Copy/paste Animations

Found a useful script that allows the copying and pasting animations.

Follow this thread to find the script on the 11sec fourm.

DkAnim

Pros - copy and paste animation from txt file. Save alot of work.

Cons- Your controls mus have the same name and the scale shouldn't be too large of a different.


How to use it?

Copy it into maya script folder.

Import it to shelf.

Press the icon. And type 'dkAnim' in Mel

Film and anime film

This few weeks, i have been busy with working and finding work. But i am making progresses with my new film 'Normal' everyday. It just keeps getting better and better but the film will be longer and longer as i add in new things. The core of the story is still there but the way i am doing it has been changing.

Kiki's Delivery Service

I watched this one yesterday and i can said that it is excellent. There is a certain tone in this film, it doesn't aim to be dramatic or epic but rather, it is based on a realistic journey of a witch traveling to find a new home.

It is magical that i find myself involved in the characters, the lifestyle of the witch and the magical moments of flight. As what i said eariler, it doesn't make itself over seriousness and it is a good thing that sets itself apart from other animes and animations.

Hayao Miyazaki interview

A interesting interview with the creator of Spirited away, Hayao Miyazaki.

Easy AO in maya

It's a easy trick in rendering AO along with in your rendering. I don't mean rendering it in a separate layer or pass but together with your normal render.

Simply plug your AO shader into your material - Ambient color slot.

A nice little trick :)

Independent/indie film DEV character sketch

Thinking about the height of the characters. Since they are teenagers, they shouldn't be too tall nor big but Nina will be taller.  

Then i started a simple sketch of the body, keeping in mind of the proportions. Going for a realistic body look.

'Normal' Film facebook page

'Normal Film google plus page
 

3D characters first look(independent/indie 3d film)

'Normal' Independent/Indie 3D film.

The main characters, Richard & Nina. It is a sudden jump from 2d sketches to 3D but in the next few weeks, i am going to show more of the process that leads to the creation of the characters.

Google Plus page (new!)
Facebook Page

So far what do you think of them?

Digital Character animation 2

Bought the second hand book for 0.99 on amazon. So far, after several months, i haven't finish reading it yet.

Just to reveal the contents, it covers a wide variety of topics. There's the character animation for humans and animals. Acting techniques, rigging, story, real  world production and a section for games.

To add a point, this book is not about learning  to use the softwares for animation.

Mayan

'Pixey' character animation breakdown

Here's one of the animation scene from 'Pixey'.

If you played it, the characters looks as if he is doing a robot dance. Actually, the character is in his key poses. No movement at all, just poses. In Maya, you will have to convert the keys to stepped mode to see the robot dance. Go to preferences - animation - default out tangent - stepped. or select all your keyframes, right click - tangent - stepped.

Why in stepped? There are a few reasons. One is to judge the timing/pacing of the animation, the other is work related. When your supervisor/director wants to see your shot, gives him the stepped version and they can judge it. It saves time and unnecessary effort.



The animation for this one is smoothed out. The mode is set to either linear or spline. They work fine.

 The movement is there. There are poses between the key poses that set the motion. These poses between key poses are my primary breakdowns. They are extremely important, they are the ones that show how your character is moving. After that, is secondary breakdowns between the primary breakdowns.

I will playblast my animation and view it multiple times. During this time, i will note down anything that require change. The process will go over and over again.

Note that the process i am describing here is very rough. There are alot more things to take note such as the 9 principles of animations, etc ease in/out, weights, poses, action line, acting.

A few of sketches for 'Normal' independent film. The main character is called Richard. Wearing a trapper cap. 

Feel that trapper fits him because it hides his face, a shy person.

Visit 'Normal' page here

"Normal" independent film sketches

One of the first art direction test. I am aiming for a dreamy, stylish look. The problem with most 3d animation is that they look precisely like 3d animation.

The challenge is to look more film/movie-like. Another challenge is the rendering time but for this one, it took me 11 seconds per frame rendering with a 3 year old laptop. It is acceptable for me.

Before that, i been finding ways to do things differently. Such as using non-rendering way which still not yet known, & moving the camera in real time which i still can't find a efficient way.

Visit "Normal" page

Arnold's Fantasy Land from Pixey

 

Here's the foggy land scene from 'Pixey'. Watch it here.

There are some very simple geometry that made up the scene and a pretty complicated model such as the statue at the back. The background is a normal plane with a sky texture plugged into the incandescence. I will talk more about the statue someday. 

Callison describes to me that this environment resemblance the mind of Arnold. The green plants are shaped like Arnold's hair.

The lighting setup. I used only 2 lights for it. The right one(directional light) is the key light or my main light. It is casting ray traced shadow. The second light on the left(area light) is casting the rim light. Shadows set to ray traced. It is meant to add more form and also to separate objects from the background. 

 This is rendered with mental ray with no GL or final gather. The final shot is being composited in After Effects. In this case, not much of compositing is happening. The original lighting in Maya does most of the work in setting up the mood.

There's one really cool technique that can make your rendering looks better. It's not about the lighting but with the materials instead. I will share it someday too.

Here's Pixey facebook page

The Pixey fund raise

Auto Rigging Ready

Rigging, probably the least fun you can have. On par with UV wrapping in Maya. On creative crash website, you can search for free auto-rig scripts that can make the workflow ten times faster.

Advanced Skeleton

It is pretty well known free auto-rig. You can try it but personally, i have problems understanding it because i lack the patience. You can visit their facebook page to get the tutorials.

Other free scripts.

There are more free ones but some require you to buy to upgrade it.

Paid Auto-Rig Tools

The Setup Machine

I tried it and personally i really like it. It is efficient and easy to use. The skeletons and controls are created for you . On top of that, auto-skinning/weights is applied to your character. The rigging time is cut to just...10 minutes?

The only 'flaw' TSM has is that it doesn't do facial rigging. But there's the Face Machine.

The Face Machine

As good as TSM. Fast and surprising simple to use. Highly recommend for rigging and animation. Sometimes there are problems such as the eyes doesn't blink correctly. Well I can just use blendshapes to fix that area.