Post 6 & 7

Advanced Tools and Techniques

Task 1: Complete your animation

In order to gain Achieved: apply a set of advanced tools and techniques suited to the media to enhance the presentation of the content.

In order to gain Merit: show accuracy in the application of advanced tools, techniques and procedures.

In order to gain Excellence: apply tools and techniques and undertaking procedures in a manner that economises the use of resource in the outcomes production and its usability (e.g. timely fashion, and optimisation of tool selection use).

Task 2: Explain how advanced tools and techniques have been used to create, edit and integrate digital media outcomes.

One of the advanced tools that I have chosen to help me with my process of designing and animating my animation was Rigging. Rigging is the simple way of adding in a simple bone structure to help the different parts of my animation move or function as if it were a normal human being, it guides your finished mesh object so that you are able to transform and/or pose you mesh however we want whether it would be walking or flipping. Rigging can also be headed under the 'Armature.' This Armature can help give my animation a lifelike structure to ensure that it appeals to be alive to the viewer. To begin with, I added a single bone toward the middle of the animation then of course building upon there moving outwards towards the arms and then of course down below towards the legs. I also used a simple method that I have used before the mirroring technique as this made it a lot easier and quicker too. This also meant that equality within the two sides were also available so that was a positive.

Another technique I had chosen to help with the lifelike process of my animation was UV mapping. UV mapping allows me to give the character an in-depth look or feel it provides realism to the character, this gives it different textures and or layers of specific colours to resemble something related to the outcome of the figure. In UV we are able to provide a high visibility of realism within the animation far more better then any of the given procedural materials and textures can do, in UV mapping we can easily colour a specific part of the animation to any colour or shade and view it on the 2D plane or image that we have created using the unwrap function. So therefore before we can start the painting process we have to know how to correctly unwrap or seam each of the different significant parts of the animation, for my animation I just unwrapped the legs, the side of the chest and the arms to get a full layout of what the different parts will look like, also this can help me get into the smaller and detailed parts of my animation. Unwrapping is basically turning it from a 3D view to a flat 2D view. During my process I had to edit and transform the painting in Adobe Photoshop, as the painting in Blender didn't quite help me with all the little detailed aspects of my animation, this was the only implication I had to face.


Another popular technique that I used for my animation to help me create, edit and integrate my animation was the Walk Cycle. The Walk Cycle is a simple way of adding a simple and easy human-like feature to your animation. Here I took a simple Walk Cycle image from the internet searched up on google.com and used it as a background image so that I was able to turn my animation transparent (hotkey z) and look through everything besides the bones structure or the Armature to fix and edit the position of each bone to create a walk pose. Hence I repeated this step recording each of the frames, letting the computer or application fill in the 'in between' frames so that it didn't look like a robot. This helped my animation feel real as the Walk Cycle was able to give my animation a more 3D look towards the viewer.


Task 3: Discuss why advanced tools and techniques have been used to create, edit, and integrate digital media, and how their use has enhanced the outcome.

Without a range of properly certified Advanced tools and techniques my animation wouldn't be as life-like as others. Hence ensuring you Create and use the right advanced tools and techniques help you meet the standards needed to meet the brief. Rigging help me move and position any part of my animation forming poses that will later on be translated into a mini clip. I think this has enhanced the outcome highly as each detailed technique has been carefully used to help provide a well functioning animation. As the assumptions of each technique I used helped the outcome my animation, this also guided the quality and the way in which my character can feel real, it ensured that the character was able to move due to the way in which the Walk Cycle was made. The Walk Cycle is a simple task a human like figure can do, hence this helps bring out the significance of the animation coming to life. It was able to display movements that are easy and sometimes unique displaying a simple life-like form of any animation will do. Moving each of the bones you are able to create different positions for example making your animation flip and or jump there are thousands of different characteristics that you are able to add to your animation to make it unique and or differ from anyone else's.

During the Editing process, we are able to edit the different poses that we have chosen to use if we see a fixable problem. For example the first time I worked on my Walk Cycle I noticed that the side was perfectly done however amongst the front of my animation my design was going all over the place this is because I had failed to correctly manage all views of my animation. However because I was able to edit the different key frames of the poses this allowed me to correct and improve the way in which my animation movements were displayed. Editing basically allows me to fix up any mistakes that have been accidently created.


Integrating is when you add in two parts or object together. For example in my animation I used the process of Parenting. Parenting is when you select a numerous amount of objects and grouping them together to help the control of each aspect. This allows us to enable easy access of organising of things as if we have too many singular objects we will find it difficult to properly control them. In out case, using blender we have to select the different bones (armature) in a specific order. First we have to be able to correctly choose and select (Ctrl + P) the Child Objects first, and then select the Parent Object last. This is how we can correctly parent each of the objects together. We do this because when we actually go to move or rotate a part of the mesh for example the arm, we see that both the arm and the mesh will be moving together hence making it simpler to create different poses and life-like movements. Using all these techniques it also guided me to enhance a Walk Cycle. Creating different poses significant to 'walking' to view a smooth Walk Cycle.


Task 4: Evaluate how the application of advanced tools, techniques affect the quality of the digital media outcomes.

Applying each of the explained Advanced tools and techniques, will affect the quality of the final outcome of my animation as it defines more of the life-like aspect of my animation. This was the main aim or purpose of why we decided to create an animation, to help the viewer understand our own concept of bring the animation to life. As I used Rigging on my animation it appealed to be mostly accurate however a few mistakes were made resulting in having to restart a few times, the rigging part of the technique helped me understand the way in which my animation was formed and how it can be elongated into a further and more complex result by using the rigging for my basic Walk Cycle. This was an indication that my animation came to life and helped it seem real. Also the guide of UV Mapping offered further more in depth of the appeal and characteristics adding in colour and significance of dimensions within the animation. Using these advanced tools and techniques enabled me to meet the standard requirement of the brief.