Conclusion

 

Overall, I am fairly happy with the final animation. The character I have created is original and I feel would appeal to 4-14 year olds. It also attempts to convey the message of "Make the best of a bad situation”. No matter how many times the blob is knocked down or trodden on, he gets up and moves on. When he realises he can’t get the cake, he is still happy and celebrates his birthday.

The character itself finds ways to show it’s emotion, despite it’s lack of a face. Most of the expression comes from the eyes, but it also shows some human characteristics (yawning, gulping, smiling etc.) as well as animal expressions (wagging it’s “tail”). It has characteristic cartoon motions as well (the eyes growing and shrinking depending on the danger, the jumping for joy at the sight of something it wants).

The character is immediately shown as friendly in the intro sequence as he waves at the camera. His dream of the cake is realised pretty quickly, by his excitement when seeing it. His fears are also pretty obvious, shown in the eyes. His special skill is to be able to transform into most things it sees, and can take a lot of punishment.

This character has potential to be a main character of a story, but more likely will fit as a sidekick.

I had several problems during development that I noted in the individual scenes. Although creating emotion in such an undefined shape was pretty tricky. My first attempts proved promising, but by the time I realised it was harder than it seemed, it was too late to change it or the methods I used. I managed to create some character, and definitely made something that you can feel for.

Some improvements I would like is the ability to manipulate his body to form a mouth. I attempted to use a higher number of control points on a FFD Box, but it caused a large amount of lag on my system. I had a go at using the morpher tool, but had issues with the FFD Box, as it is used so much in the animation and I couldn’t really remove it.

The animation itself I’m proud of, and involved a fair bit of research to get it to the final version. Although it could definitely be improved, the character has been created and the concept is there.

Compilation

I imported all of the assets into Adobe Premier Pro, and positioned the scenes how I wanted them. The total time of the animation is about 1 minute 4 seconds for just the clips. The beginning and end add about 16 seconds. I chose to make the beginning blank so the viewer can focus on the music for a few seconds, and get the feel of the animation first.

The sound effects were added, and the animation was exported as a .f4v file to save space, but preserve quality.

Sounds

 

I added background music which gives a sense of mysteriousness and wondering. – Looking in The Air – Mike Vekris (www.freesoundtrackmusic.com)

The following are sounds to add effect:

Eye “pop” - http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=108616

Yawn - http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=34936 (PitchShifter and EQ effects)

“Squish” - http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=47340

Knock - http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=36789

Thud - http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=108617

Happy birthday music - http://www.nifter.com/music_tracks_loops/birthday_songs/music_box2_happy_birthday_NifterDotCom.wav

All sounds are royalty-free.

Changes

 

Scene 2

The blob now yawns as he is coming out of the drain. Before there was a lack of any facial movement. He raises his arms and his mouth goes in (breathes in).

Scene 6

When the candle raises, and the camera zooms out, the camera wags like a dog’s tail when he’s happy.

Other features

 

Lighting

The lights in the scene were fairly consistent. Since I didn’t want there to be shadows in the scene, to maintain an aspect of cartoonism. It is mainly the default lighting that comes with 3DS Max 2010.

Skybox

The sky is a simple skybox, with a sphere surrounding the scene. It has a material that is self illuminated and 2-sided.

Materials

There is a mix of semi-realistic and cartoony materials in the scenes. The road, drain and pavement have semi-realistic textures that are controlled with a UVW Map and Multi/sub object. This was done so that the viewer can distinguish the scene.

The rest of the scene is block colours, to give it a complete cartoony feel.

http://www.cgtextures.com/getfile.php/AsphaltCloseups0063_2_S.jpg?id=28318&s=s&PHPSESSID=ba90cdcfb6220a89721de975b4de7af4

http://www.cgtextures.com/getfile.php/AsphaltCloseups0113_2_S.jpg?id=59339&s=s&PHPSESSID=ba90cdcfb6220a89721de975b4de7af4

http://www.cgtextures.com/getfile.php/MetalBare0032_M.jpg?id=5493&s=m&PHPSESSID=ba90cdcfb6220a89721de975b4de7af4

http://www.cgtextures.com/getfile.php/Roads0060_3_S.jpg?id=36892&s=s&PHPSESSID=ba90cdcfb6220a89721de975b4de7af4

Final scene (6)

Animation

The blob nuzzles the side of the bowl as it realises it can’t get in. It then moves back slightly and transforms on it’s own into a cake. A candle then appears.

The camera is mainly fixed, and zooms out towards the end.

Character

The blob nuzzles the glass affectionately as if it desires what is inside, but know he can’t get it. As he transforms, the candle rises and it becomes apparent that it’s his birthday. his eyes are placed to give him a happy, but defiant look.

Changes

Initially there was no candle.

Table Scene (5)

Animation

In this scene, the blob finally gets to the cake. He enters the scene hopping towards the table. He stops, and a football hits the side of the table, making the legs collapse. There are a few cartoonish moments here where the table hangs in mid-air, and you see the blob’s eyes duck down, expecting the impact. The table just misses him, and the cake falls next to him. He turns to get it, but the glass bowl lands on top of it, blocking access. He ‘gulps’ and the scene ends.

The animation is done using keyframing, and FFD Box later on in the scene.

The camera is very active in this scene. First it starts off from the cake, and moves round to give a good view of the football hitting the table. It then moves to see the blob’s reaction, and zooms in at the end.

Character

This scene has the most emotion shown in the animation. Firstly, as the table is about to drop, the eyes grow big and duck down inside the body, as if for protection. When it misses, the eyes shrink and the tongue (eyebrows) raise as he smiles.

When he moves towards the cake and is blocked, he pushes up against it and ‘gulps’ in frustration.

Changes

Initially, there were no expressions, and the camera angle wasn’t good enough to get a good view of the reactions I added in.

Pavement Scene (4)

Animation

The scene starts as the blob rolls to the pavement, and rolls up. He gets to the top, only to be stomped on by a jogger. He decides to become a trainer and continue towards his goal.

The main animation on the blob is FFD Box. The jogger is a biped with footsteps set to run. The trainer is attached to the foot of the biped with a link constraint, and the legs are attached to the calf bones.

The camera is motionless until the blob gets squashed, where it moves in, and out as it transforms. It then pans round, to show the front of the blob’s new form, as he bounces towards it.

Character

Once the character becomes a trainer, it smiles as it gets closer to it’s goal of the cake, appearing to be unaffected by this latest squash.

Problems

One main problem is the lag that this scene creates when the FFD Box was added, it becomes incredibly difficult to edit, so I was restricted on what changes I could make.

The combination of the camera movement, and the speed of the scene means that it is hard to notice the blob smiling at the end of the scene.

The blob mesh wouldn’t meshsmooth or turbosmooth for some reason.

Changes

Changed the final camera angle, added a smile.

House/Road Scene (3)

Animation

This scene introduces the blob’s main goal, to seek out the cake. Blob rolls along the road, and slides to a halt as he spots the cake, which is sitting at a table. It jumps in excitement, and it’s eyes expand in that direction.

The camera follows the blob for a few seconds, before panning round and zooming in on the cake.

Character

The blob shows excitement as he starts jumping, and his eyes grow in the direction of the cake.

Changes

Initially there was no animation after stopping.

Road Scene (2)

Animation

The scene starts off with a view of the drain. The blob appears and squeezes through, this is done using a FFD (Box) Spacewarp. He then moves onto the road, a single eye turns around and spots an oncoming car. It grows as it sees the danger, but it’s too late, and the blob is crushed. You see it’s ok as it tries to get up, but ends up being crushed again by the back tyre. From here it gives up and just transforms into a tyre, before rolling off.

The camera follows the blob throughout, changing angles as it gets crushed.

Character

The character shows innocence as it walks into the road, not knowing the danger. As it looks, it shows fear as the eye that sees it grow large. This also shows that it is a creature far from human. It tries in vain to get up as the eye returns to it’s normal position.

Changes

Originally he was simply crushed twice, without any extra animation.

Sewer scene (1)

Animation

This scene uses reactor for the first part. The Plane is slightly angled and the eyes and floor are rigidbodies. One eye rolls down the plane till it hits the other. From here the eyes travel up into the blob till they reach the head. A ripple effect is created using the FFD Box Spacewarp.

They eyes pop out, and I use FFD Box to animate the arm waving.

The camera follows the eye as it rolls and moves through the blob, it then zooms out towards the end.

Character

The main point of this scene is to introduce the character to the viewer. The main show of emotion comes at the end, where the blob cutely waves at the camera before switching to the next scene.

Problems

My first attempt at this was using a softbody to create the ripple effect. However, I believe the mesh was too complex to use, as it glitched and flew off the screen. I also had the problem of the eyes not rolling properly, but this was fixed by adjusting the mass.

Changes

Added the wave.

Making the house

I started out with a cube, and cloned/scaled it to make a smaller version. I used to boolean tool hollow it out. I created a prism to use as the roof, and made a door with the boolean tool. I also made a doorstep with a cube.

To make some windows, I created a large cube, and four smaller cubes. I placed these to create the shape of the window, then cloned all of them to the other side of the house. In order to to through to the inside, I used the proboolean tool to union and subtract the different pieces.

I finished off by adding in a floor, and creating a glass material to add to a plane. This I placed inside the wall across the front section, so it is only visible in the windows.

Making the football

I followed the tutorial at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbzBq7vMm8M

I started by creating a hedra, and set the parameters to give me the football-like shape. I extruded all of the edges to give it shape, and used the tessellate tool so I could use spherify to make it rounded.

Finally, I used a meshsmooth modifier to create the football.

Making the plate and bowl

 

To make the plate, I took a cone and deleted the top. I created the inside of the plate and used cap to close the gap.

To make the bowl, I created a cylinder and modified the shape to make the bowl. I then cloned the bowl, scaled it to make it smaller, and used the boolean tool to remove it from the inside.

I finished it using a meshsmooth modifier, and a semi-transparent texture.

Making the trainer

I followed the tutorial at http://www.gabrieleprotti.com/PAGES/tutorial/scarpa/makingoftheshoe.htm

I started out with a cube, and used extrude and bevel to create the basic shape. I then moved the vertices until it formed the shape of the shoe.

I began working on the inside of the trainer by selecting the inside polygons and bevelling/extruding down and inwards.

Once I reached the end of the shoe, I removed the top part of the shoe where the tongue would be shown. I created new polygons to fill in the gaps.

I selected the final polygon and cut it in half. From this, I extruded/bevelled along the top inside of the shoe. This continued until it reached the top, where I enlarged it to form the end of the tongue.

I selected various areas and defined their material IDs, so it would be simple to add a texture.

I added a turbosmooth modifier, and used an FFD (Box) to alter the shape to make it look more like a trainer.

To remove the FFD (Box) from the scene, I took a snapshot of the mesh, and deleted the original.

Making the cake

I started out by using a spline to draw the shape of the cake’s base. I converted this into an editable poly, and extruded upwards to form the body of the cake. I left edges in the middle to show where the filling would be.

For the cream detail on the edge, I took a sphere, converted it into an editable poly and collapsed the top to form the outer ring. I cloned this, scaled and rotated to form the inner ring. I added a sphere in the middle to finish it off, and used the boolean tool to join it all together.

To create a bite in the cake, I created an imprint using cylinders, scaled and bent to create teeth marks, and proboolean to put it together. Once it was finished, I cloned it and used boolean to subtract it from the cake. 

Next, I used UVW Unwrap to create the texture for the cake.

And the finished model.

Making the tyre

I followed the tutorial  at http://www.puffle.co.uk/software/3DSMaxTyreTutorial.pdf

I started out using a Quad patch, end using the edit patch modifier to alter the position of the vertices. I created the grooves first, by selecting the rows/columns and altering the transform position.

Next I lowered the middle sections to give the tyre tread shape.

After this, I selected the inner patches and extruded them to make it 3D. I then lowered each side and added a quad patch to start forming the sides of the tyre.

I used the FFD (box) modifier to make it curve slightly, and pulled out a vertex to create a lip on the inner rim. I mirrored and cloned this to the other side to create the first tyre segment and used the boolean tool to join all of the pieces together.

After this, I cloned the piece till I had 10, and used boolean to attach them all together.

I used a bend modifier to create the full tyre shape.

I needed to create a centre for the tyre, so I used a cylinder and set it at the edge of the inner rim. I cloned this and the tyre was complete.

Blob animation testing

After creating my model, I needed to find out what was the best method of animating it.

Bone structure

After trying various tutorials and techniques, I decided that this method didn’t give me the type of movement and control that I required for my animation. The movement needs to be more liquid than rigid.

Reactor soft body

After deciding that my blob would be closer to jelly than solid, I searched for jelly tutorials and found one that used reactor and soft body.

While this showed promise at first, as soon as I turned the settings up to what I needed, the animation went haywire and flew off the screen. It obviously wasn't designed for the geometry of the model I am using.

Deformable FFD (Box)

This spacewarp proved to be the best out of the three, allowing me to have simple controls by having only a few box segments, and more advanced by increasing the segments. It allowed me to control all aspects and gave the right flexibility of movement.

Blob creation

Firstly, to create the basic shape I used a large sphere, converted it to an editable poly, and removed the top. I then flattened it using the scaling tool. I cloned this sphere, scaled the new one down and placed it on top. I removed the bottom from this, and welded it to the piece beneath. I repeated this process for the topmost section.

I then played with the edges till the shape was smoother. This was the result:

I added the spheres on the inside to create the feel of depth, as well as highlighting the translucency. They also give the effect of being alien.

I then created his eye using a tutorial, it is a simple sphere with an altered hemisphere setting.

Storyboard

 

Scene layout

The scene will consist of the road, the pavement and the table. There will be a grate on the road, cake, plate and glass bowl on the table.

Possible background features could be a house, trees and clouds.

The football will enter late in the animation.

Character Development

 

Various designs for the initial blob, number 5 was chosen for the final model.

Character and Storyline choice

After researching various possible types of characters and storylines, I’ve decided on what I will be creating.

First, the character I will create:

Type: Extra Terrestrial
Body Type: No bones, semi transparent, “blob”
Special abilities: Transform into any object
Likes: Sweet food, exploring, anything non-blob
Dislikes: People

I have picked this type because it should be fairly simple to model, but with texturing, should looks pretty good. Animation may be tricky, as I don’t know which method will work best, but it will be looked in to. Animating a personality may be tricky as well, as it will require features for expressions.

The story I have picked:

This “blob” is an alien that crashed to earth on a meteorite, and ended up in the sewer after falling through an open manhole. Upon climbing out, the blob looks around to check out his surroundings. Almost immediately, he gets flattened by a car’s tyres, but springs back to life, this time in the shape of a tyre. While flat, he notices a piece of cake that’s been left on a table.

He rolls to the edge of the road, and up onto the pavement, where he gets flattened again by someone walking past. He springs up again, but this time in the shape of a shoe. He hops over to the table and looks up, but a football knocks the table over.

After being narrowly missed by the table, the blob seems relieved, and becomes ecstatic when the cake lands right next to him. He moves towards it, but a glass bowl lands on top , blocking the way.

The blob appears sad, and shrinks down on his own this time. Only to slowely rise again, looking like the cake. “Happy birthday” music plays softly in the background as a candle rises from the blob-cake, the camera zooms out and the screen fades to black, with the music still going.

 

I picked this story because it’s the traditional character that you’ll feel sorry for, but can also laugh at his expense. It should hopefully convey different emotions in the viewer as the story progresses.

If there is enough time, I would like to put a scene with the meteorite landing into the manhole.

Edits

1. Changed from the same shape throughout to transforming into different objects
2. The second hit on the pavement was a bicycle, changed to a shoe
3. Initially he got hit by the football, changed to it hitting the table
4. The table initially fell on him, with his head visible, and the cake on the ground out of reach (ending), changed to him eating the cake, changed to bowl landing on top.

Storyline Research

After reviewing different types of possible characters that I could do, the next step is to review different storylines and plots of animations, before I make my final decision on the character.

Feature films

Toy Story 1

This film is based on the premise that toys come to life when no humans are looking. In this first film, a new toy (Buzz) is introduced to a collective group. Buzz doesn’t realise that he is in fact, a toy, and begins a mission to get back to his home planet. The main character (Woody), gets jealous when their owner (Andy) decides to take Buzz instead of Woody to a party at Pizza Planet. Woody attempts to go instead, but ends up knocking Buzz out of the window, making the other toys believe he got rid of him on purpose.

Woody is taken, but Buzz  survives and jumps onto the car, confronting Woody at a gas station. The two get left behind and the next part is them making their own way to pizza planet.

Once there, Buzz climbs inside a claw machine, thinking it is a spaceship that will take him back to his home planet. Woody attempts to rescue him, but they both are then captured by Sid, a child known for destroying toys, and a neighbour of Andy.

In the next part of the film, the pair meet the “mutant” toys that Sid has created, as well as his vicious dog. Buzz realises that he is a toy, and loses the will to go on, while Sid prepares to launch him with a firework, and Andy prepares to move house next door.

Woody convinces Buzz that life is worth living, and with the help of the other toys, escapes and after a series of events, gets back to Andy.

 

Over the hedge

In this film, animals can talk and are given human characteristics and personas. A bunch of animals wake up after hibernation, and find that they’re patch of forest is the only bit left, after the rest has been destroyed and replaced by rows of new houses.

Elsewhere, RJ is a raccoon that sneaks into a bear’s lair and attempts to steal all the food he has collected. The bear catches him, and the food ends up being destroyed by a passing truck. The bear threatens him, and RJ promises to get the food back.

RJ meets the animals, and uses them to raid houses on the estate to collect food for their hibernation, when in reality it was to give it to the bear. After gaining their trust, and his deadline coming up, RJ betrays the animals and runs off with the food. At this time, animal control had been called, and the animals are captured, being driven away in the van.

RJ gives the food to the bear, but at the last moment, uses the wagon of food to catch up to the animals. After convincing them he was on their side, they help fight off the bear who ends up being taken away by animal control. The exterminator is arrested for his unkind techniques, and RJ and the animals live together as a family. A caffeine-charged squirrel has enough energy to collect enough nuts for the winter.

 

Despicable me

This film is based on the events of a not so successful villain, as he gets outshone. As it begins, you find out someone has stolen the great pyramids in Egypt. This stunt is shown to be the greatest ever pulled, making all other villains seem insignificant. The main character (Gru), decides to pull the ultimate heist and steal the moon.

For this plan, he’d need to steal an experimental shrink ray device, and funding to build a rocket to reach the moon. When applying to the bank of Evil, he was rejected since he had yet to steal the device and was sent away. It was here he meets Vector, the nerdy villain who stole the pyramid (And now his rival).

Gru steals the device from a secret lab, only to have Vector then steal it from him. Gru gives chase, but Vector uses the device on him and escapes.

The next part of the film involves various attempts to get inside Vector’s fortress with no success. He’s just completed another failed attempt, when he sees some orphans selling cookies going towards the door (He had previously sent them away from his house). They manage to go straight in, so Gru devises a plan to exploit this.

Gru adopts the children, who are excited to be leaving the orphanage. They start out as a tool for his evil plans, but as he spends time with them, he begins to care for them. HIs assistant sees this, and arranges the children to be taken back to the orphanage for the sake of the plan.

Once the plan is complete, he rushes to make it to the children’s dance recital which is on the same day. He misses it, but discovers that Vector has stolen them, and will trade them for the Moon. Gru goes to rescue them, breaking into Vector’s fortress with relative ease. Vector escapes in a ship which Gru holds on to, but he cant hold on for long.  He is saved by his assistant as he falls.

Gru risks his life to save the children, the moon returns to orbit and Vector is defeated.

 

Short animations

Kiwi!

This animation starts with a kiwi tying a rope to a tree, which he then slides down to another tree on a cliff face. He nails this tree to the side of the cliff, climbs up and removes the rope.

You see that many trees have been placed in this fashion. The kiwi puts on its hat and goggles, and jumps over the edge. As it falls, the orientation is changed, and it appears that it is flying over the trees. It brings out it’s tiny wings and starts flapping, not to gain height, but as if it could really fly. It closes it’s eyes and lets out a tear as it resigns itself to it’s fate. It falls into the clouds and disappears. A thud is heard shortly after.

Ice age – Scrat

This series of animations follows a pre-historic squirrel, as he tries desperately to get a nut. Every time he gets close, something bad (no matter how odd) occurs. From falling in a tar pit, to meeting his true love, to travelling through time and back.

Character Research

The first thing to consider is what type of character to make. Firstly there is human (or animals made to behave like humans):

Characteristics

• Walks on 2 legs
• Has 2 arms for interaction
• wide range of possible facial expressions
• body language is possible

Modelling notes

• Use either biped or bones to animate movement
• Create model first then use skin or physique modifier to attach to bones
• Possibly use morph modifier to create facial expressions
• Probably hardest to model, one of the easiest to animate using built in biped tools

As it is very important for people in the public spotlight to convey their body language, here is an example of a US president:

And an example of a cartoon version:

 

The next type of character is an animal that walks on four(or more) legs:

Characteristics

• Varying possibilities for body language
• Mainly facial expressions
• Usually don’t speak
• Purposely un-human

Modelling notes

• Probably use a bone structure to animate
• Create model then use skin or physique modifier to attach to bones
• Probably use morph tool to animate facial expressions
• Probably moderately hard to model, and harder to animate than using a biped

Various examples of animals:

In cartoon form:

 

The next type is robotic that moves using tracks or wheels, and has human features.

Characteristics

• Non-bipedal movement
• limited range of movement
• Sharp, programmed movements
• Limited body language
• Limited facial expressions
• Wide range of possible animations
• Futuristic feel
• Mechanical sounds

Modelling notes

• Animations mainly through use of human features
• Metallic textures throughout
• Will require some sort of eyes and arms
• Possibly control tracks using pathdeform modifier
• Limited bone structure (if any)
• Fairly simple to model
• Should be simple to animate

Real-life robot movement:

Animated equivalent:

 

The next type is flying/hovering robotic:

Characteristics

• No legs
• Possibly arms (maybe hidden until used)
• Can fly or hover above the ground
• Must have a way to land
• Extremely limited body language
• Possibly very limited facial expression
• Emotions will most likely have to be displayed through actions and on-screen images (possibly a LCD screen that shows emoticons)

Modelling notes

• Must be constantly moving to create image of flying/hovering rather than “sitting” in air
• Mainly metallic or carbon fibre textures
• Movement can be made by following a path, using roll for banking
• Should be fairly simple to model
• Simple animations can be done easily, although more advanced animations would be required to show “life”

Real-life version:

3D animated:

 

The next type is a terrestrial creature that doesn’t rely on bones:

Characteristics

• No bones
• Slides on/under the ground
• Usually leaves a slime trail
• No arms or legs
• Limited range of facial expressions

Modelling notes

• Could use bones to create movement
• Very limited body language
• Some potential for facial expressions
• Should be simple to model
• Once rigged, animating should be pretty simple

Real-life example:

Animated version:

 

The next type is an extra-terrestrial being that has no bones (That isn’t present in real-life)

Characteristics

• Jelly-like substance
• Can either slide or bounce
• Can transform into various shapes
• Possible slime trail
• Other-worldly traits
• Must have some form of solid eyes
• Possibly semi-transparent
• Potentially limited/unlimited body language
• very limited facial expressions

Modelling notes

• Initial shape probably a blob, or undefinable body
• Animation can be done using bones
• Animation could also be done using the Deformable FFD (Box) SpaceWarp
• Modelling should be fairly simple, and transparency can be given using textures
• Animation will vary depending on realism

Real-life example:

3D animation:

First post

The brief is to create a 3D lead character, with heart and optimism, for a narrative-driven comedy cartoon, with a target audience of 4-14 year olds. I will be using 3DS max to do this. I am interested to see what I can come up with and am looking forward to the final result.