WEEK 9: Character Acting 1 -- Quadrupedal Anatomy and locomotion

We are lucky to have a guest lecturer who is very experienced in animating 4-legged animals :

CATHERINE FERADAY MILLER began her career at Dreamworks as a classical animator, working on the features The Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado. Switching to 3D animation in 1999, Cathy has worked for various feature and game companies in San Francisco and Toronto, and has taught 3D animation at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and at Max The Mutt Animation School in Toronto. A Toronto resident since 2009, Cathy is now working with her husband Tim as Art Director and co-founder for their own independent game studio, Rocket 5 Studios.

Click  here for Cathy's 2D demo reel

We'll talk about quadrupedal anatomy and locomotion, analyze video reference and draw significant key positions of quadruped walk.

All of this study leads into our field trip next week at the Royal Winter Fair.
If we're really nice, Cathy might join us :o)

Click here for an excellent site comparing human and animal anatomy.
Click here for a collection of reference images of animals skeletons.
Click here for animal walking reference from Muybridge.

Your next two assignments are connected .

Assignment 3: Quadruped Walk Study
Assigned: November 2nd
Due: November 13th
% of Final Grade: 10%
Please keep file sizes under 2MB
Filenames:
tdonovan_quad_walk_000.jpg

Draw significant key positions of quadruped walk using video analysis.  Use any animal you like but bear in mind that we'll be drawing livestock and farm animals next week so it will be very beneficial to have studied them in advance.

Assignment 4: Quadruped Live Sketches
Assigned: November 9th
Due: November 13th
% of Final Grade: 10%
Please keep file sizes under 2MB
Filenames:
tdonovan__ quad_live_000.jpg

Sketch at least 3 different quadrupeds from life. Sketches can include full body or just details, as well as motion studies. Please do not draw from photos or video. These sketches should be done live at our field trip or you can draw on your own at another location such as Riverdale Farm or the High Park Zoo (both are free!).

WEEK 9: Animation Direction 1 - Intro to Maya & Animation Review - Bouncing Balls

Animating a Bouncing Ball is nearly always the first animation assignment given to both 2D and 3D animation students.  This deceptively simple exercise can teach you a lot about the nuts and bolts of animation tools, but more importantly how to give believable weight and appealing timing to your animation.

Strobe photos are fantastic for showing the beautifully symmetrical parabolic arcs followed by everything that leaves the Earth... except a rocket.

Basket Ball

Golf Ball

Tennis Ball

Great reference vids:

• Super Bouncers: Sony Bravia
• Bowling Balls: Nissan Qashqai-Urban-Bowling

• Also check out the video "Ball Tests" by Brendan Body (also in sidebar links -->)

Experiment with weight and through timing & spacing -- create 3 bouncing balls with contrasting sizes and weights. Keep practicing until you're very comfortable in Maya and with the timing tools we used in class.

Check out the Digital Tutors 'Intro to Maya' and also their Visual Guide to the Graph Editor

WEEK 9: Texturing & Shading 1: WIP, Hydrant, continued

Next we'll introduce two more types of maps:

Normal and Specular.

Normal Maps create the illusion of extra detail while Specular Maps define the shininess of different materials. There are a few ways to generate normal maps. Some common tools for creating them from our diffuse textures are CrazyBump and nDo.  We'll go through how to install and use both of these tools in class. You will need them to complete your homework. If you can't install them at home you will need to complete your assignment at school.

nDo's download site is currently down. Click here to download the zip file.

Click the CrazyBump & nDo logos to visit their sites.

Please always bring a stylus - they are required for painting your texture maps.

TEXT2010 Assignment 4
4th Assignment, Part 2: 10% <-- NEW!!

Assigned: Tuesday, Nov 1st
Due: Sunday, Nov 6th <-- NEW!!
Hydrant, UV'd and textured: 3DSMax file, diffuse map, normal map, specular map
SAVE your work uncompressed (2048 x 2048 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

tdonovan_hydrant_nrm.tga
tdonovan_hydrant_spec.tga


Save your Max file with the maps applied and the paths stripped, and all textures in the file so they apply when I open it.

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

WEEK 8: Intercession!! Now G'wan home..

Step away from the computer.. go rake some leaves and jump in 'em. Draw in those sketchbooks.. 

It's vacation time.. *

*except my classes who all have homework. 

WEEK 7: Texturing & Shading 1: WIP, Hydrant, continued

You should be finishing up unwrapping your hydrants and getting ready to work on painting the diffuse.

Finish up painting your hydrants over the break and get them ready for adding more maps.

WEEK 7: Character Acting 1: Weight

Back to Acting for Animators, we welcome once again our guest instructor, Second City veteran, Ed Sahely.

 116-lb  Marilou Dozois-Prevost makes 228 lbs look like a q-tip.

Please be in the Octagon at 12, ready for action.

The secondary topic for today is weight.

We'll study some key forces at work in creating the illusion of weight in our animation.

Pushing, pulling, moving weight, and even just balancing our own body weight takes effort.  Emphasizing that effort is key to making our animation believable.

Making our characters appear to be bound by Earth's gravity makes them look like they share the same real-world environment as we do.

Click here for photos + video of last week's sword-fighting class.

WEEK 7: Animation Direction 1 - Anatomy of Movement 2: Muscles

Human Anatomy 2 + Photoshop Basics, continued.  Once again we're in lab 520 continuing with part 2 of our Human Anatomy study: the muscular system.

Bring drawing materials, and a stylus.

Description:
Part 2: Muscles
Continuing working on the same file with the action photo as your base layer, and your skeleton in the middle, draw the major muscle groups that move the skeleton as a final overlay. Feature the most visible and important muscle groups for artists and animators. Show perspective in the shading as the muscles wrap around the body, the direction they lie and the deformations caused by the effort of the pose. Use colour variation to differentiate between the bellies of the muscles and the ligaments and tendons that attach them to the bones.

Aim to make your drawing a portfolio piece that shows both your knowledge and your artistic skill. The drawing can be very detailed or you may generalize forms as shown in the study above.

This layer should be saved separately from the skeleton file:

tdonovan_anatomy_002.jpg

Please hand in both the skeleton and muscle study together by FTP by the deadline, 
 October 25th <--NEW!

Looking for a good muscular system study reference? -- ok, maybe more 'memorable' than good? Click here!
No, seriously, these are better - Front, Back

WEEK 6: Animation Direction 1 - Anatomy of Movement 1: the Skeleton

Human Anatomy 1 + Photoshop Basics
We'll park ourselves in lab 520 and begin part 1 of our Human Anatomy study: the skeleton.
Bring drawing materials, and a stylus if you have one.

ADIR1136 Assignment 3
Anatomy of Movement

Part 1: Skeleton
Part 2: Muscles
Assigned: October 14th

Due: October 25th <--NEW!

% of Final Grade: 20%  <--NEW!

Please keep file sizes under 2MB
Work large (2048px) but save final version at screen res.
(Ex: 1024 @ 72 DPI)

Filename:
tdonovan_anatomy_001.jpg

Please hand in by FTP

Description:
Part 1: Skeleton

Using a photo of  an action pose as a base layer, draw the underlying skeleton. Aim to make your drawing a portfolio piece that shows both your knowledge and your artistic skill. The drawing can be very detailed or you may generalize forms as shown in the study above.
This is most easily done digitally, but you can draw on tracing paper and scan it. Find your own photo or use one of these from ESPN's body issue.

Use lots of reference for the skeleton - Visible Body is very helpful but it  costs >$30.

Another great idea -- create a pose-able mini skeleton using a cheap model and sculptor's wax. Available on Amazon.com. I called around and didn't find any in town.
http://illustrationfixation.blogspot.com/2011/05/skeleton-model.html


Another option is to download a 3D model. The good ones are expensive (>$150). I searched Turbosquid for models under $25 and this is what popped up. One or two aren't terrible.
http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?keyword=skeleton&max_price=25

More here (these actually look better)
http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/people?cat=1071

Looking for good skeletal system study reference? Click here!

WEEK 6: Character Acting 1 - Fight Direction 3

Our last week of fight direction --  level up to a new attack mode: swords!

Be equipped for both swashbuckling and sketching.

We'll have a look at some behind-the-scenes fight choreography from a little film called something like 'Star Battle' or 'Star Fighting' and do some frame-by frame studies.

Click here for photos + video of last week's knife-fighting class.

There can be only one! Highlander movie, that is! 

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.