In these two weeks, we could dedicate the lectures to polish and finish the loop animation and to ask all the questions we had about it.
After I finally got to render all layers, I put them on together on Nuke. I order to do the shadows, I duplicated the main model and projected it on a card perpendicular to the first main model. Then, I colour corrected, desaturated, and blurred this projection to match the shadows from the background. Following on, I thought that the neon ring if the dome looked too flat, so I decided to add some fake neon effect by adding glow, filter erode, and edge blur to create this diffused yellow light, and then duplicated this to create the interior white light of the neon (just desaturated the colour so it looks white). Since this neon half ring is supposed to be reflected in the metallic edge of the model platform, I also added some fake reflections a radial node that has been rotoscoped and graded accordingly (also added some edge blur and blur to soften core and edges of reflection). Moreover, the space texture from the inside dome was not too visible, so I rotoscoped the area where this texture is supposed to appear and added the texture manually instead of exporting it again. I also graded it so it did not show too much detail (that was the previous problem I tried to correct in Maya but for some reason it did not render as it was supposed to). Lastly, I also considered that the background look too flat, so I added some more pronounced shadows on the sides by rotoscoping the sides I wanted the shadows and adding some edge blur, blur, and grade to get the shadows colour.
Final animation with extra lights and shadows in NukeFinal comp node graph in Nuke
Final comp without SFX
Since this was supposed to be an oddly satisfying loop animation, I also decided to include a relaxing background music to improve to the experience. The final looping videos were edited in After Effects.
Final video editing in After effects
Final Video with SFX
I enjoyed this project so much and I think I got more confident in my modelling and texturing skills with it. I also learnt the different ways to render a comp to then comp it by layers in Nuke, and After Effects, meaning that I do not need to finish everything in Maya, and I can take advantage of different programmes that are specialised on different aspects, to achieve better results. I also got more confident with node editing in Nuke as it has always been a bit challenging and intimidating for me, so I feel like this project has helped me expand my creative, technical, and project management skills in many areas.
This week, I set the lighting of the model in Maya to prepare it to render in UAL Render Farm
I started to play with the lighting of the model in Maya and also added a background. I wanted a simple background as the model is crowded enough and I did not want it to take off the attention from the model. Therefore, I found a stone-like texture in black mostly. Then, following the colour palette from the model, I added a back blue and purple light to separate the background from the model and to highlight the texture of the background.
Lights editorLights positioningLights
Since the space background in the interior of the dome looked a bit crowded, I did some colour correction in it so the stars looked dimmer and reduced the quantity of them.
Once I got the light set up, I started to test the render settings that would take the maximum detail but at the same time that will not take too long to render.
Render settingsRender sample
Also, since I wanted to import it into Nuke to add shadows and some extra illumination, I decided to export it in different layers, like the main solar system structure separated from the dome, dome neon half ring and background. In order to separate the dome neon ring from the dome for rendering, I added a plane in between so when rendering the alpha the rest of the dome would not show.
Plane to render dome neon half ring
After everything was ready to render, I transferred the project folder to the university computer and set the UAL Render Farm (Deadline).
Submitting to Render FarmRender FarmBackground layerNeon half ring layerDome layerMain model layer
Main model render without dome and background
These layers are going to be put together in Nuke and I will add shadows and extra light reflections.
This week, I focused on finalising the model and adding textures. Additionally, I also added a last animation using MASH.
I decided to change the base of the model to a more straight surface with ‘windows’ on it and stars as decoration. I tried to add a tinted glass texture to the windows interior so mixed with the surface underneath would look like a translucent glass. Then I added the platform and the dome of the model, and also, I created a ‘mechanism’ based on a comet shape pushing a spinning plank that was holding the handle from rotating (using manual key framing). In addition, I also added some stars rotating around the model using a torus as a reference shape and then positioning and rotating the stars using MASH distribute tool.
Base changedPlatform and dome additionComet and spinning plank animation – adjusting timing with ‘Graph Editor’ Distribution of stars using torus shape as reference meshHiding the torus, the stars keep the reference shape and then the animation (rotation in this case) can be adjusted with same distribute toolFinal model render (no textures)
Once I had the final model modelled, I started adding textures and lights. I added a space like background to thee interior of the dome and a yellow glow ring to the edge of the dome. Then, I added a brushed metal and gold texture to poles, gears and satellites rings. For the planet’s actual rings (not the satellites rings), I added a texture of a picture of the real rings of Saturn, so they can be differenciated. For the Sun, I added a bubble like texture that when changed to yellow-orangish colour, it looks like the Sun’s surface. I added this texture so the glow did not look that flat pale yellow colour. I also added a more saturated glow to the planets and satellites, and also added some neon yellows, purples, and blues to some edges to make it stand out from the dark background. The base is mostly purple, with wooden window frames, purple translucent glass for the windows, and golden stars for decoration. The handle and the spinning plank are textured in wood and brushed metal, and the comet has like ‘fire’ texture and glow (like I did with the Sun). The base has a wooden floor pattern with a golden edge and a golden trail where the comet rotating mechanism is supposed to be attached.
Space background, neon edges, Sun, planets, and gold/metal star, gears, poles and ringsComet texture and glowFinal texture
This week, I tried to finish the base model adding all the details and animations required so it is ready to be textured.
This week I focused on adding all the details like the gears, planet’s rings and satellites, handle, base, and further decorative details like the star and the half ring around the Sun. I also animated with key framing the gears and the handle rotation. The handle would start rotating and the gears and planets attached to them would move at the same time.
Addition of rings and satellites system to each planetGear modelGear platformTop gear rotates at attached planet’s rotation speed, bottom gear rotates at previous layer speed Gears system layeringHandle modelBase additionAddition of star and ring to SunAdded a glow to it to see how the illumination would look like in render
The overall model follows a consistent aesthetic, however, I feel like I am going to change the base as I am not that convinced with the shape I gave it. Also, I am thinking in adding a dome that could have like a space texture as a background.
I liked the style and the ‘impossible’ movement visual effect that was giving with the rotating torus and the zig zagging ball.
However, I was not sure about these standard oddly satisfying loop animations as they looked pretty much the same to me and I felt like it could be hard to do something different if I follow this style.
I also found an animation of a rolling ball following a rail in ArtStation (see animation here), which was simple but the look reminded me to Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau designs:
Later on, as I am also very interested in astronomy, I also founded interesting these solar system models that spin due to a gear mechanism added to it:
Solar system model (Staines & Son)Solar system model (Willard)
My main inspiration was this artwork of ‘The Astronomy Tower’ made by Cathleen McAllister, which conveyed, in my opinion, both Art Nouveau aesthetic and astronomy:
The astronomy tower (McAllister)
Once I had my design idea settled, I continued to research how to approach the animation in Maya.
MASH
In the lecture of this week, the professor introduced us to MASH tool in Maya, which could be used to make our loop animation.
With MASH tool, after we ‘create MASH network’, we can create procedural effects with nodes such as:
Distribute. To arranges several copies of an object in formations.
Curve. To animate objects following a curve.
Influence. To use an object as a guide to influence the transforms of the network in MASH.
Signal. It adds noise to our animation so it varies like a signal wave.
Amongst other features…
I did not have the time to fully explore all MASH features but the few I discovered were really interesting and fun to play with. I tried to implement MASH in my design but it seemed to be way easier to just key frame every movement by hand (and also I would achieve a better result).
First draft design
I started taking as reference a picture of the solar system to see the position, shape, and distance of each planet and satellites towards the Sun. I did intend to do this solar system recreation as much accurate as possible, but as it would not look too appealing to the viewer (the planets and satellites would look too small and the Sun too big), I tweaked them a little bit so it would fit nicer in the frame. I made the planets slightly bigger than they are in relation to the Sun, and just added the most important satellites of each planet (Saturn and Jupiter have way too many satellites to be able to fit them all in this model).
Planets scale and spacing taking references of the solar system representations found onlineAddition of details like planet’s rings and satellites
Once I had a definitive position of my solar system, I started to animate it. This animation took a bit longer than I thought, as I had to calculate how many times each planet would rotate around the Sun in 300 frames (length of 1 full loop of the animation) so the looping cannot be noticed. As I also wanted to make it as accurate as possible, I also researched online how long each planet uses to take to rotate around the Sun. Since Neptune is slowest of all, I took this planet as the reference one to loop the animation, so it would rotate 360° in relation to the Sun in 300 frames of animation. The rest of the planets are rotating more times being Mercury the quickest. I set the rotation to start from slower to quick in the mid point of the animation and slowing down towards the end until they all stop in the same initial position. Obviously, it is not accurate rotation as if it were, Mercury’s rotation would be invisible to the eye in relation to Neptune’s. Then I did the same with the satellites of each planet, but these animation were more approximated than the planets as it will not be as noticeable. I also parented the satellites to their respective planets so they would rotate around the planets but would also follow the rotation of the planet around the Sun. Then, I gave some rotation movement to the Sun, but as I wanted to add glow to it, I do not think it would be visible. Lastly, I added the gears that would be attached to the planets and also parented them to their respective planets so they would have the same rotation. I am not too convinced about the gears shape so more than possible I would change their design.
Animation of planets and satellites translation around the SunAddition of machine’s gearsFirst draft render
I am happy with the planets look and animation, however, I am thinking in changing the model of the gears as they look to ‘spiky’ to me and not too realistic.
References
arbenl1berateme (2019). Oddly Satisfying 3D Animations [Compilation 5] – arbenl1berateme (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLRsCtd5P9s [Accessed on 12 February 2023]
Cogito (2015). 1900 Alphonse Mucha “Dessin de Montre” Jewelry Design Illustration for Georges Fouquet (online). Available at: https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/150738-1900-alphonse-mucha-dessin-de-montre-j [Accessed on 12 February 2023]
McAllister, C. Cathleen McAllister (Online). Available at: http://www.cathleenconcepts.com [Accessed on 12 February 2023]
Müller, B (2020). Impossible Oddly Satisfying 3D Animation (online). Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Ye43ed [Accessed on 12 February 2023]
Staines & Son. The Diary Of An Orrery Maker (online). Available at: https://www.orrerydesign.com [Accessed on 12 February 2023]
Willard, Jr., A. Willard Orrery. National Museum of American History (online). Available at: https://www.si.edu/object/willard-orrery:nmah_1183736 [Accessed on 12 February 2023]
In this lecture, we focused on finishing our Rube Goldberg machine texturing, camera set up, and rendering the final outcome.
I continued adding the last textures and finishing touches of the design, such as the finish lines numbers, and some more neon lights in the edges of the planks and of other components. I also modelled the light bulbs’ buttons to switch them on and textured them with glow.
Neon glow added to the rotating and fixed planksNeon glow added to parts of the domino pieces and rest of featuresNumber 1 and 2 textures added to domino pieces at finish linesButtons modelling and texturingFinal look of finish lines when balls arrive and light bulbs are switched on
Moreover, I decided to animate some arrow lights on the top of the initial ramp to add another point of interest in the animation:
Arrow lights animated on ramp
After I finished with the texturing, I continued to set the camera movement using ‘camera and aim’. This way, I only have to set the ‘translate’ of the camera since the ‘rotation’ is adjusted with the aim. I tried to follow both balls switching priority between one and the other depending on the point of the animation and which one was more important to follow each time. Therefore, I not only framed the scene from the front view but I also made the camera rotate 360 degrees around the machine, showing its back too.
Camera and aim set up with keyframes on ‘translate’
In the last bit of the scene when the second ball has to reach the finish line, I had to reduce the duration of this since it was way too slow. Therefore, I selected all the elements of the scene and in the ‘graph editor’ I scaled down the number of frames required for this last movement. I reduced from 800 to 700 frames. The following video shows a preview of the camera movement I set:
Camera movement preview
When I had my animation fully set, I proceeded to set the render. Thought of adding a chrome textured background with the lighting of the skydome I had previously, however, it turned out to be problematic as there were too many reflections so the render would take too much time to finish. Maya also started to crash every time I tried to preview the render. Therefore, I decided to get rid of this chrome background and leave it with the original workshop background. I just lowered the light a bit so the glows added were more pronounced.
Disregarded dark chrome backgroundRender settingsRender preview with render settings adjusted
I was playing around with ‘Camera (AA)’, ‘Diffuse’, ‘Specular’, and ‘Transmission’ to get the best result without having to render for too long.
After two days rendering, this is the final result:
Final render
I really enjoyed this project and I feel enthusiastic about 3D modelling and animation. I also feel like I could improve the render, amending some details like adding a dark and reflective background to darken the scene and to make the neon lights more visible. However, due to limited time I was not able to do this (but I definitely will if I find some spare time before the end of term 2).
This week, we focused on baking our bullet simulation to proceed to add texture and set our camera movement.
After all the bullet system is built and set up, we need to bake the simulation so the programme creates the animation’s keyframes of each active rigid body. In order to do this, I selected all the active rigid bodies, then selected ‘Bake Simulation’ on ‘Edit->Keys’ tab. Once Maya has created the keyframes of each element and since we no longer need the bullet system set up, I selected ‘Delete Entire Bullet System’ on ‘Bullet’ tab so all the bullet elements are deleted. I also manually animated with keyframes the background gears since I struggled a bit trying to animate them with bullet; every time I added a new hinge, the whole animation stopped working as I had it set up so it was really time consuming to adjust it all over again each time.
After baking the simulation, I proceeded to texture my design. I liked the cyberpunk mixed with steampunk look that my machine was getting and decided to add some metal textures such as copper, gold, chrome, and brushed metal, as well as glass texture on the helix slide, on the top part of the machine and on the light bulbs. These reflective materials gave me the opportunity to add glow to the balls and to some parts of some elements such as to the ring holders of the helix slide, to some neons on the finish line, and to the filaments of the light bulbs. The following examples inspired me with the colours, mood, and composition of the scene.
Before adding the textures, I searched an HDR in polyhaven.com and downloaded a wood workshop HDR with low and warm light conditions. I wanted to give the feeling that this machine was made in this workshop from random materials found in it. I also researched textures and references like wood, old gears and light bulbs:
Wood workshopPlanks wood textureMetal texture with marksUntreated wood textureBase wood textureVintage number 1Vintage number 2
I also found a tutorial in YouTube of how to make glow effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9iIf95BCQ4
The following sequence of rendered previews show the textures I used:
Wood texture for the baseGlass texture for the top with pink reflections (specular)Glass texture for helix slide with yellow reflections (specular)Copper, gold, chrome, and brushed metal texture for gearsI tried adding a bump map but this texture look too exaggeratedFirst texture attemptSecond texture attempt – it feels more subtle with just a few marksChrome texture for the second slideYellow and pink neon glow for the ballsNeon loops that would function as ‘holders’ of the glass slideWood texture for spinning planks – UV adjustment so the wood lines look vertically instead of horizontallyChrome texture for fixed planks so it reflects the glow of the ballNeon sides in the spinning planks so they are more visually appealingNeon lights added to the finish lines and light bulbs with glass texture and neon glow in the inside filaments
The light bulbs were modelled and textured later on as I thought that the space at the end of the base was looking a bit empty and boring. So I modelled them with the idea that they would turn on when the ball hits the finish line planks and a switch is triggered. I modelled the base and outer side of an old school light bulb and added inside the filaments that I textured separately to give the glow effect. Also the glass of the light bulb is doubled so it gives this thickness and volume effect.
I could not finish the final design this week as I added more elements of what I initially planned and it took me longer than expected, but overall I am very happy with how this is turning out.
Textures and HDR:
Base wood texture and planks wood texture – https://polyhaven.com/a/wood_cabinet_worn_long
Metal texture with marks – https://quixel.com/megascans/home?category=imperfection&search=metal&assetId=uh4obghc
In this class, we learnt how to bake the simulation that we already set up, to then add texture, refine the design of our Rube Goldberg machine, and animated the camera movement of our scene.
After all our bullet actions are adjusted and we are happy with the dynamics of the animation, we will proceed to ‘bake simulation’ of all the active rigid bodies so all bullet set up is removed and converted in key frames instead. It is also important to select ‘delete entire bullet system’ to get rid of any bullet set up left in our outliner.
Once the dynamics of our scene are sorted, we can proceed to animate the camera movement of our scene, creating a new ‘camera and aim’, and setting its position and aim at the same time. We can also add texture to our scene and finish building up the final touches to make it look presentable.
This week, I focused in finalising my Rube Goldberg machine’s design and dynamics. I added a different route for the second ball, with a helix slide, a clock gear, and a second finish line. I also refined some of the elements, adding some edge loops, to then smooth them down pressing ‘3’.
Box added to top of seesaw so the ball stays in placeRefine of basket, adding edge loops on the topAddition of third rail in the middle of helix as the ball was coming off without itAddition of second basket or tube for the second ballSecond ball falls in slideHelix slide for second ballSecond ball comes off the slide towards a gear that spins and redirect itAfter bouncing on a domino piece, the second ball reaches the second finish lineAlso added several gears and tubes as a connection between top and bottom level and as decorationFull view of my designArnold rendered preview
The next step of this project would be to bake the active rigid bodies, so the programme creates the key frames of the movements set with bullet tool and continue to texture it and set the camera movement of the scene.
In the first week of term 2, we had our first contact with animation basics, trying to animate two bouncing balls made of different materials. We also started to design our first project of the term, the Rube Goldberg machine.
Firstly, we started a quick model of a basic staircase as a base of our first animation. Then, we created two spheres to start our bouncing animation. The first ball is suppose to be made of rubber, therefore, the animation needs to show a high bounce on each step of the staircase. The second is made of metal, so it should look heavier and less bouncy. We set the basic key frames for each jump, and then adjusted the animation with the ‘Graph Editor’. With this last tool, we can see the graphic of the animation, therefore, we could tweak each movement to make it look more realistic.
Stairs and balls wireframe view with planar for shadow surfaceTexturingRubber ball bounce graphicMetal ball bounce graphicFinal rendered look
Rendered animation
After understanding the principles of manual animation, we dived into ‘Bullet Physics’ in Maya. This plug-in is specialised in the interaction between the geometry of a 3D scene. In order to practice with this tool, we were assigned to create a Rube Goldberg Machine, using basic shapes that would interact with each other.
Before using this tool, the programme needs to be set up to be able to see the ‘Bullet’ tab in the programme’s menu. Once everything is set, we can start designing our machine. The first thing that popped in my mind when we were introduced to this project, was an instagramer that I follow on Instagram known as ‘Enbiggen’. He specialises in creating these 3D Rube Goldberg machines to reproduce the music of any known song, movie soundtrack, etc. I have attached two of his creations that inspired me:
As a first idea of my Rube Goldberg’s machine, I came up with the following sketches as possible designs:
Initial idea with air balloonRefined idea with regular balloons instead, and extra helix tube for second ballSketches made in Procreate app
Once the machine was planned, I continued to build it up in Maya. After designing and placing the basic geometry in the 3D scene, I set them as ‘Active rigid body’ or ‘Passive rigid body’ depending if I wanted the polygon to act as a dynamic object or as a static object. Once this is set, I needed to rewind the animation until the beginning (so Maya calculates how the objects would interact between each other), and to adjuste them as needed afterwards. This needs to be precise as the programme can be very picky with these calculations and can cause some errors at the time of setting up each object’s bullet action. Also, as I wanted to make objects spin, I added constrains to some of the polygons using a ‘hinge’ option, placed in the middle of the object (‘Rigid Body Constrain’ tool).
First ball pushing domino pieces and second ball boosted with a seesaw like objectBall falling into the basketBall continues spiralling down the helix slideSpinning boards setting up – ‘Active Rigid Body’Spinning boards setting up – ‘Hinge’Spinning boardBall bounces on some fixed boards and falls down a ramp Second ball reaches the end colliding with a domino piece Refining of base edges using ‘Edge loop’ toolFull view of helix slideFull view of top set upFull view of initial set up of the machineFull view of initial set up of the machine
I am struggling a bit with the set up of the actions and adjustment of this as whenever I closed the programme and reopened the scene later on, the same actions that I set up previously, were reacting and behaving differently. I flushed the playback cache to see if this helped but it was doing the same. I had the same problems in both the university computer and in my personal computer.
