ORB (Orbital Reconnaissance Battle Droid) Animation Project

The ORB Char­ac­ter was cre­ated by me for my stu­dents to use within my ani­ma­tion class.

CONCEPT: You are a new recruit at a mil­i­tary test facil­ity.  You have been charged to com­plete sev­eral train­ing exer­cises that will pre­pare you for suc­cess­fully com­plet­ing a test fir­ing of the ORB.

TRAINING MODULES

1: Ball Bounce — Tim­ing, Graph Edi­tor Famil­iar­iza­tion.
2: Orb Bounce & Roll — Nat­ural Tim­ing, Set­tle In
3: Orb Jump — Antic­i­pa­tion / Arcs / Iner­tia (Forces)
4: Orb Fly — Over­lap, Over Shoot, Set­tle in, Bank­ing, Ease In Ease Out

MAIN PROJECT: Orb Test Firing

1. Begin­ning — Char­ac­ter must start on the ground.
2. Mid­dle — Char­ac­ter must move through air.
3. End­ing — Char­ac­ter must return to the ground.

Addi­tional Require­ments: Must work with 3 sep­a­rate cam­eras w/ 2 cam­era cuts

GOALS:

1. Chance to explore the prin­ci­ples of ani­ma­tion.
2. To gain a greater under­stand­ing of work­ing in motion passes.
3. Work­ing within a proper curve order.
4. Work­ing within a hier­ar­chy of con­trols.
5. Gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the Graph Edi­tor and Dope Sheet.
6. Explore cam­era com­po­si­tion and flow of action.
7. Gain a under­stand­ing of direct­ing the view­ers eye.

MODEL:

 

ORB RIG & CTRL DEMO:

 

TEXTURE Exam­ple:

ANIMATION PASSES:

Pass 2 — Linear

Pass 2 — Spline

Pass 3a

Pass 3d

Pass 3I

Pass 3J

Pass 4 — A this point I open stu­dent projects to edit and cri­tique.  Fin­ished ani­ma­tion to come!

Pass 5 — Clean-up — Demo Pod­cast to come!

VFX:

Flame Test

Future devel­op­ment:
1. Smoke
2. Heat Trail
3. Sparks