WEEK 6: Texturing & Shading 1: WIP, Hydrant, continued

This week we'll continue unwrapping our fire hydrant, start painting our diffuse textures and  get ready to learn more about some new types of texture maps.

Check out what we've been up to so far:
Sample work from Assignment 2: Texture Reference Library showing examples of entropy (decay) around the city.

Click here to go to the library

Sample work from Assignment 3: Sign Post -- learn UV unwrapping and create textures for a sign. Age it using photographic textures & hand-painted details to create diffuse, bump and alpha maps.

Click here to go to the example gallery

Lots of great stuff there, everybody -- looking forward to seeing what else you can do.

WEEK 5: Animation Direction 1 - Animation Thumbnails -- Drawing Tips & Tricks

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. 

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.

Pixar's Victor Navone's run study from The Incredibles

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"

Check out Victor Navone's beautiful collection of thumbnails here.

WEEK 5: Texturing & Shading 1

We'll dig deeper into our observation of the effects of time, use, and the elements on everyday objects and have a look at your reference photos.

Moving on to a higher res model -- a beat-up old fire hydrant. Together we'll work through the UV'ing of an example model.
Click here to download the example model.

Your goal is to UV and texture your own model fire hydrant. It will be somewhat different than the example we'll be using for practice. This will give you an excellent chance to abstract the material.


The mission for this week:
Start unwrapping the fire hydrant you modeled. Get as much done as you can and bring in your work. Next week and we'll continue our UV maps in class and answer any questions that may have come up.

To help you continue your work at home, we've made you some very helpful tutorials:
1 Overview Base and Top
2 Front and Top
3 Body
4 Details (note - sped up, no audio)
5 Chain and Bolts
6 UV Layout

If you need further help or you'd like to learn more, check out the Digital Tutors Courses:
Getting Started with UVs in 3ds Max 2011, and
Texturing Game Props in 3ds Max and Photoshop


TEXT2010 Assignment 4

4th Assignment, Part 1: 20% <-- NEW!!

Rubric coming soon.
Assigned: Tuesday, Oct 3rd
Due: Sunday, Oct 30th <-- NEW!!
Hydrant, UV'd and textured: 3DSMax file, diffuse map
SAVE your work uncompressed (4096 x 4096 PSDs recommended)
SEND me only Targas (.tga), one for each of your maps.
Maximum resolution: 512 x 512 bit, no alpha
File naming convention example:
tdonovan_hydrant.max
tdonovan_hydrant_diff.tga

Please be very careful with your naming conventions.  All assignments are to be handed in via FTP.

WEEK 5: Character Acting 1 - Fight Direction 2

 Chuck Norris also battled Ninjas in the Octagon

Greetings, survivor's of last week's hand-to-hand combat class:

Click here for photos + video of the class in action.

Hope you're ready for another round of Fight Direction training with Riot Act's Simon Fon.

This week we're getting into short-range weapons. 

Bring sketchbooks/cameras if you can.

See you at 12 sharp in the Octagon. 

Dress for action. 

WEEK 4: Animation Direction 1

We'll have a look at your WIP storyboards and talk about planning branching game cycles before the due date later in the week.

The next step of the process is planning the animation. We'll discuss many of the tools used to streamline this part of the pipeline: exposure sheets, bar sheets, timing charts, and animation posing. It's important to plan the animation direction so the style is consistent throughout the production. Drawing the character in key poses inspires the animation process. Gathering reference material including shooting video reference can be invaluable. Before animation begins, it should be planned as rough thumbnails as in the Ratatouille sketches in the photo.

Your next assignment is to thumbnail all of the animation for your virtual video game.

ADIR1136 Assignment 2: Animation Thumbnails

% of final grade: 20%
Assigned: Thursday, Sept 29th
Due: Sunday, October 9th <--NEW!!!

Please submit all work via FTP

SAVE your work uncompressed (PSDs recommended)

SEND me only JPGs

Please keep file sizes under 2MB

Filenames:
tdonovan_thumb_001.jpg

Description:
Plan the animation for a sequence in your virtual game. It can be built around the travelling sequences such as the walk, run, and jump cycles to be animated in the second half of the course. It could also focus on another significant part of the game. Drawings need not be clean but they should be clear, dynamic, and detailed.

Rubric:
Exemplary - In-depth planning of all the movement and surrounding actions for animation sequence showing the character's specific personality and style of movement.

Excellent - Detailed movement study of animation sequence showing all major actions with some personality.
Acceptable - Simple study of most of the planned actions for the animated sequence.
Not Acceptable - Sparsely detailed study of a few of the key poses of the animated sequence.

WEEK 4: Texturing & Shading 1

We'll continue building detail into our simple sign by learning about 2 more kinds of maps:

1. Bump maps add the illusion of detail and are very simple to edit.  We'll work with creating some gritty surface texture and cracks on the sign's base, scratches in the rusty paint, and add height to relief details such as the bolts holding the sign in place. 
2. Alpha maps are useful for masking out areas we want to remain transparent.  One common use for alphas is in the application of foliage to our scenes.  We'll add some simple grass elements in our scene and experiment with layering these elements to make the grass look more complex and realistic. 

Alpha Grass Tutorial, part 1: Painting grass textures in Photoshop

Alpha Grass Tutorial, part 2: Applying grass textures in 3DSMax

The final version of the sign is to be handed in by the end of the week 

TEXT2010 Assignment 3

3rd Assignment: 5% Click here for the Rubric for this assignment
Assigned: Tuesday, Sept 28th
Due: Sunday, Oct 2nd
Sign, UV'd and textured: 3DSMax file, diffuse, bump, plus grass diffuse file(s)
SAVE your work uncompressed (PSDs recommended)
SEND me only PNG's or TIFF's.
Maximum resolution: 2048x2048
File naming convention example:
tdonovan_sign.max
tdonovan_sign_diff.png

tdonovan_sign_bump.png

tdonovan_sign_grass_diff_001.png (or tiff)

WEEK 4: Character Acting 1 - Fight Direction 1

Welcome to our 3-class study of Combat Direction with guest instructor, Simon Fon. 

Simon Fon has taught thousands of people in stage combat, from coast to coast, over the past 18 years. He is a member of Fight Directors Canada, and holds the title of Fight Master. As a stunt co-ordinator he most recently worked on Disneys Power Rangers In Training. Some recent stunt performing credits include series stunt double (Season 3) for the character of "Jesse" on the TV series Mutant X. Hemingway V.S. Callaghan for CBC, Earth: Final Conflict, Prince Charming-HBO and Tracker for TV/Film. Simon also worked on the Genie Award winning short Hangman’s Bride as Fight Director and Actor.

In theatre Simon has worked at Canadian Stage, Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Mursaille, YPT/Lorraine Kimsa, The Grand Theatre (London), Theatre By The Bay (Barrie). Simon has also worked on the Dora Nominated Romeo & Juliet Remixed with eXpect theatre/Spark productions, and with Robin Phillips on Mill on the Floss for Soul Pepper Theatre at the World Stage. He teaches at George Brown College, University of Toronto, York University, University of British Columbia, Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Equity Showcase - Players Academy, Rapier Wit Studio, and Fight Directors Canada National workshops (96, 97, 01, 02, 03, 04).

See you in The Octagon (515) at 12 sharp.  Please continue to bring drawing materials and cameras & tripods (if you have them) every week as we'll be working in groups and continuing our study of human locomotion.

Don't be late

WEEK 3: Animation Direction 1

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?

Level design is another topic we'll look into today.  How do you plan the environment to fit your action?

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

Character Acting -- 2nd Assignment:

Assignment 2:  Action Analysis
Assigned: Sept 21st
Due: October 30th <--NEW!
% of Final Grade: 30%
Please keep file sizes under 2MB
Filenames:
tdonovan_walking_001.jpg
tdonovan_running_001.jpg
tdonovan_combat_001.jpg
tdonovan_combat_002.jpg
tdonovan_combat_003.jpg
tdonovan_weight_001.jpg

Description:
In preparation for next term's 3D animation, we're doing in-depth analysis of several types of human motion. Through our acting study we'll aim to add character to our actions. Your research will involve acting, video analysis and drawing.

For this assignment you should present at least 6 seperate studies including walking, running, 3 combat actions, and weight. Draw a series of keyframes for each action that demonstrate your thorough understanding of the movement, weight, and timing. Draw motion from more than one angle, if possible, and/or include studies or note significant details of the action. Drawings need not be clean, but they should be dynamic and clear.

Dynamic, clear animation poses from Disney masters 

Rubric:
Exemplary - thorough study including many drawings of variations in character and/or perspective, specific details and convincing weight.

Excellent - clear drawings demonstrating a thorough understanding of each action including key positions and solid weight.

Acceptable - drawings of most key positions indicating a basic understanding of motion

Not Acceptable - some drawings of actions, but not enough to demonstrate a thorough study

All assignments to be handed in via FTP.

Any questions, just ask!

WEEK 3: Texturing & Shading 1

X-Men render and diffuse map

Wrapping up Assignment 1: part 1, "Stop sign"

Diffuse maps! That's what this class will cover from stem to stern.  As we discussed in Week 1, the diffuse is what give objects their basic colour information. We'll start with photographic textures as a base and refine them in Photoshop.   We'll get into other types of maps next week. 

All that's due this week is the UV's, the diffuse map and the Max file with the texture file applied.  

Wrapping up Assignment 2: "Entropy in the city."
We'll have a look at some WIP examples so you'll know if you're on the right track. If you have any questions, please ask them well before the deadline.  PLEASE read the rubric -- this isn't just a random series of 12 snapshots.  Overshoot and choose your best images to edit and refine so they are visually compelling. This project should inspire you to always bring a camera with you and always be building your collection of reference images.

Textures should show the effects of time and the elements.