Learning to Storyboard

On thursdays class when we were told he had to come up with a story board for our next assignment i was basically just wondering what that was, and i was really really confused on what our homework was.  Basically i just figured once i followed the google link on story-boarding and read up and learned what it was i would easily understand the assignment.  So thats where i have begun.  I read up that the story board basically contains everything needed for the project to be completed. For example graphics, video, sound, text, audience interaction, color, type fonts, type size, etc.  It basically just needs to be detailed so there is a clear understanding of what the project will exactly look like. 

Every storyboard  must include:

1. A sketch or drawing of the screen, page, or frame.

2. Color, placement, and size of graphics. 

3. Actual text, if any, for each screen.

4. Color, size, and type of font, if there is text.

5. Narration

6. Animation

7. Video, if any

8. Audio, if any

I am really unsure for the purpose of our homework if i needed all of this though.  I knew a sketch or drawing was needed.  Color text and narration could all be things i can and probably will add.  Im not sure if im gonna be able to have any real animation or video, but i could suggest such things through drawings.  And i will think about the audio aspect of it.  

When actually dealing with creating a storyboard, it seems like you need to create a certain layout or format you will be displaying your ideas graphics.  I looked up a few formats in the google search, and i will basically create my own format, using the others as i guideline.  I feel using my own will be better because i can adapt it to what my project will need

Opening Maya

After yesterday's lecture i was pretty nervous about having to learn maya on my own.  Already a bit confused on some of the terms learned in class I decided i better start learning it early and as fast as i could.  So i opened up maya to basically see what it was about.  I definitely didnt recognize any of the keys or displays that the software had.  Luckily a tutorial guide opened with the program and i went through those, and i actually believe i understand a lot more of maya, just off those brief basic tutorials.  One of the tutorials was on creating primitives, and referring back to the second lecture we had in CS491 we went over nurb vs polygon primitives.  I still wasnt fully understanding these two objects so i searched around on the web for more information.  What i learned was that basically polygon modeling was the basic art of creating 3D models by building  connected polygon surfaces or by manipulating simple polygon based objects called primitives.  And what i learned is that with polygon primitives, the smoother you want your model to be the more polygons you need to add, which probably will add up to a lot and slow down your computer.  I believe this may be why we then use nurb primitives, which basically is a system that uses connecting points to create curbs or splines and connecting splines to create surfaces.  

 N -non

U -uniform

R -rational

B -

S -splines

And using nurb primitives is useful because it requires a lot less detail to create curvy surfaces.

And the tutorial i got this information from is from website is http://podcasts.creativecow.net/mulitmedia-101-podcast/basics-of-nurbs-vs-polygon. 

Another i needed to look into in maya was the use of keyframe controls.  I searched around on the internet for how to use them, but i didnt really find anything and i need to look a little more.  I will be signing on to maya more often now.  I feel a little behind the rest of the class never actually doing any animations, but i hope going through tutorials, and investigating some vocabulary learned in class i can get to the same page as them.

FinishedProject

I finished up the project yesterday.  I was able to get the notecards digitized using my digital camera and i put the files together using photoshop.  Im not sure what happened but it took the file over an hour to render using photoshop.  Finishing up the actual project was a lot of time. During my second sequence of the video, i found an easier way to draw the ball on each frame. For this sequence i really wanted to just focus on the ball and how it affected, so i tried to give it a slower motion effect.  What i did was draw each circle out on one notecard, and i used it as a guide for all of my frames.  This turned out to look a lot smoother and i liked it better than the method i had before, of just using the grid i made on each notecard.  The last scene took a lot of time, and i could have left it out but it was a fun idea and i wanted to see it through.  Shading basically took a lot more time than i thought it would be.  Although my shading wasnt as great as i liked i decided i need to take a drawing class or start drawing more.  I did feel good finishing this project though, it was a lot of work but i enjoyed it. 

Notecard animation day 2

The rest of day one i dealt with solving the problem of keeping my background image of the staircase the same in all the notecards.  The way i solved this problem is by drawing out my image on one notecard, and on that card i poked holes wherever there were corners.  Then all i had to do from there is line up my notecards and color in the holes i poked to mark where my lines should go.  This method has worked out for me well, but for the last scene my background is more complex so i am waiting to see if it will work for that.  i began to draw the ball bouncing down, and i am incorporating the distance it must change from each card, using the information i learned earlier about a ball bouncing down a staircase.  i have markings on the top of my notecards to make sure i am not positioning the ball wrong

Notecard animation Day 1

Ive been thinking about what exactly i can do to make a ball bouncing interesting and fun.  So beginning the project i decided i want to make my ball bounce down a flight of stairs.  Planning this out, i found i had to think a lot about the balls movement and path it will descend the stairs.  Searching on the internet i found if the a ball bounces steadily down the stairs then it will attain the same height above the next step as the initial drop.  Although in most cases a ball does not drop steadily down a staircase so i am gonna have to take into consideration my ball will be gaining velocity and the distance will increase with each bounce.  Drawing a few sketches out on a notecard i think im on the right track of getting an accurate path for the ball.  Also i need to consider the process of how im going to draw each staircase the same on every notecard.  Im considering different camera angles.