My Lessons Learned

In making this animation the biggest lesson that i learned is to always, ALWAYS, set aside time for rendering. When you have still models, the rendering process is much faster than animated characters. Because of this i learned that that the best way to render and animation is to break it into part among several different computers, therefore it won't take as long to render. Another lessoned that i learned is how important the IOP curve is to an animation. Without it there would be no animation.

Project Report - Liya Yitna

Project Goal:
The Project goal is to understand blender and create a simple animation scene using the program.
Storyline:
Our story line begins under a child’s bed. There are three characters that are part of the scene; a cowboy boot, a pull toy and a tennis ball. At the beginning of the scene the cow boy boot kicks the tennis ball towards the pull toy and the pull toy kicks it back. They keep on playing the game till the tennis ball gets stuck inside the boot. The boot struggles to get the ball out and succeeded with the help of the of the pull toy.
Work Break Down:We have divided the whole scene into three parts so each group member will be able to work on different scene. In addition Ashley is in charge of rendering the whole animation.

Lessons Learned:
I was able to learn a lot about blender while I am working on this project. I was able to work on a simple ball bouncing animation using lettuce. In general, it was difficult to learn some techniques of blender but overall it was a great learning experience.

Project Report

Project CGI Project Report: Phase 2

Team Members: Ashley Wilson, Liya Yitna, and Lauren Wiginton

Project Report: Lauren Wiginton

Project Goal:
Our project goal for Phase 2 was to create a simple animation illustrating what could be found under a child’s bed. While we understand that none of us have had much experience with animation or the Blender program before this class, we aimed to make the highest quality production we know how. We hoped to create a story that would be entertaining and enjoyable. We aimed to stay true to our storyline and create characters that are simple, yet have their own personalities in their interactions throughout the scene.

Storyline:
The story begins with a scene under a child's bed. There is a cowboy boot, a pull toy, and a tennis ball. The boot approaches the tennis ball and kicks it toward the pull toy. The pull toy hits the ball back. The game gets going between the two toys. Suddenly, the tennis ball is thrown into the cowboy boot. The boot struggles to get the ball out for a while, unsuccessfully. Finally, the pull toy comes up behind the boot and knocks the ball out by tipping the boot over. The story is resolved in the two toys becoming friends.

Work Break Down:
Each team member worked on creating the armature for the character they created in Phase 1. After each member created their character’s armatures, we went about animating. We decided it would be best to have each member do a section of the animation. I took the first phase of the animation, consisting of the introduction camera work and the boot kicking the ball to the pull toy. Ashley created most of the game sequence, the tossing back and forth of the ball between the two toys. Finally, Liya finished up the animation with the ball getting stuck in the boot and the pull toy helping him out. We all helped each other in solving design and production challenges that we came across. In working this way we each felt we contributed a significant portion to the project. In the end, Ashley took over rendering the entire animation to give us the final product.

Lessons Learned:
In making this animation, I personally felt I learned a significant amount by actually making the animation. When I ran across challenges, I looked up solutions on the internet and in the Blender wiki manual. Overall, I found the actual animation process to be a great learning opportunity. The process was overwhelming and tedious to figure out, but I think I learned a great deal from the hands on experience. I also think all the team members learned something from each other, I am glad that we had a team to bounce ideas off of and to answer technical questions. The support of the team was crucial to this animation’s success.

A Few Pointers for Anmination

• Moving the camera is just like creating a walking sequence: all you have to do is physically move the camera and set it at specific frames.
  
• Each character already has armature in them, so all you have to do is move the bones to the position you want them to be in.
• The ball doesn't have armature (from what i understand) so all you will have to do is physically move the ball and set it at particular frames.
• The bed also does not have an armature...but it shouldn't move throughout the sequence
• If you are having any trouble locating the bones in a character's wireframe- bring down the subsurf. This will open up the wireframe so that it isn't so tight.
• We just learned how to do a soft body in class today- this information can be found in lecture #29. I believe what we want to do for the ball is a rigid body. There is a blender manual for this if you go the the computer graphics syllabus and click on "  Blender user’s manual: Rigid bodies" 

How to import individual files in Blender:
1. File, Import
2. Choose the object you want to import. You must import all the necessary parts of the object (such as the object itself and the armature, the texture, the materials, etc...)
3. The file should be imported into the current scene with all its working parts when you are finished.

Animation Story Outline and Jobs

CGI Animation:

-Each section needs to be 40 seconds long.

Lauren: Deadline Thursday, April 23

1.Pan to below the bed
2.Highlight each character
3.Rotate around each character
4.Boot approach ball
5.Boot kick the ball toward Dog
6.Dog nudges it back to the boot

Ashley: Deadline Friday, April 24

1.Boot will kick the ball harder toward the Dog
2.Game goes back and forth for a few times
3.Ball hits Dog in the face
4.Dog get mad and throws it back and the ball rolls around Boot's foot opening
5.Ball gets stuck inside

Liya: Deadline Sunday, April 26

1.Boot struggles to get the ball out like he's chocking
2.Then Dog goes and knocks Boot over
3.Ball rolls out
4.Boot bows to Dog
5.Fade to black

Should we meet up some time next week or something? What are we going to do about the final animation? I think we should probably find a time to go to the Digital Aquarium so we can append all our files together and get started on making the final.
We should also try to find some music to play in the background. Maybe something playful and just instrumental?

I'm free after 5:30 M-TH, but only for an hour on Wednesday and all day Friday

Cowboy Boot Animation

Here's a simple animation I whipped up of my boot when it will kick the ball (Liya's project) to the Doggie Pull Toy (Ashley's project).
We will have to incorporate all the images together later.