CROWD ANIMATION FOR SHOWING

MUSLIM BATTLE OF UHUD

MOHAMAD HISHAMNUDDIN BIN MOHAMAD SALLEH @ KAMARUDDIN

BACHELOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(MEDIA INFORMATICS) WITH HONOURS

FACULTY OF INFORMATICS AND COMPUTING

UNIVERSITI SULTAN ZAINAL ABIDIN

2018

i

DECLARATION

The dissertation is submitted as a partial fulfillment for the award of Bachelor of Information

Technology (Media Informatics) with Honours at the University of Sultan Zainal Abidin

(UniSZA). This work is the result of my researches. All sections of text and results which have

been obtained from other work/sources are fully referenced. I understand that plagiarism

constitute a breach of University regulations and will be dealt with accordingly.

……………………………………

Name : Mohamad Hishamnuddin bin Mohamad Salleh @

Kamaruddin

Date : ……………………………………

ii

CONFIRMATION

This project report title Crowd Animation For Showing Muslim Battle Of Uhud by Mohamad

Hishamnuddin bin Mohamad Salleh @ Kamaruddin, matric number BTDL16043933 has been

seen satisfactory in term of scope, quality, and presentation as a partial fulfillment of requirement

for Bachelor of Information Technology (Media Informatics) with Honours in University of

Sultan Zainal Abidin,

……………………………………

Supervisor’s Name : En Mat Atar bin Mat Amin

Date : ……………………………………

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DEDICATION

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, En

Mat Atar bin Mat Amin for his kindness, patience, and motivation towards this project.

Not forgetting, Faculty of Informatics and Computing, thank you for giving me chances

to discover and reveal new things by myself for this project. Besides, I would like to thanks to

my family, especially to En Mohamad Salleh @ Kamaruddin bin Ali and Rahmah binti Awang

and all other lecturers in Faculty of Informatics and Computing for support, helping and give me

the motivation to complete this project. Last but not lease, a huge gratitude to my supportive

friends who always help, encourage and tech me with unlimited new knowledge.

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ABSTRACT

Crowd simulation is the process of simulating the movement (or dynamics) of a large

number of entities or characters. It is commonly used to create virtual scenes for visual media

like films and video games, and is also used in crisis training, architecture and urban planning,

and evacuation simulation. Crowd simulation may focus on aspects that target different

applications. For realistic and fast rendering of a crowd for visual media or virtual

cinematography, reduction of the complexity of the 3D scene and image-based rendering are

used, while variations in appearance help present a realistic population. In games and applications

intended to replicate real-life human crowd movement, like in evacuation simulations, simulated

agents may need to navigate towards a goal, avoid collisions, and exhibit other human-like

behavior. Many crowd steering algorithms have been developed to lead simulated crowds to their

goals realistically. Some more general systems are researched, that can support different kinds

of agents(like cars and pedestrians), different levels of abstraction(like individual and

continuum), agents interacting with smart objects, and more complex physical and social

dynamics.

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CONTENTS

DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................. i

CONFIRMATION ......................................................................................................................... ii

DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………………… iii

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. iiv

CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................... v

LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... vii

LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... viii

CHAPTER 1 (INTRODUCTION) ………………………………………………………………1

1.1 Project Background .......................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 2

1.3 Objective .......................................................................................................................... 2

1.4 Scope ................................................................................................................................ 3

1.5 Limitation of Work ........................................................................................................... 3

1.6 Report Structure ............................................................................................................... 3

1.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................. 3

CHAPTER 2 (LITERATURE REVIEW) .................................................................................... 5

2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Crowd Animation ............................................................................................................. 5

2.3 Comparison to the Existing Project .................................................................................. 6

2.3.1 Perceptual Effect of Shoulder Motions on Crowd Animations…………………………….6

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2.3.2 Crowd Simulation in Urban Planning………………………………………………………………….6

2.3.3 Walking Penguins Crowd Simulation………………………………………………………………….7

2.3.4 Stadium Crowd Simulation with Pedestrian……………………………………………………….8

2.3.5 Comparison between these applications…………………………………………………………….9

CHAPTER 3 (METHODOLOGY)…………………………………………………………………………………………10

3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 10

3.2 Methodology Review ..................................................................................................... 10

3.3 Methodology for Crowd Animation ............................................................................... 11

3.3.1 Phase 1: Preproduction .................................................................................................. 11

3.3.2 Phase 2: Production ....................................................................................................... 14

3.3.3 Phase 3: Post- Production .............................................................................................. 16

3.4 Project Requirement ....................................................................................................... 17

3.4.1 Software Requirement………………………………………………………………………………………17

3.4.2 Hardware Requirement…………………………………………………………………………………….18

3.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 18

REFERENCE ............................................................................................................................... 19

APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................... 20

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Comparisons between the applications .................................................................. 9

Table 2 List of software ..................................................................................................... 17

Table 3 List of hardware .................................................................................................... 18

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 How shoulder motions effected in crowd animation ............................................ 6

Figure 2 How crowd simulation work in urban planning .................................................... 6

Figure 3 How peguins developed in crowd animation ........................................................ 7

Figure 4 Crowd simulation of pedestrian at stadium ........................................................... 8

Figure 5 3D production pipeline ........................................................................................ 11

Figure 6 The army prepared for battle ............................................................................... 12

Figure 7 The archery get ready at the hill .......................................................................... 12

Figure 8 The battle begings ............................................................................................... 12

Figure 9 Islam army win the battle .................................................................................... 12

Figure 10 Design of character ........................................................................................... 13

Figure 11 Sketching ........................................................................................................... 14

Figure 12 2D model ........................................................................................................... 14

Figure 13 3D model ........................................................................................................... 15

Figure 14 Modelling .......................................................................................................... 15

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Project Background

The crowd-animation system in character studio is designed to simulate the

behavior of real-life crowds. A crowd simulation emulates real-life situations by animating

delegates (helper objects that act as representatives). You give the delegates overall guidelines

on how to behave, and the crowd simulation calculates their motion. Crowds animation

frequently appear in many block-buster feature animation films and video games. Typical

examples include pedestrians walking in the street, soldiers fighting in a battle, and spectators

watching a performance.

So this project will focus on the fighting in Uhud War. This crowd animation will be

developed in the calvary between two groups of Muslim army and Quraisy army. Uhud War is

the second war that occurred in the history of Islam in the 3rd year of Hijrah on the outskirts of

Bukit Uhud. This war involves an Muslim army led by the Prophet Muhammad SAW and the

Quraish army led by Abu Sufyan bin Harb.

The Muslim armies were initially made up of 1,000 troops. When Muslim troops

approached Mount Uhud, Abdullah bin Ubai succeeded in playing his part by inciting some

Muslim troops out of war and returning to the medina. At last 300 troops had followed Abdullah

ibn Ubai to Medina. However, due to the failure of archery troops not obeying the instructions

of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, it has invited a thousand reasons why the Muslim army was

killed in the Uhud field.

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1.2 Problem statement

The increasing of using visual and digital media are playing a role to deliver a history

facts to the people especially students. Limitation of visual contents especially engaging crowd

presents new challenges for educators. Crowd animation is crucial in addressing these challenges,

including addressing a fighting scene in complex situation, interpret the movement of characters

in the scene and so on. We found that there no more effort for showing in animation how the

Muslim battle is visualise in crowd animation.

Through this problem, we are propose for developing a crowd animation that have

framework with unique features that aim one of Muslim battle in Uhud.

1.3 Objectives

1. To design the materials before combining it into one character of crowd animation for

Muslim Battle of Uhud.

2. To develop the crowd animation to show how it works.

3. To evaluate the realism of crowd animation which is it simulate the behavior of real-life

crowds or not.

3

1.4 Scope

This application will use by the only one main actor which is the main admin of this system

and the customers as the user.

a) Application :

Focus on character model and show it to user how this crowd animation performes and

show how Muslim Battle of Uhud happened.

b) User

This animation will use by the only one main actor which is the viewr as a user.

c) Software/application :

Autodesk Maya, Golaem 6, Adobe Photoshop

1.5 Limitation of work

The limitation of this animation is for all animator in the making of their animations. This

animation will make them easier to animate a lot of characters which they do not have to create

many real character so they can save their cost in making their animation. Many animator have

use this method. But today, not only for animator. Students that study in animation field will use

this method.

1.6 Report structure

The reminder of this thesis is organized as follow. In chapter one, we discuss the project’s

background, problem statement, project objectives, and project’s scope. Chapter two discusses

literature review which refers to previous reaches and articles. Chapter three and four details of

this project methodology and animation design respectively.

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1.7 Chapter summary

This chapter discussed about the project’s background, problem statement, project’s

objective, and project’s scope.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter provided some reviews of technique which have been proposed by many

researches previously. The crowd animation also have reviewed to ensure the quality in order to

improve this project.

2.2 Crowd Animation

This crowd animation discusses the idea from previous project and animations, there is

part of research when in the particular topic is placed. This literature reviews easier to understand

general description of exist crowd animation and also the method using for Crowd Animation.

In order, to make the literature review easier to student understand, the information is preset in

the table.

Different incorporates a short review of the point talked about, the research that has been

finished by existing application and making correlation between existing animation. The

thoughts from the past asset or accessible asset help to meet the destinations of this animation.

There have a few references that can make it as development from the item.

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2.3 Comparison to the existing animation

2.3.1 Perceptual Effect of Shoulder Motions on Crowd Animations

Figure 1 How shoulder motions effected in crowd animation

In this project, they investigate the value of adding shoulder motions to characters passing at

close distances on the perceived visual quality of crowd animations for example is perceived

residual collisions and animation naturalness. This project shows that shoulder motions have a

strong positive effect when two people passing by.

2.3.2 Crowd Simulation in Urban Planning

Figure 2 How crowd simulation work in urban planning

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This project presents a semi-automatic visualization method for the evaluation of urban

environments that is based on artificial intelligence. It proposes the use of agent-based crowd

simulation software on a mid-scale urban planning level for design evaluation. The information

on agents’ movements is noted in standard raster images. The results are maps that are easy to

understand. These maps show movement paths of the agents and density and give further

conclusion on bottlenecks in planning contexts.

2.3.3 Walking Penguins Crowd Simulation

Figure 3 How peguins developed in crowd simulation

The aim of this project is to simulate the crowd of penguins, and obtain independent animal’s

behaviour which also can influence each other, making the behaviours movement of a walking

penguin closer to reality under the three-dimensional environment. And the method will be built

on the Reynold’s Flocking Algorithm. This program is based on C + + and OpenGL, and uses Qt

Creator and NGL library to compile.

8

2.3.4 Stadium Crowd Simulation with Pedestrian

Figure 4 Crowd simulation of pedestrian at stadium

The aim of this project is to simulate the crowd of pedestrian at stadium, and obtain independent

people’s behaviour which also can influence each other, making the behaviours

movement of crowded people closer to reality under the three-dimensional environment. These

basically use when some places have upcoming event to be held or what we call it layout.

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2.3.5 Comparison between these applications

Application Advantage Disadvantage

Perceptual Effect of

Shoulder Motions on

Crowd Animations

Use 3 condition that

have none, one or both

shoulder effect.

Complex

development because

it use detail of

shoulder movement

when meet each other

Crowd Simulation in

Urban Planning

Simple algorithm that

using in this project.

Do not have clear

video of crowd

simulation people but

more to building

Walking Penguins

Crowd Simulation

It can make animator

in film easier to make

the lot of characters.

Sometimes it can

effect to other

character because

penguins placed at

closely.

Stadium Crowd

Simulation with

Pedestrian

Can estimate the

people that come to

the stadium before

event be held.

The crowded of

people thata showed

not clearly can count.

Table 1 Comparison between the animations

2.4 Chapter Summary

In this phase, it will deliver the information about the study on the past research and the

current website. This study is more to focus to do the development and suggestion to user. With

this study, a new application will be developed and benefit the all users.

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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter explained the detail of the methodology that is being used in the

development of this Crowd Animation. This methodology is called as pipeline. This

chapter will explain more details about every phase that involved in this project. The

phase is pre-production, production and post-production. The process of creating 3D

animation can be sequentially divided into three phases. In phase 1 (Pre-production),

there have idea, storyboard and design. In phase 2 (Production), there have layout,

modelling and texturing, rigging and animation and the last one in this phase is lighting

and rendering. Lastly, in phase 3 (Post-production), there have composition and final

output.

3.2 Methodology Review

A pipeline is a series of product, either in a state of development, preparation, or

production, and ideally in different stages of their life cycle. At any in a target, the goal is to have

some products in the growth stage, which is the key stage for establishing a product’s position in

a market, increasing sales.

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Figure 5 3D Production pipepline with crowd animation

3.3 Methodology for Crowd Animation

3.3.1 Phase 1: Preproduction

1) Idea

The main idea of crowd animation is to present how Muslim Battle of Uhud happen to

users using this way. Some of us will not remember the history of Islamic battle. So

we use this way is crowd animation for make it easier to know how it happens and

show how crowd animation working in animation of films.

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2) Storyboard

Storyboard is how the story will be show in the video. This must be create at the the

first step after got the idea. Basically, storyboard will be draw with pencil because this

is the story that made of animator and to remain their originality.

Figure 6 The army prepared for battle Figure 7 the archery get ready at the hill

Figure 8 The battle begin Figure 9 Islam army win the battle

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3) Design

Design the process where the animator will draw first what character that they want

to model or to be in their animation. This is also the important process because with

this design, they will use as their reference to make a character into 3D in modelling

software such as Maya.

Figure 10 Design of character

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3.3.2 Phase 2: Production

1) Layout

Layout is the process how the 3D model will be created. For this project, first of all

the character will be draw on plain paper with pencil. After that, from that drawing we

change that to 2D character either use the pencil or tools such as Adobe Photoshop.

Then, Autodesk Maya will be used to transform it to 3D model.

Figure 11 Sketching

Figure 12 2D model

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Figure 13 3D model

2) Modelling & texturing

When we reached at this process, we know that we have finish 50% of progress.

This process 100% use software Autodesk Maya. Animator also can use the other

software but commonly animator will use Maya. 3D model also called the proof of

concept. Model that will be create is based on the design that have finished. Plus, the

process also have the texturing. Texturing is the process where the model will be

coloured.

Figure 14 Modelling

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3) Rigging & Animation

Rigging refers to the process of creating the bone structure of a 3D model. It is a

process to set up a controllable skeleton for the character that is intended for animation.

This skeleton structure is used to manipulate the 3D model like a puppet for animation.

So that, this character can be done with interactive product.

4) Lighting & Rendering

Lighting is the process that animator will add lighting to the model so that it will

seen real plus there have the shadow by the model. Autodesk Maya is software fully used

for modeling the 3D object. It is the main software consists the modeling and animation

needed. After rig the model and make animation, last process for 3D production is

rendering the model.

3.3.3 Phase 3: Post- Production

1) Composition

It refers to the step of combining the all of the model that have been finished.

Combining the model will take a little time for make it suitable or not at their place. This

step also must be clearly do for show it as in reality. For example, archery is at the hill so

it must be at the hill not at field. That is the composition

2) Final output

This the last action for animator to do. When all of the process above done, it is time for

animator to show it to user their animation. So this is the step for showing how crowd

animation happens in Muslim Battle of Uhud.

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3.4 Project Requirement

Project requirement includes two parts which are software requirement and hardware

requirement. The requirement the project to ensure the completion process well and every aspects

requirement need to be used for chapter implementation and analyze to make sure the correct of

the application.

3.4.1 Software Requirement

List of software needed:

No. Software Purpose

1. Adobe Photoshop Used to design the storyboard

2. Microsoft Word 2016 Used to do the documentation of application.

3. Adobe Premiere Used to convert it into full video

4. Golaem 6 Used to create algorithm of crowd animation by

plug-in with Maya

5. Autodesk Maya Modelling the 3D product

Table 2 Software needed

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3.4.2 Hardware Requirement

List of hardware needed:

No. Hardware Description

1. Laptop HP 15-g201AX

2. Processor AMD A8

3. Memory 4 GB RAM

4. Operating System Window 10 Gaming

5. System type 64-bit Operating System

Table 3 Hardware needed

3.5 Summary

This chapter discuss on methodology for the system development required to complete the Crowd

Animation for Showing Muslim Battle of Uhud. Each oh phase development will follow the steps

in Pipeline discussed earlier in this chapter.

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REFERENCES

1. Mungo Pay, Damien Maupu & Martin Prazˇak , (2017) , Flexible pipeline for crowd

production : The ACM Guide for Computing Literature.

2. Fasheng Qui, Xiolin Hu , (2010) , Modelling group structures in pedestrian crowd simulation

: Simulation Modelling Practise and Theory.

3. E. Bonabeau , (2002) , “Agent-based modeling: Methods and techniques for simulating

human systems” : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of

America, vol. 99, no. Suppl 3, pp. 7280–7287, 2002.

4. Di Xiou , (2013-2014) , Walking Penguin Crowd Simulation : Computer Animation &

Visual Effects , Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus , August 2014

5. Gideon Aschwanden, Jan Halatsch, Gerhard Schmitt , (2008) , Crowd Simulation for Urban

Planning : Chair of Information Architecture, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

6. Essays, UK. (November 2013). Crowd Simulation in Films.

https://www.ukessays.com/dissertation/examples/english-language/study-of-crowd-simulation-

in-the-movies.php?vref=1

7. Lee Frost , (2000) , Simulation Technique : The A-Z of Creative Photography

8. Zhigang Deng, Xioagang Jin , (2014) , Crowd Simulation and Its Applications: Recent

Advances : Journal of Computer Science and Technology

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APPENDIX

ACTIVITIES WEEKS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Topic Discussion

Project Title Proposal

Proposal Writing - Introduction

Proposal Writing – Literature

Review

Proposal Progress Presentation &

Evaluation (11 / 10/2018)

Discussion & Correction

Proposal & Proposed Solution

Methodology

Proposed Solution Methodology

Proof of Concept

Drafting Report of the Proposal

Submit Draft of Report to

Supervisor

Seminar Presentation

(03/12/2018)

Correction Report

Final Report Submission

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