Week 12

I feel that the project has been completed successfully and i have learnt a lot over the last twelve weeks. My favourite ident has to be the second with the skateboarding scene, although i do think that the third idea goes well with the choice of music.
I am very suprised with the outcome of the first ident as the final article is of a lot higher standard than i could have imagined. If i was to change anything, it would have to be the length of the idents. I understand that they are suposed to be short animations but i feel that more could have been added to the first ident. Where as the second and third idents are made up of multiple scenes the first was produced from a single scene.

Overall i have enjoyed extending my knowledge further with 3Ds Max and hope to continue into next year with an understanding of animating with this program. Now i have the basic knowledge i can move on to bigger chalenges.

Week 11

This is the background that i developed in Adobe Photoshop to replace the original static/fuzzy background AVI file. The image is simple and uses a slight gradient to add a bit of depth. The original background drew the viewers attention away from the animation. This background is less fussy and complements each of the scenes. I especially like the way it reflects in objects where i have applied materials with a Raytrace.

Week 10

Scene 1...

The first scene of the third ident consists of a camera panning around a hospital bed. The bed contains a broken or sick television set.
The scene is made up of simple objects and i have used my own materials and textures. The hospital bed is made up of an arrangement of cylinders for the frame with two mesh smoothed boxes for the mattress and pillow.
The television set has been made up in the same way as the 'main character' with the exception of the antenna. The antenna on the set are produced using the line tool and then expanding the thickness of the line.
The rest of the scene is constructed from box shapes, with the exception of a few cylinders for the heart monitor stand and the bedside table. The monitor shape was smoothed using a mesh smooth modifier.

The scene is lit by two omni lights with the Shadow function selected to produce the darker areas.

The majority of the textures were all produced in Adobe photoshop. I used a UVW Map to resize the materials when necessary so that they blended well with the rest of the scene. The reflective materials on the TV casing and heart monitor were produced using a Raytrace modifier.

Scene 2...

The second scene was made using the same hospital model. No changes to the materials or lighting had to be made. The television in the scene had been given a path constraint. I created the path using the line tool to give the appearance of a bounce. In the final edit the line doesn't appear in the video as it too small in size to be visible. The television model is the same as the one used in the other two idents.

Scene 3...

The last scene of the ident shows the TV set with a stethoscope rapped around it. The scene is simple but it is effective. Again the TV model remains the same with the addition of the stethoscope. This was made up using the line tool to get the shape and three cones for the other pieces.

The scene is lit with a stationary upward facing spotlight. All objects in the scene remains stationary except for the camera which pans around the focus point (TV) along a curved path constraint.

The materials for the TV and stethoscope were made using the Raytrace modifier. By changing the diffuse colour i was able to achieve the purple and black colours as well as achieving a reflection.

I created this panel to show a selection of the images i used to create material throughout the three scenes of the third ident.

Week 9

This image is a screenshot of what the model looks like with all of the new materials. A simple wood effect has been applied to the skateboard whereas other materials have been made in Adobe Photoshop. These materials include the purple bricks that have been applied to the walls and centre block. I had to use a UVW Map to resize the bricks as they were far to big. This was fairly simple to do using the gizmo option under the UVW Map heading.
The material that has been applied to the ramps was created using a Raytrace modifier. Certain levels can be adjusted to alter the level of reflectiveness. I think the levels which i applied suit the purpose of the material and it looks fairly metallic.

The panel below shows the images that were used to create the materials.


Each scene was animated separately. All of the scenes contained path constraints but some were harder to create than others. The scene were the TV performs a 'Kick Flip' was particurly hard as the timings of the skateboard and the TV had to be controlled on two seperate path constraints. All of the cameras were stationary except for the one used in the intro. that followed a straight path.

Week 8

This is the model which i have produced for the second ident. The model is built upon one box shape. I have cut a cylinder in half in editable mesh mode to create the Half pipe (Ramp) and then duplicated it twice more. The side ramps were produced in the same way, but instead of cutting away half of the cylinder i cut three quarters away.

The centre block is made up of two box shapes and the so are the outer walls. The grind rail is made up of three arranged cylinders.

The skateboard was produced from a box shape, two pyramids and six cylinders. The box was modelled as an editable mesh to get the round edges and slight curve. The cylinders make up the wheels and axles. The pyramids are used to represent the trucks that hold the wheels.


The video shows a prototype edit of the ident before any textures and materials are added.

Week 7

I have managed to come up with a storyboard for the third ident. The idea seems a bit wacky at first but it relates to the programs shown on E4.

The storyboard shows a TV set in a hospital bed and the E4 TV set is depicted as a doctor. From Looking at the storyboard it is easy to see that there will be alot of modelling involved. I will split up the animation into 3 scenes so that the production doesn't get to complicated.

Week 6

This is the first edit of Idea 1. I am not yet sure whether i am keeping the fuzzy background as i feel it draws the attention away from the animation. I may just settle for a plain background using the E4 colours. (Purple, white, black)

The cityscape was created from a selection of box shapes which vary in size. The boxes were arranged one on top of another to give the effect of high rise buildings.

The television fuzz was created using Adobe Flash. Once drawn up the file was exported from Flash as an Avi file and loaded into the 3Ds Max files background setting.

When i come around to adding the final textures to this scene the buildings will have a reflective surface to represent glass. The television will remain the same as i like the simplicity of the object.