ROTC Animation Drills

ROTC Animation Drills

Justification and Feasibility

Joe O’Brien

Dr. Benjamin Bishop

September 3, 2010

Project Value

Before deciding on my senior project, I met with Dr. Bishop to discuss a project that would be beneficial to the school community. After listening to a few of suggestions, I decided on an ROTC animation project. The project is a compilation of a few ROTC drills in animated form. The animated drills will enable rookie ROTC students to learn the maneuvers more efficiently. After discussing the project with my outside advisor, Steve Milici, it was determined that this project could have great significance in the ROTC community.

Currently, I have not been able to find any similar projects online. My outside advisor, Steve Milici, is also not aware of any similar projects. There are multiple videos online that film ROTC students doing their exercises. Also, there is an Air Force drill and ceremonies manual which gives an in depth description of how the drills are to be completed. At this time, the ROTC students have to study the manual in order to complete the drills properly. The drills take many hours of hard work to be properly completed. Seeing as there are no animated videos for ROTC students to view, Steve and I feel this project can become very valuable. Not only will Steve be using the video to show his students, but the video could also help train other ROTC students. Since my project will be original, I feel as though it can be a very valuable project. I will be working without the help of former projects. I consider the ROTC animation video to be a valuable project that can help many people.

Feasibility

The project will take a lot of time and hard work, but will be able to be completed within the semester. I began my project at the beginning of the school year and laid out a plan in order to complete my project successfully. After looking over the plan, I concluded that I will have enough time to successfully complete my project. The majority of my work will be the animation of the characters. I have to be precise and accurate when animating these characters. The animation of the characters may be the difference between a successful or unsuccessful project, so most of my time will be spent on the animation. After the animation is complete the rendering process will take time to finish. After I render the animation, I will then make a short video. This will be one of the easier parts of the project and will allow me to complete my project in my allotted time. Looking over my plan, I will be able to complete my project throughout the semester.

For my project, I have the necessary resources available. The program I am using to animate the characters is free, as well as the software that I am using to develop my characters. I will be using the Air Force drill and ceremonies manual to help me understand the movements I am creating for my character. Also, there are videos online that I can watch to give me a visual aid when I animate the characters. All of the resources that I will be using for this project are available for me to use anytime. I will be able to successfully complete my project with the resources I have available.

Project Time Frame

To ensure I could have my project completed in the allotted time, I scheduled each task to be completed by a certain date. I broke up my project into six parts: creating the human models, implementing the human models, animating human models, adding surrounding objects, rendering the animation, and creating the final video. I began my project on August 23 with the first stage. I plan to finish the last stage by December 3. For each stage I have set a begin date and end date to keep myself on track. I will be able to revise my schedule if I need more or less time to finish certain parts. I have allotted more time then I think I will need for each stage to ensure I will have enough time. Overall, I have laid out a schedule that will allow me to finish my project in proper time.

Gantt Chart