Assignment Part 2 – Dynamics Scene

Here is my Completed and Rendered Environment displaying the following Dynamics:

• Fire,Smoke and Sparks
• nCloth and Destructive Environment
• Fluids (Water)
• Wind (tornado)
• Particle Emitter

I used the YouTube video shown in the link below for the tutorial on how to do the water that was in the pond:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIzxDmw88qY

I created a basic scene in Maya, which included a volcano and a couple of cliffs and a piece of land, I then proceeded to add the Dynamics I first started with the waterfall (see screenshot below on right) as I knew this would be the easiest, I created this in the same way that I created the water dynamics as shown in a earlier post (Dynamics).

I then created the nCloth shown in the first screenshot below, I created this my using the face cut tool on a flat polygon plane to make random cuts in the polygon, I then highlighted all of the edges for this plane and going into the nDynamics Menu Set and the nMesh tab, I selected the create nCloth tool, this made the plane a nCloth, however when I played the animation due to the gravity in Maya it would drop straight down straight away, to fix this I went into the Attribute Menu for the nCloth and adjusted the direction of the gravity after changing other settings when I now played the animation it no longer dropped straight away. Next I created a simple rock and by going to the same Menus as when I created the nCloth however this time selecting the tool called create Passive Collider so now after key framing the rock to pass though the plane, when I play the animation the result shown below is achieved.

After Creating the waterfall and nCloth I imported from my tutorials the Sparks from the Fireworks and the Fire from the Match Scenes. I then simply adjusted settings for each dynamic until I had something I was happy with. As shown in the Screenshot above on the left the fire is to show the eruption of the volcano while the sparks are smaller eruptions, the smoke shown behind the fire was simply created by creating a new 3D container and changing settings until the desired result was achieved.

Below is the screenshot showing a close up of the tornado, as in the video it is not clearly displayed, I not 100% happy with the outcome of this, as I don’t think it looks exactly like a tornado and if I could do this again I would try to make a better tornado, the twister shown in the earlier post called fuel,fire,twister is a better creation of a tornado as it looks more realistic.

The Final Dynamic I created was the actual pond this was by far one of the more difficult dynamics to do the link to the YouTube video shown above helped me create the final outcome and I am happy to say that I think it turned out very well and looks like water. I then created a Skybox to make all of the dynamics stand out more. Here is the hypershade window for my environment. As shown in the screenshot I have many different textures that have been used there is the texture for the volcano, water and land as well as the lava rock, the textures for the fireworks is also shown.

I am happy with the way this scene has turned out, however if I was able to do this all again I would take more time in creating all the dynamics so they would be at a higher quality and standard to what they currently are, I would also take more time in creating a more complex scene to better show of the Dynamics. I made the animation using the perspective camera however i created a new camera to edit the dynamics were needed.

Assignment Part 1 – Good/Evil Model

The two screenshots shown above show my Character in Mudbox, were it demonstrates both the multiple sculpt layers I used, as well as the reference image I used to get a basic idea of how I wanted my Models to look like, I added the reference image to the perspective camera meaning no matter were I turned the camera I could always get a clear view of the image. The first step I took was to do a base mesh for each section on separate layers, on the lowest sub division then move up the sub divisions adding detail as I go.

The Image to the left shows my model fully rigged along with all the names for which I called each joint, this allows me to see easily where each joint is located and fully animate my model. My model has both forward kinematic and inverse kinematics this is very similar to the last rig I did in a previous post.

Below shows a screenshot of me using the paint weight tool to make sure that when I animate my model the mesh does not deform due to the naming system I used it was easy to locate a specific joint without too much trouble. The other screenshot below shows all my paint layers for my characters.

These two images that follow show my finished good and evil models which was created using different sculpt layers and tools as well as different paint layers, each layer for a different section of the models one for good and one for evil, while the other image shows my level of detail group. This means that when the animation scrolls through the models will change the closer to the model based upon the settings shown in the screenshot to the correct model, the models all have different number polygons which was achieved by using the reduce tool. (see video below of final Level Of Detail) The distance for the Level Of Detail was achieved by using Key Frames

The two images below show different stages of the blend morph, for both the model and weapon. I used the blend morph that was previously shown in a other post and I used a new technique that allows for the colour to blend as well as the actual mesh.

I used the Blend Shape tool to manipulate the different models so they would appear at different times here is an example of the blend shape tool that i used in my animation.

Below are the complete videos for each section the heading before each video tell what the videos are about:

Blend Morph

Level Of Detail

Wireframe Mode

Shading Mode

I have used a variety of new techniques for example the blend colour, to morph the texture of one model and another, I have also used a bump map on the lower polygons to give the the appearance of the higher meshes without having all the polygons this save the render time. In mudbox I have used different paint and sculpt layers, to create my models, I have also used a reference image which I added to my perspective plane to help me sculpt my model into a similar appearance. I enjoyed this assignment very much and would love to to something like this in the future, if I had more time however I would look into applying blending normal maps and perhaps using more maps not just specular, bump, incandescence and diffuse .

fuel,fire,twister

Below are image showing the completion of the fuel and fire exercises:

Below is my Completed Twister using a 3D Container:

I found the first two exercises to be fairly easy and didn’t take too long to finish I was able to easily change attribute settings to get the desired effect, the twister task however took a while as I had trouble getting the twister to keep it’s shape, as when I adjusted settings like swirl to get a better tornado, I had to adjust other settings as well to keep it all in balance. I am still not 100% happy with the final outcome for the tornado however the one shown in the video above was the best I was able to achieve, without it completely losing it’s shape altogether.

Over all I am happy with the end results for this exercise however as I said if I could do this again I would try and make each tasks more realistic by changing a few more settings.

Motion Path and Emitters

Below is a video showing a model car that when it passes through a 3d container smoke will emit and follow the trial of the car, and smash through a simple wall at the end:

I created this by simply importing a model car from Mudbox in Maya then I created a motion path with sharp curves and attached the car to the motion path, once i had done this I set a key frame at the start of my timeline when the car was at the beginning of the path and then at the end of the timeline I set another key frame where the car was moved to the end of the path. Now that the car moves along the motion path I created a 3D Container that I positioned along my motion path I then created two emitters inside this 3D container and I parented these to the back two wheels of the car, the reason for this is so when the car moves inside the container smoke will start to emit from the emitters, after changing some settings until I got the effect I as most happy with for the smoke I created another container, I then created two more emitters and parented them to the car and repeated the same settings as I had from the last container. There is an easier why to get the emitters to from the last container to also work in the new container, however I was happy doing it this way.

After the containers had been created and smoke emits from the emitters I created a simple plane and cut the faces and then detached the edges and then removed the gravity so when the animation plays it would not fall down, then after adding a ncloth to the plane and a passive collider to the car when the car hits the plane it will break apart.

I am very pleased with this task if I was to do this again though I would implement the other method of allowing the emitters to work in more than 1 container instead of having many different emitters for certain containers.

Dynamics

Below are completed screenshots of the three dynamic scenes that I have created.

I created these three scenes using the particles tool in Maya and manipulating the settings.

For the model of the boy peeing on the wall I was given the model of the boy and I created the spray by creating a particle emitter using the tool create emitter located in Dynamic>Particles>create emitter. I changed settings such as the lifespan of the particles generated as well the type of render the particle will be e.g. sphere or cloud, for the spray I used streak.

The scene involving the fireworks was the most complex task, this was because I had to change many of the settings and add ramps to many components for the colours e.g. glow, transparency. I also had to add emitters onto the particles themselves to create the effect of explosions, this was also the first time that I have had to make sure I name every component to make managing them easier.

the final screenshot shows particles band how they are effect when gravity and a rough landscape are combined together, while gravity is used in all of the scenes to make them fall down and give the effect of them being effect by gravity, a plane is also required to stop them from constantly falling with is achieved by making using the tool ‘make collide’. In regard to the final screenshot these two features (gravity and the plane) were the first task that I completed to get me used to the tools, I created the particles using the particle tool and after adding a gravity and creating a fall off for the plane to add bumps I could see how the particles were effect by the type of plane. I changed the settings just like I mentioned in the previous tasks to give the effect of water.

I enjoyed these exercises very much I will definitely be using these tools again for future tasks.

Rigging

After having a mess around with the character (Zombie Bellman) from the movie hotel Transylvania, to get used to using the rigging, I created a human rig using the mesh for the human rig was the human model already created in Mudbox. Once the mesh had been imported into Maya I used the joint tool to create one of legs I positioned the root of the first joint at the hip, the second on the knee and finally the third on the ankle.

I used 2D views to add the joints and switched between front and side view to ensure the joints were in the correct place, after I created the first leg I made sure that it moved correctly and then using mirror joint I created on the correct axis another leg. I then repeated these process for the arms and using locators and the joint tool I created the joints which would control the back, I parented all these joints a single joint which I called Hip01.

Next I used the bind skin tool to bind the mesh to the rig so when I moved a root on the rig the mesh would also be effected, when I tried this I noticed that areas of the mesh that I did not want to be effected were also being manipulated. To fix this I used the paint weight tool to reduce the area a root would effect, at first I did not have a clue how to use the paint weight tool however after watching some youtube videos I felt fairly stupid for not understanding as it is really easy to do. Now that I have used the paint weight tool when I move a joint e.g. arm on the correct vertices are being manipulated on the mesh. Below is a image showing the complete human rig. I used both Forward kinematics and Inverse kinematics on the rig I can move individual parts to get the desired effect through forward kinematics and can move the whole leg easily through inverse kinematics.

Here is my rig with the paint weight tool active to show which areas are effected by certain joints and the image below shows a list of all the available joints the black is were nothing is effected and the white is what is effected this image is for the left shoulder joint:

I really enjoyed doing this exercise and I will defiantly be using both the rig and paint weight tools again for future tasks/ assignments.

Level Of Detail (LOD) & Reduce Polygon Count

Reduce Polygon Count I was tasked with reducing the polygon count for a model to help increase the render time, I used the tool reduce which located in Mesh>Reduce and select the option here as shown in the screenshot are different settings to help reduce the amount of polygons on a model, I had to move the slider to 100% and even then I had to repeat this process multiple times to get a amount of polygons that was greatly reduced from the original model, I also kept the original as shown in the screenshot it is the top field.

I reduced the model until I started to lose detail, the screenshot below shows the reduced model on the left and the original on the right, it is easy to see which is the reduce model and which is the original model.

I am very happy with the way this task and will definitely use this technique in the future for other tasks, if I was to do this task again I would take more time in reducing the polygon count.

Blending/Morphing

The Video below shows the morphing of a face from good to evil, it took me a bit of time to create this as I had trouble exporting the human head from Mudbox to Maya however once I managed this the process was fairly easy to do.

here is a still image of my face morph

I created this face morph by first creating the pre made model in mudbox and then adding two layers one for good the other for evil. Then I exported the base model to maya along with the two other states separately, I then selected the target source (evil) along with the normal state and followed the instructions to create the morph I then simply selected the other target face (good) and the normal face again and repeated the same process as before. I then changed some settings and created the following animation by entering key frames when the normal face was normal and then moving along the timeline and making the evil face morph onto the normal face and key framed there I repeated this for the good face as shown in the video below.

Minecraft Cubes -Maps

For this task I was asked to create a realistic Minecraft cube using a texture and different types of maps, below is the cube that I originally created however after starting this I could not get a realistic effect, so I decided to create another cube. The first cube I created was a water cube, I searched the internet for a water texture applied it to a phong texture, next I added a bit of transparency to the cube as well as a bump map and Incandescence map after adjusting a few other settings I achieved the following result.

The image below shows the next cube that I created I was very pleased with way this turned out:

I used a variety of maps to create the desired effect here is a list of the types of maps I used, the material texture that was used for this cube was again a phong texture.

Here is the network graph for the cube.

• color map
• Transparency
• Incandescence
• Bump
• Diffuse
• Translucence
• Translucence Bump
• Specular color
• Reflectivity

Shading Network and Maps

The first shading technique I used was the checked texture after changing the colour and coverage of the texture I achieved the final outcome, as shown in image below.

I then created using multiple types of maps 5 cubes each with different types of maps on them, the images below show the effect these maps have on the cubes:

I used these cubes as practise for main exercise which is to create a realistic minecraft cube using maps, the maps I used are:

•  Incandescence
• Specular
• Bump
• Ambient
• Transparent

I was then tasked with creating a lizard using the model from mudbox as well a normal map.

The task was to add detail within mudbox on the lizard on multiple sub divisions, then send the highest and lowest sub divided mesh to maya. Once in maya I had to create a normal map which would be applied to the lowest sub divided mesh to give the appearance of that of the highest. This is a useful tool when I need to have a model that needs to be in detail without actually having a detailed mesh with a high polygon count as this will slow the render time down.

Here is the normal map for my lizard :

Below is the final outcome the grey model is the low sub division model with normal map applied as shown by the model next to normal map model to two models are nearly identical.

I then did a task we got me used to using the paint visor in Maya the screenshot below shows what I achieved:

I liked using all these effects, and will definitely use these techniques in the future for other tasks.