midterm project

The slinky ended up proving difficult to do on my personal computer and with my skill level....The slinky ended up shattering into a million pieces. I chose a different approach to my midterm. 

ABSTRACT/ STORY BOARD

 For my midterm, I have decided to model part of a living room. The room will include an open window and a table with objects of a home. The animation will consist of the parts displayed in the story board below. 

Frame 1: curtains <wind blows curtains, light turns on> night landscape on plane for window.

Frame 2: <camera pans toward table>

Frame 3:<camera pans table>

Frame 4:<Flower petal falls in front of picture frame>

PRODUCTION LOG

I decided to build everything within the same scene. I began with the flowers, which are built using CV curves and nurb planes for the petals. The petals were made by arranging the cv points with the move, rotate, and scale tools. Each petal used a lambert/ramp shader. The vase was made using CV cuves and finished with a blinn/ramp shader. Using key frames, one petal is animated to float down in front of the picture frame and land on the table. I positioned the petal during each key frame using the move and rotate tool. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brPuVPvQgQM)

The table was constructed with a nurbs cube surface and revolved CV curves for the legs. It was finished with a black shiny blinn shader.

The lamp was made using revolved CV curves for the body and the shade as well. The shape was perfected using the scale and move tool. Spheres were used to form the chain. During the animation, this light is "turned on". Using key frames, (roughly 4 seconds into the movie), a point light is brought into the scene and an ambient light (intensity .600) is centered above the room. 

The picture frame is made with 4 cubes positioned into a frame and a 5th cube formed for the appearance that it is holding up the frame. The frame is finished with a purple lambert shader. A plane is placed in the center with a file shader. The picture is of my little cousin and me in Australia this past winter. 

I used the pencil tool to make the shape of the curtains. The curve was duplicated and lofted. Then, I used the lattice tool (animation>create deformers>lattice) to get the final shape, which includes an indentation for a torus to "hold back" the curtains. I added a second set of curtains that were made using the same process. This set was then animated using key frames and the lattice tool to set the positions. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6S_5Cta6Uc) The final product shows a wind effect through the "open" window. The window was constructed using the CVcurve tool and cubes. A plane with a file shader was used to make it look as if it were night time outside. A spotlight was set to only shine on the picture so it would be illuminated before the lights were "turned on". A second spot light with a dark blue tint was used to light the room. 

The rest of the room is made using 3 planes with lambert shaders. The siding decoration at the bottom is a modified cylinder. 

 Finally, I created a camera that would travel throughout the scene. The camera and where it would aim were key framed separately. Following the plan in the story board, I animated the camera to begin with a shot of the curtains, then pan along the wall, and finally finish with a shot of the petal falling in front of the frame. 

This is the final product

EVALUATION

The project was a beneficial introduction to maya autodesk. I was able to use all the basic knowledge and even some online tutorials to create something that I am proud and that can be easily built upon. 

I am very pleased with the project up to this point, I still have not decided whether or not to continue this project for my final. However, I do have a few ideas going forward. I would like to increase the detail on all of the objects in the room to make them look more realistic. For example, I would like to put a pattern texture on the curtains and the lamp shade. I have also considered a chandelier that would hang from the ceiling and clock that would be mounted on the wall.  I have also considered the possibility of doing a whole room, but I would like to focus on enhancing the enhancing the look of everything that was featured in the midterm.