FACULTY OFSCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING School of Computer Science and Mathematics ‘MA’ IN COMPUTERANIMATION DuyguOlmezK1651384Monsterand A29.01.2018Marta IKrunevaBODY ofCREATIVE WORK WARRANTY STATEMENTThisis a student project. Therefore, neitherthe student nor Kingston Universitymakes any warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the data orconclusion of the work performed in the project and will not be heldresponsible for any consequences arising out of any inaccuracies oromissions therein. AbstractDuygu OlmezWorking hair techniques in ComputerAnimation: Monster & A This report presents anoverview and analyses of the process of making 3d and fur/hair assets innatural environment. This thesis includes the different areas of production formodelling, texturing and testing models in different software. Working on hairtechniques can be planned to use in child education.
Final assets will bedisplayed as a mini-video scene. Key words: animation,modeling, 3D, hair, grass, fur Acknowledgements It was a long journey tocomplete of my thesis. This journey was challenging and full of curiosity. I would like to thank mysupervisor Marta Kruneva for her guidance and patience in my research.
Also, I deeply thank myfriends Gokce Uluisik, who made master about Cognitive Neuroscience MSc atSussex University, and Umut ?sbilir who,is the founder of Flondon DigitalAgency. They helped me the pipeline and main idea of thesis structure and werepatient to share my utopic ideas and develop solution to them.Finally, special thanks goto my family who loved unconditionally, supported and encouraged me during the year. Theyare always there for meThis research wasfinancially supported by the Ministry of National Education Republic of Turkey GeneralDirectorate of Higher Education and Overseas Education. CONTENTS Abstract….
…
……
…..
……
…..
….
…
…..
……
…….
…
…..
….
…….
……..
……
……
…
……..
……
…
. iAcknowledgements..
……
…….
……
……..
…….
…
……
……..
……
….
……..
……..
…….
… ii1 Research..
…
….
…….
….
…….
……
……..
……..
…
……..
….
…..
……..
……..
……
……
…
….. 52 INTRODUCTION…
…..
……
…
….
……..
…..
…..
……
……
…
…
……
…..
…..
…….
…….
……..
. 63 DISCUSSION …..
….
….
…
…….
…
……..
…..
….
……..
……
…….
…
…….
……
…..
…….
……. 154 conclus?on.
…
…..
…..
…
…….
……………………………………………………………….. 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………. 17 1 ReseArchAnimating is giving the mirage of actions that is not like real life.Using software and interactive technology may not possible to reflect real lifeactions as a realistic. Furthermore, reflecting reality in animation depends on emotions,gestures, poses and actions. In addition, for character design; entire body andpositions represents moods and feelings to audience. For this reason, creationprocess of animation involves design technology and animation software willintegrated and used efficiently.Although the animation industry continues to demand arguments that needimprovement and reinforcement, it is in many ways meeting the need.In the last 60 years in education, there has been a change due toindustry, employment and technology. While only education is not sufficient, alifelong education style, a personalized and self-directed education method isbeing developed.(Educationengland.org.uk, 2018) . According to Arxiv.org, 2018 that a child inthe pre-school period tends to be more active and interacting if they acquirescommunication and information through interactive channels. Moreover, thepre-school education contribution of animation is known as improving sense of communicationskills, retain the creative reins, gateway to technical skills, encourage ontheir presentations. 2 ?NTRODUCTIONBeginning of the thesis, “Bubble Witch 3 Saga Envelope Game” which has inspirationalenvironment and assets. Also, creating an educational scene significant valuefor preschoolers’ education. Moreover, creating remarkable character for educational projects needsto contain simple and effective view. Some sketches and drawings were needbefore to create modelling section. The process of creating character andenvironment were launched with doodles and sketch plan. Character was drawn bythe animator. The creature was able to fly and pleasant. Also, for educationalscene; the plan of project was to create a letter which is “A”. The scenario isconversation between A figure and character. Figure 1: BubbleWitch 3 Saga Envelope Game (Behance.net, 2018) Figure 2: Charactersketch for project 2.1 CharacterCreating character has many ways of options. Moreover, the commonapproach of creating objects is polygonal modelling. Low-poly techniques have been implementedsince the late 1990s due to low computer accession. After significantimprovements on technology and software, high poly assets are going to beprevail in animation industry. Using low-poly techniques in animation savescomputer performance as well. Having low polygon experience may not enough foranimation artists. Also, character artists need to have knowledge about UVmapping, texturing, lightening and animating.The flying character were created basic way of creating 3d assets whichis low-poly technique. The priority was to build a character as much asrealistic and logical. Figure 3: Flying Character from polygons A further point was texturing character. Before texturing object,topology is significant issue. The reason that, topology allows clean and clearassets on Maya. When the topology is clear and accessible, the charactermovements’ and skins’ can deform clearly. Also, edge loops need to connect withvertexes. This method gives accurate view of character. Figure 4: UV Mapped Flying Character Moreover, the 3d object was textured with simple option of assigninglambert texture. UV mapping was applied on characters’ eyes. Assigning Blinntexture on eyes gives realistic reflection. Blinn texture is shiny and usingfor metal materials. Also, this texture type has softspecular highlights (Anon,2018). After added texture oneyes, UV map was used to express realistic vision. Figure 5: Eyefor UV Mapped Flying Character (3.bp.blogspot.com, 2018) 2.2 Hair TechniquesCharacter with Fur and Environment with GrassPolygonal surface was created to making a base forhair. This technique is quite common way to create hair on Maya. Firstly, thepolygonal surfaces were prepared for making hair with deformed grain texture.Grained texture was created on Photoshop.Splines were created with Xgen plug-in in Maya. Splines are groomable andgenerates randomly. With ramp and density were curucial in this part. Size andgrooming styles were arranged with width ramp and length, with. In modifiersection, noise segment is added. Some stray effects were added for to makerealistic fur. As a result, colors and textures were arranged and fur densitywere increased. For making grass effect on Maya was same making hairmethods. However, grass density is higher than the hair density. The final viewof hair and grass is smooth and natural effect. Figure 6: Grain Texture Figure 7: Letter A with hairFigure 8: Process of Making Fur Figure 9: Process of Making Grass 2.3 Environment As mentioned atintroduction part of the thesis, “Bubble Witch 3 Saga Envelope Game” which has inspirationalenvironment and assets. Also, creating an educational scene significant valuefor preschoolers’ education.Then, creating process ofenvironment launched with designed a simple tree from low polygon technique.When key 3 pressed on keyboard as design progresses, the sharp tree view turnssoft edge loops. Applying this method increases realistic and natural effect onlow poly objects. Figure 10: Environment for Tree Moreover, main surfaceswere created for to express as much as real-life view. After created surfaceslike an island form, they were painted with lambert texture on Maya.Cloud and sun were createdfrom low-poly. Their shapes and appearance were decided to attractive fornursery aged child. In addition, colors, shapes, textures up to animationartist. In this part, lightening is significant as much as texturing. Due totrue lightening, environment and objects can seem realistic and intelligible.Figure 11: Environmentlandscape 2.4 Lighting The most significant part of this project process was to light theenvironment. Lighting is crucial for creating realistic and sufficient naturallandscape. During the project, sky dome light was used. Sky dome light isadditional feature of Arnold render in Maya. This type of light gives brightand smooth effect. Figure 12: Sky landscape (Unsplash.com,2018)In this case, after created Sky dome light, a preview of sky pictureadded as an environment on to the Sky dome light. After arranging background,scenes reality may increase remarkably. Figure 13: Lightened landscape (https://unsplash.com/photos/v9bnfMCyKbg) 2.5 AnimatingThis section was the last process before rendering the final project.Animation process was keeping simple was of animation options. A letteranimation was created from hair movements. Hair angles were arranged and thismovement created windy hairs. Grasses were animated from angles and height.Moreover, flying character was not rigged because of time issue. Gentlemovement between right and left was added rather than rigging option. 2.6 RenderingAfter all, rendering all scene is the final instruction of this project. After finalising animation process, rendering section was launched. Allobjects were examined and stated on the landscape. In this part, render settingand choosing true camera is the most significant arrangement. Savingarrangements and saving folders must be checked. The object unity was renderedwith using render sequence. Adding render sequence option in Maya givessatisfactory images. However, this render option may take few days. 3 dISCUSSIONThe animation started from low-poly surfaces that was create duringmodelling and sculpting phases. Improvement of environment process continuewith adding stone and sky, clouds and sun shapes. In addition, hair techniqueswould be improved if animation artists use high performance computer andtechnologies. However, if they are not able to have computer that is highdemand facilities, creating more realistic fur and hair issues can bechallenging for them. Moreover, using simple and basic ways for creating hair techniques canbe adequate while, educating children. 4 cONCLUSIONThe overall thesis of this dissertation was: A programmable graphicalprocessing unit can be occupied. Also, polygon-based objects, working ontexture with hair systems and lightening issues can be improved. For instance,during creating hair process, when splines were increased, computer which isworked on it, was crushed. Because of this obstacle, hair, on A letter density,were kept low density. At the beginning this project, I was curious andambitious to approach from many ways to my project. However, after continued myproject, I realized that sometimes facing a problem can be frustrated. Moreover,When I was trying to solve just one problem, new and strange problemsincreased. In addition, in the beginning, the plan was based on the character andthe letters being spoken. Educational videos and tutorials have full of basedon knowledge conversation. Also, creating a project with talking character canbe proud. Although the all structure was made on the flying characterand the letter A to be spoken, this process was not completed at the end of theproject. The importance of time management was realised by animation artist.However, this project can be used for future works and will be the topic ofPhd. 5 bibliograpyBehance.net. (2018). Available at: http://www.behance.net/gallery/45026129/Bubble-Witch-3-Saga-Envelope?tracking_source=curated_galleries_listAccessed 29 Jan. 2018.Educationengland.org.uk. (2018). Available at:http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/pdfs/2004-five-year-strategy.pdfAccessed 29 Jan. 2018.Arxiv.org. (2018). Available at: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1411/1411.1897.pdf Accessed 29 Jan.2018.Anon, (2018). Available at:(https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-13C10DF8-5CB4-49D2-9456-DCC1B7F1653C-htm.html).Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.3.bp.blogspot.com. (2018). Available at:http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eZOWu4VbuLY/TJ2MdZoqcxI/AAAAAAAAADI/BU2Bgtq3nbk/s1600/eye_drawn_lillianwong.jpgAccessed 29 Jan. 2018.Unsplash.com. (2018). Clouds photo by Billy Huynh (@billy_huy) onUnsplash. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/v9bnfMCyKbgAccessed 29 Jan. 2018.Bates, L.(2018). 5 Real Benefits of Using Animation in the Classroom.Fractus Learning. Available at:https://www.fractuslearning.com/2013/12/06/animation-in-the-classroom/Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.YouTube. (2018). Maya 2017 – Arnold Shaders. online Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PIZeZP3Pog=3399s Accessed 29 Jan.2018.YouTube. (2018). Maya Simple Xgen Grass ~ 3D Tutorial. onlineAvailable at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEKis7ZtUkQ Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.YouTube. (2018).MtoA 507 | XGen Fur with aiStandardHair. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXF_7Zgg65M=434s Accessed 29 Jan. 2018
