3D Animation

He rangi tā Matawhāiti, he rangi tā Matawhānui

The person with a narrow vision sees a narrow horizon, the person with a wide vision sees a wide horizon.


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3D animation has come a long way and its focus is to create a realistic world for the audience. There are three common 3D animation styles today.

3D Video and Film is the most common. It is a 3D visual feature of moving images within a digital realm and uses motion graphics to move the subjects around a 3D space. It can also be called Passive 3D Animation as it is purely visual, which means there’s no interaction required.

Interactive 3D features purely digital realm and created using a 3D computer software. this type involves user interaction. This allows users to be in first- or third-person points of view and move within the 3D world through a computer screen, with mouse and keyboards as external controls.

Virtual Reality 3D (VR) is the one that has opened a complete new world for users. Like interactive 3D, this features purely digital realm created in a 3D computer software. However, VR is used and experienced in a more immersive way. This type requires a device, such as Google Glass and Oculus, to allow its users to interact with the physical space. Among the types of 3D animation, virtual reality 3D is the most immersive and complex to create.

3D Animation with Blender

The video tutorial to the left shows you the basic of animation in Blender, a free Industry Standard 3d modelling and animation package.

You will need to download THIS FILE to get started and follow along.

Happy animating!

Helpful Shortcuts:

  • Pose Mode

  • A = select all

  • T = tools (move)

  • I = Insert Key frame

  • R = Rotate

  • Ctrl Shift Z = undo

.

To rotate in different directions:

  • Rx

  • Ry

  • Rz


Laptop with no Numpad?

If you're on a laptop with no Numpad you can use the number keys above the letters by Enabling Number Pad Emulation:

  1. From the Edit menu, select Preferences.

  2. Click the Input tab.

  3. Put a check mark next to Emulate Numpad.

  4. Click Save User Settings to save the settings for the next time Blender opens. (might not be an option)

Now Create your Own Animation

Now you know how to do this you can create your own.

Aim for 5-10 seconds and make sure it is achievable based on how well you understand Blender.

You might:

  • Take Mr Rodkiss's tutorial, add music and change the moves

  • Make your own blender model and animate

  • Use a Mixamo model (instructions in resources) and animate to music

Submit your best work Here & Also Update your website

This can either be the tutorial you followed or your own creation!

Do you want to start modelling with blender?

Try these introduction to Blender tutorials below

the interface

Making an object

Colour & Materials

Beginner Modelling

In this video we "trace" a hei matau- a traditional Maori fish hook, usually carved out of bone or pounamu.

You'll cover background images, editing vertices, edges and faces and we will end with changing the material and exporting a simple animation. All in 15 minutes!

More Resoures

Kenney Assets

If you are looking for some more objects to populate your world there are a lot of Creative Commons assets available from Kenney.

With these files the only import that will work is OBJ files so make sure you use these.

Mixamo

Mixamo is a library of 3d models and animations. In order to import models.

Instructions can be found here on how to use. with blender.

More advanced modeling

This is a slightly more complicated modelling exercise that would allow you to make almost any animal in blender.

Music

Several sites offer music published under Creative Commons’ flexible copyright licenses. Find out more info about Creative Commons here

https://creativecommons.org/about/program-areas/arts-culture/arts-culture-resources/legalmusicforvideos/

Here are some places to get music:

How to upload your video to your website

  1. Export your animation ---> see settings in the image

    • For videos without audio export as File Format:FFmpeg and Container:OGG

    • For videos with audio export as File Format:FFmpeg, Container:MPEG-4, Audio Codex:MP3

  2. Render your animation by pressing Render > Render Animation in file menu bar (at the top of the screen)

  3. Go do something else useful (maybe work on your portfolio website) while it renders as this can take a long time.

  4. Click and drag your exported video into Repl.it just like you did for you images.

  5. Delete Item 1-3 in your animation webpage as these are not needed unless you are including some modelling images as well.

  6. Add in a video element where you deleted the Items by adding the following code. Make sure you remove the source that is not relevant and change the file name so it matches your video.

<video width="320" height="240" controls>

<source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">

<source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg">

Your browser does not support the video tag.

</video>

Inspiration / Examples in the Real World

NZ CURRICULUM

Digital Technologies | Progress Outcomes

Designing and developing Digital Outcomes FOR DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

At the end of this topic students will have had the opportunity to cover;

  • make decisions about creating, manipulating, storing, retrieving, sharing, and testing digital content for a specific purpose, given particular parameters, tools, and techniques PO2

  • understand that digital devices impact on humans and society and that both the devices and their impact change over time PO2

  • identify the specific role of components in a simple input-process-output system and how they work together, and they recognise the "control role” that humans have in the system PO2

  • select from an increasing range of applications and file types to develop outcomes for particular purposes PO2

  • follow a defined process to design, develop, store, test, and evaluate digital content to address given contexts or issues, taking into account immediate social, ethical, and end-user considerations PO3

  • identify the key features of selected software and choose the most appropriate software and file types to develop and combine digital content PO3

  • understand the role of operating systems in managing digital devices, security, and application software and are able to apply file management conventions using a range of storage devices PO3

  • understand that with storing data comes responsibility for ensuring security and privacy PO3