Hardcopy report: No hard copy required for final project.

 

Credit Distribution:

 

Interesting Storyline

Story setup

Build up of plot

Conclusion

Animation

 

 

 

20%

Multiple Cameras

At least two cameras

At least two animated cameras

 

 

15%

Animation of Geometry

Complex Object (groups)

Animated Components/Objects

 

 

 

20%

Animated light source:

Light Animation

Visible Shadow

 

 

20%

Final Rendering

All images included

Final movie file

 

 

20%

Proper Submission

Proper project name with recognizable names of group members

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

 

 

 

 

 

5%

 

You final project submission will contribute 15% towards your final grade for this course.