The Arena !!

The Arena !!!

The landscape is as important as the models because the landscape helps tell the story.  Since this part of the story is in a mountainous sandy area this would need to be created in 3ds max. The first step would be to create a plane around 500 width and 500 length. This would mean there is a lot of space to create hills and mountains.  

After the plane has been created a material needs to be added to it using the material editor using the noise attribute with a fall off, this would create the hills at different peaks and locations within the plane. Once this has been done a displace element can be added to the plane from the drop down list. This will allow you to add the material in which was created to the element and apply it to the plane. 

This will give the user a bumpy terrain to work with and from this colour can be added and to give it an extra detail to meet specific needs. In this case plants where added to give the area a more desert feel with a couple of palm trees and in certain areas.

This plane now transformed into a terrain will allow for good camera angels when animating.

Hands !!!

Hands !!

The hands for our hero and villains where also created using the push and pull method in 3ds max.  1 hand was created and the symmetry tool was applied to get the opposite object required. This method could also be used for the feet of the models.

First the base of the hand had to be created from a simple box object. The box had poly’s and vert’s added to it so that it cold be extended and pulled to form a very basic shape of the hand. After this was achieved turbo smooth was added to make sure that the final outcome was still as intended.

Once the very basic part of the hand was created it was time to add detail. The hand is obviously not box shaped and even with the turbo smooth on the hand still looks very boxy, so turbo smooth was turned of using the light on the left hand side of the word “TurboSmooth”. This would allow for further editing to the original hand, the aim now was to make sure the hand is more rounded so again the push and pull method was used along with swift loops so the shape of the hand could be altered and made more rounded.  Further more mass was also added to the hand using the push and pull method so that hand had a more natural look to it for example adding the mass around the thumb area of the palm.

Following the completion of the main part of the hand it was then time to create the fingers of the hand which required using a cylinder. The cylinder was stretched to match the reference image and the length of the index finger that would be the starting point when adding fingers to and hand. The cylinder was resized to match the reference image and the hand that had been created so far. Once this was complete again more vert’s and poly’s were added in the required places so that detail can then be added to the finger to add the real factor to it.

For the fingers the resize tool was mainly used to add mass in the knuckle and bone areas of the finger. Once this was complete a series of extrusions were carried out to form the fingernail. After the index finger was complete it was time to merge or attach the fingers to the rest of the hand which meant that some target welding and to be done, but first the fingers and to be adjusted and resized to match the template and the bases of the fingers had to be removed so that target welding could be made possible. After the hand was complete turbo smooth was then re added and the hand looked as intended.

The hand was then attached to the rest of the body and the symmetry tool was applied to the hand to get the hand required for the other arm.  And to attach the arms and the hands together target welding proved to be the best technique to complete this task.

Characters Main Frame

What’s a character without a body??

For the purposes of this project a character or a few characters will need to be created. A base needs to be created so that only editing will be required to differentiate the characters. The characters will be different in terms of hair clothes and complexity if a female character was to be involved.

In 3ds max 2 planes were created to make the blue prints on creating the base for the character. The first object or primary tool for this model is a box that is placed as shown in the image below. This will allow for smooth construction flow for the whole body.

Because of the time of this project the creation of the base model will only be briefly described and if further instructions are required the user should seek basic and moderate tutorial levels on how to model in 3ds max.

The torso and arms have been created using extrusions, symmetry and a simple push and pull method in 3ds max. Also holding the alt key and pressing ‘x’ on the key board, this will allow for the model to become see through, this can help in the sculpting of the model so that accuracy can be achieved.  Also swift loops and cuts within the model will increase the geometry of the model, this will allow for further detail to be added to the model and a more rounded and natural curves on the model.

Once the torso is created extrusions can be done to pull and form things like arms and legs that make a simple body shape. And from this more geometry can be added to make the body more rounded and natural which gives the basic shape for the characters that will be created for this project.

Age Group Violence

It seems that there is violence in cartoons from the age group specified in the brief. Although there is violence and even death these are expressed in the simplest way possible so the child will understand that a character has died but will not think much of. Also even in fighting there is no body damage shown or anything like blood or sweat so again the child doesn’t really think much of the fighting and turns out to be a sort of play for them.

This is due to the simplicity death and violence in cartoons for that particular age group, also the sound effects are chosen specifically to make them more of a simple but unrealistic sound and characters who are fighting never scream in pain or show much injury and normally the characters when fighting have conversations while fighting, this to a child is very entertaining at that age but does not really show realistic fighting.

For this project these techniques will have to be taken into account so that the final outcome is still suited for the age group intended. The thing which really stood out is that although in some cartoons characters have weapons a lot of cartoons fight with their hands and feet but also in a very dramatic fashion to real life fighting. This is something else that needs to be considered especially since the characters for this project may sword fight. Stabbing should not be included in the animation because this would be a major sign of violence which could rise questions and a lot of unhappy parents.

Some reference cartoons and programs will be stated below to show what sort of vilonce is in cartoons and programs which are available to that particular age group.

Ben 10.

 

Power rangers.

 

Sky landers.

 

Adventure time.

 

Tom and Jerry.

 

 

Final Idea

Final Idea

Because of time issues the main idea will not be able to be prioritized. This is because the time it actually takes to make 1 character.

So following the brief from the first week there will only be a fight scene with an explanation of the hero and the villains.

Time

The time doesn’t really have an impact or strength in this particular animation. The animation has more of a location rather than a time in the past or future, the location is a little fantasy based but more sand or desert based with plants to show background life to the location. This will be the beginning of the hero’s journey and he will have to face 3 enemies who stand between him and his ultimate goal that is revenge.

Characters

There will be 1 hero and 3 villains the hero will be separately dressed but seeing that these are more soldiers and fighting on the same side, the villains will look and be dressed the same. The villains have been sent by their master to guard that particular area and not to allow anyone to cross without permission or valid reason. The hero is out for revenge from his parents and fellow villagers deaths and has to fight to pass a certain route from a map to be able to meet and fight the master. This would mean that the hero must fight to pass 3 villains so that he may progress.

Props

The hero will have 2 swords very similar and will wear basic armor.

The villains will have 1 slightly longer sword each and they will use this if any problems arise.

Effects

There may be some effects with the touching of swords during combat but because of the difficulty of stress testing the animation may have to be kept simple. There may be other effects created in other programs but may not relate completely to the animation but is relevant to the story.

Evil guy Ideas !!!

Potential Houses

How should we protect our hero ??????

Some Armour ideas for the Hero!!!!!!

Sword

These are some Sword ideas for our Hero and Villains !!!!!!!

Hero or Main Character

Some ideas of what the Hero or Main Character should look like !!!!!

The though of different Hero's or Vigilantes have inspired this research.

Idea

Getting Ideas!!!

Following from the brief given in the previous week the decision is to create a characters journey through episodes and for the purpose of this project only 1 episode will be created.

Time

The time for the characters journey will start in the medieval or Tudor times with old style houses and long grass, old town like. This will show the beginning of the first episode and as the story is being told the time will change and become more 20^th century showing that the main character has grown up.

Characters

There will be roughly 5 - 7 main characters for this episode to be able to tell the story and show the beginning of the characters journey. The characters will consist of a mother (female character), father (male character), a baby (the main character), the evil guy (masked character), the master (old male character), the main character (young adult character), the evil guys soldiers (masked characters that look the same). Depending on time there could be more characters or less.

Props.

The main character, which will be in his early 20’s, will be using a sword or maybe 2.

The mother and father will have no weapons but will try to protect the baby but later if there is enough time the father may carry a sword or a baby basket.

The evil guy may carry some sort of stick or wear something on his wrist or his forearm that will power his magical effects.

The evil guys soldier will be carrying swords or long sticks depending of outfit ideas.

The master will be using a unique staff or another form of walking stick that is also a weapon.

Effects.

The effects which will be used in this project will be something along the lines of fire, smoke, water and possibly explosions to show buildings and other obstacles being destroyed. By the evil guy.

The Characters part 2

The characters will be varied in the means of types. So the main character, the mother, father and the baby will be more human like. The evil guy and the evil guys soldiers along with the master may be of some other species depending on the modeling and time.