Month: April 2014

Adobe After Effects

After creating the sound effects I decided to create the introduction animation using Adobe After Effects, I used a tutorial shown on Video Co. Pilot

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/3d_falloff/ by Andrew Kramer.

This  tutorial came with a effect that could be downloaded this effect was called 3D fall off this effect allows for objects when moved closer to the camera to fade out.

I used this effect to create my introduction sequence and end credits.

I started creating my Introduction by rendering one of my red blood cells from my Maya scene and importing this image into Adobe After Effects, next I duplicated this image numerous times I then made these images 3D so the effect would work.

I then added the 3D Falloff effect to each image and positioned the images where I wanted them at the start of the timeline, next I moved the marker to the end of the timeline and changed the distance of the images from the camera (they were moved nearer) this allowed for the images to fade out.

Next I added the title of the animation and repeated the processes mentioned above.
After I was happy with the intro and credits I exported the videos and opened them in Adobe Premiere Pro where after rendering the animation from Maya I imported the still images into the software and added them between the introduction and end credits. I then exported this file with a frame rate of 25 frames per second which will allow for everything to run smoothly as the everything was created to run at a frame rate of 25 frames per second.

After I tested the complete animation in the actual dome were I noticed due to many of the colours being of the same shade they could hardly be any difference seen so I increased the brightness to allow for more notice between the different shade of colours, below are screenshots of the completed videos.

 

introcredits

I am extremely happy with the outcome for my intro and credits the videos show exactly what my animation is going to be about in a matter of seconds I am also very pleased with the way the text fades in to the video and gradually becomes focused and then slowly fades back out when it comes near the camera. If I did this again however I would take more time in creating a more complex intro and credits, perhaps by changing the colour of the text to make it more noticeable.

Audio for the Cells

Below is a list of the audio effects that I have created for the animation to enhance the viewing experience for the audience.

  • Red Blood Cells tone – for when the cells move past the camera
  • White Blood Cells tone –  for when the cells move past the camera
  • Discussion- Myself talking about each component

I created these sound effects using Adobe Audition I created these tones using the tone generator tool.

The discussion sound was recorded using a field microphone called Marantz PMD620.
When I had recorded myself I then imported this sound into Adobe Audition were I reduced the db level to make sure nothing would be clipped, I didn’t have to use the reduce noise tools there was no background noise in the track.

Next I split this single Audio file into separate smaller tracks one for each component to make them more manageable. The screenshot that follows shows the original discussion track along with the tool that was used to reduce the db level.

The screenshot below shows how I was able to generate the tones for the cells

red

 

Discussion files:

Original

talk

Edited

1 2 3 4 5

 

Once I had split the my voice over track into individual tracks, and after generating the the tones using the tone generator with a frequency of 40 and were I manipulated the settings I was very pleased with the outcome, if I was able to do this again I would take more time in creating a complex tone for my cells and thinking in more detail about what I was going to discuss as well making sure that my animation was longer to allow for more time to talk about each cell.

Different components

Below are 6 screenshot showing all of the components that I have created in Autodesk Maya, for my blood vessel animation.

red white anti bacteria plasma P

All these components were created using a variety of tools within Maya as well as Mudbox, I created the red blood cell simply by using the sphere polygon tool in Maya and then using the scaling tool to flatten the sphere slightly, next I exported the object to Mudbox were I painted it a shade of red using the paint brush tool, I then used the airbrush tool to add a lighter shade of red to add a bit of texture to the cell, finally I used the flatten sculpt tool to smooth out the top and bottom of the cell to make it more realistic. I then simply imported the texture back into Maya and add the texture to the object.

 

To create the white blood cell I simply used the sphere polygon tool in Maya again however this time I selected the faces and extruded some and then scaled down the faces to make points, I then used the textures available in Maya after making the sphere white to get the desired texture effect.

The Anti-body cell was created in a similar manner to the white cell I used the cylinder tool first then I added a sphere polygon and after moving the sphere so half was attached to one of the faces and the other half inside the cylinder,  I used Boolean to cut the sphere in half I created a new cylinder and attached the half sphere to the new  cylinder were I fused the two polygon objects together to create one section of the cell then I simply duplicated this object until I had the number shown in the image above. I then simply used Maya’s textures and changed the colour until I had the desired effect.

The Bacteria Cell was created using one of the section I had created for the Anti-body the only difference was I exported this object to Mudbox where I created a texture using the paint brush and stencil tools.

The Plasma was most probably the easiest component to make as I simply created a sphere using the sphere polygon tool in Maya and added a glow to the texture and changed the colour to yellow/ orange colour.

The Platelets the blue ball image was created using the sphere tool and then exporting it to Mudbox were I used the sculpting tool to deform the sphere slightly and then using the paint brush tool to paint the deformed sphere a light blue colour.

 

Below is a screenshot of the blood vessel with all the components added:

bloodstream20175

After all the components had been created I duplicated them until I was happy with the result.

I am very happy with the way all of the components have turned out, if I had to do this again however I would probably make my artery more complex and work on improving the texture for my cells.

 

 

Blood Vessel

I created the blood vessel first, I created this using the simple polygon cylinder tool and manipulated it by deleting the faces to create to create an artery, I then duplicated it two more times to create three separate arteries. Next I added a sphere polygon which would act as the intersection for the separate arteries, I then deleted the certain faces of the sphere and moved the vertex faces for a smooth finish that allows for a clean view to the next artery. Below is a screenshot of the completed blood vessel

 

Blood_vessel(no_colour)

I added textures to give it a realistic feel, the textures were created using Mudbox I did this by exporting an .obj for one of the cylinders and one for the partial sphere, next using the sculpting tools in Mudbox I made the inside of the objects rough to give the effect of actually being inside a blood vessel. I then imported them back into Maya and applied them as textures, below is the blood vessel with the textures applied.

Blood_vessel(colour)

After adding the textures I downloaded a heart .ma file from http://www.turbosquid.com the link that follows will take you to the actual page that the heart was downloaded from http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/548944  the object was created by XADMAX2 Gerardo Perusquia Montes.

 

Below show the complete blood vessel along with a sphere dome which will house the heart which will be added later on, the reason why the heart has been mentioned here is because the texture that came with the heart was used for the sphere dome which will house the heart later on. This image is a quick render showing what the blood vessel will look like when completely rendered. I have added a couple of ambient lights to brighten the scene as it will be dark when inside the blood vessel.

Blood_vesselBlood_vessel_inside

The image above on the right shows a quick render of what the final render for the inside of the blood vessel will look like with the lights turned on, as you can see everything is well lit and clear to see while in comparison before the back of the blood vessel at the intersection could be seen it was in complete darkness.

 

Final Idea +Storyboards

For the audio and video assignment I  decided to create a blood vessel to showing the different components of the blood and what their jobs are.

This will be created using various adobe software packages for example Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects. The actual scene will be created using Autodesk Maya.

Here are my storyboards for the design of the animation and video as well as the Title Sequence and Credits:

 

20140424_204727 20140424_204710

My animation will be an educational video that will show the audience the functions the the different parts of the blood. I will be adding different sound effects to help enhance the viewing experience.

Sound effects that I will be creating include :

Tones for the movement of the cells

A voice over discussing the different components of the blood.

And Music for the Introduction and Credits