Settings

Here are some of the settings for my animation:

This is for the interior setting with belt conveyor; I'll have the grape go into the mixer and the grape will be squashed.



This is the same setting but I'll make sure that the factory is big enough so that we get the sense of the defference in size of the objects and the characters.(i.e. objects will be much bigger as the characters are vegetable and fruits);



This is the exterior setting; a field.
I still need to sort out the lights for this one, making sure it looks as if there is a natural light on the field.



Since I've been modelling bits by bits, I feel more confident in using the software. But I'm still struggling with putting materials, so my next step is to practice and get better at using the material editor.

Experimenting with Lights

I've been having some problem with Lighting in 3d Studio Max.
In the 30 sec trailer, the lightings in most of the scenes were too bright.
So today I've decided to look at and experiment on different lightings in the animation seminar.

First of all, try to avoid using 'skylight' as it takes ages to render!
The effect of using skylight is very good, but it will be better to create the same effect using other kinds of lights in a short time.

I've experimented on how to create a natural light outside in a field.
Here is the outcome using Skylight:



And here is a Target Directional light: I've used couple of them with casting shadow;



Although using Skylight is much easier use, the rendering time for the Target Directional is much much faster! By practicing and experimenting using such lights (the ones that doesn't take so much time in rendering) will also make me think and learn about the lighting, in terms of the position and how the lighting work.

Osamu Tezuka

I just thought of writing about one of my favorite animator, Osamu Tezuka.

Dr.Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. He is often credited as the “Father of Anime”, and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney.

There are many great animations that he has created in the past but while working on big projects, he has also created some short animations by himself, putting his own budget. These short animations were cost-effective and even received many awards.
What amazes me the most is that his short animations has shown lots of effective messages to the public and amazed many people with only a small budget to create them.
One of his short animations, titled ‘Osu (male)’ with its depressing contents for example has shown to the public that animation is not only for children.

There are some short animations that were created only within a week but the outcome is in a very high standard.

Whenever I watch these short animations in particular, I get inspirations and it also shows that great animation can be created with low budget.
Here are some pictures from Osamu Tezuka’s animation:

Website for Europrix Multimedia Awards 2008

In the Europrix Multimedia Awards 2008 website, I found an interesting animation.
The title is ‘Life-Line’.
The storyline is very simple, it is about people’s life line. The characters are build with the shape of motor like shape. It is interesting how the 2 characters are skating on a line and that pass of the characters almost cross but never meet.
I think simple way of showing the ideas across is sometimes very hard to do. This animation has got simple characterization with simple storyline but clearly shows what the creator wants to show to the viewer.

Here is a link to the website:

http://www.europrix.org/en_projects_2007.html