Conclusion

Now that all the animations have been rendered and complied together in premier pro along with sound, i would like to say that my animation was a success. I feel that the animation matches the aesop's fable the fox and the lion perfectly, keeping with the story given.

I am very satisfied with how my animation has come out, all the tools and techniques we learned over the course of the semester really helped in creating my animation. The sound in the animation could be improved, first to better fit the animation, and make the transitions between the tracks smoother.

The cameras i used throughout the animation where used to give the best view on what was happening in the scene, I used the over the shoulder camera shot for the lion as i felt that this view was best for the perspective of the lion.

The lighting i used for the animation was the same lighting through out. I found a tutorial on the web that showed me how to do a good looking realist daylight. I stuck with the same life for all of the animation, as wanted to make it seem like it was the same time of day each day.

Problems i faced during the animation process was mixer mode, i could not get the animation to move where i wanted it to in the scene i had to move the scene around the model. This became very annoying and sometimes would cause errors in some of my meshes. One of the scenes in the movie (scene 3) due to the issue with the moving of the models, my fox is walking in the air. Watch the fox walk its not that noticeable, but watching the shadow you can tell it is in the air.

f i was to do this again i would spend more time on my models and go for realism, plan my time out more wisely with my animation so I don't leave the rendering till the last minute. Spend more time on the sounds, to get sounds more suited to my animation.

I feel that overall the animation has been a success, i feel that my animation meets the brief we where given. There are a couple of problems with animation that i did not get time to fix but overall the animation runs smoothly.

Premier Pro

Once all the animations are completed it was time to compile them together, i started by importing all the movie files into Premier Pro and placing them in there place onto the time line. Title pages where added throughout the animation, a title page with the name of the animation and my SID has been added with a title page at the end of the animation saying end.

The sound files where found on http://www.freesound.org/, once downloaded they where taken from the library and put into the time line. the clips had to be cut down to match the size of the other clips. Once the animations had been puzzled together, i exported the video as my final animation.

Clip 8

This clip is the final clip of the animation originally in the storyboard this was going to be a clip of the lion and the fox walking away together. I ran into many complications with this, and using mixer mode this just could not be done. So i decided to keep with the over the shoulder shot and have the fox walk away. Although this time the lion will wave at the fox as he is leaving.
The fox animation was created using mixer mode, using the same walk cycle used throughout the animation. The lion animation was created in the time line, the animation was very simple, lifting up the lions paw and rotating it as if the say good buy.

Clip 7

Clip 7 is when both the lion and the fox meet and have a conversation. i set both models up on the stage next to each other and faced them towards each other. I used the time line in order to create the animation of the 2 talking. To give the impression that they are talking i animated the lion and the fox to bob there heads in a talking manor.
I chose to place the camera in this shot to just fit the lion and the fox in, to bring more focus to there actions and that they are comuniacting.

Clip 6

I found this scene the hardest to create due to the mixer mode now letting me move the bipeds position once adding the animation. So i decided to split this scene into 2 parts 6.1 and 6.2. 6.1 if of the fox walking towards the left side of the stage, keeping with the over the shoulder shot camera for this clip.
Once i had finished the first clip i started the second, i had to rearrange the stage so the fox was facing the right way to walk. the second clip is of the fox walking towards the lion. i changed the camera for this shot. This was to get a better view of bother the lion and the fox meeting.

Clip 5

Clip 5 is the second day the lion and the fox meet, the fox is less scare this time so i wanted to have the fox stand back and watch the lion, The fox starts the clip looking away from the lion and turning his head towards him i had to make all animations in the scene on the time line as i had not create these into bip files.
The for will then take a step back and just as the fox steps back the lion will go in for for a drink. Rotating each part of the neck and the head to give a good curve as the lion goes down. Camera in the scene i have again gone for an over the shoulder shot, wanting to give it more of a personal view go the lion.

Clip 4

For clip 4 the lion will be drinking from the watering hole him self. I started the animation by placing the lion into position on the waters edge. I the manipulated the biped for the lion to drink from the water. This became a problem, the lion model is bigger in scale then the fox model, as i was sinking the mesh to reach the water, there where a lot of issues to do with skinning. I opened up the skin modifier and this was repair quickly with no errors.

With the mesh now looking better it was tame to begin creating the animation. The animation for this was made in the time life on the stage, with the lions head in the water like with the fox, i turned the lions head from left to right to to give the idea that he is drinking the water.

I went for a long camera for this shot, to give a good view of the lion taking a drink in the watering hole.

Clip 3

The third clip for the animation is when the fox walks away from the lion. I stared by positioning the lion in the stage first and turning his head to face the lion. one the lion was in place i found a good spot to set up the camera. I wanted an over the shoulder shot for this clip, as if its coming from the lions perspective. The fox was then imported, as i used mixer mode for the fox i had to select the scene and everything within it, and move it to match the positioning of the fox.
With the fox and lion into position i came across another issue, i could again still see off the side of the stage. I extended out the side off the stage and extruded out some hills i wanted this to be more of a valley that the fox would walk down.
I added the texture to the hills and the valley and they blended well with the original scene. Now the scene was set up it was time to turn on mixer mode and add motion to the fox. I added in the fox walk bip files and made the fox walk for the duration of the time line.

Clip 2

Clip 2 is of the lion walking towards the watering whole. I imported the lion into the scene and positioned him in the direction i wanted him to walk in. I activated mixer mode and loaded a pre created walk bip file i made. There was an issue with this, the lion kept snapping back to its default position when it entered the stage. The only way i found to get around this error was you rotate the stage and everything in it to match the position of the lion.

Once positioned the lion walked toward the watering whole well. I decided i wanted to have a constant close up on the lion through out the scene, so i created a camera too follow the lion as the lion walked. The lion walking felt very static at this point the legs moved but there was nothing really in the walk. To change this i went back into my main lion file and change the walk bip, to this time bob the lions head from side to side, giving a more realistic walk effect.
The lion walk sequence was complete the only issue i had was with the edge of the stage in view in the camera, this was simply edited my extending the edge of the base plane and extruding up some hills. The hills blended with the mud and grass very well.

Clip 1

Creating the first clip for the animation i found to be the hardest, being that i had never created a scene like this before. Once i had created the scene i imported the fox model into the scene. I positioned the fox by the watering hole as this is where the fox is place in the story board i created. I found a good view for the fox and used ctrl C to create a camera in the position.
I worked on the scenery more with the fox in place. Using the water technique we learned in a tutorial i create the watering whole. I gave all the components in the scene textures. This meant the animation was good to start.

I had to create the fox drinking animation in the time line, with the fox kneeling down far enough for his head to reach the water. I used the rotate tool to turn the fox's head to give the impression the fox was drinking. I tried to use reactor on the fox's head to make ripples in the water as he drinks, but the head fell off every time. The animation look good as it was and i felt the fox looked like he was drinking.
The end of the scene the fox hears foot steps, using the time line i moved the fox limbs to give the impression the fox was standing back up, with him turning his head in the direction of the noise.

The lighting used in this scene and every scene is a spot light for casting the shows, and an omni light to give the impression of atmospheric light.

The Scene

Creating the Scene Environment, i started with a simple square with 10x10 polys. I converted this to and editable poly.

I selected the area that was going to be the watering hole. and lowered the mesh on these polys. I selected the area that would become the path and standing area for the fox and the lion and heightened it.

Once the base was made, using the create foliage built into max i added a tree and used the scatter modifier to scatter the trees on the mud part of the plane. Id's where assigned to the different sections of the plane and the textures where added.

The Lion - Animation

To make the animation on the lion i also used the tutorial given to us by Richard. I followed each step matching the biped to the images provided to give a good seamless walk animation. Once the animation was completed i saved the bip file ready for use in my scenes.

The Fox - Animation

For the animation on the fox i stared by setting up the time line for 1 walk sequence which was 19 frames, later i extended this to 20 to match the frame rate. I used the wolf walking tutorial that Richard had given us. I copied the biped positions that are in the tutorial. Turning on auto key i moved the different bones in the time line to match the images in the tutorial. Once i had complete the tutorial and adapted it to my fox, i was very pleased with how the walk sequence looked.

The Lion - Skinning

Using the same method for skinning as i did on my fox, i started with the thigh. I made the weight stronger on the pelvis and weaker on the thigh towards the top of the thigh and worked my way down blending. Using the same method at the sides trial and error the mesh moving the leg back and forth, the weights began to sit nicely.

I then worked my way from the pelvis down the tail, blending the tail links and the pelvis. Once the tail was completed i worked my way up the spine, using the loop technique to weight each spine link.

One i had finished the spin i worked on the front legs. Starting with the paws, i worked my way up the leg and began to weight the upper leg. Again using the same method as i did with the back legs and the fox. Once the thighs where completed, the neck was then weighted followed by the head of the lion.

The Fox - Skinning

With the skinning on the fox. I started off by adding a skin modifier to the fox. Using the weight tool i fixed the weight of every vertex on the fox's head to 1 on the head of the biped. I then began work on the fox neck. I selected the vertex's on the lower neck and wrapped a weight of 1 around the neck, as i moved up the neck towards the head i blended the weights on the neck of all the neck links.

I then worked on the weights for the head, giving the vertex's for the mouth a value of 1 to the pony tail. As the mouth gets closed to the eyes and the back of the mouth, the weight is balanced between the mouth and the head.

The thigh of the fox i found to be the most challenging, working on the lower leg was fairly simple as its was just a wrap around job, with blending on the different ligaments. But the thigh was very hard. Balancing the pelvis with the thigh, took some time to get the weights right at the sides of the thigh but it got there. I had to make the top of the thigh strongest on the pelvis and weakest on the thigh, and from there i work down the thigh with weights. For the sides of the thigh i used a lot of trial and error, moving the leg back and forth trying to get the weights to sit right. Once i had complete the left thigh the right thigh was a breeze as i had done it once before.

The front legs where fair simple, once i had created the bad legs using the same basic structure with the weights the mesh seemed to move fairly nicely. Needed to do some trial and error on the weights to make the mesh move smoothly.

Once the whole body was complete, work was needed on the tail, this was very simple as i was just looping around the tail.

The Lion - Biped

In the same way i did the biped on the fox. I create a new biped above the lion and rotated it on its front. I placed this into the mesh of the lion and scaled the biped and all the bones to all the appropriate places.

In the same way as the fox, using the rotate tool, i positioned the legs and arms of the lion. After the legs and are where positioned and fit to the mesh. The head and tail of the lion where positioned.

The Fox - Biped

Once the models where created it was time to prep them for animation. I started with adding in the biped and rotating it so it faces the floor, and scale it to an appropriate size.

Placing the Biped within the body, i was able to scale the individual bones of the biped to match the placements on the fox.

Using the Rotate tool i moved the bided's thighs, and upper arms into position, in the middle of the mesh. Once this was complete it was time to shape the rest of the biped. Moving the different bones to fit with there mesh.

Once the main body was completed the tail bones where positioned in the center of the tail mesh.

The Neck and head where then positioned, starting with the bottom neck link and rotating each one into position. Once the head was rotated into position, 2 ponytails where added, and used for the upper and lower jaw.