Week 2 - 3D Animation For Games

Fun Fun Fun! with the Trax Editor

This week during our lecture we were learning how to create and manage animation clips through the use of the Trax editor, In class we were tasked with creating what was dubbed the "Nordic Skier" A simple walk cycle which we could then create a character set for and clip the animation into the Trax editor.

I found this Difficult at first but after practising at creating animation clips several times I managed to get the hang of it, Screenshots that I took while producing this are below.


I then began to work on Our group animation task by starting to create my characters Idle Pose and animate his Breathing Idle, The breathing idle alone I managed to accomplish fairly easily.

The difficult part of this was when I had to create a second animation that I could clip off and then be used to animate that clipped action at any point I place it within the Trax editor, I found this to be problematic and cause some strange issues with the rig when animated.

Week 1 - 3D Animation for Games

 3D Animation for Games - First Task


Today was the first Lecture on 3D Animation for Games, Our tutor Phil Morris ran us through the module and what to expect this semester, We also had a small recap on The Principles of Animation. 
I am looking forward to animating and learning how to create assets that can be used within a games engine.

This semester I will be using The Morpheus Rig to animate with.

The initial Task that was set this week was to choose and create an Idle Pose for one of the three characters, complete with a brief character history, I chose the following.

‘This character is the main hero, a wisecracking man of action, usually has a cigar in his mouth, rarely lights it. Squints a lot and gives long considered looks to others. Out for himself most of the time but also disposed to helping out the less fortunate. Doesn't want to take credit for these actions’

Below are a couple screenshots that I chose after I had created the Idle Pose that matched the brief description. It also allowed me to have a quick test with the Morpheus rig and learn to use a few of its controls. I was pleased with how this pose conveyed the characters description.












































 3D Animation for Games - Group Task

For the 3D Animation for Games Module this semester this is our brief:

"Over the next twelve weeks in teams of two or three - you will produce a range of in game animations which will be adapted to work - as a cinematic sequence.
An Understanding of the technical considerations and technologies for game
animation production will be investigated and explored both in session and
through self directed study.
With this creative and technical exploration and a deeper understanding of the
principals of animation you will document the 3D pipeline process together
with the techniques and procedures used to create your professional 3D Cut scene/reel as a group"

Clarification of this is that we will need to do 6 animations each, then choose the best 4 which will end up in the team animation.

After Forming a group with some member of my lecture group, Tsanko Tsanev, William Lambert and Bryan Devenish, We began to brain storm Ideas.
Some of the ideas that we had were:

western shoot-out themed

zombie apocalypse survivor story themed

storming the beaches (saving private Ryan (serious)

native Americans around a fire (rain dancing)

spy chase (mission impossible/ James bond)

classroom chaos, students messing with a teacher

Police raid on a building theme

sword fighting (duel on the battle field)
Two armed men stand off in dramatic fashion, rain + lightning for effect, two men clash, circle, clash again etc. both are locked in combat when lightning flashes and screen turns white, when the colour returns both men have armies standing at their backs which then charge, just before they meet the screen snaps to black

Armed combat Fight (Gladiatorial)

Two armed men stand off in dramatic fashion, two men clash, circle, clash again etc, both are locked in combat when a portcullis opens, all you see are two glowing red eyes, the camera then cuts to the perspective of the beast, never actually seeing the beast which is now bounding towards the fighting gladiators, this would be a camera bouncing towards them to give the viewer the feel they see what the beast can see.

Out of these Ideas Everybody favoured the Armed combat fight scene, I am also happy with this decision,
The next task will be to create an Idle animation for one of the characters.