Animation: Stuntplane
 

Hi guys, been a while since I last posted (uni Assignments and all!) but here's the latest WIP (Also a uni assignment!)

I'm creating an animation of toy aeroplanes that are gonna be in a small aerobatics display (Think red arrows but with bi-planes). There's gonna be very little in the way of keyframed animation it's all gonna be done by taking data from a flocking system I have written and then using MEL to bring in that data, this is all complete so I am now working on the model (I would post the animation but I cant get premier to export it properly sorry!)

So here is the first model of the biplane I want to use (I think it's still a little poly heavy at the moment but I will work on that) I've been working on this for about 3 hours.

Comments and crits are most welcome

Alan

Here's the unsmoothed version

subdivd

i almost like the unsmoothed better.... just if the body was a little more smoothed. but didnt smooth the wings AS much:)

looks nice:)

*note* stunt biplanes have 2 rungs on the top with a strap so the pilot or someone can stand up there and not fall:)

I'd love to see the animation, and hear more about HOW you are animating it that sounds really cool. Um you should be able to export the video to a HIGH compression divx, and then ZIP it and post it here. Thats what i do. Most of the people on simply maya already have divx anyway = )

lol that's for wingwalking I think! lol that would be funny if I could get that in there!!

Vectorman: I have written a flocking system in c++ (to find out more about flocking go to: Craig Reynolds Page

Basically this will spit out a text file of x,y,z translations and x,y,z rotations. I then load this text file into maya (Via MEL) and traverse through it and set up instances of geometry that pick up the positions and rotations and set keyframes for them it's as "simple" as that! ;) The MEL to do the initial loading up of the file is easy(ish) but getting MEL to set up the shaders etc for the smoke trails that the planes leave has been a pain in the butt! You cant imagine how long it took to get maya to set up a "grayscale ramp" using MEL it's two button clicks using the GUI but scripting it was a whole other story!

When I'm finished I mite post the script and the data files (or even write a tute! :)) so people can see how it was done. I've got loads to do but it's coming along nicely!

Thanks for the feedback keep it coming guys! :)

Alan

ok here's the update:

I shortened the plane length and I have added in most of the other details. I'm trying to keep the model as light as poss (in terms of geometry) so I can have loads of them flying around. I will post a test render of the animation later tonite once I get home

ok here is an avi of the animation, it's really dark cause there were no lights apart from the default light and it's also really "busy" (you'll see what I mean)

It's still in the preliminary stages but I'd really like some feedback.

Cheers
Alan

Ps Is the video ok for everyone else? I'm getting really jerky playback for some reason! :(

http://www.alanwoods.co.uk/files/geometryTest.zip

hey how long was the render time? If it was pretty low, then you should try a GI scene = ) Really cool, i really wanna get a flocking script and learn how to use it.

Rendering time with GI isnt too bad i think. I will do a render now with it on and see how it looks. I'll post it here later on today.

:)
Alan

lol I could be wrong! 2 1/2 hours later my render has done 127 frames!! Lol and it's only at 320 x 240.

Oh i just checked out what it had rendered and it looked rubbish!! I'l have to re-start the render! :(

here is the latest render, I'm getting really frustrated with this damn thing! It's really hard to get the planes to fly in a "realistic" manner. Lots of planes that flip for no reason! damn vector maths!

Anyways got bored so here is a render with some gratuitous motion blur! :)

Looking good mate..... The test play nice an smooth for me....

playback is nice and smooth, hey just delete the GI and use a few more lights. Then we could actually see the planes. How long does it take to render without the GI? if short give us a higher res (Compressed of course)

Render times are starting to skyrocket a bit cause of the particle's being made to collide with the planes so that the planes will disturb each other's smoke trails. BUt I will try and get another one done for today

:)

I've started to texture it whilst I am waiting for the render to get on with it.

What do you guys think?

Also when I subdivide it the uvs seem to get all messed up, the staight lines appear to have "waves" in them. Any ideas? I'm Very new to sub divs

more animation now: much higher res and you can see the planes much better (DivX 5.0 codec)

http://www.alanwoods.co.uk/files/planeTest.avi

feedback as always is much appreciated

Ok textured now. Pretty much done I'm gonna add a bit more detail to it later if I get time

Hey Pure_Morning - nice plane and nice animation - I like the billowing smoke and most of the plane motion - I wonder tho if a plane can do a flat turn like that - doesn't it usually require a bank? It looks a little unnatural. Also the speed is hard to get a feel for - obviously the camera is following the plane or they would move faster but with nothing to show that movement they seem to float. The affect of having several planes is great but maybe concentrating on one for a bit would allow you to explore the motion a bit more. I think when you watch an animation with a fast moving machine you want to be aware of natural forces like gravity, air flow and the vibration of the engine. Okay - hope the c + c is helpful in some way - looking forward to seeing more. :)

no that's great, any C+C is welcome good or bad! :D The thing with the motion is that it's not keyframed. It's all generated before hand by a flocking system I have written. Thus I dont control how much the bank and roll etc. I have kinda sorted it for the next render but it's really hard to sort it out completley (lots of nasty rotation matrices and vectors etc). Also it's worth noting that the planes are toys and so i can take a bit of licencse with the motion etc. I know that's not entirley obvious in this render but hopefully you'll be able to see it clearer in the next one (coming tomorrow morning once the frames are rendered at uni)

As for the speed (again controlled by the program!! :)) I am going to hopefully model a kids bedroom and have them flying around in it so that will help give an impression of speed. (I hope!!!).

Thanks again for the C+C it was really good to get some really objective opinions on it :D

ok more animation. I'm quite happy with it so far there's a couple of little problems still to sort to do with turning etc.

Lets hear what you think! :D

http://www.alanwoods.co.uk/files/spiral1.avi

ok finished the texturing for now.

ok I've made a quick start on the kids bedroom. Nothing too fancy. I cant take credit for the inspiration though it's a very similar copy to the kids bedroom in toy story (thank you pixar!!) ;)

Hey Pure_Morning - watched the new animation - quite the improvement - really pleasing to the eye to watch :) The first dive really gives the feeling of being high up and diving down. Cool. nice stuff especially knowing it's being controlled by the flocking programming. Sweet. I think you're going to have a really nice project here.

thanks ereitz I'm really glad you enjoyed it. What do you think of the bedroom idea? I started modelling it earlier as you can see from the pic. I've done a bit more and brought in a short piece of animatino to go with it (I'll post that tomorrow). There's gonna be loads of problems with the planes flying through floors and stuff (cause of the difference in the scales of the flocking system and maya) but I think I can fix them. I'll post more tomorrow

glad you're enjoying it

Alan

ok I've made a start on the floor of the bedroom. A nice simple wood texture with a bump map on it.

Comments / impressions?

I think the wood texture is too big.I looks like a tiny little bed on a huge plank of wood :eek: Try making the texture smaller and give it a bit of variety.Nice texture tho :D

Ok I have done a bit more on the bedroom. There's a bit of a problem with the lighting but that's just cause the GI is being obscured by the walls.

Black Robe: Thanks for the comment, i agree i think it is too big especially when you gte up close to it. I will do something about that in a minute

:)

Another bedroom pic

slowly getting there :D

Hey puremorning.. sorry man, i totally forgot about this thread! In those renders, the floor is picture perfect and the wallpaper is wonderful! If you want to make the wallpaper even better add some dirt marks or defects to the texture :). The bed as well is looking great, you have some great wood texutures! I look at the sheets though and think that you should scale them up a bit to look thicker.. seeing i have never had a bed without covers at least a inch thick of feathers :). I dont know, maybe you dont if you live in a hot place.. but it just seems normal to have that kinda puffy feel to it. The planes are great, wonderful job i dont really see any problem with them, other than a few sharp edges :). Keep it up man :D.

excellent crit M!! :) You're right about the bed, I'm still working on the covers I'm gonna be puffing them up soon (not sure how yet!) and I dont live in a hot place (well not for 9 months of the year anyways!!)

The wallpaper was actually just a test that worked out quite well so I will dirty it up a bit I think (it is a kids bedroom after all! crayon marks on the wall etc!)

The straight edges on the planes are my nemesis at the moment: if i smooth or subdiv the planes the texture "swims" see my thread in the texturing forum (no replies yet :() My only option is to smooth and then re-texture which I really dont wanna have to do!!!! we'll see how the time goes.

Thanks again for the crit :)

Alan

Hey Pure_Morning - lookin' good - like the colors - I'm for darkening the shadows under the bed etc. a bit tho... could give the scene a slightly more real feel to it.

The lighting needs to be sourced - right now it looks like there is no roof and sunlight is shining in - GI_Joe? I'd not necessarily use GI_Joe in this case - but there may be those more experienced with it's uses that can prove me wrong here - you just need a more subtle indoor lighting if it's supposed to feel like an indoor scene.

Nice contrast between the blue tones and the red planes.

yeah i completley agree, I'm gonna hopefully start working on the lighting tomorrow (Sopranos is on tonite and I dont miss the Sopranos for anyone or anything so I've come home early!!!) ;) I'm really not sure about how to achieve realistic indoor lighting, i need to find a tute.

I'm considering adding more toys to the bedroom, I've done some concept stuff for some robots and stuff. What do you think? I really wanna make this animation as high quality as possible so that I have something nice on my showreel, so I'm open to suggestions :)

Alan

ok I've been playing with the lighting a bit, no more GI covering all my mistakes!! :( ;)

let me know your opinions guys

:)

hum, i think you scene need more object like a"rack" with some book and a little desk with a chair. but if i concentrate on the plane : HE IS FANTASTIC !!!!! i like it ! great job . :eek:

thank you Cyrius, I'm working on other objects in the scene right now, I've got some balls, a robot, a book shelf and and a picture frame (possiblly a guitar too) all on the way.

:D

Ps. New Animation (Environment looks awful but that's due to the GI, it's an animation test and the animation looks ok) it's about 5megs and divx 5

get it here:
http://www.alanwoods.co.uk/files/alan.avi

ok I've tweaked the lighting some more so that I can hopefully get some nice shadows etc. I'm going for that midmorning sorta time of day. How does that come across?

man I'm tired gotta go get some sleep!! :banana:

the lightning looks much better now.

to the animation:
-the speed of the planes seems (to me) a bit to low
-and also the propeller is a little bit to slow... and because of this it looks like there were aliens at work to hold your planes in the air....

small update:

Bit more tweaking on the lights, I think that the planes need some more lighting work just to pick them out a bit more, comments?

Abra: thanks for your comments the speed is something I have been a little worried about, I will see what i can do about it :)

Alan

Update:

added and animated curtains
added runway made of crayons
added a child's drawing
updated the bedsheets
tweaked some lighting issues
finished texturing the books on the bookshelf
tweaked the smoke trails some more (still not 100% done)

tell me what you think guys

and a close up of the childs picture and a couple of crayons