New 3D Animation Classes!

Hi everybody, here is the schedule for the next set of classes. The first one starts this week. The classes are free and open to anybody who has a laptop. If you want to learn how to make 3D animation movies, this class is for you. It meets 2 hours each Thursday at 6PM. The class runs for 6 weeks, followed imediately by the second free class. Here are details:

I just received confirmation from the Duluth Parks and Recreation department about the dates of my next classes. I'm teaching the classes on the following dates:

Class #1: 3D Animation for Movies
(using 3D STUDIO MAX and free version GMax)
Learn to create your own 3D animated short-movies using free 3D software for the PC. Software will be provided for free. No experience required. Please bring your own laptop. (Sorry, the free Gmax software doesn't run on Mac.)
Fee: Free class. Optional $15.00 charge for book (from amazon.com). Software will be provided free.
Session : 4/16/09-5/21/09 Thur 6PM-8PM

Class #2: 3D Animation for Games
(using MAYA and free version MAYA-PLE)
Learn to create your own 3D game mods for video game engines using free 3D software for PC or MAC. Software will be provided for free. No experience required. Please bring your own PC or Mac laptop.
Fee: Free class. Optional $20.00 charge for a book (from amazon.com). Software will be provided free.
Session : 5/28/09-7/2/09 Thur 6PM-8PM

I'm really excited about teaching the new Maya class. You will enjoy learning Maya. There's a free version that I will give to everybody in the class. To look at what students have done in previous classes, check out these two websites where I post class projects (http://3drobots.blogspot.com/ and http://filmfx.blogspot.com/).

I'm hoping for a large turnout in each class, like 30 people. Parents are welcome too. In the first class "3d Animation for Movies" that starts on Thursday we will create a stunning photorealistic video of a Goodyear blimp animation flying at low altitude right over your head. The animation video will be ray-traced. I've already completed part of the project and it looks amazing! I think you'll really enjoy the class. I hope to see you there!

The City of Duluth Parks and Recreation department allows me to teach these classes in their facilities. Classes are free. The goal of the class is to create some amazing photo-realistic rendered images and special effects video. But the main goal is to have fun.

Questions?
Email me (Russ DeWitt) at DeWitt.Russ@gmail.com.

Download the Duluth Parks and Recreation 2009 Activity Guide:
Here's a link to the web site for Duluth Parks and Recreation Department. Go to http://www.duluthga.net/dt/pub_im/newsl.html and download the "Spring 2009 Activity Guide". You can sign up at the facility at Bunten Park in Duluth, Georgia or call their phone number at 770-814-6981. Hurry, classes start this Thursday.

Directions and Map:
Here's the address of the Bunten Park facility where classes will be held. The facility is a large 2 story building. It's the building in the park, so you can't miss it.

Duluth Parks & Recreation
3180 Bunten Road
Duluth, Georgia 30096
Phone: 770.814.6981
Fax: 770.814.6987

Here are directions to Bunten Park in Duluth, Georgia:
http://www.duluthga.net/maps/bunten.html
Here's a map showing directions to Bunten Park:
http://www.duluthga.net/maps/pdf/Map_of_Duluth.pdf

Russ DeWitt
Email: DeWitt.Russ@gmail.com

Example Videos from a Previous Animation Class

Below are some examples of projects that we did in a class in September/October last year. The class project was to create a 3D animation video using 3D Studio Max and to then composite the animation with a video clip of a live actor who is interacting with it. The videos came out really well, and we had alot of fun making them.

Playing Kick-Ball

In this video, the student is kicking an array of colorful rubber balls. We created the ball animation using 3D Studio Max and Reactor. Reactor is a feature in 3D Studio Max that allows you to model the "physics" of how an object moves, so that your animation looks more like real life.

After creating the video of the balls in motion, shadows were added below each ball to match the subtle shadows of the indoor roomlight in the video of the live actor.

The video below shows the final result.

KICK BALL (FINAL)
(Sorry. For some reason, Google's video server is showing
black thumbnails on all uploaded videos today.)

Below is a solid black "matte" or "mask" video of the animation (the rubber balls). This video is used by the video editor to mask off any part of the shadows video that exists where a ball should be shown. Just like in real life, you can't see shadows that are hidden behind a solid object. So, masking those shadows off in the video editor prevents them from blending with the rubber balls in the video.

KICK BALL (MATTE ONLY)
(Sorry. For some reason, Google's video server is showing
black thumbnails on all uploaded videos today.)

Below is a video of just the room light shaddows under each of the rubber balls.
KICK BALL (SHADOWS ONLY)
(Sorry. For some reason, Google's video server is showing
black thumbnails on all uploaded videos today.)

Finally, the video below is a composit of the Matte-Mask video, the Shadows video and the rubber ball animation video.

KICK BALL (BALLS+SHADOWS ONLY)
(Sorry. For some reason, Google's video server is showing
black thumbnails on all uploaded videos today.)

Cute Bunny Animation
Here's a really cute video project that we did in the last class of a girl touching a 3D animated bunny character. In this video, the 3D animated bunny was created and animated in 3D Studio Max to match the motions of a live actor. Shadows were added to the animation to match the lighting in this video shot of the live actor.

BUNNY ANIMATION (FINAL)

BUNNY ANIMATION (NO SHADOWS)

Above is the video of the live actor composited with the bunny animation without shadows. Notice how, without shadows, the animated character seems to be floating above the ground. Adding shadows gives the viewer a visual queue to make the animation more believable to the eye.

BUNNY ANIMATION (SHADOWS ONLY)

Above is the animation that we created of just the shadows from the animated character.

BUNNY ANIMATION (MATTE ONLY)

Above is a solid black "matte" or "mask" of the animated character. The matte is used to mask over the shadows in the area where the bunny character is standing so that the shadows don't show through the character when all of these videos are composited together.

In the end, we loaded these 4 videos into the video editor:
1) The video of the girl actor without animation added
2) The animated video of the bunny character without shadows.
3) The video of the shadows only
4) The video of the mask only

After compositing the videos together in the video editor program, you can then save the video in whatever video format you want, like Apple iPod or quicktime format or windows "wmv" format. I usually save the videos in a format that will play on my iPhone so that I can show people what I did!

There are alot of steps to making a good video composite. But it's really not that difficult. Many of the hot-shot 3D exerts in the last few classes were between age 12 and 15! Anyway, we really had alot of fun.

Beam Me Up!

Here is a project that we did to introduce using a video editor program. Beam me up! This is a simple demonstration of compositing using the Premiere Elements video editor. Using a video editor allows you to mix your animation (the sparkles in this case) with your live video. Turn up your audio when you play this movie:-)



Below is the video of the sparkles only. We made the sparkles video using Photoshop.