Maya Tutorials

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Unit 6 - Commission - Final Animation - Infection by HIV

The HIV cell in formation

In the end I went with the ship design for the HIV cell and decided to rely on colour and bump map to improve the alien look.

The colour I went for was a rusty green, and I wanted the whole ship to be dented and scratched.

This was the render I got from adding the colour, but the ship gets lost in that background.

I applied the ship to its first position,which is the formation. I copied the ship five times to show a deadly force. I've used lighting to show depth and show up the area, however, my lighting skills seem to be limited at the moment.

To make sure this part of the animation didn't look boring, I added some movement to the ships.

The New HIV design

As I showed in my previous post, I liked the idea of having a plane to be the HIV cell but didn't like having something that was someone elses design. With this in mind I created a new plane to take up the roll of the HIV cell. The plane is original, technical and mechanical with a slight look of a alien aircrafts. I really like having this design as my HIV cell because it fits in very well with my technology look animation and would work perfectly for an action and flight for act 2.

The HIV modelling process

When it comes to the model of the HIV cell I wanted to make it fit with the rest of the animation. So far for a new design I wanted to have something that is known for being technical and mechanical. Also the design has to be shaped in a way that if it was to turn then it is highly visible, like a plane.

With this in mind, I modelled a stealth plane...

I also had a little practice with colouring and lighting.

After modelling the stealth plane, I started to think that this idea takes the originality out of my animation. So I want to re-design the HIV cell again. But seeing as a took the time to model it, I thought I could do a quick flight playblast for some practice for the final thing.

The White blood cell modelling

This model has been brought about via the concept I did earlier, my idea was to make a mechanical world that shows technology. The inner core will show constant moving energy effects as the animation goes on. The outer ledges make this area look like a technical base.

Last couple of days

In the last couple of days I've been modelling and attempting to colour the act one scene, that being the computer room. I wanted this room to look technical and scientific, this is what I managed to model...

Colouring

The colouring so far isn't going brilliantly, this will be the result of lack of focus in the year when everyone else was learning to do it. So far I have coloured the screens a shiny black and the desks a shiny silver. This will stay like this for awhile because I want to get all modelling done before I get deep into colouring and texturing. I want to improve the shine look because I don't think it shows to well and it looks fake, also I want to keep that colour pallet throughout the room. The blacks and silvers will show this room as a clean and rich facility.

Progress so far

I think that my modelling is coming along very well, I happy with how this room looks and can't wait to crack on with the other areas. The biggest problem though is time, so I have to have everything modelled, textured, coloured and animated by atleast the end of the weeks, because my problem is rendering, and it will involve a lot of time to finish.

New concept

After my feedback for the pitch, I realised that I could do a lot more with this project than I first thought. I was told that my acts don't link together, they look like they are parts of different animations. I previously re-watched Ironman and had an idea to link the acts via a style of technology. I want my main focus to lie on the white blood cell and what goes on inside, and I want to design the nucleus of the cell to look like the Large Arc Reactor in Ironman's lab. I want to keep this Ironman technology feel throughout, so for the first act, I want a three screened computer in a room that looks like the basement in yet again Ironman. These screens will display a 3d blood sample slowly spinning around with information sub-dividing from it ( like the head up displays and computers than are seen in the film.
Other feedback that I had was that the Act 2 wasn't showing the amount of action that was promised, I was told that it need to work on editing and camera angles to improve that action feel. I also need to have that act finish quicker than it does, so that act three has enough time to show the education.

This new turn around will involve a lot of work and to start off, I have done this concept to show how I'm visualising this nucleus in the technology style...

Feedback from the Pitch and my new To-Do-List

My presentation for the pitch could have gone better, as was seen the amount of work I've put in the last 5 weeks has been rather limited. The feedback I got from the panel will come in useful. I was told that my colour scheme needed to work throughout the animation. Also the acts don't link to each other, they all seem like they're part of different pieces of work. So my main problem to solves is I have to make sure I can make all acts link together. To solve this I thought about keeping the technology of the first act flowing though animation. For inspiration I took another look at Ironman and I came up with a few ideas. I now want the first act to show a couple of computer screens on a polished desk with the microscope and other scientific equipment. I want it to look like similar Tony Starks basement room. The computer screens will be designed around the screens in the film, so it will have moving downloads and renders of a bloodsample and HIV information constantly happening. This heads up information will continue as the animation moves to act 2. this act needs more improvements to it because it was said that the movements needed to be quicker, there needed to be better editing of shots and the whole act needed to be shortened down so that act 3 (the education) was longer. Inside the white blood cell (act 3) will look simular to Ironman's  research lab, I would like the nucleus to look like an extreme power source. The HIV and the White blood cell will look like its made from metal and still have the heads up display.

When looking at everyone's pitches, I realised that my animation was way to boring, it was to obvious to be fun. I was inspired by Dayle's concept art. I liked how out of this world it looked, and I now want to do something that will take the audience out of this world and warp them into a technologically advanced world, the asme as what the film Ironman did for me.

To-Do-List

• Create more and better concepts to develop the world I want to create - This needs to be dramatic, exciting and technological - More research would need ot be involved for this, looking at films like fantastic voyage again, Alien, and Ironman. - I will also need to look up tutorials on how to get the most out of these concepts. - Fix the colour scheme for the animation, make it dark/light/Dirty/Clean/Green (more alien like) but keep it running through.
• I need to research into more amaerican tv and action films - this was reconmended by Phil.
• Keep the original story as a basis but advance it into the new ideas - create a rough storyboard if needed.
• Find a better soundtrack, previous soundtrack got a lot of negative feedback
• Look for After Effects and Maya tutorials for inspiration and ease to help with this possibly hard task.
• Try experimenting with backgrounds for the Maya scene to extend the visual field.
• Find Videos and book tutorials of Dramatic Camera Angles to help with act 2.
• Re-model everything that needs to be done.
• Create the textures and colours for the models - keep the drama and colour scheme.
• Animate it all - keep in mind the the action, editing potentials and over all feel of the animation - make it look exciting.
• Take the animaiton into After effects and put those necessasary effects on - heads up display, etc.

It is a very big list to get thorugh in just 2 weeks, and if I look back at what I've done in 5 weeks, it becomes very daunting. But also at the same time it's inspiring, because I have something to prove to myself and everyone else. I know that I can get this done and I want to create what I see in my head. If I don't get the whole thing done, it could be a little disapointing. However it is a big list and involves 100% dedacation. I feel that this year I haven't done anywhere as near as what I could achieve, I know have 2 weeks to prove what I can do... Overall that Pitch has become very useful for me and I extremely glad we did it.

@ PHIL - TIME MACHINE ESSAY PROPOSAL

Sorry for the late post but I've finally come up with a couple of ideas for the Time Machine essay which I plan to get started on straight away. We all wish we could go back in time!

The ideas I've come across are slightly ranged and I like some of the ideas more than others which I wanted to run by you.

1. The movement of 2D animation to 3D animation - as you may remember for the unit 5 essay I wanted to write about John Lassester and his efforts of introducing 3D animation to the world. Well in the end I wrote about Winsor McCay which as you may agree is almost completely in the opposite direction. So I thought I could connect the two, investigating certain movements, techniques, discussion and technologies that allowed us to move the 3D world from the 2D

2. The effects of action in films - basically I wanted to discuss how action scene boost or possibly destroy a film.

3. Does the added influence of romance improve the way the audience perceives the characters involved? - This idea was just a little one that jumped to me, but could be very interesting to look into. I would imagine that different cultures, ages or genders for have different views on a romantic scene in the film they're watching. Obviously this would need a lot of evidence to strengthen the arguement.

4. (my favourite) With this idea I want to look into how different audience react to books vs movies. Which is better and why? What makes a book better? What makes a film better? Who is prefering which?
- With a little research I have noticed that there is a lot of dislike over the film versions of 'ERAGON' and
'Da Vinci Code', however the books were a huge hit. From what I've read, the people that hatted the film the most are the people that read and enjoyed the book. I think it will be interesting to look deeper into the lovers of books and how they see films and argue that point with what the lovers of movies think about books. Fortunatly I have read both 'Eragon' and 'Da vinci code' and loved the books, so I think it would be biased if I focused on that alone. So to back up an honest arguement I looked at the best movies that where created from some pretty bad books. What I found was the books that were the foundation to 'Jaws' and 'The Godfather', where actually bad. Which again I find really interesting because there is a strong contrast - Two of the best-selling books have been made into unpopular movies whereas two of the most grossing movies at the box office where created from some unpopular books.

In response to Phil's comment

Phil commented on my previous post and thought that the way that act 1 worked didn't fit in with the rest of the other acts. Fortunately I agree with his comment and I have to - and I quote - "make the microscope feel like 'hardware' - shiny and imposing - like something 'cool'". With this in mind, I thought I should removed the "coming alive" of the microscope and focus on going down the lens. I thought it could be cool to show the inside components of the microscopes, for example like the two following videos:

The Lionsgate Intro



Celine Dion's I'm Alive - Skip to 25 seconds



These videos show the inside world of the mechanism, it could be very interesting to do something like this and I would link well with the rest of the cinematic feel of my piece. However I won't be doing something this extensive, but I could possibly zoom through the glass lenses showing some screws or turning components on the way down.

The Logo with sounds

1st Draft to the 2nd Draft storyboard

1st Draft

This here was my first drawft storyboard, it shows the opening onf the animation to be a microscope that comes to attention when the audience first sees it. That microscope jumps up and faces the camera and the camera trazels down the lens to see the blood on the glass plate at the bottom. I like the idea of this scene because it shows a clear understanding of the microscopic world inside the blood. it automatically shows where the animation is heading.

The second and third scene shows the attack of the HIV inside the blood. They start with the blood stream flowing and then introducing the HIV cell. I imagined having the introduction of the HIV cell as really dramatic, so I wanted the camera to flow close and over the cell. From here on the storyline lacks a lot, which is where a re-draft comes into play.

Between the 1st and 2nd draft

Between doing the 1st draft a while ago and doing the 2nd draft rather recently, there has been a lot of development that has helped improve my storyline.

I spent awhile thinking about how I could improve my act 2: HIV attacking the cell. What I wanted was a way that the HIV looked highly dramatic, deadly and not a boring A to B situation. Through the beginning of the Easter holidays, I took a little break and watched a couple of films. One of those films happened to be Independence day, normally this is one of my favourite films but this time I was captivated by the flight scene near the beginning and the end. I loeved the attack of alien against the human race, which instantly brought me back to my animation. Effectively the HIV virus is an alien attack on the Human race, so why not have a war simulation.

Unfortunatly I couldn't find the scene I wanted on Youtube but fortunatly the scene is in this trailer, so behold the beauty that is INDEPENDENCE DAY

Now I couldn't stop at this film, I had look further into the movement of planes, after looking into my memory and researching into youtube and my DVD collection I looked at some others.

Pearl Harbour

Stealth

Ironman

Skyline

*SPOILER ALERT WITH THIS CLIP*

Star Wars

If anyone can think of any others that may help me then please comment, it will help me widen the range of my research.

What I learnt from these films and action films in general, is that camera movements and shots are key to the fast, dramatic look of the scenes. Some cameras show POV shots, forward shots, following shots, behind shots, zooming in and out shots. With a combination of these, I could make an awesome look to this act 2.

Extra research to visualise act 3

http://www.nano.org.uk/news/may2008/latest1392.htm



I came across this video created by Dr Rufus, and so far it is the best educational video on the subject I seen. It is clear and descriptive, and has a step by step visual process of HIV infection. If anyone is still stuck on visaulising the process, then give this a look.

2nd Draft

 As you can see from the 2nd Draft is that I basically kept the first act the same but act 2 and 3 have improved dramatically. In act two alone I have imported flight movements, formation and advanced zooms. Act 3 has been improved by Dr Rufus' video descriptions to how HIV attacks. I'm really impressed with the improvements to my storyline, I feel that the way I've got from A to B and the descriptions have made my piece unique.

What the frames show

Act 1

Frame 1: Open on a sad or lifeless looking microscope
Frame 2: Realise the audience
Frame 3: Jump up
Frame 4: Face the Camera
Frame 5: Travel down the lens, Fade out
Frame 6: Zoom to Blood sample

Act 2

Frame 1: Open on the blood flowing right to left
Frame 2: Camera moves into the flow
Frame 3: Incomes the HIV cell
Frame 4: HIV comes clearer into view
Frame 5: HIV front view in formation
Frame 6: HIV locates white blood cell - Heads up display in the style found in Ironman
Frame 7: White blood cell located
Frame 8: HIV roll out
Frame 9: Movement of HIV
Frame 10: Maneuver around red blood cells - HIV cells in the background as well
Frame 11: Focus on one HIV cell
Frame 12: Last maneuver over a red blood cell
Frame 13: HIV and White blood cell face to face
Frame 14: Show size comparison
Frame 15: Close to attachment

Act 3

Frame 1: White blood cell and HIV
Frame 2: Lower the HIV cell - show names of components
Frame 3: Landed/Attached
Frame 4: Transmembrane GP41 unfolds
Frame 5: Membrane fuse
Frame 6: Nucleocapsid enters the host cell
Frame 7 Nucleocapsid opens -show names of components
Frame 8: Release the RNA strands and enzymes
Frame 9: Reverse Transcriptase
Frame 10: RNA enters Polymerase turning in RNA-DNA
Frame 11: RNA-DNA enters Ribonuclease-H active site and breaks it down
Frame 12: RNA re-enters Polymerase and the DNA double-Helix is completed
Frame 13: DNA enters the nucleus
Frame 14: Viral DNA connects to the cells DNA
Frame 15: RNA has started to be copied
Frame 16: Viral RNA is copied and leaves the Nucleus
Frame 17: mRNA enters the Ribosomes. Proteins are created
Frame 18: Proteins enter the Viral Protease and produce smaller core Proteins
Frame 19: Two Viral RNA strands and the essential enzymes come together and are surrounded by Core Proteins to create a capsid
Frame 20: Capsid leaves the cell
Frame 21: Creating a Immature HIV cell
Frame 22: HIV cell matures
Frame 23: Process has repeated an more Immature HIV cells leave the damaged White blood cell
Frame 24: Overview of the activity in the blood stream, HIV being produced all over the place.

Animatic

My Animatic has sown me how long each act will take, and I was always worried that the third act( the important one) wouldn't have enough time. Fortunatly the final act has the chance to have over 1 minute 20 second which is plenty of time to show the educational side of the Infection.



Title Screen

Via a combination of two tutorials on VideoCopilot.com, I created a wave of energy that flows behind my title. This has created a professional look and its a great start to my animation. There was a lot of queeking that needed to be done, for example the wave needed to last a fraction longer and fade on a bit slower. It was fun and educational to do this tutorial, I now know a little bit extra on how to use after effects and I was totally unaware at how many effects are available. I think the final outcome of the title is awesome, however there is room for improvement and I hope to improve it with the things I learn in other videos. I want to add my 'Bringing Ideas To Life' slogan onto the title, but at the same time I don't want the duration to be too long.

After Effects Tutorial - 1st lesson

Yesterday was my first After Effects tutorial of the unit, I went into this tutorial with some limited previous experience via last years foundation. I learnt a lot from the lesson, a lot of my focus was on what the different effects there was and where to find them. Throughout the lesson I created two videos, mainly because the first one was a muck about, but through both videos, I learnt a lot.

My First Video - Rocky and the Giraffe



My Second Video - The Fighter Jet




The techniques i've used in this video, I will then use for my animation and logo.

Digital Paintings

Microscope

Bloodstream with HIV infection

Idea for the beginning

The Microscope

I was thinking of a way to make my animation unique and also give a clear idea right at the beginning that what is seen is a magnified cell infection. I've been constantly imagining the animation starting with the model of the microscope, the camera then move foward and goes down the lens of this microscope to then see the liquid on the stage plate glass on the stage, also zooming in a bit closer and then a fade out. Then there could be a Fade in deep inside the solution, which is where the rest of the animation takes place, with the animal cell being attacked by the HIV. This could be a great way to start the animation, its clear and to the point and on a learning point of view, modelling the microscope would be a task that I would like to achieve.