TGJ2O

Animation

Technically, we've only been 3D modeling thusfar. In this section we will add a simple animation to make our spaceship look alive. To do so we will click on the ANIMATION tab at the top.

Step 1 - Keyframing

We will enter camera mode (0 on the number keypad). Grab the ship and G (translate) it along the X axis so that it is off camera (the wee little shape at the top right of the camera frame.

We're going to make our life easier by clicking on the automatic keyframing button on the TIMELINE EDITOR (below). Now, every time we move our CTI (current time indicator) to a new location then move an object in our space, a new key frame will be added to reflect the changes and an automatic smoothing of the movements between the starting point and the ending points will happen.

With EVERYTHING in our universe selected (A) hit I for insert. You'll see a keyframe at frame 1.

[This will add a gajillion (technical term) keyframe little diamonds to our timeline at frame 1.]

Now we'll change to frame 24. We can either (1) drag the play head (CTI for Current Time Indicator) to frame 24. we'll click on the CURRENT FRAME type 24 and hit enter. Or we can (2) punch in 24 into the current time box at the bottom right.

Grab our ship's saucer (remember, we parented it so that it would be easy for everything to follow it) and move it to inside the camera view to the left. There should be another set of keyframes made at frame 24 now

The rest of the animation can be yours to freely do. If you want suggestions of how to make the ship 'fly' browse through the rest of the tutorial.

Now our ship is going to do a swooping fly-by. Change the current frame to 32 and move the ship forward a bit, rotate a bit along the direction of motion and bank it as if it were banking around a corner.

More keyframes will be made now at timecode 32

We can use the LEFT and RIGHT arrows in the timeline to go forward/back in time to see how our ship looks. At frame 32 it should be banked as if it is going to turn sharp right and head off.

Change the CTI to frame 41. Our ship has changed its course and is headed straight to the side

You might find that you have to leave your camera view and use the transform options at the right to help orient the ship

But our ship has gone out of camera view!!!! That's ok, we're going to start animating the camera. In the SAME way we animated the ship, we're going to animate the camera.

Move the CTI to around frame 52. Press "I" to fix the position in space. Once the ship has passed the camera, we'll rotate the camera as if it were trying to "keep up with the ship". I'm rotating SOLEY using the Z axis constraint (so my camera doesn't wobble from side to side). So I did (R) for rotate, (Z), then moved the mouse.

Our ship is going to skedaddle now. The framerate doesn't change, so we are going to "speed-up" our ship by making it move a greater distance in the same amount of time. As such we'll have it go out of our camera view. Straighten out the path and pitch/yaw (orientation) of the ship and move it far enough along the X axis to be out of the camera view. Make the ship dissappear by frame 65. We're also going to end our animation on frame 65 (type that in on the bottom right).

Imgur

It should look something like this when you're done

[HINT] if you make mistakes, no problem click on the keyframe you don't like and ALT+i will erase keyframes for that specific time.

Step 2 - Render-out

THIS WILL TAKE TIME. Probably an hour.

On the right choose the Scene Output properties button

Adjust the settings to match those on the right side (ofc yours will be in a different output location, but otherwise choose the other settings).

To make a "quick" render dumb down most of the settings in the render dialogue (that is, turn-off anti-aliasing, and all post-processing make sure you turn down the resolution to 50% and the BORDER and CROP checkbox checked on). Make sure the END frame is set to 65.

Go back to the top and click on ANIMATION. Sit back and wait. If you're happy with the output we'll simply tweak the settings and add out sound-effects.

If you ARE happy with it - it's time to output a full render with optimal settings you turned off earlier. To boot, add sampled motion blur for your render.

Assignment #9 - Wrap-up

Complete the UFO tutorial as you have been doing and submit the exported H.264 movie and BLEND file.

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