[Bsod-mentors] Proposal (Animation Basics through Motion Graphics)

Sat Jun 10 00:13:54 CEST 2006

Animation Basics through Motion Graphics

  Project Proposal - Blender Summer of Documentation 2006

  By Samir Bharadwaj

  Synopsis

  While Blender is primarily known as a full-featured 3D graphics suite,  one area that perhaps doesn't get its due importance is Bender's very  robust set of basic animation features. More "celebrity" areas of the  graphics world such as organic modeling and character animation have a  lot of documentation and tutorial material dedicated to them, but basic  animation documentation is quite lacking. Most users depend on very  fragmentary information or just trial and error to figure out the true  depth of basic Blender features like key frames and IPO curves, and yet  these are the features that form the very foundation of Blender's  animation capabilities.

  I am a freelance designer and over the past year Blender has been the  key tool in two of my biggest commissions. One was a shipping and port  simulation and the other a corporate video presentation. In the course  of these I was forced to really learn the use of Blender's keyframing  and IPO system for the first time, and I realised that in most  "professional" work, these are the features that are called for the  most.

  While working on the more recent corporate presentation project, I used  Blender in an almost pseudo-2D way, using a fixed camera and animated  elements in various layers, as one would expect of a video graphics  package, and I realised that perhaps this is a good way to introduce  the world of animation to a new user. By elimination of the completely  free-to-roam 3D environment that is often the biggest challenge to  grasp for many, you simplify the information to be absorbed. This way,  the learner gets to focus on the animation aspects while working in a  more familiar area of animated events happening in the controlled  environment of a fixed picture plane. Not only are people more familiar  with these type of graphics, being exposed to more flat media, but it  is also possible to turn out more impressive looking results in a  shorter time in this type of medium than trying to turn out perfectly  modelled, and lit, and textured, and rendered 3-dimesional graphics 
 which also happen to to well animated.

  Thus, by tackling a small 2.5D motion graphics assignment with  images/photographs and simple graphics, a new user is likely to grasp  more of Blender's basic animation features, and also turn out a more  personally satisfying end result, than (for example) a motion tweened  grey cube that bounces around in some unnatural way, which would be the  standard way many are introduced to animation in 3D. That would rank  right up there with the classic reflective sphere on chequered floor  example, or the standard "Hello World" programme. After those most  users are typically asking "Now that I've managed the sphere, how do  make Toy Story?". The main issue is often with translating what has  been learnt into some sort of practical application. Teaching animation  basics through motion graphics would solve that problem.

  Scope

  This tutorial should be structured as a project based, hands-on,  step-by-step account of the creation of a animated graphics sequence  using image elements and  simple text and object elements in 3D.  The major concepts are introduced as part of the task, and so users  learn to automatically think of these features in terms of their  practical use rather than as abstract concepts.

  It should cover:
  - basic key framing for object movement
  - IPO curves and their basic manipulation
  - Object IPOs and their effect on object motion
  - Other IPOs perhaps using material IPOs and Alpha fades as an example

  Deliverables

  A complete walktrough of the process of setting up and executing the  creation of a short motion graphics sequence. The process will be well  documented with appropriate screenshots and also tips and tricks that  come in handy in such practical situations. For example, a box-out on  the setup of the textured OpenGL view for working with image planes  would be appropriate for the topic of motion graphics even if not  directly related to animation.

  The tutorial would quite easily meet the 20-page requirement of this  project. beyond that I would really let the content find its own  length. With a comrehensive project tutorial such as this, it is best  not to be miserly with detail because readers often find themselves  lost between steps. I am willing to put as much effort and length into  this as is required to make it an accessible and coherent piece of  documentation.

  Biography

  My name is Samir Bharadawaj (Samir on Blenderartists). I am a freelance  designer, writer and illustrator. I played around with Blender a little  in the NaN days, but really set about learning it only after in was  Open Sourced. I have been using Blender seriously for about three years  now. I am quite familiar with most of Blender's features, being  completely ignorant only of certain higher end features such as NLA and  Blend Shapes, which I have simply never needed to use in my work so far.

  I don't do as much personal work with Blender as I would like to,  mainly for lack of time, but some of it can be seen in the 3D section  of my portfolio. (see links below). I use Blender in my commercial work  whenever required and it has been my main tool on animation projects  like the ones mentioned earlier, and also on illustration or graphics  projects requiring 3D. I have had one of my personal images included in  the Blender.org gallery and also my entry into the Peugeot competition  last year.

  Being a freelance writer, my writing skills are worthy of the task. My  most major contribution to Blender writing till date has been a  comprehensive 6-page Blender tutorial published in the March 2005 issue  of the CHIP India magazine when they included Blender on their cover  disc. Besides that I do often try to write small mini tutorials and  instructions on the Blenderartist forums for specific people and  questions whenever I think I can add something important to the  discussion.

  Links

  Portfolio including 3D work(all Blender) and some writing samples:
  http://www.publiksquare.com/samir
  Shots of the port simulation animation assignment here:
  http://psquare.freeunixhost.com/nico/
  Shots of the recently completed corporate video presentation:
  http://psquare.freeunixhost.com/gallery/index.php?album=Thermo

¸.·´¯)¸.·´¯)¸.·´¯)¸.·´¯)¸.·´¯)
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
            visit
    publiksquare.com/samir
   design and communication
______________________________
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://projects.blender.org/pipermail/bsod-mentors/attachments/20060609/2db42824/attachment-0001.htm