A Study of Process

Take on a process that unfolds over time. Convey the details occurring in distinct stages and a sense of climax or resolution in the events portrayed. One approach to this assignment is to explore changes occurring in lighting in conjunction with other unfolding events.

There are two technology options. Within this assignment you will create a three-dimensional model and animate aspects of it. Or, you will videotape a subject and examine varying conditions over time.  Or, you may wish to try combining both technologies with an edit in Final Cut Pro. Collaboration on this assignment is allowed. 

Note that all students within the seminar will be asked to learn animation techniques, either as the actual means for production of this exercise, or as way to understand the motion of objects from a constructed viewpoint. Similarly, all students were asked to handle assignment one with digital video production. At your discretion, this project may evolve as a subject that you will explore for the entire term.

Option 1 - Animation:

For the first option, study a subject in which some process can be animated. You may optionally incorate a 3D model that explicitly refers to architecture, landscape architecture, environmental design or other design elements. Or, this exercise can include a character animation or more general visual study study against an appropriate background.

Design students may alternatively work with a model that you have developed in architecture 541/542 or as related to another course.

Maya is the primary technology used in the class for modeling and animation. Microstation is a comprehensive program for producing a three-dimensional model and for potentially creating a key-frame object specific animation of it. With some limitations, it is also possible to import models into Maya that have been created in Microstation, AutoCAD, Rhino, FormZ or an alternative CAD system. Only students with prior experience in Microstration or other geometrical modeling systems are encourged to explore it as a means of modeling and animation or exporting models from it into Maya.

Supplmental tutorial manuals for animatinon in Maya 7.0 are available on reserve in the Fine Arts Library. The Riddell text, focused on Maya 7.0, should be read through Chapter 5. Optionally, you may want to look ahead at Chapter 15 on creating lights.

Option 2 - Video Production:

For the second option, choose a subject that you can revisit under different conditions that depict a process over time. Use the video capture techniques that we review in the workshop this coming week. Edit a short videotape of not more than one to two minutes which incorporates your lighting study. You may elect to vary artificial lights as a part of this study.

Option 3 - Combined Production:

Optionally, some studies may explore two technologies, and combine computer animation with captured video footage using the editing  techniques described within the upcoming workshops on Final Cut Pro.  This option would take on techniques described under Options 1 and 2 above.

Potential points to consider:

All studies may consider how variable conditions will change emphasis on the subjects's physical appearance (color, shape, texture, etc.). Think in terms of a short sequence with beginning, middle and end. You may want to explore a constructed or transforming object, or a person performing a set of tasks. Or, you can speculate on how lighting conditions will vary according to the motion of the sun or artificial lights and thereby reflection a process of change occuring over the span of a day. You may also wish to consider the way in which artificial lighting conditions may emphasize different formal, transparent, reflective, translucent and other material properties of a representation at different points in time.

Steps for producing the animation:

1. Build the schematic model in Maya (or import it from Microstation, AutoCAD, Rhino or Formz if necessary).
2. Practice tutorials of Maya.
3. Add lights and camera.
4. Use the "keyframing" options within Maya to move the lights and camera.
5. Create your personal  submit directory for arch545 on Olmsted (we will show you the submission process in the workshop and will help you to create the submit directory).
6. Render and save to disk the frames of the digital video image on a temporary drive for production and then transfer the needed files to either a DVD disk or your own personal folder on your "J" drive, and ultimatley within your submit directory. An animation of 30 seconds to 1 minute is a good size for this exercise.
7. Send notification via email to the TA for your section and to both Earl Mark ejmark@virginia.edu, about the completion of this assignment, its file name and directory location, and a brief description about your intentions.

Steps for producing a videotape:

1. Shoot the raw footage on a DV camera.
2. Download the footage onto a Macintosh using IMovie or Final Cut Pro.
3. Create an assembly of the sequences of greatest interest in a first pass over the raw footage.
4. Refine the assembly into a final cut.
5. A video of 1 to 2 minutes is a good length for this exercise.
6. Save the final cut movie into QuickTime format and place it onto a CD or DVD,  or record the IMovie back onto videotape.
7. Send notification via email to the TA for your section, and to Earl Mark ejmark@virginia.edu about the completion of this assignment, and a brief description about your intentions.  The CD, DVD or videotape should be submitted to the teaching assistant for your section.

We will screen rushes in approximately two weeks.