Project 2 : Story Boarding

Week 12 : Bounce Ball

Exercise 1 : Bouncing Ball

Finally, I can complete this animation on Maya...

When doing this bouncing ball, I face some problems of rendering.

After seeking for help from our tutor, I solve the problem and can upload successfully.

Overall, this exercise is quite challenging and fun.

Exercise 2

1) Do you need to be able draw well to create good 2D animation? Explain your view.

    

No. Actually, 2D is quite simple to draw because it does not require much details of an object. It is just drawing the surface of an object.Thus, we do not need to be able to draw well to create a good 2D animation. 

2) Do you need to be able draw well to create good 3D animation? Explain your view.

No, we do not need to be able to draw well to create a good 3D animation but we need to be able to visualize the dimension of depth, width and height of the object or character. We also can create 3D object by using polygons tool or do editing using vertices.

3) What do you think would separate a piece of poor animation from a piece of good animation? In other words, how would you go about deciding if a piece of animation is good or bad?

Animation is just like a good film, a good animation must portray itself effectively and speak to the audience. A bad animation will just leave the audience clueless on what the animation is trying to present.

4) In 2D animation, you need to be very aware of timing at a frame by frame level, using timing charts and other techniques - but for 3D animation, this is handled using the graph editor, which is more concerned with manipulating rates of change over time.

Does this affect how you approach your animation work? Explain.

This does not affect much how I approach my animation work. It is still quite similar, just that we can create more possibilities with the graph editor. We can also edit the speed of the animation from the graph editor which is extremely useful to me.

5) Give a brief critique of Maya as an animation tool. Don't just say Maya makes animation difficult, or easy, or that you need to learn a lot of stuff to use Maya - explain what Maya does well and not so well in terms of creating animation.

I felt that the placement of the animation tools is kind of messy. Instructions was not clear enough, too complicated. As a first timer, i find it rather confusing.

          

Project 1 : Progression

Progression

The steps below show how I created the trophy.

Firstly, I created the base by using a polygon cube. I then bevelled it by using the bevel tool.

I then added another polygon cube on top of the base and also put a polygon plane on the front face of the cube.

Next, I created a small cylinder, put it in the middle on top of the cuboid and bevelled it. After beveling and making some adjustments, I duplicated the cylinder. 

For the second cylinder, I put it above the first cylinder to increase the height of the trophy. Before putting it above the first cylinder, I adjusted the size of the second cylinder to make it smaller.
After that, I added a polygon cone and a cylinder. The cylinder was used for cutting out the sharp part of the cone by using Boolean > Difference. 

As for the v-shaped body, I added a cylinder and rotated it. I then traced a tile and extruded and duplicated it one by one, covering the cylinder. When the parts are done, I duplicated the whole cylinder to cover it with tiles and rotated it to form the v-shaped body. In the inner part, I created the pyramid and edited the vertex. 

After completing the v-shaped body, I added two small cylinders on the top of the v-shaped body. Then, I used the cylinders again to make the table tennis racket. For the body of the racket, I adjusted the width of the cylinder to make it flatter. As for the handle of the racket, I shaved off the sides by using the Boolean > Difference. 

   

When all the parts of the trophy are completed, I created the 3D text on the plane and added the texture for the trophy to make it look more like the real model.

I also set the background and added a spotlight to put focus on the trophy.

This was how the trophy model was done up by me. :)

Project 1: Self-Critique

 Front View

                

Back View

        

Left View

       

Right View

        

Top View

     

Bottom View

   

              

Critique

Basically, I feel that the model I have created is quite similar to the actual trophy. The lower half of the model especially, resembles the trophy exactly. However, there a couple of places which I think I can improve. Firstly, I feel that the V-shaped body of the trophy can be made wider as compared to what I did. Secondly, the texture of the table-tennis racket was made with a smooth surface instead of an uneven one. This is because I could not find any resource online to guide me in creating such a surface. 

Overall, I am quite satisfied with the final product that I did. This is the first time I do the modeling without any step-by-step guide. When I face the problems, I try to solve it in my own way. So, I feel that the project is challenging during the process of creating the model. Through the hiccups I encountered, I have learnt how to troubleshoot the issues myself. Also, the modeling of this trophy allows me to apply all the skills and technique I have learnt so far.

Project 1- Part 1

Story

The story is about a rat racing around a track on a mousetrap car. He saw a big table tennis trophy lying beside the track and found an inspiration. The rat does not have friends and is weak in his studies. However, he has a talent in playing table tennis. Thus, when he saw the trophy, he decided to take part in the upcoming table tennis competition to boost his self-confidence.

Shape

Since I have learned about many different tools for my previous assignments, I am going to use and apply them for helping me model the trophy.

The trophy parts consist :

Base, platform, the body and the table tennis racket

Tools :

• Polygon cubes - to start making the base and platform of the trophy
• Polygon cylinder - for the body (v-shaped “steps”)
• Bevel - to make all the edges of the polygon cubes become smoother
• Extrude tool - to help in extruding the base and some parts of the body
• Texture - add texture on the surfaces of both sides of the table tennis racket
• Boolean tool - to make the hole at the bottom of the trophy
• Align tool - align all the part properly

I chose the trophy as model because I feel that it consists of different shapes and angles. This allows me to apply many techniques that I learned in IN3D. Overall, I think the difficulty of the trophy lies in the construction of the body and the texture of the table tennis racket. This is because it will be a challenge for me to make the uneven surfaces of the body that resembles a bamboo shoot (steps) as I need to align the “steps” with the inner portion.

Design

Photos of the trophy

        Front View                         Right-sided View                 Top View

         Back View                        Left-sided View                   Bottom View


Sketches of the trophy

Research
From this video, I can roughly figure out how to start modeling the table tennis racket. Thus, i find this video quite useful to me. :)

This tutorial video showed us how to do extrude and edge constraints. I can apply this for modeling the trophy's platform.

Week 5

Texture

In this exercise, we learnt how to add texture to the blocks.

Reflection :
After doing this exercise, I have learnt a new thing which is using blinn tool to add the texture to my models. In between, I was puzzled why the model looks weird and does not look like what I expected. After that, I found that I never render it. When I rendered the model, it gave the outcome that I expected. I feel that it is quite interesting for me. Different textures are used for different models. Overall, the exercise was easy and I can finish adding the texture for my models in a short time. 

Week 4 _lab 2 (E-learning)

Does multi-tasking give you a real or false sense of having accomplished something?

Although multi-tasking can allow me to get things many things done in a short timeframe, it gives me a false sense of accomplishment as I do not feel that I have completed something. This is because I am not able to concentrate on doing each task and completing it with full effort as I need to do other tasks concurrently.

Is learning 3D and design different from learning programming, or is all learning the same? Why?

Yes, it is absolutely different. For me, programming is something more complicated as we need to memorize all the codes and their functions. Sometimes there will be some errors that we need to find it out and use the knowledge we have learned to solve it. While learning 3D design, we can try to design something new and special that we like as compared with learning programming. It requires our creativity and technique to apply it.

The article states that “Learning is actually a very complex operation for an individual”. Do you agree with this? Do you feel that you approach your learning in the best way – if yes, how, and if no, how can you change your work style?

Yes learning is indeed very complex for an individual. For me, I have a poor memory and have difficulty memorizing the things that I have learned. Sometimes, I will take very long to absorb the contents and thus have to seek help from my lecturers and friends. I prefer to learn or revise with a group of friends.

What are your thoughts about the last paragraph in the extract?

I will agree with the writer about doing something really hard rather than do really easy stuffs (just like the law students). In life, if you always choose the easier way out, you will never be able to reach your maximum potential.

Should your lecturers also focus on your work attitude, or just leave you to sink or swim on your own? Why?

I think my lecturers should focus on both. No doubt we should be given the space to grow and shine, we might be lost midway without the proper guidance from our lecturers.