Animation Assignment

The due date for this project is February 4, 2007 at 11:59pm. This project is 10% of your grade.

The goal of this project is create a simple animation using keyframing. Your animation must have the following elements:

• Animate complex 3D Blender model (10% of grade)
• Entire model must be translating and rotating. That is, at least 2 different x,y,z attributes must be varied in the IPO curves (for example, location and rotation) (25% of grade)
• At least 4 components moving separately (translating, scaling, or rotating) (40% of grade)
• Animation must loop - end position must be same as starting position (10% of grade)
• Your animation must last at least 6 secs (180 frames) (10% of grade)
• Render and save your animation as a movie file (avi file) (5% of grade)

The entire model must be moving with some rotation, such as crawling up a hill or walking along a curved path. IPO curves show how the x,y,z components of your objects vary. If you include translation and rotation in your animation, then the x,y,z components of location and rotation will vary, and the associated IPO curves will appear.

Your goal in this assignment is to animate a Blender model. Your models must have at least 4 moving parts. For example, the 4 legs/arms of your animal models can be moving, the head might be moving from side to side, and you may have a wagging tail. Be as creative as you can. The limbs may be translating, scaling, or rotating. To have the limbs move separately from the rest of the body, you will need to create each limb as a separate object and animate the objects separately.

To help you use Blender, there are tutorials for basic modeling and keyframing in Blender. Links to the tutorials can be found at the end of this page. A short tutorial on creating a model is also included on this page.

Sample Animations from 2004 (~15MBytes)
Sample Animations from 2005 (~94MBytes)

Blender Models

You may create your own Blender model, or you may use an existing model found on the web or from students in the previous semester of CS 437. If you create your own models, they need not be complex. They just need to have enough limbs to satisfy the above requirement of having 4 separate components moving independently. Many of the models did not have separate components for the limbs, so you will need to separate the model into parts.

Basic Blender Tutorial

Starting Up and Editting Objects

• Startup Blender by typing blender at the command prompt. You will see a purple sqare in the middle.
• Move the square by left-clicking on the square and dragging it to another location. Right-clicking to set the new location.
• Rotate the sqare by pressing r on the keyboard, moving the mouse to rotate, and right-clicking to set the desired rotation.
• Scale the square by pressing s on the keyboard, moving the mouse to scale, and right-clicking to set the desired size.
• Reset the cursor to another location on the screen by right-clicking (for example, at the center of the screen). This sets a center for the new object to be added.
• Add a cube by clicking on the menu: Add->Mesh->Cube. Notice that the cube looks just like the square!

Navigating in 3D

• Navigate in 3D by pressing down the middle mouse or scroll button and moving the mouse. Notice the difference between the square and the cube. The cube is in 3D. The square remains on the plane.
• Split screen by right-clicking on the top edge of screen and selecting Split Area.
• Split screen again by right-clicking on the edge splitting the screen and selecting Split Area.
• Select from the menu View->Top and click on one of the new screens.
• Select from the menu View->Front and click the other new screen.
• Note the x-y-z axis indicated at the lower left of the screen - how does this relate to the 3D view?
• Select from the menu View->Camera and click on the front view screen. This is the viewpoint from the camera (shown as a pyramid with a small yellow dot).
• Select the camera in your first screen by right-clicking on it. Move it around and rotate it. Watch how the camera viewpoint in your other screen changes.

Deforming Objects

• Select the cube by right-clicking on it. We will now edit the vertices of the cube.
• Toggle between selecting the entire cube and selecting cube vertices by pressint the Tab key. When both the vertices and edges of the cube are highlighted in purple, then the entired cube is selected. Scaling, rotating, and moving the cube will affect the entire object. When only the vertices are highlighted, then editing affects only the selected vertex.
• Toggle to vertex editting. Right click on one of the vertices and move it using the mouse.
• Now try changing the shape of the cube using other vertices. Note that scaling and rotation is not available in vertex edit mode.
• Now add other 3D shapes, such as a sphere by clicking on the menu: Add->Mesh->SphereUV. Click Ok to # of segments and rings.

Saving Your Work

• Select from the menu File->SaveAs. Enter your directory on the first line and the file name on the second line.
• When ready, close the window to exit.

Blender Links & Tutorials

• Blender homepage
• Blender downloads
• Blender tutorials
• BlenderNation tutorials
• Novice Blender Course
• more tutorials
• Blender interface
• Navigating in 3D
• Keyframing tutorials:
  • BlenderNation keyframing tutorial
  • Path animation tutorial
  • Juicy tutorial on keyframing (click on Keyframing 1,2, and 3)