Steampunk Flying Machine

a CG animation

About

The animation of the flying machine visualizes an aircraft flying over a short distance. The style contains some steampunk and fantasy elements and, to add to the nostalgic feeling, the coloring throughout the video is kept in a sepia tone.

Project Details

Period
Team Size
3D Graphics Program
Render Engine
Video Editor

08/2018
1
Autodesk Maya (2018)
Arnold
DaVinci Resolve (15)

YouTube: https://youtu.be/uX98-xf_VlY

Project Description

The animation was created in the practical course ‚Projektkompetenz Multimedia: Maya‘ at LMU Munich. While we learned about various topics of 3D modeling and animation during the semester, the project itself was implemented in four weeks during the semester break. The aim was to create a short animation with self-modeled 3D models using Maya. There were several milestones where project documentation and Maya scenes should be submitted, as well as the final deadline for the animated clip.

We were allowed to choose our own theme for our animation, so I decided on a steampunk-style flying machine that I wanted to let my imagination run wild on.

To render the animation, I left my computer on overnight (to be exact I made several attempts in several nights until I was satisfied with the result).

Animation Video

Development

Research and Drawings

Long before I started modeling the flying machine, I thought about how it should look like. Of course, I already had specific ideas in mind, but I needed some inspiration for the mechanics of the wings in particular, because I wanted to make their functionality believable.

So, I first researched Lenoardo da Vinci’s designs for flying machines. Then I randomly googled pictures of flying machines and penciled one that I found. I also made a sketch of another flying machine just rolling out of the garage, ready to fly. That would be a great story for the animation, I thought. But unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to model a garage and tools as well ;)

I also found inspiration for steampunk and fantasy elements for a flying machine on Pinterest. But the one I ended up modeling was constructed entirely by myself.

Modeling process with Maya

It was my first 3D modelling, so of course there were occasional difficulties, but overall, I found my way around quickly. For specific questions, our instructor was there to help. I once sent him my Maya scene when there was an error in the main ship’s mesh. He then explained what was causing the error so I could fix it myself.

The modeling part was a lot fun (while listening to music with headphones) and also took the longest, since I modeled many details such as screws and gears myself. Unfortunately, many of the details can’t be seen in the finished animation :(

I then had further problems with the materials and lighting, since that was also new to me, and it took me a while until the result was more or less what I had in mind. I quickly said goodbye to photorealism, I even think it’s better stylized, but since time was short, I only created very simple materials.

For the sepia effect, I chose suitable colors for the materials and processed the background images with a sepia filter. However, it might have been better if I had simply post edited the video in a video editing program ;)

It was also difficult to show the flying machine from several sides in an animation that was only allowed to be 10-20 seconds long. Also, I had so much fun animating the wing movements that I wish I could have made a longer video :D

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