Character Animation 2: Pantomime Final Project

For the past two weeks, we have been learning how to make a character change from one emotion to another one through a series of body movements and facial expressions. Earlier this month, I posted up the "block out" version of this final project. From there, I added in anticipations, breakdowns, moving holds, and made adjustments in the graph editor to create a smooth flowing animation.

My characters emotions change from sad/deeply depressed, to exhilarated and very excited.
I used a parent constraint on the hand control and the piece of mail that the character grabs out of the box, and just keyed it on when it was needed. I hope you enjoy it!

Below, I have added in the Pre Pro work that I created before taking on this project and making it into a 3D Animation. These drawings helped me understand how the line of action needed to look, how to pose the character, the composition of the project, the breakdowns and what poses I needed to do in order to create the correct emotion at the correct time. 

What I learned about making pre pro for each project is that reference is key to a strong project. From reference, you can see how the body moves realistically. From that reference, you can draw out key poses, breakdown poses, and exploratory poses that could be possibilities for the project at hand. Without reference, a project will be lacking significantly. 

Software Technology: Kooshball

This month I am taking Software Technology at Full Sail. In this class, we are learning how to model in different software programs (other than Maya and ZBrush) such as Houdini and Soft Image so that we will have a more diverse knowledge of how to model and which software would work best for a specified project. We are also learning different modeling techniques - newly introduced as well as old techniques - for future reference and to help improve our modeling skills.

Yesterday, we learned created a Kooshball in Houdini. This was the first time I have ever used Houdini, but I quickly learned that the nodes worked very similar to Nuke, and the scripting was similar to the scripting we would do in Maya for rigging purposes. Also, this helped open up a new way for me to model and create objects that would be very difficult to create in other software programs.

Character Animation 2: Pantomime Project (1)

This month, I have Character Animation 2 as one of my classes. In this class, we are being taught how to make a character change from one emotion to another based on events that happen in the scene. We will also be learning how to create lip syncing for the characters with voice audio's applied to them, but we will won't move onto that until we reach Project 2: Lip Syncing.

Below I have attached a progress video of the Pantomime project that I am currently working on. All that I have completed so far is the blocking out of the keys in this video. From here, I will carry out my break downs, anticipations, and moving holds to make the movement more fluid and believable for the audience to understand what is really going on.

The Back Story: The character is female, in her early 20's, living a normal-average life. She is currently struggling for money, living alone away from her home state, and working extremely hard to land her dream career, but it is taking some while for her to reach that goal. In the meantime, she has a boyfriend who is a United States Marine, whom of which she can only speak to through letters and she does not receive letters from him often. The letters are on the biggest highlights of her day, as she is always worried and thinking about her Marine.

Visual Development: UV Layouts, Textures, and Layered Textures (Project 2)

For our second project in this class, we learned how to properly layout the UV's of an object in order to create an effective/realistic texture, how to create the textures needed for that object in Photoshop by following the layouts of the UV's as reference, and also how to make a layered texture map in Maya to project images on top of each other in a proper manner.

Picture to the Left: This is a UV snapshot of the metal scraper that I needed to texture in the given scene. I learned how to layout these UV's by cutting and unfolding the UV's, sewing them together dependent on the material that the area consists of, and laying them out properly in the 0-1 space. After I completed this project, however, I realized that I could of improved the UV layout of the handle (on the left) because one side of the handle curves too much and it resulted in a distorted texture.

Picture to the Right: This image shows the texture layout that I created in Photoshop that match up with the UV layout of the scraper. I used masks, several layers, and the clone stamp tool to create the realistic textures of the scraper. From here,  I can import this file into Maya and the texture for the scraper will be completed, and look realistic. Although, once again, I realized that I could have improved this layout after the assignment was finished by making sure that my UV's are laid out perfectly before texturing, and to also not overuse the clone stamp tool too much as it can create a fake look for the material.

Picture to the Left: In this photo, you can see the sticker (Vans sticker) and the dirt spot (next to the sticker) that I created using layered textures in Maya's hyper shade. I learned how effective this method can be to create the specific output that you are looking for, depending on the scene. 

Picture to the Right: This photo shows the final look of the metal scraper after the texture layout was applied to it. The texture appears to be realistic and not distorted, making it more life like for the audience. 

Visual Development: Lighting Scenes (Project 1)

This month in my Visual Development class, we have learned how to do a various amount of things to make a scene more appealing for the audience through lighting, knowing which types of lights to use in a specific type of scene, how to layout UV's properly and create the textures in PhotoShop for those UV's, caustics, render passes and compositing them together in Nuke, and also how to create layered textures in the hyper shade of Maya to create the textured look that you are aiming for on the objects in the scene.

For our first project in this class, we learned about how to light a scene properly.

Picture on the Left: I adjusted the color, intensity, light shape, and size of the light in the back room (area light) to give it the appearance of an incandescent light. The light that is shining on the door is a directional light that had it's color, intensity, location, position, and the size adjusted to shine on the correct spot.
Picture on the Right: From the first lit scene, we added a black body to the area light in the back room, and readjusted the intensities and color of the light. From there, more area lights were added to the scene to light up the very back room, and the room with the bottle in it to give it the appearance that it is in a day-time setting.

In both of these projects, we learned how to deal with the shadow rays and making the shadows more appealing. Also, we learned how to adjust the point interpolation to adjust the look of the scene.

Learning Motion Capture

Here are two of my newest projects for my Motion Capture class at Full Sail University. We are learning how to clean up the motions of markers, name the markers accordingly, properly attach the markers to a rig, and create a fluid final animation. 

The final project for this class will consist of us students acting out the animation in the MoCap suits, cleaning up the motions and the other components in the software programs Cortex, Motion Builder, and Maya. From there, we will create a scene that will involve lighting and shading, texturing, modeling, storyboarding, and compositing to make the final product. In the end, we will have a fully functional Motion Capture animation that creates and entertaining story for the audience. The progress of this project will be posted up throughout the month, so please stay tuned!  

Purpose: Class Assignment - Lab 1 (Motion Capture - Full Sail)

Assignment Type: Learning the Basics

Software: Cortex, Motion Builder, Maya

Date: September 3, 2014

Purpose: Class Assignment - Lab 2 (Motion Capture - Full Sail)

Assignment Type: Applying Basics to more Complex Motions

Software: Cortex, Motion Builder, Maya

Date: September 5, 2014

Character Animation 1: Final Project

Purpose: Class Assignment (Character Animation 1 at Full Sail University)

Assignment: Basic Walk Final

Month: August 2014

From this assignment, we learned how to properly do a basic walk with 3D animation along with other overlapping animations.