Class 13 04/26/2017

Hey Guys,


For today's blog, I am just going to outline what I would like to see from each of your finals for next week.

Heejung

I would like to see more varying poses for each statement the character makes.  When he screams "Another!", perhaps it could be a bigger pose or gesture.  Something to contrast more with his previous pose.  See how much you can make them talk while moving their bodies and head.  I showed a video in class of an animator who uses cubes to block out how his characters might move as they are talking.

Notice in the beginning, the animator made sure the character was talking with his head, before he began to animate the lips. 

Lana

Keep adding more breakdown poses to your animation.  Remember to hold the poses a little longer for hits, so we can see them.  Also take advantage of anticipation, so that all the hits and strikes feel good.

Lana, I found a great animator who put all his blocking animations on his youtube page.

blocking 1

blocking 2

Spline

Lana, I think if you have enough blocked out, so it is similar between blocking 1 and 2 of these videos, I think that would be great. 

Joe

Joe, your timing is much better for your latest animatic.  I would next concentrate on making appealing poses and facial expressions with your character.  Keep your latest as timing reference, and go back in and make the poses better.  Film yourself to find out how your body moves when you sit cross legged and drink.

If you can add more poses as well, that would be great.

Vinay

Same as Joe, your timing is better, but you need to work on your poses.  Film yourself and really clean up the characters so they look more natural and appealing.  Keep it stepped if you need too.  

Branden

Bring your 3d animatic up to the level of your 2d animatic in terms of poses.  Add more if you can.  Keep in mind we want to feel like we are being held up by the bad guy, whether it is up or down.

Reminder, please feel free to send me your props and I can rig them for you.

If you haven't seen the videos I posted in Lana's section, please watch them.  They come from a channel I just discovered today, and I wish I had to show you earlier.  This person posts all his blocking passes to spline passes

Jesse Baumgartner

This video is a great example of where I want most of you to be with your animation poses next week.

Class 11 04/6/2017

This class we looked at some animatics for your finals.  

I demonstrated other rigs that will be possible for you to use for your final as well.  I showed Malcolm 2.0, Mery and Eleven.  I am having doubt about Mery to be honest, so it's best to stay away from it.

We watched some videos last night for some inspiration and ideas on storytelling.

The Cohen Brothers:  An exploration in how The Cohen Brothers direct dialogue scenes, with wide angle lenses, and positioning the camera within the space between two characters.  The effect to be more intimate with the characters, but also be uncomfortable with them as well.

Satoshi Kon:  Amazing animation director who did interesting things with scene transitions, editing, ellipses, timing and space.

Double King:  Great acting with the eyes.  No dialogue.  Also the timing and pacing of the action is appealing to watch and very very funny.

Breaking Bad:  Scene revealing something about Peter's past.  This is a wonderful clip because it tells us something about his life, through watching him, rather than using dialogue or exposition.

Characters holding objects

I talk about parent constraining a prop to your character's hand.  I will go into more detail again in later classes.

Props are usually rigged under Control Curves.  I usually use about 3, but you can make due with 2 or 2. 

Make sure the geo is parented to the lowest curve in the hierarchy.

Make a group null and put the top Control Curve under that group null.  You can do this easily by selecting your top Control Curve and hitting ctrl+g.  That Group null you may call buffer, and use that to parent constrain to your animation wrist control.  

The hierarchy will look something like this.

PropBufferGRP>PropCTRL01>PropCTRL02>PropCTRL03>PropGEO

It is good practice to create your prop rig in a separate file and reference it in.

I usually add attribute on the top rig control to create a custom attribute for toggling visibility.  I did not show this in class, but will later classes.

I havent shown this yet, but I then use set driven keys to connect the attribute to the visibility of the geo.  Please google set driven key for tutorials if you want to look ahead on the concept.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-F5429279-8EDB-449C-9E8D-4B5C0210757D-htm.html

Throwing objects

When I throw objects, I would rather toggle the visibility of multiple objects than trying to keyframe the parent constraint.  Usually I do this by referencing a prop twice, and parent constraining only one to the hand.

Homework:

Begin laying out your 3D animatic.  Lay out the key poses for your story and time them.  Set up your cameras.  Bring in a quicktime in 2 weeks.