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This website documents the process of creating my first 3D short film. Completing the project has taken just over 6 months and all the design stages have been documented in the menu above. My portfolio can be found at mostofi.co.uk (the site content will need to be updated soon). The title for my Final Year Project is ‘Exploring 3D Animation’. It is a subject that prior to this project I had no clue about. My 3D experience went as far as watching Pixar films and the Matrix. I had always appreciated 3D animation and the techniques involved but had never known how to do it myself, so I decided the best way to learn was to dedicate myself to it for the Final Year Project. From the very beginning I wanted to make a film about lots of robots and present it in a new and hopefully unique way. As you will see in the planning stage, the robots took on many different forms from robotic bears to Gundam inspired robots and later to simplistic characters built from primitive shapes. Ultimately the style and atmosphere of the film was determined by the process of researching and developing ideas. I also wrote and produced the music for the film (please see the making section for more information).
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Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This project is a self organized learning experience with an ultimate goal to create a 3D animated movie with an original music score. The finished movie will demonstrate various modelling, special effects and story-telling skills that I have learned throughout the duration of the project. The movie will concentrate on creating both atmosphere and depth for the viewer with a number of varying landscapes and imagery. The music will compliment the movie and should encourage feelings from the viewer that would otherwise not surface.
Premise ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The premise of this project is to learn and demonstrate skills in 3D animation and to a lesser extent music composition. I am concerned with acquiring and applying the ability to build a film from start to finish using 3D software as the central tool.
Aims ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clarifying the Project --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The process for delivering my final project was primarily concerned with 3D animation and this was a very daunting subject that I had little knowledge about. I had however a passion and respect for the subject which helped fuel my interest for researching into the 3D world. I approached this project open minded and with no preconceptions or ideas of how I would complete the project. My journey through the different stages has been both exciting and challenging. In the beginning I had a small idea of what I wanted my final artefact to be, a 3D movie, but I was unclear as how to best go about doing this. Research was and still is a crucial part of becoming a 3D designer. ‘Too much research’ just doesn’t exist. I will briefly describe my initial plan written before the research stage. The full documentation of the research can be found under the research section. 1) Who is my audience? My audience can be anyone. I could target my project towards a certain niche such as DreamWorks ‘Antz’, which was targeted to an older audience, or choose to produce work that can communicate to anyone, Pixar’s ‘Finding Nemo’ for example. The underlining success with the audience that both these films feature is that they both have a solid and interesting story running throughout. 2) What methods and techniques will I implement? What software will I use? I will approach this project with a creative method. I chose this method to allow me to have complete control of what the audience sees on screen. Most of the audience is not concerned with how the artefact is made but how it affects them. The various elements can be created without needing to use a certain package to get across my ideas. I can draw sketches and diagrams hopefully allow the process to build the artefact and not let the artefact the process. It is essential I plan each stage and stick to a schedule to ensure the process is carried out in the correct order. I will use 3D Studio Max 5 and possibly 6, if I can purchase it at a reasonable price. At this stage however, I do not need to be able to use 3ds Max particularly well, as a simple pen or pencil can aid my planning and design.
3) Why have I chosen this area? 3D production, especially in film, TV and video games, is an ever growing industry and as a multimedia student I feel I have to arm myself with the skills that future clients are inevitably going to demand. I carried out a simple test on how frequently 3D is used in advertisements by selecting a random channel, I chose channel 5, during an advertisement break at a random time, 8:30am, which happened to be prime time children’s television.
However, this is not the only reason I have chosen to investigate 3D. I have previous to this project, spent months researching 2D animation, and experimenting in Flash making online short films. These proved to be useful as learning tools but did not allow me the freedom to create what I wanted. The vast nature of 3D however, allows you to control the world you create. Everything is down to the designer and there are very few limitations. Whilst starting to use 3Ds Max I quickly discovered that the best way to work is to visualize your end model, (whether that be through sketches or just a rough idea in your mind), and then logically work out how each shape can be created, and how they will correlate. Written on reflection of the project: According to Fergus O’Connell “visualization is all about trying to imagine what things will be like…Visualization is a powerful technique because it forces you to see what you’re trying to do from many perspectives.” By using this technique I identified my goal or at least a vague idea of the goal, very early on and focused on the parts of the project that would need attention. As I had a picture of what my artefact would be like it helped motivate me to begin early and seek out the parts of the journey that would conclude in its completion.
4) Where will I find the research tools? As I have previously mentioned, I began my research on 2D animation before deciding to ‘convert’ to 3D. The internet was the principal source of information, and with 3D I presume the same. The on-line 3D community is ever growing and I will need to join a forum and start searching for useful tutorials and identify any problems that I can predict I will run into later. Forecast planning will be continuous through out the making of the final artefact. I will also purchase or borrow a number of books. Fred Weimer and past students could also be useful as Fred teaches 3D, and covers most of what I need to learn, and past students would be useful as they have been through all this before.
5) How will I use my research to aid my development? Tutorials (both online and in 3D Studio Max) will be crucial to my development as a 3D designer and I will need to spend a number of weeks attempting a wide range of tutorials. This will hopefully give me a better understanding of how things get done and how I can get things done. It is difficult to draw a demarcation between the development stage and research stage as I believe the research stage is only finished when the project is finished, and sometimes it continues even still. So I will start developing when I feel I have the skill and capabilities to translate my sketches into 3D models but the research may not have ended before the planning and development stage is underway.
6) How will my artefact affect the audience? The finished should provide the audience with entertainment and encourage their imagination. The movie will tell a story and demonstrate my 3d skills. The audience will inevitably respond differently to the final artefact but this is something I can try to minimize by making the film original and unique. I will be aiming to get an overall positive response.
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