2013 October- ART/CSC/FST 320

Rigging Discussion

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 31, 2013 / Leave a comment
Thursday we’ll begin covering some of the basic tools for rigging:
- hierarchy
- joints and skinning
- IK chains
- controllers
- constraints
- connections, expressions, set-driven keys
- attributes
- blend-shapes
Here’s a basic version of Job in progress that I’ll use for an example mesh.
Posted in Announcements
Model Schedule for Final Project Productions

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 28, 2013 / Leave a comment

Models, props, sets, textures, and pre-lighting need to be completed by Thursday, November 14.

Posted in Announcements, Assignments
Fall 2013 Project #3: Character Design, Modeling, and Rigging

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 28, 2013 / Leave a comment

See here for details. (For sake of time, the maquette portion may be omitted or completed for bonus). Complete and submit by Tuesday, November 12.

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Tentative Crewing for Fall

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 17, 2013 / Leave a comment

Here’s the list so far.

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Lip Sync Class Example

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 15, 2013 / Leave a comment

Here are the files for the example.

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Video Reference

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 8, 2013 / Leave a comment

Jump reference.

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Project #2: Animation Practice. Due Thursday, October 24.

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 3, 2013 / Leave a comment
Three shots:
- Walk cycle animated to indicate an emotion, mood, or performance (happy, sad, sneak, gallop, run, etcetera). See chapter 5 in Character Animation Fundamentals as well as The Animator’s Survival Kit for more information and examples. Work to convey your chosen mood here; avoid just keyframing and calling it something after the fact.
- What’s in the Box? Your character opens a box of some kind, in which the audience cannot see. The character reacts and must sell the audience on the reaction to what’s inside. Choose from happy, sad, angry, surprise, contempt, fear, or disgust or a more complex progression of emotions.
- Performance Piece with Lip-Sync: Choose a favorite line from a film or game or record your own dialogue. Have your character act a performance that somehow connects to the dialogue — be creative! Convey as much emotion through primary animation moving down to secondary, then key-frame lip-sync performance to the dialogue for the final touches along with facial animation to convey the full emotion of the acting.
You may use the Goon in any version, Groggy, or if you choose, another rig — just make sure to test its range of motion and performance and that you can use it before attempting to animate with it. Post these to your portfolio site. Be prepared to present on the due date.
Posted in Assignments
Fall 2013 Homework #4: Last Part of Flour Sack and Spider

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 3, 2013 / Leave a comment

Animate with your best poses, timing/spacing, and principles of animation from frame 121 in the thumbnails onto the spider-squash! Bring at least a playblast if not a render to discuss Tuesday. Submit a render before fall break.

Posted in Assignments
Other Free Rigs

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 3, 2013 / Leave a comment

In addition to The Goon and Groggy, you are welcome on your projects if you like (no technical support guaranteed) to use another freely available rig.

Here are three places to find some freely available character rigs: 11-Second Club, Creative Crash, and Lester Bank’s blog post. If you’d like to use one of these, look around and choose one that you will have fun using and also wouldn’t mind seeing a lot. [But do test it before committing to animating a shot with it!] Or seeing on your reel — which by the way, if the license accords non-commercial use, you are welcome to use these for your reel. (You should, of course, credit the source for the model and rig — but there is usually a breakdown on your portfolio/reel submission where this is done for every shot in your reel). There are a lot of fun ones, and some of them (such as the Andy Rig) are configurable for different looks.

Posted in Announcements
Walk Cycles

Posted by Eric Patterson
/ October 3, 2013 / Leave a comment

Here’s a very basic example of a walk-cycle, a fundamental animation exercise. Read chapter 5 in Character Animation Fundamentals as well as refer to The Animator’s Survival Kit or other texts for good references.

Here are some excerpts. Grab these quickly, and please do not share outside of the class. I’m going to take the link down soon.

Posted in Announcements