Unit 52 3D Animation

3D Animation

In this first session we began to create shapes and rearranging their position to get the maximum effect. Having learned how to move, reshape and add a texture/colour to a shape will make my 3D work more effective in the upcoming projects. Throughout this process due to completing early, I went on to rearranging the shape on top of each other and adding a custom texture to the shape made it a little more personal.

First I began by selecting the 'Move Tool' and the 'Model Tool'. I then added a cube from the primitive shapes menu, after creating the cube I included a sphere. While including the sphere it was placed within the cube and so I had to reposition the sphere about 300m along the Z axis. I included 1 more shape which being a cone and as before it was placed in the cube itself and so I had to move the shape -300m. I had to move it -300m along the Z axis because otherwise it would be positioned on top of the sphere.

After I needed to include a floor object to make it look like it is standing on some sort of surface. Because the objects were sinking in the surface, I had to raise them up about 100cm so it would sit nicely on top of the floor. 

After everything is set and positioned, I wanted to make it more colourful and attractive. I used my own downloaded textures that suited pretty nicely within the objects. I first had to 

Materials Manager > New Material > Double Click Material Thumbnail 

It'll take me to the editor, I will automatically be within the colour selection and I can change the colour by clicking on the box. After selecting the colour, I added a reflection in the reflection menu on the left. 

As I was still in the learning stage of using Cinema4D, I had missed a fair few lessons in which could have helped me. 

Types of Animation

Stop motion animation, are 3D characters which the animator makes an armature or skeleton using metal and then using clay, plastic or rubber to ''dress'' up the character. To make the finer details they use other materials such as hair gel, cloth, wood, toothpaste and cotton wool. The objects and characters that should be moved during the animation are set with the scene in the background, taking pictures and moving them ever so slightly and taking another picture.

Claymation is another type of 3D animation, claymation is a stop motion animation using models made of clay. They have a wire frame so that the clay can be shaped around it using clay tools and fingers. To stop the figures from misshapen during the handling, they use quick hardening clay is used.

CGI or in other words computer generated images. In 3D computer generated animation the animator creates a virtual skeleton and models 3D figures of the virtual skeleton. The models are able to be manipulated and rigged into moving into the required position to create movement.

Influences for My 3D Animation

I looked at a few youtube clips of 3D animations I could possibly get ideas from. 

I found that this is an effective animation I could get an influence from because of its sci-fi features in the character and the movement of the armour makes you think ''Whoa, thats futuristic'' I find this helpful because it helps me get ideas for what I hope or what I could possibly achieve in my 3D animation which is required to be a sci-fi scene. I am not 100% sure that this was made in Cinema4D but even so it is a great animation I could get ideas from.

Sci-Fi Environment

I thought it would be a good idea to look at a few images of sci-fi environments, as I was looking into these images I gathered information I thought that would be very effective in my animation. I figured that many sci-fi places have ships and dwell in the space aspect of the the genre. They tend to have quite bright objects with a fair few glowing pieces to the images/animations.

Sci-Fi Characters

I figured that I would look into the characters as well in the sci-fi world. I gathered that they have quite space like armours/gear. They dwell in the technology upgrades in the gear our soldiers in the armour wear and they have quite some flashy gear as well. Robotic etc.

Sci-Fi Objects

I looked at a few objects that would work within my ideas in the animation I could possibly create. I noticed that majority of the objects glow. I found that this would be very effective in my ideas that I am currently thinking of. They're all very metallic in their material look wise, which also will help within my final animation.

Proposal

For my proposal I intend to create a big death gun like in the star wars Death Star. When I read that the animation had to be Sci-fi I instantly thought of the death star and how I could possibly produce that in my animation. Instead of being a massive object in space, it will be a static object on a planet and it will go through the process of a plasma cannon, it will shoot a laser beam into the galaxy.

I thought this was a good sci-fi idea because the objects will have similar materials as the influences in the images I had found as well as the moodboard I created. I saw that they like their objects to glow and so I thought it would tie in with the brief as well as the genre.

Moodboard

Mindmap

Sketches of My Ideas

The dog in the top right is a mechanical dog, it fits well in the sci-fi theme as it is science fiction. If I were to animate it, I would have had it travelling through a city filled with sci-fi scenes.

The plasma gun in the bottom left corner works well with the theme because its not a usual gun. If I were to animate it, I would have a character later on created if I am to follow this idea shooting at an alien in a war scene.

The sci-fi glasses in the bottom left is a technical pair of glasses, I came up with the idea as I myself have glasses and would love to have a pair of these but if I am to animate these I will have these computer techniques and programs showing and glowing on the pair of glasses. I wouldn't have just the pair of glasses. I will have a face behind with human reactions such as eye movement and eyes closing etc.

The glove on the left is a plasma gun within the hand. I will have created a generating moving hand that charges up to shoot out of the hand, it would be like iron man and his guns in the marvel movie.

The plasma cannon in the middle top, I have it animate and flipping around each of the rings to charge up the power of the cannon. The parts around the outside will be glowing and have a sci-fi material. This idea is effective because I will have it sitting on a planet and it will shoot a beam from it, firing at another planet and exploding.

Storyboard

Progress to Final Outcome

During the making of my cannon, I had to use a lot of tools to make it how it looks, I followed a tutorial on youtube on how to extrude and inner extrude. While following this tutorial I created a well made object.

Here are a few of the objects and scenes I used within my work. They have had materials added to them which makes it much more effective.

Final Outcome

Evaluation

I believe my 3D animation is fairly well made, I made it as sci-fi as I could with the plasma cannon shooting into space. If I didn't have to spend about 12 hours trying to render it so I was able to upload it to my blog I would have made a second part to my animation of which it would be hitting a planet and exploding but for a few weeks, I wasn't able to render my 1st scene so I was worried I wouldn't be able to include it into my animation. I am still very happy with what I created, it works well with the theme.