Rigging in maya

Maya rigging demo 2008 from Thomas Lauterjung on Vimeo.


I had a look at rigging, to try and understand how it works in a more complex sense and also to understand the benefits and limitations of 3D animation bit more. One of the main limitations is you can only really do basic squash and stretch techniques which i have mentioned a bit more in other blogs although i should have probably dont two separate posts so to have it tagged at limitations also. Anyway the ability to which you can change the proportions is limited as it cant really change its mass and shape very much, unlike in 2d animation where making something morph into something more grotesque or just the abilities in how much you can exaggerate the scene and characters.

Saying this with software like this you can create much more real and christ animations, allowing alot more complexity whith in he scenes, making interaction with props alot simpler rather then drawing each frame separately. I am amazed by the vast worlds you can create on software like this especially within games design and the power of rigging characters to move in particular ways.



 
Showreel Giulio Tonini 2013 - Generalist from Giulio Tonini on Vimeo.

pendulum and ball study task

Final animation

Here is my final animation on maya, using the first paragraph from the song 'gaston' from beauty and the beast. I picked this song because i felt like his words and emotion could be changed and my concept was the idea of speaking more to an object or about failure in some form, i wanted it to be as if he had failed an audition or something and have him interact with the guitar.

I struggled mostly with the movement of the guitar staying in his hands and moving smoothly along with his own movements, for the amount i struggled with maya during this project i am very happy with the final piece, although i feel like i want to work on him more, add more or a setting for him to give it more context and change the camera angle so his mouth doesnt go completely out of view so often. Also the eyes need working on a little more but they went a bit crazy after i had animated the body movements with the guitar, so managed to fix them last.

He could probably do with more expression, and i feel the lighting is to bright on his body and face. a few of the movements could be alow smoother, but when he moves to the ground the timing works well.

I did record myself in order to get the movements and timing right with the words and lip syncing.

L3.0 - Isart Digital

L3.0 aka lee the robot is a lonely robot in paris (i think) during an apocalyptic time where no living human is about and about him trying to find a friend and company. It is beautifully animated done with the character living and animated within a real environment. The animation is really crisp , especially the detail on the butterfly is beautiful. I particularly like the robots movements, especially when he is swinging his legs on the chair. The eyes work well helping poetry the emotion with just the eyes, eyebrows and body language.

The colours really stand out well, with very recognisable items within the house hold making you relate, it does make you sad as the robot resembles a small boy, which naturally makes you feel for his loneliness as no one should leave a child all alone.. poor lee. But again the butterfly is really beautiful, with such gorgeous fluttering.

Strike a pose

We were asked to choose 5 emotions and make moom portray each emotion using a photo reference we did of each other as reference. Here are the emotions i decided on below, my favourite pose is the confused one and the scared as i enjoyed playing around with the fingers.

anger

confusion 

scared 

hungry

sadness

Back to the start - Johnny Kelly

This animation is awareness in supporting local organic farms, which is something i feel strongly about and this animation is effective and visually beautiful in doing that. Showing what happens to factory animals, how they are pumped with chemicals and not treated like living creatures almost, being boxed up and then leaving us to consume such un-natural chemicals that have been fed to these animals.

It is a visual story accompanied by willie nelson's song the scientist which goes really well helping the narrative of the story going back to the start. The animation is very cute, almost looking like toys.. well to me.. but the flow is really nice, flowing through with beautiful camera angles flying around the scene and the story as it unfolds.

Toy story - Pixar

character description
development
design
exaggerations etc

Now toy story.. toy story is just beautiful, with all three movies not letting me down. It was the first feature length 3D animation breaking the boundaries of how the software could be used, before this and a few other projects from pixar when before it was being used alot more for architectural purposes. Since the release of Toy story pixar have continued to produce high quality 3D animations, with beautiful and enticing story lines to go along with there amazing detail and use of CGI. 

Although pixar are partners with disney, giving disney alot of there movie rights, and endorsements, disney have started also producing 3D animations over the last few years, but i feel especially with the quality of the story and the strong characters pixar produce makes them no real correlation or competition.  

Disneys frozen which has been extremely popular this year, uses beautiful animation but compared to there tangled which had a great story line and a fresh but real disney feel, didnt have a very strong story line or character base although the music and detail is amazing. I personally really dont see what all the fuss about frozen is from a story perspective although i think the beautiful female characters and the songs especially are what have made it so popular for young girls. 

Enough about my opinion on frozen and how i think Disney were alot more spot on with tangled, pixar couldnt of funded Pixar with out disneys help and finance and the help of Steve jobs.

Back to toy story, the main two characters in this are woody and buzz two characters from very different worlds, a cow boy and a space man. Woody is andys favourite toy until he gets a buzz lightyear for his birthday. It is then a battle of woodys jealousy trying to get rid of buzz, but in the end they need to work together to get back to andy when things go a little wrong. 

There alot of good lessons in toy story, and more so its something we can relate to, that relationship we have with our toys when we are young, how they have personalities and are alive.. i know i thought mine where when i was younger, teaching kids about getting along, love and compassion.. these two characters have such strong personalities that we recognise instantly and cant help but love (well i love them none the less).

Whole - Den Danske COMPLETE

I really wanted to blog about Whole as an animation because of once again.. the textures.. the characters almost look like marble at times, with some very trippy visuals that really real you in, telling a very really story in a spiritually strange story line in discovering your self and the main character finding her 'spirit animal' in order to love herself and feel whole again. I especially like the sound effects, and the drum in particular.

the colours and the shapes, the main characters colouring especially really appeals to me its so fluid and beautiful with the rubbery, marble look about it. Its very beautiful when she moves into a more real world with very recognisable items used as trees for example, using things like brussle sprouts and those flowers you use as shakers in summer. animation things like water is difficult but here the lighting and mix of techniques is truly mesmerising.

Life is beautiful - Ben Brand

Life is beautiful is a lovely short animation by Ben Brand about a character who has always been smaller, and seen as less i guess struggling through life until one day he decides to end it all, although life in death isnt what he expected but in the end find out he can use his size as an advantage to beat the others in a race to the big egg in the sky.. i guess.

But it is beautifully animated with odd shapes used throughout and beautiful imagery and colours. He is a very cute, bold looking character and the animation is very smooth. the cinematography ad lighting in this is what really appeals to me and the very cartoon bright feel. Although i struggle with the use of maya i do like the flexibility in 3D animation, especially when it comes to the board rage of styles and textures used by people, giving more room for more outlandish ideas. In things like stop motion and 2d getting the same textures and effects is alot more difficult especially getting the depth and detail within them.

Courage the cowardly dog

Courage is one of my childhood favourite cartoons, especially with courages famous scream. It is definitely one to stand out for alot of kids my age who watched cartoon network as kids. I love the outlandish animation, just like ren and stimpy who i spoke about before in another blog post.

I love the strong characters in this animation, showing the love and compassion from courage who pushes though his fears to help Muriel his owner, even with the abuse he gets of Eustace on a daily basis. i feel they are strong characters in this horror comedy. 

I want to try and take these over exaggerations from these cartoons into account when trying to do my own animations, especially when trying to tackle maya. understanding the principles of animation  a bit more and the ability to add effect and emotion. 

LAIKA's box trolls- faces/movement

Box trolls is the most resent stop motion feature film production from LAIKA studios. Following the success of there last two films Coraline and Paranorman, both breaking boundaries and limitations of stop motion animation. LAIKA has been using and taking advantage of 3D printing for there last few films allowing them create the faces and expressions of the characters using 3D software like maya, this has allowed them to how a wider rage of expressions for each character and smoother facial movements.

one limitation for this is the animators have to decide on the faces long before they start animating and often without the bodies and there movement as reference to which expressions would work best for when they finally start the animation process.

The detail is beautiful along with the movement of the characters, although printing the faces like this still means each face has to be coloured, and textured by hand to really give them life. But without the incorporation of 3D software the fluidity of LAIKAs animations would not be possible, and would take alot more time and money to get the standards the same. 

The characters are also really well thought out, beautiful movement and exaggeration, i guess what makes it so beautiful is as unlike live action filming, every movement has to be thought out and planned in advance, no room for 'happy accident' but thats where the beauty comes in as a bit of the animators are within the animation its self and the sets to help build these strong characters.  

Prop building exercise - Mug using maya

One of out exercises was to pick an object to create on maya, i decided on a mug because its practical, i have many and well it didnt seem to complex but enough to try help me get my head around how to manipulate the shapes a bit more.

This mug i have to admit was my third proper attempt at creating a mug, after the second and third time becoming a disaster even after my tutors direction, i watched a few more youtube videos to get my head around it a bit more and understand maya. Finally i got there and the shape began to form the working of a mug. The mug still used basic shapes which made it alot easier, i selected the faces at the top of the starting shape and intruded them in, the first few times i had kept accidentally selecting the faces at the side of the object, so ended up having to select them each one by one, this worked better and less mistakes were made. also i realised i needed to create extra faces on the top using the lassoo in order to keep and create the rim at the top of the mug. 

I just created a doughnut shape (i think thats what its called) for the handle and split it in half, stretching and twisting it a little bit to help form the mug shape.

In the end i produced a very simple looking mug but a mug none the less and you don't know how happy i was to finally complete it! getting used to w, e and r was a little confusing at first also but i feel i have got my head around which is wish and dont have to think as much now when changing between them. 

We were also asked in one of out exercises to create a turn table on maya using the object, here is my mug below, i just kept with a spotlight for my effect and i still dont understand the whole creating a room etc yet which is something i need to work on. 

Edmond was a Donkey - Franck dion

Edmond was a donkey is a beautiful animation, which to me seems to focus on identity and acceptance. It starts with edmond, a guy alot smaller then everyone else, keeps to him self and works hard even after all the ridiculed. until his colleagues play a trick on him by creating donkey ears out of paper and place them on his head. when he sees them in the mirror he finally sees who he feels he is something he identifies with, but of course is seen as insane for identifying with such a thing. I guess i love it so much because it an animation most of us can relate to in some way and the idea of being different. I feel like acceptance is something we all strive for and there is alot of equality in the world so why dont we accept people for being different? when no two people are the same? why is it so hard to accept it? There are many reasons, social norms, religion, our culture but anyway i find it a beautiful animation focusing on the subject and it is quite slow and simple characters but i feel 3D animation here really worked in bringing the story to life.

I have watched this over and over as i love the character design, the textures and simplicity of the colour pallet used, using such neutral pallet. when looking at animations composed using 3D software im amazed at how different you can take advantage of this. Its a very dreamy animation to watch which to an extent really hits home making you think of acceptance and where your part plays within this animation, well in a narrative sense. But also the techniques used have a very dramatic sence with the colours really showing dullness almost in a beautiful way if that makes sence, really makes you interact with the characters although little actual speech comes from the characters as it is narrated through using the visuals to show his side of the story almost.

Bears on stairs - DBLG

This is beautifully animated using a 3D printer, which is becoming more and more popular within animation, especially places like LAIKA which have 3 to create there faces and frames for smooth movement, but ill probably write about them more later.

Anyway this is a simple repeating animation of a bear walking up some stairs. the animation was created on 3D software, then each frame was printed out using a 3D printer to create this simple beautifully smooth stop motion animation. I guess its important to see how so many different techniques were used and how important all of these were for how this animation turned out. I find it hard still to get my head around maya, but maya, and other software like 3D cinema are helping to revolutionise new ways to animate, more precise ways to get the result wanted but all in all saving time and money (depends how useful the printer is i guess and how much it cost). It could be argued that it takes away the hand made feel but i think that still has its place but this helps open up new techniques and possibilities in things like stop motion allowing a mixture of disciplines and ideas to become reality, helping it move forward with the times and not be left behind.





DBLG 2014 from DBLG on Vimeo.

I also had a look at the show real which was beautifully put together, with alot of idents for channels like E4. Its only one minuet long which is enough time for them to show the vastness of there abilities and work but not to long to loose your attention. DBLG do alot of work using 3D animation software, mixing techniques and coming up with fresh catchy ideas and idents we all recognise from tv. Its beautifully formatted work is bright and endearing which is something i want to look more into when focusing on advertising and idents as they are two things i want to work on, initiv ways to promote and interact with viewers.

Ren and Stimpy - John Kricfalusi

Ren and stimpy is an old cartoon which used to be on nikolodeon as nicktoons block of shows with rugrats and dough. Although looking back now alot of it is quite jumpy and doesnt flow as much as cartoons we watch these days but along with rugrats and other animations produced around this time in the 90's there is a crude theme along them, playing alot on the crude over exaggeration of the characters and there actions.

They do hit alot of the basic principles of animation though really emphasising there movements and actions, going that extra step with there emotions and the story. Its that exaggeration that makes animation special and stand out as its one of the few forms where you can turn any idea into reality without the boundaries of what is actually real. For example in this one the exaggeration of the drooling, having actual taps appear out his mouth in this episode to show the extent of his hunger and want for the grotesque looking food. It could also be seen as a bit sexist or at least cruel having them constantly mauled by a babboon even when dressed as the wife as a disguise, i feel something as visual as that in that context wouldn't be as allowed these days.. although animations like this one are probably pioneers to programs like adult cartoons like southpark, and kids shows like adventure time.

I wanted to look at this as often its hard to step away from reality and what we know as every day actions to be possible. I know with 3D software its the same but i feel it can be alot more limited as we automatically see it as more or a realistic way to create characters and sets allowing my realistic and complex designs. Ren an stimpy isnt complex in there colours, or set design but keeps you entertained none the less. I do debate looking back if alot of the cartoons i watched were really suitable for kids but i guess you look at things differently when your young and its something all ages could enjoy (as long as you like that sort of thing).

maya prop modelling for moom - guitar

I decided in the end to make a guitar as a prop for my final animation, i thought there are may ways to interact with a guitar and many different emotions connected to it, so thought it would fit the lyrics quite well. 

At first it was very difficult getting the shape right, especially the whole in the middle, especially working out how to get the correct curves on the guitar, i tried to copy the guitar in my room which helped a lot, compared to trying to copy something i couldn't physically look at. It meant i could really look in detail on the shapes and how to put it together. 

It did take me a few attempts at getting the shapes right, especially when i would look at it smoothed as the shape of the blocks would change dramatically. 

The tuning pegs were actually quite simple, as it was basically two shapes that i could then duplicate and place into the guitar. 

At first with the body and strings i thought about downloading or looking for a guitar texture but decided to just attempt to make the strings using long tubes, and bending them at the top using the lasso tool.

Maya - Modelling skills exercise

Here is my first attempt at creating a model using maya, in this exercise we got given a small wooden truck to copy in maya in order to practice and learn how to use the modelling soft ware. Because of the simple shapes of the truck i didn't find this to difficult to model as not much manipulation was needed.

The lighting was quite easier to understand, we used the spotlights  allowing me to quickly create 3 point lighting to illuminate the model truck.

I found colouring a bit hard to understand at first, or more understanding the different textures and metallic surfaces but once i got the hand of it a little bit and realised you can save the set textures and colours made it a whole load easier, although this is a simple model so not sure how i will find adding colours and textures to a more complex model. 

I was playing around about with the flooring, with the shine, playing with the size of the checker board flooring and playing with size, you can see here i properly made the whole bit a tad to large, making the truck look like it is in an almost infinite space.

MOON EXPERIMENTING

These were my first attempts at playing around with moom, working out how his body worked, how the joints turned and how to make him move smoothly. I experimented for a while moving him from pose to pose treating him like an artists dummy a bit, playing with expression and emotions to go with the movements.

It took me a while at first to get used to the joins especially the shoulders and hips as i couldnt seem to get his hips out of the position above for a long while, finding it hard to backtrack the movements i had done. 

I already had an idea of the emotions i wanted him to portray when animating him, and one thing i new i may struggle with was getting him to kneel on the floor smoothly.