Saturday, 20 August 2011

Week 11 Lab 2: Adding Squash & Stretch to a Ball

Tennis Ball

Beach Ball

1) Why is squash and stretch so useful in animation?
It is useful in animation because it gives realism to the animation. For example when a ball such as a basketball hits the ground, we can see it being stretched and squashed when looking at it in slow motion but we do not notice it in real life as it happens too fast for our eyes to capture.

2) Think of a situation in which extreme squash and stretch could be applied to a character.
When a character with a beer belly walks, the beer belly will move up and down causing squash and stretch.

3) Think of an animation example where squash and stretch would NOT be appropriate.
A large boulder or rock.

4) If squash and stretch doesn't really happen so obviously in real life why do you think it is so effective in animation?
It gives more in-depth motion to the animation and can be used to create humour and also the illusion of life.

Research on why it is necessary to group the ball mesh to itself:
It gives us a separate set of channels for each type of transform such as translation, rotation and scaling.

Reflection
For this lab exercise, I found that adding squash and stretch to a ball is quite challenging and I felt that I could do better for the animation as shown above. However I now know the reason why we are supposed to group the ball mesh to itself and hopefully this knowledge will help me in future exercises.

Week 12 Lab 1 & 2: Animation - 3D

Exercise 1
This is the link to the exercise: Maya Bouncing Ball

Part 1 Reflection
Link: Part 1: Project Folders, Working Units, Grid Options
I learned about the importance of setting a new project when creating animations in Maya so that all the files used in the animations are all neatly and clearly categorized to be found easily. I also learned about the grid options and that you can alter it to meet your needs.

Part 2 Reflection
Link: Part 2: Grid Options, Scene Layout, Viewport Cameras
I learned that we need to adjust the cameras so that it can capture the whole scene properly. I also learned some tips such as saving scene files of different versions and naming it with numbers so that there is a safety net to fall onto when a mistake is accidentally made.

Part 3 Reflection
Link: Part 3: Camera & Aim, Resolution Gate, Assign Material
There are plenty of stuff which I do not make use of before such as cameras and resolution gate. These two things are new to me and I find myself learning a lot.

Part 4 Reflection
Link: Part 4: Blinn Shader, Ramp Map, File Map
I learned that to make an object look like plastic, the reflectivity in Specular Shading needs to be 0. I also learned 2 new terms - procedural texture/map and interpolation/blending.

Part 5 Reflection
Link: Part 5: Bump Map, Render View, Freeze Transformations
I noticed that having a bump map makes the file map have more details and look more life-like. I learned that we can rotate an object in the world mode and have freeze transformations on it to create a more realistic-looking object that rotates more realistically.

Part 6 Reflection
Link: Part 6: Lock Selected Channels, Set Key, Playback Speed
I noticed that locking selected channels helps to make the animation process easier because we do not have to worry about accidentally changing any transforms which we do not intend to change. I also learned that it is recommended to set the playback speed in real-time and we can do this by right-clicking on the time slider, hover to 'Playback Speed' and selecting 'Play Every Frame, Max Real-time'.

Part 7 Reflection
Link: Part 7: Graph Editor, Break Tangents, Free Tangent Weight
For this video, I have already learned about the graph editor, break tangents and free tangent weight from previous tutorials and also lab lessons in school. However, I am introduced to new terms such as Bezier spline.

Part 8 Reflection
Link: Part 8: Scale Keys Tool, Ball Rotation, Squash Deformer
Before watching this video, I thought that the scale keys tool could only scale keys from side to side. However after watching the video, I realized that it is possible to scale it from top to bottom as well.

Part 9 Reflection
Link: Part 9: Parenting, Squash Factor, Key Selected
I learned that the boundaries can be altered to achieve a more realistic squashed ball. I am introduced to a new term called keyframe interpolation/automatic in-betweening. I realized that a bouncing ball is squashed and stretched even after having contact with the ground. Lastly, I learned the proper way to keyframe the factor - after changes made to factor > select factor > select channels > select key selected.

Part 10 Link: Part 10: Step Tangents, Dope Sheet, Scene Summary
Part 11 Link: Part 11: Directional Light, Raytrace Shadows, Render Settings
Part 12 Link: Part 12: Shadow Colour, Ambient Light, Batch Render Settings
Part 13 Link: Part 13: Batch Rendering, Fcheck, Quicktime Export

Exercise 2
1) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 2D animation? Explain your view.
No. I feel that having good drawing skills is an added bonus to the 2D animation and it is good to have but not compulsory. If a person has good drawing skills, he/she may not have good 2D animation skills. Whereas a person with good 2D animation skills can make his drawings animate realistically even if it does not look as good as the original image.

2) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 3D animation? Explain your view.
No. We are able to create 3D animation in Maya and the program allows us to construct shapes into objects and applying images onto these objects as textures. With these features, I do not see the need of having good drawing skills because all the materials needed are the Maya software and a good camera to take pictures for the texture images and we will be all set to creating good 3D animations.

3) What do you think would separate a piece of poor animation from a piece of good animation? In other words, how would you go about deciding if a piece of animation is good or bad?
In my opinion, a good animation would be closely relevant to it's real-life counterpart. It should also stick to animation standards as close as possible. For a poor animation, it would be the opposite.

4) In 2D animation, you need to be very aware of timing at a frame by frame level, using timing charts and other techniques - but for 3D animation, this is handled using the graph editor, which is more concerned with manipulating rates of change over time. Does this affect how you approach your animation work? Explain.
The approach for the animation work is different. For 2D animation, we were introduced to the Pencil software and the Maya software for 3D animation. Other than the difference in terms of software used, there is also a difference in setting keys. For 2D animation, we need to set keys not only for the key frames but also for the in-between frames which results in a lot of keys being set. This becomes very taxing on the 2D animator especially if the 2D animation plays over a long duration of time. However for 3D animation, we only need to set keys for the key frames and the interpolation in Maya will help us manage the in-between frames. This is extremely helpful to the 3D animator as it saves a lot of time.

5) Give a brief critique of Maya as an animation tool. Don't just say Maya makes animation difficult, or easy, or that you need to learn a lot of stuff to use Maya - explain what Maya does well and not so well in terms of creating animation.
Maya as an animation tool can be seen differently. It can be a difficult tool to use especially for first-timers who may not understand certain terms such as transforms and attributes and it can also be easy to use for users who understand these terms. In Maya, there are plenty of things to learn about and it requires a lot of time, patience and hard work to make full use of it. There are things that Maya does well and not so well in terms of creating animation. One of the things done well is the motion trail feature. With the motion trail, animators are able to visually see the path taken by an object during the animation. This allows changes to be made easily because we can see where the mistakes lie. One of the things done not so well is the saving of animation files. When we do animation, we sometimes commit mistakes. Our solution for this is to save multiple files of different versions. However, what if we forgot this and save the file by overwriting the previous one? The software in this case does not provide much help regarding this situation and the worse scenario would be to start our animation again from scratch.

Week 12 Lab 1: 3 Balls (Basketball, Lead ball, Balloon)

For this exercise, we are required to animate 3 balls - a basketball, a lead ball and a balloon.
This is the video of the completed exercise:

Reflection
For this exercise, I took less time to complete it unlike the previous bouncing ball exercise which needs to have the curve of the ball animated. I find that the animation for the basketball (LHS) and the lead ball (Middle) is well-animated. As for the balloon (RHS), I still feel that it animates like a beach ball instead. Overall, the exercise has taught me that the timing and speed of the animation can tell what type a ball is.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Week 13 Lab 1 & 2: Animation - 3D

During this lab lesson, the class is introduced to more complex animation through the usage of skeletons. We are told to follow a tutorial in the Maya Help documentation again about how to create a simple hierarchy of joint and then parent these joints. This process is called rigging/creating a rig.

Exercise 1
For the 1st exercise, we are watching this famous short movie which is the first film ever produced by Pixar. The director, John Lasseter, makes two simple lamps (parent & child) come alive with real personalities.
This is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmhZm5FRV4s

Exercise 2
For the 2nd exercise, we are going to start on the tutorial which covers creating a skeleton and inverse kinematics.
This is the link: http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2011help/files/Inverse_kinematics.htm

We also have a link to 3 Youtube videos (Tutorials Maya Rigging Basic 1,2 & 3 under 3D tutorials list) which is the same as the tutorial we are going to do.
This is the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/eptigo#p/c/D507DD09878ED1A9

This is what I did for the tutorial:
Research:
Difference between using Joint Tool only and using Joint Tool & IK Handle Tool for Skeleton
From the research, we can see that the skeleton on the left is made using only Joint Tool while the one on the right is made using Joint Tool and IK Handle Tool. The skeleton on the left is only able to move individual parts of the Skeleton resulting in Forward Kinematics while the skeleton on the right is able to move the Skeleton as a whole when moving the blue point.

Tutorial:
The videos below shows the animation of the robot.
Unrealistic Robot:
The video above shows an unrealistic animation of the robot because the motion is too smooth for it to feel like a machine. The screenshots below shows the curve created when the robot arm moves up and down is almost like a straight line.
Curve from the Front View

Curve from the Side View
Realistic Robot:
This is the video on how it animates after changes are made:
Now, the robot animation has become more realistic because the motion has stops and pauses in it to make it feel more mechanic. The screenshots below shows the amends made to the curves so that it does not look like a straight line.
Curve from Front View

Curve from Side View
Exercise 3
The above video shows the box moving at a linear speed past the robot crane before the robot crane lifts it up.

Reflection for Exercise 3
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I am supposed to get the box to move past the robot and be lifted up by it. I had a lot of attempts and all of it only allowed the box to move past the robot but not get lifted up by it. However in the end after I did the lab exercises for Week 11, I found out that the problem could be resolved by simply grouping the box to itself and adding keyframes for that particular group in order to animate what I am supposed to animate for the exercise.

Exercise 4

1) Apart from their different sizes, it is obvious from Luxo Jr. that the big lamp is “older” and that the small lamp is “younger”. How is this communicated by the animation? Give at least THREE examples.

1. Motion Variety - The small lamp has a larger motion variety than the big lamp such as jumping and hopping as seen in the video which shows that the small lamp has more energy than the big lamp.
2. Motion Range - The small lamp has a bigger motion range than the big lamp. The small lamp is animated to move about all around the video while the big lamp is animated at an allocated position in the video. This gives the small lamp a larger movement space than the big lamp.
3. Motion Speed - The small lamp has a faster motion speed than the big lamp. The actions done by the small lamp has a faster pace than those done by the big lamp. This shows that the small lamp is more active than the big lamp.
Thus , the three examples above show that the big lamp is "older" and that the small lamp is "younger".
 
2) Give an example from Luxo Jr of how timing is used for comic effect. Explain how the timing decisions contribute to the humour.

The big ball which rolls across the screen after the reaction of the big lamp. The timing when the ball rolls across the screen was timed nicely together with the reaction of the big lamp to give a bit of humour to the video.
 
3) When you create a joint chain, these form a hierarchy, with the first joint at the top and the last joint at the bottom. Explain why this is necessary for the joints to work properly.


The first joint is at the top and the last joint is at the bottom because the motion starts off at the first joint to create forward kinematics so that the last joint will be able to move. When the first joint is selected, the rest of the joints below it till the last joint is also selected as all of them fall under the parent of the first joint. This would then allow the joints to work properly.


Reflection
When doing the lab exercises, I took less time to animate the robot than I did last time with the bouncing ball. During the process, I did not meet any major difficulties and I enjoyed the robot animation process. I found out that if I actually did the animation in a step-by-step sequence to resolve the issues it has, it actually makes the animation process much easier and faster. When watching the video on the 2 lamps for Exercise 1, I was amazed by the animation of the lamps which was so well done that it could deliver feelings and expressions. Hopefully, I will be able to achieve something like that for my Project 2 or at least something half as good.

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

IN3D Project 2 PART ONE: Weblog Journal Entries

Selected Scenario to Animate:

Scenario 2

The same as for scenario 1, the robot is busy stacking boxes. However, the robot seems tired of its work, as if unfulfilled in life. The robot wants to rebel and break free! Animate how the robot attempts to rebel – or at least to break the monotony and grind of its work for a short time. For example, does it go crazy and throw boxes around, or do a robot dance, or stack the boxes in some unusual way, or what?


1. Character

Robot Name: Robox
Brief paragraph of what the robot might be thinking while doing its mechanical work:
I’m sick and tired of stacking boxes in a straight column. Why can’t the company think of other patterns to stack them? I shall do something special to kill this boredom of mine!

2. Storyboard 
  1. Robox is at the starting position, ready to start picking up boxes from the conveyor belt.
  2. Robox has picked up a box and returns to the initial position.
  3. Robox turns to his right side.
  4. Robox drops the box before coming back up and returns to the initial position.
  5. Robox repeats this for 2 more times and stacks the 3 boxes in a straight column.
  6. Robox whines about his boredom (shows his tiredness) and decides to stack the following 6 boxes on his left side in a triangular form.
  7. Robox returns back to the initial position and expresses his happiness with his work.
Storyboard for Project 2
Reflection
For the storyboard, the key poses which are the most important are Scene 6 and 7 because these are the scenes where Robox will express his feelings and mood. Due to this, it will be very challenging to animate Robox and more time would be needed for those 2 particular scenes to be animated well.

3. Self-Critique
For the animation, it is still missing things such as the expression in Scene 6 and also realism in the motion of Robox. The only things done for the animation is the 12 boxes and a last minute work of Scene 7 where Robox shows his happiness by moving his head attachment up and down.
 
In my animation, I have anticipation for Robox where he has a gearing-up action before he goes on to pick up a box. Overall, the majority of the animation meets closely to the storyboard above. However, I felt that it can be further improved. For a start, I could make the motions more realistic by putting in more effort in the graph editor and animating the reaction/feelings/expressions of Robox. After that, I could make use of cameras to further express the feelings of Robox to make the animation more dramatic.

Sunday, 10 July 2011

Week 11 Lab 1: Animation - 3D

Exercise 1
Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor
Link: http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2011help/index.html

Reflection
For the exercise, we are told to complete Lesson 1 from Maya Tutorials to learn about Keyframes and the Graph Editor in Maya. Overall, the exercise is simple and I managed to grasp the basics. I was introduced to the playback controls in Maya and I learned how to set keys for attributes and use the Graph Editor to edit the animation and remove unnecessary keys for the animation to run faster and more smoothly.

Exercise 2
For this exercise, we are told to animate a bouncing ball in Maya using what has been learned in Exercise 1.

Process
Bouncing ball with bounce distance issues
The distance between the ball should decrease after each bounce because the energy in the ball decreases after every bounce.

This is how it looks like after the changes are made:
Bouncing ball with bounce distance issues resolved
Reflection
When animating the bouncing ball for Exercise 2 in Maya, I found it challenging especially the process of editing the frames of the animation. I realized if I made some changes to one aspect of the animation, other aspects of the animation may also be altered especially those that are already done well. I learned that I need to be patient when doing animations because things will go haywire if I get frustrated.

Saturday, 9 July 2011

Week 10 Lab 2: Moving Seaweed Using Pencil

During the 2nd lab lesson of Week 10, the class is asked to create an animation of a moving seaweed using 'Pencil'.

This is the video for the moving seaweed exercise I created:
I used vector layer for this exercise and used a green line to represent the seaweed.

Reflection
Again, I found it challenging to use the mouse to draw on 'Pencil' and that is why the lines look very jagged. Overall, the movement of the seaweed is there but I feel that it can be made to look more realistic if I just had more time.

Week 10 Lab 1: Bouncing Ball Using Pencil

During the 1st lab lesson for Week 10, the class is told to animate a bouncing ball using 'Pencil'.

I created 2 videos for the bouncing ball exercise:
The 1st video is the bouncing ball using bitmap layers while the 2nd one is using vector layers.

Reflection
I am using the software 'Pencil' for the first time and had a rough time using it. The software does not let you draw basic shapes such as a circle using a template and that is why the ball in the videos do not look circular and the motion of the ball is not smooth. It also auto-deletes a circle if you draw one with the starting point too close to the ending point especially when using vector layers and this has caused me plenty of frustrations.  After finishing the animations, I had problems exporting it as a video. However, I found an alternate solution to solve the problem.

References
I used this blog as a solution for the problem I faced:
http://pencilanimationhelp.blogspot.com/
The blog is about the software 'Pencil' and it offers the solution to export the animation file as a video. However, I only downloaded this software which is found on the blog to help solve the issue I faced: http://camstudio.org/ 

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Week 10 Lab 1: Animation Visualisation

Exercise 1 & 2
The 12 principles of animation:
    1. Squash and stretch
       
      The ball has weight and volume and when animated, it will have squash and stretch.

    2. Anticipation
      Before the person is running, there is a preparation movement. That movement is anticipation.

    3. Staging
    4. Straight ahead action and pose to pose
    5. Follow through and overlapping action
       
      When the person jumps up to the maximum height, his body has stopped moving. However, his hair continues to move upwards. This is follow through.
      When the person jumps up, his bag follows him behind. But when the person is coming down, his bag is still moving upwards for a while before it comes down. This is overlapping action.
    6. Slow in and slow out
    7. Arcs
       
      The swinging of the arm when doing an under-hand pass of the ball to the person opposite creates an arc.
      The swinging of the arm when tossing the ball into the air creates an arc.
    8. Secondary action
    9. Timing
    10. Exaggeration
    11. Solid drawing
    12. Appeal
Exercise 3
This is the link to the video that demonstrates at least 6 of the 12 principles of animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lb_0laf77c&feature=related
1. Squash & stretch - The roll of tissue paper is bouncing down the hill. 
2. Staging - There is a scene where the driver is taking out a roll of tissue paper. This shows that he is having a stomachache.
3. Straight ahead action & pose to pose - The crying scene of the driver. 
4. Secondary action - While chasing the roll of tissue paper, he is running and swinging his arms back and forth.
5. Exaggeration - The moment when the driver is about to fall down the hill and the landing he makes on the other side of the hill. 
6. Appeal -  The expressions of the driver.

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Week 1 Primitive Robot

Lab-Work Q1: Original Robot

Sequence in how Original Robot is modeled: Head > Torso > Arms > Legs
Techniques used: Duplicate, Duplicate Special, CV Curve Tool, Extrude

Head
The Head consists of the head itself, 2 eyes and antennae and the neck. Polygon spheres are used for the head of the robot and the 2 eyes. The 2 eyes are the exact shape and size from using Duplicate. 1 antennae is made first using 1 polygon cylinder, 1 polygon cone and 3 polygon torus of different sizes. The 2nd antennae is made by using Duplicate Special on the 1st antennae. Another polygon cylinder is also used for the neck. With that, the Head is completed.
Original Robot Head

Torso
The Torso consists of the upper body, the upper and lower body connector and the lower body. A 5x5x5 polygon cube is used for the upper body and lower body with the lower body of a smaller size. The connector is made by making use of CV Curve Tool and Extrude. CV Curve Tool is used to make a path that spirals which looks like a spring and a circle is used to Extrude along that path to create the connector. With that, the Torso is completed.
Original Robot Torso

Arms
The Arms are similar to how the 2 antennae on the Head are made (through Duplicate Special) by making 1 of the arms first. It consists of the shoulder, upper arm, elbow, lower arm, wrist, palm, fingers and thumb. The shoulder, elbow and wrist are represented by polygon spheres, the upper and lower arm and the fingers and thumb are represented by polygon cylinders and the palm is represented by a polygon cuboid. This completes 1 of the arms and the 2nd arm is made by using Duplicate Special on the 1st arm. With that, both Arms are completed.
Original Robot Arms

Legs
The Legs are also similar to how the Arms and the 2 antennae on the Head are made (through Duplicate Special) by making 1 of the legs first. It consists of the hip joint, hip, upper thigh, knee, lower thigh, ankle and foot. There are 4 different types of polygons used for the leg - cylinder, pyramid, sphere and cuboid. The hip joint, upper thigh and lower thigh are represented by polygon cylinders, the hip is represented by a polygon pyramid, the knee is represented by a polygon sphere, the ankle is represented by both a polygon sphere and 2 polygon cylinders and lastly, the foot is represented by a polygon cuboid. This completes 1 of the legs and the 2nd leg is made by using Duplicate Special on the 1st leg. With that, both Legs are completed.
Original Robot Legs

Final Original Robot (2 views)
With all the original parts combined (Head, Torso, Arms, Legs):
Final Original Robot (Perspective View)
Final Original Robot (Front View)









Lab-Work Q2: Modified Robot Primmy

Modifications made to Original Robot: Head > Torso > Arms > Legs

Head[M]
The modifications made to the Head are the 2 eyes and antennae. The shape of both eyes are changed to become more flat and are positioned to give the robot a more menacing look. The position of the 2 antennae is changed to give it a devilish look. With that, the robot has a more wicked appearance to match its status as a killing machine.
Modified Robot Primmy Head

Torso[M]
The modification made to the Torso is the addition of a polygon sphere and 2 polygon torus of different sizes that makes the robot's weapon which is located on the front of the upper body (chest area) and enables it to fire lasers.
Modified Robot Primmy Torso

Arms[M]
The modification made to the Arms are the size of the robot's shoulders and hands. It has become larger to show that the robot has even more powerful strength.
Modified Robot Primmy Arms

Legs[M]
The modification made to the Legs is similar to what is done with the Arms. The feet of the robot has become larger to show that the robot has even more power in his feet to enable faster running speed and bigger jumps.
Modified Robot Primmy Legs

Final Modified Robot Primmy (2 views)
With all the modified parts combined (Head[M], Torso[M], Arms[M], Legs[M]):
Final Modified Robot Primmy (Perspective View)
Final Modified Robot Primmy (Front View)

Lab-Work Q3: Robot Description

Robot's new name: Solarbot

Why was he created?: To obtain solar energy from the sun.
Can he think?: Just follows his duty of getting solar energy.
Is he just a mindless drone, or does he have his own dreams and ambitions?: After a certain event, Solarbot became a killing machine and human eradication became his ambition.

Brief Storyline
Solarbot was invented by a group of scientists to obtain solar energy from the sun. The robot requires regular maintenance to ensure that he is working at 100%. During one of Solarbot's regular maintenance checks, something bad happened. A computer virus had invaded his system, causing him to become a killing machine. Using his two antennae on the top of his head, Solarbot obtains solar energy and directs the collected solar energy to the orb in his chest where he can fire a concentrated beam of light that is able to incinerate anything in his path.

Luckily, the group of scientists who invented Solarbot knew his weakness - cloudy skies. When the skies are cloudy, the solar energy that Solarbot can obtain is reduced and the beam of light that he fires will also become weaker to the level that it cannot incinerate objects and thus his danger level is greatly lowered. With the knowledge of Solarbot's weakness, can the scientists save humanity in time before everything is destroyed by Solarbot?

Lab-Work Q4: Companion Robot

Companion Robot Eyebot

Robot's name: Eyebot 

Why was he created?: As a security robot to guard the laboratory where the scientists are working in.
Can he think?: Just follows his duty of guarding the laboratory.
Is he just a mindless drone, or does he have his own dreams and ambitions?: He is a robot that upholds justice.

Brief Storyline (Continuation from Brief Storyline of Solarbot)
Shortly after Solarbot got infected by the computer virus, Eyebot tried to stop Solarbot. However during the fight, the virus managed to enter Eyebot's system and Eyebot became under the control of Solarbot as his minion. Eyebot is able to hypnotize anyone that looks into its eye before having a firm grip on them with his claws. This makes the Solarbot's targets easier to shoot at with the beam because they cannot run away.


Reflection

For the whole lab exercise, I find it most challenging to do the upper and lower body connector for the robot. At first, I used a curve degree of 1 Linear for the spiral path but later found that it was a mistake as the result made the path look very edgy and so I switched to using the 3 Cubic curve degree to give the spiral path a much smoother look. Overall, I am satisfied with how the robot turned out like the original one in the word document.

Sunday, 12 June 2011

IN3D Project 1 PART ONE

1. Story
The story is about a rat racing around a track on a mousetrap car. The car reaches the end of the track where there is a height difference. It is going too fast and is unable to stop. Luckily, the car lands on the bottle, rides on it and continues on another track.
Storyline

2. Shape
The bottle model consists of 6 parts (bottle body, 2 neck collars, the strap that links both neck collars, the bottle cap and the connector on top of the cap). The technical aspects learned in IN3D so far which will most likely be used in developing the model are 'Revolve' and 'Extrude'. 'Revolve' is used when making the bottle body, the cap and the cap connector by revolving the surface made through using 'CV Curve Tool'. 'Extrude' is used to make the strap by extruding the surface (created using 'CV Curve Tool') while following along a path (also created using 'CV Curve Tool').

3. Design
Side
Front


Top
Bottom


Back
4. Research
I used the bucket-modelling lab exercise done in Week 3 as a reference to model the bottle for my project. It is a good reference to use as it makes use of IN3D technical aspects such as 'Revolve' and 'Extrude' which I need to know in order to model the bottle. Just like the lab exercise which uses 'Revolve' for the bucket body and connectors and 'Extrude' for the bucket handle, I used 'Revolve' for the bottle body, the bottle cap and the cap connector and 'Extrude' for the strap which connects the 2 neck collars together.

5. Self-Critique
The final model of the bottle I made is quite successful in terms of the shape, size and color. However, there are some parts of the model that do not match the original object. For example, there is suppose to be a jagged teeth-like texture on the sides of the bottle cap but it is shown with a smooth texture on the model. The logo and water-level measurement on the original bottle are also missing on the model because I do not know how to place it on my model. Another thing that I failed to do is to connect the strap to the 2 neck collars by joining their vertices because the outcome looks different than the original. So instead, I just placed them close to each other such that they look 'joined together'.
Real Bottle
Final Bottle Model

Monday, 23 May 2011

Week 1: Prison VS Disneyland Analysis

USA Prisons & Tokyo Disneyland Mickey's Toontown
  1. Prisons are meant to be scary, powerful looking places, while Toontown is meant for fun and childlike enjoyment – how is this reflected in the lines and angles of the buildings?
  2. How does the sense of scale reflect the different purposes of the prisons and Toontown?
  1. The prison buildings have straight lines and perpendicular angles that produce sharp edges and corners. This gives a sense of intimidation that makes the prison look scary and powerful. The prison buildings are made up of mostly simple primitive shapes. For example, the windows are rectangular. The windows are also equally spaced out from one another, giving a sense of order and control in the prison. The Toontown buildings have curvy lines and angles that produce smooth edges and corners. This gives a sense of comfort to the buildings and makes it more approachable. The Toontown buildings are made of complex shapes which makes it look extraordinary, fun and joyful. The features of the buildings like the door and windows have different dimensions which draws in interest and fascination.
  2. The purpose of the prison is to have control over the prisoners. The huge size of the prison gives the prison a sense of higher authority and power to carry out its purpose. The purpose of Toontown is to attract people especially children to visit. The small size of the Toontown buildings makes it feel more friendly and loving. Therefore, children will feel more welcomed to visit.
Prison 1
Prison 2
Toontown 1
Toontown 2









Reflection
I learned that size and shapes can be manipulated to give off different expressions and feelings. I also realized that certain objects are created to appear as what they look like for a reason.

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

IN3D Week 1: Lab 1 Primitive breakdown & form

Exercise 1
Axe
Side View 1
Side View 2


Suitcase
Perspective View
Side View


Reflection
I learned that complex objects can be drawn in 3D if we understand what types of primitive shapes form the objects. I faced difficulties in drawing the axe in perspective view and because of that reason I drew it in side view instead.