These two play blasts show a more developed bird with blend shapes applied to the model and how the bird could be animated:

Bird wing improvement and blends

This is a play blast of the birds blend shaped wings:



The images are to show my developments of my bird:

For Sal's project I was given the task to model and animate a bird/bee/butterfly. The hardest to model was the bird because of the wings. I designed a quick bird model and begun to design the wings but they did not look like birds wings nor did it make it easier to design them to fly so I took the old wings and changed them for a layered design, where I can bend the wings and it has been build for an easier texture because its a flat plane.

I have done a few tests of the wings opening and closing using blend shapes and also to see how it could fly. So far I think that it is a good step in the right direction, I believe that the wings look better but they are also easier to work with so I was able to make it fly though blend shapes, I have also taken some screen shots to have a look at my developments and a short play blast.

The image below was the first idea for the wings. The idea was to make the wings look like they had feathers coming directly out of the bone of the wing. From above it looks like a good idea but from the side/front/back they did not look right for the structure of the bird model and would have been a problem when trying to open and close the wings. The images above are the new wings I have been working on.

Bird/Butterfly and the Bee Improvements and Research

I went to Leeds Castle and looked at how the birds move and the movement of the wings, I have begun modelling the bird but I could not seem to get the wings correct, therefore I went to the birds of prey to get an idea on the way birds move and use there wings, it turns out the wings are layers that fold in and out which I need to incorporate on my bird model.

The developments on my bird ideas: The model of the bird is really bad it needs a lot of work, mainly the wings, but its a block out of the frame I want.

My butterfly model is really good I have managed to build it the way I wanted it to look ana also I have blend shaped it so that it can fly. I have made a quick play blast to show my development:

My bee model looks very well made I have enjoyed building this model because it was something new for me. I am on the stage were I can now texture the bee and the butterfly and will hopefully make it fly by next week:

Improvement On Daryls Environment

These images are the development on the environment from the orginal blockout to an improved model, which has been toon shaded, because Daryl wanted the environment to look 2D, with Lambert colour textures.

During this term I have taken my recent blockout environment and while the environment did work for the animation, Daryl wanted to changes some of the modelling to make the characters move around more freely and get from place to place easier because of the 2D characters going into a 3D environment.

Harrison placed some notes on one of my environment pictures so both of us could have a visual on what needs to be changed. Shown below: