Reactor tool

In today's class we learned about the reactor tool. The first tutorial we did was a really simple concept of a block falling on a floor.

To begin I created two boxes, one large to act as the floor and one small to act as the falling object, I placed the smaller block above the floor and rotated it in order to give it a more interesting landing.

I then went to the animation menu and went to reactor > create object > rigid body collection; I then pressed add  and selected the different components in the scene. Now all the objects are affected by the reactor.

In the reactor menu I gave the object a mass and had a fiddle with the friction and the elasticity to see what different outcomes it gives.  

The second tutorial we did was to create a bowling alley using the same principles. After opening the rigid body collection, and adding the objects to the reactor, I gave the pins a mass of 10 and the bowling ball a mass of 20 I then used auto key and moved the bowling ball a little way down the alley, I also rotated the ball in order to make it look more realistic when the animation is finished.

Morpher

Today we used the morpher tool. We used this in order to create different expressions.

 To do this we imported Richard's head model and created three copies, I gave each of them a differnent name according to which expression I wanted to give them.

The first model I edited, I was giving an open mouth. To do this I selected four polygons from the head's lower lip and chin and used the 'grow' tool in order to slelect the polygons around this area until I had the whole bottom jaw selected. I then used the 'select and move tool' in order to moove the mouth up and down.

 The next expression I created was to shut the models eyes. I used the same technique as I used for the first one. I selected the polygons that represent the models eye lids and used the grow tool to select the amount that I needed. I then moced the selected polygons down in order to close the models eyes.

The third head model I gave raised eyebrows. The same technique as above is applied here. The final head model was uses to apply the 'morpher tool'. With this you can add different targets to the head in order to make all of the actions created apply to this model and then animate it.

We used the curve editor in order to select each target individually so you can control one at a time.

I used all three of my head models as targets and created a short animation of the head yawning. I found this tutorial very helpful and will be sure to use this technique in the future.

Experementation

Today, I was just tinkering around in Autodesk to see what kind of tools and techniques I could apply to my animation.

The first thing that I did was to try and model a tree. I looked on 'youtube' to see if there were any tutorials as I wasn't sure where to begin. It turns out that there's a function in 3DS max that has built in trees; this I was not aware of!

So, to make a tree you:

1. Open Autodesk and create a new scene
2. Go to the create tab and select 'AEC extended', then select 'foliage'
3. A list then pops up with lots of different trees, so select the one you need and click on the viewport
4. Click the modify tab and have a fiddle with the adjustment settings until you get the look that you need.

There were lots of different options in the modify (tree selected) tab. I was able to change the height, density and pruning (how high the branches start on the trunk) and also the overall shape of the tree by selecting the 'new seed' button.

Story Boarding

Today I drew up a first draft of my storyboard for my animation.

I'm going to have the helicopter model taking off from the launchpad with the dummy on it. The scene will comprise of a sky, grassy ground, a couple of trees and a crowd of people watching the launch (to make these I will use the in-built bi-ped model). I will also have a sky and a sun, within which I will encorporate a light to display sunlight.

I will animate the crowd to show them watching, clapping and cheering at the launch. The sail of the helicopter will spin in order to make the whole model move. The whole model will rise into the sky and then descend to land.

I will use a free camera, like in last weeks tutorial, to create path for the camera to move along. I will use the 'bank' facility in order to create a sort of birds eye vision of the scene.

The animation will end with a successful landing of the model.