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CSCI 417
Project 5 5/12/2022
Final Animation
For this final animation, since I have no aptitude for actual animation or storytelling, I decided to make another animation that at least looks nice.
One of the first things that popped into my head was motion tracking my apartment, and then using Maya to place an object in my living room and make it look like it was there. I then had the idea to use fluid simulation to make a floating water cube.
The first hurdle I hit was that Maya doesn't actually have built in motion tracking software, so I used Blender instead.
The video that was used was taken on my phone, and it had to be re-shot multiple times due to moving too much or moving too fast, which made Blender's built in motion tracking have a hard time. Originally I was supposed to walk out of my room in the beginning, but my walls were so bland and had so little tracking features that I had to start in the living room.
Here's a screenshot of what the tracking editor was like in Maya.
Thanks to the motion tracking software in Blender, it was able to recreate the camera path and focal length of my phone camera with less than a pixel of error.
In the beginning, I found out that although Blender set the background as the video, it wasn't present in any geometry, and as a result, a floating water cube would not be able to have realistic refraction and shadows.
To fix this, I used the camera solve and the tracking points to create a rough model of my apartment, and had the video projected onto it and a light source where the balcony door was. The picture of professor Davis was also added in.
Here's a side by side comparison of the original video, the viewport preview, and the final finished product. I wanted to add sound but all the pouring water noises I could make in my apartment didn't sound right, so I decided to have no audio in the end.
Rendered frames
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