Week Twelve

This is the final week and it was spent creating the animation for my character. The animation is of my caveman character performing on the type rope in a circus environment. I created the animation in 3d Studio Max. I have learnt a little bit of animation in 3D max however not as much as i had to do here, which was a big success.

The animation starts with a close up of his face and his eyes have been animated to blink. it then goes into a short scene where the camera moves around him showing the full character, and then finally the last two scenes are of him performing his type rope stunt.



After i had rendered all the scenes in 3D Studio Max i then used Adobe Premier pro to put them all together and create a short video clip. I used transitions to link each scene and then finally I then added music.



Evaluation

This module has been a great learning curve for me and has made me so much more confident in using 3d Studio Max. I have not had much use of 3D Studio Max but i have learnt so much in such a short space of time. My modelling and animation have both improved so much and i want to continue these skills in the future. Looking back at past work i have gotten so much better and i am so pleased with the final outcome. I feel like i have really achieved something with this module and i like 3d Studio Max so much more now that i have a greater understanding of how the software works and can create something i am very proud of.

Week Eleven

Skin and Bone

The end of this week was spent boning and then skinning my character. I have not had much experience at all with this and it was a great challenge. I boned him using a biped skeleton, however had difficulty because the skeleton was very small compared to my characters body frame. i discovered how to re-size the bones on the skeleton and after playing about with the envelopes found it much easier to move him without him looking wrong or vertex messing up. After sorting the bones i applied a skin modifier which enabled the body to move with the bones.

Environment

After the character was finished i then created a simple environment, I created a circus environment for my cave man to perform a circus stunt.

Week Eleven

Almost all of the modelling is done now except for the clothing. I want him to wear like a cloth around his bottom section from his waist down to his knees. I am going to create this from his body not from a different object.


Over Easter i finished the modelling and added his clothing. To create his clothing I selected faces around his body where i wanted the clothing to be and i extruded them out slightly, i then had to move vertex to create a smoother shape for his clothing. once it looked how i wanted it to i the moved the vertex along the bottom of the clothing to create a rough zig-zag cut look.


After all the modelling was complete i decided to add materials. i did this using the material tool in 3D Studio Max. To get a realistic skin colour i searched on the internet for skin tones, found out the colour and created an image of the colour in photoshop. I then applied that image as a material in 3D studio Max. i did the same for the material of his clothing i found like an image of a dark brown fur material and then applied it to his clothing.



I also inserted the movable eyeballs into place and re-appplied the eye material so that his eyes look realistic.


Now that the modelling and materials are complete its time to skin, bone and animate.

Week Ten

Facial Features

This week will be spent creating the facial features for my caveman:


Nose

I created the caveman's nose by pulling out vertex and face on on and around the area i had left for the nose. I moved vertex until I got the desired shape and size and then it was time to created the nostrils. The nostrils were created by selecting faces under the nose about the size of a nostril. i then deleted these faces so it left a hole. i selected the edges of around the hole i had created and held down shift. i dragged the nostril up the nose to create a deep hole up the nose which created the nostrils.


Lips

The next feature to create was the lips. I selected faces on the front of the face in the space for the mouth and extruded them out slighty and then moved the vertex into shape to create the shape of the lips. I then used the connect tool to create a ringle line of thin faces between the two lips. i selected these faces and extruded them in the face. this created a gap between the two lips, creating the mouth.

Eyes

Then came the eyes, at first i just created still eyeballs using the sphere shape tool and then added an eye material to make them look more realistic. However when i get to the animation i want to animate his eyes so i will then create an eye which has eye lids which can rotate so they can open and close.


Ear


Finally I created the ear, i have created an ear in modelling before however had difficulty attatching it so therefore this time I created the ear from the side of the head so that it was already attatched. I selected faces on the side of the head in the right space for the the ear and of similar size. I then extruded it out, and created more faces withing the space of the ear. I then moved faces in and out to created the shape of the ear.

Next I am going to look at attatching the body and head and then creating the clothing for the caveman, I will also sort out the materials.

Week Nine

Neck

The next stage was giving my character a neck to go with the head and attach it to the body. I started the neck by selecting the edges around the back of the head at the bottom held down shift and dragged them out. This created the basis for the neck.

After the neck had been dragged out it then needed to be dragged into place so that it looked more realistic. This meant that the neck had to face downwards rather than out to the back.

After moving the neck into place I then smoothed the head to see what it looked like and to ensure the head and neck look correct.

Once the neck looked correct i then defined the shape of the face and neck further, this meant shaping the back of the head and neck and also shaping the chin some more.


After this I started working on the space for the eyes creating deeper indents in the face for where the eyes and eye sockets would be.

I then started working on the nose bringing out the shape of the nose slightly from the face, finding the position on the face of where the nose would be.


Finally for the modelling of the shape of the face I created the eye sockets where the eyes would be placed on the face.

Next week I will spend my time defining the face further by adding facial features such as the eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

Week Eight

After creating the body for my caveman character last week, this week I am going to start the his head.

I will create the head in a very similar way, starting with just a box with enough vertex to move creating the shape of his head.

Basic Head Shape

First I moved vertex around to just create the basic shape of the head with a slight bump for the nose and the concave area where the eyes will be.

I then applied NURMS smooth to see how the shape of the head was coming along.

Neck

After creating the basic shape of the face I selected a section of vertex on the back of the head at the bottom where I thought the neck should be a deleted them.

This created a starting point for my characters neck which I will create the basic shape for next.

Week Seven

After creating the basic body shape last week, this week I wanted to get the caveman's body looking like I wanted it to, this meant moving many vertex and then toggling NURMS smooth on and off to see if the body was looking correct when rendered.

I started creating the large tummy area, I did this by selecting vertex on both the front and then side of the caveman and moving them out to created the rounded shape of his tummy.

I made his arms and legs larger so they were in proportion with his body, and then scaled his hands and feet bigger to also make them a more realistic size to the rest of him.

I then changed the colour of his body to a more realistic skin colour so it was more easy to see if it was looking correct.

After trying to create the correct shape i was very pleased with the outcome, creating the body for me was very challenging and i feel that my 3D studio Max skills are improving the more i use the software which i am very pleased about.

Next I will be attempting to start the caveman's head.

Week Six

This week Jo was absent so I just carried on with my work. This week I started to work on creating the body for my caveman character. I wanted to create a large, round character with a beer belly, which of course a cave man would not have had.

I started creating my character from a box shape with enough segments to create a body like shape with many quads helping me form a smooth realistic body shape. I had only ever tried to create a body shape once before so this was a challenge.

I knew what I wanted my caveman's body to look like however to start of with I gave myself the task of just creating the basic body shape which I could then play around with in order to get the cave mans body looking like I wanted it to.

I started the body by just simply creating a tall box, with enough segments so that this created enough vertex to move around to create the desired shape.

I spent most of this week creating the basic body shape which looked nothing like I wanted my final body to look like but it was definitely a starting point which i could work with and I was very pleased with the body I had achieved.

Week Five

Environment

I want the different environments and objects to be bright, basic and but very recognisable and realistic enough for the children to understand where the caveman is. I don't want the caveman character to be overpowered by the environment he is in.

The environments and objects will be created in 3D studio Max using various shapes and tool to give the desired shape, effect and colour.

Week Five

Character Rigging

This week I looked at rigging, I had missed the lecture on this subject so decided to familiarise myself with it on my own. I found it very interesting and will be very helpful to use when creating the bones and skeleton for the inside of my character. I also looked at IK chains which link all the bones together and fins which give more movement in the body showing exactly how each bone will move.

I looked at one site in particular to help, it was very useful in helping to understand how to rig a whole body.

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/tutorials

Week Four

Although at first look a cave man may not come across as a likable character but i want my character to be as friendly and inviting as he can and his expressions and body language will help to portray this. He will be pleasant and gentle in both his personality and body language. His movements will not be aggressive at all and his his dim-witted personality will make him sometimes humorous without realising. I think he will be a new and Intriguing, likable and interesting character for children to respond to.

His friendly gestures, slow, calm movement, smile and relaxed posture will make him the inviting and likable character i want to create. With this behaviour and body language children will not see him as a threat or unlikable character

My curly hair reflects my individuality the most as not many people have curly hair like mine and it is something people are always noticing and complimenting about me. For my character it will also be his hair, body hair and clothing which make him noticeably a caveman, but it will be his slow dim-witted personality which will make him stand out.

Week Four

Environment Ideas

As mentioned before i want my caveman character to appear in modern times, the total opposite of what he is use to. I have done some research and looked at images of the type of environment he mite be use to, and also looked at some modern environments he mite be able to appear in.

He would of come from and environment with with no electricity, no money or anywhere to spend it, no roads or cars to drive and no house to live in. These are all things which children are familiar with in their modern environment today. Cavemen used a variety of materials in their environment to make tools and equipment and they lived in tents and caves, hunting for food.

The modern environments the caveman will appear in will be very different to this.

Modern Environments

The modern environment will be a whole new world to learn about for the caveman and he will face new things to learn. The modern environment will just be an everyday surrounding such in a house, a modern street, beach etc.

Week Three

Cavemen can be very different and sometimes scary to look at especially for children so i want his movements and body language to be quite calm and not to hasty. The build of my character is going to be quite big and bulky and i want him to possess personality and body language quite the opposite to this big bulky physique. I want him to be quite slow moving which will relate to his dim-witted personality trait and he Will sometimes be a bit slow getting the grasp of things. His body language will be relaxed with his hands by his side, not threatening and his face will posses a friendly smile and big doting eyes. Its his personality and body language which will make him a friendly character children can connect with.


When thinking about the storyline i am going to undertake using this character i come up with the idea of the caveman appearing in modern times maybe a modern street or house. This will be a location and environment he is very unfamiliar with so he will be a little lost and confused. He will then encounter little modern problems which he will have to solve. such as the names of new objects he finds, adding up sum etc and also showing the children objects he is familiar with which they may not be. These problems will be things which children encounter also as they grow up and gain knowledge, therefore i think it would be engaging for children to help this caveman learn while learning new things themselves at the same time.


The modelling of both my character, objects and environments will all be created using 3D studio Max. I have some experience with 3D Max and character animation however i have not created anything to this level and therefore it will be a great challenge and learning curve for me.

Week Two

The next thing to think about is the personality my character will have, personality is a very important part when i am creating this character as it is going to be the right personality which makes a likable or dis likable character for the children to relate to. The characteristics possessed by my character will influence his behaviour and reactions to various situations and hopefully these reactions and this behaviour is something children can relate to.

Feelings and Emotions

Love.
Pain.
Shame.
Insight.
Sadness.
Happiness.
Desire.
Compassion.

Here are a list of personality traits i feel my character should possess in order to be a likable and cartoon character for children to relate to.

Honesty: I want my character to have integrity and keeping one's promise.

Responsibility: To be accountable for things and following through with duties.

Loyalty: Showing devotion to people and/or things.

Enthusiasm: Having a strong affinity towards and eagerness/ willingness to work with others or things.

Influence: Motivating or encouraging others.

Compassion: Having sympathy and feelings for people with problems.

Patience: Being able to wait and taking time to do things.

Courage: Confronting danger or difficulties in spite of fear.

I want my caveman character to be a friendly, enthusiastic, likable, humorous and dim-witted. Because cavemen can be quite scary to see sometimes his personality will ned to shine through.

Week Two

This week the lesson was not on as there was a snow day however After much research and thought into many ancient times and characters i decided that i wanted to create a cave man for my character.

I started to look at different Caveman images to get an idea of their behaviour, movement and posture. This will help me when i am creating and deciding on what my own character should look and behave like.





I also looked at Caveman cartoon character i was already familiar with such as Fred Flintstone and Captain Caveman. These are two very likable cartoon characters i myself have grown up watching.

Fred Flintstone tends to be loud-mouthed, aggressive, and constantly scheming.Fred is typical working class working at Slate Rock and Gravel Company.

Fred's interests include bowling, playing pool, poker, lounging around the house, and playing golf. At the first two of these, he is very skilled.

Fred's has a catchphrase "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!"

Captain Caveman is the main character he's a caveman who is thousands of years old.

He can pull various objects from his body hair. He can also fly, but his flying power always seems to conk out on him at the worst possible moment.

He speaks in stereotypical "caveman-talk", replacing subjective pronouns with their objective equivalents and dropping articles such as "the" for example "Me know where bad guys are hiding.", and often mumbles the nonsense phrase "unga bunga".

He also has a bad habit of occasionally eating non-food objects such as bicycles, TV sets, table lamps.

Captain Caveman's powers include super-strength, a variety of useful objects hidden inside his fur, and a club that allows him to fly and from which pops out different tools he uses to fight crime.

His trademark is his battle cry of "Captain CAAAAAAAVEMAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!"

Week One

Character Analysis "Dory"


We had to choose our favourite 3d cartoon character and explain why and what is was we liked about this character so much. The character i chose was Dory from "Finding Nemo."

Dory is a Regal Blue Tang who suffers from short-term Memory loss. Her lack of short term memory makes her such a comical and likeable character. She has great optimism and is such a free spirit. she has a positive point of view over everything in life.





I would like my own character to have the same likability factor dory carries, I would like my character to be enthusiastic and comical

Week One

My aim for this module is to create a historical mascot/character to appear in advertising materials which will help children become more interested in historical and archaeological subject areas. The character be based on an ancient civilisation and become an iconic and loveable character the children can identify with.

This was the first lesson of 3D Character animation, today i carried out some initial research to familiarise myself with the different ancient civilisations and try to get an idea of which time and character i wanted to focus my character on. I researched ancient civilisations and cartoon characters, from Vikings to Cavemen. I gathered many images from the Internet and created a mood board showing all these characters.