Mid term/ Self evaluation

I am proud of the way my project turned out. The hours I spent modeling the paddles and table has giving me a better understanding of the sculpting tools Maya has to offer. For my next animation I want to play with lighting. After seeing students present their midterm projects I realized how much more interesting an animation can look by simply playing with lighting. For my project I used a simple ambient light to light the whole scene. I may use spotlights next time.

Before

When I presented my project, it was brought to my attention that my model was a little off. The net appeared to have strings sticking out and the white lines in the table were a little off. I used more lines and created a more realistic looking net and I adjusted the lines on the table.

After

Midterm

The modeling was the hardest part of the of the project. I couldn't figure out what shape to use to make the various parts of the table and paddle. After a lot of manipulating I was able to come up with a good looking paddle.

I duplicated the model and created the second paddle. The table was a lot easier to create. I used nurbs. The table is made of a lot of squares and cubes. The net is basically a flattened cube duplicated many times.

Camera Angle

Midterm Abstract / Story Board

For my midterm I wanted to animate objects. In class we watched short animations like Luxo Jr. I liked the idea of giving personality to inanimate objects. I chose to work with ping-pong paddles. I am going to animate a game of ping pong between two paddles.

I wanted to make my animation look as intense as the professional tennis games you see on television. The red paddle is going to hit the ball with all of it's might and then the blue paddle will casually hit the ball back but even harder. The ball is going to crash into the red paddle and fly back. I wanted to add interesting camera angles. Zooming on to the different paddles makes the game seem more intense.