Wobbly Toy Men 3DS MAX Tutorial

This Is a tutorial file I followed from the 3ds max tutorial files available from the program itself.
It introduces the user to reactors, also to methods such as grouping, ungrouping objects and using proxy objects.
Proxy objects are good for animating with reactors. You create the object you want to use, a sphere for example, then clone it and move it to one side, and alter it so it uses less segments and thus takes up less memory and render time. You then name it sphere_proxy for example, then hide it. From the objects reactor properties window you can select the first sphere to use the proxy sphere. It is a good way of cutting down render time in big animations.

The tutorial involved me creating a wobbly toy man out of the basic objects. To gain the “wobbly” effect for the toy, I created a small 3x3x3 box inside the base of the sphere and applied the rigid body collection to the object like all the other objects. However for this box I applied a mass of 300. Much higher than the rest of the body combined, this gives the effect of wobble when its being moved.

With my wobbly toy made I cloned it 39 times. Let them fall into a box I had created and then animated the box to fall to one side spilling out the contents of the box onto a surface. The wobbly toys would then all wobble down the surface.

Reactors - Rigid Body - Cloth Reactor

In my first example I wanted a ball to roll down a plane and crash into a group of blocks, sending the ball
and the blocks flying off the edge of the plane.

to begin with I create a plane, rotate the plane down slightly, so a sphere can roll down it.
I then create a sphere, and a block which I clone numerous times and build a wall from them.
it also very important to note that none of the objects, including the numerous blocks should NOT be touching
as this can result in odd behaviour in the animation.
from there I go to reactor> open property editor, and select the plane, I can then change the planes reactor
specifications. as I don't want the plane to move or animate in anyway i select inactive. and under
simulation geometry I select Concave mesh as the plane has no holes and is one whole object.

It is important to select that otherwise you can encounter errors.
then with the sphere selected I change the mass of the object, the friction and the elasticity.
the two latter options are best kept under 1.0 otherwise 3ds max warns you about unrealistic behaviour.
I set the mass to around 20, I want some weight behind the object but I wanted it light enough to move quickly
and pick up speed.
I also set the simulation geometry to Bounding Sphere.
the blocks I set the mass to 2.0 as I wanted the blocks to be really light, so when the ball hits the objects
the blocks fall away.

I also set the friction and elasticity both right down to 0.3 each. the simulation
geometry I set to concave mesh, like the plane.
under reactor>create object> I select rigid body selection. there are other options such as cloth collection
for making planes flop to mimic table cloth. rope collection is for mimicking rope. rigid body is for when
objects hit tough objects like human body's. including many more like water collections.
I place the rigid body collection in one of the view ports, the position doesn't effect the animation in any
way. so its best to place somewhere out of the way and easily accessible. when selected under the RB
collection properties I select Add, and choose all the objects in the scene.
again under reactor> I go to preview animation and watch the animation. from there I can change and tweak the
objects parameters to perfect it.

Be careful when selecting create animation as from then on you cannot change
the details of the animation because it creates the animation and adds it to the time line. from there you can
change the amount of frames etc. and then apply the lights, cameras and materials for rendering.


Cloth Collection

In this example I created a table in a room with a plane placed slightly above the table which will then fall
and flop over the table like a real table cloth.
the table is a simple structure made from 5 basic boxes. the plane is placed above the plane and made slightly
bigger than the table.

Also it is important to add a high amount of length and width segments, this will
effect the animation giving the cloth a much more realistic texture.
with the plane selected I go to reactor>apply modifier and add a cloth modifier to the plane. there's no real
reason to change any of the properties just yet as the defaults are fine.
then I go to reactor>create object>cloth collection and place it anywhere on the stage like I did with the
rigid body collection earlier.
with the cloth collection selected I added the plane in under properties. under reactor you can then preview
the animation and see how it looks.

From there you can create the animation and add it on the time line.

Character Rigging and Skinning

Rigging can be used for things like rope, and character rigging with inverse schematics. This will allow the user to create things like arms and legs, or anything with joints that requires movement via a hierarchy.
By going to the 'system' tab on the right, you can select 'bones' from the object type panel.

Under the IK chain assignment panel you can select different IK sovers. The general solver to use for making things like arms and legs is IKlimb.

You can also assign dummy objects to certain bones within arms and legs to make it easier to move them around instead of clicking on something else by mistake.
When you have your bones layed out in the shape of an arm for example, you can then select a box or a cylinder etc and manipulate the shape over the bones. When happy with how it’s layed out, select Skin from the modifier list, and under the parameters you can add the bones you wish to attach to the outer object. When they have been added you can move the bones around and the outer object will move with the bones.
To create my character I placed down the IKlimb bones in the shape of an arm and a body and a leg. The arm and the leg were layed out in similar ways while with the body I turned the side fin option on to create the basic rib cage structure on the body.

I used the cylinder tool and added more height segments which will give you more polygons to manipulate the object. I changed the cylinder into the shapes of the arm, leg and body. I cloned each leg and arm so I could have both which were the same.
The head was another cylinder that I scaled taller slightly and placed a single large alien like eye in the middle of the head.

Mood Boards

Part of this semesters project requires me to research into television channel idents. and from the research create my own three idents for a fictional or existing TV channel of my choice. I decided to go with a fictional technology focused channel. I came up with different ideas I could have in my idents and made some mood boards in Adobe Photoshop.
The first mood board has a computer that seems to have come to life and is fighting a robot. the computer is hovering in the air and shooting CD ROM discs at the robot, whist the robot shoots red lasers out of its eyes into the computer. I decided to have a simple clear, grey to white gradient effect background so the objects at the front will have more focused. my idea was to make this particular idea quite contemporary.
my second mood board shows a first person perspective camera flying through the inside of a computer. the insides of the computer at first look like buildings within a city, but as the camera progresses through, the computer parts become more clear.
The third and final mood board shows a few different objects that relate to the technology theme and how I could bring them to life. such as the apple macintosh laptop with a face and an arm. also with the desktop icons from the adobe suite along with other icons blasting out in an exciting visual aesthetic. the idea of
the flying saucer I thought would be quite good as it could be animated to fly around the screen, maybe even with aliens inside. I made the background a kind of computerised graph with parts of sleek looking metallic parts to make it look futuristic.

Morphing

The morph tool works by making a "base" shape. Then creating one or more other shapes with similar vertices.
By then applying the morph modifier to the "base" shape, you can select "pick object from scene" from the Channel Parameters. You can then pick one of the other objects which you want your "base" object to mimic and morph to.
You can then select Auto Key on the timeline and then move to any frame, 30 for example, then using the morph modifier percentage up to 100%. This will then mimic the chosen object 100% over 30 frames. You can change the amount of frames and the percentage it mimics.
When using the morph tool the user must be sure that the "base" shape must have the same amount of vertices as the shape it is mimicking, otherwise it won’t work correctly. This means that you can’t move your "base" shape into a more complex shape.
The morph tool is also really good to use when modelling face shapes and facial expressions. Especially when lip syncing or moving eye brows.

To create my animation, I selected the teapot object as I thought this would be an interesting object to morph during animation. I then changed the teapot into an editable poly. I then cloned three copies of the object and changed them all into editable polys as well. On each of the cloned teapots I changed the way they looked in one way or another, a bigger spout, lid, and handle for example.
I applied the morph modifier to the "base" object and then picked each of the cloned teapots to mimic. With auto-key on the timeline turned on I animated the different parts of the teapot. The animation looks as if the teapot has been hit by some kind of magical spell and has sprung to life briefly.
I added a camera and had it rotate around the animated teapot during the course of the animation. Then I added two different lights coming from two different directions with ray traced shadows turned up to have a nicely rendered effect.

Assinging Cameras To Paths

Assigning Objects To a Path

Assigning paths to objects is a good way of performing animations.
You use the line tool, set the options to smooth to get smoother movements. The object will then follow the path of the line.
Imagine a rollercoaster train following the tracks.

You can also use a circle line path to make an object go round in a circle, which would be good for animating things like planets in space etc.
The camera can also be assigned to a specific path which is useful for things like fly through.

To create one of these you have to create the object you want, a sphere for example. Then under shapes select the circle line tool or one of the other line tools and put the shape on the stage next to the sphere. Select the sphere object and go to the animation tab at the top and then to Constraints and then to Path Constraint. The sphere object will then automatically snap to the circle path. It also places a key frame at the end of the timeline so it can move around the circle path on a loop.
It is also good to activate the follow and bank options so the camera will bank when turning corners and act more smoothly when it moves. There is also a smoothing option.
I created a floor plan of a building, complete with rooms, doors and windows etc and then used the line tool to create a path around the rooms for which I wanted the camera to follow. I made a camera and snapped it to the path.
I also added up to 600 frames at 25 frames a second. Then moved the key frame up to the 600th frame. This slows down the whole animation so the camera doesn’t fly through the rooms too fast.

I then textured the building and added lighting to make it appear more realistic.