rOnG zOnG™

Posing - Further Practice (ElevenRig) III

2012-01-21T23:55:00.004+08:00

Posing - Further Practice (ElevenRig) III

Pose 3:

Reference Image: http://cruiseweb.com/rci-imagelibrary/RCI_Jewel_BasketballGame-w540.jpg

For this pose, I manage to do quite fast as I already know what are the things to look out for after doing so many poses. HOWEVER, I had accidentally shifted the skeleton of the model and thus, I decided to redo the pose again.

I didnt really face any problem in doing this pose, cause I know where the weight should be on and how the body position should be at. But what I failed to do so is to make the hand look more straight. In the reference image, the hand is more straightened rather than bend.

Thus, after shifting the hands and do some other rearrangement, this is the final work of the pose!

After doing so many poses, I start to realise on the small little details such as adjusting a little angle here and there to make it more realistic and ensure that the action that the model is doing is smooth and natural!

Moreover, balancing the model is really important if not, it would look weird!

After doing so many of the poses, I learnt that rigging is not that hard, but it takes lots of concentration and theres lots of thinking involved. In addition, I understand more about human body/proportion and how small little changes in the model can make the character looks more real!

Posing - Further Practice (ElevenRig) II

2012-01-21T23:54:00.004+08:00

Posing - Further Practice (ElevenRig) II

Pose 2:
Rference image: http://yeinjee.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/girls-generation-spao-3.jpg

This is the second pose. It may look simple, however, I think i struggled the most for this pose. I could not really get the pose right and I didnt balance the model well.

I redo quite a few times because the first time I did, I shifted the skeleton and is not a good thing!

Second time, the body looks weird and the pose looks very forced, rather than natural looking.

Third time, I shifted the leg and they are not evenly on the ground!

After a few tries and correcting my mistakes, I finally manage to get the pose done! I think I had learnt the most while doing this pose. I had learnt that even the slightest movement(e.g tilting the body more towards to the part where the weight leans the most) could make a huge difference in making the character "come alive!".

Overall, I thought it was the simplest pose to do, but it end up taking me the most time to complete. It requires concentration as you need to look at the image and your model and make sure that you do not miss out any important detail (e.g, which leg is forward/backward, which side is the character facing, etc) as well as common sense on the weight of the body (e.g, which side of the body should be slanted if is leaned or where the weight should be etc.)

Posing - Further Practice (ElevenRig)

2012-01-21T23:52:00.004+08:00

Posing - Further Practice (ElevenRig)

Pose 1:

Reference Image: http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/logos/logos1101/logos110100001/8609548-smiling-girl-sitting-cross-legged-on-bed-with-photo-album.jpg

When I first begin to model the pose, I started of with the face first,, followed by the body then the hands. It was quite simple after doing the spiderman poses and I didnt really face any problem at this time.
Next I moved on to do the legs, were it is crossed. This is the part where I got stucked. I didnt really know how the rigging for the legs work, and I tried my best to try to make it cross but I just didnt know how the rigging works, therefore, I stopped at a pose where it looks like the person is sitting down on a chair.

After I found out on how the rigging works for the leg, I managed make the leg crossed and I felt that the model that I did looks very similar with the reference image. Im quite proud of myself and I think that the model look quite natural.

Overall, I felt that this model is very interesting as there are lots more rigging in this compared to the spiderman. The rigging may be complicated as I might end up shifting the skeleton instead of the rigging, however, the outcome looks realistic and nice!

Spiderman Poses III

2012-01-21T22:25:00.001+08:00

Spiderman Poses III

Spiderman Pose 3:

Reference Image: http://beinglatino.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/spiderman.gif

This is the first try of trying to do the post. I find it the most difficult pose to do because I faced the most difficulty in doing this pose.

Some of the difficulties I faced:
- Trying to make the body bend forward without making it disfigured
- Trying to open the legs even wider
- Positioning the head in a correct position

This is one of the toughest pose I had done. I wasn't really happy with the overall outcome as I still find errors after I edited.

This is the final outcome after all the editing. I tried to make it not bend too much because the body will end up looking disfigured. Moreover, the legs could not be bent more as it will not look realistic anymore and I still find the legs looking weird after editing.

But I was actually quite happy with the hands and I felt that I done it quite well because the hands look realistic. It was probably the angle of the head that makes it looks weird.

Things that I will need to do for the next edit:
- Tilting the head to the correct angle
- Try to bend the body even more without making it disfigured
- Try to open up the leg even more without making it disfigured

Reflection:
I would say I took the longest time to try to perfect the pose for this as I made the figure disfigured quite a number of times just to try to make it bend more and make the leg open up even more. It doesnt look like its natural at all. Theres definitely lots of room for improvement for this pose.

Spiderman Poses II

2012-01-21T22:21:00.002+08:00

Spiderman Poses II

Spiderman Pose 2:

Reference Image: http://tvandfilmtoys.com/index.php/2011/02/spider-man-super-poseable/

This is how my final work looks like and I was quite pleased with the outcome. Because the reference image is a toy and it has poses that cant really be done realistically in modeling, such as the hand position.

This are some of the problems I faced while doing the poses:

- The hand could not raise properly and the arm will look disfigured

- The legs are not "on the ground" and it has weird angles.

This is my first try where I had difficulty in doing the hand as I tried to make it look as similar as the reference image as possible, however, I found out that I could not really make the hand raised like how it is supposed to be. The arm will end up being disfigured.

Thus, I just make the arm look more realistic and make it looks like is more relaxed and more natural. The next problem I faced was the leg. I was too concentrated in trying to make it look as close as the reference image that I didn't notice that the legs are not on the "ground". I end up making the leg looks like its floating and the angle of the legs look weird.

Reflection:

Overall, I find it quite simple to do, however, the difficult part is to concentrate on "balancing" the model and make it look more natural.

Spiderman Poses

2012-01-21T22:07:00.005+08:00

Spiderman Poses

Spiderman Pose 1:

Reference Image: http://spidermanmarvellegends.5-is.net/

This is the first trial that I did for the spiderman pose. The first thing I focus on is to make the pose similar to the picture. I compare it with the front view first.

Followed by the 3/4 view. In addition, I start to focus on the balance here, making sure that the picture look smooth and the whole model looked evenly balanced.

Continue to focus on the balance at the side view, to make sure that the centre of gravity is right. I felt that the balance was there but was still a little off, and the neck is stretched out too much, thus, I edit the pose to make the neck not stretched too much.

This are some of the errors that I did for this model:

- The neck is being stretched too much, it looks like the model is straining the neck

- The balance of the model can be done a little better

3DVA Lab1 Edited

2012-01-14T23:22:00.005+08:00

3DVA Lab1 Edited

This is how my final work looks like! I pretty much edited quite alot, especially the head and the body part. I find it difficult to shape it properly using cubes as the model will look very squarish or cube-like, rather than having a rounder shape.

I was pretty much done with the head and didnt really do any changes to it. Thus, I started to move forward to do the body. I had tough time doing the body, cause of the shape of the belly.

This is what it looks like when I first tried it.

FIRST TRY:

I didnt really know how to shape it nicely the first time and I totally screwed up the whole thing and it ended up looking like muscles.

When I tried the second time, I was still struggling with the belly part as I couldnt really get the shape right. The end part of the belly has a very obvious flat squarish shape and the whole body have a very fix rectangular shape.

SECOND TRY:

THIRD TRY:

This is the final body that is completed. Im quite satisfied with this especially the belly part.

Some of the issues that I faced while doing the whole work is mainly the body part:
- Not being able to fix the belly part properly to make it round
- Weird body proportion
- Overall proportion including the legs and arms

In summary, I am very satisfied with my work and have done so many different versions of it to finally able to kind of perfect the body (even though there are still some things that can be improved)

Overall, I think I can still improve on my cow head (especially the eye part) and probably to give a try to model an actual cow!

P.S: I have a few other files on the body part howeve r, the file could not be opened at home. :(

3DVA Lab 1

2012-01-09T22:17:00.003+08:00

3DVA Lab 1

Basically, this lab had taught me how to create a cow using just a simple cube. When i first saw the cow, the first thing that came to my mind was using lots of different polygons to create the shape, however, this lab had taught me to use only a cube to create the shape of the head of a cow.

When I was molding the shape of the face, I realized that the main tool to use is to extrude out the head (when in my mind, i would be thinking to extrude the nose out first). The difficult part was the extruding of the head as you need to roughly estimate how much you need to extrude and also to tilt the angle or increase the size, etc.

I didnt print screen to show the process of my work, however, this is the final work.

Final Work:

I had tried 2 different methods to create the other half of the face.

1st method that i tried is to duplicate the face and change the scale x to -1:

The other method that I use is the mirror geometry:

After trying out both methods, is actually does the same thing, however, for mirror geometry, both of the half-face becomes one polygon whereas the duplicating function does not.

Overall, this lab is quite simple but tedious, you need to make sure that while extruding and forming the face, you need to predict/estimate well and make sure it comes out right. In my opinion, I felt that I can do way better than this as I think that my Cow looks like a Dragon instead.

[will continue editing with process of my work + a new redo of the cow]

Assignment 2 FINAL!

2011-08-21T23:02:00.002+08:00

ASSIGNMENT 2 COMPLETED!

Finally completed the animation. The first few animations that I did, the movement were not that smooth and the timing were terrible, but I find that the final work that I had done, all the smoothness were better, even though there is still a little weirdness somewhere in the animation, and also the timing were better too! I definitely still have lots of room for improvement.

For the first few part of the animation, the robot is supposed to stretch after he had lifted the box. I felt that the animation could be done better and it feels a little weird. I think that I can also do more interaction with the boxes as I think I did quite little.

I also felt that I am able to apply more animation principles in my animation as I thought I did not use a lot of it.

In addition, I felt that my animation could be much smoother and the timing could probably be better. The personality of the robot could be done better too.

After all, I felt that I did quite a good job and hopefully to get at least a grade B for this assignment.

These are some of the animation principles that I had applied:
Anticipation:
The robots bend backwards a little before lifting the boxes.

Appeal:
When the robot doesnt know whats to do, it jus walks off. It shows his character as a lazy robot.

Squash and Stretch:
When the robot jumps, there is a squash and stretch.

Exaggeration:
When the robot is looking around, the movement of turning one whole round and shifting his head left and right shows that he is deperately looking for someone.

Assignment 2 Part 1

2011-08-05T11:27:00.001+08:00

Assignment 2 Part 1

Name of robot:
Slako 321x

Scenario Chosen: Scenario 1

"It is the first time that I have this job and I am so excited! Wonder how the whole job will be like on my first day! I heard that is a very simple job and I love to do simple jobs rather than complicated ones, hope everything goes smoothly on my first day!"

As the box approaches, the robot is excited and curious aboout almost everything! After he stacked a few boxes, he starts to feel bored and sleepy, but, he doesn't have a choice but to continue on doing. Due to his sleepiness, he doesn't notice the next item that is coming towards him is not a box, instead it is a weirdly shaped object!

He went to pick up as per normal, however, as he was about to pick it up, he was shocked to see a red coloured object. He shakes his head, thinking probably he was just dreaming and take a second look. He was not dreaming but IT IS a weirdly shaped red box! He wants to double check with the boxes he had already picked up and he doesn't know what to do! He starts to look around to see if he could get any help, but there seem to be no one around and he jumps and hop around panicking

Week 13

2011-07-24T21:32:00.002+08:00

Week 13

Exercise 3

Exercise 4
1) Apart from their different sizes, it is obvious from Luxo Jr. that the big lamp is “older” and that the small lamp is “younger”.

How is this communicated by the animation? Give at least THREE examples.

The big lamp doesn't move a lot, compared to the smaller lamp. It pretty much shows the same as human. Usually the children are more active than the adults

The big lamp does not seem to like the ball and "kicks" the ball away from it. However, the smaller lamp love the ball and keeps playing with it.

When the ball is burst, only the smaller lamp looks "sad". However, the big lamp doesnt seem to bothered by the ball being burst. Its like in human world, when a children has a balloon and the balloon has been burst, the children would cry or feel sad whereas the adult would not feel that way.

2) Give an example from Luxo Jr of how timing is used for comic effect. Explain how the timing decisions contribute to the humour.

When Luxo Jr hops like as if it is very light, and it likes to wriggle/shake and when it leaps up, it shows happiness.

3) When you create a joint chain, these form a hierarchy, with the first joint at the top and the last joint at the bottom. Explain why this is necessary for the joints to work properly.

It works like human bones, where the bones are linked together but the main control is the "brain". Thus, if these joints are not joined properly, some of it would be "dislocated".

Week 12

2011-07-17T21:34:00.004+08:00

1) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 2D animation? Explain your view.

I think this would depend on what kind of 2D animation. Because some of the 2D animations can be created using pictures, whereas some 2D animations are created using simple drawings and some are created using complicated drawing.

I dont think you need to be able to draw well to create a good 2D animation. As long you have an idea in mind, while applying the 12 animation principles, you can still be able to create a good 2D animation without the use of drawing.

2) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 3D animation? Explain your view.

I dont think you need to draw well to create good 3D animation. Most 3D animation are created using softwares, e.g MAYA. But to be able to draw could help to improve 3D animations, because you can draw out a simple sketch first then using the sketch, it would be easier to use the sketch and do a 3D animation.

3) What do you think would separate a piece of poor animation from a piece of good animation? In other words, how would you go about deciding if a piece of animation is good or bad?

I think the main difference between a good and bad animation depends on whether the animation has followed the 12 animation principles. For example, just a simple bouncing ball could actually tell if the animation is good or bad.

Simple example:
A good animation of a bouncing ball would be similar to a bouncing ball in real life and in order to do that, the bouncing ball would have the stretch and squash effect, where it will have the squashed effect when it hits the ground and whe it leaves the ground, it will stretch.

A bad animation of bouncing ball would be just a ball bouncing without adding any effects to it.

Bascially, good animations would reflect much to real life where it is so good that it looks so real. In conclusion, I find that it is very important to follow the 12 animation principle in order to create a good animation.

4) In 2D animation, you need to be very aware of timing at a frame by frame level, using timing charts and other techniques - but for 3D animation, this is handled using the graph editor, which is more concerned with manipulating rates of change over time.

Does this affect how you approach your animation work? Explain.

Yes, it does affect how I approach my animation work. At first, I would find it quite complicated to use the animation, but after awhile, I start to get used to it so I find it fun and even though tedious.

5) Give a brief critique of Maya as an animation tool. Don't just say Maya makes animation difficult, or easy, or that you need to learn a lot of stuff to use Maya - explain what Maya does well and not so well in terms of creating animation.

For someone who did not know how to use Maya, it would take time a very long time to understand how it works. I find that Maya is a little complicated for beginners, however, after awhile, is quite simple to use because when the user get used to it, it will be able to know which button is for which function. For example, for a person that dont know how Maya works, they would not even know where to start because they have no idea where is the animation, how does the timeframe works, how to even get to the graph editor.

Week 11 Lab 2

2011-07-17T21:22:00.006+08:00

1) Why is squash and stretch so useful in animation?

Without squash and stretch, the animation will not look real. For example, if you want a football in an animation, without the squash and stretch, the ball will jus look like a metal ball. The squash and stretch is a natural effect on balls such as basketball/soccer ball.

2) Think of a situation in which extreme squash and stretch could be applied to a character
When a cartoon character has been knocked down by a car, it will be squashed and stretched.

3) Think of an animation example where squash and stretch would NOT be appropriate

When there any very solid hard object, such as metal(e.g dropping a hammer on the floor), it does not really have the squash and stretch.

4) If squash and stretch doesn't really happen so obviously in real life, why do you think is it so effective in animation?

Even if squash and stretch doesn't really happen so obviously in real life, it still give animations a very realistic look and it would show a difference between different balls, whether it is a metal ball or a rubber ball, both would show a great difference just by adding a squash and stretch to the rubber ball.

Week 11 Lab 1

2011-07-17T21:22:00.004+08:00

Week 11 Lab 1

Exercise 1

This exercise is pretty simple, creating a simple animation.
First, setting of keyframes:

First keyframe is set to 0.

After that, shift the ball to the other side and set to keyframe 72.

Then shift the ball to the middle and set it to keyframe 36.

Exercise 2

This was done during lesson:

P.s Ignore the end part. Was trying to do the rolling of the ball.

Bascially, is the same process as the first exercise, just that the curve in the graph editor has been edited to create a smooth bounce.

Reflection:

After doing these 2 exercises, I now have a clearer understanding on how to do a simple animation, even thought the squash and stretched principle have not been applied, but I roughly know how to set the ball in the keyframes, editing the curve using the graph editor.

I felt that it was quite tough in the beginning because there were alot of steps to do and I had some tough time doing the graph and it took me some time to get it done. The whole process is quite tedious though.

The main thing I had learnt today is to make a bouncing ball (without the squash and stretch). Setting it into keyframes and how to do the playblast.

Week 10 Lab 2

2011-07-16T21:12:00.000+08:00

Pencil Animation

For this exercise, I wasnt able to convert my video.

Basically, this exercise is about animating frame by frame. There were 32 different images that we have to put into the software "Pencil" and when all the pictures are placed together, and when they are played, it will show a ball bouncing.

I had learnt about keyframes and timing, the importance of it and how it is used for animation.

Animation Visualisation

2011-07-10T00:19:00.012+08:00

Animation Visualisation

This week, we basically learn the principles of animation.

12 basic principles of animation:

Squash and Stretch

Anticipation

Staging

Straight ahead action and pose to pose

Follow through and overlapping action

Slow in and slow out

Arcs

Secondary action

Timing

Exaggeration

Solid Drawing

Appeal

We were given 10 different task to do:

Task 1: Squat down, jump as high as you can go, then land on the ground (it’s better if the person has long hair)
The principle used in this action is Anticipation.
When a person squat down, is an action that shows a preparation of a person that is going to jump. When audience sees it, they could sense that the person could probably be doing something (for example, jumping, in this case.).

Task 2: Stand some distance away, run towards camera, then come to a sudden stop just in front of the camera (with your whole body still in frame)
The principle used is Squash and Stretch.
When the person is running towards the camera and gives a sudden stop, that person would have a tendancy to loose their balance. They would tend to move forward a little and it seems like their body is "stretched".

Task 3: Repeat actions 1 and 2, but this time with a bag hanging from your shoulder
Now with the bag haning on the shoulder, there is another principle used and that is Follow through and overlapping action.
Basically, the bag follows the action of the person, jus that the motion is a little slower than the person. Example, when the person jumps up and lands, the bag would appear to land "later".

Task 4: Do a robot dance or chicken dance J
The principle used for this is Straight Ahead and pose to pose animation.
As the person is doing some robot move, is like the movement are like poses, where it can be planned out. It can be drawn out like scene by scene.

Task 5: Pretend to get really really really (!) angry, then pretend to punch your friend standing in front of you
The principle used in this is Secondary action.
When a person gets angry, they would not immediately punch the other person, most of us would proabbly scold and show emotions through our facial expressions.

Task 6: Drop a ball and film it bouncing a few times
The principle used in this is Timing.
When a ball drops, there is a timing, and when it bounces a few times, the height starts to drop and the speeds drop.

Task 7: Throw a ball up (not too high), and film it as it goes up and down

We didnt do this task.

Task 8: Stand with a partner about 3 metres apart and throw a ball to each other a few times
The principle used is timing.
It is crucial because it can be used for establishing the person's (who is catching the ball) emotions and reaction.

Task 9: Repeat the ball throwing action, but this time try to surprise your partner by pretending to throw the ball a few times before you actually do!
The principle used is Exaggeration.
When the partner is trying to throw to another person by surprise, they will tend to do exaggerating movements.

Task 10: Repeat the ball throwing action, but this time make it bounce once on the ground before it is caught
The priciple used is squash and stretch.
When the ball bounces on the floor, the ball would seem squashed when it hits the floor and strectched when it leaves the ground.

Exercise 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlkprv-Upco

Exaggeration: When spongebob is happyly jumping while walking, his hands and feet were being exaggerated.

Secondary Action: When spongebob was shocked and his mouth opened widely and his body was stretched to show that he was shocked.

Timing: When spongebob is being coiled up by the tube, theres timing. Because spongebob is a sponge, he is light, so the coiling time would be fast.

Anticipation: At 1:22, it shows that Mr.Crabs is coming out from the restaurant calling out for spongebob.

Follow through and overlapping action: From 1.46 to 1.52, when patrick is holding on to the rock using a rod, the rock follows a natural movement, following patrick.

Squash and stretch: When spongebob is jumping into the pool, theres a squash and stretch.

ASSIGNMENT COMPLETE!

2011-06-09T22:54:00.004+08:00

ASSIGNMENT COMPLETE!

Finally, the assignment is completed. However, I don't have much confident in this assignment. Is the most tedious assignment I ever had (I think.)

I don't know if I should be proud of myself completing this assignment or not because there are still got a few errors in my 3D Modelling and theres still similarities between the actual and my model but, well, not to the 100% extend, Probably around 60-70%?

I just hoping for a pass of at least C+ grade or somewhere there....

Well, this is my completed work:

There is still quite some improvement that needs to be done (but I don't know how) and well, compare to the actual image:

Well, there might be a huge/few differences, but, quite proud of myself being able to do that close to the original design.

Will update more...

Assignment - Self Critique

2011-06-03T23:00:00.005+08:00

Assignment - Self Critique

This was how much I had done for my modelling, however, most of the steps that I used were wrong. I did too much difference and lots of the shapes are being "cut" out instead of extruding. Especially the main body of the car. After smoothing the whole model, some of the parts may still look the same however, most of the parts of the car is disfigured. After consulting the lecutrer, I found out that I had to do more edge loop in order to keep the modelling in shape.
Because the body of the car is done wrongly, I had to redo the whole modelling and hopefully to get it done before the deadline. The tutor had showed me that I have to insert quite alot of edge loop in order to keep the shape of the car and do extruding for my model.

The main problem I faced was the body of the car and it does need to take lots of time to do the details of the car. The shape of the car is irregular and theres alot of extruding to do. (To be honest, im starting to freak out by the amount of things that needs to be done to just model a car). I am quite worried that I could not complete my work on time and hopefully my model would look very similar to the car.

I would not say that my current modelling would look very similar to the actual one, however, there is some similarity between it. There are still lots of things for me to do in order to complete the model.

Assignment - Research

2011-05-19T23:53:00.001+08:00

Assignment - Research

I have found some research regarding my model (car):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-VtesYZjU

This video teach me how to start modelling a car and baiscally, i need reference picture and also the different views of the car. Even though the video did not fully state all the steps specifcally, but, it summarizes how a car shd be modelled.

http://www.techtut.com/Tutorial/Maya/37-Create-a-realistic-chrome-car-rims.html

This website is about creating the rim of the wheel and even though the mine might be slightly different, however, there is still some similarities in they way the rims are being created.

Assignment Part 1

2011-05-19T00:35:00.001+08:00

Assignment Part 1

Story

A rat had decided to sign up for a huge racing event that is held once every 5 years, however, his brother (who had won the previous season of the race) had also signed up for the race. Thus, he decided that he needs to win this race so that the brother would not make fun of him anymore. He started practicing so hard for the race everyday for almost a month and felt very confident.

On that day of the race, the brother did something to his car so that he would have 1 less competitor and have a higher chance in winning the race. On the last lap, the rat found out that his car had some problem and there is wrong with the steering. He ended up not being able to control his car and crash to the side of the track.

His car was crushed pretty badly but thankfully, he is safe. However, his car needs to be removed from the track and there is no time to wait for his car to repair and get back into the race. He does not want to give up and wants to go back racing but, he doesnt have a car.

When a rescue car rushed into the track and pull his car away, he lied to the driver that he would want to be the one driving back his car to the repair centre. The guy agreed without thinking and allowed him to drive. Without hesitating, the rat drove at full speed and continue the race (while dragging his spoil car at the back)

Even though he didnt come in first in the race, he still manages to beat his brother by a few seconds.

Shapes

The most basic shapes are circles (for the wheels) and rectangle (for the body of the car).

The pattern of the wheels is a 5 sided polygon shaped.

I need to do alot of shaping of polygons because there body of the car is irregular shape.

The back of the car (the thing that uses to drag another car) can be created by using a rectangular plank.

Design

FRONT VIEW

SIDE VIEW

BACK VIEW

Edited Work

2011-05-17T22:36:00.003+08:00

TAKE NOTE!

I had redo my "cardbox" and "train" exercise. There a [EDITED] to show that I had edited the particular post and re-do my work because of some errors.

And also, to view my previous works, there are links that are located at the right side of the menu bar under " Reflection".

Please do take a look at it. Thanks!

Week 4 Lab 1

2011-05-16T20:55:00.006+08:00

3D Mindset and Learning

Does multi-tasking give you a real or false sense of having accomplised something?

I think multi-tasking gives you a false sense of having accomplised something. You are doing so many things at once and you have no idea what are the things that are "really" completed. Moreover, you do not 100% focus on the things you are doing, is like splitting your focus into so many different things you want to multi-task. Is best to 100% focus on one task that you want to do then move on to the next task rather than doing all at once. (even though I did "multi-task" most of the time and it really does give false sense of having accomplised something because I had experienced it before)

Is learning 3D and design different from learning programming, or is all learning the same? Why?

In my opinion, i think all the learning is the same. Is all about practice. Learning 3D and learning programming is the same. As long you keep practicing, you should be able to get it. Is more of self-learning. The tutor may be guiding us but afterall, there are somethings that we have to solve ourselves. Is like, they are giving us the "puzzles" but we have to solve it ourseleves. Moreover, if theres anything that we had not learnt, we have to find out our own.

For 3D, we are taught the basics however, when it comes to the assignment, is up to ourself to do it. Bringing everything that we had learnt from the exercises, we should be able to get our 3D done. Obviously not EVERYTHING that we need for our assignment had been taught to us (for example, colouring the polygon.)

Same goes for programming, we are taught some basic coding but any complicated coding we would have to search it up ourself.

Eventually, I would say that both 3D and programming is like mathematics. Practice makes perfect.

The article states that "Learning is actually a very complex operation for an individual". Do you agree with this? Do you feel that you approach your learning in the best way - if yes, how, and if no, how can you change you work style?

Personally, I fully agree with the sentence. It is because everyone is different and they definitely have their own way of learning. Some people like to learn with groups of friends (so they can probably ask each other questions) or some poeple like to learn alone. Some people can concentrate even if theres distractions everywhere and some people cant. Everyone of us have our own ways or learning.

I felt that the way I approach my own learning is not the best way because I tend to do things last minute and I do not really plan my time well. Moreover, i get distracted easily. In addition, I tend to get things done halfway and move on to another, in other words, I did not fully concentrate on one task that I do and just move on to the next task. (Most of the time because I got bored of it and think that I could finish it other days). I hope that I can plan my time well, have a better time management and also concentrating on one task before moving on to another.

What are your thoughts about the last paragraph in the extract?

I fully agree with the last paragrah that communication is important. Without communication, it is impossible to pass one information from one person to another. Communicating is required everywhere, a simple example, going out with a group of friends, without communcation, it will be chaotic. Same goes for work, if theres a group work, without communication, how would each member know what they are suppose to do?

Thus, communication is necessary.

Should your lecturers also focus on your work attitude, or just leave you to sink or swim on your own? Why?

I think that lecturers should focus on our work attitude for a period of time THEN leave us to sink/swim on our own. Because once the lecturers knows what is our work attitude is like, then he will find it easier to teach us and the after awhile, he would be able to leave it to us on our own. However, we also need to have the right attitude towards learning.

Week 3 Lab 2

2011-05-16T20:53:00.006+08:00

TRACKS

This is the how my track looks like after its completed. Lets see the process of how i did the track.

I had a little difficulty in this part because I did not really understand the instruction. However, after a few tries, I manage to get it afterall. If I did not face that problem, I would think that the exercise is pretty simple.

(editing more...)

Week 3 Lab 2

2011-05-10T21:00:00.002+08:00

WASHBOARD

Of all the exercises, this is the only exercise that I had no problems with. For most of the exercises, there are lots of problems that I have to overcome, however, I manage to do this exercise smoothly and I pretty satisfied with it. Because most of my other works have lots of errors (and i will definitely settle it asap).

For this exercise, I kind of "split" the whole thing. First, I started off with the "body" of the washboard. Extruding the surface. After that, i did the "head" and then the sides of the washboard. Is pretty simple exercise. The main part of this exercise is the "align tool" which helps to align the polygons.

Overall, is kinda simple exercise.

Week 3 Lab 1

2011-05-09T17:57:00.005+08:00

TOY BUCKET MODELING

Reflection

I had done this bucket in school during lab and did not manage to get the screen capture of the process. However, I felt that this exercise was one of the most difficult exercise. I had lots of difficulty during the lab and required lots of help from the tutor. I find that the most difficult part of this exercise was the handle of the bucket. I had difficulty trying to get the handle done properly.

After doing the bucket, I felt that doing this vase is way easier. The steps for doing the vase is similar to the bucket (just that we did not need to do a handle for a vase).

Week 2 Lab 2

2011-05-08T23:58:00.002+08:00

CardBoard

I wasnt able to get the box right and could not understand the instructions. I ended up only being able to get to this step and could not get the flap to open up.

I started struggling when at the step where i have to rotate the "flap" to make the box look open, however, i did not know why my "flaps" are joined together. I had no idea how to make it seperated. Thus, i was unable to do it and decided to look for tutor for help during the next lesson.

[EDITED]
I decided to redo the cardboard and somehow manage to open the "flap". This definitely look much nicer than the previous ones i've did.

Toy Train

2011-05-08T22:34:00.005+08:00

TOY TRAIN

For this exercise, i struggled alot. As you can see from all the screenshot, i have lots of errors and i tried so many times to solve it but i just cant get it solved. The last few pictures are the final ones that i had done (and the mesh-ing of the polygons wasn't done because i could not solve it).

[EDITED]

After i tried another time, I managed to solve all my problems. I finally managed to use "difference". Theres a huge difference from the one I did in the past.

I quite happy that I managed to get it done properly.

I definitely had learnt alot from the exercises especially when I have to do it more than 1 time just to solve 1 problem.

Gear

2011-05-08T22:16:00.000+08:00

GEAR

Basically, this is a simple exercise. However, I think the main part of it is telling us that when we selecting the surfaces (face), we have to take note of not to select the wrong part of it.

Week 2 Lab 1 - Part 2

2011-05-05T00:03:00.005+08:00

Toy Blocks Modelling

This may look simple but it actually took me very long time to complete this. I had overcome a few problems:
1. difficulty understanding the instructions
2. MAYA lags and crashes
3. lots of errors that i tried solving but ended up redo-ing instead

Week 1 Lab 2

2011-05-02T22:07:00.005+08:00

Primitive Robot

This time, we are supposed to do similar to what was given to us which was a robot.

While doing, I struggled ALOT! There were lots of errors here and there and most of the errors are duplicating errors. I have problem duplicating the hands, legs and "ears". As you can see from the picture, it is not really even (for example, the hand looks damn weird).

(continue editing)

Week 1 Lab 1 - Ex3

2011-05-02T17:43:00.014+08:00

Week 1 Lab 1 - Ex 3

Toontown:

For these 2 pictures, the shapes used are mostly curved and circular which gives people the "happy" feeling. It gives people an impression of "fun" and "excitement". There are some "funky-ness" and I think that is also because of the irregular shapes - such as the pillars. Comparing the prison pictures, it definitely have a HUGE difference based on the shapes and it reflects differently.

Prisons:

As seen from both pictures, both the prisons are mostly uses simple and uniform shapes like rectangular and squares. And the shapes and mostly very plain and there are no fancy patterns on it. It gives people a sense of "strict" feeling and with very uniformed shape, it gives people very "down" feeling.

Summary:

Comparing these pictures, I had learnt that shapes and different forms/patterns do give different feeling/ emotion on people. Thus, this exercise allows me to understand that whatever design that I am creating, the shapes are definitely important and it reflects the "character" of the design.

First Lesson of IN3D

2011-04-25T17:58:00.005+08:00

First Lesson of IN3D.

Our lecturer introduced us to MAYA and taught us some basic tools. After learning the basic stuffs, we had to make our own robot using simple basic shapes and I managed to create a very simple robot.

During the whole exercise, I find it tough and tedious to do a simple robot as there are lots of different tools you need to use and any wrong move could just delete off the whole thing! We spent lots of time just to adjust it properly(e.g duplicating the legs so that it will look even).
However, as you can see from the screenshot, my robot has missing arm, that is because i had tried out some other tools in MAYA and i didnt know what happened to the missing arm, even though i tried to undo or tried duplicating the other arm.

Details about the robot:
Name: Noarm
Gender: Male

Noarm is a very shy robot and it does not like to hang around with other robots because he thinks that he is abnormal.

And if there is only one robot, it is definitely going to be bored. Thus, i decided to do another robot to accompany this lonely Noarm!

Therefore.... meet.... ANGELA!

Details about this new robot:
Name: Angela
Gender: Female

Angela is a very kind robot and she loves to help people out. Even though she doesnt have any arms, she does not care what other people thinks about her and she love to share her own stories (for example, why she doesnt have any arms). Her main motive is to let people understand that, even though you may be physically different, we are still the same, we are still robots! (:

While i was creating this new robot, i had faced lots of difficulty. I tried to change the colour of the robots but i did not know how to. Moreover, there was suppose to be an "eye" for this robot but it does not seem to be obvious enough. Hopefully this two robots will be best of friends(robots) forever!!