WEEK 6 STEAM PUNK CHESS ROBOT (evaluation)

I finally added the sounds and music into my animation and make it more fun and real.
I am quite pleased with it as I really make my own character alive!
I think I designed a cute robot character that is really my style.
And I am happy that I received nice feedback. Andy said I did a really good design as it's difficult to design a cute robot. I am really appreciate that comment.
I think the problems I faced in this project were mainly the joints of the robot, the lights and the environment.
For the joints of the robot, at first I did not think it would be so difficult, but then I realized that it is really difficult to make the joints into other shapes except spheres. For example, the arm needs to be rotate and turn up and down, if I use other shapes then it would be very weird.
Finally I research for different kind of engine parts online, and found out that cylinder shape could be an acceptable design for the joints of my robot, so I end up designed the joints based on cylinder shape.


To me, the story is more important than the character because this is what makes my character alive.
Therefore I start to put effort on planning how my story going to be.
I had thought of placing the steam-punk robot in a steam train, but then I thought this would be too obvious. So, I came up with another idea which is placing the robot in a factory. And the factory would be a steam-punk robot factory.

After decided the environment, I started to list out what things should include in that factory.
Such as the parts of the robot, the steamer, blueprints, different generations of the steam punk robot and so on.Then in week 3, I tried to sketch my storyboard and it really helped me to clear up my thoughts. It brings out my imagination of the character and all the camera shots.

As the first shot is a shot towards the drawing, I need to put a light near the drawing and focus on it.
I tried to put the lights in different locations and changed the settings of the lights and finally put it on top left angle of the drawing.

 Except the natural lights in the scene, I planned to use after effect add the light of the robot's eyes and the steam.
The reason why I didn't put the lights on the robot's eyes in 3ds max was that it took really long time to render in 3ds max because of the lights. And I think the steam in after effects would be more realistic then 3ds max. Therefore, I added the lights and the steam in after effects this time. And I am glad that I learned more skills in after effect in this project.
Andy said that I should also put the lighting focus on the chess/robots, in order to make the audience more intent on the story. It really reminds me to make improvement in the lighting next time.
At last,  although this project is a really intense work to me, I am really happy and enjoyed it and I am glad that I learned more other software skills after this project.

WEEK 5 STEAM PUNK CHESS ROBOT

Finally I done all my textures and animated it on Tuesday.
Then I immediately start to input it into after effect in order to add the light and steam.
The reason why I didn't put the lights on the robot's eyes is that it takes really long time to render in 3ds max because of the lights. And I think the steam in after effects would be more realistic then 3ds max. Therefore, I added the lights and the steam in after effects this time. And I am glad that I learned more skills in after effect in this project.

WEEK 4 STEAM PUNK CHESS ROBOT

I finally started to model my character and the chess pieces in 3ds max.
The chess pieces is easy to model compare with the robot.
I realized that I need to make more considerations on the robot's joints, like arms, fingers, legs and so on.
Though I can make it moves anyway I want, I still need to design the joints and make them be sensible. This is the problem that I need to face this week.

WEEK 3 STEAM PUNK CHESS ROBOT

In week 3, I tried to sketch my storyboard and it really helped me to clear up my thoughts. It brings out my imagination of the character and all the camera shots.
Although its only a 30 seconds animation, it still take time to consider, like how I am going to use the camera to show the character's facial expressions and make it alive.
I still need to pay more effort on the storyboard next time.

WEEK 2 STEAM PUNK CHESS ROBOT

WEEK 2
So I started to do some sketches on sketch books or phone.
It's good that I could sketch in my phone and paint it with some apps.
It then suddenly inspire me a lot and I will sketch a lot more designs.
I also realized that I should also make a story for my character.
To me, the story is more important than the character because this is what makes my character alive.

WEEK 1 STEAM PUNK CHESS ROBOT (year 2 first project)

 As we were given that we need to produce a 30 seconds animation which is about a steam-punk style robot playing chess (6 weeks project).
So I started to do some research on robots and steam-punk style.
At first I don't really know what steam punk style is, so I really search for many images or articles.
Then I decided to design a cute steam punk style robot because I can't design some really complicated robot.