Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom

Starting New

          Another year of school has started which means a start of a new project. As of this semester, I'm gonna be working on a mushroom kingdom or village which will consist of a lot of mushroom houses and possibly a really big mushroom castle if I have the time to make one. This animation is gonna be a very magical, enchanting, and fun environmental model.

The To-Do List

          To make this the ideal mushroom village I am going to create a lot of colorful and cute mushroom houses. Each house is going to have a different color and a different look to them; they all have their unique and different features whether it be a chimney, some wood logs, or a cool shape to the mushroom. My mushroom environment will have a mushroom for each color of the rainbow and then I will also add a few other colors like teal, pink, aqua, and so on; I plan to make a very colorful village. After the houses are complete, I plan to make the rest of the environment which will contain flowers bigger than the houses, very tall grass, and large rocks. I plan to make the houses all up on a hill or a few of them will be on a hill to give the environment some more detail.

What I'll Get Out of This

Last year I worked on The White House which mainly focused on modeling and examining detail. This year, however, I will be focusing on the texturing of the mushrooms and the other environmental objects like the flowers, grass, and rocks. More detail will be put into this project than last years project. Most of my objects in my model will be smooth, but adding the textures will make it seem like there is a lot of detail.

Captain Obvious

Now, It's pretty obvious that once I finish this project, I will end up sending this project into eMagine under the 3D environmental or Organic modeling categories. I'm not sure which category I want to put it in yet because I am also working on a Carnival/Circus model with lots of circus tents and carnival games. I will end up sending both animations into eMagine. Whichever animation turns out to be better will end up going in the Environmental Modeling category.

I did not steal this idea from The Smurfs.

My Reflection of Junior Year

The Typical Introduction

          In the three years that I have been in eComm, I have come to love animation the most out of all four strands. Animation has to be my favorite class that I have ever taken in my three years of high school. This year was definitely my favorite year in animation because I was able to create what I wanted and express myself through modeling. Animation is the one thing I really enjoy because of the people I'm with, the freedom to create what I like, and most of all, the good and bad memories I make in this class. Yes, that's right, bad memories (like when Maya would crash during the rendering of complex projects). Junior year definitely took a twist this year and could be very frustrating or hard. A lot of mistakes were made this year while modeling my projects (especially my White House project), but you learn from your mistakes, right? I learned many new things from my mistakes this year whether it be technical stuff, communication, or even time managing.

Before You Keep Reading

          In this blog, I have learned the five guarantees: Technical Skills, Communication, Collaboration, Leadership, and Project Management. Within each Paragraph I explain what I learned, how I learned it, and why it's important to me. We are supposed to answer the questions "What did you learn?", "How did you learn it?", and "Why is it important?"; those three questions are answered in the paragraphs below. I feel like I have learned the five guarantees this year and have learned what they have done for me.

Technical Skills

          Throughout my junior year, I have only been working in Maya and some of Photoshop. I have come to absolutely love Maya even though it crashes a lot and freezes. I remember there were some days where I just didn't want to deal with Maya at all because it was being so difficult, but that could have been on my part too; I might have not been patient enough. Now to the technical skills I learned. I learned a lot of new tools in Maya that I didn't even know existed. Modeling the White House was the project that helped me learn all of these new tools. I learned how to control lighting better, make something to move and bend like a cloth, and so much more I can't name. In Photoshop, I learned how to layer things, distort objects, and use helpful tools like the wand tool or the lasso tools. I really got into photoshop the last quarter of school because let's face it, after modeling the White House, I was done with Maya. Anyways, back to the point. I got into photoshop because I really like art and I like to draw. I feel like with Photoshop I can express myself easier than with Maya. Expressing myself is why I love this program so much and it is why this is important to me. I wish I could have learned more tools this year and maybe gotten to learn how to use photoshop better, but I guess we are all limited on time to learn new things. Next year, I want to continue with Maya and hopefully learn new tools.

Communication

          Before I begin explaining about how communication went this year, I should give some background information on myself with the idea of communication. When I was in e9, I was not comfortable asking for anybody's help. I wanted to learn on my own and learn how to control struggling situations by myself. The same thing goes for sophomore year except for the fact that lack of communication was worse that year. Now this year was different, it was going to change no matter how hard I tried to not ask for opinions or for help. When I started modeling the White House, I thought it would be a breeze and only take a semester to model everything that I wanted to model. Well that surely turned the tables. The White House was the hardest project I have ever worked on in my life and it was the most frustrating project anyone could ever work on for someone who only has as much skill as I do with Maya. When I was about halfway through modeling the house itself, it started to get frustrating and hard. Then it hit me, I had no choice but to ask for help. This was a big step out of my comfort zone because I liked to fix mistakes on my own. As it got later and later into the year I had to start asking for more help and opinions because the yard on the White House was hard. I broke free of my struggles by asking questions, who would have thought? I learned that it is important and okay to ask questions because there are some things you cannot get through by yourself.

Collaboration

          For collaboration, it is kind of the same thing as communication. I wasn't as comfortable last year and in e9 when asking for opinions and such. But when we did the stop motion project, my collaboration got better. The group that I was with helped me open up and let me spill out my ideas that I had stored up in my mind forever. Turns out, spilling out my ideas and collaborating with others helped form our theme for our stop motion (which ended up being a gummy bear/candy theme). I really ended up liking doing group projects and being able to collaborate with other people on a single project. It really opened me up and let me spill out what I want to say. It was nice collaborating with people because the people that I worked with understood what I wanted to say and they didn't shoot down any of my ideas. I learned how to collaborate with people by being pretty much forced to collaborate with others. It's okay to not be okay with collaborating, some people don't like to. Eventually though, you are going to have to collaborate with someone some time or another. That's why it's important to work and collaborate with others.

Leadership

          Leadership is a bit different than the other five guarantees for me. I learned leadership through modeling my White House (believe it or not). During third quarter, I was working on the yard on the White House. When it got to the last three or 4 weeks, I realized I wasn't going to finish my yard just in class. I knew I was going to have to stay after school to finish this project. The last two weeks, I had to stay super late (like past 12:00 at night). I saw a lot of animators working on their projects for eMagine and I wanted to show them that it takes hard work to get what you want done. I stayed until 4:00 in the morning at school on the last night that I was able to work on the White House. This to me is what leadership is. I wanted to show the sophomores and all of my fellow classmates that hard work pays off in the end. Because sophomores are going to be juniors next year, I want them to look up to me and think "Hey, she stayed at school until 4:00 in the morning and finished her project, I can do that too." That is leadership. It's important to show leadership because you want people to look up to you no matter the age, whether they are older or younger than you.

Project Management

          As for project management, I learned it by modeling the White House (shocker). Trying to complete my project was the hardest thing to do. By the end of the quarter, I had no motivation to keep modeling but I forced myself to. Managing my time was the hardest thing to do all this year. I learned that you couldn't be too picky when you model stuff; I believe that is what made me get behind in class. I learned that when it comes to managing time (especially when you have a limited time) that you have to call it good and move on. Project management is probably the most important thing when it comes to the five guarantees because in college and when you get a real job, you are limited on the time that you get to complete a project. Project management is used in the future and should always be thought about when working on projects. Always think "How much work can I do within this amount of time?" I think that this guarantee is the most important because I will use this as a lesson in the future. I went above and beyond and modeled the White House when I know I shouldn't have (but now I am grateful that I did). This lesson is probably the most valuable one that I have been taught.

My Strengths and Weaknesses

          I have discovered many strengths and weaknesses throughout the year in animation. I have discovered that one of my strengths is how quick I learn and how I have a sense of how to build an object automatically. I have also discovered that a few of my weaknesses are that I need to learn how to manage my time when it comes to individual projects. I also need to work on communication more even though I have improved. I will improve on those two things. I have my strengths and weaknesses, but I have discovered that I have something that falls right in the middle of the two. I have learned that I have an eye for detail. How could that be bad? I have learned that you can't pay attention to every single detail; you have to call it good and move on. I believe that paying too much attention to detail causes me to fall behind on my projects. I love paying attention to detail; it makes the project look so amazing. However, which is more important, meeting the deadline or getting all the detail and missing the deadline? Obviously meeting the deadline is more important even though detail makes a project really stand out. I will use these lessons next year when I am a senior. Even though I may have some weaknesses still, I have improved greatly. I have come out of my shell a lot between the end of this year and the end of last year. I have expressed myself more and I have expressed what I like. I have improved in being myself.

What I Am Going To Do With What I Have Learned

          All of junior year will be used as a lesson for my senior year. I have learned so much this year and I don't want to forget a single thing of what I have learned. All of my strengths, weaknesses, ideas, etc, I will use in the future during senior year. I am convinced that I am capable of anything when it comes to animation. And with that, I will become a better animator. Not only will the things that I have learned will help me, it will help my peers too. With all the new skills, (whether they be technical or mental) I will help others become a better animator too. Showing others how to become better at animating will help my peers and I along the way.

What I Would Change

          If I were to change something that I have done this year, I wouldn't change a thing. This year has been an amazing year in animation. There were some times where I was so stressed because I feared I wouldn't get some projects done, but I sucked it up and went on with animation. I have learned a lot this year and I'm not sure if I would change anything. If I were to change anything, I would lose some of the lessons I have learned. There is a lot of things people would change about their year in animation whether it be time management, the amount of effort they put into the year, or the work they could have done but didn't get to. As for me though, I am happy with what I have done this year, and I am happy with what I have accomplished.

The Typical Conclusion

          My year has been phenomenal in animation. I really like with what I have done with my year and what I have accomplished. I feel like I have made good use of the time that I have gotten this year. Sure there were times in the year where I didn't feel like animating or even doing something as simple as photoshopping; we all have those kind of days. This year I wanted to make something of myself, and I did. I feel like I worked so much harder than a good portion of the rest of the class. I feel like I am a leader in the class (even though I hardly talk). I have accomplished completing projects that a lot of people wouldn't put up with after five minutes of working on it. To me, that is leadership and the matter of trying. I always completed the projects that I started, and kept pushing myself forward to do better and not slack. Hard work really does pay off. Overall, I have had a great and hardworking year; I am excited to see what is in store for me my senior year.

Becoming an animator (Professional Article Review)

     This article is about what it takes to become an animator. It talks about the steps you need to take and the skills you need to be an excellent artist and animator.

     Some claims that the author makes are things like being a good drawer, know how to use a computer really well, know how to work as a team, and the learning animator must be persistent in order to become an animator. Drawing, for example, is important because it uses the mind and it helps them grow and develop their talents that they need to become the animator that they want to be. If they cannot draw, they always have the option of using the computer. Now, you have to know how to use the computer well or else your animating career won't take off. The author says that teamwork is important because it helps you and the others around you become better animators and artists. The main argument that the author claims is that persistence is the main key to becoming an excellent animator because it helps you achieve your goals and it achieves perfection in your eyes.

     I think that the author's strengths in the article are having lots of evidence for the claims she makes but a weakness that she has in the article is that the evidence is a little long. Evidence in articles should be short and to the point. She dragged on about drawing and how it ties into animation for several paragraphs. It seemed to never end. Although it was kind of long, the evidence was typed nicely and it backed up the claims at the right time.

     The author makes the claims and evidence a little long but it was very easy to understand and could be read by any ages besides elementary school ages. If a middle school kid is looking into animation or a form of art, they could easily read this article. This article was fairly interesting but it was very basic.

     Overall I thought the article was great, just a little long and overdone. I think that the author makes great points and was very specific and had a lot of explanation on why all of the claims were important. It was all very well laid out except for the fact that it was a little too long. This was a very exceptional article to read about animation and how to become an animator.

Link to article: http://www.animationarena.com/becoming-an-animator.html

How To Create An Umbrella In Maya: Technical Tutorial

1. Start in top view in maya and create a cylinder.












2. Drag the cylinder up and make it really thin.

3. Go to the attribute editor and change the subdivision axis to and and the subdivision caps to 4.


















4. It should look like this from top view.

5. Right click and hold. Then select Vertex. Next you will select the vertices as shown to the right.
















6. Drag the vertices up with the move tool. Then repeat the process with the other vertices but make the next ones higher than the previous ones.

7. It should look like this when finished.







8. Next make a cylinder again and place it on the corner of the umbrella. Angle it so it matches the slope of the umbrella. Then select the edges as shown.

9. Go to Edit Mesh and bevel it again and then bevel the edges it created then move those edges out so it makes a cap shape. See example on the right.

10. When finished, it should look like this on the umbrella.











11. Duplicate the beveled cylinder and place them on all 8 corners of the umbrella as shown.











12. Duplicate the cylinder again but make it right side up and place it on the very top of the umbrella.









13. Stretch it to make it a little taller and wider. See picture on the right for an example.

14. Select the vertices on the bottom of the cylinder.
















15. Pull the vertices down to make the neck of the umbrella.














16. Select the faces on the bottom of the neck.















17. On the top of your screen, there should be a rectangular prism on a grid. Select that. This is called Extrude.









18. Pull the faces down and then select the outside faces you just made and stretch them out like this.

19. Select the bottom faces again.












20. With the move tool, pull the faces down.










21. Extrude the faces again and pull them down. Then hit "D" and move the pivot to the corner as shown.















22. Now hit "D" then "E" and rotate the faces.

23. Extrude the faces again and pull them down.














24. Move the pivot again and rotate the faces. Keep repeating the process.










25. Your Handle should end up looking like this. To get a smoother look, bevel the edges where it looks sharp or edgy.














26. Create a skinny cylinder. Attach it to the neck of the umbrella and to the underside of the umbrella but make sure the rod doesn't peak through the top.

27. Duplicate it and flip it to the other side.








28. Rotate it around the umbrella so it is equally spaced. There should be 8 rods evenly spaced around the neck.










29. Select the cap-like cylinders you made before. Hold right click and then select "Assign New Material" under the face option. Then select Phong.


















30. Select the color chooser and make a gold color. Up at the top, name it Gold.








31. Select the neck of the umbrella and only the neck of the umbrella and color it gold by holding right click and choosing "Assign Existing Material."
















32. Select all of the rods under the umbrella and color them gold too.










33. Select all of the faces on the top. Leave the underside grey for now. Repeat the process like you did with the gold except use "Lambert" instead of "Phong" and make it black instead of gold.







34. It should look like this.















35. Color the handle of the umbrella a darker gold than the original gold. Then select the underside faces and make a new texture. Make it a Lambert like the black but color it blue.

36. The underside should end up looking like this.

37. Select all the parts of the umbrella.

38. Go up to "Mesh" then click "Combine." This will make it all one object.


















39. Your final product should look like the example on the right.

Trois Petits Chats (Professional Project Review)

     A family of porcelain cats' mother dies leaving the father alone with his two kittens. Their mother caught a disease that makes the cats crack and then die. While the father cat is trying to cope with the death of his wife, his kids try to make the best of themselves by playing outside, playing with each other, and cheering up their father. While the sister cat is flying a kite with her brother, she begins to cough a lot and the doctor is called. The doctor examines her and says that she has the same disease that her mother had causing her to crack. She is sent to the hospital where she is quarantined and where she can be monitored. While at the hospital, she begins to cough a lot but the doctors are not around to help her so her dad puts his son down and rushes into the quarantined room leaving his son behind and not knowing what is going on. Her dad picks her up and he begins to crack as well. The daughter then dies and the father dies soon after leaving his son alone and without a family.

     This story was supposed to be told through emotion and interpretation meaning that everything wasn't answered in the story so you had to interpret what would answer those questions. The main theme was loneliness and sadness giving it that "awe" effect which is really good when making a short film; you want to leave the audience with that silence at the end of the film.

     An element that I would apply to my own work would be the mood of a story. Mood and sound is everything in a short film to get that emotion drawn out from the audience. Another thing I would apply to my own animations from this film were the sound effects. Sound effects can really help tell a story even though there aren't any words. An element that I have already learned that is applied to this project is the lighting. The lighting and the shadows were perfect and really help set the mood for the emotion. For example, at the end the lighting was darker giving it that sad feeling. Another good thing that was applied to this animation that I have used in my projects before was the use of color. For example, in the beginning the colors were very grey and dark to give it that sympathy feeling for the cats.

     The creator of this short animation was a complete genius. He used the lighting, texturing, animating, color, and he set the mood perfectly for the scene. The lighting was always lit nicely and the shadows were very well done. The lighting was always lit nicely to give it the mood or feeling of the scene. The texturing was great and it really fit the characters well. For example, the dad was always wearing grey or a dark color to resemble his sadness of his loss while the kids were dressed in brighter clothes to resemble how happy they were and it described their personalities. The animating was very smooth and it wasn't jerky or quick to action. The walk cycles were also done really nicely even when they were playing or running. And then lastly, the color was used nicely. The colors were always really dark when they were sad or a little brighter when they were happy. Color really helped out a lot in this short to help draw out the feeling.

     This was a fantastic animation overall. I think everything was phenomenal in every way possible. I think that the creator spent a lot of time and thought out this animation because everything was just so precise and done smoothly. The creator knew how to tell a great story too and knew how to give the audience that silence in the end. This definitely is one of my favorite short animations that I have watched.

A Beary Bad Day

The White House (Personal Project Review)

     In my last blog post, I talked about The White House that I made last semester. Well this semester I worked on the yard that the house sits on, the lighting, and the camera movements. I made all of the trees, bushes, grass, walkways, the sky, and so on. This was supposed to be a semester long project as well but I wanted to enter the entire project into eMagine so I had to double my work time and double how hard I worked. I would stay really late most nights until 10 or 11:00 but on a couple nights (mainly during the last week I was able to work on this) I had to stay at school until 4:00 in the morning. In the end though, all of the (almost) never ending work paid off.

     To make the yard, I looked at some source images of the entire yard and went from there. I thought that the entire yard was a bit too big so I had to cut about 25% of it out. For the trees and bushes, I had to take tutorials on how to make the leaves because I wanted them to look thin and realistic. The trees and bushes turned out phenomenal in the end so it was definitely worth the struggle I went through to make them.

     Along the way, I learned a couple of tools, like the nCloth tool. Also, I learned to save more often (because maya kept crashing 25% of the time), that you can be too detailed, and I learned to texture my objects better by using the bump mapping and I explored what the textures can do. On the professional side, I learned that it's okay to ask for help because I had some issues towards the end of the project that I couldn't figure out myself or couldn't find online.  For deadlines, I think I nailed it. Sure I had to stay till 10 or 11 and sometimes 3 or 4 in the morning some nights, but I did great on meeting the deadline and I even had a couple days to spare before it was due.

     As for changing and keeping things the same, I don't think I would change anything except for this one particular thing... It's the shadow on the back of the white house. I wish it was completely shaded and not have that little strip of light where it isn't shaded but I didn't know how to fix it so I had to leave it be. Other than that, I love my project the way it is and I think it looks very detailed and it is textured well. I don't think I would change a thing about my project.

     Some things I will use for my next project would be the texturing skills I got from modeling and also some of the tools that I learned along the way. If I model another building next time I will pay attention to the detail like I did with this project here. I feel like the detail that I made on this house was great and I think that paying attention to detail should be continued on when modeling an inanimate object.

     Over all, I think my project turned out great. I like how I paid attention to detail and how it turned out. I'm kind of glad that I was a (somewhat) perfectionist when it came to this project because it turned out more than what I was hoping it to be. I spent so much time on this project (about 7 months of work) and I was up at school very late just to finish this project. I think that all the hard work over the months has really paid off and has made an incredible project. I am very proud that it turned out to be better than what I thought it was going to be.

Here is the video of my work.