Final Animation - Little and Large

So here it is, my first CGI animation. It's taken a good couple of months to get it all together from modelling to the final render and I have come across many problems on the way, but from this I hopefully should learn from this and not do it again in the future.

For saying it's my first animation that I have really ever done, I am happy with how it has turned out. Obviously being the one who has created it, it will never be perfect in my eyes and I will always be able to pick out faults and want to improve on it over and over again. I do know that there are a few issues that I may sort out in the near future. The lighting I think I definitely need to improve on and experiment a bit more with shadows and colours. In parts of the animation I do know that there could have done with some extra light here and there and I will probably go back and put these in after the deadline.

I concentrated far more on the animation side as that is what I really want to get into, but I realise that I do need to know all the basics and have an understanding of modelling, texturing, lighting etc. Animation wise, I am quite happy with what I produced, in my mind though I did want to create all these elaborate movements however it's just not possible at this stage, once I know how to rig then that will be the time to expand more with the animation.

I've taken a lot from this module, learning brand new skills and software and I think I picked it up pretty fast, even though I did make a fair few mistakes (especially when it came to rendering). I now know that when it comes to rendering I have to be REALLY organised with knowing what I've rendered and double checking the scene before I click render. Several times I've rendered a scene and forgot to turn on certain components so these were invisible which is not what I wanted. Luckily I started rendering early enough so I've had the leeway to make silly mistakes like these.

It's been a really good module and I'm definitely looking forward to when I can animate again and to also improve my modelling skills along with the other areas.

Background / Sound - Little and Large

I decided to create a background for my animation, just a simple sky to fit in with the rest of the scenery. I mentioned before I might try adding a few clouds in, instead I tried creating a blue gradient for the sky and ended up lightening different areas of it. The lightening ended up mimicking clouds quite well and I thought it would fit in nicely with my scene.

When it came to dropping the background in, I re-sized and also colour corrected it a bit as I found that it was a bit too light. I bumped up the contrast and lowered the brightness until I managed to get it working well with the surrounding environment. Even though I did this, I found that it was easier to colour correct it further in Final Cut Pro. I was able to lighten the blacks out so they weren't too dark. Within Final Cut, I also added my sound in which included a soundtrack and different sound effects. I struggled with this a fair bit as the soundtrack I had wasn't long enough for my whole animation and I had to cut it up in certain places for it to fit. Sarah ended up helping me out with this in the end we got it sounding much better than I originally had it. By adjusting the levels in certain places and overlapping sounds, the cuts in the music aren't too noticeable and I'm happy with how it is.

Camera Test

This is a test to how my animation will look with the cameras in place. As it has to be a multi-camera shot, the camera has to cut to different perspectives. We can get away with using just the one camera and cutting at certain points, with this it is the easiest when wanting to render out and putting the animation together.

With cameras, it is just basically animating an object, so there isn't much problem with it. When going from one shot to another I had to remember to key select all the attributes again so there wouldn't be the action between shots where you would see the camera move. I did try this, however I found that I wasn't able to achieve what I wanted, the result ended up being quite jumpy and just didn't quite work. I think this was due to the fact that the animation was already put in place and I hadn't allowed for extra frames inbetween to add in camera shots. The train kept on moving so when I jump cut the next shot it was too fast and the position of the train had changed noticeably.

I have a variety of shots from close ups to long shots and the camera zooming out to show the surrounding area. There needs to be a range of shots otherwise it can become predictable and it might not give the same effect that you want to achieve. The footage below shows the basics in what I am trying to achieve. Only 6 seconds is rendered at the moment, so the rest I produced a playblast to show the whole animation.

Shooby Shooby Do Yah!

Shooby Shooby Do Yah! from Czarek Kwaśny on Vimeo.

I came across this animation on Vimeo and it really fits in well with what I'm creating at the moment. It takes a train and really animates it in certain ways to give it personality and life. It bobs up and down along to the music as it travels on its journey and when it slows down the whole train squashes together to show this action. In essence these are just principles of animation, but it's how you carry them out, they still have to be executed well and make sense for why you are doing them.

The colours that have been used throughout aren't anything extravagant and they have been kept quite simple yet vibrant. However when you look at it, you notice there are different tones to each colour, it's quite effective as it adds more depth not only to the train but the scenery around it. I really like how the train moves along, things grow with it which actually is along the lines of what this animation is about. It is about personal growth and how we gather experience, personality, ideas and make decisions. A more indepth look into it is HERE. My animation doesn't have a real in-depth meaning like this one, however in the future I would definitely want to create something of my own accord that I feel strongly about.

This animation has also given me better ideas for camera shots, even though I am mainly following my storyboard, I have added and altered a few of the original frames. Mainly because I thought some extra things needed to be added and at the time one shot didn't work as well as another. I have found that panning the camera to follow the train quite successful and I like the way it has turned out. In this animation it works really well too, there is a lot of it but I don't feel that it is too much or too overused as they have altered the position of the camera slightly for several shots. It is still following the train, just from a different angle.

Knick Knack

knick knack from aplady on Vimeo.

Another animation that worked with simple colours was Knick Knack by Pixar. Now this was creating in 1989 so that could be a reason for the basic colours, however saying that when you look at each of the characters, you can tell that they are made from plastic so surely the block colours would suit them more and portray plastic far better. 

The background however, consists of different colours just to make it more interesting and to possibly break up the space. I think I will have to experiment with putting some clouds in the background of my scene, however I have to remember that it is in a desert and it's meant to be really sunny. I have to be able to keep it within that theme and atmosphere or else it will deter away from the original idea.

When looking at the animation for each individual character, they have simple movements to coincide with their actual design and anatomy. Nothing too drastic otherwise it would take away the believability of it all. I had thought about making my cacti in my animation move up and down to the music as the train passes it, when looking at Knick Knack they have similar movements so I could use this as reference. Due to time constraints however I will have to see whether or not I get round to doing this, if not before the deadline, I will definitely return to it to add in the extra movements to see what impact it could have. Obviously it would add more characterization, however it may not necessarily work as it may be too much, possibly distracting? but I guess I will only know if I try.

Rango - beginning scene

When I rendered out a test for my animation, I placed a plain blue background for the sky. I said I may go back and develop on this, however first I thought I would look at other times where the background has been pretty simple and has worked with the style of the animation.

Take Rango for example, the beginning scenes is of him in his tank, it isn't quite noticeable at first until you see the joints of the background, yet saying this, it still works. There is a slight gradient to the sky and a few clouds added to try and give a sense of realism to it, even though at the time you think it's probably fake anyway. I think it works though because it works with the detailing and texturing of Rango himself, so it doesn't look too out of place.

It's quite interesting to see the contrast between this beginning scene with it being so basic and the rest of the film. The textures for every other character is pretty astounding and so complex. For Rango himself, they had 120 different effects maps and 20 colour maps to make up all of his scales. I would want to try and see what I could do with textures (obviously not to this standard), to see what I would be able to create on Photoshop to then place it back onto my character. However due to the style of my animation it wouldn't fit in very well. As the style of my animation is all based around Brio - block plastic colours, I think just a plain background could work. I could experiment with putting clouds in the background and possibly have them moving across the screen at a slow place just to give it some movement.

Rendering

So I have began to light my scenes and get preview renders of what it will look like when it is fully rendered. The images below are just some screenshots I took from the render preview. The background is black at the minute, however as I want to drop a sky image in the background this will be put in place after the image sequence is rendered out. For these two shots I think the lighting is alright, obviously I'm not too sure how to light a whole scene and a moving object so it's just trial and error at the minute. I may look into other examples to see how people have gone about doing this.

I managed to get it rendered at here is what I got, only 6 seconds at the minute but I'm happy with what I have so far. Just to get an idea for the sound, I just dropped the soundtrack in with a train noise to see if they would fit in with the whole scenario. I really like how they all work together so I will just have to figure out how the rest of the sound will go. The background is literally just a blue colour to mimic the sky - but I will probably work on this some more before the final hand in date.

Layout of Scene

This is the layout of what my scene will roughly look like, I drew it out to get a basic idea of how many tracks I would need and the area of the planes. With the drawing as well, I can also roughly work out how long the train might take to get around the whole track, taking into consideration that the animation has to be at least 30 seconds long.

Here's the Maya model of the environment, there is no sky as this will be put in place in After Effects once everything has been completed and rendered out. I have placed different sized cacti about to add more to the scenery, if I have time I may put some rocks or maybe even a desert skull you would normally see in movies that contain deserts. Obviously if I did this I would have to keep it simple to coincide with the Brio theme. I'm not sure whether these will be my final colours, they might need some adjusting once I put the lighting rig in, however I know that they will be kept to plain colours to relate to the train design.

Lighting Task

To get used to lighting, we were given a 3 point lighting task to do in Maya. You need a key, fill and edge light. The key light is the main one that lights most of the subject, the fill as the name suggests, fills out the shadow and the edge light highlights the edge of the subject, giving more definition.

It is pretty straight forward to set up, it's just mainly trial and error to get it in the desirable position and to achieve the light set you want. As it is computer generated and not real world you can tell Maya to turn on and off certain shadows or any reflections. In the real world you don't have this luxury, you just have to work with what you've got.

With my animation, I will have to have shadows and the lighting will have to replicate a sunny day, yet when it gets to the canyon, it has to be quite dark and gloomy to show the depth of it. I will start off with the 3 point lighting and just work from there really, trail and error and see where I get to.

Key Light

Fill Light

Edge Light

3 Point Light Rig

The final render turned out alright, mainly because it was just following what we had been told. I think it might take me awhile longer to get to grips with it and to understand what it is I want to achieve / how I want things to be lit. There are a few technical aspects I need to remember, turning off specular if not in a real world situation, too many highlight dots. Also picking out which lights will affect what. With light linking you are able to specify, for this one I turned off the fill and edge light on the ground plane - this ensured that no extra light would spill off onto it as otherwise it looks too false.

The Incredibles

There is one scene in particular from The Incredibles which until now I hadn't even thought of referencing. I had completely forgotten about how the above scene shows the RV landing down onto the road and the actions that follow it. My train is almost doing the same action of landing down from quite a height. They rev the car in order for it to gain speed and traction once it hits the road and due to the speed at which they are travelling, the hit the ground with some great force and the RV swerves left and right as they try and take back control of the vehicle.

With my train I need to think about the speed in which it is travelling, the more speed, the longer it is going to take to slow down so I may need to review my animation and adjust this. I originally thought that the train would be constrained to the tracks, however after seeing this I think I can make my train bounce a bit more as it hits the ground, just to add a bit more exaggeration and to show the speed and height at which it was travelling at.

Dumbo - Casey Junior

As my animation is based on a train, I wanted to get some reference of other animations and see how other people go about animating it. I originally was going to look at Thomas the Tank Engine, however when I saw it I found that the trains were very static, it was only really the faces that showed expression and animation. What I had in mind was for the train to have more life and emotion, which is what Casey Junior in Dumbo shows. The above video is a compilation of all the train scenes in Dumbo. You can tell instantly that the train has a life of its own, its own personality, the train itself can't talk, however sounds/words are suggested by the whistle of its pipe. The way the train sets off is really exaggerated, really trying to pull away as best as it can with all the other carriages attached to it. Just in that short section there are lots of principles of animation shown, squash and stretch, anticipation, exaggeration, follow through and overlapping action.

With my animation I have included squash and stretch and anticipation to add character to my train. I think I may do this also (squash and stretch) with the cacti in my environment to give them some life, have them bobbing up and down as the train passes by. I have got some follow through and overlaiing action in the way of when the train hits back down on the tracks, it tilts and swerves and takes awhile to steady itself back along the tracks.

At the beginning of my animation, I wanted the train to ease in, build up the momentum slowly as it sets of and then gains speed. However as it is set to a motion path it has a constant speed so I am unable to do this unless I set 2 motion paths, changing how long each one will take. If not I will demonstrate this when the train shoots off across the canyon, as in this case the pistons will start spinning at quite some speed and the train will follow through by speeding off.

Little and Large Animatic

I've put together an animatic from my storyboard to show the rough timings of each shot and how it will progress from one to another. I have also put some possible sound on top of it to give an idea of what the atmosphere will be like. The main soundtrack I have got from Soundtrack Pro, I like this one as it is quite upbeat and when I first heard it I thought instantly of my train travelling along all happy through the desert.

I am going to source some piston sounds so I can drop that in the background subtlety - most probably from the BBC sound library we have at uni. I also need to find some other tracks as the first track wouldn't fit the whole animation as when the train comes to the canyon, there needs to be a drastic change in tempo and also when it flies over the canyon. For now though, I have just dropped the sound levels and will probably add other sound effects on top to give the piece more suspense and atmosphere. I know at the minute that the animatic is just under 30 seconds which is the minimum the animation has to be, however when it comes to placing cameras and animating them there are some shots that will be longer and I think I will have a few close up of the pistons moving so this will increase the time more.

UV Map / Piston Constraint Test

There was only one part of my train that needed UV mapping and that was the back part of it with the decoration. As it wasn't a straight forward shape, I had to create planar maps from cameras selecting the faces I wanted e.g. top, bottom, side etc. The end result being like the first image, once I had created the design in Photoshop I then saved it out so I could place it onto my train in Maya. It's turned out really well, to begin with I had no idea how I would go about UV mapping it, I tried unfolding the shape, however this didn't work when it came to putting the image back onto the model. When you know how to go about getting the UVs it doesn't seem too hard. I mentioned previously that I was either thinking about possibly putting texture onto my cactus, however I tried it with just a basic colour and think it works fine, especially when comparing it to my train as it is all just block colour, any texture might over do it and not fight in with the whole style of the piece. 

I finally sorted out the pistons for my train. Once I got shown how to do it I thought it would be pretty simple to recreate, yet I came across so many problems. It's never as simple as it looks, it will always take a few tries to get it how you want it to be. I had a load of issues with the pistons not lining up properly, not moving at all, or one part moving and the other motionless. With these mistakes, I did understand the process more and afterwards knew where I went wrong and I know in future what to do. Always make sure the pivots are in the correct place - where you want things to rotate from, any components are correctly named otherwise things can get mixed up with one another.

After all of that, the finished motion is below. I'm happy that I was able to create this, in future I think I will look more into constraints to see what else they can be used for and if they'll help my animating in anyway.

Canyon Test

I tested out the animation for the canyon scene previously and found an alternate way for the train to land than I had originally planned. I went back to the same scene to add in the tracks and some basic colour to give it a bit more depth. I also played around with more of the trains landing. When it hits the tracks I previously had it just skid side to side, this worked, however now that I had put the tracks in place I obviously could not have it skid as much or else the wheels would cut into the tracks. To over come this problem I decided to try having the train tilt side to side yet still skid, just not as much. By doing this it adds a bit more action to the train and more characteristic. I think it looks alright for a quick test, I will probably use this in my final animation but just have to modify parts and tighten the movements up a bit.

Final Storyboard - Little and Large

Ok so here's my final storyboard for 'Little and Large'. I have added colour to show roughly what will be used in the final animation and to show the setting more. I have had some more ideas about camera angles so I have added them into the notes below the relevant scene. For example having close ups of the wheels to show the gradual build up of speed from the pistons. By doing this I think it will make it more interesting and break up some of the shots more. I just have to watch the length of each shot and make sure my whole animation does not go over 45 seconds.

Train Tracks Final

I tried drawing out the train tracks for myself and modelling from there, yes they looked nice however as I have mentioned before when it came to putting the train along them, the wheels would cut into the tracks. It may look like a simple curve, however when you think about it Brio must have been so precise in their measurements to get a 6 wheeled vehicle to move round it with no problems. Because of this I will have to model from images I can find of Brio tracks from the internet, like the one below.

I modelled from the brio images and it was a lot easier for the train to go round it. There are some parts where the wheel cuts in but I don't think there is much I can do about it, hopefully if I place the camera in the right places and don't do too many close ups of the wheels and tracks it shouldn't be noticeable at all. With the basic shapes I can then duplicate it several times to create the layout of the tracks.

Test Animation 2

After producing a few test animations, I decided to test out one of my scenes where the train will jump across the canyon. Once I had modeled my canyon, I imported it into the train scene and began to animate. As I had already used deformers for some of the train, I decided to use them again to show the train leaning forward over the canyon. For this I used a flare deformer and adjusted the boundaries to give me the shape I wanted.

It took me awhile to get the animation how I wanted it, but I think that now I know what I'm doing I will be able to replicate it again in very little time. I produced two different versions of the scene, variations of how the train travels over the canyon. After getting some opinions I think that the second one works the best and it actually looks better too.






That scene is the one that has the most animation so I'm happy that I know what I will be doing for that. I just now need to model the rest of the environment and get the train moving along the tracks correctly. I also have been taught how to constrain the pistons on my train by my tutor, so I will hopefully try that for myself soon and see how it turns out.

Laws of Motion

Laws of Motion | a short film by Lindsay Gilmour from Lindsay Gilmour on Vimeo.

I found this short animation on Vimeo and thought it was really clever. Instead of just writing about it, Lindsay Gilmour has created a short animation demonstrating the laws of motion. Something that is visual tends be more memorable than just something that is written.

I like how she has given the two objects such character, the way that they are influence their actions and also their reactions. Just because it is educational doesn't mean it has to be boring, she has incorporated some comedy into it which makes it far more interesting and I've found that I've watched it several times now. By showing what each law of motion is through animation you are able to understand it more. I will find this quite useful as with any animation, these laws will apply, my train will have to keep moving up until the point where it stops itself. I will have to bear in mind that gravity does take place so in order for my train to make the big jump across the canyon it will need a gain considerable speed and have a big enough 'run up' to the gap.

Train Tracks

So theses are the stages of how I modelled the train tracks. As I said in the previous post I need to work on them a bit more as they do not fit the train quite right when it moves. Because the train is a solid object and there are no joints in between it, the tracks themselves need to be wider to accomodate the train.

I have had to create the joiner piece of the track separately in order for them to match up to each other perfectly. With this, I can them import it into any other scene file and carry on modelling from there. I find importing a really useful thing, it allows me to check my models against others to see if I'm on the right tracks. Another thing I have found to do is create layers, just like in Photoshop you are then able to make specific things visible or have them turned off. This allows you to concentrate on one particular area without having too much on screen.

So far I've had a lot of problems, not necessarily with the actual model itself but more of the fact that the train can't line up on the tracks properly without cutting into them. The above image (top track) shows how much wider the it needs to be when going round a corner. The original tracks look more attractive and are more like the real thing, however it is just not practical, unless of course I had a massive curve but then I think it will be too big. If I decide to have a curve I will need to go back and re-model the other tracks - it shouldn't take too long now that I know what I'm doing.

Test Animations

Having modelled most of my train I decided to test out some animations. I need to be able to show some of the principles of animation, the ones I had in mind were: squash and stretch, easing in and out, and anticipation.

The image below shows what I plan to animate. The squash and stretch will be used to animate specific parts of my train to give it more substance and life. To go about this I will try using the squash deformer and set key frames in the appropriate places.

The video above just shows a quick test I did using the deformer. It works okay, but I will have to see how it looks when it moves along the tracks as it may or may not work as well. I also modelled some of the tracks in which my train will travel along. I drew them out by hand and used image planes to model them from. I thought it would turn out well and the final models looked really good, however when it came to putting my train onto the tracks and have it travel along it didn't work very well.

I found that some of the curved tracks I created we're too sharp and this resulted in the train cutting into the track. I managed to get it to work on a 'wavy' track as seen below. For this I set up a motion path for it to follow. This is a much quicker way than animating it by hand, however the downside to this is that you don't have the same control over it. I think I will have to experiment with it more to see what happens.




The plan now is to sort out the whole track and come up with an overhead plan so I can then model the final thing. I will also need to model the cacti and the canyon before my environment is complete. Another thing I will have to look in to is texturing, whether I will paint them in Photoshop or find some free textures.