Scene 15

In this scene you can see the crow drinking the water. There is a slight ripple on the water although it is barely visible. This scene is identical to scene 7, with the water level raised.

It shows that the crow achieved it's goal of getting the water from the pitcher.

I did attempt to add ripples to the water, although it proved more difficult than the previous scene, and decided to be content with what there was.

Scene 14

In this scene, you can see the pebbles going into the water repeatedly. As this happens, the water ripples and raises. This occurs 3 times in the scene. The animation is created by there being 3 pebbles waiting to fall. They are set as unyielding, meaning they aren't affected by the gravity. When they are needed, the unyielding checkbox is unchecked, and an animation is created for the next 100 frames. The camera and the pitcher are the moving objects, rather than the water.

I had alot of problems with this scene, the first of which being finding a way to get the pebbles to drop one at a time. I tried setting them up one above another, but the gravity caused them to accelerate and have too much force. This was solved as stated above. The next problem was the water would go wildly out of control after 4 pebbles for some reason, to fix this I kept the number to 3 maximum. The next problem was the lack of ripples from the drops. This was caused by the plane moving when raising the water. I fixed this by removing the pitcher from the rigid body collection, and moving it and the camera instead.

The raising of the water isn't supposed to be realistic, as it's just to make it obvious that the water level is rising. However, I could have done drop->raise->drop->raise, but I prefer this motion.

Scene 13

This scene is the same location as scene 10, although with a different animation. In this scene the crow walks up to the pebbles and bends down to pick one up. The lighting and skyline are the same as scene 10.

The purpose of this scene is to show the repetition of picking up pebbles to drop into the water.

Scene 12

In this scene the crow drops the pebble into the water for the first time. As the pebble drops, it causes the water to ripple. The reflection of the crow can be seen in the water. Reactor is used to simulate the movement of the water. The pebble and pitcher are part of a rigid body collection, the pitcher is set to concave mesh to allow objects to pass into it. The pebble was given mass to allow it to fall and interact with the water. Although it first rolls out of the beak before dropping.

The lighting is the same, with a sphere used for the sky.

I think this is effective, as you are not directly seeing the event, but am viewing it in the reflection in the water. I would like to have made the water more realistic, but it wouldn't match the theme.

Scene 11

In this scene, the crow is carrying the newly acquired pebble back in it's beak. The skyline is a plane with self illumination set to 100. The pebble is held in the same way as in the previous scene. The walk sequence is the same .bip from previous scenes. And the lighting is the same also.

I wasn't sure if I should include the pebbles in this shot. I decided against it as it wasn't necessary, and it hides the distance between the pebbles and the pitcher.

Scene 10

In this scene, the crow bends down to pick up a pebble from the pile. It takes one in it's beak and gets up again. the knees are animated as are it's beak. To attach the pebble to the beak, I assigned the ponytail of the biped as the pebble's transform controller in the motion tab.

The lighting is a target directional light with area shadows.

The beak itself actually goes through the pebble it connects to, but this is hidden by the pebbles in front of it. If this wasn't the case I would have changed it.

This scene shows what the crow is doing, even if it isn't obvious to the viewer why yet. I believe it works with the story and the rest of the animation.

Scene 8 & 9

In this scene the crow has realised that he cannot reach the water, but doesn't give up. Instead, he looks around for anything he can use to help him. When he does see something his eyes bulge. The animation is the crow standing up from a lower position, making it appear taller. The neck and head turn left and right, then the eyes are scaled and reverted.

I had a few problems getting to neck to turn, as it began to distort the skin after a while. However, I was able to do it by manipulating both the head and neck to get it to turn.

The lighting, as with the other scenes, is a target directional light.

I like this scene, as it makes it obvious that the crow is looking for something, that he finds it.

Scene 9

This scene shows the collection of pebbles that the crow has seen. There is no animation in this part, and is a bitmap render taken from scene 10.

Walking

I don't have a max file for the walking either, but it's a .bip with it's wings open, showing it's renewed strength and determination.

Scene 7

In this scene, the crow tries desperately to reach the water, but fails. The animation is of the crow's beak moving, while the body's Z position is lowered. This isn't visible as it's off camera.

A directed target light is used to illuminate the scene.

This scene suits it's purpose of showing that the water is too low for the crow to reach.

Scene 5 & 6

In this scene, you can hear the crow walking up to the pitcher and looking over the top. It is pretty much scene 4 from a different angle. The actual animation here is the crow moving in the direction of the pitcher then bending it's head to face downwards.

A direct target light illuminates the scene. The sky is a plane with a material on it. Everything is lit by a skylight in the scene, providing a more realistic light and shadow in the pitcher. This is used scarcely, as it dramatically increases the render time.

The fact that there is no walking animation is due to there not being a need, as only the head is visible. The neck also distorts the more you turn it, but again, this isn't visible so it was left. I had a problem where the beak went through the pitcher, but this was fixed by some repositioning.

The camera angle used is pretty effective, as it gives the view from the perspective of the pitcher, and gives an example of the depth.

The scene itself is useful, making it obvious that there is something in the pitcher that the crow is looking at.

Scene 6

I can't find the max file for this. It is probably scene 12 from a different angle. However, it is the crow looking into the pitcher and you can see the reflection of the sky on the water inside.

Scene 4

In this scene, you can see the crow fast-walking up to the pitcher and looking in. It is relatively quick, and the crow's wings are now spread and moving, giving the appearance of energy. The pitcher is embedded into the ground, and is an imported model.

There is a direct target light on the scene, with area shadows. This gives a slightly less realistic shadow in favour of decreased render time. This doesn't really matter as the animation is meant to be cartoon-style, so realism isn't high on the agenda as far as textures and shadows are concerned.

This scene suits it's purpose of introducing the pitcher to the animation.

Scene 3

In this scene, the crow notices something in the distance and recognises it as a pitcher. He is hopeful that it contains water and gives an expression of excitement. The first thing you see is the crow stationary, then you zoom in on his eyes, in which you can see the reflection of the pitcher in the distance. The camera then zooms out and shows the crow in his new expression.

This is the first time the skyline is seen, and I believe it fits in well with the ground. The clouds on the horizon make it blend so the point where they intersect is not visible. The sky itself is is a sphere with 2-sided on, and a sky material which is self illuminating.

There is a single target directional light illuminating the scene. The sky material is self illuminating, so together this allows the reflection in the crow's eyes to seem more realistic and show everything.

I had a problem with the reflection in the eyes, as the eyelids are a material. This meant that the reflection appeared in the eyelids as well. I fixed this by adding an object on top of the eyes to simulate the eyelids. This is slightly visible at at the point the camera is at it's closest. I only noticed this when the video was collated so that is why it is still there. Also, it is only visible for less than a second.

The pose itself is inspired by the character Hiro from the television show "Heroes". As he uses it to show an expression of excitement or accomplishment.

I believe that the camera motion used is effective, as it highlights the main feature that I was going for (the eyes and the reflection in them.

Scene 2

The next scene, you see the crow walking across the wasteland. It's wings are down to symbolise it's tiredness, and to show the heat of the area. It walks slowly from one side to the other, to give the appearance of it going on forever. The head bobs and the knees bend as the crow walks.

This is a very simple scene with just a walking animation. I had a problem with the .bip file to begin with, as it distorted the shape of the biped. However, this was fixed when I went back to the original and checked an option to only use current frames when saving the .bip.

As with the previous scene, there is a single target directional light illuminating the entire scene. The intensity multiplier is set pretty high to simulate the sun.

This scene is pretty simple, but effective in setting the scene.

Scene 1

The first thing the viewer will see is an empty wasteland and will hear the footsteps of the crow approaching. Then the crow will come into view and you can see it's legs, tail and part of the wing. As it takes the first step in-frame, it leaves behind a footprint with my SID as text in it. This is the focal point of the scene, as the crow walks off stage.

Creating the footprint was pretty simple, it is the bottom of the crow's foot, modified to fit. The text is just a text shape. One problem I had was that the footprint wouldn't line up perfectly, so it had to be fixed into place. Also the issue of when it should appear came up, especially with the dragging-back motion of the crow's foot (this motion is to represent the crow's weariness and pushing himself forward causes his foot to slip). The shadow hides any inconsistencies however, so it worked out well.

One directional targeted light is used to light the scene, with a shadow map creating the shadow. I initially had an area shadow, however it didn't work well.

I like this scene, it gives a good example of the tone of the rest of the animation. I believe the ground texture represents the environment well.

Pebble

For the pebble, I took a sphere and added a fractal noise modifier to it. I textured it and exported it so it could be used in the animations.

Flying

The first flight animation I made was the take off, the animation is of the bird bending down then jumping into the air, before flapping it's wings and flying away.

The second flight sequence is the bird motionless, apart from flapping it's wings.

Both files are .bip files, so they can be re-used.

Walking/Running

I created a few new walk sequences, making the head bob and the knees bend properly.

I also made a fast walking sequence, which is the equivalent of running for a bird.

Pitcher

To make the pitcher, I took a cylinder, and extruded the outer edge up and out to form the base.

I continued to extrude it until I reached the top. I pulled out one side to form the spout, and then enlarged and flattened the next extrude to form the rim.

I extruded one of the polygons on the side, ad shaped it to form a handle.

I added a MeshSmooth to get the final result.

I added a metallic texture and increased the bump to make it more realistic.