Storyboarding
My Initial Storyboard
Following my idea for my animation i started sketching up a rough draft of what it could look like as a finished product.
I started out by showing the basic piston setup and how it moved the crankshaft around each rotation, then moving on to how the pistons were pushed down with the intake and exhaust valves showing labels in order to better give the effect of the diagram before the transition into 3D then the camera zooms out showing the full machine now 3D before zooming in closer on the camshafts hitting the valves at the perfect times to open and close them with the engine movement. At this point it zooms back out revealing more of the engine has appeared as the final product.
Inspiration
When it came to the visuals i was heavily inspired by the very industrial style educational videos on the workings of car engines, I found most of these through my research into how engines work as they are very helpful resources to pull from when understanding the basics of the engineering behind these machines and the purpose behind each component. In my opinion, these resources were invaluable, allowing me to better understand the workings of an engine and allowing me to plan my final animation storyboard better. By looking further into each individual component and how they function together as a whole, It allowed me to create a more accurate representation of what i was trying to create.
1) Car engine components, car engine parts and functions animation & diagram (2022)
“The simplest and most common type of engine comprises four vertical cylinders close together in a row” (The engine, no date) after reading more resources such as this one on the different types of engines and shapes out there i decided to go with the most common one an In-line engine, however I wanted to add my own spin on it so I decided to make it an in-line 5 cylinder engine instead. Not a huge change but more interesting than doing a carbon copy of an existing design.
My Refined Storyboard
After looking closer at my resources and starting to play around with blender as to what it can do i refined the storyboard to better reflect how i believe the final animation will turn out i would make it more complex however it isn’t the aim of the assignment to create a fully accurate learning animation but rather an interesting mechanical machine designed for a specific purpose therefore i think this illustrates that while still giving some interesting basic facts that allow for a slightly better understanding of engines which is the purpose of this short animation project that i am aiming for.
References
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Car engine components, car engine parts and functions animation & diagram (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4PEVU7psMo (Accessed: 04 May 2024).
- The engine (no date) How a Car Works. Available at: https://www.howacarworks.com/basics/the-engine (Accessed: 05 May 2024).
