Evaluation

I am happy with the finished product. It follows the storyboard and plans I made at the beginning of the semester and I kept the animation within certain themes. I believe the story and the animation works well for children.

I believe from last semester my 3D max skills have improved especially with lighting.

DVD Trouble

I exported it as an avi file with no video codec and a custom present (I found that PAL DV and NTSC DV made the animation jump).

When playing it on the computer it worked fine but when I put it onto disc it didn't play very well. I found copying and pasting the file from the CD to the desktop made the video work again.

Sounds

I wasn't sure whether to add sound effects or not. I thought the first two scenes, the introductions of the birds and the beasts, would greatly benefit with sound effects. I added animal and plane noises to these scenes.

I decided to add only quite background noises to the other scenes. Little bird twitter to the outside "green" scenes and I found a good sound effect for a factory which I added to the bird scene.

Editing

I imported all my scenes into Adobe Premere Pro along with my recorded story. It all worked quite well, some of my scenes needed to be extended and scene one needed a slight adjustment. Overall I am happy with the end result.

Overview - Scene Seven

In this scene it changes rapidly from daylight to night time. I had trouble making the omni light go from a high intensity to a lower intensity so instead I used the set key to move it away from the objects. I then also made a picture of the night sky on a plane drop in in the background. I really liked the effect this created as it fits in with the rest of the animation

Overview - Scene Six

As the bird is a clockwork bird he lives in a factory. I also animated the bird's head to twitch and move suddenly to mimic an actual bird.

Overview - Scene Five

The lighting was difficult to get right on this scene. First I created an omni light to light up the whole scene then I created a spot light on top of the figures. I then turned on shadows and added the volume light effect.

Overview - Scene Four

I used the set key to create the animation. To do this I seleced the shapes, clicked the set key button, pressed the key button where on the timeline I wanted the animation to start and then I moved the objects, moved the key along the timeline and then pressed the key button again. Presto, animation.

Overview - Scene Three

Originally he was going to be in a cave, but at the end of the story his punishment for switching sides was that he wasn't allowed out in daylight. So, to show that, here he is enjoy the daylight. I wanted the backgrounds to be simple and unrealistic to go with my characters so the leaves are circles with leaves on them.

Overview - Scene Two

This was easy to do on paper but it was dead hard to do in 3D max!!! I am actually quite happy with it, the moon and the silhouetted animals look good and I am very happy with them. Again they were put on a separate layer and then given an opacity layer. It is lit from the back with a high intensity light and is just slightly lit at the front so you can see the lion.

Overview - Scene One

Scene One - lighting was changed from my original version. The birds/planes were done on another plane with an opacity layer so you can see the sky behind them. I used pictures of ww2 bomber planes and made them look like birds by adding a beak and a tail. This was to sort of reinforce the whole war thing that is going on between the birds and the beasts. I found a good picture of a cloudy sky which I decided to use and I played around with the lighting until i felt it looked right.

Quick Update

Four scenes are all done and finished. Just got to do the other three!

Will I Get it Finished in Time?!?!?!

Scene five - basic animation done.
Pupils done
Cameras - done except in a few scene.

Back After Easter

"We're just pawns in this diabolical game of checkers!"

Signing off for Easter.

I have seven scene in total and the basic animation has been done on all except scene five.

- backgrounds needs doing.

- lighting needs doing.

- pupils need doing.

- tweaking needs to be done on scene 6, 7 and maybe 3.

Other than that I'm doing okay (ish).

What I Did Today. Hurray!

Scene four and six started. Animation is done just need to do the pupils, backgrounds and lighting.

One Down...

The lighting isn't that good but I'm calling it down for now.

Morpher Problems

Took me an hour to work out that this isn't the way to do it!!!

And Now We Are Morphing Birds

Final Characters

They will have pupils!

Bad Bat

Really don't know how to make him better. He looks rather bad :-C. I will hopefully make improvements later if I manage to grow some 3D max skills.

Moodboard for the Toy Bat

Moodboard for the Wooden Lion

Moodboard for the Clockword Bird

The Clockwork Bird

He isn't going to stay grey. I'm going to add some gold and brass just to make him look better.

Storyboard - page 2

Storyboard - page 1

Characters - bird and the bat.

Better Version of the Story

The Birds, The Beasts and the Bat

There was once a terrible war between the birds and the beasts. For a long time it was doubtful which would win.

The bat said, "I am not a bird or a beast, so I shall fight for neither side."

At last the beasts seemed to be gaining the victory. The bat flew to them and said, "I am a beast. Look at my body and you will see that I am. I shall fight on your side."

New flocks of birds came to help thier relatives, and soon the battle turned against the beasts.

Then the bat skulked over to the other side. "I am a bird," said he. "I can prove it by my wings," and he fought with the birds.

At last the war was over. The bat was hated by the beasts and the birds. He was obliged to slink off and hide in dark places during the day, never showing his face until dusk.

(from Fifty Famous Fables, by Lida Brown McMurry at www.rickwalton.com/folktale/50fabl22.htm)

I like this version better as it is clearer what the bat is doing wrong making the moral more obvious to children)

The Story

The Bat, The Birds and The Beasts Fable

A great conflict was about to come off between the Birds and the Beasts. When the two armies were collected together the Bat hesitated which to join. The Birds that passed his perch said:

"Come with us"; but he said: "I am a Beast."

Later on, some Beasts who were passing underneath him looked up and said:

"Come with us"; but he said "I am a Bird."

Luckily at the last moment peace was made, and no battle took place, so the Bat came to the Birds and wished to join in the rejoicings, but they all turned against him and he had to fly away. He then went to the Beasts, but soon had to beat a retreat, or else they would have torn him to pieces.

"Ah," said the Bat, "I see now."

"He that is neither one thing nor the other has no friends."

Which isn't a great moral but...

Mood Board for "The Fox and The Mask"

The story is set in the backstage of a theatre. The fox get scared so it needs to be dark and scarey.

Mood Board for "The Bat, The Birds and The Beasts"

The beasts and the birds are on two different sides so I thought they should look different. Clockword birds and toy wooden animals. Wooden animals easy to make (in theory) in 3D max.

Mood Board for "The Wind and The Sun"

Seeing as the wind and the sun are talking they need faces. Looking through the internet I found these celtic design line sun faces. So erm.. celtic theme... ta dah.

The Wind and The Sun

The wind and the sun have a competition to try and remove a guys cloak. Sun wins.

Have a few ideas for this one. Might be a bit difficult creating a man in 3D max.

The moral of the story is "kindness effects more than severity", which is nice. Good moral for kids to learn I suppose.

The Fox and The Mask

A fox is scared by a theatre mask.

The easier option and will be kind of short.

Moral is "Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth" which translates okay.

The Bat, the Birds and the Beasts.

There is a war between the birds and the beasts and the bat is unsure what side to be on. He ends up with no friends :-(

Have lots of ideas though probably will be too difficult to do.

The moral is "He that is neither one thing nor the other has no friend" which might not be that good.