Maddie's Magnificent Movies!- Snowflake Animation

This has been something we have been working on all month. Ironically, it took way longer than it was supposed to due to snow days. But, it's completed, and I am very proud of it. So, allow me to explain the process that went into this.

Step 1: Creating the Snowflakes

The first thing I did was create the snowflakes themselves. I used the Create Polygon tool in Front View to create one half of each individual arm, then mirrored it to create the other half. Then, using Duplicate Special, I created 5 clones of each arm, rotated 60 degrees around, then joined them all together with the Combine tool and deleted their history.

Step 2: Modeling the Snowflakes

The next thing I did was, well, make the snowflakes actually look like snowflakes. First of all, I used the Extrude Face tool to give each snowflake some depth. After this, I hardened the faces using the Soften/Harden Faces tool and smoothed them out with the Smooth tool. By that point, they were fully modeled, so I moved on to...

Step 3: Shading the Snowflakes

After that, I added color, shading, and texture to the snowflakes. I created a Phong E, colored it white, and named it SnowShader. Then I assigned it to all the snowflakes. After that, I added bump mapping (specifically the Rock texture) to make the snowflakes look more like they are made of tiny crystals. Finally, I added white and blue 3-point lighting with a white key light, a blue fill light, and a white back light. 

Step 4: Creating the Room

For the room in the animation, I created a polygon plane, then extruded part of it for the window. Then I shaded everything, using a transparent Phong E for the window and Lamberts for everything else. Then, I created a lamp using a point light.

Step 5: Actually Animating the Snowflakes

First of all, I made the snowflakes smaller, then created 2 sets of smaller, farther-away copies. After that, I dragged them up above the window. Then, I used keyframing to set a unique path for each one.  Finally, once it was all done, I batch rendered it all, exported it all into After Effects, and arranged it all there. After all this, I was finally done.

What I Learned

I learned how to take a flat object and use the Extrude, Harden Edges, and Smooth tool to make it look realistically 3D. I also learned how to make things look like ice, how to use blue lights to make pure-white things have a slight bluish tint, and how to animate multiple things each going down their own path. This was a very fun project, and I'm especially proud of it.