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!