Week 10: Finishing Touches

Lighting

I created a target spotlight high up above the scene and had it only illuminating the ground. This was so the edges of the ground were not in shadow.


I then created an Omni light lower down and turned on the shadows. This would be the main source of lighting for the models in my scene.


Finally, wherever a model was in shadow when the camera went by, I added an Omni light and tweaked the illumination strength. This ensured all of the models looked their best in the camera.



Scene Dressing

In order to make the scene look more natural I decided to add elements that you do not overtly notice. However, if they were not there the scene would look bare.

I added trees at specific points around the scene, re-seeding and scaling each new oak tree to make them look different. I put some scaled down oaks on the edges of the scene to give the scene some depth of field.


I also added some volumetric clouds at different points around scene 1 and scene 2. This was done by creating sphere gizmos and adding a for effect.
I took some extra time positioning the clouds where the camera dollies down to the ground and there the Spitfire flies off into the distance.
These extra effects really help make the scene.




Scene Completion

After I added these finishing touched to the scene I was ready to render my scenes.
I rendered my scene in 1280 x 720 resolution at 30fps. I rendered as an uncompressed AVI.


Edit & Final Render

Once the three scenes were rendered I imported them into Adobe Premiere Pro. I then pieced the scenes together with some dissolve to white effects.
The dissolve to white effects were perfect for my animation transitions. This was because for the scene 1 to scene 2 transition, it made the animation look like it was going through thick cloud. As the background in scene 3 was white, the transition made it look like scene 2 disappeared and the components in scene 3 took their place.

Once the video was edited together I then added the sound.
I wrote a commentary to be played along with the scene and added the files to the timeline, editing the length and position until it was in time.
I then added the sound effects, cropping and editing the sound where it was needed.
Finally, I added the music I had chosen to the background.


I was happy with the final edit so now it was time for my final render.
Using the information on Richards blog. I chose to render my video in F4V HD 720p. I found this created a good quality video with a reasonably file size.


This completed the process for the created of my animation. All that is left it to present it to the other groups and Elli.