Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

Original Image

Recreation

Different Angle

Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

1 point

2 point

3 point

Building a Scene in Maya

Third Term Paper

My first two term paper scores were 95 and 85; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline for Third Term Paper

1. Introduction
   a. Evolution of VFX through the decades, from blue screen to matte painting and CGI
   b. Introduce specific effect, snow. Practical effects replaced by VFX in current film, tv and gaming. 
   c. For this paper I will discuss two pieces of media and the snow effects in them:
      1.Film, Monsters Inc
      2.Videogame, Journey

2. Body
   1. Monsters Inc
     a. Set up film, context: Mike and Sully are exiled into the Alps in the middle of a snowstorm.
     b. Snow effect created in programs such as AfterEffects, Maya, and 3DS Max with a particle system or particle tracking technique. Discuss animated particle systems.
     c. Effectiveness very good, combination of wind and sleeting effect with movement of Sully's fur drives point home, takes on very realistic quality.

          2. Journey

            a. Set up video game, context: The Protagonist is scaling the Mountain through the snow.

            b. Snow effects created in programs like AfterEffects, Maya, 3DS Max with particle system or particle tracking. Discuss static particle systems.

            c. Effectiveness so so, creates feeling of snow but with less realism than Monsters Inc, meant mostly just lend to atmosphere to remind player its snowy, snow sometimes looks less individual and looks more like clouds. Snow is at its most basic and atmospheric.  

     III. Conclusion

           a. Recap evolution of VFX, practical effects all but dead.

           b. Snow and other weather effects all done in CG.

Character Animation

This assignment was actually lots of fun! I'm used to/enjoy best drawn animation and have never done stop motion, so this was a little intimidating. I started off with my idea, which I had swimming around in my head for awhile, and planned it all out on paper to figure out where my timing would be, and then set up a friends downshooter and worked for hours, breaking up each part and making sure I was happy with it before I moved on (I broke the action into 3 parts, the swimming, the squash, and the flower vase transformation). The music was a happy accident, as the song came on when I was animating.