Evaluative Blog Week 12: The Final Hurdle

This will probably be one of the shortest blogs since Week 1.
Last Week i finally completed my animation with a week to spare, although this feat is impressive it isn't anything i would brag about (mainly because i've only been able to do so much out of stress-working and because my other module was taking its time to get going). It also leaves me with nothing really to say for this final blog, so i'm going to simply evaluate the Scenes of the Animation.
But first, and without further ado, i present to you my complete Animation!
Hope you guys enjoy it, try not to focus on the insecurities i  point out in the blog.

Scene 1 within the Engine Room was assumed to be tough on approach, though the use of tutorials and Reaction Manager done correctly made it incredibly simple. Although the Scene itself hold a lot of features (Camera Shake, Lens Effect, Explosions), i would still - if i were to do this again - have changed the texture of the model; in fact, most of my models could'vre used more precise models for realism, when i look at animation done by other Students, it amazes me how detailed they are - which is quite provoking - however, as we are not particularly marked on the quality of the texture, it doesn't bother me as much.
 Scene 2 with the Star Destroyer was approached with great confidence, as i knew what i needed to do my only criticism is probably the Geosphere, i feel like i should've changed the image i chose to bmp to preserve it's quality, had i done this, i might have got a better starry sky. Another thing i might have tweaked (other than the Star Destroyer's texture) was probably the visibility of the blue Omni lights at the back of the engine jets. During the animation, even when the engines are supposed to go off (as the Lens Effect fades out), the blue Omni lights can still be seen. From the fifth Scene i later found out an easy way to make Omni lights fade out, however i didn't know this at the time. If i were to do it again, i would've put a fade on the Omni lights on the same pattern as the fade on the Lens Effects.

Scene 3 was probably one of the Easiest Scenes to watch and animate, it was quite simply a small tilt forwards. Although i could've had a lot less issues with the Pivot point, there isn't much that i would change here alone (as i would've changed the skydome and Star Destroyer textures beforehand). If i had the whole 'junk planet Raxus Prime' atmosphere, i probably would've added some clouds using Particle Effects and possibly the Blizzard particle effect to act as flying sediment and junk, i probably would've added some larger floating foreign objects also to get the feel of the planet. In addition, i probably would've added more primitives onto the Terrain rather than just modifying its faces. With regards to the Camera, i might have courted the idea of a small zoom-in or zoom-out to emphasise the drama and anticipate the titlt, but i also have to take into account the quality of the full animation as well as the Scene itself.
 Scene 4 was the same animation taken in a different Camera Angle with a slight horizontal tilt added on. Although the texture could've helped here, i'd also would've liked for the Destroyer to have been more detailed on what primitives were built upon it. If i had a longer time for the animation to take place in, i might have added more camera angles such as an inferior dutch angled view (so looking up at an angle) and a more close-up side angle than Scene 3.

Scene 5 gave me a lot of trouble with the renderer's inability to stay in the same range as the camera view. Overall, once it was fixed, the Scene was probably the most efficient and emphasising on the crash (due to the flickering of the red Omni). If i were to repeat this, i probably would've had the computer lights Flickering as well, possibly some objects sliding around the floor and some static human objects that are clinging or fallen on the walls (i could do this using a Ragdoll, however this would mean that MassFX would have to work properly). I might have also added more Omni lights and had a more Sudden flicker, as the light looks more like a light you find in the Ocean rather than a light alerting about an imminent Crash. My final change in the scene would be the use of Windows instead of a gap, that way i could have reflections and i could make the Omni exclude the Terrain Light flashing red also.

Scene 6 was probably my favorite Scene to watch, who doesn't like to watch a Tie Fighter Crash?
The scene was highly rearding of my efforts and animation techniques, including the use of a Dutch Angle. However, this is a place where i wished the Star Destroyer was more detailed, and the Tie Fighter had window reflection on its pod. In addition, if i were to do this again, i might have added more visual effects such as Smoke from the missing Tie Fighter arm and possibly a large spark from the collision that caused the arm to disappear. With regards to cameras, it does irk me sometimes that i avoided the exaggerative Camera 'dodge' i previously planned, but at the same time i realised that there wasn't enought time for it in the frame boundary.

Scene 7 was without a doubt the most difficult. However, my tedious efforts in using Set Keys have been rewarded with a realistic reaction to a crash. Had MassFX worked for me, i might have left it to actual realism and added some more foreign primitives and debris to be knocked out the way from the resulting collision with the Star Destroyer (this and the explosions would've worked much better on a Raxus Prime atmosphere). Texture and details aside, i am probably pleased the most with this Scene due to the struggles i underwent during it, though i do regret making the first PArray explosion a rectangle rather than a Sphere. If i was to redo the PArrays and the genreral Crash (which i am not asking to do; that keyframing took forever!), i might have considered Scaling the Star Destroyer together to exaggerated the force of the crash (so it crushes together a bit).
 Scene 8 was as Simple as Scene 2, given my prior knowledge. Although it is a cyclic ending and fitting for a Crash following actions of zoom, anticipation and explosion, i do have my issues with the actual Fire Effects. Although the actual Fireball and explosion of the Fire Effect is fine, my issue with it lies with the Smoke that follows. Usually in explosions, the Fire of an explosion lasts a long time and sometimes sticks with the eventual ruin, in the animation, the explosion is quashed very quickly by the Smoke, leaving the fireball little time to display. Despite trying to change this many of times i could never reduce the time the smoke started to overtake the fireball, if i were to do this again, i might have looked more into it for both Scene 8 and Scene 1 - i might also had considered using a Fume plugin i've heard about. I courted the idea of a camera shake to exaggerate the explosion, however i avoided it due to it being too much repetition and because it'd probably never be seen due to the Film Dissolve at the end of the Animation.

Luke, I am your Father Christmas!
http://cdn1.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Star-Wars-Twilight.jpg

As a whole the Animation was good, although textures and models could be improved i am perfectly content with how well it went. Of course there is always room for improvement in these kinds of things, room that could be down to just research or experience, but sometimes you have to work to your own strengths then waste time trying to work on your weaknesses (bad line i know, but the point is it's better doing what you can do well than trying to do something you're not - that's a much better one actually...). For example, for me modelling wasn't my strongest suit, but i've amended it with my animation Skill. If i were to complete the animation once more, i'd had considered the use of sound like i had in the storyboard, however i had little knowledge on the matter and needed to avert my attentions to my other module (which was due in the same day as this). To evaluate the animation i would say it is a great first effort, but from an objective point of view you can see that there could've been more room for detail and realism.

And that concludes the review of the Animation, and therefore the Blog itself! I must admit i've had a lot more fun that i thought i would in the module, and it has amazed me to see where my nrear 200 pageviews (although i know some of them were me - but definitely not over 100, 10-15 give or take) came from. I'd like to thank all the people from the United Kingdom, United States, Russia, Sweden, Germany, France, China and the Netherlands for reading my blog.

So that completes it, longer blog than i expected really but only took about an hour :D
I'd like to wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!


do dodo do dodododoo dodododo dodooooooooooo do!
(http://www.superbwallpapers.com/cartoons/thats-all-folks-7172/)

Evaluative Blog Week 11: Like. A. Boss!

BONES

Last week i believed that i had pushed my limits in the amount to work i could do.
I was wrong.

Solvers that don't Solve

There's Bow, where's arrow?

     
This will also mean that this blog (of the penultimate week) will be the longest of the previous blogs - meaning that it will take longer for me to write as much as it will take longer for you to read. Overall i can give you the briefs of the week; i textured, i learned and i animated, and it was this undeniable amount of effort that has me sitting here with the Assignment already handed in.

ironically the name of a song
my Dad wrote

     Before we get to the Assignment area, i believe we should start with the Rigging and Skinning exercise (Bones), as i had previously promised to do so. Using bones is an area with a mixture of easiness and complexity, finding the Bones tool could be difficult for the novice user of 3DS Max, however, in my frantic times to find solutions to things i had came across its location. The Bones tool is found under Systems on the Create tab (the furthest right icon on the tab), when making Bones you have make sure you know what you intend to make with it, mine was a finger. When creating the bones, you will notice that after creating one you begin to make another one, you can stop this by a double click which makes a 'nub' on the end of the bone - this is handy because it can help you animate it.

See the Crease?

     At this point the bone moves like any object, which isn't very realistic for a finger, using an IK Solver (inverse kinematic) in its HI feature can however create a chain which can be applied to two objects (like the ends of two bones) and act more bone-like. The chain itself is invisible and acts almost like the bow to the strings; moving the chain will cause the bones to bend - which we will see later.

You don't even need Stamps!

Although bones are handy, they are not meant to be seen (unless you're in some very gruesome horror film) meaning that we have to apply some kind of 'body' to it. For this we have used a Cylinder of the same size, except for the nub, that needs to be outside the body, and aligned the bones to its center, then we have to make the Bones react to the body; to do this we use a Skin modifier. The modifier allows us to add the selected bones we want and have it act as the skeleton of the Skinned object (the cylinder), with it we can now bend the Cylinder to the same will of the Bones.

The finger bone's connected to the..

     Now we have a body, you may notice a crease within the cylinder, for a finger that crease is too unnatural meaning we need to reduce it somehow, this is where Envelopes come in. No, we are not going to send a letter, Envelopes are a part of the Skin Modifier's gizmo which can alter the internal and external range the selected bone has control of (the crease is made because the two envelopes have collided, meaning neither is willing to sacrifice the space it entitles itself to take), we can change the Envelope size by clicking the ring on the ends of the bones; the larger ring effects the external area the bone entitles itself to, and the smaller one effects the internal. With the Envelopes reduced, the crease is more finger-like and much more realistic in animation.

http://www.starwarsvintagetoys.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/vintage_star_wars_tie_fighter_wing_sticker_2.jpg

Now.
Shall we begin?

Now that's a Tie Fighter

MERGE!

     When i last logged on here to blog for 3 hours i was on the verge of completing the texturing of my Tie Fighter, it was indeed as easy said as it was done. The arms were applied with the same gradient as the main Spherical pod of the fighter, leaving me only with the wings. I decided to UVW unwrap the wings using a Wing texture i found on the internet (link on the picture), i did strike a problem with the wings when the UWV didn't unwrap the same way due to me moving some polygons around beforehand, but there was little trouble in completing the Tie Fighter; with the addition of i believe four Omni lights, we were done on all four models.

Look how clean that looks :D

     Overall the texture on the Tie Fighter was my favorite, however when you look at the effort required there was little to be done, nonetheless, the realism of the fighter was still the closest to the original fighter out of the four models. With that complete on my selected deadline, and with time to spare, i began the biggest part of the Assignment; Animation.

Target in Sight!

     The final Animation was the main result of this entire module, it was a massive chunk of our final mark and could quite simply make or break a Student's grade. Within the module guide i also discovered that this specific animation required 3 different types of animation; this wasn't particularly and issue, but it meant that i might have to use tools i wasn't confident about. However, with about 2 weeks until the deadline i was confident that i would complete the task.

Makes you feel like
Dr Who a bit

No Shadows!!!

Leeeensss

Identification Please?

    


 This was where the Storyboard was most handy, as it was a Step-by-Step guide to my animation, however it was evident that changes were to be made. I spent a short time playing out my ideal vision of the animation in my head, accompanied with the Stop Watch application on my iPhone (it's a default feature with the Clock) to see what scenes could fulfill the 30 second no-more no-less boundary, it was here i realised i needed an eighth small scene to add to my animation; a Birdseye view of the tilting Star Destroyer to succeed the standstill of scene 3 but precede the Deck interior of scene 4, with that in place i repeated the stop watch but this time stopping per scene, following the timings i multiplied them by 24 (our required frame rate per second) to have my framelength of the scenes (i only did this for the first 7, as the eighth and final scene could be the void before the 30 second mark was reached). However, as animation was new to me, i had to take into account that my frames needed to be whole numbers rather than the decimals i had already calculated, as a result, i rounded them to the nearest whole - ensuring that the total was still 720 (24 x 30).
The framerate went as shown;

Scene Number (Models used) - calculated time (calculated frames = rounded frames)

Scene 1 (Engine Room) - 3.2 seconds (76.8 frames = 77 frames)

Scene 2 (Star Destroyer) - 3.3 seconds (79.2 frames = 79)

Scene 3 (Star Destroyer) - 3.7 seconds (88.8 frames = 89)

New: Scene 4 (Star Destroyer) - 1.9 seconds (45.6 frames = 46)

Scene 5 (Star Destroyer Deck) - 2.6 seconds (62.4 frames = 62)

Scene 6 (Star Destroyer and Tie Fighter) - 4.7 seconds (112.8 frames = 113)

Scene 7 (Star Destroyer) - 6.6 seconds (158.4 frames = 158)

Scene 8 (Star Destroyer) - 4 seconds (96 frames)

With the storyboard complete, it was time to begin animating!

It GLOWS

One Does not simply do Reaction Manager right

Particulation

Lots there...

     Our first animation was the Engine Room exploding, for this the requirements would be the Deck, a Camera, a set of blasters to be the cause of the explosion and an explosion itself. With the requirements at hand we first had to start with creating the Scene. For every scene i made i new one rather than place it all in one space, this was done because it would be easier to recover and organize, in addition, it meant that the render times would be quicker than it would be with Max trying to render every model (even if they're not in view) inside the scene. As there is no 'copy-paste' option with Max, we had to import our models via Merge. Merging mostly takes the content from one Max file and places it in the current one - without removing it from its original of course. After selecting merge you are prompted to choose which models (or groups) you would like to place into the new Scene, this was simple for me - as i had already grouped my models.

Like an Easter Egg

     

With the model in place my next move was to add a camera (because how else is it going to be viewed?), i chose a Target Camera for this scene because i wanted to have some camera motion but have it still focus on the Engine room, setting the Target within the model meant that the Camera would always have its eye on it (and i could see that by making the viewport see through the camera's FOV - field of view). I then remembered that i had to do a time configuration, within every default scene there is a 100 frame timeline which runs at 30 frames per second (FPS), so i had to change this. I originally went through this at a 720 frame timeline at 24FPS (chosen by clicking the Custom radio button) but i would later use the frame total of the scene for future clips.

Gizmo~

     With my Camera and Model in place i needed to make sure that my model had the widespread feeling, so i removed the Cast Shadows option on the tower through Object Properties, i did this with the four beams i created too so they didn't create a shadow when they went through the model's interior. Our beams were the next focus; created out of cylinders i tried to create the laser aura via Self-Illumination, however, this proved to not be enough, so i started researching. Through a Youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwrAIqwTCNY) i found what i was looking for; Lens Effects.

I can feel the Ambiance in the room

     Lens Effects was an effect that i could use to make my cylinders look 'Beam Like', for this to work i had to assign the material i gave the Blaster an ID (you have to click and hold the button on the Material Editor that looks like a 0, as all Materials by default have an ID of 0), then on the Effects window i can assign the Lens Effect to Glow that ID, it does takes some variable tweaking, but the outcome (only seen via render) is rewarding.

Now we control
the Boom

More Keys than a Locksmith

Time to get on track

     Now was the animation phase of the scene, knowing that i had to use three techniques and that i had to move 4 models at similar times, i opted for the Reaction Manager. Despite my previous confusion over Reaction Manager before, i seemed to have got it right this time, instead of making the master have the same action as the slaves, i assigned it to the created variable. This meant that the variable increase actually acted as a timeframe to the slaves, meaning that all i needed afterwards was to ensure the increase during the animation (i decided which frame to stop on through the stop watch, as i did with all the others). I tested the lens out in the animation in this link (i'm uploading my animations on Youtube because it's quicker-ish) - http://youtu.be/yeZ3pgjvoPc.

it only highlights when you select the main object
(or when you don't already have one XD)

Not Curvy but it does the job

Bye Bye Sphere

Bye Bye Tower

Render right

This is a Material World after all

DOOOOOOOOME

     My next task was blowing up the tower, for this i decided to detach the tower from the Base so it didn't blow up with it. Explosions were a cyclic factor in my animation, it would start with an explosion and end with an explosion, plus the whole idea of things blowing up is dramatic and gives our a warlike feel. However, as i had no idea how to explode an object, my research continued once more. In my search i instantly came across a simple PArray tutorial (http://www.bluesfear.com/tutorials/3Dobject_explosion.php). The tutorial showed me how to create the explosion using a PArray Particle System (located on the drop down menu of the Standard items in the Create tab), the PArray is an invisible box which can be bound to an object and can cause it to spread out in different ways (ticks, stars, arrows or more importantly meshes), by using the PArray i could attach it to my model (though it should be noted that it doesn't attach to groups) and set up the explosion time, spin, amounts of fragments (i chose a low amount of fragments so some of the sphere could still be distinguished) and how long it lasted - i also learned that the color of the PArray affects the color of the debris, so use the color picker to make them look similar. I had an explosion, but i was still short of the actual fire explosion.

http://www.indianruminations.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Red-Sky1.jpg

Just on the edge

http://airbrushbyaundrea.com/image/night-sky-stars.jpg

Usually everything's better Spherical why not now?

Scrappy Work yes, but it's supposed to be Junk like...

PIVOT PIVOT PIVOT

    This brought me to another Youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDGUaw0XrDg) which would help me create the flare needed for the explosion (though many had told me that there was such thing as a Fume plugin, i wasn't in the position to be downloading new stuff - as i was working in the University computers). My first step was to create a Sphere Gizmo located in the Helpers button of the Create tab and in the Atmospheric Apparatus section of the drop-down, the Gizmo was to be the size of the Main Sphere (as this was what i was exploding) and then left for further animation. With the Atmospheric Apparatus, we needed an Atmosphere, this is where i found the Fire Effect, by adding the effect to the Gizmo i could create a fireball which would commence at the same time of the explosion the PArray enforced - though this would also only be seen via rendering - it was exactly what i needed, but it wasn't over yet. Next we had to modify the Gizmo, but this time using the Keyframe animation, the Gizmo itself was now in control of the Explosion's range, meaning that we would have to make the gizmo bigger as the explosion continued, this was what i used Set Keys for. Set key is similar to Auto Key, except that it's not an 'all the way to the end' kind of animation, setting keys mean you can position the object at a particular frame and press the large Key, and that would create a marker for what the animation has to do. Set Key would be used to increase the size of the Gizmo and to increase the size of the parameter that controlled the beams, it would also be used to create a camera shake - whereby i would move the camera side to side before returning it to its center to create an exaggeration.

Now where did i put my house key?

    

DANGER!!!
...Ahhhh, Unagi

Much more curvy than the last one

See the yellow box? Tie fighter

The Path is Set!

This was quite handy actually...

Bad BAD Pivot -_-

 There was one problem though, although i had successfully created an explosion, the original sphere was still there (and intact), this was because the PArray wasn't responsible for destroying the sphere, just emulating an explosion by using it as a reference. I originally tried to simply hide the sphere, but it would remain hidden throughout the entire animation; this commencing my third time of research that day (this has happened over a space of 2 days - i had a lot of time). What i found was quick an simple in changing the visibility of an object (found via http://www.webdesign.org/3d-graphics/tutorials/hiding-objects-during-animation.548.html). Track View on the Graph Editor heading was a tool only briefly brought up to show us how to Loop, however, it can also be used to add keys and alter position, rotation and other variables of objects and even groups. My task was simple, make the Sphere invisible on the same frame of the explosion, i first had to add the Visibility Track  onto the object's track, i did this by selecting the object and then on the Edit bar, go down to Visibility Track and click 'Add'. By selecting the new Visibility icon on the sidebar, you would see a straight line (as Visibility is always maximum - or in this case 1), to change this i had to select the 'Add Keys' button and then place them onto the chart (it didn't matter where they were because i would later edit them). For this, i only needed two keys; one for the frame before the explosion to be Visibility 1 and a key for the start of the explosion where visibility is 0, with that done i could replay the animation and see that the Sphere had disappeared. I then repeated these actions with the lower tower so it would explode at the same time, resulting in an empty room (which when rendered would be filled with smoke). The animation of the first scene is here - http://youtu.be/JMG7dUO_bxQ.

*sigh* of course it could've been done easier

     With the animation done i had to render it, for this i needed to set it to the required parameters including; frame space (so which frames it needed to save), size (800x600) and what file (an .AVI file using an MJPEG Compressor), this lead to my first complete render of my assignment animation. Of course i animated before to test out some things, but this render was vital and had to be precise in order to meet the requirements of the Assignment.

And so concluded my First Scene (i know, it feels like an eternity), but with time on my side and the feel for Animation, i wasn't going to stop.

The Purple is the path, you can't see the rotation but it's there

     

ZZZZOOOOM

My next scene was longer, but with much simpler content. It was quite simply a back view of the Star Destroyer slowly coming to a standstill, following my newfound knowledge of Visibility this would be a doddle. I began by adding a Lens Effect to my engines (seeing as Self Illumination was bound not to work there either), it meant having to ungroup everything but it was definitely the right thing to do. By adding the Lens Effect, i had to give my engine 'jets' a new Material, meaning that i had to resurface it - this time however, i used a singular color on the Standard map. My next point of order was a Geosphere, i did court the idea of using just a Plane but a knew a Geosphere would be a much safer option (even if the high polygon count on Hemisphere would slow my rendering down). It took a while before i found a texture i settled with, i originally wanted an atmosphere similar to Raxus Prime - the Junk Planet - which was a musky yellow-orange, i settled however for something that looked more like the Mustafar system - the Lava planet where Anakin and Obi Wan battled in Revenge of the Sith. Although i wasn't entirely happy with it, i saw limited options that day. For this scene, i chose a Free Camera seeing as it wasn't going to animate, i placed it on the borders of the Geosphere, meaning that the Star Destroyer could cover a fair bit of distance if it needed to. I concluded the day by adding an Omni light with a Red color, to create a red aura around the Destroyer - further emphasising the red of the planet. The red still haunted me as the day passed by, not just because it looked pretty tacky but because it would affect my use of a red alarm light in the scene with the Star Destroyer Deck, it was because of this i decided to search again for Textures for my Geosphere.

Much better than the old one
Reminds me of Tatooine at night

     During my search, i decided to alternate to a Space-like sky, mainly because it would emphasise the lights, after many attempts of finding night skies (most of which enlarged the stars too much) i settled for a blueish Starlit sky and mapped it via a Sphere Map, i used a Sphere Map in hope that it would reduce the stretching that would commence during mapping, i do however wish now that i converted the image to a BMP rather than JPEG to maintain its image quality. With the Geosphere changed i removed the Red Omni light, used Track Editor to change the visibility of the Engines and then used Set Key to move the Star Destroyer a small amount before coming to a slow halt, concluding my second scene - http://youtu.be/bPxmlJQBchA.

A Savior...so i thought...

     The third Scene was to be quick and easy, i merged the contents of the previous scene (other than the camera) as it had all the models i needed for this Scene. I used another Free Camera but at a Side View so it would show the gradual tilt. However, for this i needed to create a Terrain.

O_O

The terrain was built by pulling and extruding certain polygons on a large Plane. I chose only to alter the faces that were within the Camera's FOV as the rest would be needless work, i then used Set Key to rotate the Destroyer. However, it wasn't rotating right, forcing me to move the Pivot Point, i did this by going to the Hierachy tab and selecting 'Edit Working Pivot', i then used the Align tool to move the Pivot to the back of the Star Destroyer and selected 'Use Working Pivot'. Now i was using a Pivot at the back of the Destroyer, i could have a smoother nose tilt. I should note that editing pivots don't work while Set Key mode is on, as most motion in this mode is considered an animation. Due to the speed and angle of the animation, this did require some trial and error, this is why Set Key was helpful; if there was a key that needed to be altered, it didn't cost me the whole animation (though it would reposition to its last key). If something was too fast for my liking, sometimes i would manually move the keys on the timeline to slow it down, but this was only done rarely.

I'm no Scientist but i'm sure Gravity doesn't work like that

With the tilt complete, the Scene was rendered to create Scene 3 (http://youtu.be/zWO6oHf-x_E) and then merged into the file that would be the new Scene 4. This would be the birdseye view, meaning that i didn't have to change the keys that came with the merged file - as the different angle was just a use of repetition for exaggeration and drama. I added a Free Camera and added a sideways tilt within the original animation, completing the first half of my Animation (http://youtu.be/VYH233Ya29s).

KABOOM :3

     

The fifth scene required the Deck to appear as if it was inside the Star Destroyer, tilting down with it and shaking from the resulting tilt. The tilt appeared to be simplistic as i applied a Target Camera to the scene, however, as i would later find out, the overall shake within the viewport and the render would be different. The scene returned the use of a Red Omni light, this time used for the purpose of presenting an alarm within the Deck. My primary instinct was to go for Visibility again, but this turned out to not be the case, after some brainstorming though i returned to the Track View editor, this time however, changing the Multiplicity of the Light. The Multiplicity controls the intensity of the Omni, meaning i could create a loop of it gradually lighting up and then instantly turning off (like an alarm would).

Goddamit Renderer ¬_¬

With the fifth scene rendered i noticed that there were still some gaps where you could see that the Deck wasn't attached to anything (killing the illusion), i ignored this until today (as you would see here - http://youtu.be/8j50yLDwqf0)- where i pulled the edges closer to the camera to stop the gaps from appearing. Although it helped stop the gaps, it meant i had to reanimate the Deck completely (because i had to ungroup it to move the edges, destroying the Keys in the process).
Despite its tediousness with the Camera shaking, it overall pulled off and gave out the effect i wanted (and this is what i received http://youtu.be/jJiDCMB3qKs), which lead me to move on to Scene 6; overall the most Ambitious scene of my Storyboard (so i thought).

H is for: Hey You!

It's a freaking Mine Field 

      

*Heavenly Choir*

The sixth scene was without a doubt one of the toughest Scenes i did, this required me to find a way to make a Tie Fighter spin while keeping it on a path, without a wing. Due to previous discoveries, the loss of a Wing was no longer an issue - as i could just use a Visibility Track on the wing - however, the spinning was an issue. I knew i was going to use a Path Constraint, it was to be my third and final technique of the Animation but the issue still stood. I thought i made a breakthrough following the discovery of a Helix spline, however, it didn't particularly spin, so i decided i would use Track Editor. I began by first scaling the sizes of my Star Destroyer and Tie Fighter, because they were originally similar sizes, and then creating a Line spline to be my path for my Tie Fighter path constraint (you can choose this in the animation toolbar or the Motion tab). I placed the Line near the Camera (a Free Camera at a quasi-Dutch angle) and used Set Keys to animate the Star Destroyer. After using the Stop Watch on my iPhone to calculate the frame where the Tie needs to clip the Destroyer, i went to the frame and altered the % Along Path option on the Path Constraint of the Tie, further altering the Tie Fighter position so the Fighter clipped the Destroyer but didn't touch it afterwards. 

In future, pay attention to the grey one in the Top
Right, that's an exact reading

Heart Attack Over!

I still don't see why they couldn't have called it
'Fade Out'

When it came to the time of rotating the Tie Fighter, it was clear that the Pivot Point was wrong, meaning that the rotation wouldn't be as simple on the Track View editor. Not wanting to have to change the pivot every few frames, i used a manual (and Tedious) Set Key method, rotating by eye rather than guessing with Track view (which i tested here http://youtu.be/JtYcb9twr9o). I was later informed, by none other than Sam Spark again (yes i know it was Sparks last week, but his name already sounds like a Superhero Alias anyway, cut me some slack), that i could've set the Rotator to Local which would imitate the angle of the object proving to be an easier task in rotation. Although it does annoy me that most of what i learn from issues come after i finish the work, i always try to incorporate them in future (if i had time, in this case the animation was complete). Despite this information, i still actually prefer the more frantic and multi-angular spin that the Tie Fighter makes following the rotated jolt of hitting the Destroyer and the missing wing done by Visibility Track. What i did take from Spark though was the use of Motion Blur.
Setting Motion Blur is a render setting which makes the selected object appear as if it's going faster than it actually is, the blur was to replace the previously intended camera shake within the scene - as i felt i was overdoing Camera animations. I looked up how to use Motion Blur on the internet (http://c12hriscg.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/rendering-motion-blur-effect-with.html), with the Motion Blur only seen via Render, i trusted it to improve my Scene and called it for that day (http://youtu.be/g2yAqtuta0s).

The Final Hurdle :D

     At this point you would think i've reached the point of where i am today, but you'd be wrong. We now arrive at Yesterday, whereby i started my Penultimate Scene. The Scene was intended to be a Front-Side angle of the Destroyer crashing nose first with a bit of Drag, the outcome would be more complicated and frustrating then i could've imagined.
I started off by making a new Terrain, this terrain was made out of a similar plane but with a Larger Polygon count, meaning that despite a slower render, i could manipulate the environment more with extrudes and pulls. The scene adapted itself to become a Front View (used with a Free Camera and the Geosphere increased in size) where the Star Destroyer's crash course would stretch on to be closer to the camera (i did consider a close-up side view, but it would mean i'd have to make a whole scene for something that'd be less than a second long). 
With the Terrain complete, i needed a way to make the Destroyer and the Terrain collide like real world objects. I looked into the 3ds Max Help and discovered something i believed would be the greatest discovery in this assignment since Local Normal Extruding; MassFX. MassFX is a tool found in the Animation toolbar that replaced the Reactor tool, it's purpose was to make objects rigid in 3 forms; Static - doesn't animate, Kinematic - animates but doesn't react to a collision and Dynamic - animates, reacts to collisions and is subject to Gravity. I thought i found my way to make it all rigid and allow a natural collision to take course.
Once more, i was wrong.
Oh, so, wrong.
Setting the terrain as a Static Rigid Body was easy, and it added a MassFX Rbody modifier to the Object. However, when i got to making the Star Destroyer Dynamic, horror struck! Firstly i discovered that MassFX doesn't allow lights to be used, so i ungrouped it, then i realised that it didn't particularly like groups either (unlike it's predecessor, which had an rCollection tool), so i decided to do it manually and add the Rbody Modifier myself, the result looked catastrophic, but i was willing to go with it. I added a downward Gravity object (found in Forces) and decided to run the Simulation, this is where it went wrong. Despite the downward gravity, the Star Destroyer decided to tear itself apart and shoot to the top of the Geosphere (it could've been a good explosion if i removed the gravity, but as this was not the result i was looking for, this hadn't crossed my mind). After hours of checking in the help and through websites, i found no answers and opted for another tedious run of Set Keys' move and rotate.
The action was again trial and error, but it appeared to work pretty smoothly due to the fact that i could move and add new keys wherever i wanted, in addition, i created three PArrays to create small debris explosions (the objects hidden behind mounds that the Destroyer would collide with). With the tediousness done, i thought i would be complete, however rendering struck again. An issue i have with rendering (except the fact that it renders the selected viewport rather than through the Camera) is that the Rendered output is always slightly disoriented from the Camera output - so it's a bit to the side or in this case a bit too far back - meaning that external insecurities can be found (like the voids in Scene 5). This time the render showed that the Destroyer was halfway inside a mound - which obviously shouldn't be possible, even for Star Wars - whereas the Camera didn't show this at all. The render proves to be frustrating, but is sometimes easily fixed (i do recommend however, once setting your camera, to do a rendered Still of that frame, just to check that the render output is in an acceptable place).
After editing the camera, i was done with that Scene (http://youtu.be/2_4guUzsA9Q), meaning i could move on to the final one and get closer to finishing the Animation (not far now, take a break if you haven't, we've still got a fair bit to go).

The final Scene was another simple animation, a Side view of the Star Destroyer (via a Free Camera) which explodes. Although the storyboard depicted a mushroom cloud, i was content with using the PArrays once more. I began with adding a new Camera animation, a subtle zoom out to further anticipate the explosion. It was then i realised that PArrays don't like Groups, forcing me to create 26 separate PArrays (as it only applies itself to one object) and ungroup the whole Star Destroyer. The process was long, but i sped it up by using the H shortcut to pick the objects of the Destroyer, the only thing that took its time was probably the naming and parameter selection. After that, i used Visibility Track to remove the group and three different Fire Effects and Box Gizmos to create a three stage explosion. I create three as it emphasises that it is a large ship, which shouldn't just blow up all at once, i did try to reduce the amount of smoke but it appeared intent on maintaining it.
This completed the 8 Scenes i needed to render for my final Animation(http://youtu.be/6fi61ksOl9E), and with a Day to spare before i reached my weekly target, i decided to try my hand at a program designed to mesh together the eight animations. During this i discovered that my calculations of frames was over 720! Which didn't seem possible due to the Storyline set equaling exactly 720. I would later find out the cause from where we are today.

     With Four Models, all textured, all lit, all animated and all rendered into Eight Scenes, it was time to make it a whole 30 second Animation. For this the program i used was Adobe Premiere Pro, i chose this as this was the first program presented to me by the tutor and it appeared straightforward enough once you got past the parameters required to create the Project.
Once the project is made, we had to send the files over using File>Import, once the files were imported, they could be dragged onto a timeline and viewed as one animation. We had struck a problem though, as seen with the frame rate, we were a few milliseconds over 30 Seconds! However, despite fears that i'd have to shave frames off animations, i found a solution. By right clicking a Scene you don't mind shrinking you can select the Change Speed/Duration option, you can then change the duration of that file on the timeline (though it does mean you have to re-drag the clips that succeed it over so it's in line). With the Animation now precisely on 30 Seconds, i decided to add the pre-considered Fade Out effect, this was found under the name Film Dissolve and was a simple Drag-and-Drop process (sometimes it ups your animation time, but you could just reduce another clip a few milliseconds to keep it in the 30). With the Animation all in check, our next and final process is to Export the animation, within the Export window we (me and the tutor) discovered that ticking the 'Match Sequence Settings' does NOT give us the correct output; although it would appear so, it actually exports in a MJPEG file rather than AVI, as a result, we had to select a Custom preset and input again the required parameters of the animation, once this was exported the Animation was done! I tested it out just to check nothing was wrong and encountered buffering, however it was clear that this wasn't the fault of the animation - despite it's 1 million kb size!!! - with that, i felt the sense of achievement on having finished the second of my three Assignments; a week in advance.

     This concluded the required work of the 3D Modelling and Animation second Assignment, meaning that all i had to do was burn the Animation to disc among a link to this blog, my textures and all the .max files of my Scenes. I feel like i have done incredibly well in this module seeing as i first thought i would be extremely out of depth (looking at Sam Spark's work also has that effect; the detail is incredible!), however i do see myself being a fairly decent animator and capable of learning new things quickly. The evidence shows that my effort is undeniable, seeing as i have a whole week left until i had to hand this assignment in, but overall i can only hope that i reached the requirements of the Assignment criteria and get a good grade.

With regards to next week, the VLE doesn't specify any input for these two weeks, however i do intend on writing a conclusive (and short) Week 12 blog to evaluate the processes of my scenes and overall animation. It does sadden me a little that i have to stop blogging (something i appear to be naturally good at), but i am happy that i got to learn about new talents and skills that could benefit me in the future.

(by the way, it is 10 o clock here and i haven't done the images, i started about 5:30, plus a lunch break, so that'll calculate to about 5 hours writing time)
(now at 11:30 i've done images and Youtube Uploads, so 6 Hours!!! Yeah, exactly what i was thinking...time for bed XD)