3D Character Animation 04

Week 6 - Day 4

I added two image planes to act as the wall for the background. It's nothing fancy since I doubt it'll be marked on but at least it's not an infinite canvas so that's all good. I also copied over the cross from the coffin and put that in the middle of the wall because, otherwise, it looks super empty. I mean, I don't need it...but it's nice to have something there. You know, just for the sake of aesthetics. I gave the coffin a booster, too, made it bigger so it's not completely hidden behind the cake. It was originally the same size as Emelyn, maybe slightly bigger just because I wanted it to be as authentic looking as possible, but it's now easily twice the size and could probably fit two of her in it...but hey, anything to make the scene look good, right?

The new scene!

So, previously, you couldn't see the coffin or the cross, mostly because the cross is a last minute addition and the coffin only just recently received a free up-size otherwise it would've just disappeared in the scene. Not literally, but it was too small to be seen behind the enormity of the cake.

This is what it now looks like from the new playblast.

Thank goodness for the scale tool.

Keat also gave me some advice on how to improve the scene outside of what my storyboard dictated. I was trying to be as loyal to it as possible but, hey, what's the point of doing test-runs if not to make it better, right?

So, there's a rattle scene now. Since the cake lid now has a control, WHY NOT USE IT?? Keat told me to give it a side camera view and show the lid shaking rather than the whole cake moving. I have to say, THIS IS A MUCH BETTER IDEA!! I'm not too fussed about this so it's all good. I also got rid of the pan because the new camera view already served the purpose of introducing a new shot. Woohoo~~

This is me done for the week. Next time, I'll be refining my animation; make it BETTER, and tackling composition and lighting...

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Wish me luck!!

P.S - I don't know why sometimes Maya lets you see the textures and sometimes it just doesn't. Maya is totally weird; never does what you want and chooses the most inconvenient moments to be totally useless. Thanks, Maya; you're awesome...

P.P.S - Bang, bang. bang!

3D Character Animation 03

Week 6 - Day 1

TWO MORE WEEKS TO GO BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR! WHAT, WHAT, WHAT?!??! I am simultaneously stressed as heck and relieved that it's almost over but...but, but, but...there's still so much to do?!? I mean, there's just the animating and figuring out the timing of everything left but UGH...

There's also the background and whether or not I'll do it all in 3D, entirely in simple shapes or...just go without because it's not the main focal point but...but, but, but...I don't know. -sobs-

So, last week we did some shot staging? Which, I think, was kind of like getting your shots to look exactly, or close enough to your storyboard? I think that went...fairly well. Or at least well enough that I didn't end up screwing something up and was reduced to another puddle of tears, grief and misery. This week is step blocking and I think that's more to do with timing and figuring out your keyframes to the best look. I'm not sure how well that'll go but fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan. My timing is horribly slow at the moment where she pops out of the cake but a bit of tweaking here and there ought to fix that.

Ought to...

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I asked Mikayla for some tips on the timing of Emelyn's popping out of the cake and she told me to add a bit of exaggeration with her coming out and then settling back down again. That's some top advice, bro. She also helped me with the timing which is also pretty choice. I think I've got that part down pat. Woohoo~!

Some shot staging of Emelyn popping out of the cake. Complete with resolution gate!!

Next...uh...probably the facial expressions...although I'll probably come back to this tomorrow and see more things to fix. Nothing like a critically fresh set of eyes first thing in the morning. There will be a lot of moaning over the state of my animation.

(I sincerely miss 2D...I should try and draw some more and not limit it to just one a day...)

P.S - Quiet, quiet...

3D Character Animation 02

Week 5 - Day 2

Inherit transforms!! Are only good if you select each geo as opposed to all of it! This is what happened to mine...

Honey, I shrunk the rig!!

...I don't know how to explain this.

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Moving along, now.

A problem I faced earlier was that the cake pieces would not move TOGETHER - the lid refused to move with the base of the cake and that was pretty much because I forgot about a control-all nurb so they moved as a single unit as opposed to three separate pieces. PHEW. That fixed, I did the same thing with the coffin even though it ought to be good enough as just a group but meh. This is what the scene currently looks like.

It also helps that the control-all allows me to resize the cake together rather than fiddling around with different pieces and estimating where each piece goes...yay...

I reckon I could probably start with shot staging tomorrow?? Although I don't really have a clue what that is? I guess we'll see?

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P.S - I don't know where Mikayla is...

3D Character Animation 01

Week 5 - Day 1

Drum roll, please!!! We now get to the actual part of character animation!! Remember that storyboard I did way back when? In the beginning of August?? It's now mid October and we're coming to a close to our final term with just 3 more weeks to go. OH. MAH. GAH.

I'm feeling so bad...(but that might be from lunch...?)

Anyway, I need to put the two props (coffin and cake) together onto the same file as Emelyn. I'm hoping it won't overload Maya but I predict a lot of crashes in the future...

Also, coffin and cake?? I almost wrote COFFEE and cake but this is morbid in a weird sense. Your eyes doth not deceive you! Don't overthink it.

Here is Emelyn in the same scene as the cake. It's GREEN!! Like it belongs to something in Dr. Seuss' books. Would you like a slice here or there? I would not like them anywhere...

I enlarged the cake to fit the width of her hips but I might make it bigger again anyway...

I'm not sure how to go about shot staging but there's no better way to find out other than to JUST DO IT. So, do it, I will.

I also added the coffin into the scene next to the cake and resized to be able to fit Emelyn. BUT SHE'S NOT THE ONE GOING INSIDE OF IT, that'll be horrible.

The coffin is roughly about the same size as Emelyn.

But I don't know why the coffin and Emelyn have retained their UV colors and textures but the cake is GREEN. Why is this so??? It's horrible. DX

Keeeeeaaaat, help meeeeeeee...

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I got rid of the green by reassigning a new material over it. I wasn't able to get the original colors I wanted back but at this point it doesn't really matter. I need to prioritize the actual model over the prop so a base lambert will just have to do~! I also moved the cake so that it stood on the grid as opposed to being in the middle of it, but now it just means that Emelyn is stuck in the middle but I'll just have to add keys so she's moving around the cake rather than through it. Animation can only forgive so much and stupidity is not one of them. <3

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Also, I have a feeling that the IK rig on the legs aren't going to be useful so I might have to do contraints for them like I did with the arms. That might work a little bit better with bend of her knees...

BUT! I might not even have to use them in the end? We'd hardly see her legs during the entire animation so it might just be okay. (Although my integrity might demand that I do better, which I will if time is more lenient towards me.)

3D Model Rigging 07

Week 4 - Day 3 and 4

Keat is a maya pro. If not for him, I will still be under my desk in a pool of my own tears.

But my model broke again at around 3pm. I did not crawl under my desk this time. Only because I know it's fixable and not the end of my academic world.

Oh, mah, gah. Never again, please...

I need to redo my set driven keys...

UGH!!!

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My model broke a total of three times, but I wasn't reduced to another puddle of tears the second or third time around. I don't think I'd ever let myself live it down if it were true but the shame of it's still definitely not going away anytime soon.

I had to redo my set driven keys three times as well because...well, let's just say that I was stupid and wrong and I should've listened or noticed sooner that I was missing an extra constraint for each of the fingers (not including the thumbs) to make the finger rolls a lot more natural looking. It's not perfect, but at this stage, I will happily sacrifice aesthetic appeal over function.

THIS IS DUE ON MONDAY, I AIN'T GOT TIME FOR THIS FIDDLY STUFF.

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3D Model Rigging 06

Week 4 - Day 2

Faces. What? It's so weird. Like, I'm not conscious abut the way I smile or whatever. Did you know that it's really friggin' weird to frown with the corner of your lips turned down? I'd frown with my eyebrows and a curl of my lips upwards  if I'm kind of grossed out but not...down unless I'm exaggerating? Meh.

Faces are weird.

(No, your face is weird.)

Wow...no...

Here's another awkward smile but with her cheeks up this time. Yay...

And another unimpressed look. Like, she can't believe I'm her creator. (Booo...) There's a sort of "what the eff" look to her. (Eyebrows are awesomely emotive.)

Now for the demo rig!! And I'll be almost finished in time for the hand-in on Monday!!

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We shall never speak of this day again. My model broke. And I broke. It was sad. (Understatement.)

Piece of @*^%

...You will find me in a pool of tears under my desk...

3D Model Rigging 05

Week 4 - Day 1

We're doing more blend shapes, yay...!

I can make her smile creepily...

I can make her to a derpy blink...(Much blink, such Asian.) [This is not meant as an offensive slur; I'm Asian myself...]

I can make her frown and look sad...

Or vaguely unimpressed...or somewhat disgusted?

Man, she looks horrifying. I'll need to redo the smile because I forgot about them cheeks...And I might also consider redoing the blinks but it's gonna happen so quickly that it might not even matter in the end? We'll see...

THIS IS MY INTEGRITY AT STAKE, HERE!!

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Cheers...

3D Model Rigging 04

Week 3 - Day 1 to 3

It's been a very hectic week...with a lot of information overload. I don't even know where to start blogging but I can tell you there's been a lot of joint constraining. There was one point where I did the wrong thing because all of my instructions were wrong which equaled to about 4 hours of work null and void...like, at which point do you select the joint first or the constrain first before applying stuff to it? There was also the whole parent constraint which confused me because I thought I was supposed to do that for every joint but it turned out I only needed to do it once?? I don't know the reasoning behind it; I just do it.

It's ridiculous. Let me show you...

Joint constaints, yay...

The fingers were horrendous because all of the rotation for the joints were really bad but at this point, I really just can't...do...anything more about it because I just want it DONE. I also need to clean up my outliner because it is MESSED UP.

Much ugh...very die...

I should probably group them and rename them properly but I should also probably ask Keat if that would mess up the dummies up top or the constraints inside the constraints...(!!?!??!)

There was also an IK Rig involved where the legs are so that when I move it around the knee will always point to a specific area of my choosing...

It looks a real mess, basically.

I'll probably be spending the rest of the week doing set driven keys, that is, if we don't end up with more stuff we need to do for the model. (Please, Keat, have pity on us poor souls!!)


P.S - I want to go home and play guildwars, please...