Conclusion

I feel very pleased with the overall standard of the finished advert. I think the advert created is a very high standard and follows the assignment brief concisely in creating an advert to promote some of the best attractions Essex has to offer. The idea of making the advert slightly light hearted worked well and made our advert stand out from many others. I particularly like the way each scene transitions from one to another through use of common objects in the scenes.

Working in a group in this project has been a much better experience than group projects I have completed in the past. I feel as a group we worked very well together and used the best of all our skills to help bring out the best in our work and for each others. As a group we all had a lot of good input in group discussions and decisions that meant the outcome was better as we were able to develop and improve on each others ideas. We all gave each other help in the areas we knew best in order to improve the overall standard and quality of the final advert.

I found the task quite challenging, particularly in solving and researching methods I had never implemented before. During this project I have learned many new skills with 3ds max. Some of which were, creating cloud and smoke effects, fire effects and cloth effects. Not only have I learned a lot of new skills, I have also developed many of the skills I already had in 3ds Max. This project has developed my skills in UVW mapping and also understanding rendering settings and lighting effects.

Overall there has been a lot of time and effort put into making the animation the standard that it is, however I feel the result was well worth it.

Animation Scene 4 – Red Arrows Stunt 2

To create this scene the Red Arrows plane was imported into the file. A line was drawn and the plane was attached to the line using the path constraint method as described before. The line curve and height was adjusted until the plane flew at the correct arc. With ‘set key’ turned on the rotation of the plane was altered to make it look like the plane is flying straight up into the air. The line and plane were then duplicated to make the rest of the formation. Each time the plane needed to be removed from the previous path using the motion panel and reattached to the new path.

The skybox from the previous scenes was then imported and the volume fog effect also applied to the scene to make the cloud layer. A camera was added that would show the planes flying towards the camera and then flying up into the sky releasing the coloured smoke to form the flag. The camera would pan up slightly and follow the planes as they flew passed. Like all previous camera movements the ‘set key’ button was used to set key frames for the cameras position and the camera target position. A target spot light was also added from the same vantage point to illuminate the underside of the planes.

The biggest issue now was finding a way to make smoke flow out the back of the planes. I looked into using particle effects but eventually found out the easiest way was to use the same method of making the clouds. A box gizmo was created and animated so it would stretch to follow the back of the planes. At first I could not work out a way to make the smoke follow the arc the planes were flying in. I decided that as there was only one camera positioned in the scene I could place box gizmo in such a place that from the camera angle it would look like it was following the planes. By slowing down the speed on the smoke in some places it gave the impression that the smoke was following the arc shape. Three more volume fog objects were added to the render environment settings. One for red, one for white, and one for blue smoke. The settings of the fog were tweaked until it looked like smoke coming out of the back of the planes.

Animation Scene 3 – Red Arrows Stunt 1

This scene was created by firstly importing the Red Arrows plane and duplicating it to make another plane. A path was drawn using the line tool and then also duplicated to mirror the path onto the other side. Each plane was attached to one of the paths and with ‘set key’ enabled both planes were animated to make it look like they were going to fly into each other but turned at the last second. After a bit of adjustment in regard to timing the animation was created.

The skybox and sea were then imported in from the previous scene and the volume fog effect added to match all previous scenes cloud effects. I was originally going to use reactor to make the sea have motion, but since I had problems with reactor crashing my computer in the other scene I decided not to. As it turned out when I rendered the scene the water looks like it has motion due to the clouds moving and also the way the camera moves. Even if reactor had been used, the planes would have probably been moving too fast for the person watching to appreciate the wave motion.

A camera was positioned that would follow the plane from a view over the wing. Originally the plane was going to be placed inside the cockpit but it would have made the viewer feel sick from all the twists and turns the plane does. The view over the wing was a compromise as it still highlights the motion of the plane but is much easier to watch. A target spot light was added to the scene to illuminate the planes. The intensity of the light was turned down slightly to give a better shadow effect.

Finally the last effect I wanted to create in the scene was a fire effect for the afterburner on the jet. It is something I had not done before in 3ds Max and I had suggestions about looking at reactor and particle effects to create it. The simplest way I found was to use the same environment effects panel as used for the fog. A cylinder gizmo was created and a fire effect added to it in the environment effects panel. It took a lot of tweaking as it was impossible to see the flame in view port without rendering it. I found an online tutorial that suggested settings to make the flame flicker. The cylinder gizmo was then attached to the Red Arrows plane so the flame would follow its plane.

Animation Scene 2 – Flypast / Banner

To create this scene the model of the Lancaster bomber was merged with the scene. A path was drawn for the plane to follow and the Lancaster was attached to the path using the path constraint tool. At this point the skybox was imported from the previous animation scene. The volume fog effect was added a set up the same as in the previous scene. A plane was created and given a sea texture as the angles from this scene would also show the sea as well as the sky. The banner image was then created in Macromedia Fireworks CS4 and imported as a texture to be placed on a plane that was created as the banner. The banner was given an attach constraint to the bomber so it would follow the same path.

I was told it would be possible to animate the banner so it would look like it was flapping in the wind. This was something I had never tried to attempt before and decided to look on the Internet for tutorials on how to do this. The first tutorial I found suggested using reactor. First the banner was given a reactor cloth modifier and the mass value was adjusted to 70, as suggested by the tutorial. Next a rigid body collection was added to the scene through the reactor menu and all solid objects were added as objects of the collection apart from the banner. Next a reactor cloth collection was added to which the banner was added. Using the group sub selection of the reactor cloth modifier, some vertices were made rigid so they would not collapse in on themselves when the cloth was animated. Finally a reactor wind object was created and the wind speed and other values were updated. At this point I tried to test the animation using the preview animation button in the reactor menu. Every time I tried this it crashed my computer with no error message given. I tried adjusting the settings many times, but every time my computer crashed. I had to abandon the method of using reactor and luckily I found another method of animating the banner. The solution was to instead use the cloth modifier instead of reactor cloth. Just like using reactor the group sub selection tool prevented the cloth from collapsing in on itself by creating rigid points. I added a couple of space warp wind objects and pointed them in the direction the wind would blow from. By clicking the ‘cloth forces’ button on the cloth modifier these wind objects could be added telling them to affect the banner object. Clicking the simulate button applied the animation to the banner. A couple of times the simulation had to be erased so the settings could be tweaked but eventually the effect was created to a good standard.

The spitfire model was then imported and duplicated a few times. Using the same path constraint method they would follow closely behind the Lancaster bomber. Using ‘set key’ the rotation of the planes were altered to create the effect of the planes rolling in the air. All propellers in the scene were then animated in the same way as the previous scene using the set key to create a rotation tween.

The final model to be imported into the scene was the Red Arrows planes. One was merged into the scene then duplicated another eight times to form the whole team. They were position in a formation to resemble a plane and grouped. The group was then set to follow a path, following behind the Spitfires and Lancaster.

A few target cameras were added at this point. The first would pan and follow the Lancaster for a few seconds at the start of the scene. The second would shoot the planes in procession, focusing on the banner from a side on view. The final would shoot the Red Arrows from below as they flew past.

Finally some lights were added to the scene to illuminate the underside of the Red Arrows planes as well as the above of the planes from the angles of the first two cameras.

Animation Scene 1 – Spitfire Flypast / Transition

In order to create the animation in this scene, first the Spitfire model was merged with the animation file. A line was then drawn to create the path the Spitfire would fly. Using the path constraint tool the spitfire was attached to the line. With ‘set key’ enabled the rotation of the plane was adjusted at various points on the line to give the impression the Spitfire was rolling in the wind.

A target camera was added to the scene at this point. It was set to view the plane from the underneath. This is so the animation can flow from the transition from the beer festival scene where the man falls on the floor and looks into the sky to see the plane flying across. The camera pans to give the impression the man is following the plane but quickly looses sight of it.

The propeller for the plane was then given a rotation tween and attached to the Spitfire model using the attach object tool so it would follow the plane as it moves along its path.

An image was added to the background option of the render settings and a quick test render was performed. I felt the background did not look right as when the camera panned the clouds stayed static. I decided the best way to solve this problem was to create a skybox. A sphere was created and given a blue sky material. Adding the normal modifier inverted the spheres polygons and therefore also the material. To create the clouds was more complicated. I used a tutorial I found online as I had never tried to create them before. The solution was to create a SphereGizmo from the create helper panel. Then in the render environment settings a volume fog effect was added and the SphereGizmo was added to the list of objects. After playing around with the settings, realistic looking clouds were made.

Finally a target spot light was added to the scene to illuminate the underside of the plane as it flies past the camera.

Modelling the BAE Hawk (Red Arrows Plane)

This model was also made in a very similar way to the previous two planes. Reference planes were created and a material containing the reference images was applied to the planes. The material was self illuminated so it could be seen from all angles. The UVW Map modifier was applied so the bitmap could be fit to scale on the reference plane. Two duplicate planes were made and positioned for the different views of the plane. Finally they were set to frozen so they could not be moved accidentally.

A box was used to create the model of the plane. It was converted to an editable polygon, then using the quick slice and cut tool more vertices were added to create the geometry needed. A symmetry modifier was applied to mirror the plane model on the other side to save time. The vertices were then manipulated into position in the X, Y, and Z axis. A turbo smooth modifier was applied and iterations turned up to two. The extrude tool was once again used to create the wings o the plane along with the tail. The cut tool was used once again to sub divide the geometry so the extrude tool could be used to make the air intake vents and the rear of the plane. The glass around the cockpit was then made and the vertices aligned to the rest of the plane using the snap to grid tool.

The unwrap UVW modifier was added so that a UVW map could be applied to the plane. The plane was divided into planar sections and aligned appropriately. All overlapping and inverted faces were corrected and the same chequer pattern used to check for pinching of the texture on the model. Finally the UVW template was rendered.

Macromedia Flash CS4 was once again used to create the texture. The blue prints were faded over the texture to add the appearance of definition as was a bump map. Any insignia on the plane was found using images from Google. The same glass material used with the Spitfire was imported and used on the cockpit glass of the Hawk. The specular and gloss levels of the material were edited, and the 2-sided property checked. Finally all elements were grouped and ready to be imported into the animation scenes.

Modelling the Spitfire

The spitfire model was made in very much the same way as the Lancaster bomber. First the reference planes were set up using a plane then applying the blue print diagram to it as a material. Self illumination was set to 100% to make it viewable from all angles. The UVW Map modifier was applied to enable to bitmap to be rescaled to the correct ratio. Once again the gizmo tool was used to move the bitmap image around the plane into the correct position for each angle of the Spitfire. The plane was duplicated twice to make the Y and Z axis views. Finally the planes were set as frozen so they could not be edited accidentally.

A box was created and set to an editable polygon. The symmetry modifier was used as before to mirror the plane onto the other side to save time. The quick slice and cut tools were used to divide the box into subsections that would align with the reference images in the X, Y and Z axis. A turbo smooth modifier was applied and interations turned up to 2 to give a smoother result. The extrude tool was used to create the rear wings then the main wings. The vertices for the wings were manipulated into a wing shape. The engine exhausts were made in a similar way using the scaling tool and cutting tools. It took a long time to manipulate the vertices into the correct positions, but after enough time it started to look like a Spitfire plane. Once again special attention was paid to keep the four sided polygon standard to avoid possible pinching problems with the mesh later on. I decided to model the glass of the cockpit separate from the rest of the mesh with this model so I could model the inside of the cockpit. I originally planned to have a cockpit view of the plane in one animation but decided against it when animating the plane as the plane motion was too rapid it was hard to follow the camera angle.

To texture the Spitfire I applied and Unwrap UVW modifier to the mesh under the symmetry modifier. Using the polygon sub mode the Spitfire was divided into planar sections. The ‘fit’ and ‘align’ buttons were used to best unwrap the texture. In the edit dialog box the vertices and polygons were checked to see if they were inverted or overlapping. Any problems were corrected. Finally a chequered pattern was applied to the model to make sure the texture was not pinching in any places. The UVW template was then rendered in order to create the material texture.

Macromedia Fireworks CS4 was used once again to create texture. Decals were found using Google images. The plans were once again faded into the texture to add definition. A bump map was applied to create the effect on the planes skin. The material was set to be 2-sided. The glass windscreen material around the cockpit was originally created using raytrace as a refraction map. I decided although it made the glass look slightly more realistic it was not necessary as the planes would be moving so fast around the scene that the reflections would not really be seen and appreciated plus the increase in the rendering time made it not worthwhile. Instead the opacity was turned down to 50% to make it look see through and the specular level turned up to make it look reflective.

The propeller that was created for the Lancaster bomber was then imported by merging into the file and attached to the Spitfire. Finally all items were grouped ready for exporting.