Facial Animation

Well, I didn't get through as much tutorials as I would've have liked this summer but, I feel as though the ones I did really helped me to understand a-lot more about how to animate in 3D, in this case Maya. So, I decided to follow another facial animation tutorial, as the last one I did one, was quite a while ago, so I needed to do another, to refresh my memory. Plus this one was a-bit more complex, but shorter.

The tutorial I believe was a-lot shorter but, that didn't really matter when I was learning from this, as I kind of knew what to do, and how to refine each poses by looking at the graph editor. It was really encouraging when I just paused the video and just tried to sort out the problems myself, as my animation wasn't exactly the same as the one Digital tutors had produced.

There were times however which I felt unsure though, such as when the character shakes her head, or how to give a better arc when the head is turning. Resolving these problems took a-while, where trial and error was used over and over again.

Well, this was the last tutorial which I'm going to learn from Digital Tutors for a-while. The real challenge is to now try and animate myself. So, hopefully, I'll be posting them soon in the following week. With these tests, I'll be ready for my final year at Uni! (I Hope)

AndyCodex Animation

Lifting Heavy Objects Final

I know that this is a little late, but I was able to finish off the animation, which I had started a few days ago. The rendering process is taking a while, even as I type this, I have another set of render to be done. Anyway here it is (below)

As mentioned from a previous blog post, I had said that " this was a really challenging animation", I cannot emphasise this anymore. Though I may've been following the Digital Tutors tutorial, I've noticed, that when I was animating, certain parts were different to the one they had, compared to the one I was working on. This has therefore, left me confused and frustrated when I was trying to follow the tutorial video.

I then had to try and make the most what I had already blocked out and animated. So at times, I had to watch a video a couple of times and carefully switch back to my work, where I had to see whether or not if my seemed similar to the Digital tutors version. This then lead, my animation to look strange and sometime the movement of the character to be quite rigid. A-lot of work had to be done, by using the graph editor.

But, you know this was indeed a good experience and I've learnt quite a-lot compared to previous videos. For example, I understand why and when to add a follow through, or add an arc at certain points for the animation. I also realise that I need to learn more about "timing and spacing"where this is evident when the character celebrates. 

So, though this may've took a while to animate, I feel a-bit more confident to when it'll come to animating by myself next week. 

AndyCodex Animation

Lifting Heavy Objects Animation Part 1

I'm a bit off track this week as I've been a-bit ill, haven't really been able to fully recover and it's really having an affect on my concentration. Even as I'm typing this up, I just want to get some sleep. So, as you may've guessed from the blog title, this is an incomplete animation which I have been learning.

The video above is what I've been able to do so far, and before you say that the legs are missing, it's because I've turned them off. It's defiantly a good way to animate, as your not distracted by too many nurb curves.

Unlike the facial and walk cycle that I had done so far, this animation involved a character interacting with another object. This has therefore been really challenging, even at the early blocking stages for the extreme poses. I got frustrated and annoyed at some points, as my animation would not be the same as the Digital tutors guide. Though thankfully, I can see what was wrong by using the graph editor, and resolved most of the problems. 

I can only hope by Sunday that, I would have fully recovered and been able to finish this animation.  The reason being is the fact that I'm running out of time and Uni is next month. So I need to have learnt as much as possible so I could begin animating by myself and truly begin to learn. So I'll be posting part 2 on Sunday.

AndyCodex Animation

Walk Cycle

Well hello there again, I've finally got something done! This particular animation took me a while to do as part of the Digital tutor tutorial, was difficult for me to grasp and I had to keep re-doing the animation over and over again. Though this was near the start of animating, when I was blocking out this character. So it wasn't too bad.

I've learnt quite a hefty amount of useful tips during this tutorial, for example, mirroring the values of "xyz" from translate or rotation, which really sped up the animating part. Plus, I feel as though I'm more confident in solving problems with the animation by looking at the graph editor.

But, there were times where i would try to watch a video as fast as I could, rather than taking it all in, and realise why the narrator has done that in a particular way; as I really wanted to just complete this whole tutorial.

 So, in future, really, I should take my time and try to go through the video again, just to make sure i really understand what is going on. Anyway, I'll be posting more stuff soon, so keep an eye out on this blog.

AndyCodex Animation

Key Principles Animation

Well hello, it's been a while since i've done a blog post. I was meaning to post a few things, but I decided to wait until I had a reasonable amount of work to talk about. Anyway, from my previous blog post, I had just learnt how to animate a talking character with an audio file. Hungry for more knowledge, I decided to purchase a month worth tutorial from Digital Tutors. As many of the videos they have available, are the ones which I'm really keen to learn and brush up my skills.

Digital Tutors provided the scenes

So I then listed and planned out what I was going to learn and once that was done, I started without hesitation. The most important topic which I needed to learn was the 12 principles, which I found really refreshing to learn, from a 3D perspective.

They were some parts which I thought kind of dragged on, with the tutorials which I had planned out, but I think it was because I wanted to animate something and learn at the same time, rather than learn some tips and tricks on how to improve my animation workflow. Never the less, I found this really useful.

I'm a bit behind at the moment with the tutorials I had planned, due to work, and I had hoped by next week, I would start animating by myself and really start learning and applying the knowledge that I had taken from Digital tutors. But, I'm estimating that by the 19th of August I will start doing that. So keep an eye out with the work which I will be posting on this blog.

AndyCodex Animation

Lip Sync Animation

I really have to thank "Digital Tutors" as they have provided a very well structured tutorial, where it' was very easy to follow and to understand. Though I have to be honest, there were some points in the tutorial where I did question "why do it, in that particular way?". This was the case when the tutorial progressed further on.

So, at some points I would mainly be copying what the tutor was saying, for example, applying subtle movements for the in-betweens e.g. when the head is turning. Or even when the eyebrow needed to go up and down. But overall, I've learnt a-lot from this tutorial, especially the graph editor.

This tutorial has also made me realised how much more theories, I need to read up on, as a-lot of what the tutor had mentioned, were from the books that I had purchased this summer. (Read previous blog posts).

I must add on, that I have really enjoyed animating this short excersise, and it has made me realised that I'd prefer to animate, rather than to model, texture and etc a character and so on. I will therefore focus a-lot more animation tutorials and will be testing out theories from the books that I have at my disposal.

AndyCodex Animation

Facial and Lip Sync Animation

Well, hello, it's been a while indeed. I haven't got much to show, but I guess it's better than nothing. I've finally got back into the mood to improving my skills and have been learning quite a-bit from Digital tutors. Though the progress maybe slow, I will hopefully have completed most of the animation tutorials which I have.

The animation below is something I've been working over the past day, though I should've done much more. I'm quite happy with it and cannot wait to start lip syncing with sounds.

These past few weeks has really made me think that I should have a goal, other than learning just a bunch of animation skills. So, by August (fingers crossed) I will have learnt enough that, I can begin animating without the help of any tutorials. These will be a series of shorts, where I will focus on some animation principles and lip synicng. Therefore improving my showreel. See you next time.

AndyCodex Animation