The Final Scene

I'm overall pleased with the final outcome of the animation now that it has been put together in premier pro. With all the last minute changes and especially with the music it is much better. I think the group has done well with their animations. I am though slightly disappointed in some parts where I feel I could have done better myself. I do feel that I am happy to say I did my best, because I did, and I have put the time in. But I would like to have worked a bit further on the animation to perfect the movement of my characters. Again, I'm overall satisfied with the outcome of my work.

I have learnt new features in Max in this project such as creating a character, using bipeds, and animating characters which I had never done before. I'm pleased that I have been able to add to my knowledge of 3Ds max, but I am slightly disappointed that I didn't use the reactor tool in my scene. This would have been better for the scene and for learning. I am delighted though with the lighting, I thought that was good, and the modeling as well.

The group I feel worked well together in the project. General communication was good in the group, but I do think there was lack of communication from one member, which I think may show. But I think most of the group put the time in, getting there early and staying late most days. I think because of this, we can definitely be pleased with the animation because we have worked hard on it.

This is the Final Cut of the YMCA Animation:

Premier Pro

This is a screen shot of the animation being put together in premier pro...

Finished Animation Games Room Sequence

Making Changes to the Scene

Being honest, our presentation for the YMCA didn't go that well at all. We wernt prepared and nothing was going right on the day. But putting that aside im going to talk about my scene at that stage. Taking into account that what was shown wasn't the finished animation, the main panning shot of my scene was obviously way too slow and as a consequence was boring. Ive since gone back to the scene and moved bits around, and speeded things up.

*Ive also gone back to the scene and taken off all the question marks off my characters. The other characters in the group were made using a different method, and the question marks couldn't be put onto them. The easy option was for me to take the question marks off my characters to make the whole animation consistent.

The idea was that the question marks on the silhouettes were people we didn't know who they are, or the slogan we were going to use along the lines of 'It could be you'. Basically adding to the idea that anyones welcome, people of all types, and the fact that it could be yourself that could be one of those characters.

Ive also made changes to the final shot in the scene by speeding that up too, and tried to give it more movement in the shot. This is the final shot in the scene:


This was the video we tried to show in the presentation:-

Animating

I have managed to animate the balls being hit on the pool table, but I haven't done so with a reactor. What happend is, I spent the time moving each individual ball each time to make the reaction of the balls being hit. But after I had done it and renderd a sequence, someone then said to me about using a reactor which I had never heard of before. I decided that being pushed for time, I should continue with the rest of the scene, and then come back to it if i can. I think it would have been easier to use the reacter tool, and of what ive seen of the tool in use, I would have like to have included it in my scene.

(Although, using the reacter tool, would I had got a ball in the pocket? hmmmm...)

Animating

As well as never creating a character before, ive never animated one. Ive been working on moving the arms and legs to give the characters movement. Ive managed to animate a guy playing pool, a group of people playing twister, the guys watching and singing karaoke, and a guy on the sofa. Im quite please with the animation of the character playing pool.

For the camera shots of the scene, i have decided on the following:-

1) Transition from Lukes scene with a pan of the room, and following down to the pool table to see the character take a shot.
2) Cut to a closer shot from the other side of the table to see the balls get hit.
3) Cut to the far pocket to see one of the balls being potted, and have the camera follow round the table to the two characters on the sofa with the final shot.

Character Positioning > Continued

Ive put eleven characters in the room now, and positioned them where I want them to be. Ive also been animating some of the characters for a single curved panning shot of the room. I will also be including different shots of the room, but this is the first one. This is how the room looks at the moment: (oh yea, I added twister... randomly).