Big Dog Exercise 1

i)      If engineered or programmed badly, BigDog would fall over. Watch the full video again, and describe how BigDog’s legs move while walking– ie. what is the sequence of leg movements for one complete step? Use the terms BL, BR, FL, and FR for the back-left, back-right, front-left and front-right legs.

when the man kicked BigDog, the front legs crossed over while the back legs spread out. This action alternated in every step, where the front legs would spread while the back legs crossed, and vice-versa. This is to enable it to balance.

ii)     Explain how this sequence of movements manages to balance BigDog’s body weight.
When there is a bigger surface area, there will be more stability. Animals in real life cannot spread all 4 legs at the same time to have the biggest surface area for the most stability, when kicked. Their diagonal         legs move in the same direction at the same time. Therefore the biggest surface area an animal can get, to balance itself is by spreading the front legs while the back legs become crossed. The centre of gravity area will be area, and that would keep BigDog from falling over.

My Animation




This is the animation i did for my big dog. After understanding the concept of the balance, i had to follow what my teacher did in class to complete this. However, at certain times, i had to stop and think if this looks realistic, and would a real animal try to balance itself this way if it were kicked. I learnt that when the front 2 legs are spread, the back legs have to cross. Or in other words, diagonal legs have to move the same direction for stability. 

Overall, i was satisfied with my work, and i felt that it imitated the video that we had to look at, very well.

Project 1 Reflection

This project was a really new and interesting experience for me. I learnt a lot throughout my project. 

The few things i did for the project was:

• Storyboarding
• Implementation of 3D viruses into the video

Although i did a few things. They were both very tedious. I has a hard time thinking about where the cameras should be for the shots, after spending a few days on it, i finally finished my storyboarding satisfactorily with the help of my group mate. I had problems drawing a few scenes too. but after referring to a few images i managed to draw them. 

The second part i did, was implementing the 3D viruses into the video. this was the most complicated part for me. Although i knew what i was supposed to do, very well, my maya was not cooperating. I had already planned out what i had to do from start to end. I managed to do this because of the tutorials we did in class. 

Firstly, i exported the image sequence of the video, using After Effects. After that, i imported the image sequence into MatchMover. After that i matchmoved the video and then opened it in Maya. After this, i faced many problems. Firstly my image plane could not be seen. After that was fixed, i imported my 3D elements into Maya. However, when i clicked on the 3D object to animate it, my image plane at the back disappeared. Therefore, i could not animate my 3D element while watching the video, like i was able to when i did the Zombie Chase Scene. I tried and retried several times, but i still has the same problem. A classmate of mine, had the same problem too. 

I got some help from Mr George. After about a few hours, the only possible way he said i could do it, was by using the render view. This delayed my whole work greatly. I had to constanly render the frame to make sure my 3D virus was in the correct position.

Another problem i had was that when i imported my spinning virus into the file, it didnt spin when i playblasted. i had to animate the spinning separately, and furthermore, a few cones from the "Master" virus were missing. But because of the time-crunch i had due to the delay, i decided to ingore the few missing cones and proceed on with my work.

After a day, i soon got used to the idea of using the Render View to animate my 3D element. Thankfully, i finished my work in time to pass my part to my group mate who added in the filter to make them all look natural in the scene. 

Overall, i had a really interesting, and yet fun experience working with Maya and MatchMover. I learnt how to solve minor problems and i learnt not to be discouraged with problems i faced. 

Week 1- Lab 1 (Lesson 1)

Tracking an image sequence


 


This was an easy exercise where i had to only import my image sequence into MatchMover and then start automatic tracking. It tracks the movement of the camera. This basic step eventually makes the insertion of 3D elements into the live footage easier, at a later time. 

I had to do match moving on the footage my group shot for our project, so that i could add my 3D "viruses" into the scene. This made it easier as there was a "virtual camera" added to my file, which maya could recognise so that my 3D elements blend in well with the scene. 

Week 1- Lab 1 (Lesson 2)

This is my end product. I had a lot of problems while trying to do this as the instructions on the PDF were not clear at various parts. Furthermore, i do not know what my end product is supposed to look like. The instructions on the PDF could have been slightly clearer.

I did not have too much problems importing the image sequence and tracking the video.  I did however face a few problems when trying to set up the coordinate system. i did not understand what it was for exactly.

I had some problems with viewing my 3D object after it was added. I could not see it. After some help from my lecturer, we managed to make it appear. However i did not know now big it was expected to be.

Overall, I did learn a how to use MatchMover while doing this exercise, which i eventually applied to my term 1 project.

Final Zombie Chase Scene

This was my first try at incorporating a 3D element into a live-action footage using Maya. I did find this complicated at first. But over time i managed to understand what i was supposed to do. I had to firstly do the match moving for the live-footage of the lion statue. Following that, we had to play around with the speed of our 3D characters separately so that it seems realistic. I had to make sure that the zombie was way slower than the man who was running.

After that i had to import the 3D characters into the live-footage and start positioning them, and resizing them. I had to position them to show that they were running on the path rather than just walking through the statue.

I had to also resize them to show their relave distance from the camera. I had to make the 3D characters smaller when they were further away from the camera, and make them bigger as they were approaching the camera. I had to also turn them at an angle.

I did face some problems. For example, my zombie looked like it was flying and gliding. it looked really weird. But after a few tries, i managed to made it look more realistic. Another problem i faced was exporting. I eventually solved the problem by getting help from my teacher and friends. I had to transfer my work to the desktop and then export it as i was using a mac.

Lab 3 – So what exactly is Matchmoving?

QUESTION 1
 What is matchmoving, how does it work, and why is it important? How is matchmoving different from the 2D tracking you did in After Effects? Show some interesting examples of matchmoving in action from movies or online videos.

What is matchmoving?

It is a digital technique that enables the addition of 3d graphics and animation into a live-action video.

How does it work? 

Matchmoving tracks the movement of the camera. It tracks certain features in the video, like corners, or distinct dark or light spots.

Why is matchmoving important?

Matchmoving is important to do visual effects work, to usually incorporate 3D elements into a live-action video.

How is matchmoving different from the 2d tracking did in AE?
The tracking in AE follows a pixel, whereas matchmoving uses the speed of a point and estimates the position of the 3D object(whether its further away from the camera, or nearer to the camera), because things further away from the camera moves slower than things closer to the camera.

Examples

Avengers

Transformers

                           

Jurassic Park