Final Put Together

All put together.

Interior Rendered Video

This is the rendered video of the interior, before the two projects were put together. I don't know why, but once I rendered and brought it into after effects, the animation decided it wanted to go super fast. WARNING: Only watch it once or you might get sick...

Final Project Evaluation/Write Up

Abstract:

For the final, I wanted to focus more on modeling and creating a livable space. Don’t get me wrong, I fell in love with my bee from the midterm (we bonded), but I wanted to try something new. So, for this project I modeled and designed the interior of a house and animated a camera going through it. I collaborated with Nate Schulte, who did the exterior.

Storyboard:

I didn’t know the exact design the house was going to be, and thought it may get a little too detailed, especially since the animation was going through the rooms. So, I decided to just take pictures to plan it. Start with view of the stair case, then see the dining room table, the book shelf with pictures, the kitchen, and then the bathroom.

Production (what I did and how I did it):

I started this project by creating polygonal planes in order to create the walls and structure of the house. I made sure to have open spaces for doorways. After, I duplicated the walls and put them back to back in order to prepare for painting. Next, I modeled the staircase. I started with a polygon cube and then I kept extruding edges until the model was complete.

After, I added carpet, paint, and a picture to the walls. In order to get the texture of the carpet, I found an image I liked in google. I then brought the picture in to photoshop, sized it correctly, and brought it into Maya. I right clicked the floor, clicked assign new material, selected lambert, clicked the checkered box next to color, selected file, and chose my carpet .psd file. This gave the floor the carpet texture and feel I had wanted. I painted the walls by right clicking the ones I wanted the purple/maroon color, clicking assign new material, selecting lambert, and then choosing the color I liked. For the picture on the wall, I found an image on google that I liked. I brought it in to photoshop, sized it correctly, and brought it in to Maya. I had created a plane, right clicked and assigned new material, selected lambert, clicked the checkered box, and select the picture .psd selected file.

After the main foyer was completed, I decided to model the bathroom. I selected the floor and assigned it the checkered material (like done above). However, I had created a wooden floor first. After having the floor, I painted the walls. I found an image on google that had paint for the top half and wood for the bottom half. This is what I wanted for the bathroom, so I brought the image in to photoshop and completed the same process (above) in order to get this material onto the walls. Then I modeled the toilet, sink, and shower. I modeled the toilet by starting with a polygonal sphere. I then created a smaller polygonal sphere. I put the one on top of the other, selected them, and then selected mesh -> booleans -> difference. This gave me the toilet bowl part. I then created the back and bottom through extraction. To create the sink, I used a polygonal cone and cylinder for the foot. Then for the sink part, I created a polygonal rectangle and sphere. I selected both and clicked mesh -> booleans -> difference, just like I had done for the toilet. This gave me my sink. I then grouped all the pieces together. For both the toilet and sink, I painted them with an off white pinkish phong. Last was the shower. I started by creating a polygonal rectangle. I then extracted it, so I could select the faces individually. I made the shower the off white pinkish phong that I had used for the toilet and sink. I then created a polygonal plane for the front of the shower. I did this to get the feeling of a ledge. I painted this with a phone teal color. Lastly, I selected the front face of the shower and painted this is a very transparent white phong. In order to do the bar in the shower, I created a polygonal cylinder and painted it with a silver blinn. For the shower head, I used a nurbs cylinder and sphere. I selected and manipulated the components until I got the shape I desired. I then painted it with the silver blinn I had used for the bar. Below is a picture of the bathroom in progress. This was the first floor I had had.

For the dining room area I had imported the table and teapot. The table was from Nate’s midterm project, and the teapot was a model I had made during the semester. I then modeled the chair using a polygonal cube and extruding the edges. I used the booleans difference to add the 2 holes in the back. I then added a wood texture. I copied the chair and pasted 3 times in order to get 4 chairs.

For the bookshelf, I used a polygonal cube, and added a wood texture to it by using the process above. I then created a black box, made the bottom of it paintable, and used paint effects to create some flowers for the inside. I then imported the lamp I had created during the semester using the cv curve tool, and placed this on top of the shelf. I created 2 small planes, placed the same wood texture as the shelf below on them, and then modeled 2 picture frames using polygonal planes and cylinders. After, for kicks, I found pictures of me and Nate, brought them in to photoshop, sized them, and placed them on to the plane of the picture frame. I then added a picture of a llama, a request by Nate, on to the wall near the kitchen. Below is a picture of the lamp and one of the picture frames. It had a different picture in it before I changed it.

Lastly, I modeled the kitchen. I used polygonal cubes in order to create counters and a fridge. I extruded the counters in order to select the faces individually. I then uploaded image of countertop to the top of the counters, and an image of cabinets to the bottom. For the fridge, I modeled it and used a blinn silver for the sides, and an image for the front. After, I imported my fruit bowl and another model I made in the middle of the semester. I placed these on the countertop. I created a sink by using booleans -> difference. Then I added a picture on the wall. Also, by using booleans -> difference, I created a window in the plane.

After all the modeling was done, I had to create lighting throughout the house because some areas were black, while others were rendering regularly. To fix this, I added area and directional lights in the front doorway, doorway of the bathroom, a directional light going into the kitchen, and one coming out of the kitchen. All the intensities are between .1 and 1. This allowed for the spaces to be lit, without being over exposed. The picture on the right shows the light being too intense, making the stairs too light, and the one below shows the intensity lowered and looking more realistic.

In order to do the animation, I created a camera and animated a path for the camera using key frame animation.

I rendered using jpeg for the image format and name_#.ext for the frame/animation extension. I set the frame range to three hundred, selected camera 1, and let it render! After getting the image sequence, I brought it into Adobe After Effects. I put the scenes next to each other, played it out to make sure it was correct, and then saved it as a quicktime movie file. Saved everything, backed it up, and this part of the project was finished.

Self Evaluation (what worked, what didn’t, and what I would do differently):

I feel that this project has taught me a lot more about the Maya program, especially in regards to modeling. There is soooo much that can be done with this program, I feel like I don’t know any of it. However, I am very happy with the project overall. I think I did the best I could with the skills I had just recently learned and the time I had.

What worked for me was the use of key frame animation again. I was comfortable using key frame on the midterm, and wanted to use it again for the final. This worked great with the camera perspective. I could render the image, and if it looked good, I would set a key frame. Another thing that worked well for my animation was finding textured images, bringing them into photoshop, resizing them, and then uploading them into Maya. Because I was focusing on modeling, this helped me get the desired look and feel that I wanted without having to use a lot of my time by going crazy with shaders and such. Lastly, I think the different lighting effects worked well with my animation. I never really needed to use them before, so learning them (and having them come out looking well) was definitely a plus.

I really had no issues with this project. Everything that had given me a headache during the midterm had been adjusted this time. I did not excessively use paint effects, and I wrote down how to render once I figured it out before, so everything went pretty smoothly. The only issue I did have was resizing the images in photoshop before bringing them into Maya. I never knew the correct sizing that the image should be, so I had to do a lot of guess and check until it uploaded correctly onto the plane.

If I were to continue on with this project, I would probably create an upstairs, and spend a lot more time on the modeling. Possibly add sound effects in the background of water running, people talking, etc.

Overall I, again, enjoyed doing this project and am happy with the way it came out. I learned a lot more than I had expected, and my newfound appreciation for animators still remains.

Apples with Shaders

Here are the apples from my fruit bowl with shaders on them.

LOWMAN!

Here is my lowman animation. It's a little slower than I had intended. Once I rendered, the speed changed. But it still works.

Just Fooling Around (from 10/27 class)

Just playing around with colors, textures and such.

New Jersey Autodesk Animation Users Group

On Friday, I went to the talk for the NJ Autodesk Animation Users Group. I was only able to listen to one speaker, but what he had to say was interesting. He discussed how rendered images could be brought into photoshop or painter to be tweaked, and then be used in an animation. He mostly works with layers and blending modes (screen and overlay he used the most) in order to subtly change the aesthetic effect (layer by layer) of his rendered image.

He also mentioned how he rendered. He suggested rendering as images and not as movie. He does this in case something crashes during the render. With images, you can pick up where you left off, whereas with the movie you have to start all over. Also, by rendering out images, if there is a frame that needs to be tweaked or changed, you can open it in photoshop, fix it, and then put it back in the sequence. He suggested using .tiff files or the maya .iff to render.

Time permitting, I would have liked to listen to the other two speakers. However, overall, I thought the information of the speaker I did get to listen to was very interesting.