Evaluation (Animation)

Animation Evaluation

I used Maya to animate my robot, I didn’t really encounter any problems in learning how to do this, as I already knew the basics of animation and how to do a basic walking movement on Maya, having learned it previously. 

The only problem I encountered when creating the animation was getting the joints to be turning at the right position which I needed them to be on each part, as it was quite hard to get them into the exact place as it needed to be very precise. I got past this by using the different camera views and zooming in very close to get the turning points of each joint to the correct place.

The process I used was to firstly just set the starting point of my animation, this is full sprint, so one leg stretched out forwards and the other backwards, then swapping the legs over to create the full running animation.

The technical skills I needed were to know the basics of animation through Maya, this includes taking keyframes and setting the correct speed for which the frames are played. I also needed to know how to create a basic walking animation.

I think that my animation went quite well and runs very smoothly when played back. If you look closer you can see each joint moving the way that they do in real life. 

Industry Software

In video game design/development there are a range of different sets of software, each doing what another may not be able to do, or being able to do it better.

The software used within games design ranges from painting/photo-manipulating software, to 3D modelling and sculpting software and even video editing software.

It is highly likely that at some point, all games designers/developers will use this software at some point so it is imperative that one is familiar with all of these different sets.

The History of 3D Animation

For us to better understand the evolution of animation through the years from an artists perspective, we were tasked with looking into the origins and earliest stages of computer animation.

Artist Research (Animator)

Evaluation (3D Model)

To make my 3D model I used Maya. Maya is a 3D modelling and animation software, which I was already fairly familiar with using, as I have used it in previous projects.
I feel like this was the best piece of software to use for this project because, as previously mentioned, I have already had experience in using this so I already knew how to use it and quite a few of the various tools that I needed to and because the robot that I was creating was rather square and it is very easy to create that sort of thing using Maya.

The process I used was to create the torso first, then expand outwards to the head and then legs, before moving on to animating my final model. The technical skills I needed were to create basic objects and manipulate them using the different tools within Maya. I encountered a problem when creating the legs for my model as I wasn’t entirely sure how to make the different joints at first and how to fit the leg at the hip to the torso. To solve this, I did some further research into the different kinds of joints, and changed the shape of the torso to better accommodate the hip joint.

Overall, I feel my 3D model was a success. I am happy with the final outcome and I think that I did well in creating my model with little to no help at all.

Maya: Creating and Animating My 3D Model

After researching into various different things and practicing creating some models in maya, I started to create my final robot. I started with just a rectangle two other flat square pieces for the panels that would be on the chest, and two spheres that would act as "shoulders".

Next I added two more rectangles with slightly more detail that would act as "arms" on either side.

Then, I began creation on my robots head. This too started with just a simple cube but eventually became the shape that I wanted.

After the head was finished, I moved onto the bottom half. Firstly creating the thigh, knee joint and calf, then onto the foot and ankle joint, then making sure it would all fit together, copying and flipping it, and replacing it on the other side..

I now needed a way to fit the ball and socket joint for the hip on the top of the legs, so I needed to adjust the shape of the robots body. I did this by just moving the vertices around and fixing them all together in different places, on each corner. And then created the ball and socket joint from my hip before attaching it to my model.

Now that my model was complete it was time to start the animation process! As I have previously used maya to make a simple walking animation, I knew how to make this happen quite easily as all my robot does is run.

I also edited all of the UV's for my model for texturing.

3D Research: Texture Mapping

What is a diffuse/colour map?

A diffuse map is the most commonly used form of texture map, it defines the colour and pattern of an object. Mapping the diffuse colour is like painting an image on the surface of the object.

What is a specular map?

Specular maps are used to define the shininess and highlight colour of an object/surface. The higher the value of a pixel, the shinier the object/surface will appear in-game.

What is a normal map?

Normal mapping or “Dot3 bump mapping” is a technique that is used to fake the lighting of bumps and dents, it is used to add more details without using more polygons.

What other kinds of texture mapping are there?

Parallax mapping: parallax mapping is an enhancement of the bump or normal mapping techniques applied in 3D rendering applications such as video games. To the end user, it means that textures such as stone walls will have more apparent depth and thus greater realism with less of an influence on the performance of the simulation.

Displacement mapping: displacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to bump/normal/parallax mapping, using a procedural, texture or height map to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface are displaced. It gives surfaces a great sense of depth and detail.

Reflection mapping: reflection or environment mapping is an efficient image based lighting technique for approximating the appearance of a reflective surface by means of a previously computed texture image.

What does PBR rendering mean?

Physically based rendering (PBR) refers to the concept of using realistic shading/lighting models along with measured surface values to accurately represent real-world materials. PBR is more of a concept than a strict set of rules and as such, the exact implementations of PBR systems tend to vary.