Space Melee: Final Computer Animation Project
For CSCI1250 Computer Animation, our final project was to make a short movie in small groups of three or four. I was the project leader because I came up with the idea, and general art for the story. I essentially fulfilled the roles of director, story board artist, reference artist, animator, voice actor and editor.
Synopsis:
A space cargo ship traveling in dangerous pirate territory is ambushed by space pirates.
The Story:
The Cargo ship is transporting important cargo. The only way it can get to its destination is to go through a dangerous pirate infested area, littered with asteroids and derelict abandoned craft. A mercenary escort has been hired to help protect this cargo ship in its perilous journey. The journey though the field begins quietly, when suddenly they stumble upon a trap! During the battle, the ship becomes heavily damaged, but they manage to make it through, while outwitting and destroying numerous pirates.
I have compiled a few scenes that I animated into a short mp4 video below: (2.23MB)
The space craft models were designed by myself, starting with a sketch. I used this sketch to make detailed line art in different views. This line art was then used by my team mates to construct the models. While they were creating the models, I began animating my scenes with simple primitives on motion paths based on the story board art we agreed on. Once the models were finished, I was able to link in the models, and refine their animation.
The star field was a sphere with a high-resolution texture applied. I painted this texture in Photoshop, using random noise as a starting point. The nebulae were painted in, with randomly generated cloud textures applied to them.
