Week 12

Presentation Evaluation:



At long last the completion of the full video of our environment and engine is over. This weeks was a full on group presentation in which is presented to all the groups in the module and to the staffs of the Museum.



The presentation itself went quite well as expected and it seems everyone in the group spoked well and explained in good short brief of details within the explaination of the models. In terms, I felt that in the introduction I could have explained the history about Zurich as it would have been appropriate to the subject. The brief explaination about the modelling process of the environment was enough to give some brief view and the extent of how long I have to talk.



Although I had rarely much part to do with the engine, but I was happy to help the group with the rendering because that is essential but overall, I am happy with the individual progress.



Overall I feel pleased with the whole project and able to work with my colleagues which throughout the process we've worked really well as a team.

Week 11

We are approaching to the final week of this semester and this week is the most important time to complete everything. The for the environment and the engines has been all animated and ready to be rendered. As Dan has told me that the lighting effect has worked superbly and so we can now focus on the final animation for the scenes. So for my part of the job was to animate the last scene to zoom out slowly from the dredger.

The method was simple, all was needed is to set a key from 0 and slowly drag the camera backwards right to keyframe 200. There I've animated the last scene. The duration for this scene is only last for 5 seconds.

On the overall progression I find that everything is working fine and no errors occurred. I am pleased with the environment and the engine by Dan and Tina.

Final part for my job now is to render the last scene and first part of the engine. As Dan has calculated how much it would take the engine to be rendered, it seems it would take days to render and by splitting into 3 sections, myself, Tina and Dan have rendered it. I have rendered the last scene into an MOV file which took 12 hours and so I needed to leave it rendering throughout the night in room 303A and come back the day after. With the first part of the engine I have also left it in room 303A on another computer to render that night.

There was a slight problem with the engine when I have came back that morning, the engine was rendered into an AVI file but somehow the computer does not support it. So once again I needed to re-render it but as I could not leave it to render throughout the night I needed to render into 4 sections which approximately took over 3 hours. I've rendered two in MOV and the other into AVI files due to certain computers I was using. But thankfully in the end it was successful.

So my part has now been completed and all the rest is up to Jeremy to edit the videos.

My overall view in this subject I thought to begin with, how I am going to model Switzerland? and the dredger? but in the end images of the location is really the only clue I have to model it. Overall I am happy with the work.

Week 10

We are now in week 10 and I am certain that every group is panicking to get the whole animation process completed. For myself I have completed the modelling and eventually animated my environment so now I need the whole group to focus on the whole rendering. We have planned to render separate engines so that in the end we can edit each clip through Premier Pro, which Jeremy is going to work on.

Right now the only problem is getting the lighting effect for both engine and environment. In this case I have provided a copy of the environment to Dan so that he can work on both models to see if the result are perfect.

Group:

I was unable to attend this weeks group meeting due to illness but have contacted Dan and already sent him the copy of the environment as was stated in the blog. Hopefully the group can finish this rendering at least after week 11.

Week 9

This week I will be focusing on the animation for my environment. At first I thought animating should not be too difficult but after looking at the dredger in the real photo, I could not think how to animate the slide where it drags the buckets towards the dredger and how to rotate the buckets upside down and animate it back to the sea. Not only that I have to somehow try to animate the water thats in the bucket. Pouring into the dredger may be too much to handle and so I needed to think of a way to the scene believable.






To avoid wasting time, I've animated the sea first. This method is really easy to follow as I've took and used the animation from my previous assessment from Year 2. To animate the water, I need to select the water (plane), open up Materail Editor and go to the water material. Now from the timeline I select Auto Key, set a key at the beginning of the timeline 0. I check in Maps-Nosie on Phase to see its set to 0. The effects to the water will change until I set another key in the timeline frame to the end which is frame 40. If I go back to the Phase and set it to 15, render it and the water should start having an affect.

Heres a short clip.

The next step is to animate the wheels on top of the dredger. Now as I assume it connects to the slide and maneuver it which pulls the buckets towards it. By that I've animated the wheels into a rotation, nice and slowly. It was a simple method to animate the wheels and so no problems occurred with that.

This is the part where it got confusing and the tricky part of the animation. How to animate the buckets when after it pours the water into the dredger? As I've mentioned before I did not complete the modelling fully as I've noticed, how does the bucket refill the water? The photo shows that there is a slope which pulls the buckets back to the water for re-filling. After cloning the slope from the above I've placed it underneath it.

Right the animation now. This was the tricky part, at first I've selected the first bucket (while auto key is set), I gradually drag it towards the dredger itself and then on the next frame I rotate it upside down, so that it looks like it has poured water into it. Then I move the bucket back to the sea for re-filling (while on auto key), I repeat the same step with the rest of the buckets but it has became a frustrating moment to get the speed and timing correctly.

The final stage in completion to my animation is the smoke. Now at first I've already created the smoke for the chimmney but could not search for any tutorials to help me animate. There was one resource that I've found later in the process and it seemed very useful although it was a tutorial to create smoke on a cigarette. I've decided to test the smoke from this tutorial with Tina helping me out. This source was very useful and the smoke worked and so I've decided to redo the smoke and use this for my environment.

To create the smoke, I simply begin at the Create tab. Select Geometry, find Particle System and select Super Spray. Here are some features that needed to be entered as follow.

Basic Parameters: (Off Axis) Spread - 1.0

(Off Plane) Spread - 18.0

Viewport Display: Select - Mesh

Percentage of Particles - 50%

There are quite of settings on the Particle Generation. I've entered the required fields.

Particle Motion: Speed - 1.0

Variation - 10.0

Emit start : 0

Emit Stop : 400

Display Unit: 399

Life: 200

Variation: 5

Particle System

Size: 4.0

Variation: 25.0

Grow For: 100

Fade For: 10

Particle Type: Select - Standard Particles

Standard Particles: Select - Facing

Rotation and Collision:

Spin Speed Controls Spin Time - 0

Spin Axis Controls Select - Direction of Travel

Object Motion Inheritance:


Multiplier - 0.2







Now that the Super Spray has been configured and has been placed above the chimney, I go to Space Wrap and select Drag. What this will do is it will randomize the smokes movement and is a force type that drags the particles into its direction.


The parameters must also be configured to get the animation of the smoke right.


Timing: Time On - 0
Time Off: 400


Damping Characteristics: X Axis: 1.0
Y Axis: 1.0
Z Axis: 0.6

Now we want to bind the Drag to the Super Spray together. To do this, all is needed is to select the icon which shows underneath and click the Drag and drag right to Super Spray.

The Icon to bind.




We want to apply the wind so that the smoke will move forcefully to the left of the chimney. Simple step, going back to Space Wrap and select Wind, I can then rotate the wind where I want the smoke to move to but also I again need to bind it to the Super Spray. I've also set its Force Strength to 0.02.


Wind: Turbulence - 0.04
Frequency - 0.26
Sclae - 0.03




To get the smoke texture. I need to go to Material Editor, and set the Shade Basic Parameters.


Ambient, Diffuse and Color: white
Opacity: 0
Specular Level: 0
Glossiness: 0


Extended Parameters


Index of Refraction: 1.5


I need to go to Maps and open up Opacity and select Gradient. To finish the smoke effect, all there is now is to go to Gradient Parameters and choose Radial and there we have it a smoke.

Here is a short clip of the smoke.

The Group:


This weeks group meeting went well as usual. We did not have too much to discuss as we mostly know exactly what our primarily objectives are. A mentioned in the Group blog, we are aware the amount of time we need to render everything but hopefully we can get all this done before week 12. As seeing everyone's progress, the modelling is almost 100% completed and we just need the animation to be done next week.

Week 8

This is it, the week where I will be finishing my modelling. So far I have created the lake containing reflective effects while we can see the reflection of the cliffs and mountains. As I did not mention from the early process, I've added some trees to the field. I simply used from the American Elm from the AEC Extended panel.

Ok so I now have the background and all is needed is the Dredger. As researching of this particular machine. I was unable to find any information/ images regarding any details of how this machine works. But thanks to my teammate Daniel, he has provided a photo that he took of the image of the Dredger at the Museum.

This is the look of how I will model the Dredger.

Now modelling it. I started with both, size did not matter as I will be scaling it after modelling all its details. Segments of 10 was essential so that I can extrude the points to form the shape that I want it to be.

I modelled the top with some wheels as from the real image above. It was hard to tell how it looked like but I assume it spins in circles as this is part of the functionality.

It gets more complicated when you do not know certain parts are called and the fact that cannot see it clearly. The bottom of the dredger seems to have some kind of access which guessing it could be an open doorway. I've started by applying a box, then position it in the centre. Because we will be animating inside the dredger, I've used Boolean to make the open. A roof has also been applied as it shows in the photo.

For the texture, it was hard to say how the colour really looked like. Thinking back, it is set in the 1800's so the texture would be old and so I did a quick search for the materials of rusty metals and luckily I've found some that looks suitable for the dredger.

If I scale it to its right size, this is what it looks like.

I am feeling very pleased with the progress on this subject that because modelling the head was a disappointing result in the end but this group work is turning out to be fun and enjoyable although the lack of time we have to finish off the modelling process.

Nearly there. From the photo I can see smoke from the chimney. Now I have no knowledge in creating smoke but luckily going through tutorials, it wasn't as complicated as I thought. Now creating the smoke. I go to Geometry, selecting Particle Systems and then pick PCloud. The size does not matter as it is dealt in the panel. From the Particle Generation, Particle Quantity. I select Use Total and set as 100, it will display how many objects it will have.

Setting the Particle size: 20.0

Setting the Particle Type - Standard Particles to Sphere


At the moment the smoke will appear as sphere shapes but using the Material Editor we can fade it and add the smoke texture.

From Maps in the Material Editor, I go to Diffuse and select Noise. I set the Noise Parameters as follows:

size - 25.0

Fractal

Levels - 10.0


If I go back to default I can then open up the Opacity Map. Select Falloff.

I need to get the smoke colour correctly and so if I swap the Maps by clicking the arrow on the right end, it will swap maps. Then on the top map, it is empty. I select it and choose Noise. The parameters need to also be set correctly.

Turbulence: High - 0.3

Levels - 10.0

Size - 20.0

The final part creating smoke. I go back to Maps again, drag the Opacity Map down to Bump. It will copy the map and there a smoke texture is completed.








I am close to finish the modelling process, I now need buckets as this will be part of the animation. Very easy I simply use a box and then Boolean the centre.

By zooming in we can see how it looks.

Now the environment still seems small and in my opinion it doesn't look exactly like Switzerland and so by applying more models, I get a larger scale of the background.

By cloning the mountains, I can cover the spaces so we cannot see any water behind. Adding more landscape and trees it will create a larger scale of the environment. After Looking back at the real photo of the dredger I've noticed that the bottom underneath it looks like a boat? and seems to be floating above the sea.

I feel that modelling it is the priority of this task and also it will affect the marks if I don't get the similarity correct and although the boat looks complicated to see the details, I've simply used a box, then used vertex (use soft selection) to get the all four edges. With a small fragment using the Bend modifier, I can get a slight curve setting its x to a minus. For the texture, again it is hard to tell from the photo but noticed the colour is the same as the dredger and so I have used the same for mine.




This is the final completion of the Dredger based in Zurich of Switzerland.

Group


This weeks group meeting went very well. We've discussed what we will need to focus on for week 9 (the animation). We've checked the progress of everyone's individual modelling and we are all happy with the progress so far. I feel that the group is doing very well, keeping the targets up to scratch and hopefully the animation, the hardest part we would complete by week 10.

Week 7

As from the list of the tasks of our group discussed on. My job is to create the background environment of the Zurich lake in 1892. I find just researching the area is harder than I would have expected. Very hard and rare to find images when its history is based in the 1800s. Although I could not find the exact year of it but I was luckily able to search for this image of an early stage.

The first tourist Steamship gate at Bauschanzli in Zurich (1835-1883). This is probably the closest image I can get but I now have some idea what it looks like and how I am going to model to its similarity. It has the lake, mountains, trees and buildings, so this is exactly what I need. Texturing the lake, trees and mountains should not be a problem for me but the buildings is a challenge especially when there are no colours in this image but hopefully in the end I will have the full environment completed on week 9.

The work:

Ok this is it, I need to create the whole environment. I start with the more nicer surface and thats the lake. Using the same method that I have done with from year 2 it is more useful as I did enjoy creating water. Ok to start of with, I've applied a cylinder which in large scale.

Now for the water effects. I open up Material Editor, for the Ambient I need a blue colour for the water. I then set its Specular level to 121 and Glossiness as 50.

By selecting Maps, I go to Reflection and choose Raytrace to get some effects.

Underneath I select Bump, then Noise and it allows me to open up the Coordinates. With this I can then set the size to 8.0.

The Noise Parameters also needs to be set to Fractal.

By testing to see if the water is suitable enough for the actual environment, I've applied an Omni-light then rendered it to see the result.

It doesn't look too disappointing but with a few adjustments to the effect of the water, it should like fabulous.

The next tast is to model the mountains/ cliffs. I thought this would be some challenge to me as concrete rocks are related to to the textures of the mountains. Here is the first attempt. I use a simple plane then by setting its:

width: 232.987
length: 360.381
length segs: 64
width segs: 64

By converting it to a Polygon I can then use Vertex to shape out the plane so I can get dents and form hills as required. Ticking Use Soft Selection I then model the mountain more in depth.

Ok so I've now added cliffs, I also wanted to model the environment correctly to the design from the storyboard and so I've created another sets of mountains but this will contain a different texture to the ones in front. Using the same method for the cliffs, I've simply changed the size more larger and then position them behind the cliffs.









For the textures, I've find it hard to search any resources from the Internet to help me so that I can use the Material Editor. With no luck, I needed textures and so by searching for images of rock/ cliff textures, I've found this one.









Now you can see I have the sea, the cliffs and the mountains (which needs textures).









Again having the same problems finding resources/ tutorials, I've used another image that contained snow. With some simple editing on Photoshop, I clone certain features to get the whole image as a one.









The next part is easy, just apply the bitmap image onto the Material Editor and drag it to the model. Render it and we have the mountain.

As the progress is getting along nicely, I feel I needed to add one more features to the environment before I finish the week and that's the sky. One of the best methods to creating a sky is using a cylinder because it surrounds the area and gives more accuracy to the environment.

Ok so I now need to test it with light. Using Omni light, I position it just near the central line

so there is more light.

Here is the progress so far.

The Group:

I feel at the moment the group is working very well with good starts with the modelling process. We've discussed

any other tasks that may have not yet been discussed on. Any further plans before hand and any problems we

may have occurred. All the specific ideas has been discussed and it went quite well and at this moment it is still

early even though our main target is to get the modelling done by week 8.

Week 6

The past five weeks has been hard working, mostly focusing on developing the 3D head. Even though the final result of the head was unsuccessful we now focus on a new topic. A group work to develop and animate a compound steam engine. We have already visited the Museum of Power on week 4 and this week we've prepared a presentation based on the ideas of what we will be working on last Thursday.

I find this is going to be interesting as for myself I will be working on the background environment but also hopefully I can provide some help with modelling the engine.

After the presentation we discussed further more of what each member will be working on. We've also provided a group blog now so that all the details and information of the meeting and the progress of our work can be viewed.