MEL (Journal #3 1/30/11)

Alright, so for the homework this weekend we were to look at a MEL tutorial. After searching for anything that was even the slightest bit helpful, I stumbled upon this set of youtube videos.




After this there are at least 4 more. I'm posting it in case anyone else needs to learn MEL, and learn it like a child being taught the abc's. I'm slow at scripting and this was easy to grasp.

Assignment #2 Bouncy Ball

This here <-- is the ascii art ball I created that you see in the video.

Before I give my “recipe” on how I got the final product, I feel the need to explain a few things. First, I knew that I personally could not create a bouncy ball in Maya with very little mouse clicks. Before today (1/27) I was completely oblivious to MEL script. That being said, I was quite intrigued about using ASCII art for the project. I tried to just use ASCII in Photoshop, but I just couldn’t figure it out quite right. So, instead, I created an ASCII ball in its own picture and manipulated the picture in a new picture. (Just a note: the image in the top right corner is a light bulb, the ball goes flat at the end because it popped on the glass.)

I also preset a few different keying aspects in Photoshop before starting (ctrl + . =scale; ctrl + , =distort; ctrl + / =rotate. Each of these affects the picture by one pixel). This is important if anyone wanted to use my “recipe” to recreate it.

The last thing I want to note is my biggest problem. I was able to put the 86 pictures I made in Photoshop into Premiere, but each picture took up 5 seconds each (far too long to make it look like the ball was bouncing). I initially tried to shorten each picture, but that proved to be a futile effort. Eventually, I just rendered out the long sequence (over 7 minutes) and re-entered it into Premiere as one long video, then shortening that one video.

Here’s the “recipe”

• open Photoshop
• ctrl + N --> open new picture size 200 x 200 pixels
• t à start typing new area
• type in ASCII soccer ball
• ctrl + shift + S --> save as “ball"

• ctrl + N --> opens new picture size 600 x 550 pixels
• t --> start new typing area
• type in ASCII light bulb

• in “ball”- M --> rectangle marquee tool, select whole picture
• ctrl + C --> copy

• click on larger picture
• ctrl + V --> paste ball into pic
• V --> move tool
• click and move ball to upper area (starting it off screen)
• ctrl + , --> to distort (using arrow keys); to make longer or more squat if falling or hitting ground
• ctrl + shift + S --> save as
• repeat last 4 steps for each new picture needed in slideshow
• once ball has bounced: ctrl + / --> rotate (using arrow keys)

• open Premiere
• ctrl + alt + N --> new project
• ctrl + alt + O --> browse in Brdige, find folder all pictures are stored in
• ctrl + A -->select all pictures
• use mouse to move to Premiere imported area
• , -->will import all into editing bay
• enter--> renders entire work area
• ctrl + alt + E --> export
• Encore will open (automatically)--> press “start queue”

• (in Premiere) ctrl+ alt+ N--> new project
• click import, select long movie
• , --> import into editing bay
• use tool to squish movie to 5 seconds
• enter --> render work area
• ctrl + alt + E --> export
• start queue and save

If anyone wants this in a nice PDF format, let me know and I will email it to y0u.

Journal #2 1/27

Today we were going over MEL scripting, which turned out to be not as scary as i would have thought it to be. I do think that figuring out how to properly work a for loop in it will be difficult, but it's nice to know I understand the basics. There's not much else to say, but I look forward to making the color cube with lots of little spheres of color.

Journal #1 1/26

This being my first post for this class (that's not an assignment), I felt I'd explain my plan for the journals. I'm going to try and do 3 a week, the first two pertaining what we do in class, the third being something from the outside.

That being said here's from Tuesday:

We talked more about linear algebra and different ways to look at the color spectrum. I feel the HSB one is the best, because you catch every color from white to black. It's easy for me to understand it when it's on the board. I am genuinely worried about when we get to the project for the color spectrum. I can work Maya just fine, and most other programs too, but I am awful at programming. I struggle through it because I just don't understand it. I know I've worked with python and c#, but very little has stuck. I have no problem making a "recipe" of how I get to the final product of a project, but having a script that actually works will be quite a leap for me.

Assignment 1

This, I believe, is the most complete model I have made. It is a lamp designed for the first IFDM course, and it is one of the best I have done.

Just showing a picture of my modeling is simply not enough to show what I do. I am a film maker. I love to direct and write screenplays. I can do modeling, but it is not my passion.