Bouncing Balls Maya Animation

The Project

For this project we were to make a realistic animation of a bowling ball, tennis ball, and golf ball bouncing. For accuracy, we took real video of these balls bouncing, and then recorded the height of each bounce and the frame number in Google Sheets. After modeling the balls and applying bump and color mapping, we used the graph editor to create keyframes for the bouncing. The measurements we recorded earlier helped us to make correct keyframes.  Using the Graph Editor, we also edited out the ease-in and ease-out by making the bottom points linear. The final steps of this project were to set a background. To do this, we made a plane for the floor and chose a picture off of images search and set it as the background. We used the camera toggle controls to make it look like the balls were proportional to the environment and actually sitting on the floor. Lighting was the last thing to adjust.

What I Learned

During this project I learned how use the Graph Editor in Maya that allows keyframes to be made using precise measurements. I also learned how to adjust the lighting by choosing "Look Through Selected". This changes your perspective to that of the light you have selected. You can use the same camera toggle controls to move and direct your light to the position you want it. This option makes it easier to see exactly where your light is shining. Another trick I learned in this project is how to assign a new material as a background. This allowed us to take a real-life picture and place our bouncing balls inside of the setting. All of these skills will be very helpful to me in future projects. I found the "Look Through Selected" option to be the most useful because lighting is usually a bit hard for me to get right the first time.

I was very pleased with the way this project turned out and I decided to make it my top video on my YouTube channel.

Container Animation

The Project

For this project we designed a label for a fictional product and created it in Photoshop. Next, we modeled a container for the label to go on and applied the label we created as a texture. After adding lighting our final step was to animate the container spinning around so you can fully see the label. The label I created was for a can of candy called The Candy Man Can. I also modeled some little candies for the inside of the container.

What I Learned

During this project I learned how to use the Cylindrical Mapping tool which helped me to apply the label without the design getting stretched out and repeated unnecessarily. I also learned that design is a very big part of animation an they often come together. It was a lot of fun to make a fictional product and get to create it and make it look real! I hope that we will continue to learn more abut textures, color mapping and bump mapping in the next projects because it is really cool to make objects that look like that could be in the real world. 

High School Trailer Remake

For our second project in Entertainment we were to create a remake trailer of a high school movie. The movie our group chose was Napoleon Dynamite. In my group I was the Production Designer so I  created the storyboards and tried to make sure we filmed as accurately as possible.

Pre-Production

During our early preproduction stage we planned everything out and had a good plan on paper. We ran into conflict when we began searching for actors. Our first actor was already being used by another group and our second actor was very busy and had little time to film. Around this time we decided that for the sake of time we would use one of our group members. Since we only had a few days left and after school time was limited for our group, most of our filming was done between two days during class. This resulted in our video looking a little rushed and not fully perfected. We now know that we should pick out more than one actor ahead of time just in case and to double and triple check that they are available for all the times on the agreed schedule.

Production

Our costumes were all prepared a week or two before we settled on a final actor so that was one thing we had prepared ahead of time. We filmed everything at school except for the shots with the grandma which were filmed at the house of one of my group members. Some shots such as the tetherball scene and the scene with Trisha's dad were not included due to time restraints. We filmed a couple takes of each shot to make sure they were ok. There was one day where we filmed outside and we forgot to check the audio, another problem with this was that many of us either had incompatible earbuds (iPhone 7 or AirPods) or didn't have them at all. For these scenes we had to film a voice over to use instead of the original audio.

Post-Production

Post production was fairly simple for me as I was very familiar with the original trailer having done the storyboards but I kept the video pulled up in another tab just for a quick reference. I used QuickTime to record the text screens in between shots and then dropped them into Premiere Pro. I then used a YouTube to MP3 online converter to get the audio for the background music and the school bell sound at the beginning of the trailer. All that was left after that was making sure the audio was at the appropriate level and the shots were not cut too short or too long. 

Overall this project was really a learning experience for me. I was interesting to have something professional to look off of and try to recreate it with the same amount of prestige. I think my team Collaborated well at the beginning but we started to drift apart a but as we kept hitting more bumps in the road. Even though it may not seem like it, I also think we did a good job with Project Management, we persevered through it all and found a solution and produced a decent video with what we had in the end. Communication was a small issue as some of our first actors were not in quick contact with and they misunderstood the importance of the project. Leadership was important in this project but I feel like we could have stepped it up a little bit. Another team member and I were mostly trying to pull everyone else along and keep going. I did a lot of outside school work and even sent reminders to those who were filming on certain days. Finally, our Technical Skills could have used a little work. I think that all of our editing was good but while filming we slacked on checking sound and focus and some shots were not at the same angle as the original trailer.