Medieval Siege

- Download Low Quality - 2MB, 500x333

-This quick 10 second animation includes a variety of elements and animation techniques.
-The background plate is a matte painting derrived from 5 or so images that were heavily manipulated in Photoshop to create the desired scene.
-The trebuchets were modeled in 3D Studio Max and animated using Max's 'reactor' dynamics engine. The slings were also simulated using the reactor rope modifier.
-All particles were created in Maya and manipulated in After Effects. The smoke trail is made up of 'blobby' particles while the flames are 'cloudlets'
-The crumbling of the tower was created in Maya using Shatter to generate the shards, and rigid body dynamics for the animation.
-The arrows are instanced particles in Maya. The accurate direction of the arrows was achieved by setting the "AimDirection" rotation option to "worldVelocity." The final arrow, the one that strikes you dead, was manually keyframed to hit on target.
-The fog layers were created entirely in After Effects using solid colors and masks.
-All elements were rendered at a larger resolution, giving me the freedom to crop and manipulate the camera view as I please. This also made it much easier for me to keep all the elements aligned when bringing them in from both Maya and Max.
-A combination of the "Wiggler" effect and manual keyframes were used to create a realistic camera wobble and pan.