Conclusion

At the end of our task looking back, we are happy with the position in which we have ended up. The animation looks well modelled with adequate information and visual stimulus as well as not overloading the viewer with too much information.

In the beginning I didn't know if our group word be successful, having never worked together before on such a large project over such a short period of time. But once we got together and brought our combined expertise each separate programmes paired with our own outtakes and expectations on the module, I am pleased with the final position in which we ended up and with the work we have to show for it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this module and felt that working in teams of people you're not familiar with can be extremely successful aslong as everyone gets involved and ideas are shared and listened to without prdudice but with a sense of learning.

I look forward to working in groups again and will hopefully get to work such a cooperative group of people as I was fortunate to be placed with this time.

Completed Final Render

The final render we all decided, had all the components we had hoped to have in the first few meetings which were;

> A well scaled model of the 2 stroke engine to give visual stimulus to our intentions
> A clear animation of the inner workings of a 2 stroke engine, with section clear to the viewer
> A relevant and visually pleasing environment for the engine to be placed
> A completed video which shows the viewer everything we would have hoped to see at the museum ourselves.

(video upload unavailable. Video Name: Completed Animation)

Second Final Render

The second attempt of the render was more successful, some voice was taken our but the animation itself was still a little jumpy in places. There were a few issues with the last section (showing the lawnmower in the environment) in the factors such as the size of the lawnmower and the duration it should appear in motion and static. After talking it through we decided on the final outcomes we wanted for the video. Mike went away and edited the render to create the final animation.

(video upload unavailable. Video name: FinalTest2)

First Render with Voice over

The next stage of the project was to compile our combined work into a mock up of the end vided. It was Rob's responsibility to create the aniamtion and Mike's to create the voice over. The problem we had with this was that the voice over could not really be created until the animation had been rendered. Due to the time constraints this was a hard task.

The first attempt at the video was not so successful due to this fact. This draft had rushed narration which although was informative, was alot for the viewer to process in the short period of time. This draft can be seen below.

(problems with video upload. Video name: FinalTest1)

Environment - Garden Scene

Following the creation of the shed, I also modelled garden fence panels and poles along with the addition of pre-made trees found as models in 3DS Max, and bushes surrounding the shed found as a free model online. The end result looked as follows.



The first image shows the general shapes of the shed and fencing where as the next two show the added bitmap of grass to the previously green plane shown in the first. This was done for authenticity of the grass as it was decided to keep the render time down, hair and fur modifier would not be used.

Environment - Shed Creation

The focal point of the environment was decided to be a shed which would house a lawnmower for the animation. It was my task to create the environment to be used. At first I was a little hesitant due to my limited knowledge of 3DS Max, but whe I broke the objects down into simple shapes, the construction was easier. Heres a few stills of the shed I created.




Once the shed was modelled, I decided to group the door sections and move the pivot point for easier manipulation of the door during the animation. To better show the shed I knocked together a quick render of the shed from different angles, shown below.

(problems with upload but video available. Video name: ShedRender1)

Second Delegation

Once the engine was complete, we decided on what was needed to create a respectable video in which to display the process of the engine working. This work was then divided up once more for greater group interaction and quicker creation time. The jobs were as follows

Mike - Animation textures, spark plug and voice over for presentation

Elaine - Lawnmower modelling for final animation

Rob - Animation, light and camera work fro final render in 3DS Max

Me - Environment for final animation to take place in

For my section of the work we agreed it would look good for a lawnmower housing our engine to roll out of a shed situated in a garden. This was the reason I decided to create the garden scene which is to follow.

Assembled Engine

Once all the seperate parts had been created, the engine needed to be assembled. For this we merged all the pieces into one 3DS Max file but to our suprise, even tho we all worked to the same measurements, the pieces were greatly different in size. To tackle this we needed to resize to make all the pieces fit but in doing so some of the pieces, such as bolts on the lid, became distorted. To rectify this I resized the model parts back to original shape but in the new invironment, then re-imported back into the master file. This was our finished modelled engine.

We were happy with the end result and decided to move onto creating the animation and other parts of the final scene for the video. Rob rendered the engine using a build effect shown in the video below, we decided to use this in the final animation due to its clean effect.

Piston Housing

The second part of my modelling task was to create the piston shaft which would be used in the main animation of the engine bi-section. The reference photographs didnt prove alot of use for this part so I decided to use images from the internet such as the one shown below.







The image shows the general shape of the piston and crank casing, which I then recreated in 3DS Max using simple shapes. It was important to get all the sizes correct which was tricky due to Mikey creating the piston which was necessary to me as a reference. We overcome this problem though by working together and providing support and assistance to eachother. Here is the final pison chamber surrounded by the engine lid (where the spark plug will be housed) and the gears for the flywheel.

With the piston inside, the casing will be the main basis of the animation, showing the process the engine goes through to work properly. Overall I was happy with the modelling although due to each piece of the same engine being modelled by four different people I realised there would be problems early on.

Engine Casing and Lid

It was my responsibility to create the upper casing for the engine which woud house the main animation. To aid in this I had a series of reference photographs taken at the Museum of Power of an actual 2 stroke engine on display. This engine formed a basis to work from for all the parts of our 3D engine, so as to keep the dimensions the same.

Using these reference photographs and images of outer engine casings from the internet, I attempted to create a low poly model of the casing on our engine. Here is my basic first attempt.

I created this using simple shapes in 3D Studio Max. The shape was correct but further modelling was required to finish the shape. Heres my final model.

In this final model the bolt heads have been added along with the top lid for the casing and refined shape of the entire model. When added to the other section of the engine created by the rest of the group, this casing should fit in well.

Work Delegation

It was realised in the beginning that there was too much work to be done in such a short amount of time. For this reason we decided to split the work between us, starting with the engine.

Engine Modelling

Mike - Piston and Crank shaft

Elaine - Carburetor

Rob - Magnetic Flywheel and Engine base

Me - Upper engine, engine lid and Piston chamber

With the work delegated in this way we all had a chance to work together and get the larger task completed quickly.

Idea Deciding

In a later meeting, ideas were thrown together by the four of us and the decision was made to go ahead with the two stroke engine.

Work was split between us which can be seen in the meeting minutes. I was given the upper engine casing, the cam shaft and crank casing and the environment in which the scene was to be set.

Other sections of the animation were divided amongst the other members of the group which included material making, lawnmower sculpting and audio sections of the video.

The next step was for us all to create our own sections ready to merge together. We searched on YouTube and found a video which represented the kind of outcome we hoped to achieve.

Meeting 1 - Idea Gathering

The first meeting of our group was Mikey and myself coming up with ideas about what direction to take the project, we felt strongly about creating an intersection of a machine to give people a look inside machines without actually disecting them.

At first we toyed with the idea of the pendulum clock but decided with its already exposed mechanisms and extremely slow working speed, an animation would not be necessary.

Museum of Power

As a tutor group we were put into teams and asked to create a visual representation of a piece of machinery or hardware currently on display at the Museum of Power, Langford.

The first stage was to research the museum by visiting to see what mechanisms were being displayed. There were a wide range of machines, from past to present technology, which were explained well by the technicians at the museum, but from the tour I felt there was one machine which could benefit from a graphical representation of its working elements which was the two stroke engine.

Then my group had our first meeting we talked over our ideas and decided to have a go at an animation for the two stroke engine. The basis behind this was the complication of the inner mechanisms of the engine and the lack of ability to see inside of the machine when these mechanisms were in motion.