Week 4

Bones & Skinning

Week 4

This week the process of rigging an object was introduced, this is achieved via the use of bones to realistically control the movement of an object, whilst taking into account parent and child relationships. For example when producing the bones to manipulate a character's arm, the shoulder would be the parent bone whereas the children would be the elbow followed by the wrist and then the hand. Whenever the character's arm moves the children bones move initially which then cause the parent bone to accordingly. This relationship can be setup within 3DS Max via the use of "IK Solvers" which allow the user to specify which bones should affect each other.

Bones can be created by accessing the Systems menu under the create tab of the command panel. Bones are drawn by simply click and dragging, by default the first bone created will be the parent, then the proceeding bones will be children in a descending order. Once a bone or string of bones has be made another small object will appear on the end of the lowest child bone hierarchy , this is known as a "nub". Nubs allow quick selection of the lowest child without having to click on the bone itself, i.e. nubs can be used in the same way as a dummy object without having to attach them separately. However a nub's main use is when assigning an "IK Chain" to specify the bones relationships.

An additional parameter of bones is the ability to add "fins" which basically pad them them out resembling "muscle" on a human body. For example when creating bones for the torso of a character fins could be introduced to widen the bones providing a wider structure which can then be skinned.

Once the desired bones have been created, an object may then be placed over the top of them, acting as skin. In order to tell the bone that a certain object should act as its skin, the object should be placed directly over the top of the bone in all viewports, then a "Skin" modifier can be applied. The associated object will then automatically transform when the corresponding chain of bones is moved. This is an extremely useful technique which is invaluable when creating characters, as their bone system can be setup first then the characters limbs can add introduced as skin.

Although skin modifiers are relatively straightforward to apply they will not always produce the desired affect when the bones are moved. Consequently the "Envelopes" sub-object level of the skin modifier can be adjusted. Envelopes allow the user to determine which vertices are affected by the skin modifier, this is indicated by a visual balloon/selection area which encircle certain vertices changing their colour according to the amount they will be affected. Blue represents vertices that won't be fully considered by the modifier, the ideal colour is either orange or red.

Having learnt how to setup a bone system and rig an object to act as its skin, I experimented by creating a simple leg to test these features. To begin with the bones were produced starting with the hip and ending at the foot. "HI Solvers" were then used to specify the appropriate relationships between the number of bones. HI Solvers can be found under the Animation --> IK Solvers menu along the main toolbar along the top of the user interface. The HI Solvers were inserted by clicking on the "hip" parent bone , then dragging down and clicking on the "heel" bone. These HI Solvers are represented by small blue crosses, that can also be attached to any spline object which in turn will act as a dummy object to move the HI Solver without having to click on it each time. Additional HI Solvers were then placed between the "heel", "foot" and "toe" bones.

I then proceeded by creating the actual leg itself using the box tool to produce a rough leg and foot shape. The vertices were then scaled around certain points and a mesh smooth modifier was applied to add more definition to the leg. Whilst producing the leg I ensured that it was constructed around the bones rather than having to move it over them afterwards which may have proved problematic, resulting in the leg having to be reshaped for example. As a result I gathered that this would serve as good working practice for the future, in that producing the bones first followed by the skin over the top of them is essential.

Producing the bones afterwards would be inefficient and difficult to work with. Consequently I will take these factors on board when producing my idents for this Semester's assignment, as producing a working/realistic character is one of my goals and the techniques I have learnt should prove essential to achieving this.

Although I am relatively pleased with how the leg turned out it is far from perfect. This was due to the fact that I struggled setting up the envelopes on the leg's skin and as a result several of the polygons become inverted during the animation sequence. Consequently if I spent longer tweaking the size and position of the envelopes I believe I could eventually solve this issue, however as it is only a basic demonstration of how bones can be used it is not of great concern.

Week 3

Morphing

Week 3

This week we were introduced to the “Morpher” modifier within 3DS Max. It is essentially a modifier that allows the shape of an object to be altered based on vertice positions of specified targets objects. However in order for the modifier to be applied, the target object has to have the exact same number of vertices are the original object. As a result it is often easier to create a clone of the initial object and manipulate its vertices, rather than attempting to produce a separate object which is extremely unlikely to have the same number of vertices. Once the Morpher modifier has been applied to the desired object multiple target objects can be added to the channel slots by using the "Pick Object from Scene" or "Load Multiple Targets..." buttons. The amount that each target is applied can also be changed (0-100) to enable further control over the morphing process, i.e. 100 would exactly replicate the target shape whereas 50 would be halfway between the original and the target. A total of 10 targets can be assigned to an object with the Morper modifier, in addition this process can be animated using Auto Key for example, allowing a smooth change in shape.

Bearing these facts in mind I then experiment with the modifier myself, I started with a geosphere, created a clone and pull several of its vertices upwards along the y axis. Another copy was then made of the newly modified sphere, however this time I increased the scale of its vertices on the bottom half in stages to create a "stepped" sort of appearance. Having done this I created another copy of this object and pulled several vertices downwards to act as legs for my object.

These three edited clones where then added to the channels of a Morpher modifier which was applied my initial object. I then enabled Auto Key and increased the amount of each channel to "100" in 50 frame intervals. I then exported the animation as AVI which can be viewed below:

Although the animation sequence itself is rather basic I grasped the concept behind the Morpher modifier and have come to realise its potential to create much more complex animations ideal for lip syncing a character's mouth/face for example. Consequently this modifier could prove useful when I produce the character for my idents to animate facial expressions and show emotions.

Assignment

Assignment

Channel

This assignment involves the task of creating three idents for a TV channel, specified by myself. This will be achieved via the use of Animation techniques within 3DS Max to produce three similar yet recognizable short animated idents.

After conducting extensive investigation of the existing channels and previously broadcasted Idents, I have decided on "The History Channel" as my chosen TV station.

 

(The History Channel Logo. [Online] Available at: http://art.newvideo.com/logos/The%20History%20Channel%20

logo.jpg) [Accessed 8 February 2009]

 

I concluded with this Channel due to the fact that it is well known for its vast range of historical content, which in turn presents a wealth of information for the idents to be based off. However as we have been delegated with the freedom to chose our subject, I felt obliged to confirm on my favourite Era throughout history "World War II", more specifically the "Soviet Union".

I have an impulsive interest with Russia and the will power of it's people in the ability to survive the Nazi invasion in 1941. Perhaps one of the most influential yet important roles within the Soviet Army were the snipers. Contradictory to other countries's military forces, both Women and Men of the Soviet Union could be snipers. Snipers were used to provide long-range suppressive fire for ground troops, in addition to the elimination of important targets such as Nazi Officers. Due to these facts Soviet Snipers were often feared by the German's and by doing so created a physiological advantage over them as well as respect from the Soviet people.

 

(English Russia >> Soviet Soldiers at World War 2. [Online] Available at: http://englishrussia.com/?p=2239) [Accessed 8 February 2009]

 

As I result I plan to model a typical Soviet Sniper for this assignment for the inclusion of three separate events. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of what I plan to produce for the three Idents, I fashioned the following Research and Mood Boards. These should help to express my chosen content in addition to the generation of potential ideas.

 

Research Board

Click here for full-size

The concept behind my research board was to portray the appearance of a typical Soviet Sniper from WWII in addition to serving as reference material when modelling the final character in 3DS Max. Whilst conducting this research I gathered a vast amount of images relating to Soviet Military Uniforms and firearms, the images above represent the ones that I considered to be the most relevant. My particular favourite is the exploded diagram of a "Mosin Nagant" rifle showing the parts it is constructed from, this should prove exceptionally useful when replicating it as A 3D model for the animations. As for the character itself I plan to draw elements from all of the images to produce an accurate uniform, that is instantly recognisable to viewers that watch The History Channel.

 

Mood Board

Click here for full-size

 

For my mood board I desired to express the range of feelings that were incurred by Soviet Snipers.  Conceivably the immediate emotion that comes to mind is the sheer number of deaths that were inflicted as a result of WWII, consequently I feel the splatter of blood adequately signifies the tragic loss of life. The snipers themselves were often responsible for the elimination of important targets, however during the battles in the Eastern Front the total number of Soviet Casualties exceeded 23 million people, the highest number of human lives lost by any country during the Second World War.  The words "Fear, Tactics and Concentrate" are elements that the Snipers had to endure whilst fighting on the front. Consequently I will attempt to incorporate their meanings throughout my idents to increase their overall impact on the viewers. The photograph visually represents these words and the conditions that the soldiers were exposed to including extreme cold, harsh weather conditions and constant bombardment. The Soviet Flag is iconic emblem associated with the Soviet Army and the Rifle Scope conveys the Sniper's tool of destruction.

Week 2

Animating Using Paths

Week 2

Last week we were introduced to the basic animation tools within 3DS Max, building on this knowledge we continued by incorporating paths within the animation process.

Paths basically act as a route which a designated object can be made to follow. This can be achieved by using any type of spline to create the desired path which are also non-renderable by default, consequently paths will not show up in the final rendered animation.

Once the path has been created, the currently selected object can be assigned to the path by accessing the "Animation" menu and then selecting "Constraints ---> Path Constraint". The object will then snap & attach itself to the path where it can then be made to follow the path exactly including changes in height in addition to the option of "banking".

Animating along a path can be an essential technique when representing linear movement, a typical useful example would be to recreate a virtual walkthrough using a "Free Camera" to follow a path around a building. This was also the goal of this week's tutorial, as a result I modelled an indoor structure which I gave a "Prison" like appearance using bars to represent cells as well as stressed looking textures to portray an aged /dirty environment.

Initially I lit the scene using a combination of "Mental Ray" Omni and Target Spot Lights, although these produced the desired dark/shadowed atmosphere that I intended, they had to be removed when I came to rendering the final animation. This was due to the fact that the Mental Ray Renderer enables high quality lighting effects, therefore enhancing the appearance of textures. However on the downside the rendering process would have taken a considerable amount of time, in addition to producing a large output file size. Therefore I deleted these lights and assigned the "Default Scanline Renderer" which doesn't produce as high quality lighting results but renders a great deal faster, which is more practical for my purpose of rendering a short scene merely to demonstrate animation techniques.

I initialized the animation process by using the "Line" tool to draw out my desired path in the Top Viewport. The spline's individual vertices were then moved around to tweak the shape of the path especially relating to its height at multiple points. All the vertices were given a type of smooth or bezier to ensure a more fluent animation once a camera had been assigned to the path.

I then created a "Free Camera" which was assigned to the path using the Path Constraint feature found under the Animation menu. With the camera snapped to the guide I then enabled a further option "Follow Path" on the camera's parameters which caused its angle to follow the gradient of the path rather than consistently remaining at 90 degrees for example.

The last changes I implemented were to the "Curves" of the camera's movent using the curve editor to reposition its keys. In addition I also inserted several "Stepped Tangents" which maintained the camera's position at several points, causing to pause for a second an then continue following the path.

Final Animation