This is a production log for my HA12 - Marionette unit

1. I was taskedwithcreatingananimation of mychoice inNewTekLightwave,the animationhadtobe
at leasta minute longandit hadto have some decentdetail init. Idecidedoncreatingan animation
witha vehicle,specifically,withaspacecraft.
I wentontoTurboSquidandhad a lookat some goodmodelsthatI couldgo off on and create my
animationwith. Thisone wasthe one that caughtmy eye andI decidedtouse it.While lookingfora
model there were of course certaincriteriathathadto be met.I neededamodel thatisdetailed,but
not detailedalotsothat there wouldn’tbe thatmanypolygonswhichcouldextendthe rendering
timesgreatly.Ialsohad to lookforelementswithinthe model thatwouldbe usedinthe animation
itself,the model Ichose,inaperfectworld,hadtohave landinggearsas well asa set of weapons.
Unforunatelythisone didn’thave those,butithada low polygoncountaswell asthe general shape
and lookthatI wanted,soI wentwithit anyway.

2. I thenhoppedintomodellerandhada lookaroundthe model itself,how doesitpresentitself,any
glaringissueswithitthatweren’tapparentonthe website oranypossible problemswithitif I
wantedtoanimate it.I had to checkit againstthose criteria’sandif itfailedanyof those I wouldbe
inneedof replacingthe model.Howeveritpassedall of themandI was veryhappywiththe model
itself.

3. I thenstartedaddingthe individualelementsneeded todothe animationthatthe model was
initiallylackingwhenIdownloadedit.Firstoff,landinggearsatthe back. There was a large wing
stickingoutinthe underbellyof the craftsoI decreaseditsheightalittle bitsothat the landinggears
wouldn’tbe excessivelyoversized.Ithenextendedthemusingthe bevel andextrude tools,aswell
as editedtheirsize lateronwithresize tools.
I thenaddeda little bitof detail tothe landinggearssince Ifeltlike theywere insufficientatfirst,
again,I usedextrude andbevel tocreate those additional shapes,Ialsomade the basesof the legs
much thickerwiththe move andbevel tools. Icarefullyaddedthose detailsmakingsure thatI don’t
add toomuch otherwise the polygoncountcouldgetoutof control.

4. I thenmovedontocreatingthe frontlandinggearfor the animation. Again,Iwantedalittle bitof
detail aswell assimilaritytothe twolandinggearsatthe back butI wantedto keepthe amountof
polygonstoitsminimumsothatrenderingtimesforwhenthe animationiscompletedare keptto
theirminimum. Overall Iwasprettyhappywiththe endresultonbothendsof the craft.

6. Afterthe landinggearsIhad to add some sort of weaponlike elementsontothe shipforthe
animation.Idecidedto create themin3 differentpartsof the ship,one onthe underbelly,another
one on the side andthe lastone on the top of the ship. Again,Ithoughtof exactinstructionswithin
thisproject,the model itselfwasnotimportantwhile itwasall aboutthe animationandthe quality
of it.I decide theninsteadof creatingpropermodelsforguns,whichwouldalsoincreasethe
amountof polygonsIwouldjustcreate small bulgesandthe tiniestof detailinginordertomake
themlooklike rocketpodsof sorts. Thissavedrendertimesaswell assavedme time and instead
allowedme tofocuson the animationaspectof the project.

7. Last thingto do that wasveryimportantbefore Itransportedthe projectovertoLayout wasto add
pivotpointswhichactuallyenabledthe shiptoperformthe animationthatitwassupposedto.I
startedoff by cuttingeachelementthatwassupposedtomove andpastingitonto a differentlayer
(as can be seeninthe top rightcorner).Thiswouldallow me tocreate individualpivot pointsforthe
parts to move aroundfrom.

8. Here I create those earlymentionedpivotpoints,Imade sure that all of themare incorrect
positionsandtestedeachone thoroughly,mistake wasnotanoptionsince correctingthe pivot
pointsafterworking withtheminlayoutwouldbe incrediblyhardtodo. I addedpivotpointsfor
thingslike the weaponpods,the landinggearsaswell asthe pilot’scockpit.

9. Last but not least,before goingoff intoLayout,Icreatedtwoboxes,one wasthe piece of wall that
wouldbe attackedbymy animatedcraftand shatter,the otherbox was supposedtoact as a piece
of a landingpadforthe endof the animationwhere the craftlands.

10. Afterall the workwas done onthe modellerpart,itwastime to move the projectintolayoutand
beginthe animationitself. Istartedoff withplacingall the objects,adjustingthe lightingtosuitthe
scene andaddingthe ground plainbeneatheverything.Ialsosetupall the optionsproperly,suchas
adjustinginhowmanyframespersecondthe animationwill be goingatas well asthe exact
resolutionthatit’sgoingtogo off from.

11. ThenI managedthe familygraph,I hadto set upeverylayerof parts underneathcertainotherparts
inorder to make sure theyworkedtogether,forexample,all the layerswiththe landinggears,
weaponsandcockpithad to be arrangedunderneaththe mainbodyof the spacecraftor otherwise
theyfaceddetachmentfromthe mainshipwhenIstartedanimatingit.

12. I thendecidedthatthe base groundplainmade nosense inthe settingthatI am animatingmycraft
inand therefore deletedit.

13. I thenhad a slightproblemwiththe wall thatwassupposedtobe destroyed,itseemeedthatthe
originpointof the objectwascalculatedfalselyandthusIhad to delete itandcreate a new one on
itsplace,thisone workwithoutan issue witheverythingworkingokay.

14. Thisis a screenshotshowingthe settingsforthe new wall andhow itsupposedtofall apart,itis set
as a “parts” bodyandis specificallyorderedtoonlyfracture onthe last keyframe,610, at which
pointthe ball hitsthe wall,thistherefore lookslikeitshattersfromthe impactof the ball.

15. I startedoff the animationwiththe shipflyingtowardsthe wall thatissupposedtobe destroyed,
thenI animatedthe camerato follow the shipandstartto close in,the shipthenstopsright before
the wall.
By thistime the camera closesupto the shipand watchesitdeployitsweaponsystemsslowly.
The camera thenzoomsback out againand the shipbeginstofire at the wall withall of it’sweapons.

16. The shipthenfiresitsweaponsanddestroysthe wall ina swiftblow.

17. The shipthenbegins tofoldawayits weaponandthenstart to perform a quite complicated
manevoure todoa barrell roll,there wasalotof animationandcamerawork involvedinthisandI
had to re-dothe entire processacouple of timessince itdidn’tlooknatural the previoustime
around.Overall howeverinthe endIwas veryhappywiththe general result.

18. Lastly,the shiplandedonthe landingpadafterthe menvoure,deployingit’slandinggear,withthe
camera zoomedinonthe underbellyonthe craftand thenzoomingouttoreveal a perspectiveshot
of the entire spacecraftasthe cockpitopened.

19. Here is a graph showingthe movementsthatwere animated,overall Iamquite pleasedwiththe
resultsandI thinkthat the animationiseffectiveandwell done.Ittooksome time tomake,as well
as some trialsand errorsespeciallywiththe cameraworkbutI thinkitwas worthit inthe end.
Overall Iam quite happywithhowthe productionforthisprojectwent,Ifeel like I’velearnedalot
and appliedthatknowledge asIwent.Iam alsoverywell pleasedwithhow the general animation
came out,howit looksandhowit feels.