This is our final project for COSC 3P98. We attempted to
create a realistic animation of an asteroid hitting the Earth. The goal
of the project is to submit the final product to youTube and based on
comments, determine how sucessful we were at fooling the naked eye. The
clip is short, but it shows a sample of the power of the programs we
used. Go to youTube clip to see comments.
Software:
We used 3D Studio Max for creating the meteor itself including
its fire trail as well as the debris from the explosion. We used Adobe
After Effects to add Effects to the scene such as the smoke from the
explosion.
Hardware:
This is the computer we did all our rendering on:
-Intel Dual Core E8400 3.0GHz
-4 GB Ram @ 800MHz
-32-bit Vista
-NVidia Geforce 9500GT
Story:
Evann and Neil are driving down Pelham Road through some
vinyards to their local mounatin biking trails. The two athletic, good
looking Brock students are videotaping this trip to submit to the
X-Games commitee for consideration for a contract. As they near their
destination Neil notices something weird in the sky. It's a meteor
headed straight for them! The two pull over and Evann films as much of
the meteor as he can before its eventual impact. Evann and Neil perish
along with everyone in a one mile radius from the blast. The impact
leaves the surrounding area devestated. The vinyard the meteor crashed
in has been reduced to a crater and flattened shrubbery. Rescue crews
found only the camera near the wreckage of Neil's car. The memory card
is retrieved, suprisingly enough, intact, and aired on CTV News.
Creating the clip:
At the start of the project both of the authors were new to
animation. Neither had ever done anything like this. After some
research we decided to go with the afformentioned software to create
the masterpiece. First, after deciding on this idea, we filmed the
video in one take. Needless to say no one is going to be winning any
Oscars for this performance. The asteroid was taken from the Autodesk
website (makers of 3DS Max) and can be found here.
We encountered difficulty creating a realistic looking fire trail. The
simple fire tool was not sufficient for our needs. After much learning
and exploration we were able to come up with a better looking fire
trail. The most difficult part of the process was blending the asteroid
and explosion to the video. Lining up the asteroid with the scene and
blending the colours were both tedious process'. We were able to find a
tutorial online for making a realistic impact including smoke and
debris. For anyone wishing to attempt something like we've done, the
tutorial is available here.
References:
All sound clips found at: http://www.soundsnap.com/
TV noise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH54cp2ggFk&feature=related
Opening meteor clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUucUacfJzA&NR=1
