Throughout the duration of the six week long "Museum of Power" assignment the active group members have worked efficiently together to produce an ambitious and innovative project. The initial brief was to produce a 3D animation of an item from the Museum of Power in Langdon, Essex. Our group chose the LMS Fowler 2-6-4t Steam Engine which turned out to be a rather demanding decision due to the shear number of parts which make up the Locomotive. This therefore dramatically increased the end level of detail needed in the 3D representation to match that of the real Steam Engine. This was passed on in the form of a substantial workload which could only be completed if appropriately divided between the group members.
Consequently before any production took place an initial group meeting was conducted where our individual skills were established. As a result the outlook of the project was split into key areas which in turn were shared amongst the group. The Steam Engine itself required to be modeled to a high enough level of detail to show the functioning of working parts. Myself and Steve Harwood were allocated this task as we enjoy the task of 3D modeling and were therefore willing to exert the amount of time needed to fashion the majority of the components in 3D using 3DS Max. This section of work was divided further to allow simultaneous production of the the required components which could later be merged rather than waiting on each other for the completion of specific tasks. I was responsible for producing the main Body and Undercarriage parts of the Train whilst Steve Harwood constructed the wheels, boiler and front sections of the model. Once these tasks were eventually completed I made the Passenger Carriage in 3D whilst Steve Harwood textured both the original Steam Engine and new Carriage.
Steve Muller was specifically identified for his natural animation skills which were employed to produce the "Fly In" animation where the separate parts of the Steam Engine are assembled. He also proposed an idea to include a character early on in order to effectively show how the Steam Train would have been used back in the early 1900's. The addition of a character is a unique asset that I believe enhances the end animation increasing its appeal to a wider audience such as young children who may not normally take an interest to an informative mechanical themed video. Towards the end of the project it was decided that additional characters were needed to enforce the Time period at which this particular Steam Engine was used in. Consequently the original SteamBot character was modified to create 4 additional themed characters including BoilerBot, KidBot, ProfBot and GentBot. These extra characters were included as passengers in the Passenger Carriage and were modeled to symbolise typical job roles of the late 1920's. This concept was developed further with Lee Hallett's decision to include narration in the final animation to strengthen the delivery of information of what the Steam Engine was used for. Lee also produced the Train movement animation to a realistic level of detail where the individual components rotate smoothly and increase in speed as the train progresses. The majority of paperwork including meeting minutes, presentations and group organisation/scheduling were additionally done by Lee whilst production on the other elements continued with the remaining group members.
The occurrence of regular weekly meetings ensured that the current progress was consistently reviewed allowing the upcoming workflow to be planned for the following week. Any indecisions were discussed and voiced with opinions therefore no arguments as such were experienced. Due to the fact that as individuals we personally get on well with one another and I feel this helped us to perform as a group to be able to effectively communicate and discuss what was needed.
The only and main issues encountered were experienced in the last couple of weeks of the semester. These were basically technical limitations rather than any physical disagreements amongst the group members. During the final rendering stage of the project the different sections of the animation were rendered on different computer setups. This is combination with the high use of MeshSmooth modifiers meant that severe problems were encountered once the end files were merged. This lead to problems with opening the files on different computers which hindered the animation and final rendering stages for a couple days. However this was successfully resolved by remaining in constant contact with the other group members to discuss potential solutions. Eventually the previously described issues were sorted out by optimizing the number of MeshSmooths used and how many "Iterations" were set for each under their parameters. Also after performing test renders on various computers it was ascertained that my desktop system handled the files with the least strain on the CPU and Memory. Whereas previously renders would fail of the computer system would lock-up whilst opening or editing a file.
Overall I am extremely content with how we performed as a group, due to the fact that no issues arose concerning a lack of communication or failing to complete assigned tasks. Working with such a dedicated group has been an enlightening experience which showed how the quality of the end product can benefit as a result.
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