Me Myself & I

group placement - foot ctrl setup 3

2009-09-30T12:28:00.002+01:00

Q.
1)Why are there ik handles connecting the ankle to the ball joint and the ball joint to the toe joint, when they are two joint chains (ik handles need 3 joints in order to calculate the movement)?

2) Why group the IK handle to itself and not the ball joint to itself

A.

1) Because the IK handles control the rotation of the joints, and keep the angles of relative proportion when rotated at the ankle joint.

2) IK handle again maintains the length and the angles of the foot rig so it behaves naturally. When a joint chain has an IK attached to it, you can still select the joint and it will behave in a forward kinematic fashion, so if you group the joint and not the IK handle, the group will behave like a forward kinematic rig. (see illustration below for example)

group placement - foot ctrl setup 2

2009-09-30T12:18:00.003+01:00

Joints can now be translated from the heel RIG, and move about quite nicely, so time to create a couple of extra pivot points for the toe-tap, toe-rotate and ball-rotate, which will be articulated through the expression editor, set driven key menu and the connection editor (essentially three different ways of of establishing relationships between nodes).

The book instructs you group the toe_IK to itself, creating a "null node" - a node that exists above the toeIK handle with a different pivot point.

When the null node is rotated in the X the foot rotates correctly from the ball joint.

group placement - foot ctrl setup

2009-09-30T12:11:00.003+01:00

screen shot taken from following the rigging tutorials in "3D Character setup". At this stage in the tutorial I have created a simple leg setup with a duplicate joint arrangement ctrl parented in the opposite direction and named "RIG" The IK handles are parented to the RIG, which in turn is connected to the original joints via the end effectors.

Inverse Kinematics

2009-09-19T11:23:00.002+01:00

Been trying to establish a comprehensive understanding of Inverse Kinematics, and how it's applied in other disciplines.

Syg Mead

2009-09-09T10:50:00.002+01:00

Syg Mead - produced high quality visuals for films like Blade Runner and Alien. Found an interesting paragraph from a blogger who'd attended a Syg Mead seminar in SF. During the Q&A he asked him:
"how far he went on a design to make it technically believable."
His advice was
"to design with the story in mind and stay consistent with it"

Useful advice.

maya live tutorial

2009-08-04T12:34:00.000+01:00

tutorial - matchmove with Maya Live from juri ciani on Vimeo.

shoulder rigging

2009-07-16T13:37:00.002+01:00

realistic method for rogging the shoulder using condition and multiply divide nodes. Still haven't found a satisfactory solution for the previous multiply divide quandry i was experiencing, but set up a post on the rigging101 forum, to which the site administrator has replied. Ho Hum.

Simon Bisley's The bible - part 1

2009-07-14T21:27:00.002+01:00

Working as an animator

2009-07-14T21:12:00.001+01:00

To become a Computer Animator, or any type animator for that matter you NEED to develop your artistic skills. The number one advice you get from an animator is draw, draw, draw. To get a job at a big studio like Disney or Pixar you DO NOT need a degree of any kind. It is reccomended you take classes in the subject at an art school and get a degree but again, it is NOT necessary. You do need skills and a demo reel to prove it. Art schools and animation schools help you learn skills to be able to do this. A demo reel is basically a visual resume of your work which studios use to see what you can do. For Pixar in particular, you do not need to learn a specific software package (until you get the job) because theirs is proprietary and they don't judge you on what you can do on a computer but mostly on how well you can perceive movement in 3 dimension, that can be on paper, with clay, or on a computer. So what I would do is just get your art skills at their very best by taking art classes and drawing a lot! Also make sure you like what you're doing, becasue it's not all funa nd games, unfortunately.
Regarding salaries, it is very varied, from $30,000 a year to $90,000 depending on where you work and what position you have.
Here are some links taht may help you:
Pixar (http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/jobs/ca…
Quote: A Pixar Animator should be able to bring life to any object or character, showing the character’s internal thoughts and feelings through its physical external motion. To do this, the Animator must be a good actor. His or her work should communicate clearly, containing simple ideas with which an audience can empathize. The animation should be entertaining to watch, employing good timing and relying on individualized, believable characters to put forth humor and emotion.
Software doesn’t matter; learning to animate matters
Disney (http://www.disneyanimation.com/careers/f…
Quote: Generally, any open position will require a strong resume, and if applicable a portfolio and/or reel, shot breakdown and submission form which address the requirements of the position. You must love making movies, solving creative problems, and working in a team environment.
Hope I could help. :)
Source(s):
Pixar.com

Utility Nodes

2009-07-14T19:05:00.002+01:00

Been trying to brush up on my already limited knowledge of the hypershade to help me get my head around this rigging lark.

Just had a bit of a breakthrough, so i'll put it into writing before i forget what i've done...

The example is from a tutorial on the rigging101 website (www.rigging101.com) and the goal is to add a unity node network to a sphere and a cube, so that when you move the ball, the distance the cube moves is the outcome of the equation.

So, the equation is;

pCube.translateX = (pBall.translateY * 1.5) + (pBall.translateZ / 2)

which means the value of the cubes translate x is equal to the balls translate Y multiplied by 1.5 PLUS the balls translate Z divided by 2;

ie. if the ball moves in the Y 5, the cube will move in the x 1.5*5 which equals 7.5 in the x direction.

The instructions on the tutorial were as follows;

drag the ball and cube from the output window to the hypershade, 2 nodes will appear.
drag 2 multiply/divide nodes over from the utility dropdown
drag a +/- Average node across
Connect the translate Y connector to the output 1x into one of the multiply/divide node
Connect the translate Z connector to the output 1x of the other multiply/divide node

Now this is where i ran into problems. The multiply/divide node is like the multiply divide buttons on a calculator. They do exactly the same thing. So any value input for translate y fed in goes into the multiply divide attribute. You then click on the attribute editor to tell maya what you want to do with it. In this case we are multiplying it by 1.5, so we input 1.5 in field 2x.

Now heres the tricky part. We're gonna get two values from the two sums, because we're calculating two equations, this is where the +/- Average node comes in. In the tutorial it says you can simply plug both multiply divide straight in giving them a sequential name (ie, 1,2etc), but for some reason maya doesn't offer that option (which seems strange because you can't do an addition with just one number).

I've emailed the guys who produced the tutorial, and had a look on some forums and found a solution;

When I linked the output from the Multiply Divide node, I had the MEL window open to see what the script looked like. I then copied that script, selected the other Multiply Divide, pasted it into the MEL window and executed it. Voilla! two connections to choose in the connection editor.

The only problem now is the equations don't appear to be working properly. When I tyranslate the sphere in the Y, say 5, the box moves 5 also - it should move 7.5?

Hopefully this is down to the way i've input the factor in the Multiply Divide node.

Rome wasn't built in a day!

zsphere basics

2009-07-13T10:43:00.000+01:00

ZSphere Basics ZBrush Tutorials ZClassroom.com
by zbrushpixologic

DAVID HOANG – Animator

2009-07-12T11:38:00.000+01:00

particle tutorial

2009-07-06T21:09:00.001+01:00

Maya Dynamics [Tutorial] from CreativeApplications.Net on Vimeo.

basic blend shapes

2009-07-06T19:27:00.001+01:00

automated rig

2009-07-06T19:18:00.000+01:00

facial rigging 2

2009-07-06T19:12:00.001+01:00

second part of the tutorial.

facial rigging 1

2009-07-06T19:10:00.000+01:00

Facial rigging tutorial part 1

fumefx

2009-07-06T10:31:00.002+01:00

Really handy tool for creating realistic particle effects. Only seems to be compatible with 3ds max, but can be rendered with mental ray. None the less some impressive effects.

lego legs - colour

2009-06-25T09:26:00.001+01:00

And a bit of colour...

legs - higher res.

2009-06-25T09:16:00.002+01:00

Made a second version of the legs and hip section, this time increasing the resolution so the circular sections appear smoother.

lego legs

2009-06-23T19:22:00.002+01:00

I've decided to go back to the lego mindstorm project that I got nowhere near completeing just before Christmas - starting with rebuilding the lego man. This is a quick version of the legs i've created. This time i've managed to get my hands on a real lego model (i'm sure there's an oxymoron in there somewhere) that i've taked orthographic shots of.
Started off modeling it from an eight sided cylinder as i was in two minds whether to sub-d it or not. Decided sub-d'ing it would be a bad idea - too faffy, but the model i've created here is too low res - looks like something off a nintendo gameboy; so i'll have to build it again but start with a higher resolution cylinder (sixteen faces should do the trick).

Once it's modeled i intend to rig the thing - should be a reasonably simple task because theres no flex in the limbs, so it's just a case of rotating from pivot points. I have played lego batman on the Nintendo DS, and they do have a bit of give midway throughout the joints, and it works for the sake of the game - so might look into that option later on.

Maya 2009 - Mirror tool

2009-06-23T13:03:00.002+01:00

Tool Tip - Mirroring from the old school from JohnSka7 on Vimeo.

Just got Maya 2009, started playing round with its modeling tools, some really handy time saving alterations like the interactive merge vertices tool but there are a couple of things i cant get my head around; namingly the mirror geometry tool. Seems quite simple enough, you select the geometry you want to mirror over, select the axis and hit mirror. The thing that doesn't seem to be working for me is the merge (or dont merge) with the original box. Even when its unchecked it merges. No good if you want to mirror geometry with an offset. There must be a simple explanation, probably residing in the extensive options in maya, but for now this seems to be an acceptable solution. Will keep dredging the internet for a solution as i'm sure i'm not the only one to have this issue.

Killer Bean

2009-06-16T22:12:00.001+01:00

Killer Bean Forever - Official Trailer - Click here for more amazing videos
Animation trailer

reel-exchange

2009-06-15T13:57:00.002+01:00

Extract from:
http://reel-exchange.com/about.html
15/06/2009

About Us

Launched April 2007, Reel-Exchange is a professional networking website connecting film and video professionals with clients and collaborators in the industry.

Reel-Exchange is brought to you by the editors of millimeter and Digital Content Producer the leading production and post-production magazines for film and video professional.

Why Join Reel Exchange
Reel Exchange is a professional business-to-business community that connects you with other film and video professionals around the country and around the world. Members will find project work and permanent positions, hiring opportunities, and potential collaborators for on-spec projects.

Reel-Exchange hosts demo reels and other types of professional content (trailers, short films, sample commercials, etc) that demonstrate professional skill in the various disciplines. Search based on geographic location, discipline, equipment/format, project credits, and more.

Your Reel-Exchange reels and bio will receive exposure on a level that would be very difficult, expensive, and time consuming to achieve in any other way.

As the Reel-Exchange community grows, we're confident that it will be ever-more valuable to you and other members.

Welcome to Reel-Exchange!

Myths of The Animation Industry

2009-06-15T13:46:00.003+01:00

taken from Animation Mentor newsletter 06/05/2009

The animation industry is the business of creating myth and magic. As such, it's not surprising that a myriad of meta-myths have arisen—easy-to-believe falsehoods about the industry itself. In preparing for their future careers, the next generation of animators and artists need not be waylaid by such rumors. Below are five common myths about the world of cartoons and the realities behind them.

Myth: 2D animation is a dying art.

Nothing could be further from the truth. While 3D animation is filling theaters across the globe, 2D art endures. Internationally, films such as Sony Picture's Persepolis and Paprika continue to astound audiences with engrossing, hand-drawn cinema. Locally, Walt Disney Animation is hard at work on its 2D feature, The Princess and the Frog, while shows such as Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender and Cartoon Network's Chowder provide bright futures for the traditional style. Beyond television, the Internet has spawned numerous opportunities for Flash-based 2D projects as well.

Myth: It's essential to be adept at every facet of the animation process.

To quote G.I. Joe, "Knowing is half the battle." The other half is being good at what you do. Familiarity with the entire animation process can only help you, but you are being hired for a specific position. In the words of Knowledge Adventure 3D Artist Chris Marsh, "Fanning your effort and skills out to do everything the process demands only decreases your quality of work and increases production time, and that's never good." The animation process requires the efforts of many specialized individuals. Walt Disney didn't achieve his whimsical empire by being the greatest animator ever. He did so by assembling the greatest animation team ever. Discover what you do best and strive to do it better.

Myth: You want to work for a big studio.

Certainly there's no shame in working for a large studio. Who wouldn't want to have Mickey Mouse on their business card? But smaller studios have their share of perks too. A smaller company gives a great artist more opportunity to shine. Networking becomes easier, and there's more room to expand your personal style.

Myth: You should stick with a single studio for as long as possible.

Ladders: We all have the urge to climb them, especially corporate ones. But in the animation industry, sometimes it's important to spread your artistic wings. Surely no one wants an artist who never sticks around to finish a project, but by changing studios and production companies from time to time, you make yourself better known to the animation community as a whole, networking, and becoming associated with your body of work rather than your company's. "A good stint at a company is one to three years," says Big Bad Tomato digital storyboard artist Sylvia T. Leung, "it shows you are committed enough to stay, but ambitious enough to leave."

Myth: You don't need to know how to draw.

While drawing is not necessarily a key skill in today's world of texture mapping and wire framing, it's still a valuable technique in almost every step of the animation process. Putting pencil to paper, breaking down complex objects into simple shapes, and translating them into graphite blueprints will help artists of all fields better their craft. This ability will also make you more attractive to a wider number of prospective employers. Remember, even Rodin roughly sketched his figures before casting clay.

Just as 24 drawings a second creates the illusion of motion, assumptions and opinions give the illusion of industry facts. Fortunately, the truth is usually quite optimistic and should give any budding artist hope for their creative and professional future.

Mark Garabedian has been an animation aficionado from a young age, having worked his first job mowing lawns in Massachusetts to buy cels. An Emerson College alumni, Mark is now a freelance animation writer and member of the Animation Guild residing in Burbank, Calif.

http://reel-exchange.com/insider/myths_of_animation_industry_050609

Article from Animation Mentor newsletter

2009-06-15T13:28:00.001+01:00

A Progression of Studio Styles Through Time:
Disney, UPA, Pixar
By: Thomas J. McLean

Animation is an art form that has more than its fair share of contradictory impulses. The medium has virtually unlimited potential for an artist to bring a compelling and unique vision to life simply through the power of their imagination and skills as an animator. But it’s also a labor-intensive art form, and creating animated films in any kind of reasonable time frame requires the talents of multiple animators working in many different disciplines.

The bringing together of multiple artists in the pursuit of a single creative vision creates unique styles of its own. Many studios have developed such distinctive and successful styles that make their work instantly identifiable to fans regardless of the individuals who may have worked on any given piece of animation. Understanding how extremely different studio styles have emerged from the same goal of creating animated films is key to understanding the history of the medium and to predict its future.

The most influential and popular studio style to date has to be that of The Walt Disney Co. The elements that would become the Disney style evolved during a period of intense development and technical advancement that began with the buoyant cartoony-ness of the first sound Mickey Mouse cartoon, 1928’s Steamboat Willie, and culminated in the breathtaking realism and high-flying fantasy evoked in such feature films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.

Disney’s style evolved quickly in this era. It was driven on the technical side by the desire to get out of the short film business and find a way to make a feature-length film. On the creative side, Disney analyzed everything about the process of making cartoons, and tried to define standards and improve quality at each step.

“If you look at that 10-year period [from 1928 on], there was more accomplished in terms of technical aspects, creative aspects – just about everything, when it comes to animation in that 10-year period than there has ever been before or since,” says Stephen Worth, director of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

Worth says Disney was driven to innovate because he wanted to make a feature length animated film and used the shorts to develop the tools and skills needed to pull off that unprecedented goal. The emphasis was on craftsmanship, with every aspect of the animation process broken down and analyzed to find ways to improve it, resulting in a very high quality of animation and the beginnings of a distinct style.

“Disney cartoons from the ’30s are generally solid, they move smoothly, they don’t distort much in the way they move,” Worth says. “The shapes are generally very simple and generic.”

Animator Tom Sito says this period of experimentation extended into the feature films.

“If you look at the first five [Disney feature] movies, there is no style in that respect,” says Sito. “Snow White doesn’t look like Bambi, Bambi doesn’t look like Dumbo, Dumbo doesn’t look like Fantasia. They’re different.”

Overall, however, Disney was developing a style that emphasized realism and character performance. This style really set in the 1940s and carried through the 1950s under the supervision of the studio’s famous Nine Old Men, says Sito.

“He definitely made a definition of what the high-water mark would be for American animation,” he says.

The success of the Disney style lead almost directly to a completely opposite approach, found most vividly in the style of the UPA studio.

Staffed by many animators who had done excellent character work at Disney, UPA cartoons emphasized design over character, eschewed talking animals and fairy tales for human characters, and took their creative cues from modern life and art.

“The UPA artists didn’t think of themselves as cartoonists, but as artists making cartoons,” Sito says. “They were trying to make a new way of looking at animated cartoons.”

And they succeeded. Even the most mainstream UPA cartoons, such as Gerald McBoing Boing and the Mr. Magoo series, differed radically from what was being done at any other studio. While such short films as The Tell-Tale Heart and Rooty Toot Toot! were both popular and highly acclaimed, many UPA creations sacrificed entertainment value in their pursuit of artistic integrity.

“Ultimately, the studio got to the point where their films were more critically acclaimed than entertaining,” says Worth.

One technique the studio used frequently was to create backgrounds with bold colors, and the barest suggestions of setting, offset with solid human characters in neutral colors, says Worth. They were usually flat and featured very stylized designs, which in the best examples of the studio’s work, were combined with smooth and dimensional movement. It was a hard trick to pull off, but when it worked it was phenomenal, Worth adds.

Many of their cartoons went so far into design that there was little actual animation in them. Worth says that had an unfortunate side effect, as it lead other animators to try limited animation, cutting corners and leading to the kind of low-quality animation that ruled Saturday mornings for decades.

In contrast, nothing exemplifies the CG animation of modern times like Pixar, which produced the first feature length CG movie and remains the most acclaimed user of this technique.

Given the tools used to create Pixar movies and the speed with which computer animation technology has changed, it can be hard to say that a fully formed style has emerged from the studio.

What’s clear is that Pixar follows very much in the Disney tradition, with an emphasis on characters, performance and telling wholesome stories. They also have made advances in cinematography, moving from a constant mid-day, blue-sky look in their early films to a much more nuanced appearance, starting with Ratatouille.

Sito says Pixar has been especially aware of the limitations of CG animation at each film and used it to its advantage.

“Early on, when they were doing the Toy Story [movies], people would always say 3D animation looks rather plastic; it doesn’t look real. So [they did a movie about] toys,” Sito says.

The focus on performance has worked out well, Sito says, saying the studio in particular has done some excellent work with eyes. But Worth says the limits to the way characters move are also clear, given that characters can only move in the ways their rigging allows them to move.

“The Pixar movies have a tendency to not move enough and certainly not move in fun ways,” Worth says. “They move in realistic ways, rather than in fantastic and animated ways.”

Pixar also has shown signs of innovation in its past few features that could point the way to a completely new animation style. “In Cars and the first 20 minutes of WALL-E, they’re creating this new kind of reality in animation, where it’s hyper-realistic but it doesn’t feel fake, it doesn’t let you down,” says Sito. “It’s almost like it’s more real than 3D animation, but it’s not live action, it’s somewhere in the middle. I’d like to see them explore a whole movie that way.”

HDRI Lighting

2009-06-09T17:42:00.002+01:00

Found this simple tutorial about HDRI lighting. Needed to use it in a little personal project i've been doing. Seems pretty straight forward, only real issues are regarding the render settings, which i know i'd forget without this tutorial to refer to.

Geordie Martinez

2009-06-08T10:22:00.001+01:00

Supermarket Fever

2009-06-08T09:43:00.002+01:00

Short film sent with the "Animation Mentor" newsletter by Hichem Arfaoui. Some really nice character animation - obviously the dancing bit has fantastic fluidity, but the subtle things like the walk cycle at the start whilst the characters browsing the isles caught my eye. Notice how the emphasis on weight has shifted into his hands - its like his hands are pendulum driving the whole cycle and not the leg - a very subtle nuance of somebody just wandering aimlessly round a shop, very clever! I also liked the establishing shot - the diegetic sign at the beginning sets the scene whilst giving the title of the film - 2-4-1, efficient!

multiply/divide node

2009-06-06T15:25:00.004+01:00

Right gonna try and decipher what i've just done..

The idea is to get the spine to stretch with the curve. So 1st job is to re-name the Curve, the effector and the IK Handle to BindSpineSIKCurve, BindSpineSIKEf and BindSpineSIKHandle respectively.
Then open the Hypershade window.
Type the following Mel script on the command line: arclen -ch on BindSpineSIKCurve; (hit enter)
This creates a new node in the attributes that tells us the length of the curve (in this case its 9.147).

Now, select the BindSpineSIKCurve and click Graph - Add selected to Graph. A little curve node icon will appear. Whilst its still selected go back to graph and click Inpu and Output selections. They should be joined by 3 other nodes - one of which being the ArcLen node we've just created; rename this "BindSpineCurveInfo"

So up to here we have our curve shape node, which is attached to an IK handle and a curve info node. Dead easy! Next step is to create a multiply/divide node (see top illustration) and plug in the arclength output into input1, input1x on the multiply/divide node.

I think this means the value of the arclength is sent to the multiply/divide node to calculate the what the length of the spine should be. The second image is the attribute for the multiply/divide node. Input 1 is the current curve length and input 2 is the original curve length. You have to tell Maye what to do with both numbers, at the moment the default is set to multiply, change it to divide.

So when the arclength increases for instance to lets say 15units, Maya will do the sum 15 divided by 9.147=1.639(approx). The length of the joints needs to increase by 1.639 in order to stay in proportion with the curve. (This is providing you add all the joints to the hypershade by selecting them and going Graph - Add selected).

Still not 100% happy about the ins and outs of the hypershade and what all the connections mean, so could do with a bit of background knowledge in this area.

Spine controller

2009-06-06T14:51:00.002+01:00

I've managed to follow the next few pages in the book and ended up with a spine thats controlled by an IK Spline. Using the Hypershade, i've added a multiply divide node and a condition node which has been plugged into each joint apart from the last. I've also entered a bit of Mel script to generate and arc length node (arclen -ch on BindSpineSIKCurve;) which has also been plugged into the multiply and condition nodes.

I have absolutely no idea what i've just done, or why i've done it - just followed the instructions, which defeats the whole point of the process.

The two handles i created using the cv curve tool and snapping it around various points on a cylinder.

adding IK Spline Handle

2009-06-06T12:24:00.004+01:00

In the previous rig i used the connections editor to link the rotation of the spine to a handle created with curves, so when the handle rotated the spine rotated. Not bad, but this method involves placing a curve along the joint chain, meaning more realistic fluid motion.

To add the IK Spline Handle, go Skeleton - IK Spline Handle and click at the root joint and then at the top shoulder joint, making sure the settings are the same as in the illustration (im sure they can be tailored to suit the situation, but for now i'm doing as the book says).

If you go into component mode you'll see 2 control vertexes that can be pushed and pulled around, but the spine doesn't stretch with it. That will be solved in the next step...

freeroot/classic rig

2009-06-06T12:11:00.004+01:00

Just been ploughing through the advanced rigging book - a lot of sequential steps, i thought i'd better keep a log as i go along. Been getting re-acquainted with the spine.

Notice the difference in direction of the first bone between the first two joints? Thats the two ways of rigging it - the free root (right) and the classic method(left). The classic is where you start at the base of the spine and add 7 joints to the shoulder. This is a more orthodox approach but the free route adds a bit more flexibility in the hip area. To create a free route you start at the small of the back (what was joint 2 on the classic spine) and plot six joints above along the line of the spine (as before). Then, with the joint tool selected click on the root joint and click one down. You can add a joint either side of the root for more flexibility, but for now i've just kept it simple.

Re-naming the joints was a doddle using the Search and Replace Names tool (Modify - Search and Replace Names) tool. Used "BindSpine" followed by a number (which Maya ascribes automatically) as the naming convention.

The classic spine on the left has a IK Spline Handle (Skeleton - IK Spline Handle) attached, which i will explain in the next post.

pyjama gladiator

2009-06-05T17:18:00.001+01:00

BYU animation

DANS LA TÊTE

2009-06-05T15:06:00.000+01:00

Dans la Tête
Uploaded by Esma-Movie. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

Brilliant!

cane toad

2009-06-05T13:02:00.001+01:00

Short produced by Andrew Silke and David Clayton, a gritty short about 2 toads. Great use of joint-based facial setups.

walk with arms

2009-06-01T14:41:00.002+01:00

Pulled the arms down and figured out (by pacing up and down the corridor) they move with the opposite leg - probably to balance up the body as the weight shifts from side to side.

walk_cycle 4

2009-06-01T14:38:00.002+01:00

Continued with the previous animation with the hips moving, suppose its the same principle with the arm movement, coming from the shoulders instead. There is a small glitch at the start/end of the animation which i'll have to address, and also have to bring his arms down and have them swinging.

walk_3

2009-06-01T12:51:00.002+01:00

Maya's gone and played its favorite trick again, so i've had to start again from scratch. Probably a good thing because i can re-attempt the whole cycle again, but with a greater element of control. Realised that the fundamental driver of the walk cycle is the hips, everything else follows it, so when i'm moving the legs and feet, it's all in relation to the hips. So this bit of animation is the movement up and down and side to side.

walk cycle 2

2009-06-01T12:04:00.002+01:00

Managed to straighten out the previous moonwalk. Was following the walk cycle diagram a few posts prior, when i realised the feet positions correspond to the opposite legs after the contact frame (frame 13). This current walk cycle has no hip movement which is wht it looks a bit stiff/robotic. Once i've managed to get them swinging, i'll set about the arms/ head etc.

Walk cycle 1

2009-06-01T10:11:00.002+01:00

Started experimenting with the walk cycle, chosen a 25 frame loop. As you can gather there's a huge glitch at the start because i've got the feet positioning wrong on the first frame and frame 25.

walk cycle - angry

2009-05-30T12:48:00.001+01:00

Weight painting tutorial 4

2009-05-28T19:32:00.002+01:00

weight painting tutorial 3

2009-05-28T17:20:00.001+01:00

Watch 0803 Weights Pt3 in How to Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Weight painting tutorial 2

2009-05-28T17:15:00.000+01:00

Watch 0802 Weights pt2 in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Weight painting tutorial

2009-05-28T17:14:00.000+01:00

Watch 0801 Weights pt1 in How to Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Hand(trouble)

2009-05-28T11:52:00.005+01:00

Just realised there's a bit of a problem with the right hand. God knows how it happened, but it appears that the 2nd joint of the middle finger is connected to the first joint of the first finger, which is all wrong. So...
After playing around with the joint editing tools under the skeleton menu, used the "disconnect" tool (first selecting the 2nd joint on finger 2). This disconnected the two fingers, so all that's left is to parent middle joint 02 to middle joint 01.

advanced rigging considerations

2009-05-27T15:49:00.000+01:00

following features for an advanced rig include:
Stretchy spline IK spine
FKIK stretchable Arms
FKIK stretchable Legs
Advanced arm and leg with rivet-based deformation
Facial deformation with influence objects
Hand Based finger controls
World and figure orient switch

Planning for Rig

2009-05-27T12:31:00.000+01:00

Issues to consider when planning a rig include:

The types of movement the character needs to perform
The look of the character
The body parts that need to move
Any specialised body parts.

Good planning allows the you to predict the characters needs before you get there, for instance a female action character will have different rigging needs than that of say a soft cartoon character.

Collar Control (Ctrl)

2009-05-26T13:08:00.007+01:00

Started on the left collar control, relatively straight forward. Created a cube and switched off all the render settings. Selected the cube and the shoulder Ik and added a point constrain (Constrain menu, point).

Then created a group for the collar control and parented this to the joint at the base of the head, so when the joint moves, the control will move with it.

re-rooted hand control

2009-05-26T12:40:00.005+01:00

Right, re-created the left hand handle, simple nurbs circle resized to roughly match the geometry and moved the pivot point to the wrist joint. Then selected the circle and the wrist IK handle in the hypergraph hierachy window and added a point constrain (Constrain menu - point). Now the circle controls the Ik handle.

Next thing is to add an orient constraint to the circle and the wrist joint (constrain, orient). Now the hand can rotate from the wrist using the nurbs circle to control it.

Previously the nurbs circle was jumping when i tried to apply the orient constrain. Man in the tutorial says this is bad. Indeed it was, but the extra wrist joint has seemed to have straightened all that out.

repositioned joints

2009-05-26T12:08:00.003+01:00

Joints have now been repositioned in the correct location

re-positioning of the hand joint

2009-05-26T11:50:00.002+01:00

Need to re-position the joints of the hand so they correspond to the geometry.

rigging hand

2009-05-26T11:20:00.003+01:00

Finally managed to get the feet behaving like they should, using the set driven keys window and moved onto the hands. IK handle connects the shoulder joint to the wrist, but on second glance of the tutorials example I notice he has an extra joint in the hand. Not sure if this is going to be a major issue, but decided to use the "insert joint tool" (animation menu, skeleton, insert joint tool).
Seemed to have done the trick, apart from the hand moves in a really irregular fashion when you use the move tool - not good! Originally i thought it could be down to the local rotation axis not all pointing in the same direction, so checked that using the display menu. What i think has gone wrong is the placement of the IK handle. Because I've added a new wrist bone, the position of the IK handles destination has changed. So, to rectify this i'll delete it and re-attach in the correct position.

Muscle Contract

2009-05-22T17:03:00.000+01:00

La Main Des Maitres

2009-05-19T17:49:00.002+01:00

2009-05-19T17:47:00.000+01:00

walk cycle - key positions

2009-05-17T12:54:00.003+01:00

Image taken from the digital tutors series on animating a walk cycle. This still shows the key positions for a 25 frame walk cycle.

Weight painting

2009-05-16T18:34:00.001+01:00

Started to paint in the weighting - which determines how much the joint affects the geometry. Tricky part is the knee, but i'm beginning to figure out that when the knee bends, the front skin stretches as the radius increases. On the reverse is the complete opposite, because the radius is getting smaller. This can be translated in maya using the weight painting tool or the editor featured in the previous tutorials.

Elbow control

2009-05-14T14:47:00.000+01:00

Hand and arm constraint are now completed, added an elbow controller which allows the arm to roll like the knee joint. Added a collar control which required a locator. Think it might have gone a little bit wrong because the left and right behave differently when i move them around. Will have to have another look.

spine,neck and head Controller

2009-05-13T15:08:00.003+01:00

Added a spine, neck and head control utilising the very nifty connection editor (under general editors). Drew the curves using the cv curve tool, loaded it down the right hand side of the connection editor, then loaded the corresponding joint down the right and selected "Rotate" in both fields.

Set driven Keys

2009-05-13T13:05:00.000+01:00

Adding more control to the foot by using the set driven keys window. Really it's just a case of setting up extra attributes in the attributes editor and using the groups I made in a previous step to move particular parts of the foot.

The extra attributes I have added are;
Ball Lift
Toe Lift
Toe Roll Z
Toe Roll Y

The groups determine which part of the foot will be affected by the driven keys.

Problem solved

2009-05-13T12:34:00.000+01:00

Managed to sort it out - by using the trusty old quit Maya and start it up again. Seems to have worked because the point and orient constraints are now working a treat.

Foot Control

2009-05-13T12:11:00.001+01:00

Made a nurbs circle and positioned and resized it around the foot. Selected it and the Left Ankle Turn Group and applied a point and orient constraint. Doesn't work. You should be able to move the circle and the foot and attached leg should move with it, but it doesn't in this case.

Start again. Oh the joy!

Problem

2009-05-13T11:38:00.001+01:00

Just realised looking at the side view that one foot is higher than the other.
Start again

grouping IK Handles

2009-05-13T11:22:00.000+01:00

The IK handles have now been established, so the next thing to do is group them in a manner that will allow me to set driven keys so the foot can bend and animate.

IK Handling

2009-05-13T11:03:00.000+01:00

Started connecting the joints up using an IK (Inverse Kinematics) solver, renaming them accordingly (Lft_Ankle_Ik, Lft_Ball_Ik, Lft_Toe_Ik). These allow you to grab the foot and wave it around and the joints in between will bend accordingly.

Joint Orientation

2009-05-12T20:13:00.001+01:00

Joint Orientation.

It is imperative that all the joints are facing the same way. First, select all the joints from the outliner and then go to Display - Transform Display - Local Rotation Axis. This will reveal the individual orientation of each joint. Then head up to Skeleton - Orient Joint, to bring up the dialogue box. The idea here is to get all the joints facing the same way; corresponding to the yzx coordinates. There are a number of check boxes with different combinations. The first letter controls which axis will face the next joint (in this case the "y" axis), in order to get the remaining axis to behave, you have to then toggle the y+ or y- until you have the correct orientation.

mirror joint

2009-05-12T14:53:00.000+01:00

Mirrored the leg joints (skeleton, mirror joint). Nifty trick under that command is to replace characters to save time renaming. In this instance the letters "Lft" were replaced with "Rht". Magic!

naming convention

2009-05-12T14:48:00.000+01:00

Next step is naming all the joints - naming is very important, apparently.

joint placement

2009-05-12T14:34:00.000+01:00

Started by creating two joint chains. First one consists of seven joints running up the spine. Second one runs down the leg, ensuring the knee joint has a slight bend in it so it knows its natural orientation.

rigging

2009-05-12T14:05:00.001+01:00

This is the final image of my created character, waiting to be rigged. Naturally these days my first instinct is to trawl the internet for tutorials (thank god for the internet). Downloaded the digital tutors series on rigging, only to find their rig was totally convoluted. So did a bit more trawling and found a series that was extremely helpful from the swinburne education academy - who actually deliver the content in a clear and concise manner?? Crazy??? Link for this website as follows:

http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/tutorials/P-maya/T-Maya-Rigging-Rigging-a-biped-character-for-animation/ID-125/

Character Rigging

2009-05-11T16:15:00.002+01:00

Watch 3D for Kids Lesson 3 in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Quick tutorial i've found, was looking for something really simple just to get me started, and hope the digital tutors stuff will begin to make a bit of sense.

Legs

2009-04-21T15:46:00.000+01:00

Legs

2009-04-21T15:43:00.001+01:00

Legs

2009-04-21T15:43:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-21T15:42:00.000+01:00

Legs

2009-04-21T13:22:00.000+01:00

Legs

2009-04-21T12:16:00.003+01:00

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Legs

2009-04-21T10:46:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:37:00.005+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:37:00.004+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:37:00.003+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:36:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:35:00.004+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:34:00.003+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:33:00.009+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:33:00.004+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:32:00.004+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:32:00.003+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:31:00.001+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:31:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:30:00.001+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:26:00.001+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:26:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T15:25:00.003+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T12:52:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T12:14:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T11:42:00.000+01:00

Body Sketches

2009-04-20T10:28:00.000+01:00