Horse

Just a quick post to show how I created my horse.


Step 1: I started by making a plane in the right viewport and made it an editable poly. I then extruded out the edge to form the outline of a horses head and neck.
I then extruded outwards to form the horses mouth tweaking the vertices in the front and right viewports as I went. I carried on this process up the front of the nose and down under the horses jaw. I inset a poly at the front of the face and deleted the inside to create the nostril.


Step 2: I carried on extruding the polys up and around, tweaking the vertices as I went, linking with the jaw to create the main part of the horses face.


Step 3: I extruded the polys down to form the neck and up into a point at the top of the head to create the ear. Again I inset a poly deleting the inside to create the eye.


Step 4: I then refined the ear by inseting and extruding the front facing poly inwards. I also connected the bottom of the neck to the top of the head.


Step 5: I took the top 3/4 edges of the neck and extruded them down to form the length of the body. I then took the bottom 3 polys and extruded that along the body to form the bottom of the horse.


Step 6: I then filled in the rest of the polys to make the body. I tweaked the vertices in the front and right viewports to form the flow of the body.


Step 7: I then made a copy of the head and spent a while tweaking the vertices to make a more realistig. A majority of the work was focused around the jaw. After I was happy with the changes I had made I deleted the old head and welded on the new head.


Step 8: I then extruded the polys down the back and around the side of the body to create the rear end of the horse.


Step 9: I added some more edges down the horse and tweaked the vertices to achieve a better edge flow on the body. I also deleted a number of polys in two places on the body and began to construct the base of the legs.


Step 10: I then extruded the polys downt he letgs to make the kness, ankles and finally the hoofs. I deleted four polys at the top of the rear end and extruded the edges out to make the tale. I then extruded the edges around the eye and nose holes before adding a symmetry modifier. I finally added spheres for the eyeballs.


Step 11: I then added a meshsmooth. I chose this over a turbosmooth to keep the poly count low.


Step 12: I then added a UVW Unwrap modifier to my model and went by connecting all the edges to create one mesh. I left the bottome of the hoofs, inner mouth, ears and tail seperate.



Step 13: Using different textures I then made a material for the horse in photoshop.


Step 14: Using a picture of a horses bone structure I then added bones to the mesh of my horse.



Step 15: I then added a skin modifier to my model so it is now ready to be skinned and weighted correctly

To Do List

Just been totting up what i need to do to get the animation to the standard I want and it's a heck of a list.

Characters: Horse, Hunter, Stag, Old Man, Two Children

Props: Bow, Arrow, Quiver, Saddle, Bridle

Scenes: Living Room, Forest Scene One, Forest Scene Two, Forest Scene Three

I know this is a lot to do but as the fable will be a story read by the old man I can afford to make the characters in the fable a bit cartoony. I also can avoid any lip-synching by having the tale narrated. I will animate the fable first so I can animate the scene with the children and grandfather if I have time.
If need be I will only play the sounds of the children fighting and just have models for the back of their heads to show them listening to the story.

It's safe to say I have a lot of work to do!

Storyboard

Right. So here is the storyboard for my animation idea. I must warn you it is not a masterpiece but I am particularly proud of the stick horse!


Slide 1: The camera is looking over the should of the hunter at the horse and stag in the middle of a flgith.
Slide 2: The hunter approached the horse as the stag flees.
Slide 3: The hunter makes the horse bite down on the bridle.
Slide 4: The hunter saddles the horse.
Slide 4: The hunter mounts the horse and rides off into the forest.
Slide 6: The horse rides towards the right side of the camera in slow motion. The Camera then dollys round while the hunter cocks an arrow on his bow.


Slide 7: The camera dollys round to look over the right shoulder of the hunter with the stag in view.
Slide 8: The arrow is fired but the hunter and the camera tracks it into the stag.
Slide 9: Just as the arrow hits its target the camera cuts away to the floor and you see a trickle of blood flow over the ground.
Slide 10: The horse then struggles as he shows the hunter he now whishes to be set free.
Slide 11: The hunter shakes his head and tells the horse he would rather keep the horse as it is at present.
Slide 12: The hunter rides off into the forest.

Just a small note. I have an idea for an introduction where two children are fighting. Their Grandfather then reads them the fable from a book to entertain them. This would allow me to have the whole story narrated. This is preferable because it will eliminate and un-realistic parts of the story, such as the horse talking.

Semester Two - Aesop's Fable Animation

Finally. A chance to get into what I've wanted to do for a long time!
This semester we're tasked with animating an Aesop's Fable. These are very old fables which hold a moral message.

I'm going to use 3DS Max to create all the models, stages, lights and cameras to make my animation and then use editing software to add sound, editing, credits and possibly effects.

We're meant to choose three fables we like and then from this short-list make a selection of the fable that we are going to animate. Truth be told I have, with absolute certainty, already chosen what fable I am going to animate. However, to adhere to the will of my lecturer I will briefly describe the three options.

The Young Thief and His Mother Fable:

This fable tells the story of a young thief on the eve of his execution being visited by his mother. On her arrival he bites her on the face and curses her for not disciplined as a child.
The moral of the story being if you train a child at a young age, the child will not depart from that path.

This fable would be interesting to animate. It would invole a lot of close up face work. The faces would need to be gritty and would prove to be a good task for skinning. The lighting would play a big part in the fable because the thief is in a dungeon. You could extend the scene to show the thief being executed which would be a good end on a sudden blackout when the gallows drop or the axe hits.

The Old Man and Death

In this fable you hear of an old man working in the forest sick of his toil. Upon calling out for death to take him Death appears asking for why he was summoned. Hastily the old man asks for aid with his work.
The moral of this story is many of us would not like our wishes to be granted.

The fable like the previous will invlove a lot of close up face animation. Again, the face of the old man would be gritty for he is a peasant. The appearance of Death would allow me to add in some great lighting and atmospheric effects which would really add to the scene.

The Horse, Hunter, and Stag

This fable, and in my humble opinion the best (care to guess which fable I have chosen?), invloves the horse who has had a quarrle with the stag asking for the hunters help. The hunterclaims in order to help he will need to saddle and bridle the horse. After the hunter kills the stag he will not let the horse free, prefering the horse as it is at present.
The moral of the story being that if we use others they may also use us.

This fable offers a rich environment that will need to be modelled, three organic living characters and many four which the characters will interact with. There will be a small of close face work for the hunter and some mouth work with the horse. Some parts of the anmiation will be quite complex and I have a few ideas for some good shots. Because the fable is in a forest can use lighting shining through the trees set the mood of each scene.