Previs class note:
This week I built the basic model for this 3D animated storyboard. I created the rough house, the base, and the branches used the orb as a leaf, made a relatively simple model, and animated the simple and cozy expression I wanted to convey in the storyboard. There were six shots in total.
Our teacher gave me the opinion that the story needed to be longer, he thought there was no story in these 30 seconds, so it wasn’t an excellent 3D storyboard. He also suggested that I could add a complex background to my character, like being an essential person in some organization or having a heavy responsibility.
Such a background is not quite what I expected from the character in the first place. However, it is possible the postman setting makes my character destined to have a strong body and mighty wings, so I think the character has high attack attributes as well but doesn’t fit into a complex background, as her tribe is the peaceful one.
So I changed my story, but I didn’t have that much time to draw it into a storyboard, and it was a long story, so if the teacher weren’t happy with what I had drawn again, it would be wasted time, so I decided to show my teacher my story outline first and then draw the 2D storyboard.
This is the storyboard I show to our tutor:
This is the story that I thought:
In the morning, Swallow comes out of the house and finds a package on her letter-receiving lift. She approaches to see the recipient is herself. It is a parcel, she
opens the package, there is a letter inside, it is a love letter.
• She was shy and puzzled, it was the first time she had ever received a love letter, and it was not signed, which made her wonder.
• There were many other gifts in the parcel. She picked up one gift, which reminded her of a friend, but she thought it should not be, she picked up another gift,
which reminded her of another friend, but it should not be this one.
• She was puzzled but had to go to work, so she put the item back in the box, put the package on her desk, and went out to work.
• She came home in the evening, and the box was still on her desk, and she looked at it a little troubled because she still couldn't think of who this was from.
• She had just sat in front of the table when she heard a knock at the door. She went to the door and found a friend of hers of the same sex at the door, who
blushed and asked her to confirm if she had received a gift box.
• She looked at her friend with surprise. Yanzi didn't expect a love letter and a gift from a same-sex friend. Her mind was in turmoil. Then she pointed to the box
on the table and was full of thoughts about whether to accept this friend's confession.
• Then Yanzi's friend sheepishly told her that she had sent it to the wrong address and that the box was supposed to be for someone else who wanted to take the
gift home.
• With a dumbfounded look, Swallow watched as her friend took the box, happily said goodbye to her, and left her house.The teacher thought the story was fun and relaxing, so we decided to continue developing the idea.
Mechanical arm class note:
This week I followed my teacher to make the internal structure of the arm and the controller. I spent a lot of energy on the internal structure part, which was challenging.
I tried to change my teacher’s design as there were some areas where I wanted it to be more flexible. I tried four different structures in the palm of my hand and finally chose one that can be worked well on the palm.
In the meantime, I found that I had a problem with the axes resetting after freezing all the models so that fingers were not bending in the exact direction when I turned them, and I decided not to freeze the axes of rotation.
I was not very good at tying the controllers. I am good at modeling but not at making controllers, so after making them once, I realized that I did not freeze the axes of all the models and that models with controllers tied to them could not be frozen, so I had to make the controllers again…
This is the first time I have made a finger controller. I wanted to maximize the flexibility of my fingers when I made it, so I spent a lot of time setting the maximum amount of finger flexion I could do, and I am very happy with the result. I also added a palm flexion controller.
This is my model grouping, I used to change the name of the model at the end because it was less confusing and I often took a previously made model and changed it into some other parts.
I made the first version of the internal structure, but I think this is really ugly…..
So I made four more versions：
So I made four more versions and finally chose this one：
I added a gear to the palm part of the hand so that the palm can be bent in a specific curve because, in reality, the human hand is turned a little when the palm is clenched in a fist.
The models of the ring and pinky fingers are then placed in a group with the gears so that they can be carried along by the gears
I added some materials to the model, which is what it looks like in the render. I didn’t like the color scheme, so I changed it again
This is the final effect of the wrist controller. It looks particularly flexible and exciting when it moves. I tied the XYZ axes of the controller to different models and let them take care of the rotation in their respective directions, and the result looked brilliant.
This seemingly retractable spring mechanism has a simple model, parent constraints, point constraints, aim constrain, and two locators. This effect could be created by placing the locator on both sides of the mechanism and combining different constraints. It was fascinating, just like the Achilles tendon muscle, so I put two on the top of the wrist to limit the range of motion of some wrists.
This is the final effect:
It is also very troublesome to make fingers. First, we need to create attributes of five fingers and palms on the control curve of fingers. Next, we use the Driven key tool to bind the controller of fingers. And when you’re done with all of that, you have to see if there’s any penetration of the models when the palms are clenched.
key with finger straight, controller is 1
key in finger flexion, controller is 10
The Final effect of the finger movement: