Development of 3D Animation on How to Fight Covid19
Rosazila Abd Rashid1*, Nor Syarizaini Abdul Mutalib2, Diniha Hidayah Abdul Manan3
1 Department of Design and Visual Communication, Politeknik Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, Perlis, Malaysia
2 Department of Information Technology and Communication, Politeknik Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, Kedah, Malaysia
3 TVET Coordination Division, Department of Polytechnic Education and Community College, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 September 2022 | Published: 1 October 2022 DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijbtm.2022.4.3.17
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Abstract: This paper aimed on the development of a 3d animation project as a public service announcement that highlights ways to resolve the Covid19 outbreak. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is the infectious disease known as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The development 3D animation's goal is to evaluate the needs reviews provided by five professionals regarding the creation of this animation. The production process for this 3D animated public service announcement, which is a non-interactive multimedia product, needs feedback and criticism in order to effectively convey the message. The pre-production, production, and post-production phases of the multimedia development life cycle were used to create this 3D animation. Overall, the public has received advice and suggestions about how to deal with COVID19 through this 3D animation.
Keywords: 3D Animation; MDLC; PSA
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1. Introduction
With over than 6 million deaths globally as of March 2022, COVID-19, the most important global health problem since the influenza pandemic of 1918 is the extremely contagious viral infection caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
SARS-CoV-2 has had a disastrous influence on the world's demography (Cascella M et al., 2022). It can impact either your lower respiratory tract or upper respiratory tract (sinuses, nose, and throat) (windpipe and lungs). Similar to other coronaviruses, it spreads mostly through human contact. Infections can be dangerous or benign (Tsai et al., 2021). In order to stop the virus from spreading, numerous nations have restricted or outright prohibited access to international flights, shut down the entire nation or a number of its cities, advised the population to practice social segregation, and made the wearing of masks either required or advised. To break the COVID-19 chain, the Malaysian government began enforcing a Movement Control Order on March 18, 2020. Collaborations with healthcare service providers were authorized, along with the establishment of a temporary hospital (Shah et al., 2020). For the reopening of the economy and companies on May 4, 2020, the MOH has established SOPs (Hashim et al., 2021).
The strongest brands in the world have been developed with the help of advertising.
Additionally, it has been a crucial tool for enlightening and influencing the public on matters
of social import. Public service announcements (PSAs), a kind of communication akin to commercials, are crucial elements of the majority of communication initiatives (O’Keefe &
Reid, 1990). Although public service announcements (PSAs) are often broadcast via donated media spaces, many charitable groups today have opted to buy media slots for these social issue messages. Professional advertising companies frequently work on the development and production of these media messages. Modern PSAs have mostly resembled advertising in many ways, which is probably why their alternate moniker, public service advertisements, has become more popular (Nan, 2008).
This project has a number of goals that will help it get finished. The following objectives are listed:
i. To develop 3D animation of How to Fight Covid19.
ii. To evaluate expert reviews of the animation's requirements.
2. Methodology
A methodology is a set of instructions for solving a problem using a certain phase, task, method, or technique. It may also be described as a methodical approach that can be applied in a single development that is intended to address the issue. In order to analyze the present animation, the development team had implemented three phases, as illustrated in Figure 1. Since the development team chose to employ the MDLC technique, non-interactive items are divided into static and time-based categories. Additionally, pre-production, production, and post- production are the three basic stages that all non-interactive multimedia products must go through (Al-Jabari et al., 2019).
As the team moved into the third step, which involved expert review, they reviewed their reviews and comments. An assessment form with questions concerning the technique and the animation was presented to the experts during the review session. The question has a section on demographics and then 10 questions about the functional and non-functional features of the animation. For enhanced analysis, the voice recorder also captured the expert's vocal comments. The team examined the demographic information and the experts' opinions of the animation from the evaluation form and voice recording. The final step is to improvise. The team makes an improvement and final correction to the animation after receiving expert reviewers' suggestions for improvement.
Figure 1: Methodology of development
3. Development
There are 3 phases for development. First develop, second expert review and last phase improvise.
Develop
The detail process of conformity as shown below. The development of conformity tool was developed by adopting the MDLC. The MDLC includes the following six phases as described below:
Figure 2: Multimedia Development Life Cycle (MDLC)
● Pre-Production
Pre-production is the stage of the overall 3D project where research, design, and planning are done. Idea generation, where we have a joint discussion to get interesting ideas. With the condition of the donor at this point, the idea to produce animation related to COVID-19 came up. Then it was story creation, after the idea was all agreed upon then we together cast our own storyline for the basic version to our 3D animation. We also describe the existing characters as well as the appropriate props to include in each scene. Script writing is a literary version of our story and we also identify the movement of characters, atmosphere and action.
Next is the production of a storyboard that contains initial ideas related to camera position, character poses and scene? The idea design, character design, costume design, prop design, and setting for the project are all decided at this point. Here, it's crucial to portray the designs' overall concept and feel.
● Production 3D Modelling
3D modelling is the process of using specialized 3D software—in the instance of this project, 3Ds Max—to create a geometric surface representation of any item.
Figure 3: Main Character (Funko)
The main character is the result of recreate from Funko a vinyl figurine and redesigned this Funko based on the pictures available using box and polygon modelling techniques.
The process used standard primitives, the box is then converted into an editable poly to begin the process of forming our character body shape.
Figure 4: The same method is also used to produce other objects in our 3D animation.
3D Texturing
The process of creating and combining textures (colours and surface features) into a 3D model is known as 3D texturing. Before the texture is applied, three-dimensional models are frequently coloured in flat colours by default.
Figure 5: Texture Mapping
Materials texture is applied to the walls and floors of each scene to show a clearer and real scene atmosphere like the real world. For character clothes, UWV mapping is used to produce character clothes. The logo on the front of the shirt is placed with applied materials for selected surfaces only.
3D Rigging
In order to move numerous geometric object components (in character rigging, for example) as rapidly and effectively as possible, a bone structure is added to the 3D object during the rigging process.
Figure 6: Rigging Technique
In order to create rigging, bones are implanted one by one up to the feet, beginning at the head. Before placing the bones, it is necessary to ensure that each limb is attached together.
The pivot point must be kept in the middle so that movement can be facilitated.
Animation
The 3D actors or objects in a scene or context are given their movements during the animation stage. The animation process is often the most time-consuming and crucial part of making a 3D animated video.
Figure 7: Animated Process of Frame by Frame
We use the key frames method to animate our characters and objects. For example, above is the scene where the main character is in front of the elevator and the elevator door opens.
This animation been done by making a key frame at certain points of time to make the elevator door move open. The same method is also used with a set of key frames for each movement to show an object moving including the main character moving to the left and right as well as the movement of the hand up and down.
Figure 8: Animate Texture to create Water Flow
Lighting and Camera
For this 3D animation project, standard lighting for each scene been used. The standard lighting used is sky lighting. To ensure a more realistic cast shadows atmosphere is selected before the render process. With this selection, the shadow will be visible for each object after rendering.
Figure 9: Standard SkyLight
Figure 10: Shadow Appearance of Objects
Rendering
Every scene in a 3D animation is broken up and produced into various layers, including the objects, colours, background, foreground, shadows, and highlights, among other things. The layers will be reunited once more in the post-production phase (compositing).
Researcher employ the default rendering configuration, and a rendering batch is also available to obtain a view from a different camera. For the manufacturing process, the video been saved as an.mp4 format file.
Figure 11: Rendering Process
● Post-production Compositing
The layers that were previously rendered are combined one more in compositing to create the final output. Putting two layers together is a straightforward example of layering;
layering may also be very complex. We also added voice over (VO), graphics, and text for our 3D animation project. This process was used Adobe Premiere Pro for arranging the sequence of footage based on the project storyboard.
Figure 12: Video Editing Process using Adobe Premiere Pro CC
Final output
For the final output 3D animation movie in .avi and .mp4 format been published and presented. The animation video was about 3 minutes 50 seconds.
4. Experts’ Review
An assessment form with questions concerning the technique and the animation was presented to the experts during the review session. The questionnaire has a section on demographics and then 10 questions about the functional and non-functional features of the animation. For enhanced analysis, the voice recorder also captured the experts' vocal comments. Some of the remarks were written down on paper and voice-recorded. In table 1, the comments had been translated for easier comprehension.
Table 1: Experts’ comments
Experts Comments
Expert 1 1. No background music
2. The animation movement is too slow 3. Information is presented clearly Expert 2 1. Very clear voice over
2. The animation is not in sync with the voice over 3. Lack of background music
4. The action shown by the character is not clear.
Expert 3 1. Need subtitles
2. The color of the main character does not stand out Expert 4 1. Reduce the use of text
2. Font selection must be readable
3. The character does not show facial reactions Expert 5 1. Improve the main character angle at scene 2,3 and 5
2. It is more interesting if there are various character designs
5. Improvements
After receiving feedback from the expert assessment, the animation was improved. According to the comments, this 3D animation has to be improved in a few key areas, mostly according to experts. Here is the updated 3D animation of How to Fight Covid19 as a result of team improvements.
User interface of Animation
Figure 13: Introduction
Figure 14: Avoid Crowded Places
Figure 15: Avoid Confined Places
Figure 16: Avoid Close Conversation
Figure 17: Always Wash hand
Figure 18: Warn No Shaking Hands
Figure 19: Always Wear Mask
Methodology often provides instructions on how to create this animation. In addition, it was once utilized to oversee the entire project lifecycle. Additionally, it thoroughly explains each stage of the project life cycle so that developers are aware of exactly which tasks to do, when, and how. The phases of the technique are interconnected because if one task or phase is delayed, it will have an effect on the next.
6. Conclusion
A high-tech, non-interactive video output called 3D animation combines computer graphics, photography, space, and visualization technologies. In this 3D Animated video "How to Fight COVID-19" project, 3Ds Max modelling software is used to build 3D models of everyday environments that are the subject of coronavirus spread and FUNKO as the key object model to convey the avoidance message from Coronavirus. FUNKO modelling, trains, animation paths, camera use, final animation rendering output, and post-production animation processing are used in animation production with adobe premiere video editing to link video, adjust special effects, and add background sound. The development of this 3D animation has been well developed and meets the planning in the pre-production phase, however, expert review and feedback play a very important role in obtaining their views to make improvements to the How to Fight Covid19 3D animation project as an effective presentation to the public. We are proud to have successfully presented this 3D animation to educational institutions as a public service announcement at a time when the Covid19 epidemic is spreading with great force.
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