Final Assembly of Animation

Now that all the components for my animation both Audio and Video have been created it was time assemble the final movie in Premiere Pro. I used the same project I used before to make the movie however this time I added the Soundtrack to the start and end of the animation.  Here is the Final video of my animation completed.

As shown in the video there is a black mask around the video this was added after to make the video tidier and showing what the dome will show here is the video without the mask added:

To ensure all media that I have created was suitable for the dome environment I used the dome tester engine once more. The dome tester enabled me to test  my work to have a rough idea how it would look within the actual dome itself. A disadvantage of using the dome tester is that it mirrors any content within the dome this means my title and credits text are backwards. However I know that everything works fine as after testing it in the dome tester I was able to test my in the actual dome itself. Overall I am happy with the way in which my work is has turned out and now that I have made further improvements I hope that it will work and look fine in the actual 3D Dome.

Here are some screenshots of my animation working within the dome engine:

 

I am pleased with the way my animation has turned out and am confident that it will look  great inside the actual dome based of the way it looks in the dome tester and when I have been able to test it in the actual 3D Dome, the three screenshots above show the intro the middle of the animation and the credits working within the dome tester as shown they work very well I am not worried about the text being reversed as I know that the dome tester program mirrors my animation and I have tested the credits in the actual dome were I know they look fine and are not mirrored. As I have stated in previous posts if I could do this again I would take more time to try and enhance the work that I have already done and improve on areas that I think I could have done better with.

I have severely enjoyed creating this animation and I hope to be able to do something similar again very soon.

 

Intro and Credit Music created in Adobe Audition

After testing my .mov movie in the dome tester engine and was happy with the results, all that was left was the music for the Introduction and Credits I thought about downloading a free piece of music and using that, however after much thought I decided against that idea. Next I thought about using multiple piece of music and using sections from the different tracks and blend them together using the multi track feature in adobe audition.

After struggling to find appropriate music I decided against this idea and went about creating my own music. I managed this by simply generating tones and blending them together  using the multi track feature.

Firstly I generated 5 tones using the generate tone tool using a frequency between 40-120 then I a variety of features such as  Chorus feature and the flanger feature as well as the phaser feature.

I changed many of the slider on for each of these effects the images, I reduced the db for certain sections in individual tracks as well as deleting sections as well.

Below show are an example of the settings I used for each feature:

After I had created my five separate tracks I then used the multi track feature to blend these tracks together to create my soundtrack, below is the settings I used to create my soundtrack using the multi track:

I created my soundtrack for my animation by dragging individual tracks onto the timeline, due to some tracks being shorter than others I have had to loop some and add multiple copy of tracks on the timeline. I also reduced the volume of individual tracks allowing for other tracks to stand out more than the rest.

 

 

Adobe Premiere Pro – Assembly of Final Animation

After rendering my Maya animation I created a new Adobe Premiere Pro project with a size of 1080 by 1080 and a 25 frames per second frame rate..

I imported by still images however when I dragged them onto the timeline by default they were 5 seconds long resulting in the video being far too long, I corrected this by changing  the time for the images to 0.02 seconds which resulted in the images now being the correct length in time and allowing it to run smoothly when played back.

 

I next added my Introduction and Credit videos into the project and placed the intro at the start of the animation and the credits at the end I then decided to use the transition effects that were already built into Premiere Pro to make the transition from one video to the next more gradual. The effect I used was called dissolve fade. I was very happy with the outcome

After I had added the videos I next added the audio files for my cells I played the video back and then placed the appropriate sound into the appropriate places for example when the red blood cells came towards the camera I added the red blood cells tone.

Next I added my voice over files into the timeline, again adding them into their appropriate places i.e. when I talk about the anti-bodies I placed this audio so it would play when the anti-body appears on the animation.

 

Now that the voice over and cell tones have been added the only other sound to be added was the heartbeat which I downloaded from  http://www.freesfx.co.uk  and was created by gr8sfx.

I originally just simply added the heartbeat soundtrack into the animation, however after testing the exported animation in the actual dome I figure it would be better if I made the heartbeat quiet  at the start and increase the volume further into the animation giving the effect of the camera when moving forwards is getting closer to the heart.

I managed this by importing the original heartbeat sound into Adobe Audition leaving all of the settings as default which I did with the other tones which I created, next I decreased the db level for the file by moving the slider on the timeline to the left resulting in negative figures. I then went into the effects tab and down to amplitude and compression and selected the gain envelope process tool, this then allowed me to make the file quiet at the beginning of the track and slowly gaining volume by allowing me to move the yellow line on the timeline to a rate which I was happy with, and then by the end of the track the volume would be far louder then the beginning of the track.

 

Below shows the tool that was used in editing the heartbeat track:

 

 

 

After adding the new edited heartbeat into my animation using the project I created in Premiere Pro I exported the sequence once again as a .mov movie and tested it in the dome tester engine.

I was extremely happy with the outcome the only sounds that were left to be first created then added included the music for the Introduction and the Credits.

Maya Scene – Animation

Having created all of the components for my animation I used Maya once again to assemble it as well as animate it.

 

The first step I took was to import all of the individual cell components into the blood vessel scene, next I decided to start with adding the red blood cells inside my artery. When I was happy with the number of red cells and their positions I decided to animate them so they would move towards the camera at first along with actual camera moving but then stop and allowing for only the camera to move through the blood vessel, when the camera got to the intersection however I animate some of the red cells to look as if they were moving from section to the other.

Below is a quick render of what the blood vessel looks like with the red blood cells added in:

Next I added the white blood  cells where I repeated the same process of adding duplications of the white cells until I was happy with the outcome these cells were not animated however, that is with the exception of one which was used to collide with a virus cell.

The virus cell was animated so that it was moved from one artery to the intersection were it collided with a white blood cell and then they both disappeared and were replaced with a anti-body. After the white blood cells and the virus was added into the animation I added Anti-bodies these like the white blood cells did not move except for the one which would appear when the white cell and the virus collided.

Finally I added the platelets I simply added a couple through out one of the arteries so when the camera moved into that artery I could stop the camera from moving for a period of time allowing for me to talk about this component, after I have done this I added my plasma throughout all my arteries while they did not move themselves the effect of movement was achieved by moving the camera.

 

at the end of the artery I added a spherical dome which housed the heart which I downloaded from turbosquid.com here is the URL:

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/548944 

This .ma file was originally created by XADMAX2 Gerardo Perusquia Montes

After inserting the heart into the animation I animated it by making it smaller and then increasing the size further later on in the animation to give the effect that the heart was beating, I repeated this process numerous times to give it a realistic effect. When I played back the animation however due the heart being a complete heart it did not give a completely realistic feel, so I removed half of the heart and recreated the effect of the heart beating this time however due to there only being half of the heart it gave a more realistic feel of an actual artery being pumped into the centre of the heart giving a more of a realistic feel overall.

the Video that follows shows my complete animation with all of my components added and all the animation completed:

 

If I did this again I would take more time in the creation of the animation allowing for me to make it longer so I could take about each cell more and to make it flow from each sections better, I would also make it more complex which would allow me to spread out the cells more. I am however very pleased with the way it has turned out.

Maya Scene – Artery explanation continued

After I had designed my animation and created all of the components I decided to create the actual artery in Autodesk Maya 2013, I did this by using the cylinder polygon tool to create the artery where all of the components would be inserted inside.

After creating the artery I then deleted the two faces on either end, allowing to see straight through the object, next I saved this object as a .obj file and opened this in Autodesk Mudbox 2013. I used a variety of tools to create the artery examples of tools that I used include the sculpt tool however I inverted the function so instead of pulling the object out it would push the object inwards. I used this tool to create grooves in the inside of the cylinder this was to make the artery more realistic I turned on the symmetry feature allowing for me to have a symmetrical grooves all around the inside of the cylinder.

I then used the Airbrush paint tool to paint the cylinder a dark red/brown colour I then used a light shade of red over the top of the dark red/brown to add a break between the two colours also it was to make the artery more realistic.

After exporting the texture and viewing in Maya I realised that due to the fact I used the airbrush tool the texture slightly transparent I corrected this by going over the cylinder again in Mudbox, now that the artery had been created I duplicated it two more times to create three separate arteries the problem I had was to try and find a way to connected them. I managed to do this by using the sphere tool in Maya and positioning it in between the three arteries, then I simply deleted the faces that were not required I then used Mudbox to duplicate the same texture used on the main arteries.

Below is the final outcome for my blood vessel both inside and outside the artery.

 

Outside                                                                                       Inside

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.

 

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

 

Discussion files:

Original

Edited

 

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.

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:

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

 

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.

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.

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:

 

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