Disco Race

This was the second assignment during the spring for my 3-D Maya software animation class. For this project, I wanted to create a simple moving object, and I was inspired by those videos where a marble moves through a track with predetermined obstacles. I decided to give it a playful, racetrack feel hence the addition of Mario Kart music.

The hardest part of this project was getting the textures to change at the beginning, when the starting block switches numbers. Animating textures and linking them to the same surface so they would swap at the right time in Maya was particularly challenging.

I also had to figure out how to make the camera follow the marble as it rolled. To trick the viewer, I attached the camera to an empty object that was parented to the marble. Then, I had the marble follow a curved path while rotating consistently over itself. This created the illusion that the marble was rolling freely along a track, when in reality, it was simply following a predetermined path.

What would I do differently in the future?
If I were to redo this project, I’d want to fix some of the texture streaking that appears along the track. I’d also improve the bubble and archway textures. Lastly, I’d extend the track and add more interesting visual effects to make the experience more dynamic.