Animating

This was perhaps the most difficult aspect and development stage of the entire project. I spent roughly two weeks making sure the animation was convincing and fluid. I had to start the animation of the UFO from scratch a few times as I was unhappy the way the animation looked. To begin with my animations were far too jerky and uneven. I then began to get the hang of the animation and created an animation I was happy with. This was due to the fact that I gradually set up key frames within the flight path and used the graph editor and the spline tool to smoothen the animation and make it more fluid.

I also animated a secondary ring extruded within the geometry of the UFO itself to make the animation more interesting. I decided to add more moving parts because the UFO flying on its own looked too bland and uninteresting. When also trying to incorporate a spin to the UFO's animation, for some reason the orientation was altered and instead of a constant spin being introduced Lightwave alterd its pitch and caused the UFO to bank. This was a complete accident however this fortunately made the animation look even better in my opinion as the flight path was no longer flat and uninteresting. Now the animation suggests that the UFO is attempting to adjust its flight path and balance after making turns.