FINAL Superfly Animation

Here it is, folks. The finished article.

A few too many corners were cut in the production of this animation for me to claim that I learned alot about how to use Autodesk Maya. These include the fact that, despite ample opportunity, not a single texture was used to get rid of that shiny effect. Also the ‘Superfly’ sign was made from a photoshopped font imported onto a flat rectangle. And, most tragically,  the flickering of the sign is caused by intermittently placing it behind and infront of the wall. 

Digital Modelling – Gramophone Base

To complete the gramophone, it needed a base. I wasn’t, however, going to attempt anything as extravagant as the model from my references, since I am just a novice and that model took the artist 3 weeks! I designed something based on what I could already do, a simple box extruded to look fancy. Here’s the basic process:

I began with a very low polygon cube, which I extruded inwards and upwards to give it a bit of detail. I then extrduded upwards from the resulting smaller square to make the main body of the base. From that I extruded outwards an upwards using the same numbers as with the first diagonal extrusion and from that, extruded upward to create the top. My base looked a little dull at this point, and detail makes everything look more professional, so I embellished it with indents in the sides. I then created a thin clyinder and placed it in the centre of the base, this was the small elevation the vinyl record would sit on. I then created the record from a thin cylinder and a smaller cylinder on the inside to give me somewhere to put the sticker.

But this wasn’t the end, I noticed that gramophones have a little handle on one of the sides. I decided to make this seperately using the tube method I’d used before, making a similar shape to the one used for the bottom segments of the gramophone horn. I then made a cylinder and extruded points on it’s top to make it into a curved little opening from which the handle would extend. I also made the end of it; a little tear-drop-shaped polygon.

This took me a while, and was where I realised anther thing about Maya, and possibly the most prominant and important thing about Maya: the things that you think will be very simple to do turn out to be the most difficult, and the things you think will take weeks to do, can be done very, very simply. I’ve noticed this on a number of occasions since then, and I won’t go into detail, but I stick to this finding as a rule.

I shifted the pivot point of the handle to where it connected to the base, so that it would rotate in the regular fashion when I needed it to later:

I finally combined all these elements, making sure to keep them separate in case I needed to change anything later on, and it looked rather smart. I think I prefer this grey colour to my final coloured version because, due to my lack of Maya texturing skills, each part has that kind of overly shiney look and garish bright colours found commonly in amateur digital animations. 

DIGITAL: Modelling

Now, this is the part I was DREADING beyond belief. Alot of stalling was done to avoid having to even think about doing this, let me tell you. I have never digitally modelled in my life (apart from a disappointing session with ‘ProDesktop’ at GCSE) so when my lecturer tells me that Autodesk Maya is a program that is as difficult to learn as a second language and even once I’ve mastered it, it will crash on me whenever it feels like it, you can understand my apprehension. I mean just look at the amount of controls:

But! Having been taught some of the basics, I discovered that this program isn’t as difficult as it looks. I just needed to get myself in tune with the controls, as I knew for photoshop and things like that, and the whole thing becomes alot easier. I learned that Maya is very forgiving; there are hundreds of ways to do something, but what matters is the result.

Because I’m one of those people who does all the fun stuff first and leaves the boring parts until last, I decided to jump right in there and model the gramophone. I looked at many different sources of reference, including a maya modelled gramophone which make me feel bad about my own pathetic attempt, and some real gramophones, and even a gramophone that I have only recently discovered is infact another model. Here they are respectively:

It looked like a tough job, but examining the different angles of existing maya models that I found on the internet really helped me understand how to make it. It planned to begin with a revolved horn shape with a long stem which I would cuve at the end, but this turned out troublesome because when bent, the end tube would squish inward and look broken. I noticed that most of the gramophones had little breaks where the horn connects to the tube so, luckily, I wouldn’t have to make them out of ust one piece of tube anyway. So I first made a curve with a shorter stem:

I then used the revolve tool to make it into a sort of horn shape:

Now, having just started out, I found it pretty exciting that I could make something that looked as cool as this with just a few clicks, so I probably could have taken a well deserved break at this point, but from here on I  got so engaged in making this gramophone that I didn’t stop modelling until past 3 that morning. I divided the horn into 32 subdivisions so that I could make 8 extruded points extending from the horn to make it look more like a gramophone. I used the ‘control vertex’ tool to alter seperate vertex points on the very tip of the curve, but at first I failed majorly:

And it started to look like a badly-modelled flower. So, after much abuse of the ‘undo’ tool and a quick look back at the references, I started pulling thicker areas in, and more pointed areas outward. I could do this by selecting the right points altogether using the shift button and using the ‘enlarge’ tool to extend them outward or inward. This proved surprisingly easy, and eventually I was left with this:

I’ve always thought it such a shame that Maya has to remove the lines when it adds ocolour and renders, because the shapes look so much cooler with the mesh visable. Anyway, this was the finished horn of my gramophone. Next I moved on to the tubes that would connect it to the base (Or base-to-be as I hadn’t yet made that. I considered that the boring part of the gramophone).

It’s a relatively simple thing to create pipes and tubes in maya, after several failed attempts at revolving, I decided to look it up. And found that you have to make a circle on the grid, which would become the size of the opening of the tube, and then a curve extending from it, which will become the length and curve of the pipe. I this instance, I used the three point curve option, whereby you make a curve using three points for it to follow. This is a logical solution, but not one I would have thought of on my own. You then select both and, under the surfaces menu, select surface > extrude. This gives you a tube shape that follows both of the shapes. I editted this so that it would fit to the end of the horn segment, and tapered the end using the control vertex tool.

I then used the same process to make another curve, this would be the curve which attaches the whole thing to the base:

And that was pretty much it for the horn of the gramophone. I connected them together with a vast amount of shifting from them up and down and sideways, and eventually ended up with this:

I was, however, quite hesitant to combine them together, because converting the horn to polygons makes it look jagged and flawed, so I decided that, to retain the smooth shape, I’d move each part individually when I needed to.

DIGITAL: Superfly

After much thought, I have found my song. This particular song, ‘Superfly’ by Curtis Mayfield projects the levels of cool, but also light-heartedness that i was looking to put forth in my animation. It’s quite fun and upbeat, so my animation style can be exaggerated and exciting. This song also has this pre-ordained visual style that goes with it, at least in my own head. The music as well as the lyrics remind me of the 80’s funk and soul genre, and remind me of a jazz bar with pool tables and scotch whiskey and lots and lots of sepia. Here’s a little mood board to help illustrate this:

DIGITAL – The Big Idea

Okay, Okay. Now’s the time to think of a theme for this animation. Now, I believe that any video becomes a hundred times more interesting with the addition of sound, and I’m so inspired by music these days, so I was thinking of using music as the main start off point for the domino effect. This will involve a ball bearing (marble, or whatever I decide the main catalyst of the domino effect is. It doesn’t need to be a constant all the way through, it can be  number of different things, as you can see from the Youtube videos I looked at. But anyway.) going through a series of paths, setting off different forms of percussion and bells and ect to make up a song. This kind of thing will require a song where the different instruments join the melody individualy, rather than all at once, so that I can introduce them one after another. Songs like ‘Back in Black’ by ACDC and ‘Footloose’ by Kenny Loggins.

Listen to the first few minutes of this Ed Sheeran video, he starts off with a very modest little strummed tune, loops it and adds more, loops those, and adds more ets etc, he includes beat boxing and little ‘woops’ of his own voice to add a bit of jazz to it. I do love this concept, the fact that the music builds and you can see it all happening is quite interesting, and the affect I’ll attempt to achieve:

Nice, right?

This is the type of thing I’ll be going for, sound-wise at least, a building melody gradually composing of different instruments. Now I just need to find a song which fits the criteria. I’d also like something upbeat and fun, that gives a sense of style and cool. I have narrowed it down to these five songs:

• LET’S KILL TONIGHT  by Panic! At The Disco    
• NEVER FORGET YOU by The Noisettes
• NOBODY BUT ME by The Human Beinz
• ONLY MAN by Audio Bullys
• SUPERFLY by Curtis Mayfield     

DIGITAL – W. Heath Robinson

However apprehesive I am about this project, one thing I’m glad about is that it gave me the chance to stumble onto this artist. W. Heath Robinson was an English illustrator best known for his drawings of ‘Eccentric Machines’. He became so famous for his illustrations that his name is now used as a word for such machines that are overly complex but offer little in the way of usefulness, so he’s pretty similar to Rube Goldb

erg, except his contraptions aren’t plausible for actual use. His machines are a popular comparison to the rationing times of the war, where people had to ‘make do and mend’ with whatever was to hand, rather than buying things.

 

throughout his career, Robinson produced a number of quirky illustrations featuring various different overloy complex machines. I think I’m more attracted to the character in the style than anything else. and the interaction that comes from trying to find out just how the machine works by following it with the eye.

DIGITAL ANIMATION – The Domino Effect

Produce a 30 – 60 seconds CG animation based on the idea of a ‘Domino Effect’. Your challenge is to convincingly design a set/contraption/concept and animate a series of chain reaction from beginning to end.

Base your design and ideas on a theme. How will it relate to the overall design of the chain?
(i.e. a circus, kitchen utensils, mechanic’s garage, a pinball machine and etc.)

Is there really any other place to start with this than to study the Rube Goldberg style contraptions made by Youtubers worldwide? I didn’t think so. Which is why I am currently watching as many ‘PITAGORA SUICHI’ (Pythagora Switch – a Japanese educational children’s programme featuring puppets, which encourages children to think differently) videos as possible, and studying the types of chain reactions they feature. Here’s a convenient compilation I found:

The basic idea of the Pitagora Suichi style domino effect contraption is a ball (or something similar) travelling, from one location to another through a complicated series of motions using various household items revealing, upon its arrival, the logo  “ピタゴラ スイッチ” and occasionally the theme tune. The idea of using household objects is widely used, and adds to the wow factor that give most of these videos such a big audience, because it becomes relatable as well as amazing. I like the idea of some kind of text popping up at the end, to somehow provide a satisfying, tied-together ending to the piece. This concept, and the following video lead me onto the idea of teling a narrative with the machine using pop-up pieces of text or pictures:

I like how the path the contraption goes through is not just a random series of events, but a representation of a narrative. This contraption is one of very few I found that does not use a ball bearing or a marble as the main catalyst of the chain reactions. It uses sticks and leavers that produce a reaction in themselves and at one point, a little paper animation where each page is taken away in fast sequence to display a jumping cat. Another interesting effect is where the sticks are set up an a way that when triggered, the sticks will break from their, most probably pressurised, position into a string of explosions. This looks really good in the video, but since I unfortunately don’t know how it was done it’ll be quite difficult to replicate. Also, as with many of these videos, the fact that this was done without the use of computers will provide 75% of the amazement factor, so it wouldn’t have the same impact when CG produced anyway.

I have noticed that the main difference between contraptions like the Pitagora Suichi and the domino-like models in the second video I’ve shown are that the former can be used again because it is set up in a way where the ball travels through a series of tubes and tunnels and ramps, setting off reactions which can be reversed, and the latter is merely meant to be set up and and destroyed. Most of the effort of both type of contraptions goes into the construction.

The brief requires us to chose a theme for our contraptions, so I’ve looked at a few unique interpretatios of the domino effect:

This domino based contraption is unique in that it launches precisely aimed billiard balls at the holes in a sequence in an easier way to the conventional. I like the idea of the machine being useful for something, rather than the usual theme of ‘overly complex and implausably useless’ that encompasses most Rube Goldberg machines. Finding a useful function for the cominoe effect is, I imagine quite a difficult one, so it’ll take some thinking.

Terrible, terrible song…. but the theme of the video is quite interesting! I’m in love with the idea of using larger objects such as chairs and barrels and bowling balls and cars and people within the process of the machin. It’s a refreshing, and more shocking interpretation of the whole concept, deviating from the usual tiny and complex and intricate little machines that cause cute little things to happen, and turning it into an explosive, exciting machine that makes big changes to the environment in which it’s built.

THIS has got to be the COOLEST of all the machines I’ve looked at, this genuinely makes me want this car. Every part of the machine runs with such seemless precision and style that you just don’t see in the others, the very machine gives off an air of smugness you don’t get from the home-made machines. The difference is, there’s no chaos; there’s no point at which a ball is left to freely roll away after having completed its job, or a corner of dominoes is left splayed out after being knocked down, each component stays perfectly composed even after it’s function is complete. Also, the background is simple and classy and with no irrelevant additions that might come from constructing this type of machine in one’s living room. This is something perfectly acheivable for this project, because the blank background will already be there on the CG program, which is good news for me! I’ll be trying to create a machine with as much raw self-satisfaction as this advert.