Final Animation

Completed Scene

The scene is finally completed. All the clips have been put together to create a typical air show on the beach including plane sound effects.

If im honest, im not a hundred percent pleased with the end result of the animation. I would like to have created more planes, but ran out of time. I spent so long creating a big beach for the planes to fly along, that I had not much time to create a series of different planes. In the end I had to turn my attention to the animating side of the scene and use the two planes I had come up with.

The scene does show evidence of boning (plane banner), but not as much as I wanted. If I had of done a person, then of course there would have been a lot more boning in the scene.

A part of the scene which I am particularly proud of is the smoke effect from the planes. This was done using the particle systems. Adding the smoke into the scene really improved it, making it seem more realistic.

I am a bit annoyed now that I didn't put people into my scene. If I had known about bipeds I probably would have put people on the beach, or pilots in the planes. Because I only found out how to do bipeds late on, nearing the hand in date, I had no time to give it ago. It was a case of animating what I had.

I do feel I did the best I could with my knowledge and the time I had using max. I am overall happy with the outcome of the animation. If I could do it again, I would put people into the animation, as well as more planes. I think this would improve the scene greatly. Never mind, the scene is done, and in the end looks quite good.

Scene Update

Scene Update

Here are some more screen shots of the scene where im up to so far. Ive managed to get a better colour for the sea, and ive filled in all the gaps along the beach from last week. The scene is looking good but is more and more looking like D-Day. Hopefully next chance to work on this will be the animation side of things. Im looking forward to it...



Ive been experimenting with the lighting this week too. I dont want to make my beach too sunny, but have sufficient for a nice day. I think what im going to do now is start with a reasonably sunny day, and then have the weather change to a more miserable one. Thats more like the typical day at the beach... this is probably what my scene will be based around. Ive just thought of a good title to my animation which will be "a typical day at the beach".

Scene Update

The scene has become a lot bigger now. The sea has been done, but needs tweeking. Its a bit too clear to be on our tropical coasts. Ive continued the grass banks, the road and the beach further. The scene is looking a lot better now, so im pleased with the current progress...

Scene Update

The roads in now and looks a lot better. I've also put in a vast area of slanted sand where the sea will sit on. The hill banks and road have been continued to make a longer beach and ive put in a better sky.

Scene Update

I've now got a bit of beach going on now, with the grassy bank like i wanted. I'm not sure if it needs more at the moment. The grass bank seems too close to the beach and theres only a small path between. I might push the hill back and put a road in to make the scene look better. Ive decided to put the plane into the scene so i can see what it looks like. Im pleased with it at the moment...


I did experiment with trying to put real grass in and have it swaying in the wind. I created the grass and put it round the hill, but multiplying it about 8000 times to make it effective just slowed the program right down, so i put it down to something like 200. Theres only a few blades of grass visible but is better than nothing. They can be considered as weeds or something. The alternative was to stick a grass materials on the hills, and the outcome is a reasonably realistic grassy bank...