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Exercise 8: Custom Car


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The Art of Animation:Master (Online)

 

Please add your exerices to this topic and others will join in.

 

The Art of Animation:Master is being completed on a continual basis in the New Users Forum. Meeting deadlines can be an important skill to master early on but this course is self paced to allow each person the flexibility they need to learn the basics of Animation:Master. The course can be completed in as little time as necessary or as much as is needed by each participant.

 

Note: You may want to download the videos first.

All available Video Tutorials related to TAOA:M can be found on one page:

The Art of Animation Master Video Tutorials

 

The Art of Animation Master Part II: Modeling

 

 

MODELING TAKES TALENT

8 - Customized Car

9 - Flower Power

10 - FW-190 Fighter

11 - Giraffe (No available video tutorial)

12 - Lip Poses

13 - Show Some Backbone (Adding a Skeleton)

 

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Exercise 8 - Customized Car

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Customized Car

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Name: Den Dotson

 

Exercises Completed: Eight

Date Completed: Tuesday March 22, 2005

 

Instructor: Rodney (Head Mechanic) and that guy on the web tutorials

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Easy as a Sunday drive

 

Here is a link to the seventh completed exercise:

 

Included in post as image

 

Thanks Rodney,

-Den

post-22-1111519477.jpg

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Name: Chris Thom

 

Exercises Completed: 8 of 19 (though I've skipped 7, but I'm coming back to it!)

Date Completed: April 15, 2005

Instructor: AoA:M & Lee Iacocca

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: I have been doing most of the exercises so far based solely on the book but this time I watched the video also and I noticed that they didn't do everything the same. So I did a hybrid of the two.

 

BTW, I did a refit and mine is a hybrid car. Better mileage you know. :D

post-22-1113701030.jpg

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Hey Chris,

Your background reminds me of Rodger Reynolds superb modeling.

 

You said:

I watched the video also and I noticed that they didn't do everything the same. So I did a hybrid of the two.

 

It has long been on my list of 'Things to do' to go back in and do a serious comparison of the manual versus video tutorials if for no other reason than to see what there is to see. Some vary more than others but each seems to hit on key areas that make the exercises succeed.

 

I do want to add to Exercise 8 a secondary (extra credit even!) exercise on 'Animated Distortion Cages'. That would really make this exercise Zoom! :)

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Name: Tom Jansen

Exercise: #8 Custom Car

Date: April 25, 2005

Comments:

Um... what in the world is going on around my car doors? All of those black little lines appeared when I rendered this, and I haven't even started messing with lighting let. Anyone have any ideas? Might it have something to do with the surface settings of the car body??

 

Thanks!

-Tom

post-22-1114462299.jpg

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Tom,

Those lines are a part of the pixelization and distortion of the decal image applied to the car. As this exercise is fairly basic there are a few Exercise Extenders (TM!) that are designed to explore this area a little more.

 

The additional background and props that Chris and you have added in your scenes really demonstrates your eye for detail. An excellent way to get the most out of these exercises.

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Hey Chris, how'd you do the background?

Those are just stock models off the v12 CD.

A little background about the background...

 

The backgrounds and props currently being used by Chris and Tom are the supreme work of mechanical modeler extraodinaire Rodger Reynolds.

 

Rodger has been building a virtual railroad set since the early days of 3D Modeling.

The buildings and props used here are a part of his project which he generously donated to the A:M Community. It's always amazing to me that the artists style shows through so well in Animation:Master. Rodger's precision splining and texturing is often easy to spot.

 

Look for more of Rodger's models on the v12 CD.

 

Thanks Rodger! :)

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...and speaking of v12 CDs...

 

As an extension to Exercise 8 don't forget there are other cars (and models) to which we can apply distortion. The attached image shows a few of the vehicles from the Cars folder.

PoliceCarModification.jpg

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Rodney,

 

Ok, whew...

 

Just making sure I'm understanding what you are saying. Basically, the stretching and pulling of the model (with the attached decal) is causing that distortion? So really, for this particular exercise, using this particular model, that phenomenon is normal and to be expected to an extent (depending on the way you alter this car), right?

 

Hehe.. I was getting worried that KeeKat's, um.... "pimped up" ride was starting to rust out on him! :-)

 

Thanks a million!

-Tom

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  • 4 weeks later...

Name: Tenez Waggoner

Excercise Completed: 8 Customized Car

Date Completed: May 19, 2005

Remarks/Suggestions: This one was a breeze. So I had to add something to it. I noticed others adding characters, so I decided to add one as well. I noticed this very sexy :D looking woman character, and HAD to add her. Then I added keekat for the pimp factor.

post-22-1116547967.jpg

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Name: Paula Waslen

 

Exercise Completed: #7 Customized Car

 

Date Completed: Jun 11, 2005

 

Mine is very boring compared to the others...but I am anxious to move on to the more interesting modeling exercises.

post-22-1118504029.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Name: Doug Fall

 

Exercises Completed: Eight (yea! I made it to part 2!)

 

Date Completed: June 22, 2005

 

Instructor: Rodney and the ol' book

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: This one took a lot less than the others. Not much to add here...

sedan.tga

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Paula, Steve and Doug,

This exercise is pretty straightforward but there is a lot of power in that distortion cage. This also makes for a good introduction to modeling as you can often adapt one model to the purposes of another. Stretch here a little... distort there a little... on and on 'til perfection. ;)

 

Now concerning this exercise... I hope to add an Exercise 8.5 someday that applies the animated distortion cage to create great exagerated motion with this car. There aren't a lot of tutorials out there on animated distortion cages so that needs to be a higher priority I'd say.

 

At any rate... on to the next exercise! :)

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Name: Doug Wills

Exercise completed: Customized car

Date completed: 8/6

Instructor: Book and web tutorial

 

Basic, but informative.

 

Anyone wanna race?

 

Didn't spend a lot of time on this but the concepts are good to understand. Used a little of the ",", "." and "/" keys which some hiding and unhiding. It really helps. Saw the use of distortion cages on one of the SIGGRAPH videos. Can't wait for your 8.5.

 

-Doug Wills

Where there's a Wills, there's a way!

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Can't wait for your 8.5.

 

You aren't the only one. I'm looking forward to it myself!

 

I almost got a chance to put together a Exercise 8.5 at SIGGRAPH this year but I happened to be working with a motorcycle instead of a car and feel distorting a car would fit in better with Exercise 8 than a motorcycle.

I can be convinced otherwise of course...

 

I'm thinking of running through the exercise right here in this thread just to see what kind of interest it might generate.

 

Once you animate with distortion it can be VERY addicting...

 

Rodney

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Name: Melissa "Elissa" Heldenbergh

 

Exercises Completed: 8

 

Date Completed: Sept 12th, 2005

 

Instructor: A few years of A:M use, the book, and web tutorials, plus also doing the mentor program with Paul Daley.

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:

This quick and fun exercise has always been one of my favorites... cute, fun, silly and let's you start poking around with models.

post-22-1126632613.jpg

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Now we are starting to see some real variation in the theme.

Nice personal touches James and Dhar.

 

You get extra credit if you share your finished model with decals in a zipfile. :P

We'll collect 'em if you share 'em.

 

Rodney

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  • 2 weeks later...

Name:Marc Vancouillie

Exercise completed #8 customised car

Date completed 11/16/05

 

Remarks:This exercise was a very easy one.So I added some

more things.

I have noticed that A.M. v.12 refuses for some reason to

render to a tga or quicktime file.When I make a choice in the menu

it always jumps back to "Image file" the default setting.It makes

then a avi file of one image.

I overcome this for the moment by rendering in version 11.1

 

Instructor:t.a.o.AM book,learning video on the hash side and reading

in this topic what people have done before me.[attachmentid=11253]

customised_car.jpg

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Marc,

OUTSTANDING! :)

 

Now that is what I'm talking about. This is the direction we are hoping to take all of the exercises... the emphasis on storytelling. You've nailed this one!

 

There is a work in progress (additional exercises/mini-tutorials) that hopefully will go with this one some day. For now I'm calling them collectively; "The Race is On!". It is a collection of concepts... a kind of 'What we've covered thus far' that incorporates model/choreography setup, path animation; model and animation distortion, decaling and more with storytelling of course taking place in a great car race. At the end of the exercises everyone has a mini-movie of sorts created. In theory each time someone finishes "The Race is On" they've created a new episode in the ongoing series. Who knows if it ever becomes popular it might someday grow up to be an official exercise. :P

 

In other news you said:

Remarks:This exercise was a very easy one.So I added some

more things.

I have noticed that A.M. v.12 refuses for some reason to

render to a tga or quicktime file.When I make a choice in the menu

it always jumps back to "Image file" the default setting.It makes

then a avi file of one image.

I overcome this for the moment by rendering in version 11.1

 

I'm sure you aren't the only one that has noticed this particular issue with rendering.

You can render in v12 of course but you have to (generally) change the image type in both the File Type and the File Name areas. I started to do a test with the standard render panel and it looked like the settings were staying there. Maybe it is just the Advanced Render Panel that has this problem?

 

At any rate... that is probably one for A:M Reports.

Thanks for making me smile with this one.

 

Eric, John, Rich and Kurt,

Congrats on completing this one too. Some nice personalization there.

If you haven't already done it I encourage you to investigate animated distortion cages too! Tres cool!

 

Rodney

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Name: Jody Krivohlavek

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 8

 

Date Completed: December 31, 2005

 

Instructor: AM Handbook, Video Tutorial and everyone that's ever posted to these forums.

(Been around since the Playmation days )

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:

I grabbed the car I felt was already cool and did some extra customization to it. :D

 

Happy New Year everyone! Blessings to your families from mine. :wub:

CustomizedCar.jpg

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