Evaluation

Overall the project was a success, although it took a lot of time because of the different approach taken. A lot has been learned but more from errors rather than new techniques the knowledge has been increased.

Time management in this project was sustained and from the Gantt chart and story board the group new what had to be done and then could quickly allocate roles to complete the final animation. From there the creation of the aircraft carrier was completed on time but because of the university error a lot of work was lost including the group script and because there was a panic to finish the animation there was not enough time to draw up a new script.

Time management before hand in became an issue because of the rush to complete the animation and the unexpected issues that came in between some of the footage was not of good quality from 1106716.

Communication was quite an issue with the group as well because email was the primary source which not every member checked regularly in the time extension so some group members would turn up to meeting with out all the team members present moving forward with the project became difficult.

One last issue for this team would have been the time everyone was free to come in because of group members having work and other modules to complete it was difficult to get every team member in on one day so a lot of files had to be sent via email and if they were to large it would mean the other team members would not receive the right material or texture to complete an animation scene.

One good aspect about the group is that once a brief had been drawn up and an idea was set it was not changed throughout the project that lead to the consistency of all the models, this then effected the imagery in a good way that everything which was in the animation scenes belonged in the scenes.

Another good element to the group is that each member contributed to every aspect of this project from the ideas and research to the final project so all the jobs were spread evenly and fairy and each member of the group was given a role which was suited to there modelling ability.

If this project were to be conducted again the communication aspect should definitely be sorted in the beginning of the project and also communication of when every team member is available would be good so that the group can agree to changes as a team instead of half and half.

Technical Issues

Overall this project has been a success with a lot of minor and major technical issues some learning curves and some where out of students control.

One technical issue which occurred was when all the models where put together in one file because of the major increase in polygon count the computers slowed down dramatically which was a problem because with out having a smooth movement when creating an animation its then harder to see any progress. basically its hard to see what is happening when the computer is to slow. This then links with the final render and the length of time required to render just one scene. this then also lead to problems when trying to add particle effects to the animation for example smoke or flames which proved a problem because of the high polygon count it was difficult to get the correct sequence or effect which then lead to leaving some scenes out so that the project could be submitted on time. These problems have effected the outcome and of the created scenes by 1106716 which are the contributions to the final project and animation sequence.

Another problem which occurred is all files were lost in an unfortunate technical error with the university computers which meant that a swift restart had to be done so that there was enough time to meet the new deadline. for this reason the final aircraft carrier did not meet its full potential because of the major file losses. although a similar one was created its not 100 percent complete because of the major set back, the time which it had taken to remake the model could have been time for adding more detail to the carrier.

Other problems occurred such as file saving because there was one week where the university lost licences to 3ds max which then meant working from home and because the university does not have the up to date version of the modelling program, if one had forgotten to save there work in a previous year format it would then not load on a computer when trying to re load the file at the university.



These are some of the problems which occurred which where quite time consuming but with all projects come problem and these mistakes have been learned from.

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

A lot has been learnt in this project especially from the errors that have occurred but there are some new techniques that have been learnt over the project period.

One technique learnt would be UV Mapping that helped give a more realistic visual and texture to the models created.  UV mapping allows the user to take personally created textures or downloaded textures and apply them to there selected areas so for example the aircraft carriers main body texture is white metal. The runway on the top of the ship is also UV mapped so some real could be added to this fantasy world.

Another technique learned would be the smoke which although was instructed by a group member (1118101) on how to actually make the smoke its also adaptable to be fire and other particle effects. This is a good technique to have learnt because it may become useful in future modules or in the world of work.

Smoke is created using the Pf Source which creates the particles required to make smoke and along with this wind and be added so the smoke has added volume to it. The texture on colour of the smoke comes from the material dynamics that is within PF Source.  From this the smoke can be altered to fit the scene and since this was a first attempt it’s not very good, on the other hand this technique can be perfected in later modules.

Animation

The Disaster!!!

The animation side of this animation didn’t go as planned because of poly’s and verts explained in previous posts, it was more difficult animating to a good standard and since a lot of work was lost and had to be remade it did add some pressure towards the final hand in.

While animating the university computers could not handle the polygon sizes too well which came from a well detailed island so one way in which we as a group found away around this was to hide and remove sections of the island which where not going to be visible in the shot so that the project would load quicker.

The animation that was created from 1106716 was to basically blow up one of the destroyers in the scene. This was completed but not to a standard in which it should be and this was due to things like university computers crashing and also when taking the work home the animation would load but it would take almost double the time to add a particle effect or explosion.

This is why for example the destroyer which has smoke coming from it is not supported by flames because to add flames would have been very time consuming and would have risked the deadline date.  Also camera angles where quite difficult to obtain because of the size of the file it was difficult to add path constraints to the cameras because you would have to render the animation to see the sequence well enough to make any changes.

Also the render became an issue because when the sequence were rendered to avi although they where the same size as the TARGA they came out much smaller and therefore did not fit with the rest of the animation sequences and because of time issues these scenes had to be stretched, this is why half way through the animation there is a slight pixilation.

Overall the animation was not a success for this project and did effect the final outcome of the full animation sequence but a lot has been learned from these errors that occurred. 

Summary

The image below is an aircraft carrier that fly’s to its primary location where it can then deploy smaller aircrafts to eliminate given targets which In this case would be Pearl harbor.

The Reason the aircraft carrier was created to fly is that Pearl Harbor in this fantasy project is floating in the sky and only being held down to earth by the chains attached to it. This will then require aircraft carriers to fly and bring smaller aircrafts across a large difference.

Also this aircraft carrier is slightly different because it’s shaped to one of the names in which the Japanese called one of there aircraft carriers which was ‘happy crane’.  This gave the inspiration on creating this rather large aircraft with a meaning and purpose.

Although this project is fantasy based some meaning had to come across to how it fly’s. the aircraft carrier elevates using it fans on the rear wings, it travels forwards and backward when leaning which is supported by the wings. The aircrafts are stored inside the carrier to protect them from an air attack and the aircraft carrier has a defense system in place so if it does come under attack from other aircrafts it can easily destroy them with minimal damage intake.

The carrier is controlled from the front where the head of the crane would be. The rear jets help the carrier move forward and increase its banking ability and the more jets that are used the faster the carrier can travel but it is limited because it’s a much heavier aircraft.

The aircraft carrier fits well with the rest of the animation because its fantasy based but has purpose and meaning which is important in any project. 

Missile

Now for the Missile!!!

First the missile needs to take a basic shape so a cylinder needs to be put on the canvas but the back of the missile needs to be created first. So a small standing cylinder needs to be created and converted to an editable poly.

Now were ready to Bevel the cylinder so a sort of rounded cup is created with the bottom of the cup as enclosed as possible. Once this is complete we can now just simply extrude the inner part of the rounded cup so that now we have body for the missile.

Now to shaping the front is just simply beveling the front of the body of the missile so that the size is roughly the same as the rounded cup see example below.

Once its beveled it’s a matter of simply extruding it again slightly so the point or head part of the missile can be formed. This is  the bevel tool but instead of beveling the head of the missile in sections you actually use much less. So basically you bevel outwards and bring it in but not filly first to add depth to the missile and this is repeated for a second time and this time closing the bevel so that a point is formed.

Now to the main shape of the missile is complete, the detail for the body of the missile can be created. This again is another cylinder put over the skinny part of the missile. The second cylinder should fit over the middle part od the missile so extrude will need to be used for length and the standard resize tool should work on making the size of the cylinder fit to the missiles back and front. See example below.

Next the middle needs to be visible so basically segment of the cover cylinder will be removed so that the body of the missile is visible. See example below.

Once this is complete the back end of the missile is extruded and beveled so it looks more jet or rocket like. After this is complete its time for the detail for the back end of the missile that was the original cup end or the part that has just had the engine created on it. Now simply the back end is extruded so its sort of cross shaped see example below. Once this is done editable poly attributes should be changed to the points or vertices, this will allow the user to select the tips of each segment of the cross and using the move tool pulling them back for a sort of mean looking effect.

Now the middle also can be extruded out so that they have a similar fin type effect and some segments will have to moved but see example below.

Once this is complete the last thing is to add materials or colour through the material editor and you have a futuristic missile.

The missile is a main weapon for this project and since the theme or project aim is futuristic this missile would fit perfectly, the missile’s center piece also can rotate to add more excitement also it will make the missile look more complicated and good. Also a good particle or flame effect can be added to the back end of the missile to add more of a violent or a sense of travel to the missile. One other thing about the missile is that missiles travel pretty fast so this can be shot and travel at very fast speeds because of its shape.