Spears and swords.

Here we go! Starting off with blocking one character first.

I'm going to try to make sure the blocking is more solid on the first character before she makes contact with the other.

I still think her poses this far still need to be refined and since she is using a spear, there is some fancy leg work that I need to really pay attention to. This one might be challenging since there will be a lot of twisting in her torso. I will try my best to remind myself that the pelvis will drive most of body's momentum but her upper torso will drive her weapon.

Let's hope I don't run into (too much) gimble lock!

Rough blocking pass:

(Rigs and scene courtesy of Digital Tutors)

Do battle!

Now that I have been exercising using props in my animations (although I didn't post up the polished blue guy with the orange cup)--I'm going to spend this whole weekend working on a two character sword fight.

I started gathering my references and remembered that the internet does not have a "one footage fits all." Meaning tomorrow I will get up early, pick up a wooden stick and create some reference footage.

Here we go with sketching to warm up!

Continuing with props.

Trying to keep it simple this time and created my own reference. This is just the blocking pass - and I am planning to animate the cups visibility in attempt to get a good transition on the placement when it is set.

Props and constraints.

Initially I was suppose to spend this week working on scenes with two characters interacting.
But in order to do so I figured it would be important for me to go over and re-visit animating with props using constraints. I figured it would save me some trouble down the road and decrease the number of my hairs I might pull - so lets jump over this hurdle.

Using props can be tricky depending on the object or how it will be animated because it will determine the way it has to be constrained or quickly rigged. Obviously more complex animations or actions will require a prop to be "rigged" and I found out today that it is beneficial to have more than one control on the prop.

Once a constraint is created between a prop and the characters hand, the channel box suddenly looks not so animator friendly. Because there will be multiple connections going through an IK arm, I learned it is a great idea to create a group node for the IK control:

On the regular IK arm, when a constraint is made, a new attribute will appear which is the "blend parent." Trying to animate on this control with all the connections going through will eventually get messy. So creating a group node for the control not only gives you clean translations and rotations, but now I can add a new attribute to control my constraint. 

My "follow spear" (spear is the prop I was using with my character) will allow me to turn on and off the constraint. When I created the attribute, I had to go into the connection editor and set a connection from the 'blend parent' to the 'follow spear' attribute so it can be functional.

Highlighted below the blend parent attribute is the "weight of the constraint" for my prop. It's possible to use this as an alternative to control constraints but it doesn't transition as well and might create "popping" later.

It's taking me a bit to get use to doing it this way - but so far this method seems pretty successful. Of course this is one of the MANY ways you can use constraints for animating with props. 

Blocking pass:

First polishing pass:

Second week concluded.

During this week I definitely bit off more than I can chew with some of my animations. There was nothing wrong with the ideas I wanted to pursue, but I realized I should always keep in mind how it will be executed. This all goes back to planning and making sure all my ideas and references are solidified.

I took my time blocking and checking the silhouettes of my character. I'm still not finished and I need to move onto my next goal which is interaction with two characters. This animation is still in "stepped mode" ...think of it like a rough draft.

Pose for the camera.

In 3D space, a character's placement or position will look accurate from one perspective. Change the camera around and you can notice that your nice pose looks awkward or unbalanced.

While sketching out my references, I paid attention to the line of action and the silhouettes of the poses. So as I am blocking my character in Maya, I try to check its position based on where I placed my render camera. Eventually I started to get wrapped up in timing out my poses rather than paying attention to the silhouettes. Some funkiness occurred when I took a look at my render camera:

Check out image A and how the limbs are positioned. If I turned off the lights in this scene the wolf/dog character would not "read" well. In image B, I corrected the angle of the leg, knees and position of the head.

Obviously there are still fixes that are needed and I still need to go through and check the rest of my blocked poses for their silhouettes. Doing all the extra work now means that the clean up process won't be too much of an uphill battle.

Solidifying ideas.

Yesterday I didn't thoroughly block out my dragon piece that I posted. This time I am slowing down my process a bit and really-REALLY focusing on all the "prep work."

Before I even open Maya, I need to have a solid idea or plan for my character. 

This time I am going to keep it simple and have a dog playing fetch (I had fun looking up references). 

Browsing and collecting videos was 15% of the work because relying on footage alone isn't enough to capture "life." 

To better understand the mechanics of an energetic dog, I studied the videos and sketched out gestures. Sketching these allowed me to warm up and focus on the dog's line of action -- which is key when posing out characters.

These doodles are rudimentary, but it gets the point across!  I continued viewing the footage and made more notes on the main or "key" poses. I used multiple videos to help guide me as well as a plate of a dog run cycle by the great photographer Eadweard Muybridge!

Having a better understanding of my character's personality (a very energetic dog) and its goal (retrieving a ball) will allow me to take what I need from multiple sources and "mash them up" into a sequence.

Even if it's just a slight shift in the weight or tilt in a pose, it will have an effect on the final animation and what I am trying to convey to my viewer (although its a simple one).

I still need to finish fleshing out my key poses. Then i'll start blocking it out in Maya!

Cheers!

Polishing stage?

Lesson today: Take one thing at a time!

I went a bit over my head by deciding to use this dragon rig while trying to create better blocking techniques for animating. This rig has a lot of controls, which is great! But when you are trying to establish a more solid workflow...there is a HUGE chance for distraction.

So there is "blocking" and "SMART blocking." I think we know which will work better.
I got this from a tutorial and it made perfect sense and should always be practiced. Smart blocking: Blocking in poses while being constantly aware of the 12 principles.

Yep. Genius words but its also stating the obvious. My polished dragon isn't as "polished" as it could of been and that is because I didn't properly blocked out my poses like I should of. I might of got distracted by the cool wings.

But dragons don't exist in reality...

Nope. Dragons do not exist. Neither do centaurs, fauns, mermaids or Cthulhu (whew!).
Animating mythical creatures are challenging and finding reference will require a bit of imagination and taking a few things from 'here' or 'there.' There is no way one source will fit everything you need in order to block out your creature.

Since i'm working with a dragon, I can't go to the zoo and capture it onto my camera (as awesome as that would be). Instead, I had to think about this creature anatomically and what animals come close to resembling it followed by more questions:
 How does this creature feel? What is he/she like? What species is it?
Like any other character, this creature's story is important and will play a key role in how you will portray and animate him/her.
To better organize these ideas--sketch it out! They don't have to be perfect, but enough to get the point across.

Also before I forget:
Do not...and I repeat DO NOT use animated mythical creatures as your reference! Be creative and get to know your character (like I mentioned before).

I'm still in the blocking stages and I will post more about this process when I start polishing.

(Dragon rig courtesy of Creativecrash.com)

Finding a balance.

This week I am focusing on quadrupeds and other creatures.
During this process, I have been using Digital Tutors to help guide me when I hit a wall. Like I mentioned before, if you have access to it--I highly recommend downloading project files and following along with the tutorials. This definitely has aided me with this panther run cycle.

Last week while I was working on a cycle for a biped, I somewhat concluded that blocking out poses didn't work as well for a simple walk. WRONG. Animating straight ahead isn't an absolute remedy either.
Straight ahead animation is the only option when working with stop motion puppets. In 3D, there needs to be a balance of both. Following the tutorial helped me (once again) break some habits.

(Panther rig is courtesy of Digital Tutors)

A week complete.

This has been going on since 2009 and I have just now started using the animation layers. Today I gave it a go and it is very helpful. I'm still learning ways to optimize on this tool for my animations--this will be fun. I also should share this good read:

Animation Tips & Tricks.

I really love this blog and it addresses so many questions I had when I was going through school.

Cheers!

Adventures in Maya.

This first week of my boot-camp I have ran into multiple hurdles. My goal with this is to push myself to complete one animation daily and continue to "exercise" that animator muscle. The animations I have been completing have been simple and straight forward until near the end of the week, in which I decided to focus on bi-pedal walk cycles. Queue the struggles and hardships.

Walk cycles sound like a simple animation, but they can be challenging to animators of all levels. A character's walk can say a lot about their personality, objective, mood etc. This is why it is vital to first understand the character's intent and persona before you sit down and start key framing away. Spending time focusing on a character's walk has also taken me back to recall the basics (or principles) for animation.
If you forgot what those principles are--you can find it here.

I will confess, throughout this week I have made a ton of mistakes and it not only resulted in bad animation, but a lot of time spent on creating bad animations. Here are some solutions to my hurdles:

1. Know your character.
Even if your character is just holding an ice cream cone, there is still a sense of personality behind it. How do they stand? What is their posture like? Do they hold it with both hands or double fist the cones? It's important to know WHO they are and what their intention is.

2. Reference! (Here is that preach again).
The internet holds so many clips and videos that we can use! If there is a video that you want to use for reference-go for it! Also keep in mind that you should also record yourself going through the motion as well. Feeling the motion of the body mechanics goes a long way. Without reference, you're making it up from you're memory bank...therefore it might not come out as believable to viewers.

3. Less is more.
Subtleties can make a huge difference! It's great to toss in some rotation into your characters shoulders, but don't have it rotate to the extreme! Sometimes just throwing in a little bit of rotation or translation here and there can make your character more believable.

4. Graph editor - take advantage of it!
In 3D animation, I often forget myself to clean up my graph editor. Eventually it's peppered with keys and ends up looking like mocap data! If your character's limbs are "popping" or things seem to be off, chances are the graph editor just needs to be tweaked. This is crucial in cyclic animations because you must make sure the tangents connect in order to have it run smoothly. This thing might seem scary when you open it, but do not worry--it will become your best friend.

5. Grease pencil.
Maya 2014 has a new feature called "grease pencil" and it is AMAZING! Why was I still using the 2013 version? Anyways--Grease pencil allows you to draw over your animations making it extremely helpful if you need to fix poses. No more screen caps being tossed in Photoshop and doodled over :).


Happy animating.

Cycles and stepped mode.

Cyclic animations are actually challenging. Making sure they loop correctly without seeing "hiccups" can be frustrating if you do not utilize the graph editor effectively.

I have learned to pose out my characters based on their key poses using "stepped mode" - allowing me to focus on posing. This works for creating performances or actions...but I don't feel like it works well when creating a simple cycle (walk, run, etc).

It might take me a few more tries to get an effective work flow down. Right now, i'm experimenting and seeing what really works.

Hello dino! (dinosaur rig courtesy of Digital Tutors).

The reference preach.

This has been mentioned over and over again: REFERENCE REFERENCE...REFERENCE!

Today, I wanted to animate a character hitting a punching bag...and found a clip off Youtube.
Great right? For animators it should be a breeze to gather reference-yeah? Just surf through clips (possibly hack them together) and voila! Reference material is made!

Of course now this is obvious--but not all reference material is good to use. Personally, if the feet are hidden in the shot and I am animating a character running, walking, or anything not focusing on expressions--it's not helpful. In anyway. Period. Since I don't enjoy being on a camera, it's hard for me to "act it out" especially in fear someone will walk in. Sometimes desperate times...call for desperate measures. So--record yourself.
Act it out in front of a mirror.

Watching the video and sketching out poses or posing your character is one thing. But "feeling" the transfer of weight or training your eye to notice certain mechanics of the body is extremely helpful.

I made a few mistakes today and didn't do all the above like I should have. My result:

Sometimes there will be a rig that will present some problems and you find yourself "counter animating"--that's not fun either. I'll save that for another day.

Happy animating.

Current reel.

Sharing my current reel! I know after this whole month of non-stop animating, there will be fresh new ideas to work with.
Michelle Hill - Animation reel 2014 from Mushtron on Vimeo.

Kick off.

Officially started animating yesterday and mostly spent my time searching for reference and sketching out main poses. Before this week had started, I created a detailed day-to-day "curriculum" for myself--outlining my goals.

I decided to take the 12 principles and break them up in order to make sure I focus on a few at a time.

Someone told me that GOOD ANIMATION does not mean EVERYTHING has to move ALL THE TIME.


I haven't animated in maybe a month so I feel very rusty! Creating reference is also about 50% of the work.

quick reference.

I decided to do a quick exercise involving a character and one prop and I found a YouTube video of a guy hopping onto a motorcycle.

I sketched out the main poses (main frames) and not including the in-betweens (Maya takes care of the rest).

Since this is a month long boot-camp, I can't waste time fiddling with broken rigs...a good place to download great rigs (if you can) is www.digitaltutors.com

This morning I spent about 1 1/2 hours animating based off my reference. Of course there is a lot of clean up to be done--but it's good to exercise that muscle and keep moving forward!

Incubating.

Hello new blog!

As an artist or creative developer, there is a constant need to stay ahead, manifest new ideas and strengthen skills. Like mastering a certain "Materia" like on Final Fantasy VII, there can only be a focus on one Materia at a time (Yes--I made that reference).  Trying to take on more than you can chew, might cause a person to spread themselves thin.

I wanted to document my next month off as I do a "crash course" on strengthening my abilities as an animator and overall as an artist.

I want to share my learning experience during this process.

I will be taking a month off from my job (no bacon flow in the meantime) to pursue a personal goal.

This will be my personal "Animation Boot-camp."