This assignment will use music to explore ideas of visual timing. Your task is to animate a collection of geometric primitives of your choosing (e.g. cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc.) to reflect the timing and feeling of a piece of a music. To begin, select a short clip of music that you like (~ 20 sec. – 1 min. Focus on quality animation over quantity.) and would enjoy using in this exercise. Consider the feeling and the transitions in the music and what primitives, colors, lighting, etc. reflect the feeling of the music. Develop a few different possibilities as rough sketches, bits of animation or notes. Select one of these alternatives and develop a piece of animation in which you move your primitives in response to the music. Consider both timing and the use of visual design. For instance, take note of the following issues:
- How well does the timing of the motion reflect the timing of the music?
- Is the emotional feel of the two consistent?
- How are you using space in the design of how you lay out the objects? Are the various compositions effective?
Specific grading criteria:
- Quality of the timing of the motion, including placement of keys and adjustment of tangents
- Match between motion and sound
- Design (visual layout, effective use of color, etc.)
- Overall quality and appeal of piece
What to submit:
- rendered movie of the final animation including sound
- your complete Maya project folder
- readme file
The basic submission procedure is the same as for all assignments.
- You will be submitting your entire Maya project folder. All additional files (e.g. the readme.txt and image files) should be in the root of that folder.
- N.B. Name your project folder as “A2YourName”, where “YourName” is your first and last name. This is how we will identify your submission.
- Include a brief readme file that identifies how you have met each of the requirements. You can also include any problems you could not resolve or particular features you would like us to notice. The file should be called “readme.txt” and included in the main project directory of your Maya files. Include your full name and student number in this file. This file should be brief (< 1 page).
- Be sure to include all the rendered images and movies listed above!
- Submit by following the instructions below. If you need to update the submission, just copy another folder and update your name with v2, v3, etc. We will only mark the last submission.
1. The "classes" folder should be automatically mounted. If it isn't, there should be a link on your desktop that you can double click on to mount the folders. The link is called “tcsserver.ucdavis.edu/Classes”.
2. In the classes folder, open"TCS 131".
3. Drag and drop your assignment into the "Submissions" folder. Make sure
it is named correctly, as described above.