Animator research

Texture maps

Colour Maps

You can also use colour maps as a starting point for many other texture types, like bump or specular, because the colour often changes in the same areas as other aspects of the material change.

Bump Maps

 A bump map is a grayscale image that acts as a pseudo-height map. It doesn’t actually create any extra geometry, all a bump map does is create the illusion of raised or lowered details on the surface of your model.

Normal Maps

Instead of a grayscale image like a bump map, a normal map is basically a map of what direction your geometry’s normals are facing. With this information, the illusion of anything from height to how your model is affected by lighting can be faked.

Specular Maps

a wet piece of plastic will reflect light completely differently than a dry piece of plastic. The color may be the same and it may have the same amount of bumpiness, but you can control how shiny it is with a specular map. For a basic specular map, you can use dark tones to reduce the specularity and lighter tones to create a stronger highlight.

Camera and lighting

Frames for animation

Project plan

Week 1 - Design log/sketchbook – reflecting on whole developmental process from first launch to delivery including sketch and thumbnail work alongside rough ideas.

Week 2 - Research into character profiles and history and analysis of robotics.
Research into animation, its development and its uses.

Week 3 - Developed ideas and concepts for  asset and its animated elements

Week 4 - Finished 2D character

Week 5 - Finished 3D model of character asset.

Week 6 - Finished animated elements, Evaluation of project.

Evaluation

Evaluation Mechanical marvel

For this project we needed to plan, design, and create a robot. By the end of the project we would have to create a 3D model from a concept idea.

We started off by researching existing creations, this included real world robots, those from films and also from existing games, after gathering images as reference they were compiled into a mood board to go back and look at for ideas throughout the project.

We also create quick ideas of robots by using a simple piece of machinery as the base then adding to it to make it mobile and have a function, these helped me think about how small detail can be added by looking at existing machinery.

With my initial sketches I jotted down quick and simple ideas and further added onto these with features I liked from others I previously did, until I had a few results that I liked the look and function of, I then used the initial sketches and put them into Photoshop where I created concept pieces on top of them, I created 2 concept art pieces for 2 different robots.

While I was in the bullring shopping centre in Birmingham I used one of the touch screens located around the floors, this gave me an idea which worked well with one of my robots I liked the look of, the touch screens.

The touch screens show where you currently are in the bullring and where different shops are located; I thought about how I could improve upon this with my design, I came up with the idea that not only can the robot give you directions but it can act as a guide to take you to your destination so you don’t have to find it yourself based on the map provided.

I later did a second concept for the tour guide robot adding more propulsion to help the robot stay afloat and move and changing the shape of the body to have a more interesting shape than just an oval, I also added a background I found online and added a model to demonstrate the size and how the robot would be interacted with

I think my final piece was successful as it shows the type of place it would be in and how it would be used, it will also help me when creating my 3D model knowing how big I need to make it.

I believe creating my final concept has added me in creating more realistic looking artwork; this is the style I wish to achieve in the future.

In the future I will try to adopt the same techniques I used to achieve the shading and lighting of my concept 

Evaluation Mechanical marvel 3D

I created my model on Maya I prefer this software over others I've used in the past like mud-box as it has a less organic feel when creating a model, I also have been using the software longer so I know more about the different tools I can use when creating my model.

I started off by scratch, creating the model without the use of an auto graphic drawing to aid me get the exact shape I wanted, instead I used my concept artwork later on to get it more accurate to my original idea.

When I finished my model the mesh was not clean, the amount of edge loops I used had an effect on different parts of the model I wasn't looking at, this resulted in making it far too difficult for me to create a UV for me to texture.

To solve this I re-created my model again, this time taking more care in how clean my mesh was.

I animated my model within Maya; the animation is simple and just involves the robot moving forwards by tilting its thrusters.

I did not know how to animate in Maya and I missed the lesson for the tutorial so it was difficult for me learning how to do this but in the end I managed to work it out.

While creating my animation I had to move my model very slowly between frames to get a smoother looking animation.

Texture experiment

Artist research

Timeline of 3D animation

Joint research

Initial model experiment

experimental collage sketches

metal texture painting

Robotics research

3d model experiment

i created a 3d model of my design but the mesh for the model was not clean so it would have been difficult to texture it so i decided to create a second one.

Concept art

Final 3D Model

i created my final 3d model within maya, this is the second version of the model i did as the first model did not have a clean mesh to use for easy texturing.