Existing bird mesh for flying bird

Time is moving on and term time getting closer! I set myself a task of figuring out which tasks I think need to be completed next. We have completed the blocking out of the videos.

One of the team members suggested we check out a series of videos on doing camera work:

https://www.hollywoodcamerawork.com/hot-moves-the-science-of-awesome.html

Where I feel we are is; Animating the characters. Creating the controls and trying to get a natural feel to them.

I am drawn to animating the bird as it is more in line with what I would like to do. I also find it very exciting.

I checked out the Pluralsight series that I started last summer: Maya 2018 Fundamentals which involves animating the wings of a fighter plane.

Creating IK for a wing of a fighter plane, Pluralsight.com accessed 27/07/19

I found this tutorial which is way more realistic as it is an actual bird – and its only 15minutes long. (15minutes usually means at least 2hours of following it along painstakingly every 2-3minutes).

Rigging a Bird, Mike Hermes YouTube Channel Accessed 27/07/19

I am genuinely interested in this and how it flies.

I did look up the Animators Survival Kit book, which gives a very short brief on how the wings flap in the wind.

I couldn’t find an image but this is quite similar:

https://lfactionanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/ Accessed 27/07/19

The main tasks I see next are:

  • Figure out the correct way to import from Maya into Unreal using a confirmed workflow
  • Complete animation in Maya for characters
  • Complete facial animation in Maya for characters
  • Develop UV maps for objects and for characters
  • Complete simple Rendering (minimum rendering requirements)
  • Apply audio to the rendered output
  • Apply simple lights
  • Render output using Blender
  • Figure out how to import into Unreal
  • Apply weather system to Environment
  • Apply correct lighting
  • Render out scenes in Unreal

These are my initial thoughts at this stage.

Suffice to say they will change and could be wrong!