Factory Update: 3/26/14

I listened to Factory of Faith by Red Hot Chili Peppers while working on this. That's what I'm running on - faith.

The way I want to cut it up is like the third example shown on Canvas. Is it possible to fully render only a select range of frames? Because that would make it very simple to keep everything in one place. I tried to create multiple cameras and have one turn off while another turns on and have it cut that way, but it didn't seem to be working out.

When the arm rolls, I'll probably have to figure out how to animate the pattern on the wheel to simulate rolling. At least once.

I also gotta work out the bumps in animating the arm in the beginning to simulate emotion. They need to look sad and lonely.. that would probably be easier if I were able to animate the wrist as the neck. But it's also more challenging to work with the constraints of actual physical limitations. Maybe if the wrist were able to twist around. Maybe.

I should redraft the storyboard because the whole sequence might get a little complicated. There's going to be a lot of quick cuts as they pick up the pieces of the teddy bear. Also putting it together is gonna be fun. I might end it with the arm falling over and just kinda cuddling up to the newly assembled teddy bear. They're still alone, but at least they have a little friend now.


In other news I'm gonna render the Wordplay and Flythru assignments like crazy. Yeaaah.

Factory Update: 3/24/14

Here's the view from the stairwell, one of the first frames in the animation

 I accidentally created a kind of narrative with this one-wheeled robot arm in an empty room. The colorful figure is a teddy bear, but it would be completely deconstructed at the beginning. The robot acts lonely and decides to build a new friend. I meant for it to be another robot arm, but fickle technical problems just made me move on to build something else.

Maybe the arm should've had more joints if I knew that I was going to be trying to express emotion, but I think it can still work. I need to add a little to the bear, like create the muzzle and maybe make the parts susceptible to gravity. The pinchy hand would be a good edit to make to the arm, although I'd be okay with the stationary fingers. This thing is giving me enough problems as it is.

Thank goodness for Advising Day tomorrow.

Progress: 3/19/14

Whoa it's already the 19th? Time flies.

Today I worked on the actual stage that the factory will take place in.

 And also I learned how to make a simple spiral staircase! (Using this tutorial)

 Secret staircase underneath the plane. Maybe the camera will ascend from here.

 The box is the default size box, for size reference.

 I don't think it will be viewed from the outside, so it's pretty messy.

I'm considering adding windows and getting some kind of sunset lighting, but the physical sky takes ages to render, so that would probably be the last thing I add in.

Still trying to figure out what's going to be assembled in the factory. I made sure that there was plenty of space. I want to make use of the robot arms somehow. Conveyor belt or no? We shall see.

Thinking about using metallic, sterile kinds of textures. There are many choices.

Planning doc + arms

I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of things I'm missing for here. But this is the basic start-off point I have.

And here's a rough model of the robot arm - I took the wrist part from a free model, but it's been glitching to the side for me so I might just have to reconstruct it from scratch.

Also need to remove the weight distribution on the ball joint, which I may or may not keep.

Factory - brainstorming urgh

I want my factory to be able to show the thing it's making as it grows, see it at different stages of the process. And I like robots. Hm...

This comes to mind.

(Warning: the story is rather emotional. I might've cried one or two or twenty times idk)

Seeing the robotic arms animating to put together the different pieces of the android gives me ideas. I don't think I'd pull off something quite as complex as this full-scale short film, but something... like it. Somehow. Maybe it could turn into a narrative as well. I like narratives.

There was the industrial example of the ball going through a series of clunky tubes and pipes and felt very cartoony. I might want to use a feel like that.

The different camera angles of the second example are pretty neat as well.

I'll have to start working on concepts. If I assemble a robot, it shouldn't be quite as complex as the human figure of the android.

--
In other news, I'm going to have to send in my laptop to get its screen fixed once I get home on break. A crack appeared a little while ago and effectively made a third of the screen unusable, so I figured I'd get it sent once I don't immediately need to use it for school. This means that I probably won't have access to it for at least five to seven days. I'll still be able to plan for this project and might be able to use my dad's laptop a few times, but for the most part, I'll be disconnected from the Internet.

Wordplay Previews

First attempt. I did something rather simple, not anything very flashy, but still translates the point well enough. I didn't like what I did with the camera either, and then learned how to make the transition from Open to Close in the same place.

The camera movement is a bit quick, but that's to help obscure the transition. Animation magic is top secret. I learned something new and made my thing better, hoorah!

There might be more I can add to this.

EDIT: I did add a bit more!

Made the Close action bounce a little and edited the camera movements a little bit. All went better than expected.

+Plus Fabrication+

I can see how this presentation would be informative and usual to many students like me. If anything, it was quite inspiring to me that two young artists could become increasingly successful entrepreneurs.

The content wasn't as inspiring to me as they were. Three-dimensional art is not where I'm looking to further my education, and I have a physicist friend who's already raved to me about 3D printers. While it is fascinating that science and art have come together yet again in such a tangible way, I don't feel that  I could relate to it as much as someone with more of a passion for art in the third dimension.

Still a good presentation with useful information about Kickstarter, though, if I ever feel the need to create my own small business.

Thoughts so far

I know that animation is not for me. But it's still rather interesting to learn, even if it's a struggle.

I think I'm going to be moving onto my wordplay assignment. The last updated flythru is already on the Google Drive, so anybody is free to work with it.

Ideas for the wordplay? Open/Close, Tall/Short, Liquid/Solid, Energetic/Static. Plenty to work with. Plenty to figure out. Plenty of time, I think.