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.

self eveluation (3d animation)

At first, I am really worry about my project because I haven't use 3d max before, so I have no idea what I can draw.  That's why I went to university everyday and try to use this software.

I also started to create my villain and the environment for him.
My villain was a science professor that got infection by some rare bacteria. And his superpower is that he can change his body to any size (even the size of bacteria). For some reasons, his enemy is superman.
Therefore, I started to create the first room, which is a laboratory.

My whole 3d environment structure has almost planned and created.
I am really pleased that I can make such a cool environment, as it’s just the first time that I tried to make 3d animation.
I think the time management is really important in this project, as you still have to save some time for rendering! And mine took 9 hours.
But I think my time management is quite good this time. As my Mac book couldn't use 3d max, so I have to go to Waverley everyday to work on my project. That makes me really concentrated in this project.
Though I think I still got lots of things to learn and 3d max is quite difficult software, I still think I'm going to choose animation next year!

My main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were how I can express my idea through my animation and how I can enhance my problem solving skills.

The methods I use to develop my ideas were brainstorming, research from books and movies. Also I did sketching and discussing with other courses friends.

Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were the first time using 3d max software that really make me frightened. And I had problems with the camera tracking and problem that editing the (foot step) sound to match my animation.

The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were gone to university every day to explore the software in the first two weeks.

Besides, I learnt some modifier skills through books and Andy’s tutorials, which was really useful.

The things I have learnt from this particular project were time management. When I do my projects before, I usually leave everything to the last minute.

But this time, I really manage it really well, as I finished my animation in the 4^th week, then I got time to do my project book and sketches.

Areas for improvement, If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently was the camera tracking, as I really hate the camera editing in 3d max. Though I think I had done my best this time.

A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe character design. I think create a character design will be really exciting because I can create the personality and everything about the character.

Here are some pictures from my project book.

week 4 3d animation

My whole 3d environment structure has almost planned and created.
I am really pleased that I can make such a cool environment as it's just the first time that I tried to make 3d  animation.
I think the time management is really important in this project as you still have to save some time for rendering! (and mine takes 9 hours!!!)
But I think my time management is quite good this time. As my macbook couldn't use 3d max, So I have to go to waverly everyday to work on my project. That makes me really concentrated in this project.
Though I think I still got lots of things to learn and 3d max is a quite difficult software, I still think I'm going to choose animation next year!
Here are my render pictures.

week 3 3d animation

This week we tried to create super hero/villain by the idea of animals.
And then I think of octopus, then I drew something like a octopus kind of human.

I also started to create my villain and the environment for him.
My villain was a science professor that got infection by some rare bacteria. And his superpower is that he can change his body to any size (even the size of bacteria). For some reasons, his enemy is superman.
Therefore, I started to create the first room which is a laboratory.

week 2 3D animation

As I'm really worry about my project because I haven't use 3d max before, so I have no idea what I can draw.  That's why I went to uni everyday and try to use this software.
Here are some pictures that I tried to draw in this week.

week 1 animation (sketchings)

This is the first week of our 3d animation project.

We were asked to sketch different kind of characters and exchanged to others then draw a totally different character.
I think it's kind of like brain storming by sketching everything. Personally, I think this was quite fun because at the end we can all create a different character.

finalized frames (week 4)

After weeks of working on my webpages, I finally rearranged my frames again.
Here are the finalized one.
I included the real webpages below each frames.

Font (week 4)

I chose the font "Orator" because it is quite clean and simple. I love that it is really clear in different background. So my webpage is mainly using this font.

As "Jas C mine" is the title of my webpage, I decided to make a logo for my website.
Then I created my logo by combining handwriting and font.

In my opinion, if you want to find a font that suits yourselves and is clear, you can try to choose some fonts and test them in different backgrounds by using photoshop. I'm sure after that you can find a nice font to use in your website.

Quality and differences between jpeg, gif and png (week 3)

We are just finding out what's the differences between jpeg,gif and png.

We were asked to search for a 300 dpi image in google and look at file information, and then in photoshop save as jpg, jif, png, bmp and tiff formats in 500 by 500 pixels size at 150 dpi or 72 dpi. Compare quality and suitability for web.
So I found a image and did the above instructions.
Here are the photos.

1) Jpeg: quality is good, size: 80.8KB

1) png: quality is good, size: 367KB

1) gif: quality is bad, size: 93.7KB

Therefore, the most common lossless media type is jpeg that use in websites.

Draft wire frames (week 2)

We were ask to make some draft wire frames for our own websites by any softwares or hand drawings.
So I had made some frames by using adobe illustrator.

My main idea for my own website layout is simple and clear.

That is why i use different size of rectangles or squares to make the layout.

I think making these wire frames really helped me to have a rough idea to make my website.

some nice website layout

the following three website I found are quite useful and user-friendly. I really like how their layout and graphics as they are really attractive.

1. CadmusFamily

2. Miniot

3. Filter017

interactive week 1 Mood board

We were asked to make a mood board for ourselves.
This shows my own personality and my interests.
It is just a simple version of a mood board and i just put things that I love and places of my own country.
It is quite fun because it seems that after making this mood board, I feel that I getting to know myself more in the end.

Week 5 film (9/2)

It's a long and busy week this week. We have to done our edit, project book, self evaluation form and upload to the dropbox.

Well, arranged the videos into different scenes and put them into files is always the first thing to do.
Then I will start to choose which clips I'm going to use.

After I finished my edit and rendered it the first time, everything is fine. Unfortunately, when I make some changes on the edit and rendered it for the second time, it crashed... All of the footages and my premiere files gone!...So I have to upload the first edit that I rendered to youtube and vimeo.

Anyway, it crashed after my first rendering, so it's not bad..

Week 4 film (3/2)

 Finally we start filming on Monday and though we planned to finish filming on Tuesday, we failed to make it. So we have to film on Wednesday too.
Our director (Edgar) eventually became the clown-Brain. Sabrina as Karen, Kieran as Tommy and Kalab as the police officer.
Our main filming place was in Edgar's house. So we didn't have much problem with the locations.
One of the funniest thing is whenever someone said "silence on set", no one speaks immediately.
And some times we even have to hide as the camera could see us.
One big problem was when we finished filming, and watch some of the clips, we found that the microphone was in the videos..haha that's the main problem that we have to sort it out.
I managed to edit that clip by zoom it in, so that we couldn't see the microphone in the background.

And other than the costume, I also response to place everything in the right position everyday, this is honestly quite difficult to do I guess. As every tiny little bit should be in the right place, I'm glad that I took photos everyday then I can always look back to the photos and check if everything is alright.

Week 3 film (27/1)

We originally planned to film in this week but Deb said that we should film after the lighting induction on Friday first, so we changed to film in next week.
This lighting induction is quite fun to be honest. Other than staying in the computer room, we went to the lighting studio and learn how light could be useful in our filming.
We learn to set up three different lighting equipments in different positions. Adding filter to fade out some light and putting the light near or behind could really make a difference in filming.
And finally we decided to book a 'dedolight' equipment for our filming on Monday. We are still struggling with out actors though.
As we changed our filming date to Monday, so I have to extend the costume for one week more inorder to use in our film.

Week 2 film (20/1)

As we all response to different roles, we started gather and re-write the script and discuss how we going to film it and which angles that we are going to use in the filming. Nima started to draw storyboards and I started to draw some sketching of the characters.

Luckily, we found suitable costumes in the costume store in Waverley building. So we asked the fashion department that if we can borrow the costume for a whole week. This sort out the costume of the whole cast.
For the character- Karen, I am going to bring an apron and the washing gloves for her.
For Brain (the clown), we borrowed the small blue hat, a colourful jacket, a yellow trousers, red nose and also the red wig that we bought.
For Tommy ( the magician), we borrowed the red bowtie, the black hat, the white gloves and the black suit that we have.
For the police officer, we borrowed the bright yellow jacket, the white shirt, the cardigan and the police hat that we bought.