Research and Production Log

Below are videos of work I created after completing rigging and dynamics tutorials.

Rigging - For this process I had to add bones to a bat model in such a way that would make the bats body completely animated, in order for me to simulate the flapping of the bats wings.

As you can see in the video below, individual bones were placed within the body of the bat and their position was altered on individual key frames to imitate a flapping motion of the bats wings. This is a very effective animation using the bones in Lightwave Modeller and Layout, and even more so when the animation is sped up.

Dynamics - For this process I manipulated different objects and their dynamics to create different results.

For my particular idea, I would like to gather research for a collision based animation in which I am going to make a car collide with a wall in which the car will collide with before passing through and destroying the wall. For this research though I will look into all different types of animation and give my thoughts on each animation. I will be looking into short animations and not full length creations full of multiple animations.



Above is an animation for a colliding bullet, in which the bullet collides with a teapot and destroys that object before passing through and leaving the teapot object in hundreds of pieces. I think this is a very effective form of animation that has similar aspects and properties as the animation I would like to create.
This particular animation is very smooth and the collision is timed well, as the teapot object destroys appropriately when the bullet collides with that particular model.

Above is an animation for a moving train. This animation appears fairly simple. The train would have firstly been modelled along with the track and pivot points would have been placed in the wheels so they rotate a perfect 360 degrees, but only when they train moves on a specified path which is on the track.
I think this is an effective animation, though it is clearly in the early stages of development.

Above is a simple walk animation created in Maya for a female character model. This animation would have been created by placing bones within the female character model and rigging them so they move along with different parts of the body appropriately and realistically when prompted to do so. Animations such as a walk animation are looped when implemented into games, so when a character moves the same animation is repeated upon completion when necessary or alters into a separate animation. Rigging a character can be a very difficult process, especially if you wish to make that character playable.

Above is a video containing a series of interesting demolition based animations. The creator of these animations has set the car to divide into separate pieces in a realistic manner upon various types of collision. This level of skill would be useful in racing games like Forza, though the quality of the animation is not 100% realistic though it is nearly at that level of a realism.

Above is a jump/dance animation. The character you see would have been rigged with bones so different parts of the character model will move when the position of bones are altered. This particular animation is based on a popular american TV host. The jump animation itself would have been created by altering the position of the bones at the time of the start of the jump, the jump in mid air and the jump on the way back down from the highest point. The character model will have been moved upwards with the bones positions being altered to give the effect of the different body parts giving the body momentum and propelling the body upwards before coming back down and the animation finishing.

Above is a running animation. This animation would have been created in a similar way to the walk animation further up this page. The character model would have been rigged with bones that will have been altered so that when the character moves forward they will assume the running  position and each part of the body will appear to propel the body forward creating he running animation.

Above is a simple cloth falling animation, in which a cloth falls onto a glass bowl whilst not falling straight through it, but resting on the glass bowl model perfectly. This animation would have been created by setting the cloth object up with cloth traits and a collision that would cause it to alter its shape to the glass bowl model upon collision. I think this a very interesting and sophisticated animation and with practice the steps required to create this animation could be implemented in other simlar animations, such as materials resting on models like bed sheets on a slumbering character model.

Above is a wine pouring animation in which a liquid object collides with a wine glass causing it to alter its direction and to maintain within the wine glass object. This animation would have been created by setting a collision event between the liquid and the wine glass object causing the liquid to reflect off and back into the wine glass in an appropriate way. I do not believe that this animation is quite accurate, though it is very effective the wine appears to travel into the glass at a very high speed and it seems like too much of a paved animation, as the liquid moves in a very straight forward manner, rather then dispersing more and filling a wide area of the inside of the wine glass.

All of these type of animations are very interesting and diverse in their own way, I will make an assessed idea on what my animation will consist of by assessing this videos and seeing what I would most like to create.

Production Log (research and planning) 
Below is my production log recording my research and planning, to see my production log recording the creation of my sequence, please see task 6.