This week we started our new term and this term we are supposed to design, model, rig, texture and animate a mechanical arm. We started with basic modeling today.
Designing
The concept of mechanical arm
Modeling
We started with modeling fingers first. We used basic shape and then adjusted the poly count from the channel box to adjust it according to our desired style.
Firstly, we designed a part of the finger. I used bevel and extrude modifiers to get this desired look.
Secondly, I modeled the wheel
After modeling basic parts, I combined them all and made a finger. Later on I made the hierarchy and named the fingers properly. I copied the geometry of the finger and made rest of the fingers and adjusted the sizes.
After modeling, all the fingers I tested basic animation to see if everything is working fine. The fingers were working fine.
This week we studied animation from production point of view. We discussed mise-en-scene and its elements, camera animation and camera shots in films.
Mise-en-scène
Everything that communicates to us within the frame is part of the Mise-en-Scène. This is A French term meaning what is put into a scene or frame and is constituted by all the visual information in front of the camera and can communicate essential information to the audience. The Mise-en-Scène is an essential part of the director’s creative art.
The analogy works for animation too. The animation director metaphorically “stages” the scene by controlling the placement of images, colours and lines. They also work with background artists and storyboard artists, who play major role in shaping the layout.
Everything in the animated mise-en-scène must be consciously woven into the frame, whether it is through hand-drawn animation, props, CG, or some combination of the above. There is nothing that can be “incidentally” caught in the frame. Film directors go to great lengths to control the set design, where the cameras are set up, and so on. But even they are strongly influenced by physical factors such as the weather, their level of access to certain locations and props, and their crew size and abilities. This is why people talk about film as a form of “heightened reality”, because even though much of it is staged and often supplemented by computer graphics, it is never completely divorced from the physical environment.
Example
The epic romance and disaster film, Titanic, is largely memorable for its bewitching use of key mise-en-scène elements. The biggest challenge is that it’s wholly set in a ship sailing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover, deep space is often used where even the far view of the ship is in clear focus. The use of lighting and costumes conveys the difference in classes within the ship. In the later half of the film, particularly, low-key lighting is used to express the epic tragedy. It wasn’t the tragic love story alone that made Titanic the success it was. The awe-inspiring visuals played an equal role. Now, that’s the power of a meticulously-designed mise-en-scène.
Image showing a still from movie, Titanic
Camera Shots
Extreme close-up: which gives us very little information, we can only see the character, bringing us very close to a person experience for instance.
Close-up: which gives the audience a bit more of Information but still limited and still tells to focus on that moment which is useful to create a feeling of intimacy.
Medium shot: still relatively close shot, usually showing a character from the waist up. A medium shot is used to emphasize both the actor and their surroundings by giving them an equal presence on screen.
Long shot: a view of a scene that is shot from a considerable distance, so that people appear as indistinct shapes.
Extreme long shot: a view from an even greater distance, in which people appear as small dots in the landscape if at all. No expression is visible and the characters get overwhelmed by the environment.
The camera within a shot can also move:
Pan shot: the camera is mounted on a non-moving base. The camera pivots on its axis along the line of the horizon pans left to right.
Tilt shot: The camera can move up or down while fixed on its axis.
Travelling shot (dolly shot): the camera can move forward or backward while fixed on its axis on a track.
Crane shot: The camera can move in and out and up and down while fixed on a mechanical crane.
Image showing camera shots
Exploring Camera Shots
We explored different camera shots today in the class using the crane rig. Here are some of the example shots I made
