@ALAN Maya Skinning Problems

I’ve continued working on getting the skinning of the bear up to date, however encountered a few problems on the way which I can’t seem to figure out.

Problem 1:

All vertices have been grouped in relation to the joint placements; I then began animating various parts of the model in this case the front left scapula joint (clavicle), nothing has been changed or altered as I rotate the vertex point moves at the back of the model which is also on the left side connected to the ilium joint (pelvis). Why does this occur and what’s the solution?

 

Problem 2:

The leg has been animated to move back and forward, I’m trying to add influence to one of the vertices in order for it to move inwards improving the legs shape, however it seems to be connected to a different vertex point? Why does this occur and what’s the solution?

Problem 3:

Again the hip has been animated to move back and forward, I have selected 3 vertices all with the same influence connected to the hip joint yet only the centre vertex point moves with the hip the other 2 do not? Why does this occur and what’s the solution?

Character Rigging

I have just finished placing the bones/joints for my character and waiting on a second opinion before I begin the skinning process, I’d like to make sure things are in right order as in past judgments the skeleton has appeared wrong. Time wise - it hasn’t taken to long and hasn’t been a great deal of stress, so therefore welcome any corrections. I believe this has been a result from having the right preparation from the off set i.e. the study of the anatomy allowing instance knowledge of my naming conventions.
I am tackling each character one at a time, so here we have my attempts of creating the bones/joints in accordance to the skeletons featured in earlier studies of the bear and hound. Next I’ll look to skinning if correct and begin work on my bird.

Bear

Hound

Making Of: Part 2 (Blurb - Make Your Own Book)

Most of my time recently has been spent producing the ‘art of’ document for my project. Initial this was going to be a summary/evolution of my characters solely however, I was eager to share much more with the viewer of my book and give them a greater insight. Things are progressing really well despite some of the major tasks left at hand. Having said this, it’s important I engaged in completing the ‘art of’ document first and foremost as the deadline for the project is just after the Christmas break. The Blurb book will be shipped from aboard hence the significance of having it complete before time runs out. It was nice to look back onto exactly what has been considered over the duration of the unit and the extent of how much effort has gone into the end product.

http://www.blurb.com/

Model Correction

The project assets are nearing completion, these images show some corrections to the modelling of my characters to improve the skinning, discussed with Alan earlier in the week.

 

From the previous uploaded description of my Maya work the models seemed to be okay although minor adjustments still needed to be carried out, the overall look of the characters appear to be fine now, the mesh only contains quads through-out and the loops have been formed around the legs of both.

Character Structure

My characters are really beginning to form now just a few more tasks lie ahead such as the rigging and skinning, I’ll start the process of animating and develop some sequences once they are complete, seen as I haven’t working with animal rigs or animating animals for that matter some research has into quadrupeds has been on the agenda, to get an idea of the animal structure in terms of the way they are constructed this will enhance the believability of the animation as well as improvement of the animal movements.

http://evasion.inrialpes.fr/Publications/2005/RFDC05/

 I have come across an interesting diagram which displays a ready made rig structure for my quadrupeds, the sketches done previously in relation to my characters bare similarity to the structure however these are much more detailed. 

 

Taken from a presentational thesis the model-based reconstruction of creature animation, found online illiterates an intuitive array of information located to help my understanding of the animal anatomy and structure, the information obtained shows different aspects of measured and observed locomotion. Its interesting to see when rigging/animating you often only consider the bones in which the model is comprised of and the characters model itself, I know now from the information there are other things to take in account for instance how each part of the animals structure (skeleton, muscle, skin) interacts with one another. As shown in the figures below.

 

http://juliegele.com/index.php?BODY=research

Sculptris Alpha 5

http://www.sculptris.com/
I discovered last week during the heavy snow fall that hit britain a relatively new 3d sculpting programme Sculptris, now there’s other 3d software that bare similarly to this one however what makes this programme so unique is how easy it is to use and the mobility of the software is very user friendly, covers same principles as existing sculpting software Zbrush(which is found to be complex if your a beginner), this is the perfect alternative to those who would like to start of fresh modelling visualisations which can be taken into more 3d packages for animation ect. Another interesting fact about Sculptirs, its completely free a prototype currently being developed by Pixologic.
http://www.sculptris.com/story.html
Here’s an example of the results that can be achieved:
 A quick attempt at sculpting a bear’s head. Fairly good as my first try on Sculptris.

Character Model Turnarounds

Generated in Maya I have prepared the character turnarounds for each animal, displaying the wireframe and model.

Modelling Phase: 3

The characters born out of my poem has taking many hours of attention and now ready for them to be displayed, some tough challenges had been over come however there will be many more as i feel they're ready for the rigging and skinning phase. As discussed before the major details have been covered, some discovery in concern to the scale and look of the models have been re addressed and the overall visual appearance has been improved.the edge flow of the geometry is look fairly good therefore happy for move forward now.

Bear

Model-Non Smooth

 Smooth

 Bear Model 2

To break away from having just a simple looking model although it will serve its purpose i have created the additional shard like model which follows the style of the alchemy art produced as the main aesthetic to my characters design.A lot of interest into the making of this model had been expressed, i simply 1. Duplicated my bear model 2. Ensured the keep faces was unchecked 3. Extracted the model into individual pieces 4. And finally used the sculpture geometry tool in order to add variances to the mesh.

Bird

Model Non-Smooth

 Smooth

Hound

Model Non-Smooth

 Smooth

Modelling Phase: 2

I have been tinkering with the models geometry on phase 2 for a while now figuring out the right paths for the facial curves to react correctly in relation to my previous body study. Understanding the topology for the animals are taking much longer then anticipated, again its something new and challenging which I’d like to get right however they follow the same topology structure as the human head model in the past, so I do have some experience with the issues I’m facing. I’m not looking for high end models just the beneficial outlines which define my shadows.

Next I’ll look to tackle the legs for all the models and come back to the fine tuning, once happy with the fully resolved states of the models. The images shown here depict the main body with the head.

Bear

Model Non-Smooth

Smooth

Bird

Non-Smooth

Smooth

Hound

Non-Smooth

Smooth

This weeks tutorial session

Tuesday’s tutorial was an interesting one unfortunately Phil wasn’t in to see my procession and speak about the project so the recent thoughts where taken into the discussion with Alan, I didn’t have many technical questions however this gave me a chance to speak about a comment left on my blog an idea where I could really improve the appeal of my animation.

The idea is to master my surroundings as magician masters his tricks so in other words I have to act as the main conductor to the success as well as bringing influences from other sources for my scene becoming the magician so to speak. Constructing my shadows in a form of illusion is a key consideration showing things like anticipation, grabbing the attention of the viewer whilst something else is occurring in the scene in a subtle manner. Inevitably if performed correctly this will evoke reactions such as ‘did that just move?’ I want to raise questions in the audiences mind and play with there inner thoughts.

I came across these billboard illustrations which follow along similar lines of the idea I’ll express in my animation. You as the spectator can see that the illusion in front of the projected scene however you’re not quite sure what is happening behind the billboard. Starts to raise questions…

 http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/504
Red-Cross Optical illusion billboards

Modelling Phase: 1

Okay, I’m glad to say the production is now official underway, what I’d like to do is tackle the challenges of the character models as I feel this is the stage in which will be the most time consuming, it will require six different models two for each character. These models once finessed will be rigged as well skinned.

The majority of my time has been spent modelling the basic structure of the characters body as phase 1, there not quite finished still in need of some refinement however capture the shape and size I’m looking for, the next stage will be to create the head and legs plus any additional features such as the tails claws and so forth.

Bear Model

Non-Smooth

 Smooth

Bird Model

Non-Smooth

 Smooth

 Hound Model

Non-Smooth

 Smooth 

Final Character Concepts and Turnarounds

Final Concepts

Bear

Bird

Hound

Character Turnarounds

Experimental concepts

My Creature Anatomy

Creatures Anatomy

I’ve taken some brief time out to study the anatomy of the characters of my project, for purposes of developing a secure understanding. I have undergone some research into key feature of my specific animals and also looked at the anatomy, the knowledge obtained should increase the visual appeal/the basic structures they contain when animating. One of the main ideas for the characteristics the animals emit partially will be based around the nature inhabitants as I’d like to portray there wild personality. So this should give me a foreground into a gratifying realistic movement.

Even though my characters will be projected as shadows its important I see them through to the end as this will be a stepping stone and a learning curve, It will enable me to not only brush up on the rigging but skinning as well. 

The whole process of constructing a character really interests me knowing how they move/interact, behave ect is something that I like looking in depth, it allow you to get the best possible result for a character and give off a more realistic view as well as pushing the boundries to a bliebeabouty extent.

All my characters are based on predatory mammals but they don’t really acquire a specific animal characteristic, up until now the main supervisions are around grizzly/polar(bear), gray wolf/pit-bull(hound), eagle/vulture(bird).

  These sketches display the inter bone structure for my mammals, they give me a sense of the structure for my rig.http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/topics/mammal_anatomy/index.html

Bear

 Bird

Hound

grizzly bear from Analu Cole on Vimeo.

 Feasting eagle from zook on Vimeo.



The Wolf's Eyes from David Blakemore on

Vimeo.

Direct observational clips have been located as well as perspective from others to insure I’m on the right lines when piecing together the movements for the characters.