WEEK 2: Motion Studies - Storyboarding and Thumbnail posing

Storyboarding, continued..
We'll look deeper into story boarding techniques this week, expanding on the basic camera shots and their uses to include camera moves and scene transitions.  Through close examination of storyboards from many different project styles we'll talk about ways story artists have communicated not just the main points of the action but also mood and character.

Designing storyboards for nonlinear media like video games must also include the element of branching - what happens when the action could go more than one direction?

We'll have an informal group critique of your WIP so we can tidy up any loose ends before your Oct 2nd deadline.

Part 2 of your 1st assignment consists of "thumbnails of your action". Thumbnails, thumbnailing, thumbnail posing... in animation these terms get tossed around a fair bit. They all refer to drawing quick, small gestures in planning animation.

Thumbnail examples from Animation Mentor

Drawing is the premier means of visual communication and it's absolutely essential in collaborating with other artists.  Drawing is a learned skill that comes more easily to some than others -- but make no mistake, a few hours of dedicated study can make all the difference. Animators have to draw so darned many drawings that they've spent a century developing a list of tricks to streamline the process.

Thumbnail translated to 3D

This week I'll give you some of the most important tricks I've learned to help you get your gestures down quickly to convey maximum information in a minimum of lines.

Click here for more information: 
Animation Mentor article "Animation Tips & Tricks: THUMBNAILS"

WEEK 2: 2D Digital Art 1 - Illustrator basics, part 2

Hopefully you've all figured out how to complete the linework for your character and we'll be all ready for adding colour.

We'll learn some more of Illustrator's basic tools including creating compound paths, the pathfinder panel, and creating different types of fills.

Remember, this is due before class next week! Have a quick look back at the brief from week 1 to make sure you're following instructions correctly.

If you're looking for more information about Illustrator, Digital Tutors has a ton of helpful tutorials.
http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/training_search.php?searchString=illustrator

Cheat sheets are great for learning hot keys - here are a couple for Illustrator :







http://www.bigstockphoto.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/shortcutsPC_2.pdf

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/shortcutsMAC.pdf

WEEK 2: Texturing & Shading 1 - Basic UV-ing

We'll make sure everyone is up to speed with Photoshop basics - we start painting textures today!
Hopefully eveyone now understands the basics of linking textures and has successfully completed the vehicle from last week.
We'll discuss the article you were given last week, "Texturing for Dummies" by Leigh Van der Byl.

UV basics:
This class we'll delve into the shallow end of UV'ing.  By the end of this class you should have a basic grasp of UV'ing and working with the UV editor.

For more information, try the excellent Digital Tutors content such as,
UV Mapping Workflows in 3ds Max

See also the video tutorial we covered in class, "UVW Basics: Unwrapping the Sign" 

Click here to download the materials for the first assignment.

Assignment 2: 5% Stop Sign UV's
Click here for the rubric for this assignment
Due: Wed, Sept 19th uploaded to the shared DropBox Assignment 2 folder before class
SAVE your work uncompressed (PSDs recommended)
SEND me only PNG's.
Maximum resolution: 2048x2048

Please do NOT put your files inside a folder.
Please do NOT zip your files.
Please follow the naming conventions exactly as given:

tdonovan_sign.max
tdonovan_sign_uvs.png

Click here for a note about Creating UV Templates

WEEK 2: Character Acting 1 - Mocap setup & Anatomy Review

Today we'll be splitting into groups to practice setting up the mocap system. We will be working in teams to collect measurements and set up the suits and begin capturing data. In class we'll be learning more about the system as well as doing some basic anatomy review. 

Seth Rogan mocaps for Paul

Skrillex does live mocap performance

Next Week! 

Assignment 1: Quiz on motion capture using the Xsens system 

Value: 10% 

Multiple-choice, one-hour, open-book quiz

Topics will include information covered in class on general specs of the Xsens system, how it is used including what types of applications and projects, its advantages or disadvantages over other types of mo-cap systems, set-up procedures and equipment

Pay special attention to these pages:

http://www.xsens.com/en/general/mvn

http://www.xsens.com/xsens-movies

The quiz will also include a review of basic anatomy including major bones and muscles, sections of the spine, important landmarks. Here are some good study diagrams:

http://bit.ly/RDQxfj