Over the past seven weeks, my group and I have recreated a steam powered coal pump featured in the 'Museum Of Power', Maldon. The idea was the create the engine from the ground up and show the mechanisms working in an educational and also interesting light. Furthermore we had to show the steam pump being used in the sort of environment it would have been used in decades ago.
Following a visit to the museum and deciding which steam pump we were going to concentrate on, we then decided to assign responsibilities to each group member. So each member of the group could all be working on the project together at the same time, we each designated parts of the steam pumps parts to a member. This allowed us to build the model in less time and as each member was competent modeling the objects we ran into few issues. One important idea we had to take into consideration before creating the objects was to make sure each group member was working to the right measurements. This made it much easier when bringing everything together into one file.
The texturing stage also went mostly without incident. Some of the textures used were created within 'Photoshop', others changed slightly to our requirements, and some others were used from sources on the internet. Creating our own textures allowed us much more flexibility when figuring out what was needed of the materials and how they would be assigned.
The animation stage was probably the most difficult area the group faced in this project. Many of the mechanisms the steam pump uses move at different times, odd angles and at complicated rhythms. One section that turned out to be a lot more complicated than first anticipated was the wheel, and after some hours of experimenting with keyframes, 'Euler X Y Z' and the curve editor we managed a good animation for the wheel. Then after many more hours the animation for the mechanisms were complete, though not exactly how we would of liked them. A couple of the mechanisms were very difficult to join and animate at the exact same time and rate. Also when the loop feature was used to repeat the movements, the mechanisms would get more and more out of position which we couldn't seem to rectify completely. However the animation stage was completed to the best possible standard within the time frame as we couldn't afford to get behind schedule as rendering and post production are very time consuming aspects of the project.
The quickest stage of the project was adding the lights and cameras to the scene. With the environment built and the steam pump now fully complete, it was time to prepare the scene for rendering. Omni lights allowed to light up selected areas as we wished around the scene and created a nice effect on the environment around the main building as the light comes from inside, through the windows and shadows the outside ground. A camera on a path constraint circles around the main building setting the scene, whilst two others inside focused entirely on the steam pump, one remained static as an all encompassing shot and the other zooms in and out whilst circling the engine. The three camera view points were rendered as 'Quicktime' movie files for greater compatibility with mac's. The resolution at 1280 by 768.
With the renders complete, Tom and I used 'Adobe Premier Pro' to build the video for the presentation, along with Stuarts narration and some static images. The Video was exported and then imported into 'Cakewalk Sonar 6' where it was easy to add audio effects prepared by Tom. From here the movie was exported out as an .avi file, running stable and without issue in 'Quicktime' player.
Working within the group environment has been a great experience and has a massive feeling of triumph associated with the project when seeing the whole picture come together. The scene is more technical and has greater scope because of the team effort.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Post Production
With each of the renders now complete it was time to put the clips together to create the main video for the presentation. Inside Adobe Premier Pro, Tom and I used Stuarts narration audio clip and placed a number of still images to be displayed along side the narration. The 3D renders were then added so the animation would play once the narration has ended. With everything in place we exported the video file as an AVI. This took some time and with a few failed attempts when experimenting with different file types we eventually got a stable video.
The video was then imported into Cakewalk Sonar 6, a audio editing application which was ideal for adding some of Tom's sound clips to the video clip. By changing the placement and the volume of the audio it was easy to create a realistic sounding steam engine.
When trying to export the now complete video to a Quicktime movie file the application failed the process. However we then tried exporting the video as an AVI and this was done successfully. The final video is at a high resolution to give a good professional quality to the content. Furthermore not much quality was lost during the exporting process from Premier Pro and Sonar 6, and so overall as a group we were very happy with the end product.
The video was then imported into Cakewalk Sonar 6, a audio editing application which was ideal for adding some of Tom's sound clips to the video clip. By changing the placement and the volume of the audio it was easy to create a realistic sounding steam engine.
When trying to export the now complete video to a Quicktime movie file the application failed the process. However we then tried exporting the video as an AVI and this was done successfully. The final video is at a high resolution to give a good professional quality to the content. Furthermore not much quality was lost during the exporting process from Premier Pro and Sonar 6, and so overall as a group we were very happy with the end product.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
The Oil Lamp
For added effect and detail we thought as a group that a few oil lamps dotted around the scene will create a much more realistic atmosphere, and would also explain the presence of light during a night time scene.
To start modeling the lamp I used a thin cylinder with 22 sides for a more smooth appearance. Converted the object to an editable poly and selected the top polygon and using the bevel function I pulled up and created the shape of the bottom of the lamp.
Adding a mesh smooth modifier created a good, rounded off and smooth surface.
On top of the object I created another cylinder surface which would be the flint area. Again using the bevel tool to manipulate the object into a suitable shape. Two box shapes on top of the cylinder add detail to the shape.
Ignoring the lighted area in the centre of the lamp I went on to create the top part of the lamp. Starting off with a thin cylinder and converting to editable poly and beveling the shape into the desired object.
I applied a mesh smooth on this section as well to round the shape off and make it more consistent with the shape positioned below.
Using the line tool with both properties set to 'smooth', I created a triangle shape which would be positioned on the very top and would act as a little handle. Once converted to an editable poly I could extrude the shape slightly and clone the object. With the cloned shape I booleaned the middle, leaving a handle shape.
The next stage was to create the long pieces of metal that act as handles and attaches the top to the bottom. I used the line tool again with smooth properties, I drew out the desired shape and converted to an editable poly which allowed me to extrude the shape into 3D. Using the border sub selection I could then cap the reverse side polygon.
The mirror tool was helpful for cloning the handle object to match on the opposite side. For added effect I applied a 'bend' modifier to the handles and with direction set to 44, angle to 27 and the bend axis on the Y axis I bent the handle into a more warped shape. I thought this made it look a bit more interesting.
Back to the top of the object, again I used the line tool to draw out the main handle. After the object was converted to an editable poly and extruded I cloned the object and rescaled it ready for boolean. At this point there seemed to be problems with getting the middle shape to boolean like the previous objects. I instead used the pro boolean option which worked as normal.
I applied another 'bend' modifier on this handle on the Y axis at -33 angle and 63 angle.
To finish the model I placed a small sphere into the centre of the lamp. Inside the material library I changed the diffuse colour settings to a light yellow, specular to white and lowered the opacity to 70. I thought that this gave the object a more realistic light effect.
After experimenting with a number of materials for the lamps metallic texture I found a simple, plain grey metallic texture with specular highlights enabled. I applied this texture to each part of the lamp. More detail could have been added during the texturing, such as different materials and bump mapping. However as this object isn't the focus of the scene the detail of the object wouldn't be seen and the extra detail would add to the rendering time of the scene.
To start modeling the lamp I used a thin cylinder with 22 sides for a more smooth appearance. Converted the object to an editable poly and selected the top polygon and using the bevel function I pulled up and created the shape of the bottom of the lamp.
Adding a mesh smooth modifier created a good, rounded off and smooth surface.
On top of the object I created another cylinder surface which would be the flint area. Again using the bevel tool to manipulate the object into a suitable shape. Two box shapes on top of the cylinder add detail to the shape.
Ignoring the lighted area in the centre of the lamp I went on to create the top part of the lamp. Starting off with a thin cylinder and converting to editable poly and beveling the shape into the desired object.
I applied a mesh smooth on this section as well to round the shape off and make it more consistent with the shape positioned below.
Using the line tool with both properties set to 'smooth', I created a triangle shape which would be positioned on the very top and would act as a little handle. Once converted to an editable poly I could extrude the shape slightly and clone the object. With the cloned shape I booleaned the middle, leaving a handle shape.
The next stage was to create the long pieces of metal that act as handles and attaches the top to the bottom. I used the line tool again with smooth properties, I drew out the desired shape and converted to an editable poly which allowed me to extrude the shape into 3D. Using the border sub selection I could then cap the reverse side polygon.
The mirror tool was helpful for cloning the handle object to match on the opposite side. For added effect I applied a 'bend' modifier to the handles and with direction set to 44, angle to 27 and the bend axis on the Y axis I bent the handle into a more warped shape. I thought this made it look a bit more interesting.
Back to the top of the object, again I used the line tool to draw out the main handle. After the object was converted to an editable poly and extruded I cloned the object and rescaled it ready for boolean. At this point there seemed to be problems with getting the middle shape to boolean like the previous objects. I instead used the pro boolean option which worked as normal.
I applied another 'bend' modifier on this handle on the Y axis at -33 angle and 63 angle.
To finish the model I placed a small sphere into the centre of the lamp. Inside the material library I changed the diffuse colour settings to a light yellow, specular to white and lowered the opacity to 70. I thought that this gave the object a more realistic light effect.
After experimenting with a number of materials for the lamps metallic texture I found a simple, plain grey metallic texture with specular highlights enabled. I applied this texture to each part of the lamp. More detail could have been added during the texturing, such as different materials and bump mapping. However as this object isn't the focus of the scene the detail of the object wouldn't be seen and the extra detail would add to the rendering time of the scene.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Animating The Wheel
When first animating the wheel, the first thought was that it would be quite a straightforward and simple task. However it soon appeared to be a little more tricky than first anticipated. The first attempt at animating the wheel was done via auto key frames on the time line. With a keyframe at the start frame and then moving to a later frame and rotating the wheel object 360 degrees and applying another keyframe makes the wheel rotate all the way around over the span of those frames. Although at first this seemed to be OK, when applying this animation method within the full 600-700 frame movie the wheel tended to need more keyframes to support its animation at a consistent speed. The wheel would also gradually speed up and slow down as it approached the keyframes which ruined the consistent animation.
Upon further research and advice given by lecturer we also looked at applying an animation technique called 'Euler XYZ' which in effect allows the user to select an object such as the wheel, and control the amount of frames, speed, direction and rotation. However this method seemed to be quite complicated and the 3ds Max help files not really explaining how to make it do simple functions. This unfortunately led myself and other members of the group to experiment with the Euler technique, without actually ever getting an object to move. As time was pressing on until the final presentation and hand in date we decided to use another technique using the curve editor. Searching the internet and 3ds Max help files gave me the impression that the curve editor was worth a shot because it seemed to be the most popular method of controlling the sort of animation we needed.
At first it seemed quite complicated, but with some experimenting and a bit of guess work we started getting some results. At first we used keyframes again, over a 100 frame span, making the wheel rotate 360 degrees. However to make the wheel keep its consistent spin and to make it last till the 600th frame the curve editor was needed. Within the curve editor the wheels rotation animation appeared a green line going from left to right at a gentle incline. With help from the lecturer we were able to figure out how to make the animation loop so the keyframes could be kept at the ideal spinning frequency (frames 1 to 80) then using the loop option inside the parameter curve-out-of-range types, to repeat it without extra keyframes being added to the scene.
This was a bit of a breakthrough for the group as we could now tweak the actual speed of the wheel as it rotated from frame 1 to 600. The wheel still appeared to be moving quite slowly, so to speed it up I pulled the green line from within the curve editor and made the incline much greater. The gentler the incline the slower the animation.
The wheel animating without textures using the curve editor.
Upon further research and advice given by lecturer we also looked at applying an animation technique called 'Euler XYZ' which in effect allows the user to select an object such as the wheel, and control the amount of frames, speed, direction and rotation. However this method seemed to be quite complicated and the 3ds Max help files not really explaining how to make it do simple functions. This unfortunately led myself and other members of the group to experiment with the Euler technique, without actually ever getting an object to move. As time was pressing on until the final presentation and hand in date we decided to use another technique using the curve editor. Searching the internet and 3ds Max help files gave me the impression that the curve editor was worth a shot because it seemed to be the most popular method of controlling the sort of animation we needed.
At first it seemed quite complicated, but with some experimenting and a bit of guess work we started getting some results. At first we used keyframes again, over a 100 frame span, making the wheel rotate 360 degrees. However to make the wheel keep its consistent spin and to make it last till the 600th frame the curve editor was needed. Within the curve editor the wheels rotation animation appeared a green line going from left to right at a gentle incline. With help from the lecturer we were able to figure out how to make the animation loop so the keyframes could be kept at the ideal spinning frequency (frames 1 to 80) then using the loop option inside the parameter curve-out-of-range types, to repeat it without extra keyframes being added to the scene.
This was a bit of a breakthrough for the group as we could now tweak the actual speed of the wheel as it rotated from frame 1 to 600. The wheel still appeared to be moving quite slowly, so to speed it up I pulled the green line from within the curve editor and made the incline much greater. The gentler the incline the slower the animation.
The wheel animating without textures using the curve editor.
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