Let the Animation Begin

The Pandora model is now finished and in use! 

Here's a picture of the final model:

I finished the facial rig, which was quite a fun process. As I've mentioned previously I've never made a proper one before so I had to do a bit of research. I've used Morpher before to create expressions but this time I wanted to control the expression changes without having to go into the modifier panel each time. Also this is the first animatable model I've created with a jaw bone so I wanted to link that up to my control panel too. I had no idea how to do this mind so research had to be done!

I found these tutorials:

http://www.bakaneko.com/howto/computer/3d/rigging/
http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/video_facecontrol/facecontrol.php

I did also have a read at the book 'Stop Staring' I have on facial animation, but the actual section on setting up the controls for it is for MAYA so didn't make much sense to me. After reading/watching the above links I felt comfortable enough to take what I'd learned and apply it to what I wanted to achieve with my own rig. I created my control panel first, making control panels for all the actions I wanted to be able to control and then set these up with IK and limits so they could be wired up to the relevant expressions later using reaction manager.

In total I ended up having 40 morph targets, quite a variety.

These should be enough there for what I want but if not I can always create more as I go along. I wired all of these up to my control panel then using Reaction Manager, as well as the jaw bone and that all seems to be working just fine. The real test will come when I start animating her facial expressions in the animation, so fingers crossed!

With that done I then decided to test the rig itself by creating a quick walk cycle for Pandora to fix any obvious problems. I didn't want to spend too long on the walk (as tempting as it was) with it only being a test but I tried to give it a bit of character then I rendered it out. Couldn't see any problems with the skinning so I decided it was time to begin the actual animation work. I did see a few things on the model and texture I'd like to have refined but at this stage I don't want to be editing and re-doing stages. I'd rather move forward unless the issues really call for me to go back.

Yesterday I filmed some footage and began the opening animation where Pandora steals the key from the drawer. I figured this would be the best sequence to begin with to give the rig its first proper testing... and encountered problems with the skinning. This was to be expected after have smooth most things have gone so far :P The problem occured with the shoulder and elbow joints with some strange distortion. I played around with envelopes and vertex weights to some extent but this didn't to much. Then I had an idea that maybe its the shape of the rig at these joints so I edited the CAT rig at the elbows and shoulders so when the joints bend theres a curved section. This seems to have worked pretty good :) Here's a screen shot to show what I mean:

I did also test on a copy of the file if adding more edges would have fixed the problem but it didn't which is kind of good really becasue that would have meant re unwrapping the body, whereas altering the rig itself doesn't really affect anything not even the animation on the various parts as long as you're not in animation mode. Another bonus of the CAT system!

All the problems I've encountered and fixed with the rig I've applied to a 'Final' version of my rig so if I need to bring it into a new scene its up to date with all issues corrected. When I begin work on the main sequence I'll need this.

I also opened up the Attic scene file yesterday and added in my main camera to make sure the angle I'd envisioned in my animatic worked with the 3D version. It did. I also added some lights and checked the scale of the models with the scene just to make sure. All good!

Today I plan on filming some footage for this section, ready to begin blocking it out on the weekend. I've also got some DVDs to watch for relevant research for my report. So far I'm on track with my schedule :)

Character Modelling & Rigging

Since my last post I've spent most of my time working Pandora and also looking more into rigging.

One of my friends from class recommended I use MAX's CAT system to rig my main character, which he'd recently been experimenting with for his models. So after spending an hour or so with him one morning checking it out I decided it was the best thing to use. You can build a highly customisable rig, shape the bones to suit your mesh, animate on layers and switch between IK and FK. Beats the hell out of biped and bones. Well done Autodesk!

So I came home, deleted the original bone rig I'd created for my creature and made a new one with the CAT system to experiment. I skinned and tested it too and it seems to work just fine! Should make animating a lot easier too with the layers.

I then moved back onto working on the Pandora model. This is the first time I've modelled a full human character in quite awhile so I didn't get it done as fast as I'd hoped but I think I did a pretty good job in the end.

Got some feedback on it too and was told the topology was sound, especially in the face. Awesome!

After making some slight adjustments to the final model, I've spent the last few days building and shaping the rig, which you can see below:

 

The rig actually looks like the character now after some editing which I think is cooool. I've also found today that this makes the skinning process a lot easier! I've also unwrapped the model, currently I've just applied some simple colours to match my concepts, not too concerned with that at the moment and this evening I've been skinning her. So far so good! I also got told it looks like my drawings :D which means I haven't done a bad job!

I'm attempting something new with project too by making a facial rig. Previously, I've created characters with some facial expressions using morph targets, and I've used other rigs with a facial set up but I've never attempted building my own.I added an extra bone to the head when I was building the rig for the Jaw, and so far I've skinned it to work.

My next plan is to create my morph targets then create a control system for the face with Reaction Manager so I don't have to keep going into Morpher and rotating the jaw bone. Never tried this before so I hope it goes as smoothly as possible.

I also need to texture her eyes... she looks pretty freaky with them being all white!

Animatic & Project Progress

I've done quite a bit of work on the project since my last post so this is likely going to be a long entry. First off I completed and final draft of my storyboard and then further developed it to produce the animatic for my piece which you can watch below.

It's longer than I expected it to be, luckily around 40 seconds of this is made up of narration or sections which don't include animation. I intend to keep the section I have text and illustrations in, and maybe get someone to read the narration for the final version. Aside from that this pretty much shows what I want the animation to look like.

After giving it some consideration, I've also decided to produce the animation in black and white. It seems to suit the piece well in the animatic, and as its got a creepy, dark element to it I think it'll work. 

This is the moodboard I produced at the start of my research, which gathers together stills from my favourite animations, all of them with that dark edge... guess that shows my personal taste :P 

So my short is likely going to resemble Tim Burton's short Vincent, in the fact that it will be done in these tones, hopefully with some good lighting, but I'm also aiming for it to be cute and appealing too, with the style of the characters and set. Think it's well on its way!

Here's the model of my creature, which is now being rigged:

And also some more designs for Pandora:

I'm currently in the process of modelling her, which I'd like to have done asap so I can get her rigged ready to animate

Speaking of Time Burton earlier, I'm also going to look into compositing at a later stage and experiment with some techniques to give the animation a 'stop motion' feel to see how that works. I think it could potentially work quite well so we shall see. I'm also going to need to use After Effects to make the creature's morph into Pandora work. So I'll need to do some research while I'm in the production stage.

I've also set up a basic model for my Dark Arm which I've successfully rigged and tested:

Originally I had intended to have this to be a tentacle of darkness but after doing numerous tests trying to make it work as a tentacle, which proved to be rather complicated, I decided why not make it just a simple giant arm? So that's what I did! I rigged it with IK, set up the controls and Voila! It seems to work just fine for what I require of it and it's a lot easier to control than a tentacle so it was definately a good call!

So this is where I am at the moment. My priority at the moment is to get Pandora modelled and rigged and finish the creature rig then test them both and go from there!