Bone Appetite

So here is my final piece for Uni:



Bone Appetit from Simone Hunt on Vimeo.

The more successful

So this is Another of my Artefacts, well I've added the two more successful experiments. What I've learnt is that to replicate a take using a 3D model takes a lot of control, and is all about camera angles. A lot of the time spent on this Experiment was going back, re-rigging and adding more extreme Blendshapes, but ultimately I feel it still wasn't enough. Proof is in those experiments that failed as the rig found it almost impossible to contort itself in such away, even with a rig as simple and flexible as the Anzovin Rig. I will be adding another experiment to this list, one where the limbs are more stretched and exaggerated, rather than the face and eyes. That's it, the face, eyes and tongue were the things that needed the most work as that is where the life come from.

See something like the Take above is near on impossible to accomplish without using almost a completely new character, this is literally just down to the facial side of things, the rig is able to be manipulated like that. Yet the face, mainly the jaw becomes twisted and gnarled due to the bend and lack of neck. I will be having another go, pushing the Blend shapes further seeing if that will help. 

This is from the Take I'm currently tweaking at the minute before uploading. It is one of the easier of Avery's Take to replicate due to is mainly being about stretching the limbs and body, although again the jaw is proving to be a bit more difficult. 

Drawings can hide a multitude of sins, 3D cannot.

Sneak Attack - Client Project

Sneak Attack, this is a short character Animation I did, I emphasize short because I had to speed things up and cut things out to fit it within the time frame allocated. I'm pretty proud of it as I did not have very long to animate it at all. Its a bit clunky in places because of that but next time I'm going to make sure I allocate more time to animating. Also I had three characters to take care of, I did try and minimalize the amount of animation the sheep and farmer had, although it was important that they didn't look lifeless either.
I think the animating process should have at least 2 weeks, that is something I have learnt and could maybe have down with on this project. I also wish I had been able to spend some more time on the facial rigging, but in the story it wasn't overly necessary.

There's only two close up shots and so I made do with what I had. Maybe I'm being too critical on myself considering the time I had and the personal things I've been going through at home, but this is actually the best I could come up with in two weeks, from modelling, to texturing, to rigging, to animating and finally rendering. Talk about sleepless nights, today is the first time I've slept properly and I have spent most of the day asleep, anyway that is not the point. 

Sneak attack is my first steps into Maya, its been a rough ride at some points, wasted days trying to find solutions to ridiculous unexplained problems and great days seeing my characters come to life. Least I know I can animate a decent animation within about 5 days. 

Process

 Thought I'd upload some of the stuff I've been working on. Below is my character process, from designs to modelling and rigging.

Its a bit like Tex Avery meet Shaun the Sheep, well that was the rendering style I was going for. I've learnt a lot in this process though, I mean about Maya. This is my first time using Maya for character animation, the last time I used Maya was last year and that was just for Dynamics. 

Above is a shot of  the model, then its rig and then textured. Texturing was a bit of a long process, but making sure it all fit means I can stretch the limbs, and have the wolf character in exaggerated poses.

This image I though summed up the whole idea and story, sleeping farmer, un-bothered sheep and sneaky wolf. My actual animation for the Client project had to be sped up and cut short in places, but more of that later.

Getting There

Sorry nearly at the point to add the finishing touches to my Animation, but this is a shot from the first scene with all three characters together

Initial Setup

Just sorting through my folders and came across this image. I think its from my initial scene set up, before animating. Its like Tex Avery meets Shaun the Sheep!

Farmer Model

Right I let stress and deadlines take over, and have let it for a few weeks now. So I am behind but it is my own fault, I was trying to rush things and basically just forgot my own process. The process that has worked so well for me these past few years. Anyway I am shaking it off and Ive started from kinda scratch, getting myself back on track. This is soooo much better than my last model and, I have taken the time to sketch it out properly, like this one below...

There is a clear direction for the farmer. Going to texture him and get on with the wolf.

Farmers Head update

With Head.
Think he needs to be a bit more stumpy, still quite long and boring at the minute. I've run our of time this evening so will be building my computer at home, and the I will finally be able to perhaps work at home, all being well!

Farmer Model So far

I am just kind of eye balling it at the minute, its going ok. I'll put the farmers head on in a bit. will keep updating

Sheep Test

Sheep test.
Now making the farmer character, should hoefully be finished modelling him today all being wekll and no more distractions.

The Horrifying Rant!

So I know i said I'd write a blog about my internal project yesterday, but I actually was very productive in another project, my Research Project.
After spending a good time reading what is expected of me in the 3000-4000 words research paper, and what is necessary in such a paper, I've come to realise that there are not enough words for what I want to talk about. I thought it would be a in depth discussion, but apparently not the case. The extra section like 'background to research', 'research methodology' and 'description of proposed practice' can surely be merged into other areas. Why waste entire sections for this headings when it is a creative course, I'd understand more if it were a soical/science dissitations, as then it is obviously advantageous. But by giving entire sections away means having to write more than just a few sentences and writing something more substantial to justify having it as a section, right?
I don't know, maybe my lack of experience is showing, but there is not much logic behind it, yet others have done it in the past. Although with this is mind, after reading the example given to us as reference from someone last year, their discusson section was mostly pictures?!! They too didn't have enough to space to write. Maybe I'm being too optimistic in what I intend to write and will be glad to have so few words.
Anyway least I have a structure in place and a topic that interestes me. In fact I went to see 'Hotel Transylvania' yesterday. Good film, not great, but definitely would watch and enjoy it again.

In terms of animation I actually expected more extreme poses, it was great what they accomplished don't get me wrong, but it didnt have the wild takes I was expecting after reading some of the articles that Genndy Tartakovsky wanted it to be like the wild Warner Bros. and Tex Avery Cartoons.

They've done an awesome job at finally a new way to animate, rather then try and copy the kingpins Pixar. Its very much like Tex's work in the grand era of Walt Disney. Animation needs a fresh perspective, I know the picture above shows some extraggeration, but it wasnt like that all the way through the film, in fact some of the extreme emotions didnt really show till towards the end , which i dont understand as dracula had plenty bursts of rage since the beginning of the film. I would love to have seen it pushed more.

In fact that is what my finally year is all about, pushing the limits of animation. Tartakovsky's team had to re program and script how the rigs and models would morph so as to make it smooth and not crumpled or disfigured in a horrific mess. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about doing it, but I know they used Maya. so thats what I intend to learn today, wish me luck.

Pirate Camp - The Evaluation

Done! Here it is complete, so thus begins its evaluation;

When I first begain Maya, I expected to build everything in 3ds Max but soon realised how important it was learn Maya from the very beginning, no shortcuts. So everything has been created in Maya, it took a little while becoming accustomed to the interface and the loaction of all the tools, but i quickly was able to build my custom shelf and the Loft tool became my best friend. Below is a screen shot of my scene set up with the layers (also very very useful) along with the custom shelf I made for myself:

Anyway enough of modelling and Maya itself, I soon began my endeavour to understand dynamics and how it is used in Maya, and what a tool, some really very very interesting effects and they were so quick to master once you'd spent the time understanding it. I did spend a lot of time understanding it, I knew how really important it was to not just follow a step by step tutorial, but to understand why certain features affected the dynamics and what each element was. I did this with the help of Stuart Christensen and Pat Imier they didnt create tutorials for people just to follow and not learn, but more tutorials on helping you understand and learn why. This was so much more beneficial, and it shows, when I built the full scene, I built the fire right at the beginning with a step by step guide, I then came back to it and re created the fire again and added it later to my animation just to show my learning progress, you can really see the difference. The thing I am most proud of though is my shoreline, I know its not perfect but I made that from my own knowledge of particle dynamics, something I could not have done with the initial understanding. There are no tutorials, so guides, nothing, I could have chickened out and left it, but where is the fun in that. If I had more time I might have been able to play around a little more with it, but I'm happy with how it turned out, it isjust particles being emitted from a curve around the island, with a gravity and radial field applied.

The most fun to make was the opening sign at the beginning of the animation, making the cloth rip apart and flutter in the wind. This was the last thing to be made, and it really shows how much I had picked up by then, like the modelling of the rope around the outside, how the stretchiness affects a very poly filled ncloth.

Out of all of this, I now understand why the industry used Maya instead of 3ds Max, what it can achieve is fantastic. It is most definitely the thing to learn and i'm quite excited to do so, my crash course this week as been invaluable to me and to others that I've helped. I hope this short animation even with its unique twist, shows at least some of what I've learnt, unfortunately I couldnt fit it all in, I've learnt too much. For a first time go at the programe I can happily say I am quite happy with what I have achieved and I was still able to put a creative spin on it too, not just a boring scene walkthrough that just hits the criterias. But something a little quirky and interesting that brings it all together.

 

A Coconut Falls

First ever Animation on Maya, using Mental Ray and the Batch Rendering setting:

OK enough is enough

Right I think I have learnt as much as I can, my head hurts from all the learning. Basically gave myself a crash course of Maya, and I've accomplished quite a bit in a week, ALL modelled in Maya, everything in Maya. Its taken longer only because Maya kept crashing, I mean I'm seeing at least one crash an hour, which is extremely annoying if you dont save in time. Anyway here is a still of the scene. I've noticed a lot of others have done it at night, so I took on the challenge of light which turned out really easy with Mental Ray. Anyway back to the still:

So the particle breakdown goes like this, the clouds are a 3d container which I created three of just to give it a more dimensional feel. The flag obvioulsy a nCloth, really simple very easy, I like how I got the tattered effects to flap in the wind too though really happy with that. The fire could be better but I've run out of time and it does flicker. The ocean is basically a steady ocean with slight foam, didn't want to much. Which leads me to my waves on the shore, very simple design but that is a particle system being emitted from a curve with a gravity and radial field applied. There is also an Ik chain in the Palm tree so I can get the wind to blow it too. The models are made mostly from a NURBS Circle and then lofted, the awkward one was the fishing line, had to figure out how to make rope, used a paint brush effect and coverted it to a poly. I can't even begin to describe how much I've learnt.

I started this Tuesday, and I've mostly just spent the time understanding the dynamics and learning it, that to me is soooo much more important, and its obvious too, the fire was the first thing to be created (followed a step by step tutorial) and its not great but the clouds sea and waves were to follow, and the waves maybe simple but I dont think anyone realises how hard it was, especially as I could only create it once I had the knowlegde of Maya, as there is NO TUTORIAL TO COPY. This is why I'm so happy with what I've created, I did it without copying a tutorial, I did it myself, figured it out for myself, no cheating.

Playing With Clouds

So yesterday I uploaded a quick render of my scene, it was just basics, layout not sorted etc. But I've been playing with clouds this morning, just keeping them simple and gentle in the background and I'm also in the process of making a coconut fall from the tree onto the ground and have it emit some dust as it lands. I'll be using particle dynamics for that one, as I feel I've used a lot of fluid dynamics for the fire, clouds and water, its only fair to show what I know about particles. Anyway here is a draft render of my Palm Tree and some clouds in the background, I've used the Sky and Sun node to give it that bright feel.

I'm quite happy with where its heading so far.

Quick Update

Update 2 the basics:

I've just been playing round with materials, finding the best effect for my palm trees, thought I'd share. Anyway back to the more heavey stuff like trying to make nParticles into a shore line. Might be a bit a head of myself.

The nCloth Dynamic

Just a quick update on another Dynamic I now understand. Also understand how useful expressions are, been tweaking that too. Did look into other things but think they were getting to advance for me, so scaled it back and stuck with what I knew and created this:

I may have went overboard with the holes, but with the theme I'm going with it would be torn to shreds, I've also included the Black Spot, just to hail the great book and film Treasure Island. This is also the 1st time using materials, did a quick crash course just to get the basics down.

Sorry...

Hey sorry its been over a week since my last posting, I had to take some time out for a few days, I basically just worked myself into the ground. Anyway back on it now, and with the Maya deadline looming I've been researching and studying Proceedural Animation, I don't want to just create a scene from a tutorial I want to understand it. Its an awesome thing, with some really awesome effects. The more I learn and understand it the more I can utilise it, and add it to my own Pirate scene, when the time comes to building it. I want to grasp the process 1st before building anything. I've an idea in mind, well two, one easy the other a more advance version which I could do over summer. The fancy advance one is a space Pirate scene, but to do it justice I want to practice a little more 1st, the other is a deserted island, with the remenant of a single pirate. Oh and a flag with the black spot, which used to mean death, remember that from the old Treasure Island film as a kid. Loved that film!! Anyway I'm going to make it into a small animation like the beginning of a film, I've been looking at fluid effects for the past few days, creating a stormy sea. Well I'm not gonna give too much away yet, just incase I change my mind again. Here is a shot of my stormy waters:

Pretty good huh?

WHOOPAAH

I know its on a black background, but I'm playing around with fluid effects in Maya and this is what I came up with. I'm getting quite into this now. Can't believe I've been tring to put it off, what a fool I've been. Really enjoying this software, Maya is definitely creeping up to Max now, anyway I think I will defintiely be using this in My Pirate Camp, as I've also animated it to change as clouds do. Determination is the key. 

A Palm Tree

I know it looks like lego, but this is completely made in Maya. The trunk is just a cylinder with a bend deformer and extruded faces. I'm starting to get used to the Maya interface now, and work is progressing quicker. I think I'm going to try and make everything in Maya, practice makes perfect!