Animation School Year

2015-2016 School Year

This past quarter I decided to work on instruments. So far I have modeled a trumpet but I plan on make most of the other band instruments like the clarinet, saxophone, trombone, tuba, etc... I will then submit in next year into the eMagine festival. This Trumpet has taught me a lot of useful skills about different ways of modeling and how I can use this to make more instruments in an easier fashion.

Trumpet in its early stages

While modeling this trumpet I learned several new ways of how I can use multiple polygons to make it look like one whole polygon. I learned about a new tool called the Target Weld Tool.  I'd say this is one of the most important things I learned this year about modeling. To find this tool make sure you are in modeling, then go to mesh tools and then go to target weld at the bottom. This tool was used to take the vertices from one polygon to the next. However, you need to make sure that both of the polygons are the same shape and have the same amount of vertices. If they have a different amount than you won't be able to weld the objects together properly. I mostly just welded cylinders together with the torus. I used the torus and cut it in half and then welded the cylinder to it. I used the torus so I could have the smooth curve on the side of the trumpet.

I needed to learn a new way to get a smooth curve instead of making it from a cylinder and curving it. It would just make the curve look very sloppy. The importance of this tool turned my project from looking like a student made it, to a much more professional looking model. A lot of times when you see an object made from multiple polygons, you can see were each object starts and ends. But what this target weld did was made it a lot harder to tell where each polygon started and ended. This was the most important tool because of how much it changed the way the trumpet looked. The target weld tool would have really come in handy in a few of my other projects like the light saber

Final modeled stage of trumpet

I would say my greatest strengths of this year is being able to  think of something I want to model and I can figure out a way to make it. I am good at sticking with what I want to make and finishing it. Sometimes I can get distracted by other people in the classroom, myself, and my computer. Next year I want to work on not getting distracted as easily. I can get a lot more accomplished as long as I don't get distracted, talk to others for long periods of time, and not getting out of my seat. I'm gonna work on that for next year to improve upon that. This year I have improved a lot on just modeling in general. Last year I had a tough time figuring out what to do to make things. I've thought out side the box a whole lot more.

With these improvements I plan to take on my senior year with an iron fist. Making sure that I'm not getting distracted as much, taking the modeling onto the next level, and continue to make more instruments so I can finish the big progress. I'm gonna work over the summer, hopefully finishing 2 other instruments. I plan to learn how texture a lot better in this year to come. My texturing right now is eh. It looks too generic. I want to make it look a lot more realistic.

Final scene of the light saber clip

Things I would change in my trumpet is I would defiantly add a lot better texture, rather than just the typical phong e. I want to give it a more  brass look, than just a shiny yellow color. I plan to watch YouTube videos on how to make textures better.  For next year I'm gonna change my act more. I'll still talk just not as much, I'll get more things done,  and learn more techniques.

This year was mostly a successful, I made a good house interior, designed and animated a light saber, and worked the last quarter on a very realistic trumpet. There were some ups and downs this year, but over all it worked very well in the end. My modeling got a whole lot better. I think it started with the house. I put some fine details in that and it really transferred over to the trumpet very nicely. I can't wait to see what next year has to offer. I will see you next year.