Production Log

February 28th, 2010

- Created storyboard
- Began designing pushpin

March 2nd, 2010

- Finished pushpin
- Started on floor

March 9th, 2010

- Finished floor
- First pass at animation for push pin

March 16th, 2010

- Finished first pass
- Began smoothing out animation (jumps, bounces, speed)

March 21st,

- Renders made and posted.

Progress Report

So far, the project has been going better than expected thanks to my prior knowledge and experience with Autodesk Maya. The Push Pin itself is modeled using one piece of geometry to avoid any problems when I start animating the pin itself.

However, the animation and spin when the pin bounces feels unnatural. It is moving too fast and also does not have the hang time that an object has in the air. Also, the texture on the "floor" plane is very staticky and glitchy; it needs adjustment.

Before I move onto animating the push pin, I want to fix these above issues as well as incorporate some editing techniques used in traditional film making to create a more complete and immersible animation. I'll be looking more at our original ball tutorial as well as how a human body moves around to get a sense for how the push pin should act.

Screenshots

Storyboard

Project Proposal

My project for this semester will be in animating a push pin. It will drop from a specified height and make its way towards the viewer (using a series of camera angles and cut aways) before stopping. At this point the push pin will pick itself up and, look both ways, and then jump up and down in excitement.

The goal is to animate a inanimate object in a way that demonstrates humanistic characteristics and movements without straying to far from realism. The inspiration for this is the Luxo Jr. short from Pixar.

About Me

I am a carbon-based life-form that enjoys using Autodesk Maya. Go me!