Skydome

When it comes to creating a background for my animations in 3D Studio Max, I usually take the easy option and simply apply a background image to a plane and stick it far enough away to give it some distance. This is usually good enough and does the job. Even more so when the camera remains still for most of the animation (Like how I originally planned mine to be). However, with the camera angles constantly changing it becomes increasingly obvious that the background is more or less a giant poster and ruins the illusion. This is where skydomes, or sky boxes, come in.

I have never used a skydome before, but I am well aware of how effective they can be. Essentially, a sky done is just a sphere with a background image attached to the inside. The sphere is then placed around the scene, creating a more believable environment. This way the camera can freely move around without effecting the angle of the background.

While it is certainly more usful from an animation point of view, I have to say that I still prefer just using a plane. Probably because it is so much simpler. Here is a comparison between my old plane background and the new skydome background:




In my opinion, the plane background looks so much better because the image has not been stretched. While it is possible to reduce the amount of stretch on an image in a skydome, I just found it very difficult to get it to look as perfect as it did beforehand. It also didnt help that I had to find a panorama image for the skydome(an image that can be perfectly placed back to back with no obvious seams), which was quite difficult to do.

Here is the tutorial that I used:



Its still quite early into the semester. Im sure that I will have time to fix the stretching, or even find a better image. Still, I am happy enough with the way it has turned out. It, along with the new camera angles, definately improves the atmosphere in my animation.

Tutorial Work - Lip Syncing

While this tutorial is certainly useful, I felt that I did not need to complete it for 2 reasons. 1 being that I had already learnt how to use the morpher tool in order to form facial expressions last year, albeit for a much simpler model. The second reason being that Pigham doesn’t actually have a mouth! However I have still had a (unfinished) go at it, just to jog my memory and to show that I have at least attempted it. I am sure that this will be useful for future animations.

Body Movement Videos

As part of our research, we were asked to find a few videos demonstrating body movements. I used 2 of my own videos that I had taken on my phone and found one on the internet, just for a little variation.

Dancing



This video is of my friends playing Beer Pong. In the background is another friend who is dancing. I just like the way he moves his body and arms, and think that it would be quite amusing to have a character dancing in a similar manner. It shows elements of happiness and excitement. Regrettably, I don’t think that using these movements would be of much use for my animation. At least, not if it is meant to be only 1 minute. If I had no time limit, I may have been able to make Pigham do it as a little victory dance when he picks up the apple. However, I have already gone over the time limit, so unfortunately I will have to leave it out.


Helium



This video is of a friend who, as the title may suggest, has inhaled helium. While this video does not necessarily have much body movement, it does have a variety of facial expressions. It shows how when someone is happy their movements become more upbeat.


Angry Walk



This video is of a woman walking angrily. While her expression does give away that she may be feeling angry, we can tell from the body movements alone what she is feeling. We can tell that she is angry by the way that she leans forward and stiffens her arm and leg movements into a march-like motion. At one point in my animation, Pigham angrliy walks off-screen and I have done exactly what the woman in the video does. Pigham leans forward, rises his arms and marches off.

Camera Angles

As I mentioned before, and as it can be seen from my storyboards, I had always intended for the animation to be mostly shot from one camera angle. This was mainly for the scene where Pigham walks off screen and then suddenly jumps back in (this was inspired by a scene in Fawlty Towers).

However, it was suggested that I should experiment with some more camera angles because not only does having 1 continues camera shot seem boring, but also, you very rarely see any form of animation with a competely stationary camera angle for more than a few seconds.

So I have included a few more close ups and pans in order to make it more cinematic and exciting to watch. This did involve me having to re-animate some of my models in order to suit the new camera angle, but luckily it was nothing major.

Here are a few screenshots of the new, unfinished scenes:






Unfortunately, all of these close-ups make it harder for me find a suitible way of placing my rabbit into the scene as well. The camera mainly focuses on Pigham and I dont really want the camera to be zoomed out enough to include a secondary character if they're not even going to be doing much. Its looking as though I wont be able to include him in my animation after all.

Animation Progress Update 2

As of today, I have made a very large dent into my animation.

First of all I have completed all of Pigham's animation. Some scenes have turned out better than I imaged them to be, so I am very happy with it.

I did come across a few annoying animation errors. The main one being that Pigham would slightly move between each scene cut. The reason for this was because I forgot to set Pigham's pose as a key frame at the start of each scene. So for example, if I set a key frame for him at frame 20, Pigham would slightly move in frames 1-19, creating an animation jump between each scene cut. To fix this I had to merge the model of Pigham from scene 1 into scene 2, and then copy the biped position of Pigham 1 to Pigham 2 and then set that position as a key frame.

Another problem that I had was keeping Pigham still between each key frame. For example, I would want him in one pose on frame 1 and to stay in the pose for 20 frames. So on frame 20 I would set another key frame in the same position. However, continuing to animate after the second key frame still slightly effects the model's between the first 2 key frames. This is known as easing. To fix this I had to use the Track Editor. This allowed me to see the movement of the model in between each key frame in the form of a line. All I had to do was flatten the line in between each frame and the model would remain stationary. This was annoyingly, a lot more difficult than it sounds... but I got there in the end.


Changes that I have made since the last update include the entire ending sequence. Instead of the rabbit stealing the apple, a load of apples fall on Pigham's head and knock him out. I have also added textures and lighting in order to make the animation more visually appealing. Finally, I have added some music which in my opinion, suits the animation perfectly. I will go into more detail for each individual scene, as well as the music and animation later. For now, here are a few screenshots:






Now that I have finished all of the animation, I will give some thought on the camera angles. I did want the camera to stay at one angle for the most part, simply for one scene in particular (the one where Pigham walks off screen). However, it does not create a very cinematic effect. So I will be experimenting with camera angles to add more effect to the scenes.

I still want to iclude the rabbit somewhere in the animation too, so I'll come up with some ideas for him.

Animation Progress and Edits

As of today, I have animated about half of my story board which has come to around a minute and 10 seconds. Here are a couple of screenshots of some of my unfinished scenes:








I was very satisfied with my progress until I was reminded that there is a 60 second limit to the animation. This unfortunately meant that not only would I have to cut about half of what I had already animated, but I would also have to leave out a couple of other scenes I had yet to animate. This includes the Rabbit character.

Here is a list of all edits that I will be making in order to fit the 60 second limit, using the storyboard as a reference:

1 - Cut out the entire introduction of Pigham walking towards the camera.
2 - Shave off 1 or 2 seconds from scenes such as Pigham looking at the apple.
3 - Cut out scene 8 where Pigham punches the tree.
4 - Cut out scene 12 where Pigham kicks the tree.
5 - Cut out scene 13 where Pigham walks away from the tree.
6 - Merge scenes 12 and 15 so that the apple lands on Pigham's head when he is sad rather than when he is walking away.
7 - Completely remove the Rabbit character.
8 - Change the ending so that Pigham gets the apple, but is then hit by several other falling apples.

I am quite sad about having to remove the Rabbit, especially as I have only just modeled him! However, if I want to keep within the time limit I have no choice. If I have time at the end, I may stick him in the scenes anyway. He can just watch Pigham try to get the apple and laugh at him.

I will make any other changes where ever necessary.

Secondary Character - Rabbit

This is the rabbit character who will steal the apple from Pigham once he finally gets it. As I mentioned before, I dont want him to just suddenly appear from nowhere at the end and steal the apple. So I will be placing him in the rest of the animation to let the audience know that hes there. I will probably stick him asleep infront of the tree and wake him up once Pigham hits his head.

Pigham Behaviour and Attributes

Pigham was inspired by the character Scrat from the Ice Age films. As such, I have aimed to model his behaviour after Scrat, while giving him enough of his own attributes to make him more of an individual character.

The most obvious similarity between the two is their constant attempts to get their food. All of Scrat’s movements are generally over exaggerated. I did want Pigham to also have over exaggerated movements in order to both suit the cartoon style of the animation and to appeal to the young target audience. However, I wanted to focus the movements more so on the eyes as I have always believed that they are the most important and defining part of a character. So using the character Zim from the Invader Zim series, I aimed to constantly make Pigham’s eyes as expressive as possible

Storyboard

Reads from left to right, top to bottom:

1 - Pigham walking along a road.
2 - He notices an apple on a near by tree.
3 - Close up of his face with his pupils replaced with the apple.
4 - Close up of the apple with a glowing background.
5 - He tries to jump and grab the apple a couple of times.
6 - He then tries to climb the tree, getting further and further...
7 - ...but eventually falls down.
8 - He then tries to punch the tree.
9 - He becomes fustrated and walks off screen.
10 - He suddenly dives head first into the tree...
11 - ...but only ends up hurting himself.
12 - Pigham sadly decides to give up.
13 - He decides to give the tree a kick...
14 - ...before walking away.
15 - The apple suddenly drops on his head.
16 - Close up of him happily holding the apple.
17 - Suddenly, a near by rabbit grabs the apple from his hand.
18 - The rabbit taunts Pigham and then runs off.
19 - Close up of Pigham's eyes twitching.


I decided to keep the position of the camera at the same angle from scenes 5 - 15 because I thought that it would be effective to have the whole process of trying to get the apple in one shot. I also thought that keeping the camera stationary for the most part increases the effectivness of certain parts, such as scene 9 where he walks off screen. However, I may decided to experiment with the camera when animating in order to find a more cinematic angle.

Regarding the rabbit character, in the storyboard he only appears right at the end. I believe having a new character suddenly appearing at the end of the animation like that almost cheats the story. So I will most likely include the rabbit in the rest of the animation by placing him infront og the tree and watching Pigham trying to get the apple.

Pigham Biped

The biped...in my opinion, one of the most useful, yet extremely fustrating parts of 3DS Max.

As Pigham has a humanoid body structure, I was fortunate enough to be able to use the standard biped instead of having to use bones to create my own one.

As Pigham's limbs are very small in proportion to the body, I was very worried that not only would it be very difficult to get the arms and legs of the biped to fit into the model, but also even if I was able to, if it would look right when animated. In the end, it turned out I had nothing to worry about as I was able to resize the biped to fit Pigham's body. Also because of the way that the biped had been weighted, I was able to move the limbs enough without causing any pinching.




I also wanted to be able to animate the ears, snout and tail. Thankfully, it is possible to add a tail and 2 ponytails to the biped. So I used the ponytails for the ears and the tail for the tail. That just left the snout. I noticed that you have the option to add props to the biped. So I did and stuck it to the snout.




At first, it seemed to work perfectly. However, when the time came for me to animate Pigham walking, I soon realised that the prop is actually attached to one of the biped hands. So whenever the hand moved, so did the prop, as it can be seen below:



In the end, someone suggested that I use an FFD box. I had just learnt how to use this in the eye tutorial and knew that it would work.




The only problem with the FFD box is that it doesnt seem to stick to the model. The usual ways of attaching things together, such as linking and attaching, wouldnt work. So when I come to animate it, I will annoyingly have to drag the box around with the model.