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Jack
O's in Animation: Master
by
Jeff Paries
Well, it's that
time of year again, when the little ghosts and goblins start
walking the evening in search of a free sugar rush. To help
put you in a "Trick or Treat" kind of mood, the following
tutorial describes how to create a Jack O' Lantern in Animation:Master
'98.
Begin by selecting
"New" from the Project drop down menu to create a
new project. Right click the Project name and select "Save
As" from the available menu. Name the project "Pumpkin"
and click OK to save.
The first step
is to model the pumpkin shape.
Click the New button
and select Model from the list of available options. Click OK.
Create a spline with 11 control points on it shaped similarly
to the one shown in figure 1. Press CTRL+A to Select All, and
enter 105 into the Magnitude field on the Group tab of the Properties
Panel. This will give the spline a nice curvature. From the
Tools menu, select Options, and click the Modeling tab. Enter
32 into the Lathe cross sections field. Click OK. Select any
point on the spline by clicking it, then click the Lathe button.
The rough shape of the body is now done.
The next step is
to add ridges to the surface of the model.
Change to a top
view by pressing the "5" key on the numeric keypad.
Select every other spline, as shown in figure 2 (there are different
ways of doing this, do whatever works best for you). It may
be necessary to Zoom in to select the correct points. Once the
control points have been selected, click the Group tab on the
Properties Panel, and enter 98 into the X and Z Scale fields.
If you want to make the ridges more pronounced than those in
this example, use lower scale values.
The next section
describes how to give the pumpkin a "carved" look.
Zoom in on the
top of the model and select the points shown in figure 3. Press
CTRL+C then CTRL+V to make a copy of the points and paste them.
Drag the copied group upwards away from the main part of the
pumpkin. Use the group tool to select all of the points that
were just copied on the pumpkin, except those in the lowest
cross section (this will leave the spline on the top of the
pumpkin and the spline on the bottom of the lid matching). The
top of the pumpkin is now open.
Click any point
along the lowest spline of the lid piece and press the ","
key to Complement Spline. Click the Extrude button and drag
the extrusion downwards past the lowest point of the lid. On
the Group tab of the Properties Panel, enter 80 into the X and
Z Scale fields. With the group still selected, click the Extrude
button once again. On the Group tab of the Properties Panel,
enter .1 into the X and Z Scale fields. This will create a surface
across the bottom of the lid.
To add realism
to the model, peak the points around the edges of the lid. The
model should currently look similar to figure 4.
To match the carved
look of the lid along the top of the pumpkin body, click any
point along the top most spline of the pumpkin and press the
"," key to Complement Spline. This will select the
spline that makes up the top of the pumpkin. Click the Extrude
button and drag the extrusion downwards into the pumpkin body.
On the Group tab of the Properties Panel, enter 80 into the
X and Z Scale fields to roughly match the angle of the lid.
The lid and the opening in the top of the pumpkin will now match
up pretty closely.
The next step is
to create the stem.
Click on any point
on the lid of the pumpkin and press the "/" key to
Group Connected. Click the Hide button to hide the rest of the
model. Zoom in on the model and use the Group tool to select
the control points shown in figure 5. Click the Extrude button
and drag the extrusion upwards to start forming a stem for the
pumpkin. On the Group tab of the Properties Panel, enter 70
into the X and Z Scale fields. With the group still selected,
click the Extrude button once again. On the Group tab of the
Properties Panel, enter 70 into the X and Z Scale fields. Enter
-45 into the Z Rotate field to add some curvature to the stem.
Click the Extrude button once again. On the Group tab of the
Properties Panel, enter 70 into the X, Y, and Z Scale fields,
and -60 into the Z Rotate field. Hold down the Shift key and
click the Hide button to hide all of the unselected points.
Press the "6" key on the numeric keypad to change
to a side view. Press CTRL+A to Select All of the visible points,
and click the Extrude button. On the Group tab of the Properties
Panel, enter .1 into the X, Y, and Z Scale fields to close the
end of the stem. The model can now be unhidden, and the lid
can be grouped and lowered into position on the main pumpkin
body.
The next step is
to "carve" the pumpkin a face.
Begin with the
eyes. Create a single spline and shape it however you would
like the eye to look. Try to keep the shape such that it will
be easy to create a legal surface of 4 point patches (to avoid
Boolean rendering artifacts).
Press CTRL+C then
CTRL+V to Copy and Paste the first eye. Right click within the
selected group and select "Flip, X-Axis" to create
the second eye. Drag both of the eye outlines into position.
Create a nose and mouth using the same technique. Once the outlines
have been created and positioned over the model, they can be
rotated to match the curvature of the pumpkins surface. Currently,
the model should look similar to figure 6.
Select the newly
created facial feature outlines and name the group "Face".
Change to a side view and drag the face group to the front of
the pumpkin model. Click the Hide button to hide the rest of
the model. Working from a side view, click the Extrude button
and drag the extrusion back along the Z axis. Click the Extrude
button a second time and drag the extrusion into the pumpkin
body. Close the front and back surfaces of the facial features
to form rendering surfaces. Select the "Face" named
group in the Project Workspace and press the "/" key
to add the points extruded from the original group to the named
group.
Change to a front
view. With the model unhidden, click any point on the body of
the pumpkin. Press CTRL+C then CTRL+V to make a copy of the
body. On the Group tab of the Properties Panel, enter 95 into
the X, Y, and Z Scale fields. With this group still selected,
name the group "Guts". This will be the visible inside
of the pumpkin.
The next step is
to add bones to the model.
While holding down
the Shift key, click on one point of each eye, the nose, the
mouth, any other facial features you've added, and the "Guts"
group. Press the "/" key to Group Connected. The enter
face and the inside of the pumpkin should be selected. Click
the Hide button to hide the rest of the model and press F6 to
enter Bones mode.
From a side view,
add a bone somewhere in the model. Use the Group tool to select
all of the visible control points. This will assign them to
the newly added bone. On the Bone tab of the Properties Panel,
place a check in the "Boolean Cutter" checkbox to
specify this bone as a cutter. Rename the bone "Cutter"
for clarity.
Press F5 to change
back to Modeling mode, and click the Hide button to unhide the
model. Select any point on the pumpkin body and press the "/"
key to Group Connected. Click the Hide button to hide the rest
of the model and press the F6 key to change to Bones mode. From
a side view, add a bone to the model horizontally, with the
bone beginning near the middle of the model and ending near
the front. Use the Group tool to select all of the visible points.
Name this bone "Body".
Press the F5 key,
and hide all but the pumpkin lid. Press the F6 key, and click
the "Body" bone. Add a horizontal bone for the lid.
Selecting the "Body" bone first causes the "Lid"
bone to be added as a child of "body". Group all of
the visible control points to associate them with the newly
added bone. The main work is done now, and all that is left
is texturing.
The main pumpkin
was colored using a Gradient material with the following settings:
Start Pos. End
Pos. Edge Threshold
0 0 50
0 0
0 0
The First Attribute
node:
Diffuse Color:
238, 100, 0 RGB
Falloff: 100
Amb: 20
Specular Color:
255, 255, 255 RGB
Specular Size:
25
Specular Intensity:
100
Roughness Height:
2
Roughness Scale:
70
The Second Attribute
node:
Diffuse Color:
255, 128, 0 RGB
Falloff: 100
Amb: 20
Specular Color:
255, 255, 255 RGB
Specular Size:
25
Specular Intensity:
100
Roughness Height:
2
Roughness Scale:
70
The material for
the stem is a fBm Turbulence combiner with the following settings:
Translate Scale
Amplitude
0 100 100
0 1500
0 100
The First Attribute
node:
Diffuse Color:
185, 119, 30 RGB
Falloff: 100
Amb: 20
Specular Color:
255, 255, 255 RGB
Specular Size:
10
Specular Intensity:
100
Roughness Height:
2
Roughness Scale:
70
The Second Attribute
node:
Diffuse Color:
128, 64, 0 RGB
Falloff: 100
Amb: 20
Specular Color:
255, 255, 255 RGB
Specular Size:
10
Specular Intensity:
100
Roughness Height:
2
Roughness Scale:
70
The Facial Features
were grouped and colored as follows:
Diffuse Color:
255, 196, 136 RGB
Falloff: 100
Amb: 20
Specular Color:
255, 255, 255 RGB
Specular Size:
0
Specular Intensity:
100
Roughness Height:
2
Roughness Scale:
70
The Guts group
had a Material applied to it that was just a simple attribute
with no settings other than 100% Transparency on the Raytrace
tab.
Once the model
was placed in a scene, a light that does not cast shadows was
added to illuminate the inside of the pumpkin.
Until next time........
To download the
project file for this tutorial, click here
Jeff
Paries is employed at Hash and is author of The
Animation:Master Handbook. 
The
Animation:Master Handbook
by Jeff Paries
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