Attack of the 100ft Dude!!! Animation Semester 2 Final

ANIMATION SEMESTER 2 FINAL

"ATTACK OF THE 100 FT DUDE!!!"

The goal of this project was to make a short animated film that included 3D animation as well as special fx. The 3D animation was done in the program Maya and the special fx were done in Adobe After Effects. Both of these elements were required and had to be incorporated into the film in some way. The people in my group who all contributed to the making of this animated film were: Me, Drew McCall and Graham Petter. What our film is about is in the title: Attack of the 100 Ft Dude!!! If you didn't get the hint, the film is about a 100 ft monster that attacks the city. The military attempts to save the day, will they pull it off? Watch the move to find out!


Pre-Production we were coming up with ideas on what we wanted to make our short animated film about. We all came up with an idea, pitched it, and at the end chose a winner. After we decided what we wanted to make, we began storyboarding. Storyboarding is drawing out images of the different scenes that you plan to include in your film or animation. Most of the drawings were not the most accurate portrayal of the scene but more rough sketches of what we wanted to happen. Then, we decided who would play what role in the film, basically chose characters. Then, we chose which locations we wanted to film in. Finally, we were ready to begin making this animated film. Oh, here is what the storyboard looked like:

During production we filmed all of our scenes. Some scenes we filmed more than once to make sure that we got the right shot and the acting was ok. We did a lot of filming in front of a green screen, here is what that looked like:

After we got everything filmed, we imported all of our clips into After Effects. In After Effects, we added in all of the Special Effects and did most of the Video Editing. Special FX and video editing were done by Drew McCall and Graham Petter. While they worked on editing the film and adding special fx, I worked in Maya to create the animated tank and the missile. I was responsible for all 3D models and animations. Finally, when all of this was done we rendered out or movie and began typing the blog post that you're reading now.

Looking back on this project and during the production of it, I was able to learn a few things. One of the first thing that I learned was how to batch render in Maya. This was extremely useful and made all the 3D animation actually able to be in the film. The second thing that I learned was how to make a tank. It isn't the best tank but it was way over my expectations on what I thought that I was capable of making. I also learned that communication is key when collaborating with others to make a short animated movie. Without communication nobody will know exactly what it is they're supposed to be doing and you will not finish before or on the deadline. I also learned that deadlines come up extremely fast so all the time you are given to work on a project in class should be used wisely; in other words: DON'T SLACK OFF. 

After watching my final project, I would definitely do a few things differently. The first thing I would do differently would be bettering my acting. It was ok but it was kind of corny. My only excuse for this is that it is a 50s movie and it's supposed to be bad (Me:1 Haters: 0; I'm keeping score). The second thing that I would do differently would be to try to make a better tank. The one I made was ok but I feel as though I could have done better if I utilized a lot more of what I had learned over the semester. Although there are a few things I would change, I could draw a lot from this project.

The first thing I will draw from this project is the willingness to go out on a wing and try to make something I've never made before (this being the tank). The reason for this is that I actually surprised myself and the turn out wasn't too bad. The other thing I would draw from this is how to batch render. Without this, you wouldn't see the tank or missile in the film.

Overall, I thought the film turned out pretty good and I had a good group I was working with. We all executed and got what we needed to do done. All of our handwork leading up to the finished product was well worth it. Also, the reason that the film is not uploaded on this post is because it is still rendering (in case you couldn't tell from the text in the parentheses reading: "Movie goes here when it's done rendering").