Unit 67 Final Animation

Final Animation

The Video below is the final edit of my Unit 67 animation

(For some reason the video quality had degraded and i have been unable to remedy it)

Theory and Application of Digital Graphics Styles Used in Computer Games

Explosion Test

Because of my relative inexperience at creating effects in 3DS Max i knew i would not be able to create part of my final animation without first practising, to this end i have been looking up and practising creating effects by watching tutorials on websites such as; Youtube, PheonixBit, Java2s & cgcookie

The video below is a result of some practice using multiple tutorials from different sorces

Explosion Test Video

5 Icon Themes

Introduction
Below is all the work to do with my icon designs for college, including; my choices of genre, planning for each genre, concept sheet for genre, my final icon choices, and the final icons.

---Sci-Fi---

---Horror---

---War---
---Fantasy---

Concept Sheets and Final Designs
Bellow are the concept sheets i created for my icon designs.

Sci-Fi

Horror

War

Fantasy

Icon Planning

Production Processes of my Icons

Before designing and creating our own application icons, we first created a basic icon so we could learn the process of how to create icons. This then allowed us to practice and develop our skills at creating icons.

(the above image is the basic icon i created)

I created this icon using the following steps:

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Avatar

Creating an Avatar

In order to make our blogs a bit more personalised and to help our tutors recognise who were sending emails to them we were given the opportunity to create our own personalised avatars. 

To do this we were given a website to use called DoppelMe, a fairly simple site designed to create cartoonised avatars for people to use. Below is my avatar.

------UPDATE------

Me being me, I got pretty bored of my avatar after a few days but really couldn't be bothered to change it. But after we began our flash unit and I had created a cartoonised version of my Leviathan concept I decided I would use this as my Avatar (I was already using it to represent me in my animation anyway).

Below is my original concept work for my avatar and the final product (created in flash then exported to Photoshop for refinement).

And finally, here's me!

Animated 3D Biped

In the first of our practical lessons for animation we were to create a walk cycle using a 3D biped in 3DS Max,
We used a walk cycle image as a backdrop for an easy reference as to where we were going to position the model to make the walk look effective.

(the original image file)

 (the image as a backdrop in 3DS Max with my biped model in the foreground)

We were to use the move and rotate tools to move the limbs how we wanted them, in order to make the walk animation look as realistic as possible. i encountered problems with this (as did a few others in the class) the biped model could not be moved (as a whole) up and down, so to counter this i had to move the backdrop up or down (when appropriate), and when it came to rendering and saving the file as an .avi so the animation could be viewed outside of 3DSMax and/or posted on my blog.

When we were animating the model we had to rotate each individual section of the model (forearms, upper-arms, hands, spine & head ect.) it was really trying and repetitive. once or twice i forgot to activate the auto-key tool, so i had to restart the animation again.

Unit 78 Collage Poster

I had originally put the photorealism collage on to its own page, I had planned to do this for all of the art styles, Cel-Shaded, Pixel Art  ect. but time run short so I combined the rest into one collage poster.

3D Modelling Concept work & Timed Assessment

'The Fortis Defendere'

This is a scene i created using the 3D model i created in my timed assessment. I based the design off of monolithic structures with a sc-fi theme, a more specific example would be that of the Forerunner ships/structures from the Halo Universe (see below).

When designing the Fortis Defendere (my model) i created a whole design idea and backstory to it, this helps me to create the actual design and feel of the model. (below is the back story i created)

The Fortis Defendere

The Defendere was designed as a border defence tower in a futuristic earth where all that survives of the U.N. are 5 nations; what is left of the United Kingdom (northern England & Scotland), Canada, Most of central Russia, Brazil and 16 Surviving states of the U.S.A. in 2137 worldwide fuel shortages resulted in a group of scientists establishing the last hope for our civilisation, Project NOVA. The NOVA Project, an international research project formed to create a stable, non radioactive fusion-able source of power, 26 years after its inception, they succeeded fulfilling their goals. However their new found pride quickly turned to horror when they realised NOVA had the potential for a terrible side effect. The project also yielded the possibility of a non-polluting nuclear weapon to be created from it. All members of the U.N. demanded access to the technology for the purposes of creating these ultimate weapons. This resulted in what became known as the 'into the fire incident' fear quickly enveloped the globe and small border wars between nations quickly developed into full scale war. The deployment of NOVA NRFW's into major population areas became standard, decimating the 3 major users of this weapon, the UK, USA and Russian Federation. All other nations became either barren desolate wastelands or joined the 'Unaligned' a name given to the loose alliances of former nations left after WWIII most no bigger that central park in New York. Because of the threat the Unaligned posed, being armed with the previously banned nuclear weapons and armies of furious men and women fuelled by hatred for the creators and users of the NOVA’s, The Fortis Defendere were created, designed as a means to protect the last major cities of the U.N. from nuclear, areal and Ship attack. Each Defendere is powered by a single NOVA reactor, six of these monoliths guard the borders of each major city, 8 dozen guarding the borders of each nation. For 100 years they sit vigilantly watching, protecting and waiting for the coming storm.

My final animation for Unit 67

New Media Toys xD

Bamboo Graphics Tablet

Today we got to use the new graphics tablets and scanners the creative media department got.

we were told that we can use them with some of our icon work (to scan them into the computer and edit them) if we wanted to, i however decided to just play around with the Tablet, to get a feel for it, so i decided to use it with Photoshop to practice drawing Japanese Kanji.

The graphics tablets we used were the

Waacom Bamboo Pen & Touch graphics tablet.

Unlike some tablets ive used in the past the Pen&Touch were easy to use, very responsive and caused very little lag with the program i was using it for (Photoshop).
they allowed for Direct Plug n Play, not having to go through any settings or enable the device before use (which was a welcomed relief).

And the scanner we used was the

Canoscan LiDE HQ.

The new scanners work a dream, so far there has been no instance of the scanners not working on certain machines in certain rooms, like the scanners we used before.
to get the scanners working we could use 1 of a few methods;
1.Use the scan button on the actual scanner.
2. Use the program installed for use with the scanner to scan your image into your desired destination folder.
3. Go into Photoshop and follow these instructions, head into File, go down to import and select Canoscan, this initiates the scanner and imports the image directly to your Photoshop canvas.

Applying Basic Texture Map

Creating Texture Maps

In today's lesson we created simple textures and loaded them onto 3 Basic Shapes (Box, Sphere & Pyramid)

once we had our basic shapes

we began to apply individual textures to each model, to do this we opened the Material Editor window.

Next we began creating the textures, first we selected the Show Standard Map (checkered dice)

and then selecting diffuse colour we applied a base colour to the mode. after this we opened the material browser and selected the desired material (wood in this instance) and applied it to our model (Box)

Once our material had been applied we could then alter the colours of the map from their default browns to any desired colour (i chose a peach like colour) and their parameters

(Grain Thickness, Radial Noise and Arial Noise)

then we opened the Render option (either Quick render using F9 or the Main Rendering Options using F10)

and took an image of the rendered box with the texture map applied.

Creating a House or building using Box Modelling

In today's lesson, we created a house using box modelling. as well as previous tools we have used before, we also used Extrude and Bevel.

once we created the initial box, we edited it using vertex's and faces to change and extend the shape until we had a house.

after this we then used the skills we had learned to make a house (or building, castle ect.) using our own ideas, i decided to draw it out before i began modelling it. i drew a basic design of a building.

i then went on to model the building and underground facility in 3DS MAX which looked like this, by the end of the lesson i did not get to finish the model and i decided i would finish it in my own time.

i finally finished the whole model, i found it difficult to effectively model the Hive section of the model.

but eventually i got the model completely finished.

Primitive Modelling

We created a character we had designed out of primitives(this was the plan, however the teachers could not find our folder)
i decided to create a being from greek myth, Medusa.
i created her suing a cone, 2 cylinders and numerous spheres.

Even though the design is relatively simple. the most difficult part to create was the tail, as getting the sphere sizes and positioning right was difficult not to mention repetitive and irritating

Abstract 3D - First 3DS Max Model

In the lesson Chris introduced the class to the basics of 3Dimensions and then introduced the class to 3DS Max the software we will be using for 3D modelling on our course.

He told us how to use the move, select, rotate tools and showed us how to create the basic individual shapes (Boxes, Spheres ect.). He then showed us an example of an abstract model which he wanted us to create our own abstract piece.

In this time i created an abstract scene using; Spheres, Torus' and pyramids which i then rendered