Assignment 2 Detailed Requirements:

Basic Description:

You will be given a simple scene (see below for download instructions).  To this scene, you will add lights and camera movement.  Create two animations of approximately 10 seconds in length that show your scene.  In one, light and film the scene to give the sense of a bright, sunny day when everything is good in the world.  In the second, create a sense of a frightening, darkened alley at dusk.

Detailed Requirements:

You can think of this assignment as being about creating two different establishing shots.  The camera flies into the scene and a particular mood and setting should be established.  The first shot should be about a bright, sunny, happy day.  The second shot should be about a darkened, spooky alley.

• Download the zip file that contains the scene you are to work with here.
• Unzip the file and you will find a complete Maya project.
• Rename the project folder replacing the “yourname” part with your actual name (first and last, please).
• The folder contains two copies of one scene (StreetScenePartA.mb and StreetScenePartB.mb).  Use one copy for each of the different lighting set ups.
• You should not need to change the models or materials in the scene.  (If you want to replace the materials with more advanced Arnold materials or add textures, that’s fine, but you need to use the same scene for both parts of the assignment.  For example, if you add textures, you need to use the same textures in each of your final movies.)  This assignment is about seeing what you can achieve with light and camera movement alone.
• The one exception to this is the bulb in the lamp.  You can change its material properties as you like to add glow, etc.  You may want to look at a similar example in the Fundamentals book for ideas.
• You can use as many lights as you like.  Often movie and theatre lighting rigs will use a large number of lights even when creating a simple effect.
• The majority of the marks in the assignment are for lighting (60%), with a smaller portion for camera movement (40%), so allocate your time appropriately.  As a general rule, keep your camera movement simple.  Erratic or very “busy” camera movement can be distracting.  Use with caution.
• Note: you can key visibility on and off for any object.  You shouldn’t use this to change the scene (i.e. don’t remove a building that should be visible from a given camera shot), but it may be useful to turn a building invisible that isn’t seen in order to position the camera more easily.
• Have fun!

Submission Instructions:

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) should be in the root of that folder.

- N.B.  Name your project folder as described above.  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).

- Create a rendered movie of each of your animations.  Make sure they are saved within the Maya project file and named appropriately (e.g. DarkScene and LightScene).

- Once everything is ready, drag and drop the project folder to the submissions folder as outlined below.  If you need to update the submission, just copy over another folder and update your name with v2, v3, etc.  We will only mark the last submission.

Submissions Folder:

1. The "classes folder” is located in the lower right when you log into a computer in the lab. Double click on this.

2. Open "Neff, M. CDM 130", then “drop off” and then “A2”.

3. Drag and drop your assignment into that folder. Make sure it is named correctly, as described above.