3D Modeling & Animation II

The Wall Climb: Live Action Study: Wall Climb; This Part of the Tutorial just shows the important parts of the reference live action video. It just shows where movement, contact, hold, and more is and at what time. In Maya: The Wall Climb Basics; For this part of the tutorial I am starting to animate in Maya. It's a long process and below I will be adding videos showing part of my process going towards the end of each tutorial video. First this picture above show a toolbar called Recall. and its a great way of selecting everything with one click. In this first Video I am adjusting the model/Rig to the way I want to set my first key frame in the animation. The video is about 3mins long I will try to shorten them, but these videos are only progress. 2nd Video is also 3mins. Here I had a bit of trouble with the leg, I'm still working to get the second key frame. 2 Minute Video - More Process of animating to get the second key frame . The next video will s...

Attaching the Skin Binding the Mesh to the Skeleton and Painting Skin Weights: The first thing I will do is go into the hypergraph and select the joints that I need. and make a quick select sets group. (Video) After all have been selected I then have to select the main mesh and go to skin and select skin weights (Video) After this I have to start setting key frames to see what problems show up with the skin weights. (My timeline somehow disappeared, but here I can see what is wrong [Video]) and for the rest of the part I have to paint the skin weights Refining Skin Weights: For this part I am going to mirror what I previously done with the mesh and I will also make a few more refinements. First I will select the mesh and go to skin and mirror skin weights options All I mostly had to do is adjust it over the neck area of the right and it will be finished. Testing and Finalizing the Rig: (2 Videos and a final Picture) For this last part of the tutorial the ...

 Adding Advanced Functionality Adding Extended Twist functionality to the back: In this part I will be using the IK spline solver's attribute editor. Before working with the tool every joint that's being worked with should be oriented correctly.  In the tutorial it mostly talks about the orientation, but when I try to move one thing the video does it does not let me. Though not much is being done other then explaining what each thing does. Video below is quick just shows what the tutorial was doing for a bit. Rigging a "stretchy" back: In the first part I will have to measure the spine curve using a MEL command line since Maya does not have that option to measure curves. ( arclen -ch 1 ) was the first command, but to get the measurement I have to use ( select curveInfo1 ) and that number shown in the attribute editor shows the curve at rest. (Video 1) Next, I will go into the Hyper shade Editor and click on Create and select Multiply Divide Node  shift...

Adding sub foot pivots to the front feet: Here I added 4 custom attributes for the right front control of the legs. Same process with the first part of the video. I selected the right front toes IK and made it a separate group then I moved the pivot points to where they need to be. I'm just making individual groups and connecting the pivots a number of times so in the end I can adjust the custom attributes.  [Video] Adding Subfoot Pivots to the Back Feet: This part of the video has the same process of work that needs to be done with the foot. In the Video below I grouped to IK handles like before and snapped the pivot point where it goes with a quick check to see if it works. (0:00 - 0:42) Then I renamed the group. Next I grouped another set of IK's and snapped the pivot and renamed it. (0:42 - 1:20) Then I did the same again (1:20 - 1:40) When I group each one by one it builds up the hierarchy so the IK can work correctly. After This I go into the connection...

Creating the Basic Body Rig Creating the Skeleton: In this part of the tutorial it shows us some quick basics in half the video. How to use Joints, the options, Orient Joints, and so on. In the next of the video it shows that we already have been given a guide joints. (Picture) Then lastly I have to create the same joints using the guide joints and then mirror them to the other side of the dog. (Picture) Rigging the head, neck, and ears: In the tutorial I had to parent one of the ear joints with the head part of the rig. ( Quick way to parent select the first main joint then selecting where you want it to be parent with and press P ) Then I have to create a circle curve and make it a group. Then freeze the transformation so the Control doesn't change and only the offset. Next I will use the connection editor. (Video) * The video should of only been less than a minute long, but all I did was use the makeFKControls.mel script that was provided to add FK controls on ...

Testing Cleaning up the rig: Just a quick cleaning in the outliner. Quick Animation not really a good one **(Maya would crash when I actually try to animate something to this character)** Though I'm finished with the tutorial.

Wiring Custom Sliders (Video 4:30 Mins) In the video I am doing the same thing as the eye part using the shape editor. instead I am customizing the Mmmm and Oooh Shapes to kind of work together. Same process using set driven keys and keying each shape. Wiring simple two-way controls (Video 7:33) Here I am adding in locators to the jaw and the mouth area of the cartoon character for the first part of the video. That way I will be able to control the jaw and the mouth (0:00 - 4:00) Next I am setting the Driven Key of the Jaw for the rest of the video. Wiring complex two-way controls (Video) In this part of the video I am doing the same thing again except I'm using the expression editor for this part. I worked on both the Left and Right Smile for the cartoon character as well as the Left and Right Frowny in this video. Rigging the Eyes Point Constrain Aim Constrain Each Eye In this Video. Both Left and Right Eyes are being connected to the controller.  F...

Adjusting Skin Weights In the beginning part of the tutorial I have to see if the mouth area had any deformation by adding keyframes. Here I am painting skin weights so I can see where deformation forms in the cartoon character. Top picture shows the tool setting and the bottom picture has a bit of the painting. Another way to fix deformation is using the Component Editor ( Picture Below ) Facial Rigging Creating controls for facial animation ( 4 Minute Video ) Controlling Eyelids Here is just a very quick video of what I'm suppose to do in this part where I just set keys for the controls in the shape editor

Finalizing The Arm *I Have to fix the placements of this blog post* Here I added a Shoulder Joint on the cartoon character. Then I Point Constrained both joints together instead of attaching it to it. (They are connected without being part of a hierarchy) Then in the Second Picture I did the same with the IK and FK Joints. Manipulating faces with blend shapes: Showing all the blend shapes that are provided at the beginning. To add Blend Shapes to a mesh (model) I have to select the Deform Box in Rigging to add in Blend Shapes. Creating jaw controls with joints Here All I did was add some jaw/ mouth joints to rig later in the video. Skinning the Character  Here I selected all the Joints then I selected the main Mesh of the Cartoon Character. After I selected Both I clicked on the Skin Box and selected Bind Skin. *(Note: My file was messing up and I was not able to fix the problem like I hoped, but I have to open...

Setting Up the Joints and Controllers (Video Below ) Basically I am setting up both the IK and FK Controllers for the Arm in the Video. The IK works for moving the controller and the FK is Better used when rotating. Wiring up the FK/IK Rig Here I am adding an attribute to set up a IK & FK               attribute.  At the moment in the Picture above I only added a IK Attribute. Next for the FK I will be using the Expression Editor.  I also made sure I edited some settings in the Expression Editor which are not shown in the video below. Notes* LArm_Def_01.rotateY = Left_Arm_IK.FK_IK*LArm_IK_01.rotateY + (1 - Left_Arm_IK.FK_IK)*LArm_FK_01.rotateY       *(Changed)* Adding in Stretch  Taking a while to get the right expression..... *Couldn't get it correct in the expression editor so I will be moving to ( 03_04.ma ) Adding in Stretch with the Professor's permission. *all I did for addi...

Adding controllers to the hip and spine In this part of the tutorial I added a NURBS Circle to create a controller for the hips. after I done this I used both Point Constraint & Orient Constraint to connect the controller. (Video Above & Below) Adding spine stretch Before starting this tutorial I noticed they did the same thing on a previous video ( Skipped a part ). Though I was able to do what the tutorial did ( Ctrl-D to duplicate another NURBS Circle ) I did the same thing as one of the videos above where I connected each one. Here I used the Set Driven Key tool to add a Spine Stretch. so when ever I move it down the hip controls will move. I can adjust both stretch and squash The tutorial after this one shows the basics between FK/IK Switching For the Next Tutorial Setting up the joints and controllers: I will have to end up using the project file because it does not show how they were added. The step was skipped - So I will have to open  ( 0...

Creating Stretchy Spines Drawing the hip and spine joints While working in this step I realized that in the tutorial there was another leg Joint for the Cartoon Character. I wished that the tutorial would not skip that step because it doesn't show it in the previous video. This is what I have compared to the Video.                                                                                                      |  Mine                                                                           Tutorial v I will end up using The Project f...

Creating Stretch in the Node Editor Here I am using the Node Editor to create stretch. I used the option to create a Double Linear node, but I have to plug it in with my second LegRef_DistShape2. I will have to use the connection editor since I can not plug them together just by dragging on point to the other. Before getting to Finalizing Leg Chain I had a small problem with the leg stretch. On the Leg stretch mine was snipping out of the area. Looking at the video you should be able to see the problem at the beginning, but it fixed itself after moving it around. I had permission to open the next project file, but when I fixed the problem I will be continuing from here. Finalizing Leg Chains I am creating 2 more expressions for both Scale Y & Scale Z using the expression editor to finalize the leg chain. The Connection Editor can be used also for the same process. Then I am cleaning up the outliner and hiding things I don't need such as the referenc...

Setting up the Leg Joints Here I am using the simple "Create Joints" Tool  to create a joint for this character. [Create Joints Tool circled] Here I used the "Create IK Handle" Tool to create on the characters leg. Om the outliner I am also making sure I rename the names for each join.  Here I 1st added Circle Nurbs Curve on the bottom of the foot and made sure I made it a bit bigger just to be outside the geometry. 2nd I then used the Snap tool located at the top to Snap the Circle and the IK Handle together. I also moved the IK Handle together with the Leg Control at the end. Measuring the Joints Here I used the Measuring tool to measure the length of each joint is etc. Using the Measurements later to figure out the stretch. I am also putting both the locator and the IK handles together. *The picture above this one shows a fixed measurement problem I had. They were not snapped exactly...