Lesson learnt 002 - Customizing Rig with extras.

This is the 1st time i use the Aia Rig from Animation Mentor. And also the 1st time i customize the any Rig with the Extras provided.

Apparently it is not so straight forward. But after doing it once it is quite easy.


1. Get the latest version of Aia and Extras from AMP. Open the Aia file.

2. Right click Extras file and click "Import into maya"

3. The Extras control will appear to the left side of the feet.

4. Select the Root Control
5. Change "Body Selectable" to "on".

6. Select the Clothes, shoes or Hair to change. And press delete!

7. Select through each Extras control Letter and click the preferred "show".

H-Hair  T-Top  B-Bottom  S-Shoes  A-Accessories

8. Select the Top.
    * See updates on "Wrapping clothes to Skin" at the bottom of the post before doing this step.
9. Shift select the body.
    (For Rigs that cannot select the body by clicking like Bishop, go to outliner and ctrl select the body       geometry.)
10. Click Wrap. Repeat for Bottom, Shoes and Accessories. For the Hair go to the next step
      * See updates on "Wrap" at the bottom of the post before doing this step.

11. Select Head Curve.
12. Shift select Hair Curve or Hair geometry.
13. Click Parent constrain.
      (Basically anything i want it to deform when the geometry is bent or stretched i wrap, anything i only want it to move together but not deform i constrain. Example: For Bishop, top, bottom, shoes, eye brows - Wrap. Hair, ears - Constrain. Accessaries - Depends how i want it to be.)

14. For clean-up and also to reduce the Rig file size, delete everything that is not needed. Including the Extras Control and all the Extras that are hidden.

15. Lastly save into the Shots directory in AMP. Reference into Maya when needed for the shot.

*Last note if the Customised Rig becomes very lag when moving the body around, go back to the original Rig file and set the geometry to Low quality display. Select the geometry and press 1 - Low quality display, 2 - Medium quality display, 3 - High quality display.



Updates (28/1/2016)

Wrapping clothes to "Skin"

A new trick found by Justin Owens from Animation Mentor. If the clothes is wrapped to the body geometry when it is at Low Resoution, when switching to High Resolution the clothes will not work. That is because when selecting the body geometry during the wrap, the current visible body geometry selected is under "aia_anim_geo_grp". In order for the clothes to work in both High and Low Resolution, the clothes have to be wrapped to the body geometry under "aia_skin_geo_grp" which is hidden. Follow steps below.
*If this is too complicated to do and there is no need to switch between High and Low Resolution then skip this method.

1. Open outliner
2. Select clothes
3. Find "aia_skin_body_geo" and ctrl select it
4. Click option for "Wrap"
5. Click "Create". (Make sure "Exclusive bind" ticked)

Wrap

1. Click "Wrap"
2. Make sure "Exclusive bind" is turned on.
3. Click "Create"

Maya tips 007 - Hotkey for add and remove frame

This is a tip that i use the most especially during the blocking to get the timing of the shot just right. Basically this adds 2 Hotkeys to add a frame and remove a frame from the Timeslider, without having to select keys, slide things around in the dope sheet, or move keys around in the graph editor.


Here are the hotkeys script:

timeSliderEditKeys addInbetween;

timeSliderEditKeys removeInbetween;

Hotkey setup

1. Click Windows/Settings/Preferences/Hotkey Editor

2. Click "User".

3. Click "New".

4. Type in the name and description, copy and paste the script.

5. Choose the key to be assigned to this script.

6. Click save.

Use

1. Make sure it is at the frame in between the 2 keys. Press the assigned Hotkey.
2. If it is on 1s, then it has to be on the next frame when pressing the Hotkey.

Note

Make sure all the animated curves or object are selected before using the Hotkey, so that all adds or removes frame together. Also if there are different timing for different objects, the timing may be off when adding frames, so be very clear exactly what needs to add frames. 

Remember to save file before try this out! 

Lesson learnt 001 - Rendering in Maya

I am going to start documenting any animation lessons learnt from the art courses i have attended. It is of no chronological order. Any time i remembered something i will record down for easy reference in the future

1st up is a lesson learnt from class AN01 of Animation Mentor. Rendering in Maya.

Of course there are tons of way to render an object. But this is an easy way that i use for rendering a character pose. The rendered image will read better with its tones and outlines clearly seen. The shadow can also tell a story with its own silhouette when the light is positioned right.

Setup

1. Click Window/Rendering Editors/

2. Click Render Settings or click the shortcut button.

Create Light

1. Click Indirect Lighting
2. Click Create Physical Light and Sky
3. A light source is created. Rotate it to change the light angle. It is not necessary to translate it, as it is a directional light and the angle is fixed regardless of where it is located. Also play with the intensity and color.
4. Make sure this is enabled to be able to select the light source
5. Press "7" to be able to see the effect of the light in real time before rendering.

6. Make sure you show Camera and Light

Render

1. Click AM menu button or maya shortcut button. A rendered image will appear.
2. Go to outliner and click "shot_cam".
3. In Attribute Editor click "mia_physicalsky1"
4. Play around with the back ground. This adjusts the horizon line up and down.
5. This adjusts the amount of blur effect on horizon line.
6. This adjusts the color of the ground.
7. For easy compare of images after adjustments, click this to keep this image to compare it later using the slider below.
8. Make sure this is at mental ray.
9. Save image to any format.

Last Note

1. If the head is too bright. Click Hypershade.
2. Find the color close to the head color.
3. Click the color box.
4. Make sure this is at "1".

Animation Mentor 002 - Backdated Shots 001

Here are the 3 shots i did for Animation Mentor Class 3 or AN03. The theme i chose is basketball slam dunk competition and i decided to use 3 different character rigs so that there will be more apparent characteristics difference. Each shot has a 200 frame limit.

This terms focus is on body mechanics, so no more stationary posing. Every week will be either planning, taking reference videos, thumbnails sketching, blocking, polishing or finalising the shots. Of course the closer i can follow my mentor's instructions the more i can learn, as he will be acting like animation supervisor or directer.

The biggest take away from this class, which i only really applied on the 3rd shot, is this. When the shot is finalised, i should always do a final polish pass, to push the silhouettes, in 2D point of view. It doesn't matter any more that on other views the pose seems not right. Most importantly is the shot of a fixed camera, viewed by the audience from a 2D screen. With the pushed poses, it always seems to get more appeal and is clearer.

Maya tips 006 - Constraining Object

Oh this is a headache topic, at least for me! Sometimes i just don't get it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So i am going to record what works for me and i can refer to it when i need to.

This assignment shot i did for Animation Mentor class 3, is about Stella Rig doing a acrobatic slam dunk. So it requires the Stella to hold a basket in one hand and pass to another a few times during the jump. 

I have done passing the ball sequence without constraint before and it is an even bigger headache. I have to go frame to frame to adjust the position of the ball, and any adjustments to the timing and spacing i have to do it all over again. So i learnt the hard way and give in to using constraint. And it is easy! Just a few things to take note of before confusion sets in.

The most important thing here is the "Outliner"! So get it on Hotkey or custom shelf button.

Create Locators

1. Click "Create"

2. Click "Locator" to create locators and scale them to appropriate size. I created 2 locators.

3. Position the locators near the body part i want to constrain object to.

4. Open up "Outliner" and rename locators to prevent confusion.

Constrain Locators

1. Click the curve that best suits controlling the movement of the object. I chose the wrist curve.

2. Hold "Shift" key and click the locator.

3. Click "Constrain".

4. Click "Parent". Default settings.

5. In "Outliner" a constraint will be created under the locator

Constrain Object

1. Reference or create the object. From the "Outliner" it would look like "Ball 2". Position near the locator.

2. Middle mouse click the object in "Outliner", hold and drag into the constraint created before. From the "Outliner" it would look like "Ball 1".

Done! Now when the wrist curve is moved the object moves together!

Switch on/off constrain

The constrain can be turned on and off, allowing the object to be animated dropping away from the hand.

1. There are 2 ways to go to constraint menu. Either click the constraint in "Outliner".

2. Or click the object, press up, up on keyboard.

3. This is the constraint menu.

4. 1 = ON , 0 = OFF

Things to take note

1. Make sure the graph for on/off constrain animation is either in stepped tangent.

2. Or create keys before and after the switch so that it works even if it is in auto tangent. Any in-betweens in the switching will cause the object to move. 

3. During constrain, the values are fixed, no animation needed. But when the constrain is switched off, the object will be back at where it was located at the start. So it is necessary to reposition 1 frame after the switch and not change anything before. Using bhGhost sure helps with the repositioning!

4. The visibility can also be animated. I use it instead of animating the on/off switch. So i actually already constrained 2 balls on each hand locators, switching "ON" one ball's visibility at a time, and used a third ball unconstrained to animate when its not contact with the hand. Well, this works at this moment because there is no spin on the ball, and nobody can see the spin anyway to tell that the ball switched between 3 balls.

Maya tips 005 - Broken Rig fix

Sometimes one moment the rig is working fine, but when i try to translate or rotate something suddenly the rig goes out of shape or gets broken. The curve stays yet the body is out of shape.

This example shows a mistake when the Joint is accidentally moved instead of the Curve, and it will look something like this.

It can be due to many other reasons but this is one of the common mistakes and can be easily fixed.

Solution

1. click "show"

2. click "All"

3. Click the small triangle.

4. Click "All objects on"

5. Press "5" on keyboard to display wireframe mode. And you will be able to see the joints in blue.

6. Click the joints.

7. Reset the attributes to zero. If the joint selected is already zeroed try selecting another joint.

How to prevent this happening again

1. Click "Show"

2. Only show what i need.

3. Click the small triangle.

4. Click "All objects off"

5. Only turn on the things i want to move.

Of course i can simply press Alt "z" or "undo" after i made a mistake, but i wouldn't know what i did wrong and how to prevent this in the future.

Volunteer 2D shot

Talking about volunteer work. I did this purely for learning purpose. No money involved. And hopefully i can put this in my resume too.

There is this short 2D animated film by Feather Films call The Orchestra. They want to make a trailer to sell the film, and asked for volunteers to fill up the backgrounds with character animations. This was shared by an Animation Mentor classmate Jin Chong. And so i volunteered a little 5 sec shot.

The background is below and i am doing window number 14.

The concept for the shot is any character from the 1950s, doing something in the window space, with mini versions of the character playing instruments.

Some concept art and final look on in window.

Initial animation.

And final with colour.

The shot started on September 2014 and finally managed to finish in December 2014, in spite of work and study.

Overall, though it is alot of work and time spent. It is a very good experience. And a the Principles of Animation certainly helped. Really hoped to see the end product!

Animation Mentor 001 - Passion Reignited

Animation Mentor is an online school that i am currently studying at. It is based in San Francisco. Not gonna introduce too much about it, all the details are here anyway: Animation Mentor

The main point is, Animation Mentor is actually my dream come true!

Firstly i am married with 2 kids now. Currently working in the Military, non art related. So finance is an issue. And because of high commitment in work, the time left for study in local school is really limited. I have tried short certificate courses but it is really hard to commit to a fixed day of the week and long hours class and additional time spend on travelling to the school. All in all, it is really hard for me to go for classes. No classes = no training = not good enough = no chance in getting into art industry.

Then one day as i was browsing through a local artist website, i stumbled upon a this List that shows multiple local schools and courses that i can apply for up to 70% Grant. One problem solved. Next i realised there is actually one online animation school on the list. And back then in early 2014 there are not many online schools that are available out there which are reliable, or at least not that i know of. Usually most Grants are only for people currently working in the art or media industry, but this one extends to students and freelancers too. After reading through the school website i realised this is PERFECT for me! It is exactly what i was looking for!

Why is the Animation Mentor perfect for me?
- An online school means i can attend it and submit assignments in the comfort of my home or anywhere with an internet connection.
- Lectures are recorded and once weekly, so i can watch it any time of the week that i am free from work.
- Assignments are given 1 week to complete, allowing me to have ample and flexible time.
- Each week there will be an online class chat, google hangout, with the mentor to ask any questions and get supplement lessons.
- And if i have no choice but to miss the online chat due to work, i still have the lectures and the assignments to learn from, so its not end of the world...
- Great reputation and backing from great animators.
- Yes it is expensive, but if i can get 70% grant then it is not anymore.

So i signed up starting Spring 2014 (April 2014). Since then i have finished 3 classes, and learnt tones!! I owe everything to Animation Mentor for my improvement and life changing experience so far. My passion for this art has raised to record high! I am volunteering as Peer Buddy in Animation Mentor to help earlier class students, joined facebook groups and made lots of friends with similar passion, set up facebook group for practicing shots during term break, volunteering in doing a short 5 sec 2D animation for a production trailer, writing a blog to record my experience and lessons learnt, writing resume, doing show reels. I never get to do all this till now!

Soon i will be coming out with my own Demo Reel and start applying for the job of my life. A job i can do as long as my mind and fingers are still working. A job that allows me to constantly improve on. A job which when i am working feels like play and doing what i like and enjoying every step of the way and never get bored! A job that will continually light my passion bright!

Thanks everyone for making this possible for me. Including all the friends who gave precious feedbacks, which propels improvement. Especially greatfull to my lovely wife for having patience and giving me support!

AniMashUp Shot 001

AMU or AniMashUp was set up to practice on Body Mechanics Animation during Term Break of Animation Mentor. But these 2 weeks have 2 holidays, Christmas and New Year. So only managed to do 3 blocking shots, 1 of which has finished splining.

This is the 3rd shot, using Stella Rig.

I tweaked the hair to look like the reference video. And of course i don't need to animate the hair... :)

Reference video

Studied the reference in slow motion so much i feel like i can do the spin myself!

Blocking phase

The video seems jerky but actually its because i put it on auto tangent for the translating on ice while the rest is stepped tangent. I do this to have a better feel of the timing and spacing, so i can adjust it early in this phase.

Finished shot

Auto tangent all, added blocking pass, more in-betweens and break-downs, and also adjusted the graph to correct the popping.