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Final Animation
Final Animation
The final animation of my python script-made animation.
I opted to do the 85%-option of the project because I had very little time.
The images were rendered and put together with a video editing program called Shotcut.
Progress Images:
Progress Images:
I followed the 5-video tutorial directly to get a feel for the python scripting. I started with creating a polyCylinder object with 6 divisions to make it a hexagon.
Afterwards, I edited the script used in the video to create multiple instances of an object to take a certain number and create them using a loop rather than being based on user selection.
I used the script from the tutorial to aim the hexagons towards the center sphere, again modifying it so it looped through all the hexagons and applied the aim constraint, rather than selecting targets with the mouse.
I used polySphere to create a sphere and translated it up 10 units on the y-axis.
Eventually, I managed to iterate through all the hexagons and apply locators to their centers so I could give them weights and set up a move constraint between their locators and the center sphere. Again this code was gotten from the tutorial and modified with a loop instead of user selection.
I also coded in the rotation of the hexagons around the sphere, as well as their slow in and out expansion to the sphere.
I also FINALLY managed to code the colors onto all the objects using the random library in python to generate random values for R, G, and B.
Some final notes:
- Overall, I actually found this project to be pretty rewarding. The tutorials were easy to follow and helped me understand the usage of python script in animation.
- Whenever I got stuck, it took some work (researching Maya/Python commands and just fiddling with things) to figure them out, but once I did, I had this strong sense of success. It was great to be able to make progress in something I've never done before.
- I am particularly proud of having figured out how to add the shaders to all the objects. I spent nearly 6 hours trying to figure out the scripting for creating shaders and applying them. The wave of euphoria I felt after getting it to work is unparalleled.
- It should be noted that I used someone else's code chunk as a base. Their work is located here.
- I edited it appropriately to assign random colors to each node.
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