TD Assignment 5: Particle Effects

TD Assignment 5: Particle Effects

Cse459 Preproduction for Digital Animation

Assignment: Particle Effects
Due Date: Wednesday, Feb 13 11:59pm

Assignment Introduction

This first effects assignment introduces you to the process of using particle effects in Maya. This assignment contains two parts. The first part is to complete the Candle Flame tutorial which will give you a brief introduction to using particles, emitters, and dynamic fields. The second part of the assignment you will develop your own scene using particle effects using what you have learned from the assigned reading and from the tutorial. You will be responsible for designing a scene which incorporates some sort of particle effects, then implementing that scene.

Part 1: Candle Flame

What you need: You will be completing a tutorial which demonstrates how to create a candle flame using the concepts you have learned from Using Maya Dynamics. This tutorial uses a several particles, emitters, and dynamic fields. This tutorial will also show how to successfully shade the particles and how to add glow effects to make the effect seem convincing. This tutorial is available from the course web page here. You will only be handing in the finished rendered product. Please don't wait until the last minute, as the tutorial takes a bit of time.

Tutorial

Candle Flame Tutorial

Download

Maya file for Candle Flame

Turn-in:

For this part of the project, you must submit 2 MOV movie files of the final rendered scene in 854x480 resolution. You'll be rendering from far_shot and close_shot camera. That means you'll have to render out all 400 frames and then edit it out into a MOV in after effects or premiere.

Part 2: Create your own particle effect

For this part of the assignment each person in the class will use particles to try and replicate a real life effect that seems fun and challenging. For this assignment some possible effects could be effects that you might need for your film (dust, smoke, fire, etc). You will be responsible for designing and creating an entire scene that will convincingly bring the particle effect to life. You will have to model any additional props required, perform any necessary shading, as well as light the scene. Please keep it simple. The idea of this project is to concentrate on the effect. We will be grading you on how well the effect matches real life, and not how realistic the models in your scene are. Once you have decided on what effect you are aiming to recreate, the next step is to find some reference footage of that effect, or better yet, shoot some yourself. The best reference you will have in creating a convincing effect comes from real life. You will be required to turn in the material you used to base you effect off of, and we will use this reference to judge the believability of the effect. Once you have examined your reference material, then the final step is to recreate the effect using at least one of each of the following: Particles, Emitters, Dynamic Fields, and Particle Shading Groups.

What we're looking for:

The important thing to remember when working on your effect is that we will be much more concerned with quality than complexity. Here are some tips to remember when designing your effects:

Technical Requirements:

Turn-in:

For this part of the project, you must submit your reference materials and a MOV of your final effect.

Tips

Grading Criteria