This will be the screen-shots that are the work progress of my animation for this final assignment. The post will be long, filled with images. I will add comments for every image to explain for every single part that I'm doing.
This is the starting file that I am working with. I am supposed to start Rigging an animation. This scene displays the blueprint of the MechArm and a CargoBox that I'm going to work with for the rest of my animation.
In this screenshot it shows the hypergraph of the animation. The hypergraph contains all the detailed information about the animation that we are working on, such as constrains and IK handles. It is important to work together with a hypergraph so that we won't make mistakes as it shows the entire hierarchy of the animation.
In this image, it shows that I have completed the starting settings for the animating later on. Constraints such as point, orient and parent constraints are being implemented in this process. This process is called Rigging, which is the basic settings of animation. Arm Controls for the MechArm are also created here as shown in the image.
From here onwards will be the screenshots and file saves for my 3D Final Project.
#1 File Saved. This is the starting file of the animation. In this file, all the basic rigging has been done and the only requirement needed to do is to duplicate CargoBoxes and re-constrain them with ArmControl and Platform . I was taught in 3D classes that there is a need to save multiple number of working files. The reason is because if any part of the animating goes wrong, I can only hop back to the closest working file to work on it again than restarting the entire project.
#2 File Saved. In this scene, there are no CargoBoxes. It is because they are hidden for me to set their rest positions. Hiding and showing objects are really important as they help you look at particular objects for the specific frame for any errors or movement faults.
#3 File Saved. In this file, I have already un-hide all CargoBoxes and positioned them 50 Translate X far apart in a line which represents a conveyer belt.
#4 File Saved. For this particular file, I have already done some animation for the first CargoBox. I have to change the ArmControl of that CargoBox to 1 and changing the Blend Parent tool to 1 too. The reason is because this allows the CargoBox to be attached to the robot's head without falling of and regardless of what kind of movement. In this scene, I've used the principle of animation: Squash and Stretch. It is the most important principle out of the 12. It gives a sense of weight and flexibility to objects. Examples of Squash and Stretch would be a bouncing ball. But in this case would be the squashed and stretched CargoBoxes.
#5 File Saved. In this scene I have took a screen shot to show that I have implemented Slow In and Slow out in this scene. This principle shows that the objects has to accelerate before starting to run at its top speed. And on the other hand when its slowing down, it doesn't slow down immediately but slowly decelerating frame by frame in speed. As the joint of the robot's head is attached by that joint, this mean that the head is moving slower than the rest of the body if it turns. There, I've made the head to move left and right to show more realism in the animation.
#6 File Saved. In this file, I have animated a few frames that has stacked the 3 CargoBox on top of each other. All using the same principles of Squash and Stretch and Slow In and Slow Out. Also, I have implemented Secondary Action into this scene too that represents the rest of the CargoBoxes to move forward as the robot picks them up to be stacked.
#7 File Saved. I stopped the file saving at this point where the CargoBox is going to head the stack of boxes because the next section would be a very difficult part which is the crashing scene of the entire stack of boxes. I've stopped the file saving here at this point is to provide a recovery point for me so that I can jump back here again if the animation of the crash scene fails.
#8 File Saved. For this scene, it shows the first part of the crashing scene. The top box starts falling off first followed by the second and a slight movement from the third. I'm using the Arc which is one of the principle of animation. Animals and human beings normally have their actions in a arched trajectory. When animations produce their actions in a arched trajectory, their movement will be even more real. Examples of this can be applied to joints or a thrown object. So in this case, the CargoBox would be the flying in an arc shape.
#9 File Saved. In this scene it shows how the second box slowly rolls off the first box as the third box is still flying in the air. Follow Through and Overlapping Action is being used here by me intentionally so that there will be overlapping actions happening at the very same moment.
These techniques provides very realistic movement and also giving the impression that characters are following the laws of physics. Follow through means parts of the characters body will still move even when it has stop in its moving. Overlapping action is the parts of the body whereby the timings of each body part will be different from the other. A third technique is called "drag". This technique actually shows that the character will move some of his body parts to catch up with the frame.
#10 File Saved. The animation is almost completed and I am arranging the CargoBoxes into position to have constant checking if there is any small errors that are seen while the video runs. Everything has to be checked before the final process of Rendering in Maya is done.
#11 File Saved. The CargoBoxes are colored and are prepared for Rendering. Rendering takes a few minutes to a few hours depending the quality of what kind of video that you want to have.
#12 File Saved. In this final scene, I have prepared and checked all the animations and are ready for rendering. There is a background and I've also added in directional lights for the materials of my animations to have reflection when they are rendered in the video. After Rendering, there are still processes of video compressions and conversions or adding in audios to make my animation complete with effects that are can be done out of Maya.
