COSC3P98 Animation Project

Guest From Outer Space

© Hai Zong January 2003

Introduction

To people living on a longly planet, it is exciting that one day the guest from outer space drop by our planet. Scientists are so intereseted in everything from outer space. This animation is derived from this kind of fantasy. It demostrates the falling procedure of a rock. When it entered the atmosphere, it was burning. Finally, it landed on the sea.

Tools

Bryce 5

Elefont v1.4 (July, 1998) - to make the 3D the title and the credit imported into Bryce 5 later.

Advanced MP3 Converter v1.58 - to convert the .wma format to the .wav format

Adobe Premiere 6.0 - to edit the animation file and the music file

Model/Texture

earth: Lost Marble, its materials is diffusion 59.2, ambience 37.2, specularity 92.5, reflection 62.7, refraction 130

jupiter: its materials isdiffusion 100, specularity 46.6, refraction 133

jupiter's ripper: its materials is diffusion 62.3,ambience 80.3,specularity 49.4,bump height 9.8,refraction 100

venus: its materials is diffusion 100, ambience 6.2, bump height 23.9, reflection 49.8,refraction 1000

Uranus: its materials is diffusion 85.4,ambience 70,5,specularity 23.5,bump height 23.9, refraction 100

Mercury: Crystal, its materials is diffusion 100, abmience 12.5, specularity 86.2, bump height 19.6, refraction 133

saturn: http://www.bryceworks.com/mjw/solarplanet.html

sky: Simple black background - atmosphere off, no haze and fog

Stone: Eroding cliff, its materials is diffusion 100, ambience 24.7, specularity 3.9, bump height 100, refraction 100
- when it enter the atmosphere, it becomes fired.( material - complex fx - fire)

Sea: Backyard pool, its materials is specularity 63.5, bump height 7, transparency 99.6, reflection 0.3, refraction 131

Credit: - .dxf object made by Elefont

Title: - .dxf object made by Elefont

Animation

In the project, the camera animation is a technique mostly applied. I benifit from it as well as the key frame. I created a scene and let my camera fly around it. If I satisfied the animation, then rendered it. So I did not spend too much time on it. Through the course of the camera, I would like to illustrate the endeavor of looking for a living planet as we look for other living planet. I also apply the key frame animation to simulating the falling procedure of a rock. To import the title and the credit into my animation, I had to use the program Elefont to create three .dxf objects.

Sound

Music: Ecstasy of Mars ( from " Mission To Mars").

Since the music is a .wma file, first I had to convert it to a .wav file by using Advanced MP3 Converter.

Make Movie

With Adobe Preimere 6.0, I joined the animation file and the sound file to get my movie.

Conclusion

During the project, I gradually understand some important animation concepts and techniques such as key frame and camera animation. Although there are many other sophisticated functions in Bryce 5, I have acquired some basic its skills like creating an object , determining its materials, repositioning, resizing, grouping, importing, exporting, lighting, and coloring and so on. Though it is exciting to complete my first small sound movie, it is more worthful to improve my ability to learn and solve problem on my own. I trust I will benifit from the ability in the future.