So for this week, I managed to do some animating! Nothing big, I animated a simple wooden axe, with the help from my group member, Yousef Atout. This post might be a bit long, but if you guys want to know how they work and how I animated a model, read below!
How I animated my model:
So, the process of animating a model goes as follows:
At first, I tried to look for a reference image. What this means is that I was looking for an image to base my model off of. Essentially, it serves as a means of guideline for the me, just so that it resembles and looks like an axe, in my case atleast. Once I found my reference image, now I had to make the object. To start off with, I made a plane, and then this turned out to the handle of the axe. I forgot to mention, the software I was using was 3dsMax. In 3dsMax, I was able to play around with the vertices, which allowed me to change the shape of an object. So for an example, if I were to take a square, and move one of the vertices, I would have an uneven 4 sided shape. In order to make a shape which has more curves or a much more sophisticated model, I would need to make this object an editable poly, which allows me to edit the object to have more edges, more vertices, faces and much more. For the first step, its more of a rinse and repeat sort of thing, where you have to make more edges, or more vertices if the model you're making doesn't add up with the reference model.
Once the overall model was complete, it was time for me to texture the object. In order to texture, you need to unwrap the model, with a process called UVW unwrap. What a UVW unwrap essentially does is it makes the model flat, and whatever is inside this unwrap, will be textured. During this process, you need to isolate and separate which parts of the model should be what texture. So with the axe, I would need to separate the metal head and the wooden handle from one another, as they should have different textures.
Then, after the unwrap process has been done, I can now start to texture my model. To do this, I needed to export my model as an FBX file, which allowed Substance Painter, a texturing program, to recognize this file. Once I've imported the file into substance painter, I could now start texturing. The reason why I used Substance Painter was that the program allows the animator to texture the model like as if they were painting the texture onto the model. In substance, you can add textures and more materials onto each other or as an individual material/texture, and you can play around with it, to find a texture/material to suit your needs. And voila, a fully textured and modeled axe was made!
The ways of the trade, animators' pipeline:
So for this unit, I had to sit down and see how the animators work, in general. So their pipeline goes as follows:
1 - Concept Arts: In this step, the animators will start to make simple concept arts for the project that the group has agreed to. So the concept arts will include the characters (both enemies and main character(s)), props, vehicles, map design and whatnot.
2 - Referencing: In this step, they will have to find mood boards. What mood boards are is a way for the animators to show their facilitators on how the game will look like. The animators were allowed to find images from games to help the facilitators know what type of aesthetic and visual effects the project might have, in relation to the mood boards.
3 - Modelling the props and characters: This step is a little straight-forward. After showing the concept art, references and mood boards, to the facilitator and being approved by them, they will now be able to start working on the props and characters.
4 - Unwrapping and texturing the models
5 - Skinning and rigging characters: Skinning and rigging are methods one needs to do in order to animate a model. Animations will be applied to models which needs modelling, this is the case for the main character and other characters within the game/project.
6 - Environment assembly and environment texturing/polishing: In this step, it allows the animators to give the games developers a fully textured map, with all the lighting and props available within the scene. What this means is that they make the map, model the map and texture map, including the environment (props, walls, etc.)
7 - Animating, baking and exporting the animations to the games developer(s)
8 - Rendering and composing the renders into a video format: For this last step in their pipeline, the animators will have to render all the models that they have made and put them onto a turntable. A turntable is like a podium or platform with all the models that they made, like a showcase. This will allow the facilitators to grade their work.
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