I HAVE MOVED TO DONTHATEANIMATE.COM

I am really pleased with how my domino effect animation turned out, especially as it is my first fully rendered 3D animation! I genuinely think it looks good, and is an effective way of showing a domino effect/chain reaction. I am especially proud of my alarm clock as I took me a long time to model and because I think it looks very realistic (apart from the fact it doesn’t look very stable on it’s two feet!). My favourite part of the animation is the ball being flung from the spoon, as I think the movement is spot on. 

My main issue with the animation is that it is the tiniest bit blurry because the video had to be slightly stretched to become widescreen. However, I think it isn’t massively noticeable until the end and it doesn’t detract from the overall animation. I’m not 100 percent sure about the lighting either, if I could re-do it I would brighten the lighting and make sure the shadows weren’t as dark.

These are the textures I decided to use for my animation:

Wooden table and floor texture

Small ball texture

I wanted a really bright colourful texture and thought this was perfect.

Wall Texture

Before starting my animation I practised modeling a few different objects: 

Drawer

This drawer was the first thing I attempted to model. I don’t think it turned out very well apart from the handle (which I had help with!)

Apple

I am really proud of this apple! I learnt how to assign materials with this model.

Solar system

This was the first animation I did in Maya. The planets orbit the sun and rotate on their axis.

Cog

Dominoes falling reference

Alarm clock

I want my alarm clock to be an old fashioned bell style alarm clock as I think they would appeal to the audience more.

The idea I have decided to go with a simple chain reaction, however the idea behind it is an alarm clocking going off and a series of objects in a chain reaction to knock it over. I am a regular ‘snooze’ button addict so this idea is perfect for me!

The animation will start with the alarm clock going off, then a hand coming down on a spoon, the spoon flinging a small ball, the small ball hitting a domino, the domino starting a domino effect with other dominoes, the dominoes hitting a big ball, the big ball rolling and knocking over the alarm clock.

The only sound effect I need for my animation is the sound of an alarm clock going off. Here are the sounds I looked at:

This sound is from a modern alarm clock which is too digital sounding for the alarm clock in my animation.

I won’t be using this sound effect as it is too high pitched.

This is the sound I have decided on. I think it will fit in with my alarm clock because it is very irritating to listen to and I think the sound quality is better than the others.

For my animation I like the idea of using the Rube Goldberg machine. Rube Goldberg was an American cartoonist and inventor who drew a series of popular cartoons which depicted complicated machines that would perform easy tasks in indirect, long-winded ways. Because of this, the ‘Rube Goldberg machine’ has become an expression.

This Rube Goldberg machine is used to pour milk and cereal into a bowl:

My favourite example of a Rube Goldberg machine in animation is in this clip from Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, where a machine gets Wallace out of bed, into his trousers, and sitting at the breakfast table with some toast.

A Rube Goldberg machine isn’t necessarily a domino effect, however it definitely can be used to describe one if the chain reaction is an indirect way of making something happen that could be achieved in a much simpler manner.