Scene 2

In this scene, the audience are introduced to the 5 main trees that act as the head's of the forest. I kept the scene relatively simple. I wanted the camera to slowly zoom in as if we were seeing the trees from the perspective of the lumberjack. I also decided to make the camera tilt downwards slightly in order to make the trees look taller which would create an impression of importance.

I used 2 Omni lights in this scene. 1 above the trees in order to create the impression of the sun beaming through the forest. The other one was placed on the ground to the right of the trees (the tree's left). This was simply so that there was more light on the faces of the trees in order to see their expressions.

There isnt too much animation i this scene. Mainly just the trees blinking. This was done by creating a capsule shape, and modifying it to become extremely thin, almost as if it were a plane. I applied the capsules to one of the trees, then made a copy of it. I made this copy have closed eyes. Then using the modifier tool, I was able to get the eyes to morph from open to closed eyes. This wasnt a hard job, just very tedious. Especially in later scenes when each of the trees have seperate expressions.

Scene 1

The opening scene of my animation.

I wanted to have the opening shot of the lumberjack walking through the forest with the trees all staring at him as he walks by. I used footsteps mode on the lumberjack in order to get him to walk on a set path. Although this meant that I would not have to animate the legs myself, I in turn had to animate the arms. This is because footsteps mode would automatically move the arms into an unnatural position. To fix this I had to set 2 key frames for each arm, 1 with the arm at the lowest point, and another with the arm at the highest point. i then repeated these key frames throughout the animation.

I was lucky enough to find a background that really suited my scene. The only problem i had was trying to get it to blend in with the material I used for the floor. In some scenes it worked well, but that was all because of the lighting. In this scene it just wouldnt really blend no matter what lighting I added. However, it still works well and I am very happy to have found such a good background for my animation.

I chose to use only 1 omni light in this scene. I stuck it behind the camera at an angle that would light the faces of all of the models. I also had another reason for sticking this light here, but I will come to that in another blog post.

I used a target camera in this scene. I couldnt have the lumberjack just appearing in the forest, or walking through the background. So in order to cover this, I decided to use a swoop down effect. This way I could start the camera with one of the trees blocking the lumberjack from view, and then as it swoops down he slowly appears. I believe that this camera effect works very well for an opening shot.

Model Problems

Over the past few days I have had several problems with my models.


The first one being that I could not figure out how to attach a biped to the skin of my tree model, despite having already done this to my lumberjack model. This problem was solved by:

1. Deleting the skin and then deleting the turbosmooth.
2. Select the mesh, then click the UnLink Selection button.
3. Add a new skin, add the bones.
4. Add a new turbo smooth.

I think it was because I applied the turbosmooth first so it wouldnt allow the 2 to merge.


My next problem was with animating the tree's facial expressions. I followed the lecture tutorial but for some reason the eyes and mouth would not still not move when applying the morpher modifier. However, with some help from Richard, I found out that the morpher tool only works if the object itself is modified. If the position is moved, it will not apply when the animation is run. All I had to do to fix this was to move the eyes/mouth and set them to key frames. Simple as that!


Now that these problems are out of the way, I can concenrate on the animation. Hopefully I wont come across too many more errors!

Storyboard Version 2

After deciding not to do the giant tree model, I have edited my storyboard to suit the fable accordingly. I didnt put much detail into this storyboard. It was just a quick sketch.



From the top left to bottom right:

1. The lumberjack asks the trees for a branch.
2. The trees look at each other suspiciously.
3. The camera pans to 1 tree who says yes.
4. The lumberjack looks happy.
5. The tree grabs ahold of one of his ears.
6. The ear branch gets snapped off and is given to the lumberjack.
7. The lumberjack turns around.
8. The camera is infront of the lumberjacks face with the tree trying to look over his shoulder in the background. Sound effects of somthing being made is coming form the lumberjack.
9. The lumberjack triumphantly shows his new axe created from the branch.
10. The tree looks happy.
11. A shadow of the axe rises over the tree.
12. The tree notices and looks scared.
13. The camera cuts to the other tress looking shocked. Sound effects of the tree being cut down.
14. The lumberjack is standing over the cut down tree.
15. The lumberjack walks towards the other trees to cut them down as the cut down tree shakes its fists angrily.

Axe

This is the axe that the lumberjack creates out of the branch he gets from the tree. As its such a small and simple model, theres no point in showing how I created it. All I did was take part of the tree model (as seen below) and added an axe head shaped box to it.


This is the branch that the tree will give the lumberjack.

Tree Model Step By Step Process

This is my final model for my tree. It was a pretty basic model to complete, so apart from a few minor problems, it wasnt too hard to complete. Here is a step by step process of how i created it:


First, I created a cylinder.


Next, I began on the arms. To do this i simply extruded one of the polygons about half way down the model.


Then I added the fingers. I did this the same way as the arms. However I had to add a few more lines in order to make it possible to extrude 3 fingers, rather than 1 large finger.


Next, I used soft selection on some of the lower verticies and dragged them out in order to create the stump of the tree. I also turned on Turbo Smooth in order to get an idea of what the model would like like upon completion.


Then I added an arm on the other side of the tree and rounded off the head. I could have just used the reflection modifier in order to make my life simpler and to make the length of each arm more accurate, but this did not occur to me at the time.


Then I started on the head of the tree. I created a sphere and distorted the shape slightly.


I then used the soft selection tool in order to drag out some polygons so it would create an unevenness effect of leaves that trees have.


I then linked the 2 objects together, as well as create ears for the tree by extruding polygons out from the side. I also gave the model a wood material.


Finally, I made a few adjustments to the model. I added eyes and a mouth by created 3 capsules and modifying their shapes. I also extended the size of the ears slightly, changed the material to a more realistic one and added a specular level material of grass to the head of the tree in order to give the impression of leaves.

I didnt feel the need to add a huge amount of detail to the tree, such as extra branches or roots coming from the stump etc, as it is meant to be in a simple cartoon style.

In my story board there was another, much larger tree which acted as the leader of the trees. At the moment, I am undecided if I still want to include him in the animation. I just feel that it is unessential. If I do decide to include a leader tree, I will probably just reuse this model but change the face slightly in order to differentiate them.

Human Model Step By Step Process

Here is my complete model of my human. I am very pleased with the outcome. It has turned out exactly as imagined, and wasnt nearly as hard to accomplish as I thought. Here is a step by step procress of how I created this model:


First i started off with a box. I kept the number of segments low as i was unsure of how many I would need. If I needed any more I could easily create some.


I wanted to turn this box into the body of my model. So I played with the vertexs a bit to create a very simple body shape.


Next, I extruded from the bottom to create the legs. I also put on turbosmooth at this point, and worked with the "show end results" option on so I could keep turbosmooth on and work on the model to see what the outcome would be.


Then i did the same with the arms. I also edited the shape if the body slightly. I continued to so this throughout the process as I was never quite happy with the way it looked.


I then extruded the neck, as well as give the arms and legs more definition.


Next came the hard part. Creating the hands. I had to extrude from the end of the arm several times and the rotate the polygons several times in order to achieve this hand. I also had to tweek the underside of the hand in order to make it so that the hand does not just merge with the arm. Unfortunately I dont think I managed this very well. However, I am pleased enough with the outcome.


After I completed the first hand, I realised I would have to do the same again for the other one! In order to save time and effort, I cut the model in half, deleted the side with no hand and mirrored the remaining side. This way I would only have to to one half of the model and it would do the other for me.


Next, i moved onto the head. I first extruded from the neck in oreder to get a couple of polygons to work with.


I then played around with the polygons to get a circular head.


Here I just made a few adjustments to the model. For example, adding a nose and giving the overall body more definition.


Now that most of the body was complete, it was time to work on the other features. I thought that working on the facial hair first would be best. So I just created another box and edited it into this shape. I then attached it to the body model with the "select and link" tool in order to make it so that the 2 objects would be linked together as one.


Then I did the same for the beard.


And once again for the eyes.


Then came the extremely annoying part of editing the model to include clothes. I was told it would be best to model the clothes as part of the body, as it would be easier to animate. So I had to select certain polygons and extrude them into the shapes I wanted. I had to add a lot of extra polygons to make this possible.


Here the top half of the body has been completed.


Here the bottom half has been completed. Shoes have also been added. I did this by extruding from the legs.


I then did the same for the hat.


Finally, I added materials to the model. In order to do this I had to seperate all of the sections of polygons by giving them their own IDs. This way I could give each part their own material without effecting the rest of the model.

The model could do with some adjustments, but for now it will do. If I have time, I will improve it.