Camera animation fly arounds

Well since I have completed all of the animations for my scene, it is now time to start doing the camera animation, I have been putting this off quite a bit as I know its going to be very time consuming with render times etc, but atleast it gets me on track to be able to edit and put together my scene. I have had another go at the path animation tutorial: http://www.screencast.com/users/Neal/folders/Flash/media/d8bfa37a-8c1d-41c7-a95d-fcd00d594273 that I failed so miserabley at previously and it seems to have gotten a bit better, I think I'm getting the hang of it, hopefully I will become more confident with it with time as I am going to have to do around 8 or more of them I think to show off everything in my scene. I have a few blender files with various aspects of my scene. I am going to do a path animation for each one, along with a straight on animated render, I will then not necessarily use all of this in my final 30 second animation, but will show them on my blog so that you can see what I have done, whilst it is being done. Some of the animated files will also need to be edited when put into premier so keep that in mind, if there are parts that dont look right.

This is a camera fly of the pond.


This is a full top view of the pond, I really like how you get the reflection of lampost in the water.

This is a full shot of the grass.

This is a camera fly of the grass.

This is the front shot of the bin/rubbish.

This is the camera fly of the bin/rubbish.

This is the front shot of the moving lampposts.

This is the camera path fly around of the lampposts.

This is the front view of the moving sign.

This is the camera fly of the moving sign.

This is the front view of the rain.

I have not done a camera fly of the rain as you can see it overall in the front view, and a camera fly would not give a different effect.

This is the camera fly of the ball seats.

This is the front view of the ball seats.

This is the full animation of the ball seats/sign/lampposts, as they were all done within the same file, whereas everything else was done in its own file, so I thought it might be nice to render it out as a whole, as it would be viewed within the file.

The next stage is to put all of these files into 'Adobe premier pro' so that I can edit them together to make a final animation. I have decided to put 'Jump in the pool' by 'Friendly Fires' as the background music to the animation, as I wanted a song that was easy to listen to so that anyone would enjoy viewing the animation. I also thought that I could edit the pond animations to fit in perfectly with the line 'jump in the pool', it seems like the perfect choice.

Animation Project Sketches

When designing and thinking of new ideas I usually find it easier to draw them down so that I have some idea of what I will be creating. Below are the sketches that I drew when designing what I was going to do for my animation.


This is a rough sketch of the planet seats moving around into different positions and scales. The effect will be created using keyframe animation on movement and scale.

This is a rough sketch of the sign moving around as though it is on its hinges moving around in the wind. The moving sign will be created by using key frame animation.

This is a rough sketch of the rubbish blowing out of the bin in the wind, it shows the rough path the rubbish will take. The movement of the rubbishb will be done using key frame animation.

This is a rough sketch of what the pond will look like. I will be using fluids to create the moving water effect.

This is a rough sketch of the lamposts shaking in the wind, this will be done by using key frame animation.

The rain effect is the only effect that covers the entire model, I will use particles to get this effect that rain is over the model area.

I will make the grass move as though it is windy. This will be done by adding an empty and playing around with the settings.

Animation: Week 8

Well the tutorials this week were slightly different. More a modelling aspect rather than animation. I have done some weighting in Maya before so the idea is not lost to me.

The tutorials showed full characters with armatures atached as I did not have these files I decided to show the general idea with shapes, to show how it is done. Both tutorials were basicly the same thing but just showing different ways of doing it, I followed both anyway. The below screenshots were from the first tutorial, I found that I got a better response from the first one, it was more noticable than the second one, as I was able to weight the same mesh at different weights.

Rather than the second one which didnt take to it aswell, it would let me weight it but only the overall mesh. It was interesting to visit this area again, just a shame I wont need to use it for my project.

Animation: Week7

This week we learnt about motion capture, it was really interesting to learn about as it was something that I havent done before. This weeks task was to import a BVH file into blender and see what the motion capture looks like in there. I am currently having a problem with an error coming up, but I hope this will be resolved soon.
Well after looking back at it theres still a problem, but as this isn't a skill i'm going to need for my project there isn't a worry to get it fixing, atleast I tried.

My Project

Below are my findings with tutorials that I have found useful when creating my final project. Some of which were necessary for me to learn how to do do things that I couldnt work out how to do very well on my own.

The first of these was how to make rain, as I wanted to have rain in the background of my scene. I found http://feeblemind.tuxfamily.org/dotclear/index.php/2004/12/24/4-blender-faire-pleuvoir---making-rain very useful when trying to do this. The tutorial helped me out, but to be honest the effect is created from particles which I have already tried in a past tutorial in class. I did have to play around with the tutorial as I had a few problems getting the rain to go downwards onto my scene, as for some reason it was going up in the air, no idea why but after some rotating I manged to fix it.

Here is a screenshot of the rain in motion, currently in the middle of a render of the rain which is taking forever. I think it has come out quite well. The overall effect I am going for is a windy one. To add to this effect I will have wind shaken lamposts, sign, grass and rubbish out of the bin. Once this has rendered I will add each one and do a render as the detail progresses. I then need to make the planet seats move around and create birds to fly in the sky, however I am currently unsure whether I will add them to the same file or create each aspect in a different one.

Right So i've just spent 2 hours waiting for the file to render and it had an error as it came towards the end so I dont think I'll be doing any animation renders for a while, I'll just document my progress with images until a later date, when hopefully the animation render will begin to work again.

Below are some images of the planet seat key frame animations:

The below screenshot shows the current stage of animation, so far the sign, lamposts and planet seats have been animated. Rain has also been animated on a different file. The sign, lamposts and planet seats were created using keyframes I found these two tutorials very useful for this: http://www.screencast.com/users/Neal/folders/Flash/media/77702fe9-8c56-41b9-817a-728ef125dbf2 and http://www.screencast.com/users/Neal/folders/Flash/media/e9ea8293-025f-4183-8df1-6185c3aa7a79

The below screenshot is the rubbish flying out of the bin and around the scene. I decided to make it a page from a newspaper and gave it a newspaper image as the texture. I think it works really well. To create rthe flying rubbish I created a series of key frames I found these tutorials really useful for that: http://www.screencast.com/users/Neal/folders/Flash/media/77702fe9-8c56-41b9-817a-728ef125dbf2 and http://www.screencast.com/users/Neal/folders/Flash/media/e9ea8293-025f-4183-8df1-6185c3aa7a79

Below is a screenshot of the pond added to the scene, I have created it on a different file as it was too slow to try and edit and move around otherwise. You can't really see the detail on this shot as the water does move, that can only be seen in the animation, however what I can say is that the water moves naturally and I'm really happy with the result.

I wanted to create realistic moving grass so that it looks as though it is swaying in the wind, I found this tutorial really helpful for this: http://www.blenderguru.com/the-secret-to-creating-realistic-grass/.

Below is my result, the screenshot doesnt really give it justice but it will be more noticeable in the end animation itself.

Animation: Week 6

This week we had a fluid task to follow. I found the task really interestng and the effect created was just beautiful. I wouldnt call it a simple skill though, takes a lot to get it looking just right.

This is a screenshot of the tutorial towards the end with the round glass and water at the top, the effect cant really be shown well in a screenshot so here is a render of it as an animation as a whole. The render took around an hour and a half to render out.

This is the glass as a square shape rather than a round shape.

The last part of the task this week was to create something of our own. I decided to create some stairs that went into a big splash. I think the animation looks really good and effective. I think it would be a really useful technique when creating something like the ocean.

Animation: Week 5

I was really intimidated by the animation we are expected to create, but once I'd read and tried out the tutorial I can see how it will all go together, actually looks quite simple to get that effect, but I will soon see when I try to make it.
Here is my render of the moving dominos following the tutorial.



Below is my attempt at making a more indept game engine machine, however it does not work how it is supost to. I spent ages applying the correct technique as used in the above one but no luck, i even looked at more tutorials hoping to get it working still no luck. It's stange as it doesn't even work at the start with the dominoes they just fly in the air, I even tried making them again to check I got it correct on a different file and it was fine so I have no idea why. My only thought is that I need to be doing something different when it get's to the ball, but if so that wasnt very clearly listed on the tutorial I worked from, 'Blender' also didn't seem to like it when I got into a lot of detail the page kept flashing different colours which was pretty anoying. Luckily I wont need this for my coursework but all the same it was a pretty frustrating process.

Animation: Week4

I usually take a day and work through all the work but this week I've been hit with a fluey bug so I shall be doing a bit at a time for as long as I'm able to work, pretty anoying as there are a lot of tutorials to do and this is only one of my four modules but cant do anything about it.


Right the first tutorial 'Basic Blender Particles' I was first very intimedated by the length of it but once I'd done i felt like there was a lot of repetition but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing as I feel very confident in what I've just learnt. I end of the tutorial saw us playing around with some different effects on the particles, I did a few renders of some of the nicer effects available. I found it very interesting how you can create something so different from the same thing, I look forward to using particles again.



This is the rings effect, It is by far my favourite it just looks beautiful. The effect reminds me of that pattern popular in the 60's? maybe i've got the decade wrong but I think you know what I mean.



This is using the flare effect, it reminds me of fireflies, I can see how this one would work nicely in the task for this week.


This is using the lines effect it looks like sparkly stars its really quite pretty. I can image how this effect would be useful for creating shooting stars, or even disco lights.






This is using the star effect, this is very similar to the flare effect but a bit more definied, but the name I imagine that it is used for simple star effects.





The next tutorial I tried wasn't as sucessful I followed the instructions as best as I could considering most of the buttons were in a different order but even parented the particles were just ordinary like the ones from the first tutorial they wern't the boxes, I got really stumped as I spent well over an hour trying different combinations I just dont understand why it wont work, I rendered my end result which isn't like theres but it shows some animation. It's really anoying as I think this would be a really useful technique.

The next two tutorials were fire related, the first one creating the fire, and the second one adding a lattice too it, I found that the second video with the latice didnt add that much difference but it's good to know you can add lattices to particles.

This is my fire from the first tutorial.

This is the fire from the second tutorial with the lattice on the particle.

I found creating the fire effect quite straight forward after I'd done it, however throughout making it I had a few problems trying to get it to look like I wanted to, infact I had to change quite a few of the settings, mainly making them higher. This was due to the fact that for some reason mine didn't rise as high as the one on the tutorial, but in end I think I did a good job on the technique, its pretty effective and I can see how it could be used for things such as rain and snow, just using it in the oposite direction, or even as fireworks if the lattice was made gigantic at the top.

The static particles fur was really awkward to do as so many of the buttons were non-existance due to the different version, I had to make quite a few guesses some of which may be really wrong but the end result isnt too bad, bit thicker than I would have liked bu oh well.

Week 3: Animation

First tutorial pretty simple and effective however I did mess up half way through and wonder why it wasnt working and starting it over again realised i'd named the wrong thing so the camera wouldnt rotate oh well sorted now.
However I am starting to wonder whats all the fuss about the monkey template why a monkey and not an elephant?

The next tutorial was easy to follow, however at the end I felt mine did look like the cylinders were crushing the rectangle but it didnt look like mine were moving like his so I went back to the middle and tried it again and got the same result, I'm guessing maybe its more like an alussion. The only difference with mine is that I exstruded the cross from the cylinder and he said he made it from a box so maybe that's the problem so thats something to consider in the future.

I was really dreading this weeks tutorials because of the task i'd seen that we had to do like worrying about it all day I was at work, but now i've done it it doesnt seen so bad, I guess thats because I just learnt the skills to do it. I rendered out two versions one with a standard camera and one with the camera path fly around effect on it. When it come to the initial process using the lattice etc that was fine I had no problems what so ever it was very clear in my mind still, but when it came to rotating the cylinders I got stumbled and played around a little bit, it was then that I realised how easy it was, that was because when I was rotating it in the y and z axis it kept moving the object but on the x axis it was fine so problem solved. This had made me feel a bit more confident as after last weeks disaster I was really worried like dreading doing the tutorial section of this course, I just really hope that they continue to go aswell as today, but knowing my luck they wont.

This is the render with a normal standard camera shot.


This is the render with the moving camera, after watching them both I prefer the standard shot you can see the process clearer, plus the quality doesn't seem as good on this one even I rendered them both on the same setting strange!

Animation: Week 2

The IPO curve window tutorial was yet another interesing way in which you can animate within blender, it was interesting to see the lines in which I had previously animated, it was nice to have a play around and change the directions and intesity of the previous animation, it was so intense that at one point the 'Monkey' goes off view, so it may look different than the tutorial that I actually followed, as I kind of took into my own hands. However I cant see that I'm ever going to really use it, but I may be wrong.

I was starting to think this is going too well, and ofcourse the problems start now, Benzier curves seem to have been put on this earth to kill me because they are doing the complete opposite of what i'm telling them to do. I make the plane and the ground fine, you add a Benzier curve into the mix and an hour is spent in frustration so much that you think maybe a degree is'nt for me should I quit and that is even an overstatment. I tell it to go one way and it goes the oposite way, so for my 'path' I have only gotten half way and that is due to me moving each bit manualy because when I click it goes the wrong way, So i'll try and carry on with the path half way and see if I can get more than two minutes into the eighteen minute tutorial otherwise I will be here all night.

This is a screenshot of the plane clearly far away from the path line, still comfused as to why but hey.

So I come back to it the next day a clear mind and all that, and it kind of went a bit better well I got it to work but not correctly, but I cant see how I'm ever going to get it to work, I've spent hours trying to do it and I cant take it anymore, it's anoying because I really liked doing the keyframes and this way obviously hates me. So this is my final result It doesnt work correctly like it doesnt fly where its supost to, I'll post a screenshot of that, but atleast it's following the path which is more than I got it to do last night. Hopefully I'll have more luck doing it using key frames in a minute.

Below are two videos one being my first atempt, dont know why it kept going underneath the ground, but i think I fixed it by the second one. However the plane isnt moving very excitingly this is due to the fact that whenever I tried to rotate it blender kept flashing colours across the screen and crashing so i've done my best with what I could, I'm clearly having a very bad week in regard to this module:(

This one is the pretty shocking one.

Right I have no idea why this has come out like this it is set up nicely with the camera I have no idea why it is just staying in one area when the scene goes across the whole landscape. The animate end is in the right place, i'd have another go but I am frustrated beyong belief with this weeks tasks to give it another go until a later date arghghhhhhhh

Term 2: Week 1: Animation Begins

So I worked through the first two tutorials easily enough, they seemed straight forward but at the same time it seemed pretty pointless to learn two ways of doing the same thing but atleast I have that option I guess, the demonstrations also seemed to stretch on longer than was neccessary. The first thing I noticed when it came to blender was that whenever I went to animate it would crash, sometimes recovering itself before the finished result has rendered, I'm not sure if thats my computer, but I have pretty high specs so I cant see why that would be a problem, the second thing being it take a hell of a lot longer to render, so I'm going to need to keep that in mind when planning my work as I cant do a lot else while I'm waiting for it to finish.

Here are my final results from the two tutorials:




For the third task I decided to create something of my own choice, I decided to stick with having an indoor room, but instead of a mouse I decided to create a bee buzzing around, this was partly because I wanted to be able to play around with more space, as with a mouse you can only use the ground, and also because for a project I did last term I matchmoved a mouse on a piano so I'm sick of modelling one to say the least. I made the bee from a sphere exstuding the wings and head from the initial body shape, and then shaped appropriately, I then exstuded upwards then scaled inwards and then exstruded upwards slightly then scaled outwards to create the antenna on top of the head. I created the bee's stinger out of the back of the bee by exstuding and then scaling inwards to create a sharp point I smoothed and subsurfed everything on the bee. I tried to create some legs coming out from the bottom of the body but it just never looked right, they were far too blocky and large even when I subdivided loads of times. The trickiest and somewhat longest process was the texture I put a black over the whole thing, then selected individual faces for the yellow stripes and white wings, this was such a long process as I had to subdivide many times to get the faces in line for the stripes, so the faces were very small and there was a lot of them. I couldnt just select aload of faces at once as it picked up too many of the ones I didnt want. This completed the main element. I made the backing by scaling a cube upwards and deleting a few faces so the camera could see everything, put a wooden texture on the bottom and made coloured the walls pink. The animation process was really easy to pick up I didnt have any problems, I've done a fair bit of animation in 'Maya' so the process was reletively easy for me to complete. I simply just played around with where the bee was going the direction and the angle, I made a few mistakes and had a few problems deleting some keyframes but once I learnt how to do that it looked fine. I found it quite a long process, as its not just animation you need to model everything first thats the time consuming bit, but I found the animation really fun to do, much more so than modelling, I think it's because you can completely change a model as to how you decide to animate it, change the emotion, the view it is to be seen in.