Evaluation of trailer.

The final production is complete and I am fairly happy with the results, there are things that I would do differently and I know ways that I would improve but for my ability I am pleased with what I created.

The intro to the trailer I was pleased with because I was just practicing using the cameras and the result was pleasing so I decided to keep it and thought it would make a nice intro.

Secondly I constructed the gun which I really liked because the components are all separate and when they come together it has a nice effect. Although it was difficult to get it to work smoothly I eventually got there but the shadows still appeared, I tried to correct this by adding some lighting from different positions but it would either make the gun too bright or change where the shadows were.

Thirdly I made the scene in the casino, this was insightful into how the cameras and paths worked. It was also difficult setting up the lighting because different areas reacted differently to different lighting.

If I had more time I would have taken the niggles out of the animation such as some out of place shadows and some models which were not as complete as I would have liked them to be.

Scene 4 007 Playing card

This is the final scene where the camera will zoom into a playing card that says 007, this will be a nice way to end the animation. I am using the camera technique to do this scene, the difference is the camera will be traveling vertically instead of horizontally, in the animation this fit in nicely because the playing card is iconic in a casino and the pattern on the back of the card fits nicely with the theme.

Scene 2 Construction of Golden Gun

Scene 2 is the construction of the golden gun. I thought to do the construction of the gun because the golden gun is made up of different components such as the pen and the cigarette case so I thought it would fit nicely. To do the construction of the gun I had to use the set key to allow me to slide the parts of the gun together. A problem occurred when I was trying to piece the gun together because each piece is individual I had to edit each piece on the timeline individually. I eventually got the timeline configured so the gun all fit together correctly.

Scene 1 Intro

This scene wasn't initially planned to go into the animation but I was playing with the Casino Royale logo on a plane and using a camera to pass it by, it gave it quite a nice effect so decided to use it.

The video shows the intro that I am going to use in the final trailer, I will speed it up so it doesn't take so long to show.

To create this scene I used a plane and attached the logo material to it. I then added a line path to which I attached a target camera and focussed it on to the logo. This gave an unexpectedly nice intro that I am going to use.

Cameras for scene 3

Scene 3 consists of a camera panning around the casino to show the room which will end up showing the cards on the poker table. To do this I had to use the path constraint technique which allows you to make a path to which you can attach objects or cameras. In my case I was going to make a path that led around the casino room that would have a camera attached to show the room. To achieve this effect I used the line tool to draw the path that the camera would take. Above you can see in the room there is a line that circles around the centre of the room, this is the path which the camera will take, to show the bar and the poker tables. In the top left viewport you can see an arial view of the path that the camera will take, you can also see the camera starts just above the stairs but faces the bar. The camera I chose to use was a Target Camera because it allows you to focus where you want by directing the view with the square at the end of the camera, this is particularly useful for concentrating on one subject and then further in the timeline you can change the focus and move it to a new subject. To attach the camera to the path I had to use a 'path constraint', which can be found by going to animation>constraint>path constraint. When you click path constraint it gives you a dotted line to attach to a line or what will be the path, so I attached the camera to the line that I had setup and then looked at the viewport that shows the camera view. I then adjusted where I wanted the camera to focus and moved the timeline to make sure it was how I wanted it to look. I found that lighting was sometimes an issue, so I had to add some omni lights in to dark areas or for especially dark areas add in a target spot light which gives intense light to a focussed area.

Walls and Stairs

This shows the stairs that lead into the casino as well as the walls and the door. The stairs fit exactly how I wanted them to, I imported and chose to put them in the corner as planned. This give a different approach to the entrance and add to the look of the room. Along with the stairs that add interest I have added walls with a wallpaper look, this pattern is an image that I saved from google, and played with in the material editor so that it was tiled and looked symmetric. This pattern I chose fits the room very nicely as it is a fancy and dark swirly patter as you would expect to see in a casino. I simply applied the material to the four planes that surround the room.

I added a texture to the floor which is very pleasing, it looks realistic and fits in with the bar and the walls. I also had to tile the floor in the material editor because the wood pattern looked too large before I tiled it. Together with all these elements I have made a casino room which I am fairly please with, I think there is some missing detail which could be added. But for now I am happy with the room to start using the camera techniques to glide around the room, which is going to be the first animation that I try.

Bar

Here is the bar that sits in the corner of the casino, this is where the camera is going to pass in the animation, it has the martini bottles and cocktail glasses on as well as the golden gun. I decided to change the textures on the martini bottles because the decals that I applied didn't fit with the other design in the room. I also applied a bamboo texture to the bar which adds to the effect of the bar area. The texture on the glasses was made by changing the diffuse colour to white, setting a high specular and glossiness level and adding a falloff to the texture. This creates a nice glass look but could be improved as it is a bit too transparent.

Creating Poker Table and Stool

Here is the poker table and stool that feature in my casino. These are the main make up of my casino and will feature in the animation.

The stool was created using a technique that I had previously used, Lathe, this technique is really quick for creating objects that are based round a pivot. I also added a black matte material to the stool to try and get a leather effect but I do not know how affective it will be once in the casino but it should give it some texture.

The poker table was my favourite object to make because it came together and started to look good when I added the textures to the legs and added the felt material to the surface. The legs were simple to create, I just made cylinders and cloned them; then added a wooden texture to give make them look realistic. The table top was created by using the square tool and I line it up with the legs to get the correct size. To round the edges I used the modification tool 'chamfer' this allowed me to play with the roundness on the edges of the square. I had to select the corner face to do this and the effect was very pleasing. To get depth with the poker table I cloned the table top and resized it with the resize tool, I shrunk it till there was a nice sized boarder that I could cut out with the boolean technique. So I went on to cut the inside from the table top to create the raised edges. I also used the boolean to cut the circle indent by the stool, I just used a standard sphere to cut the circle from the table. I applied a felt texture to the table top but came across a problem, it was applying the texture to the whole table top rather than just the very table surface. So I applied the standard glossy black to the raised part of the table and it covered the table so I had to make the top an editable poly meaning I could manually select the faces of the shape at the top of the table to apply the material to which finally worked. So now I have my poker table and stool as well as the stairs into my casino. Next will be making the structure of the room with the walls and the floor.

Cards on the table.

The next step of building my casino environment was adding cards to the table. I created cards as one of my three models and I imported them into the scene. I laid the cards out and they added to the look of the poker table which will be featured in my animation. I grouped the cards together so that they were easier to manage when I am animating in the casino.

Tutorial 7 - Propeller

This is the propeller that we created in week 7, we learnt about using the set key and the auto key with manipulating the propeller and also what adjustments can be made to the propeller to give it a more realistic look. So first of all the set key was explained, this allows you to manipulate objects on the screen by setting the first frame with the object in one state and the last frame with the object set differently, 3ds max will then tween the objects that have been moved between the frames. As you can see in the video this has been used, the first frame was setup so the propeller had not been spun but on the state changes throughout ending with the propeller having spun many times. This is good for people animating helicopters or fan propelled objects. The auto key does a similar job the the set key but does the key setting for you, for example if I moved the timeline up 20 frames and then manipulated the object it would automatically tween the object rather than me selecting to add a frame in.

To create the propeller I had to first make the four rectangles which were going to spin and attach these to a centre spinning piece, the circle. Once these four objects were attached I then pressed set key and added the first frame in, then dragged the timeline to the 100th frame and span the propeller many times. You will see in the video that a motion blur has been applied this gives it a more realistic presence, I added the motion blur by right clicking on the object, object properties, motion blur. You can the adjust the properties to have different effects. Also you will see in the video the propeller changes colour, this was done with the auto key and dragging the timeline on four frames I changed the colour.