Project Brief- Time Based
For this unit, I am working on a new Sci-Fi game which doesn’t have a concept yet. I have been told to create a 3D animation using 3DSMax including a robot I have designed. I have been given a couple games to look into games such as; Portal, Fallout etc. So I will research a couple of the robots in these games to gather inspiration, for my rough/final robot.
Tasks(overview)
Task 1
- Contextual Research.
- Artist Research.
Task 2
- 20-30 Rough Designs.
- 2x Storyboard-Including a rationale (100 words minimum).
- Final Animation
Task 3
- Evaluation
More in depth explanation:
TASK 1
Disney’s 12 Animation Principles
1. Squash and Stretch.
weight, gravity, mass, flexibility. Make sure to keep the volume the same. The more squash and stretch, the softer it is. The less squash and stretch, the firmer it is. It is the most important principle however they all have a use.
2. Anticipation.
Anticipation gives the viewer a clue to what could happen next, it makes the action realistic and natural. When this action is happening, there is no other action taking place on screen so the viewer doesn’t get confused.
3. Staging.
The goal for this action is to get your idea across very clearly, it is the main action in the middle of the screen, to avoid any confusion to the viewer, when carrying out this action you need to have in mind what you are trying to convey. This is usually used to show emotion of the character, like a reaction to another action, however this would be more important.
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose.
Straight Ahead Action- This is good for unpredictable objects such as fire, water, dust and any type of particle.
Pose To Pose- This action is creating the beginning, middle and end and going back to fill in the between poses. This is a good method as it can help to know what the end results are going to look like and won’t have to worry about it. However if you mess one up you might have to change a lot of them to fix the animation.
When creating a person or animal, it’s good to use both, for example, use SAA for the ears, tails, hair and use PTP for the body, using both will make to look more natural and realistic.
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action.
This adds realism to your animation, and works mainly on body appendages that drag behind or in front of the rest of the body after the body stops moving. The more drag you give an object the lighter it is. The less drag you give an object the heavier it is.
6. Slow In and Slow Out.
In this action the movement stars slow and builds up speed and then finishes slow, this is very useful when creating anything realistic and life like.
7. Arc.
This action is a circular path motion, and can be added to almost any type of movement. In the making of a cartoon for children, this can be seen as a white ‘smear’ if the action is very fast.
8. Secondary Action.
This Action comes after the primary action, it adds more dimension and personality to the main action. It also can describe the gesture you conveying in the main action.
9. Timing.
Timing can completely change the emotion and nature of the animation. The more frames to a object, makes the action look slow, however the less frames can make it look fast.
10. Exaggeration.
This is expanding the action to increase the impact on the viewer. This is mainly used on things such as emotion and other fast motions. It is used to show realism and to make it more convincing.
11. Solid Drawing.
Volume, weight and balance. When creating a character these are things to have in mind. Using basic 3D shapes when sketching out you character is a good way to make it less flat and more dimensional.
12. Appeal.
Characters need to look appealing, otherwise viewers will be less interested in watching! For example, Make the character look cool, handsome, pretty, cute etc. It’s all about making them look interesting. Giving your character a Dynamic Design will immediately increase their appeal. 3 steps to do so:
- Use a variety of shapes
- Proportions, Enlarge the good things and decrease the ‘bad’
- Keeping it simple, removing any detail.
SCI-FI Game Audience
I have spoken about the Sci-Fi game audience before, my views are still the same:
The Sci-Fi Game Audience can change between games, however recently the creators of these types of games have targeted a younger audience, my theory is that they are aiming their games at the new generation to keep the genre relevant. It can also be that by aiming at a younger audience the stereotypes for this genre can be reduced, for example being a Nerd or Geek won’t necessarily be a bad term.
Summary
I can tell ‘Squash and Stretch’ is the most important, however they do all have their uses. Learning about these techniques will help me create a well done animation. As I have said, I researched the Sci- Fi audience before, and I hope that these stereotypes do reduce through updated games, such as the one I’m ‘creating’.
Game Research
PORTAL
Character Visual Analysis- Atlas (blue) and P-Body (Orange)
Both robots were created using scraps, Atlas is a male robot, based on a ‘Personality Core’ while P-body is a female, based on a ‘Security Turret’. Both have their own personality and a distinctive colour.
ATLAS-
Atlas is much shorter, and more simple when it comes to his basic shape. His body/head is a sphere connected to arm and leg plates that extrude from his body. his shoulders are more pointed than P-Body’s, indicating that it is a male. He is much wider and ‘chunkier’ than P-Body, giving him the vibes he is muscular compared to the petite P-body.
P-BODY-
P-Body is a slender and petite robot with an oval shaped body/head and elongated ‘hips’ making her seem feminine, her legs and arms are much thinner than Atlas’ and her shoulders are less pointed and more rounded making her seem more realistic to a real human.
Fallout 4
Character Visual Analysis- Codsworth
I have researched Codsworth in a previous unit, however I like the character model and will be giving more description of the appearance as the other was very brief. Codsworth is a very unique looking robot, he was created as a ‘handy robot’ equipped with the tools to fix anything broken, for example, a ‘Flamer’ which is somewhat like a flamethrower and a ‘Buzz Blade’ which is a Mr Handy appendage, a long ‘crooked’ metal arm joined together with circular nuts and bolts. He has two other appendages similar to this however they act as his hands to hold things with. His body/head is a sphere with indents to hold the eye appendages, the eyes are small spheres with a stereotypical ‘robot eye’, realising only now, even though he is the same material all over, (a grey metal) his body is extra shiny compared to the rest of his being, however it gives the character more dimension and makes up for the ‘un-weathered’ affect, as it seems brand new it wont have any defects.
Summary
On these robots I like the extruding edges and ‘points’ coming from the rounded parts, I want to include a rounded shaped and manipulate it with pointy and sharp looking edges, to make it look more complex. I also want to focus my robot on one colour, and have an accent colour to brighten the robot.
Artist Research
OMNIBOT 2000
Years produced: 1984 – 1988 by Tomy in Japan
This robot doesn’t own legs, and rolls around on wheels, which aren’t clearly seem. It has a bulky lower body with a slimmer torso, making it seem more feminine, the arm appendages seem very bulky and wide making it look thicker which may look ‘cute’. The front of the robot had a lot of interactive buttons including a cassette player and a digital clock which can be programmed into an alarm. His hands are three plastic ‘fingers’ that can open and close, made to clasp onto things, mainly a tray to hold drinks, this robot can also pour drinks. His head is smaller and joined to the body with a dark ‘tube’ and blended into the body with excess plastic. The head is in the shape of an oval and is almost completely covered with its eyes, which are made from a black plastic that is extruded from the head with a orange glass as its eyes.
Robot 2
I couldn’t find anything on the creator of this model, however I wanted to analysis this as I like the weathered and dark vibes it gives off. The primary colour of this realistic robot is black, with red accents. We as humans usually associate these colours with evil and menacing objects and characters. The arm appendages seem as if they are possibly changeable in some way, maybe into legs if turned downwards, however they do seem like rocket launchers or a built in weapon, this wouldn’t be too hard to believe as the colour and the menacing vibes it gives off shouts danger. The extruding eye seems like it can zoom in and focus on its target, it also looks like the most detailed part of the robot. This robot seems as if it would float to move, instead of rolling or the use of legs.
Robot 3
This robot is much similar to ‘Robot 2’, I didn’t find anything on the creator, however much like the previous robot I wanted to visually analyse it for inspiration. I chose this robot as I liked the the weathered vibes and unique body shape, though it’s just a simple oval, something about simple shapes used to create a complex being really inspires me. Attached to this body, is a a pair of legs and arms. The arms have a human structure to them, meaning that they have a shoulder joint, a elbow joint and hands which have all the joints necessary to move like a humans. The legs on the other hand are more robotic compared to the arms. They still have the joints, what I can see is a hip joint, and a knee joint, whether that’s what they are or not, I’m not sure, but that’s what I can see from looking at it. Just below the ‘knee’ there is extruding large bolts? that gives me the idea that this is what helps to hold up the robot, maybe to keep it stable and upright. The ‘feet’ looks to me, like two small wheels linked together with an additional piece of metal to roll the robot around. The large, green, eye is a crucial part to the personality of this character, it brings life to the model and stands out for the robot, as the rest of the character is quite dirty and weathered. Overall the primary colours used are; a faded yellow, strong gold, a cream white and a dull silver and of course the luminous green for the eye.
Summary
I want my robot to hold a strong personality, even from just looking at it. I don’t think I will include arms, or humanoid arms at least, as they are difficult to manipulate and create. I want my robot to hover or roll, and give off cute but royal vibes, possibly by using gold?
TASK 2
(20 Rough Character Designs)
(I chose to develop the sixth design in the first photo)
Without Materials
With Materials
(Final Robot)
Story boards
#1
-RATIONALE-
How did I obtain this idea?
I first thought of the setting, I wanted to base it in a simple place so that the spotlight wouldn’t shift from the robot, and as this design is very ‘Loud’ I didn’t want the background and scenery to stand out too much, otherwise the whole animation could be a mess. I chose a empty desert as not much would be there only a few dead bushes. The whole idea is that the robot discovers something, in this case it’s a throne, a very retro style throne in a pyramid the robot comes across on his stroll, he travels into the pyramid and notices a small pool of lava, this indicates that he should turn back however this robot notices this perfect throne and decides to use his ability to ‘super jump’ over the lava to get to that throne, when he finally gets on the throne he feels as if it was made for him to discover.
#2
-RATIONALE-
How did I obtain this idea?
I first thought of the setting, once again my robot stands out, I didn’t want my animation to look too obnoxious, so I decided to go for another deserted place, instead of no background I went for a simple mountain range to add variety. The premise of this animation is similar to the first idea, the robot discovers something, and in this case it is a shiny diamond found at the peck of a mountain on his stroll. He travels up this mountain as he doesn’t remember climbing it before and he discovers an out of place card board box, he bumps into this box, allowing the lid to fall off, letting a shiny diamond bounce out. The robot happy with his find, takes the diamond travelling back down the hill.
Final Animation
TASK 3
Evaluation
During this evaluation I will critique my work with my honest opinion, whether it be good or bad.
My research was brief. I learnt about the 12 animation principles and found that the most important one was squash and stretch, from first glance I wouldn’t have thought that! I do believe I should have expanded on each principle, I should’ve given them a small paragraph each, and maybe given a different view on sci-fi games. While researching robots in video games I should have described the robots colour. I also believe i should have researched a different robot, as I have said, I researched ‘Codsworth’ in a previous unit, I believe I was bias when researching him as I already had a view on his model. I was disappointed in myself for the artist research, I should have looked harder for the artist names as it looks so unprofessional, without the artists name I had to compromise and use ‘Robot 1’, ‘Robot 2’ and ‘Robot 3’. My analysis on these robot however, were very descriptive and held a good explanation.
My rough designs are exactly as named, rough. I was very brief when analyzing them and should have given each design a small paragraph, however I was racing against the time and I didn’t have time to, so I had to compromise with small bullet points. My rough design are all made with rough media. I think my creativity has improved in this unit however I do think when creating these rough designs I should have used colour to convey my idea of the colour as during adding material I didn’t really have any idea what to use, I also should have given a better analysis to my rough designs. I based a lot of my rough ideas around a single eye and if I were to redo this I would focus on adding more eyes to my robots, as they seem repetitive.
The layout of the scene could have been better. Originally I was aiming to make it using a single camera. However things changed and I used a total of five. The third camera, in my opinion, should have followed the robot as there is a period of time were there is nothing going on screen. I should have added another camera or moved the camera down slightly. My background is simple, the mountains are copies of each other to save time, and the trees are from the 3DSMax gallery of objects.
I believe my robot and animation, will appeal to younger people especially since it’s brightly colored. However since rendering and turning it into an animation, the colours have darkened and enhanced, as well as the background, and as for this teenagers might be the main targeted audience.
My project does fit the brief. I was asked to create a short animation, making a discovery of some kind and I did just that. I created a robot, a scene, a animation and all the research to back it up, so yes, my work fits the brief. As it’s a Sci-Fi game, teenagers will be more interested in it that if it was a kids game. I don’t mention age/race or gender so it is appropriate to everyone.
CONCLUSION-
Overall I’m pleased with what I have created. I would have changed the artist research, I would have found ‘actual artists’ as I’m still disappointed I couldn’t find the names of the creators. I should have added an analysis to each rough design. Looking at my robot now, I would have changed the colours as it reminds me of a Christmas colour scheme, not a robots. I have improved in 3DSMax, though I have a long way to go I have actually picked up on a lot of things I couldn’t have in previous units. As I have said, I was struggling to keep time, I should have taken into consideration of the render and editing time as I was struggling towards the end and rushed a lot. This was my first time animating though I’m familiar with 3DSMax I still learned so much. Something I needed help with was when I was rendering the scenes, and changing the cameras the fit the scenes, I found that difficult, however I now know how to independently do it. When I finally edited, I got some help from a peer who knew her stuff in Adobe: After Effects, and she really helped me understand the program a lot more than if I went in blindly.
HARVARD REFERENCES
AlanBeckerTutorials. (2017). 12 Principles of Animation (Official Full Series). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqjIdI4bF4. Last accessed 07/02/2019.
By Tomy ®. (2019). Omnibot 2000 ® – 5405 . Available: http://www.theoldrobots.com/omni2ka.html. Last accessed 25/02/2019.
Carlos Lewis. (2019). Discover ideas about Robot Cute. Available: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/375135843932418554/. Last accessed 25/02/2019.
3D Division. (2015). Sci-Fi Robot(1). Available: https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-sci-fi-robot/982191. Last accessed 03/03/2019.
[deleted]. (2018). Sci-Fi robot made with Blender & Substance Painter. Available: https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/745shi/scifi_robot_made_with_blender_substance_painter/. Last accessed 03/03/2019.
FANDOM. (2019). ATLAS and P-body. Available: https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/ATLAS_and_P-body. Last accessed 25/02/2019
Fandom. (2019). Codsworth. Available: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Codsworth. Last accessed 15/01/2019.
FANDOM. (2019). Mister Handy. Available: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Mister_Handy_(Fallout_4). Last accessed 25/02/2019.
FANDOM. (2019). Mr. Handy buzz blade (Fallout 4). Available: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Handy_buzz_blade_(Fallout_4). Last accessed 25/02/2019.
Tammy Coron . (2018). Understand Disney’s 12 principles of animation. Available: https://www.creativebloq.com/advice/understand-the-12-principles-of-animation. Last accessed 7/02/2019.
Mood 