UNIT 14- Final Major Project 2

Final Major Project 2

For this years final major project my concept will be creating a first person pre-recorded animation, of a character reloading a gun and moving around an environment, the main focus being on the reloading animation. I have chosen this because it will involve my using a mixture of most of the things I have learned this year, and from those my favourites were animation and rigging. These play a big role in my project, as I will be using 3 different varieties of game design & development, which includes modelling, rigging, and animation. For my FMP I have also realised that it will be a lot to achieve in a short amount of time as there are many things that I will need to spend extra time on, as problems will most likely occur with rendering animation and body movements. However, I am prepared to work very hard for this project and will try to get it done to the best of my ability.

"The Contract"

Here is the link to my statement of intent explaining my project in further detail, and what I will be doing for the next few weeks.

Research

For my research I have started to look at a variety of different first person shooters, looking at the different kinds of animation there are for reloading, carefully analysing how they use their hand and finger movements and also how the gun moves when they are walking. This also includes when they aim down the sight, these are going to be the most important aspects of my animation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDrRpYAD1r4

http://3drt.com/store/characters/modern-firearms-animated.html

http://www.moddb.com/games/polaris

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-GB/game/splinter-cell-blacklist/

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/planetside-2-has-the-most-complex-gunplay-known-in-video-game-history-thus-far.198030/

http://forum.symthic.com/battlefield-4-technical-discussion/7897-cte-initiative-2-core-gameplay/index12.html

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~jtalbot/muscleSim/

http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5467/arm-resets-position-when-exported

For my main sources I will mainly be using a variety of 4 different references that have given me the best inspiration and sources for this project. The first is Call of Duty mainly for perfect examples of many different reloading animations, good arm movements and the ads animations are also really good references for what I want my animation to look like. The next is Halo 5, I chose this also for their reload and arm animations but mainly for references for the hud and the gun models as they have a very nice futuristic look to it that really inspires me. I also chose one of my favourite movies The Bourne Identity and will be using one of the scenes as a reference as it portrays really good real life hand and body movements while using a gun, that will help a lot when it comes to my animation. Lastly, I will also be using a website called pinterest because of their large base of arm and skeleton drawings which will definitely help me with getting the correct arm and joint movements in my animation. Now to do this I will need to do further research into how these kinds of feelings are portrayed in games. For instance in a horror shooting game like Doom the sounds and environment play a big part in how tense and scared the player feels, these ideas and feelings are things I will have to research more in order to get more inspiration and ideas on how to engage my audience better in my animation.

Call of Duty has always been a great inspiration for me, however I chose it for this project firstly because of their various guns and reloading animations. When it comes to first person shooters there are many other sources that I could have used however, I chose Call of Duty because of the variety between them, this will help influence me and how I carry out the animation. Also the body and joint movements in Call of Duty are animated very well so this gives me a good example of how the arm should move. Lastly, the ads (aiming down sight) animation, it is very important that I get the aiming animation correct, and COD has a large selection of different aiming animations perfect to aid me when trying do my ads animations.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/

http://wccftech.com/black-ops-3-beautiful-1080p-screenshots-1080p60-beta-gameplay/

http://moviepilot.com/posts/3786824

Halo 5 is also a really good reference for me to use in this project just like COD it also has a really good base of reloading animations and arm movements that could also be helpful, however the main reasons I chose Halo were one because of the hud (heads up display) design, its very sleek and futuristic, depicting the character as an agent or soldier etc. which is exactly how I want to portray it in my animation. Another reason Halo is one of my main inspirations and references is for the armour design from the first Halo games the concept, art and design of the Spartans armour always stood out to me, and is what I will base the design of my arms off of. Another reason halo is one of my inspirations is because of how they use sounds, environments, and characters to portray a variety of different feelings throughout the game, as it immerses the audience into moments of fear and intensity, but can so easily switch to being pumped up confident and ready for battle.

http://www.geek.com/games/halo-5-pre-orders-start-today-includes-a-250-collectors-edition-1612516/

https://www.reddit.com/r/HaloStory/comments/30tsuy/mjolnir_mark_vi_preh4_vs_h4/

http://netflixlife.com/2015/10/14/50-best-movies-on-netflix-the-bourne-movies-join-the-ranking/

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Bourne_Identity,_The_(2002)

As another form of research I have also been using a specific scene from the Bourne identity as one of my main references, as this movie gave me a lot of inspiration for my current project; as there is a sniper who has been tasked with assassinating Jason Bourne and as a result a heavy gunfight goes down. Now, from this there is a lot of material that I could use to help with my animation, as this is a perfect example of a real life gunfight which for me portrays different camera views of guns and scopes, the positions their hands are on the gun and how the finger grips it. Lastly, good examples of camera angles and body movements when holding a gun. I will be using all of these references to help with my animation.

As my last form of research for my animation I needed a good base of drawings and images, portraying arms, hands, fingers, joint movements and bone placement. The perfect website I found for this was pinterest, as they have an extremely large database of drawings and images of all the hand and joint examples I need, to give me inspiration and help with my animation. Also, as you can see there is also a good variation between them ranging from handgrips to bone placement, which can also help with my rigging.

I have also been looking at a variety of different forms of reloading with different weapons to compare and contrast the differences between them. The first thing I looked at was different ways to empty and replace the magazine or bullets etc., as shown in some of these gifs. It tends to either get forcefully pushed out without any hand movements and swapped for a new one or gets replaced manually with the hands using a range of different reload techniques.

Starting with one of the most important aspects when it comes to reloading is the sound, which plays a huge role especially in games when it comes to showing that the gun is being reloaded, firstly you have the sound of the magazine being taken out of the gun, the replacement of it and cocking the gun, comparing these sounds and how they differ with different guns I can see that the frequency of the sound varies with different guns, for example if it’s a magazine it will have quite a low frequency sound to it because it has to lock into place, however if for instance it is a bolt action rifle then the sound will be of a higher frequency because you are manually replacing the bullets and due to the fact they are metal it will make that sort of "ching" sound depending on the mechanics of the gun.

Now with the manual reload I can see that there are many ways of doing this as shown. There are 2 main forms of this reload, which are the tactical reload and the manual reload. Tactical is where you use a specific tactic to push out the clip and replace it in a different way to speed up the overall reload time. From this I can also see that you need to use a relatively large amount of force to push the clip out and replace it with a singular hand movement and the joint movements needed to do this.

The next is the manual where you replace it normally by manually taking out the magazine and swapping for a new one, making sure that it’s locked in place. However, from this I can see that the manual reload differs between the weapon in hand, and that this only applies for some weapons. For others like shotguns and rifles, as shown in some of these references, there is no magazine and sometimes it may just be bullets and shells that you must replace manually, and in that case you will be replacing it one at a time as fast as possible.

Now looking at the tactical reload without using hand movements to empty the clip. Looking at it I can see that in these tactical reloads most of the movement comes from the arm holding the gun, the shoulder, arm and wrist are the most important joints and movements for this kind of reload, as this controls how you will twist or push the gun to force the clip out, in which you can see there is a type of circular rotation movement to it. Compared to the other types of manual and tactical reloads I can see the different types of hand and joint movements needed to give the best effect I can, as for the tactical ones the main focus is in how the clip is emptied either using more wrist movements to push the clip out or using more of the arm and shoulder to twist the gun making the clip fall out in the process.

However, for the manual ones the main focus is the right amount of force needed for how you pull the clip out and replace it, as here the arm will be doing most of the work to pull it out. Next I looked at replacing the clip and the different ways of pushing the magazine back to lock it into place, comparing these, for most of the references I can see how when they replace the clip one side usually gets tilted into the gun first then gets quickly pushed into place, but obviously the way you do this differs with every gun.

Lastly I looked at gun cocking which is where you push or pull the charging handle or bolt handle to move the hammer inside the gun into the ready position, allowing the next magazine to be fired. I have many examples of this in the gifs, and when executed the main focus is either on the wrist for tilting the gun to the side and the hand movements for pulling the bolt handle back to the ready position.

Comparing these between the different guns and styles I can see that there are some instances where the gun will not be tilted and gets cocked from a still position, whereas some may rely on the tilting which looks a lot more smooth to me and will also involve switching hands to pull the bolt handle properly.

As part of my research I also looked into different types of shooting games to compare and contrast the differences in the layout and certain aspects of the game. I chose 3, which are: first person, third person, and top down shooters. In light of this I researched into 1 example of each of these games, which are Doom, Gears of War, and Nuclear Throne, all of which are horror and monster based shooters so that it makes it easier for me to differentiate between each of these games and understand how I want my animation to relate to this.

Doom is a first person shooter game which is based on the exploits of a space marine working for the union aerospace corporation who must fight hordes of zombies and demons in order to survive. I picked Doom for its horror factor and immersive gameplay, as it uses a range of futuristic scenery and weapons combined with fast paced gameplay, incredible take downs, mysterious creatures and its widespread fear element.

Next the Gears of War series is a third person shooter game, based on the conflict between humanity and the subterranean reptiles known as the locust and their mutant counterparts, the lambent. I chose Gears of War for its intense and artistic style of gameplay, incredible melee aspects and gun modifications, camera and player movability, and its blood and gore factor.

Lastly, Nuclear Throne is an indie top down shooter game with 2 modes of gameplay, single player and co-op, in which you select a character and attempt to level up to earn new characters and mutations, however if you die in the game everything is reset and nothing carries on. I chose Nuclear War because of its stylised fast paced gameplay, the awing mutation and levelling system, and the interactivity of the multilayer system.

When looking at them more in-depth there are certain attributes that each of these genres have that appeal more and less to certain people depending on their liking, for instance some people may prefer first person because it makes you feel like you are in the game playing it for real, others may say that third person is better because it gives you a better view of the game and your surroundings, and some will say top down is better because its more chaotic and fast paced. However, in the end they all have their own properties that stand out from each other.

Comparing these 3 games now comparing what is the same and what differs, for starters there is always an objective whether it be getting to the max level or to find the locust queen. It is vital that the viewers or players catch and understand what the main objective of the game is as that’s what gives them the motivation to play it. As you can see in Gears of War the main objective is completing missions by killing the locusts, progressing towards and finding a way to stop them. In Doom its also very similar, as you are fighting the undead in order to survive and work towards stopping them/escaping. In Nuclear Throne it differentiates a little as your main objective is just to kill enemies and level up in order to win the game. These are good examples of how these 3 genres are related and can have similarities and differences at the same time. Because all shooting games follow somewhat the same basics in all games which is to find and kill enemies levelling up to earn more guns and characters to then go on to kill the boss or complete a specific mission. This is the basis of all shooters including the current 3, however it’s more about how games expand on this that makes them different from each other.

Looking more at the deviations between these games and how they have their own style and play, I’ve noticed that first person shooters are more about immersing the player into the game, when you play it you’re meant to feel like you’re in the game, so it’s more of an isolated type of game that’s meant to constantly keep you focused. Moving on to third person shooters can tend to be a lot more fast paced because of the view you are looking from, it seems as if there’s more ground to cover and you have a better view of your surroundings making you constantly alert and having to move around a lot. Lastly, for top down games I have started to notice how it’s the fastest type of game in these 3 genres and I think this is because while immersed into a top down game you have got a view surrounding most of the area you will be in and because of this, there will be a lot going on and there tends to usually be waves or hordes of enemies coming at you, and a variety of skills and weapons to use during the game time. I think they do this because top down games are always relatively short and get completed quickly. However, they have certain variants that will make the game harder to complete, for instance in Nuclear Throne their variant is that your progress will reset when you die. This has all helped me to understand the different gaming genres a lot better.

Comparing first person, third person and top down shooters

Reloading rotoscope

For the next part of my research I looked into how first person shooters have changed throughout the years, looking at some of the first ever first person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D (1992 Id software) and Alien vs. Predator (1994 Capcom). Then, comparing them to something more modern like COD. Throughout the years fps has come very far from being unnoticed to being one of the biggest game platforms in the game industries. In light of this I looked into 3 old games that helped change the course of fps games to make it what it is today. These are: Wolfenstein 3D one of the first ever fps game released in 1992 by id software, the game involves you entering new levels and killing Nazi's although it may seem boring now, back in 1992 people were amazed that computer games had gotten to that level where you could almost be in the game as if you are seeing it from the characters point of view, because of this it quickly became a fan favourite and is still hailed as the granddaddy of fps games. Next Duke Nukem 3D the first game of the series and very popular because of its adult demographic involving swearing, strippers, and parodies of popular culture, along with its open world design it quickly became a fan favourite amongst teenage boys, because this is the first encounter we had with a game that lets you do what you want.

Lastly, Quake a multiplayer based fps game released by id software after their great success with Doom, Quake was also a major point in the fps industry as this was where online game engines were introduced, and the basis of their game engine lead the way to many more games being built in the same way. Now looking at these games and comparing them to something modern you can see the drastic changes that have been made in almost every aspect, it's almost like looking into the future. The graphics are a no-brainer as this is something that changes every year and with each sequel of games. However, it has definitely come a long way, in just 15 years we've gone from having 2D pixelated graphics to 3D photorealistic characters which look real, and from this you realise how important graphics can be as this helps to immerse you more into the game. Next I looked at movement and gameplay, which are one of the most important aspects of fps shooters as this is also something that has majorly changed in these past years. Before in games like Duke Nukem and Quake, you can see that movement was generally just gliding across the floor because walking animations and movements were not made then, also you can pick out that the general movement of the player and bullets and so on is generally just laggy and slow compared to modern day games, almost like it was moving 3 frames at a time.

Next I was looking at different types of fps, this usually differs between campaign based games and online based games, back when fps had started getting more noticed, the industry began to make a better variety of online and campaign based games similar to something like Duke Nukem and Quake, in which they will either make the game online or campaign based. There could only be one, you would not find both in one game, however moving forward in time to Halo combat evolved the first of its series, and one of the most hailed games of all time because of its amazing campaign which followed a good storyline. Also, they’re online as well as this is where gaming actually started to get competitive as there was a variety of different teams, weapons and game modes. Finally, I looked at how reloading has changed throughout the years, looking at most of them reloading really wasn't put into games until a bit further down the line, all of the old fps games I have researched have been extremely similar in reloading, because the software they used back then was very basic, and animation was almost unheard of back then in games. So, it would either be a very basic hand animation of about 2 quick hand movements moving up or down for example in Duke Nukem, and you could also have the gun go off the screen, then when it comes back your clip will have been replenished, this is how it was in Goldeneye. Or lastly it would simply just be a gun with a specified amount of ammo and when it runs out you have no more, this was how weapons in Quake worked. The next major change probably came with Half-Life (1998 Valve corporation) a sci-fi game based on the adventures of a physicist hunting aliens and monsters. This game is one of the most respected and best fps games of all time for its story, brains, gunplay, and gameplay, however when it comes to reloading it was the first game to have a proper 3D reloading animation, so this game was very important to the development of fps games. Moving on more down the line this is the period where fps games were getting better and more advanced every few months, following the success of Half-Life, games like Counterstrike, Team fortress, Battlefield, Halo, and Call of Duty begun their ascent to fame with the first games they released of these series. Reloading animations around this time are when it actually began to look realistic as the hand movements were a lot smoother compared to something like Half-Life in which it looked more like one singular movement. From here reloading continuously carried on getting better, smoother, and more realistic up to this very day.

Contrasting different types of reloading

The history of first person shooters and how it has changed

Gun modelling

Before beginning my gun model I first researched different kinds of assault rifles and I picked three main ones, which were the Remington ACR, M16, and the HVK-21 from Black Ops 3. Looking at the differences between them and looking at what features I could use and incorporate, some of the things I noticed was that the stock of the gun tends to stay the same, even with different guns this could be due to the fact that assault rifles carry a lot of kick when shooting, so it needs a relatively large stock to help maximise accuracy. Another thing that tends to stay similar in all guns is the attention to detail on the sides of the guns is very high, due to the fact that there are a lot of different pins, levers and selectors needed to make the gun work properly, this is something I will also have to think about when modelling my gun. Also one thing that seems to differ between most assault rifles is the barrel of the gun as you see it in a variety of different shapes and sizes. I think this is mainly due to the fact that most guns carry different ammo types and sizes therefore when designing the barrel the shape and size of it will mainly depend on the size of the bullets, but also because of how the maker wants it to look.

I started modelling the gun from the stock using the ACR as my main influence, trying to make it an abnormal shape but also making sure it looks good at the same time, I differentiated between using edge loops, extrusions for the basic design and the target weld tool as I had some out of place faces that I needed to go back and fix. I then moved on to the forestock where I would model my magazine, pistol grip, and cocking lever, using the HVK-21 as my main reference. For this part of the gun I contrasted between using extrusions and edge loops for the design of the fore grip and magazine. Bevel's, merging vertices, and smoothing to help with modelling the pistol grip, making sure it looked sleek and smooth also trying to pay attention to detail I made sure to add small extra components to the gun to make it seem more realistic. Lastly, for the barrel of the gun using the M16 as my main reference, I first made the hand guard connecting it to the fore grip then used Booleans to make holes, trying to give the impression of a realistic hand guard. I then moved on to creating the grip and the barrel of the gun by using edge loops, bevels, and merging vertices to help make the design of it smooth while also paying close attention to detail in order to give more of a realistic feel to it. Lastly I modelled the front sight assembly and the red dot sight using basic extrusions and edge loops, I thought it was sensible to use 2 forms of sights because it gave the gun more of a practical look to it, I will now move on to the modelling and rigging of my hands.

I then moved on to the rigging of my hands, I started by making a basic hand model and then proceeded to smooth it and make the arms connecting to it, after I made a basic body to attach the arms so that I could then start adding my joints. However, when it came down to adding my joints I used the child to parent hierarchy and when I tried to use it some of the joints were messed up and moving when they weren't meant to, so I spent a lot of time trying to fix it by re-doing the joints and putting them in a different hierarchy, but I kept getting more problems, so instead I tried painting the skin weights of the fingers and hand, but it still would not work. Seeing that the child to parent hierarchy was not working properly I instead tried to use the bind skin hierarchy instead, which is where Maya binds the joints to the skin automatically, but you must paint the skin weights according to the joints that move the most. I proceeded to do this taking my time in order to make sure it was done properly. When I finished, the movement looked a lot better than before with the parent to child hierarchy however I still had some minor problems with the fingers because they were slightly controlling the other fingers at the same time. Regardless of this I was running out of time and needed to move on with the project so even though it didn’t work properly I decided to use this skin bind hierarchy and still try to make the animation look as professional as possible.

Hand and arm rigging

After rigging my hands I started to create my basic environment in which I began to design some basic house objects like mirrors, drawers and chairs but then I thought it would be better to start on the animation first because I was behind on work and the peer assessment was coming up. So, I began by creating an ik handle with the right hand and my gun, ik chains are used to link 2 objects for a set amount of time. After doing this I began my animation in which my character would walk around the room looking for his target, reload his gun then continue to a door where the animation ends, however I did not get very far before the first peer assessment.

Environment design and animation

Peer assessment 1

For our first peer assessment I didn’t really have a lot to show as I had just started my animation so I only had a bit of research and practical work to show; however I received some really good feedback from it, which were:

More research.
Looking into different types of reloading animations and comparing them.
Contrasting between 1st person, 3rd person and top down shooter games.
Looking into the history of first person shooters.
I wasn't focused enough on the reloading.
To experiment with different types of reloading by making my own videos using a prop/toy gun.

From this assessment I took a lot from it and spent the next week updating my research and looking at a variety of different games and reloading animations to help give me more inspiration for the project, looking at what different aspects makes a good reloading animation like sound and joint movement etc. Also with the remaining time I had, I used it to keep working on my animation so that I would have more to show for the next peer assessment.

Peer assessment 2

For our second peer assessment I had mainly focused on getting my research updated as it wasn't good enough at the time, however I didn’t spend a lot of time on my animation so there wasn't much to show in the practical area, but I still got some really good ideas for my project in this assessment which were:

Not focused enough on the reloading.
To scrap the idea of my animation and only focus on the reloading aspect.
Create a rotoscope of me reloading a weapon.
Model other weapons to show how different guns are reloaded.
To animate a variety of different reloading types as one would not be enough.

This assessment really helped me get back on track with my project, as I was running out of time for the project and hadn’t done enough work, so I decided to take on the idea to scrap my current animation in order to make a variety of new and different reloading animations which explore how different hand and joint movements portray a certain type of reload, but also what other aspects are there that help to depict different feelings of the audience like, the environment, lighting, sounds and background music. As well as a rotoscope of me reloading a gun. I also decided not to take the idea for modelling more guns and making new animations as I was already running out of time and it would have taken me too long. However, in light of this I began to research more into different types of reloading and comparing them so that I could decide on what kinds of animations I would want to incorporate into my project, in the end I decided I would make 3 varied types of reloading animations with my main gun model as well as a rotoscope to show how different weapons are reloaded but also to show the research I have done that has helped me get to this point.

Manual Reload

As stated in my previous peer assessment I decided to scrap my main idea for the character walking around in an environment, instead my new idea is to create 3 different types of reloading animations, and to make each of them differ from each other in various ways, including in what way the gun is reloaded, the different sound effects used to simulate how it is being reloaded and what parts of the hand are in contact with the gun. The environment portrays what kinds of senses the audience will be feeling around them, which relies on the setting you're in, so this could range from a battlefield or an abandoned house, to a rainforest in a jungle, therefore meaning the environment you're in depicts the feelings the game is trying to make you feel. Lastly, the hand movements which if shown in the right way can illustrate the current feelings of that character, show what they are trying to accomplish or perhaps show what kind of predicament they are in. This can be done in a multitude of ways and that is what I will be exploring, whether it be how they reload, the different sounds in each clip, or just the general look and feel of it, as I want people to be able to tell the differences between them. In light of this I decided that my first animation was going to be a basic manual reload, at the same time I will be trying to portray feelings of conflict, combat, and confidence, this is something I want the audience to notice almost straight away so things like sounds and settings will play a big part in it. So to help me portray this I will need to use all the previous points I have talked about, firstly being sound; I will be adding battlefield sounds such as, gunshots, screaming, and people giving orders. Normal things you would tend to hear in a war battlefield to help the audience grasp the subject of what I am trying to show, which is conflict between different people. As well as that I will be adding an environment or background of a war based setting to help the audience understand the kind of situation the character is in and to get across my feelings of conflict and battle by using elements of warfare and fighting within the environment. This is also the most basic of the three as a manual reload simply consists of either pulling or pushing the magazine out and replacing it. For reference I am mainly looking at the Call of Duty gun reloads, what I can see is that some of the most important aspects of the manual reload are the pushing/pulling of the magazine which requires a decent amount of force, this is something I have to make sure to portray in this animation. Also, cocking the gun lever to reset the spring inside the clip, but visually it should be 2 simple movements pulling backwards and forwards, with some slight force towards the character to make it look more realistic. At the same time I will also be completing my rotoscope for a manual reload too.

I have now finished the final animation for the manual reload, to start I placed the gun and my characters hands in one place so that I could then create a parent link constraint, which connects the 2 objects for a specific amount of time, I then moved to the emptying of the magazine which took quite some time to get the movement right, however when I tried to use the parent link constraint to replace the clip it wouldn't work and continuously kept messing up all my joints, so I decided to manually move the magazine in and out, which took significantly longer, however I did get it to look proper in the end. Lastly was the cocking of the gun lever which took a lot longer than I expected because I forgot that the rigging for my fingers was a bit messed up so moving one finger would move all of the others, however eventually I got it to look proper by moving each finger one at a time. From then it was just a case of rendering the animation and bringing it into After Effects so that I could add the sound effects which is one of the most important aspects of all reloading animations. I made the sound effects myself by using a mic and the sounds from my bb gun to make it sound more realistic. I have chosen to animate my reload like this because of the place the character is based, what he is doing and the feelings I'm trying to get across. He is in a battle so in terms of reloading it should be as quick and snappy as possible so that he may get back to the fight, the quick key hand movements are imperative to how it appeals to the audience. It is because of this reason I have chosen to animate my reload like this. As for my environment and background sounds I looked more into warfare based games and found some background sound effects of gunshots, explosions, and voices which perfectly described the kind of environment the character is based in and the feelings I wanted to get across. As for the background I made a small environment in Unity with some trees, water and grass. Sadly, I only had limited time to do this so it wasn't as detailed as I wanted it to be, however the animation against this backdrop and the sounds combine to help portray the sensation of conflict and war. I think the animation came out very well, however if there were a few things I could fix, it would be the finger movements and the detail on the environment.

Magic Reload

For my next reload animation I was looking at different places for references to help me decide what kind of reload animation to do next, I then came across one which was the character flipping the magazine between his fingers, to then go on to place the mag back inside the gun. I thought this was really cool, as you never see these kinds of special reloads with the animator’s own twist to it. From this I searched around the net for other fps games with these kind of special reloads, and from it I found out that Battlefield hardline has a large collection of secret reloads for almost every gun in their game, this gave me a lot of inspiration on how I would do my own kind of special reload. Some of the main aspects I picked out from these animations were that for each gun the reload would happen in a completely different way each time only after the mag/ bullet/ rocket has come out of its holster. This varied from throwing, spinning, punching and even using a kind of force magic to replace the magazine, basically there are almost infinite ways to create a special reload because it can be done in any way that is different from normal reloads. I also noticed that sound plays a bigger role in these kinds of animations as whether you’re using magic or just throwing the clip to replace it, you need to portray that with the sound effects to make it look more believable and realistic. For this animation there are certain feelings I want to portray differently to the manual reload. These are feelings of magic and sorcery, as well as a sense of fascination, eeriness, mystery and illusion, I want the audience to be able to recognise these feelings and see how it differentiates from the other animations. To show these feelings I will have to make good use of the important aspects of magic reloads, starting with sound effects as this is one of the most crucial parts of this animation. These help to portray what kind of magic appears to be happening and the feelings I want to get across, as I want a sort of eerie feeling to this animation. So for instance I would add something like a low tone hovering sound to help show how the magazine is hovering, in addition to that there will also be the gun sounds which add to the realism of the animation. The last thing to help me catch the audience's attention is the setting the character is based, for this animation I feel like the background should have a sense of darkness and loneliness, this could perhaps be illustrated by a place in the forest, covered by trees, grass and a dense fog to add to the eeriness of the animation. These are the important aspects of the animation I need to focus on to be able to attract the audience properly.

I have now finished the final animation for my magic reload, I got most of my inspiration from the force field reload on Battlefield Hardline and used it in my own way to help create the sensation that my magazine is floating. So to start I used the same parent link constraint to connect the characters' right hand to the gun, I then moved on to the emptying of the clip which was done by animating the gun being thrown downwards with enough force to empty the clip, this didn't take me too long as it was just one singular arm movement up and then down, with some more tweaks to the movement because it looked too basic. I then moved on to animating the magazine floating and the hand supposedly controlling it, the magazine was quite easy to animate, as all I had to focus on were the slight movements right, left, up and down to give the sensation that the clip is floating, the hand movements were significantly harder because of my previous finger rig problems however by keeping them close to each other and moving them one at a time I managed to make the hand movement look professional and realistic. Lastly, I had to animate the clip replacement and cocking the gun lever was not as hard as it was in the last animation because I didn't need to animate the finger movements connected to the clip which also managed to save me a lot of time. The last thing I had to do was render the animation so I could bring it into After Effects so I could add in the gun sounds and the force field around the characters hand, to give more of a magic feel to it. I have chosen to animate my magic reload like this because of the way it suits the background sounds I wanted, and the environment around it. I decided to go with a kind of force type magic to reload the gun not only because I thought this looked really nice but also I thought it well suited the environment and sounds I aimed to use, it also really captured the feelings of eeriness, fascination and illusion I wanted to convey, as by mixing it with the sounds and environment, everything really came together as a whole animation. For the sounds I used some background noises of wind for the environment as this really helped to depict the feelings of eeriness I wanted to show, I also used a low tone hovering sound to help represent the force type magic happening in the animation. Lastly were the gun noises which I made myself by making and recording different sounds from my bb gun, I then brought it all together in iMovie. As for my background I made a forest

using Unity with an environment that I made myself with grass, trees, fog, and a wind script. I only had limited time to do this so the environment didn't look as realistic as I wanted it to. However, all of these objects did really help bring the environment together and helped to portray the feelings of being magical, mysterious, and eerie as I wanted to show within it. I really like how this animation turned out as I thought the magazine and hand movements were really realistic, the only things I would change is some of the finger movements and the detail of the environment.

Gun Jamming

For the last reload animation I thought it would be cool to animate a gun jamming, as it involves a lot of movement and relies a lot on sound effects. I got most of my inspiration for this from Far Cry 2 as they have a large multitude of weapons in the game and for each gun there is a jamming animation, this helped me a lot when deciding how I would animate mine. After comparing the different kinds of jamming animations I picked out some of the main aspects that I’d need to incorporate into my animation. The first was looking at how much the character struggles when trying to take out the magazine or pull the cocking lever, it is important that I show both the hands and the gun moving in different directions to give the sensation of the character struggling. The next is that in almost every jamming animation there is a certain point where the character will open his hand out almost as a sign that he is getting frustrated because he cannot take out the clip, this is something very important to remember. Last are sound effects especially when it comes to jamming, animations sound effects are vital to how good and realistic the final product will look. If it isn't included properly then it will just look like the character is just rubbing the gun and nothing else, so it is imperative that this is included in my animation and in the correct way. For this last animation I wanted something completely different to the other 2 reload animations this was the gun jamming animation, the feelings I wanted to get across for this was a sense of combat, anger and annoyance because he is in the middle of battle and he is urgently trying to get back into the fight, but because of the gun jamming he is going to show these feelings of anger and annoyance. I need to show this and get these feelings across differently from the other 3 animations, to do this I will have to use the different aspects of gun jamming that I have learned of and reflect that in my own way in the animation. The most important part in this is sound because as I've seen in other animations this is what mainly indicates to the audience that there is a problem with the gun, other than the animation itself which I have already discussed ways I would try to show this. Lastly is the environment which I will try to make somewhat similar to the first environment of the manual reload animation, as I will be trying to portray a setting that would be warfare based, while the sounds and animation are showing the feelings of anger and annoyance. I need to make sure to focus on this when making the animation.

I have now finished the final reload animation for my project, this one was by far the longest, simply due to how many changes I had to make. I started with my parent link constraint and began animating the character repeatedly trying to empty the magazine, this was quite easy because I was only moving the gun, however when it got to me trying to animate the character attempting to pull out the mag I realised how much time, effort and precision I would need to portray it properly, so it took me a whole day to animate just one of the hand movements properly. However, it wasn't as bad as I thought because I could still use the copy and paste tool when I had similar movements later on in the animation. Next,I tried to animate the character showing frustration with his hands, this didn't take too long however due to my previous finger problems it didn't look as good as I wanted it to be. Moving on to the punching I noticed that in many of the Far Cry 2 animations the character would hit the gun to try and show frustration but also to try and help un-jam the weapon, I incorporated this into my animation by trying to show the character punching the gun, but I had quite a few problems as some of the joints would start to mess up my textures on the hand and arm, I tried to re-do this a few times but kept having the same problem and in the end I had to change the model of the arm and the camera view so it wouldn’t show the messed up textures. Lastly, was the cocking of the gun which was a lot harder to animate than the magazine, because the cocking lever is very small and because of the problems with my finger rigging it took me a very long time to properly show the characters' hand moving with the lever. Finally, I rendered it and brought it into After Effects, so that I could then record my gun sounds which I did with a mic on a real time of my animation so that I could see at what points I would need to pull the lever, empty the magazine etc. I choose to animate my jamming reload like this because I thought it really got across the points I wanted to show, I decided to show the character repeatedly attempting to take out the magazine in a variety of different ways and the sound effects of this I added in really helped to show this. For sound I used the same combat sounds from the earlier animation as well as the sounds of my bb gun jamming which I made myself, and when brought together really showed the feelings I wanted to get across. As for the environment I made in Unity with a basic landscape, a pond and some foliage I did this with a limited amount of time so it wasn't as detailed as I wanted it to be, but as a whole I think the animation definitely captured the points and feelings I wanted to show.
In the end I think I did a really good job on it especially with the amount of problems I had. If I could change anything it would be to fix the finger movements and the detail of the enviroment

Final Major Project Evaluation

Intentions:

The aim of my final major project was to create an animation of a character walking around an environment looking for his target and then preceding to reload his gun and continue on. However that is not what I ended up with, as around 4 weeks into the project I was advised to only concentrate on the reloading aspects of my animation, and that is what I did. After researching different reloading techniques I created 3 separate animations showing different types of reloading. In the end I wanted the reloading aspect of my animation to be the one that really catches peoples eyes, as I tried to portray this in different ways with my manual, magic and jamming reloads, in light of this I think I did really well with the amount of time I had and the problems I encountered. Aside from that I think I have done very well to achieve most of the aims I wanted to interpret and I am very happy with it.

Research:

Both my primary and secondary research helped me a lot with the design of my project; with the help of it I was inspired to use different forms of reloading, not only that but I was inspired to create my own type of reloading animation which reflected the general idea of my project very well.

My subject knowledge was reflected very well in my project as it helped me to create a variety of animations, rotoscopes, and a variety of functions that are not basic knowledge like parent constraint links, Ik handles, target weld tool, skin binds and many more. My research was crucial to developing my ideas for the animations including the gun jamming and the special reload, but it also gave me inspiration for my own ideas and how I could portray different reloading styles in the project.

Design Development:

My design has developed a lot from when I first started the project and a lot has changed since then, as my experimenting has helped me to realise the mistakes I had made and has helped me to visualise my FMP more realistically. While developing my project I also ran into many errors, this included a variety of texture loading, high poly counts, rigging and animation problems, and computer crashing. Now some of these were easy to fix but some caused me major problems for instance I had a rigging problem with the fingers on my animation where if I would move one, the rest would move too, however because I needed to keep to my timeframe I had no choice but to work with this throughout the whole animation. However, I compromised for these errors and made them into something better. Also, when these problems occur it’s not always a bad thing as some of the time having to change things would also give me much better ideas, thoughts and designs on how to portray my animations better.

Methods of working:

Nearing the last few weeks of the project I began to start thinking about my final outcomes and how I would fulfil most of the ideas and designs shown in my statement of intent and also how I would build and advance on some of these ideas, I did this by following the guidelines of my statement of intent of how and when I would create my animations. Working this way was very helpful as I kept to my timescale, created all the necessary animations, and kept referring to my research. However, there were some weaknesses for using the statement of intent in that way which was that I expected myself to do more work than I actually could, so a lot of the time I would end up spending more time than needed on a specific model or animation, meaning that by the time I would get to my next important animation I wouldn’t have as much time as I needed, so I tried to make some small changes to my schedule to fit everything in, but because of the timing there are still some things that I had to miss out on, or didn’t have enough time to complete.

Final Outcomes:

The final outcome of my project does not completely relate to my statement of intent, becasue of the way I changed my concept midway. although I still would have liked to have included more elements of tension and anxiety as I had wanted in the beginning. However, I do think my project took a turn for the better as after all I got a lot more work done than I had originally planned, and also to a much higher standard, while still trying to follow the basic standards of my statement of intent as much as I could. By showing a variety of different types of reloading and also how they differ from each other, what makes each one stand out in its own personal way and the feelings I have shown in each animation. From the feedback I have received from my classmates and teacher it is a lot better than it was in the first weeks of the project, as now they say it looks really good, that I have portrayed good examples of research into my animations, and it looks very professional, However, there is always room for improvement as there are a few other things I could have concentrated on more like the detail on my gun or the rigging of my fingers, however I still think it looks great and I am happy with the outcome.

Project Management:

I planned to use my time at home and at college wisely for the first few weeks I needed to start on Maya so every day after college I would either carry on with my modelling for an hour or 2 if not I would be researching new rigging and animating techniques to use in Maya and at the end of the week I would update my website. As for the last 2 weeks, I spent on Maya doing about 2 hours of work every day after college as I had made the plan to create 3 reloading animations, however I planned my time out well and finished with just enough time, for my assessment. In light of this I will still have an extra week and a bit to correct a few of the problems I had and hopefully to bring my work up to a merit/distinction level.

Staff:

We got feedback from our tutor and class roughly every 2 to 3 weeks and he gave me some good advice on how to research certain aspects of my project, how I should be managing my time, as well as new ideas for my project, how to make it better and also how to cut down my work load. A lot of this helped with how quickly it took me to complete the project and without the advice he gave me it would have taken me a lot longer to finish.

Additional Development/Improvements:

If I had time to go back and correct some of the mistakes on my project I would have most certainly added more detail to my enviroment as I felt this is what kept it from reaching its full potential as the animation and the background didn't mix very well. I also would have fixed my finger rigs as this caused me major problems throughout the duration of my project. Lastly, the lighting on my gun wasn’t too great, as I could not see every aspect of the gun, if I have time I would like to change this.

Here is a quick time movie summarising most of the work I have done throughout this project.