Lab 3: Conveying Mood using Lighting, Shading & Camera
IDS252: 3D Animation, Fall 2008

Goals

• Become familiar with the various rendering options including hardware, software and IPR.
• Learn about the different shaders in Maya.
• Learn how to use lights and create shadows.

Directions

1. For this lab, you should do all of your work on the enfuzion drive and not on your H drive. When you create a new project, place it in the folder \IDS252Fa08\Lab3\your_name on the enfuzion drive. When you have completed the lab, you will copy your final images over to the folder \IDS252Fa08\Lab3\FinalImages Make sure that the names of the files you copy into this folder include your initials or login name. The files in this FinalImages folder will have a "sound layer" added to your "image layer" by the musicians.

   Note if you fail to copy over your images or if you turn in your work late, your images will not have sound layer added by the musicians. This layering of image and sound is a very important part of this lab!

2. Tutorials In Maya, go to the tutorials on Rendering (under Learning Resources;Getting Started with Maya;Rendering) and work through lessons 1-3. The files you will need can be found on the C drive at

   C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2008\GettingStartedLessonData\Rendering

   After you create your new project (through Maya) on enfuzion, copy (through Windows, not Maya) the needed files from the above folder into your project folder on the enfuzion drive. Please do NOT work from the files on the C drive - copy them over to your folder!!!

   • Lesson 1: Rendering a Scene.
     Much of the material in here will be a review. New topics include using the IPR renderer and the FCheck tool.
   • Lesson 2: Shading Surfaces.
     Learn about material types and textures, Hypershade, bump maps.
   • Lesson 3: Lights, Shadows, and Cameras
   Note, the above lessons will not be collected.

3. Expressing Mood: The goal of this portion of the assignment is to use materials, lighting and camera to convey specific moods.

   Directions:

   • In class, you will be assigned a word representing some mood.
   • Create some type of fairly realistic scene that is related to the mood you are assigned.
   • For this scene, create two images as follows:
     1. Image 1: Choose the lighting, materials, and camera position so as to convey your assigned mood as convincingly as possible.
     2. Image 2: Using the same scene, choose different lighting, materials, and camera position to convey the opposite (or at least a very different) mood.

   Suggestions for the scene:

   • Materials and Shaders: Include in your scene at least 3 or 4 different objects that in real life have different types of surfaces. For example, a scene of a dinner table might have a wood surface, glassware, plates, silverware, etc. You may use objects you have already created in a previous lab but also include a few new ones.

   • Lights: Limit the number of lights, e.g. try not to exceed 3. Lights are important in focusing the viewers eye to what is important. They also help to clarify (or hide) shapes and features of objects. Can you explain the purpose of each of the lights in your scene? Recall in class, we talked about key, fill lights, and backlights.

   • Story: Part of conveying a mood, is telling a story. The image you create is a snapshot out of that story; the snapshot contains elements that hint at what has happened before or what might happen in the future. What story is your scene telling?

   • Camera: Where you place your camera dramatically affects the meaning of the scene. Think about the different ways the camera can be used (click here for examples).

   • Composition: When composing your picture, consider design principles. Where is the eye drawn? Even though you are aiming for realism, still try to create a sense of cohesion through color, shape, light/dark, etc. Try varying the camera and light placement.

Evaluation

Render your 2 images as a high quality 640x480 jpg image file. Place them on \\home\enfuzion, in the folder IDS252Fa08\Lab3\FINAL_IMAGES. Be sure that the file name contains your initials or login name.