Web Design Template

For my Website Template, I wanted to create a simple side panel, and a top bar which was easy to navigate. First, I created a design out of my initials, using some simple shapes. I wanted to conserve space, so my side panels wont have words until a mouse is hovered over them. The side panels are for my other art, and when they are clicked on there will be a different animation, which will lead to my art page. The body is going to be 3 overlapping panels which will stay on the main page when clicked on, but the body text will change. I haven't created a background yet, but its going to be a simple design

Websites

http://www.earthbrowser.com/
http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
http://www.thisiselectric.com/
These websites all contain motion graphics. The Earthbrowser is an interactive 3d planet Earth. The website is a simulation of the planet Earth, with updated storms. Waterlife has an animated background which was probably made using the animation in photoshop, and imported into dream weaver. When the website is entered there is another animation, which becomes a group of interactive pictures. Thisiselectric also has an animated background which they use to show some of the ways electricity is made. There is interactivity when each of the pannels in the lower left corner are clicked, and each has a corresponding animation.

Rigging Tutorial

Steps
1. Create a body made from cylinders.
2. Switch to Animation.
3.a. Using the joint tool in the skeleton drop down, create a skeleton with the following joints
3.b. Center Hip, right hip, right knee, right foot. Then click another side pannel, and then click on the joint tool again to create more joints.
3.c. Using the steps from creating the right hips and feet, create the left leg and hip.
3.d. create a spine by making a single joint at the top of the cylinder that is the body, from there make a right arm, by making a right shoulder, right elbow, and right hand.
3.e. create a left arm by using the same steps from the right arm.
4. using the select tool, click on the joint, then the channel box/ layer editor and change the name in the top.
5. select both the skeleton and all of the cylinders at the same time, then click on the skin drop down, and select smooth bind, and then apply.

Commercial Project

Battery Commercial
Alex
I had created a 3d model of a robot character for a previous project. The model needed more improvement, so I took a few days to improve it. After, I started to prepare the model for rigging, by hollowing it. Hollowing it was very time consuming, because I had created the 3d model from most basic shapes. Adding a skeleton, and naming all of the joints was the next step. Since the group decided to use motion capture data from the website "carnigiemelonhead.com", each skeleton had to have a set amount of joints with specific names. Combining the data with the skeleton was very tedious and difficult, I had to go back and re-do alot of the model several times. I even used the program "Motion Builder" to render the flv files(which were the motion capture files), to make them work for Maya. When the two combined, certain parts of the 3d model would de-form. After several attempts, I realized that there was no way to stop the deformities, so we had the camera move away during the times that the model deformed. The data that I used was for a jump into back flip, my model was able to backflip, however the jumping sequence could use some improvement.

Kali
I made a 3D model for my previous project as well, and I used that model for the commercial project we worked on. My robot is the one glowing blue and resembles a "monkey". The modeling part wasn't hard, and I used Maya to make the model. But animating it was a different story. The animation process was fairly hard and very time consuming. I had to use a different program called Motionbuilder. The program was hard, but not that hard, just very time consuming. I didn't get to finish tweaking with the animation to the way I want it to be.

John
I put all the files together, created 3d batteries, created a camera path, and added some audio to the commercial. I did not run into much difficulty with the commerial project. I also had to go back and fix any flaws that were seen in t he project. There were some problems such as shader were not showing up in the commerial. So I had to render the frames again in maya and put it into after a ffects. I put togother fight sceene which is the last part of the commerial. There were problem that could not be fixed such as the robot's head was distorted and I could not rotate it's body to face forward.

The past week in Gallery, I have learned alot about using motion capture data. I learned how to rig a model, and parent the joints, and IK points. Using motion capture data is very difficult, it does not always easily work at first, so I had to re-parent a few IK points and joints. The product is alright, it could have been better, but due to time I had to work with what I had.

More Pictures

Commercial Project Pictures