This animation was made for a MEL Scripting class at UCSB. I had a lot of fun with this. I used the swarming expression that I developed earlier and a MEL Script to follow the birds and trace curves along their position. These curves were then extruded and animated to make the structure come alive. The materials were driven by random functions and sinusoid functions. The video demonstrates flocking, then flocking influenced by sinusoidal wind vector field, then object avoidance, and final predator avoidance with a cube boundary. All other art direction was all me, camera cuts, music, shots, etc. The music is “Poseidon” by BT.
Using Reynold’s Flocking pseudo code, I wrote an expression in Maya that would simulate birds flying about as they are seen in nature. My flock is a bit aggressive, but it goes well with the music.