VEF1 Project 2: Particle Effects

Our second project for Visual Effects I was to use Legacy Particles. We were given a scene for the project but had the option to make our own scene, I chose to use the scene given. We were required to make a minimum of three Particle effects. I chose to create smoke/steam, sparks, and melted metal. I used a directional emitter for the smoke, I changed the particles into clouds and used expressions to very the lifespan and opacity. I changed the spread to make the smoke go out farther and changed the rate, speed, and lifespan for each of the emitters to make them slightly different. For the sparks I also used a directional emitter and made the particles into streaks, I used a ramp to change the colors from red to yellow and a random expression on the lifespan. For the molten metal I used a volume emitter with blobby particles and used a ramp on the color and an expression for the lifespan. I also varied the sizes of the blobby particles and messed with the threshold to get them to meld together. I also animated most of the scene and set up my own camera for the project.

CAN1 Projects

These are the different passes for my class projects created for CAN1 (Character Animation 1).

Project 1: Leggy Walk. We were given a character with only a lower half.  The assignment was to animate it walking and doing a turn around. Here are the three passes I did for this project:

Project 2: Strong poses. We were given a character with a full rig and told to poses that have a strong silhouette and expression. The emotions we were told to portray are calmness, fear, anger, happiness, disgust, and a pose that shows balance. Here is my final for the project:

Project 3: Final Project. We were given a character with a full rig and assigned to do a resting pose, walk, turnaround, and button push for the character. These are the first three passes for this assignment, which is not yet completed.

VEF1 Lesson 1 Project

This was my first project for my VEF1 class at Full Sail University. The goal was to use rigid bodies to create an effect. We had the option to create our own scene but I used the scene that was given to us which was a Rube Goldberg machine. When I started the project I made the mistake of using too many rigid bodies and it was interfering with my scene a lot; I was also using way too many separate gravity fields but luckily something clicked after speaking with the lab instructor and I was able to start over with way less hassle. Gravity was the only field I used in this project, I was able to get the spinner at the end to spin with an added spin impulse so there was no need to use a vortex field. As for constraints, I mostly used hinge constraints for things like the hammer and mallet so that the object would move but not wobble. I used a nail constraint on the first cup so it would fall more realistically; however, I did end up using a hinge constraint on the second cup to prevent it from falling wrong and getting stuck on the wall. I used a combination of a hinge and spring constraints on the little trap doors to get them to stay in place and move back into place after being hit by the ball. I also used a spring constraint on the platform at the end that propels the three balls into the air. As for the composition, I like very bright and trendy colors so I used a lot of bright pinks and blues. I only had an area light and two directional lights to illuminate the scene, I wish I had gone back and made more lights because the shadows are so dark, but overall I'm content with the final look. It was a rough start to understand how to do this project but I think the end result came out well and I learned a lot from this assignment.