On Wednesday of last week, I left for Technology Student Association (TSA) States. It was an amazing, albeit chaotic and sleepless, experience. I was competing individually in Essays on Technology and with Lina Al Adli in 3D Animation. Of course, I will be talking about the latter. We ended the competition as finalists in 3D Animation, placing 5th. While it is not an award, being finalist is still pretty big as this was our first year in TSA.
The competition for 3D Animation had two legs. First, we had to submit an animation by April 1st with the proper documentation. The prompt for this animation was ancient technology. We had to make an animation focusing on one ancient technology and show how it came to be, why it was created, whom it was created by, etc. We chose the Seismograph, which was created by Zhang Heng in Ancient China and can detect earthquakes. We used the human models I created, Lina made the clothes and the movement cycles, I modeled the scenes and took care of the earthquakes via cell fracture while Lina took care of textures. Then, we split up the scene which we were animating, Lina did lighting and camera, and I edited it all together.
The second stage of the animation was a timed one; we had to create an animation in 24 hours. The prompt was also weird, we had to create a "living wall" with 4 areas of movement. Of course, it was very vague, but we saw it as 4 movements and went with it. We started by discussing a topic, we went through a variety of subjects and seriously considered doing something with seasons until we landed on Egyptian art. We first wanted to show two walls opposing each other, one with Egyptian art and one with some sort of modern art in a museum that see each other and start fighting because they are so different. We wanted to display how new art styles can overtake old ones. However, we scrapped that idea both because of time constraints and because I wasn't sure it would match the prompt to have 2 walls. So, we switched it to just one wall displaying a man painted in the Egyptian way who wakes up and tries to do escape the museum but fails. This time, Lina did the art, I modeled the man based off of that while she modeled and textured everything else. Then, I did the movement cycles and animated the scenes--using cell fracture yet again--after which she lighted them and animated the camera. We finished around 2 at night and set it to render. When we woke up, we discovered it hadn't all finished rendering. It was around 6 by then and drop off started at 8:30. We split up the frames of the scenes that hadn't finished rendering and somehow got it all rendered. I hastily edited it and literally ran down to the drop off room with heels in one had and the usb with the animation on it in the other. I got to the room around 8:40 and dropped it off just in time, as drop off closed at 8:45. Of course, the animation is not our best work. And while we could have done better, I think our limitation with time and inexperience within the competition hindered us a bit. Unfortunately, I was not able to put in crossfades into the video either, but I am still proud of what we were able to create in just 24 hours.
The competition for 3D Animation had two legs. First, we had to submit an animation by April 1st with the proper documentation. The prompt for this animation was ancient technology. We had to make an animation focusing on one ancient technology and show how it came to be, why it was created, whom it was created by, etc. We chose the Seismograph, which was created by Zhang Heng in Ancient China and can detect earthquakes. We used the human models I created, Lina made the clothes and the movement cycles, I modeled the scenes and took care of the earthquakes via cell fracture while Lina took care of textures. Then, we split up the scene which we were animating, Lina did lighting and camera, and I edited it all together.
The second stage of the animation was a timed one; we had to create an animation in 24 hours. The prompt was also weird, we had to create a "living wall" with 4 areas of movement. Of course, it was very vague, but we saw it as 4 movements and went with it. We started by discussing a topic, we went through a variety of subjects and seriously considered doing something with seasons until we landed on Egyptian art. We first wanted to show two walls opposing each other, one with Egyptian art and one with some sort of modern art in a museum that see each other and start fighting because they are so different. We wanted to display how new art styles can overtake old ones. However, we scrapped that idea both because of time constraints and because I wasn't sure it would match the prompt to have 2 walls. So, we switched it to just one wall displaying a man painted in the Egyptian way who wakes up and tries to do escape the museum but fails. This time, Lina did the art, I modeled the man based off of that while she modeled and textured everything else. Then, I did the movement cycles and animated the scenes--using cell fracture yet again--after which she lighted them and animated the camera. We finished around 2 at night and set it to render. When we woke up, we discovered it hadn't all finished rendering. It was around 6 by then and drop off started at 8:30. We split up the frames of the scenes that hadn't finished rendering and somehow got it all rendered. I hastily edited it and literally ran down to the drop off room with heels in one had and the usb with the animation on it in the other. I got to the room around 8:40 and dropped it off just in time, as drop off closed at 8:45. Of course, the animation is not our best work. And while we could have done better, I think our limitation with time and inexperience within the competition hindered us a bit. Unfortunately, I was not able to put in crossfades into the video either, but I am still proud of what we were able to create in just 24 hours.
Overall, states was an amazing experience, and I would definitely love to repeat it next year. Being in the competition really gave me a lot of insight as to how the tech world works as a whole, and I think the knowledge I gained by competing this year will help me next year and hopefully, we'll be in the top 3.
Work Log:
Monday 4/8: Worked on wolf design
Tuesday 4/9: Absent due to Musical
Wednesday 4/10: Absent due to States
Thursday 4/11: Absent due to States
Friday 4/12: Absent due to States
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