Wednesday, November 6, 2013

WEEK 10: Asset Development 1 DESN1083: Assignment 3 Due in 2 weeks! (November 21st)

Hey, everybody.
How are those models going?

I just found another helpful course for you on Digital Tutors specific to your assignment. I started a new modeling playlist as it's a bit too in-depth to be included under Modeling Basics.

Modeling in 3DS Max and Zbrush - 
http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/my_playlists.php?pid=218611


There's also a detailed tutorial specifically for modeling a Beretta at 3DM3:
http://www.3dm3.com/tutorials/beretta/


WEEK 10: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Milestone 3 due today!

Milestone 3 is due today!

Milestone 4:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation.
Value: Total 20%. See breakdown below.
* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
For the final 2 assignments I'm allotting marks for work in progress. 
The following are due in class:
5% WEEK 11: planning (may include storyboards, thumbnails, video reference, blocking)
5% WEEK 12: rough posing (all key poses including facial expressions and hands)
10% WEEK 13: final animation (polished, fluid, full animation)

FILE NAMING:
3010_ m4_lastnamefirstinitial_001
ex:
3010_m4_donovant_001.mov
3010_m4_donovant_001.jpg

Images: JPGS only, 72 dpi, 1200px along longest edge,
Videos: Quicktimes only, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB

Playbasts only, please. Do not render these assignments. You do not have time.

Your final animation should have a different number than the rough posing but otherwise please follow the identical naming convention.

Please note that no marks will be given for conforming to requirements. Only projects that conform to hand-in parameters will be graded.

First up: Planning!  Due next week! Do not skip this part it es muy importante!
Here is master animator, Carlos Baena bringing it all to a quick sequence from The Incredibles:
http://www.carlosbaena.com/resource/resource_tips_planning.html








Monday, November 4, 2013

WEEK 10: Motion Studies DESN1136 Idle, continued! Transitioning into Walk Cycles

Today we'll continue with the idle adding refinements to the overall action such as overlapping action and tweaking the curves in the graph editor to make sure everything is smooth.  If you're happy with your idle, try another one from scratch in a contrasted pose. Perhaps you could make an 'extended idle' that transitions from one idle to another.
The Digital Tutors tutorial "Animating Game Characters in Maya" takes you through the creation of a character-specific game idle. Starting from a strong character pose, the animator sets up a simple keep-alive idle with overlapping action and uses the graph editor to alter and refine the action. 

I'll go over how to set up your playblasts so you can hand them in next week. 

There seemed to be some confusion with the difference between IK and FK last week so we can do an exercise to clarify that concept a bit more. Here's a link I sent out to a 1-pg explanation of IK and FK Demystified for Animators

If we have time I'll lead into walk cycles by working on the transition from idle to the first step forward - this takes quite a bit of finessing and if you can figure it out you'll be that much further ahead when we officially start walks next week.