Animation Evaluation

Well, the animation is finished. Sort of.

I've got the ships moving, lights on, and a good track that follows the storyboard, less the camera angles that weren't possible with my models, and it works. It's on render now, as I don't have the time to add much else. Sadly, if it wasn't for the complications I've had, combined with rushing things for my other module, I probably would've been able to do more; as it stands, I really don't feel cut out for animation.

As I said originally, the textures and the models drag things down, but that was to be expected; I've also had problems with the sheer scale of what I'm doing. As I ensured all of the models were scaled to the specifications I got from Wookiepedia, they compare well against each other - but they're so far apart in the animation that it doesn't matter much. As of the actual ships, they travel at around 20 m/s - meaning they travel a total of almost 15km in the space of the animation. As such, I found it very difficult to keep the ships a sensible distance apart, without one of them being little more than a single pixel blip in the distance or not actually on screen. I only managed to partially rectify this with use of 3ds Max's 'camera lens' function, that allows you to change the field of view angle for the camera; this allowed me to get the main image in view without the model being too small, but meant that the other models would shift in and out of view sporadically. In addition, one of the craft refuses to orientate to the path, and instead constantly faces one direction, regardless of the fact I set it up in exactly the same way as the others.

I also didn't have the time to delve into effects, such as explosions or dynamic lighting, either, which means it's very difficult to tell when any of the ships impact the asteroids (if you're lucky enough to tell they're there) where I was intending to have at least a bright flash to indicate an explosion of some nature. The animation is also woefully short on blaster fire (nil) which eliminates some of the 'Star Wars' aspect. The animation is very bland because of this.

I suppose in future I should be a little less ambitious and a little more hardworking, and not focus all of my efforts into one module (as happened this semester). At least, though, I can say that I'm looking forward to working as a group on games design; at least then you can pass the modelling and animation on to the modellers and animators.

Well, the LAF-250 has been textured using parts of the existing Gauntlet model, tying with the fact (story-wise) that the Gauntlet and the LAF fighters belong to the same pirate 'faction'. It's a very basic texture setup, and to be quite honest I can't see much of anything that I can do to improve it, unless I built the model up to a better standard. I don't think I'm cut out for texturing; I don't understand how you can translate flat images to a 3D model, and the concepts of modelling go against everything I've previously learned as an artist: models are extended from a single shape, rather than consisting of many joined shapes; models are built up and then have the skeleton built within them, whereas models are built and the skeleton rigged to the mesh.

I'm not exactly happy with my models, or my texturing; I don't feel the LAF or the YT models do the artwork justice, and the Gauntlet model is much to thin around the wings for a true 'spacecraft'. As much as I feel they will pull the quality of any animation with them down, however, I know I've got very little time left now and need to get on with animating, less I wind up with nothing to hand in come hand-in later.

The YT-1000's textures have been done, now, to a basic degree. Unfortunately it's not terribly well defined, so it looks more like a flying grey brick than a freighter, but that's as good as I can seem to get it with the UVs in the state they are; I was eventually forced to box map it and deal with the overlap manually. Even with the clear-up of the extra polygons we did (reducing the poly count from 2180 to 910) the UVs still refused to map well, so I've struggled with what I have.

The LAF-250 shouldn't take too long, as the UVs are simple and were easily laid out.

Catching back up with finishing touches

Admittedly I haven't posted here in ages, and strictly the deadline would've already passed - but between being ill, sorting an extension and trying to finish my other module, I've finally gotten things back on track this week, though I admit I've been neglecting to post here.

Having finally cleared up the UVW mapping on all of the objects I had, I've managed to create some decent texture sheets for the models thus far, and the Gauntlet has turned out rather well. I've yet to do the LAF-250, though - the week has been more or less devoted to cleaning up and texturing the YT-1000 model. It turns out that the model had hundreds of interior polys and most of the polys were a complete mess; as such, it's proven nearly impossible to texture or work with.

Still, the Gauntlet is at least something to show at present:

While I admit, it's pretty amateurish in appearance, I don't think I've done all too badly with it. There's still a few problems, such as the fact that the outside edges of the wings are whitened by the white texture on the underside, but I feel it does it justice. After all, I'm not a 3d modeler or any good with textures; I doubt giving a group of games design students a 3d module and expecting miracles is a good way forward.

Still, watch this space. I'm going to make some headway on the YT-1000 (with Cally's help) and the LAF-250 finished, and hopefully then I can get the animation done. That shouldn't take too long; they say that 1/3 of the time modelling is the actual model, and 2/3s is the textures, after all.