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martes, noviembre 20, 2012

w8 over there

I was playing a bit with malcolm this last week. Awesome rig, but I started with a simple arm move, then I get into full body, put the camera away... I wanted to lead first with the hips and then with the hand to make a cool effect, but everythinh gets so complicated that I don't like it how's it going, so I will leave it behind.

As you could see, is far from being done, and well, I touched some little things on the other cartoony animation that I think it makes it work a little better.



lunes, noviembre 12, 2012

w7_gir+walk

I didn't have a lot of time this week, so I end up the cartoony animation (it could need some more tweaks, but I'll leave it as it is right now) and I started a walk to prove bonnie rig.

jueves, noviembre 08, 2012

w6_bk+_gir

I didn't have a lot of time last week, but I almost done the blocking part, changing to splines and improving some other things this week and some walk cycle at same time, we'll see if I could make it for the end of the week.


martes, octubre 30, 2012

w5 gir

A test on a cartoony shot with some 3D blocking, I'm gonna spend this week to try to finish this one, although I'll take with peace.

miércoles, octubre 24, 2012

w4_something from the ground

I didn't have a lot of time this last week and I saw that I get too much complicated on blocking terms (needs more work), so I'm returning to the point of do animations with 3-4poses maximum for this week.


lunes, octubre 15, 2012

w3_loa smash table




Blocking plus from monday to friday last week.

Had some bad time, because the head is really big, shoulders are small and when it mades the torsion to create energy the arm went behind the head, but I think that moreless I could solve it.

I used some lattice and scale on the hand to make it a bit more cartoony and I tried to do something similar with the head but it hasn't enough speed and it look weird and distracting, so I decided to change that with 0 squash&stretch on the head.



lunes, octubre 08, 2012

w2_loa

A blocking per day during 4 days, on the 5th I did some animatic with tvpaint but I still need to finish that one.


jueves, octubre 04, 2012

Leave of Absence w1

Some work during first week, less than one day for the baseball animation, two days spent on step on the side and two more on turn around. They are not completed because the second one is still in blocking and the other one, although it says final I would touch it at least one more day, because the spacing is not the best, but I'm trying to do some kind of work and leave it as it is when the clock sounds, like this week, with a blocking per day.


martes, septiembre 25, 2012

Some tips & tricks to improve speed when changing to splines

Most of the tips are based on create hotkeys to make the work on graph editor a lot faster than using buttons every time, you could use them while blocking too if you use another workflow, it could look like the same, but when you know those hotkeys, it's quicker to change and correct graph editor. I won't say that those things are really advanced because they don't, but if you don't know how graph editor works, working with it at more speed only will slow you down,  because you won't know what you're actually doing, by the way, some other hotkeys are suitable for everyone like the ones making the graph editor appears. 

Basically this post is something like a mix of the hotkeys and things that I use every day but feel free to change them with other keys or do whatever combinations you want or add anything with a comment here.

-How to create hotkeys on scripts other than default actions:

First of all let's see where are the hotkeys and how we could change or create new ones.
On the top menu, Window/setting-preferences/hotkey editor/

1-Scroll down on categories until you found user and select it.
3-You'll have to fill the gaps here, name can't have spaces, so use _ instead than space, and command place is where we'll put the code.
5-Put the key that you want to use there, check ctrl and alt if you want to use them while press or release, I'll use ctrl+alt+key to avoid rewriting default maya ones (all the ctrl+alt+key combinations are free by default) if you want to use a normal key but you don't know what that key does, put the key on the box and press find and it will tell you what's actually doing that hotkey.
Now that we know how to do a new hotkey let's begin with custom ones.

Show/hide Graph editor ( ctrl+alt+g you have to put this on the 5th step)
all the text below goes inside command on 3rd step of the image

if ( `window -exists graphEditor1Window` )
deleteUI -window graphEditor1Window;
else
tearOffPanel "Graph Editor" "graphEditorPanel" true;

Show Outliner on left side ctrl+alt+o

OutlinerWindow; dockControl -area "left"
-content outlinerPanel1
-label "outliner"
-allowedArea "left"
-allowedArea "right"
-width 250;
deleteUI "outlinerPanel1Window" ;

Convert tangents to Spline under graph editor categorie(left at hotkey editor) you'll find tangents to spline, assign that to ctrl+alt+s

Tangents to Linear under graph editor categorie ctrl+alt+l

Tangents to Flat under graph editor categorie ctrl+alt+f

Free Weight tangent ctrl+alt+w (this one is a modification of the ones by default to do it all in one key)

keyTangent -weightLock off;
keyTangent -lock off;

*To free Weight tangents you need to have tangents set to weight first, I use to work with that activated, you could do it on preferences/settings/animation and check Weighted tangents.

Be careful with going quick on those last 4, because if you don't select the key point and you press one of those hotkeys you could change by mistake all the curve tangents! Be sure to not press those hotkeys while you select a control but not a key point!

Add inbetween to add a key between 2 frames, you need to have graph editor open, under graph editor I use + key

Remove Inbetween under graph editor I use - key

Nextkey to jump over keys under playback controls I use , key, but I think that on English keyboards should be < and >, feel free to change all the other keys to whatever works better for you, because maybe some are difficult on an English keyboard.

Previouskeys under playback controls I use . key


-See through Graph editor (if you don't have 2 screens)


With PeekThrough you could see through windows, it could give transparency to any window or menu or whatever, so if you don't have double screen, you could use the program to see through graph editor, on that way you could make the graph editor as full window and still see what are you moving.
I upload the program on my dropbox, I didn't find any virus but feel free to say whatever if you think something, I mean, found that through the web. Just for Windows, once you have it installed you turn on transparency with win+A (You could change that hotkey or the level of transparency on the options)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31354384/tools/PeekThrough_1.1.0.0.zip

-To create a quick selection set and add a hotkey to it to select the character really quick (I though on this, thanks to Siddhant Mehta who told us how to do a quick selection set as a week tip)

Select all the controls of the rig that you want,  go to create/sets/quick selection set and give it a name, normally you'll use stewie, bishop... but if you use a more regular name like char, character 1 or whatever like this it will be easier for this tip.

Go to the hotkey editor as we did before, create a new hotkey under user with the selection set, on the command line, if you used char as character name you'll have to type 

select -replace char 

If you named it stewie it will be

select -replace stewie

If you named it bishop it will be

select -replace bishop

You don't need to change the hotkey if you do a new scene, just do the quick selection for the new character and named him with the same name, it doesn't matter if it have different controls or whatever, it will select all the ones you select for the new quick selection.

I use to do one for the character (ctrl+alt+q) and another one for all the props and things with the character (ctrl+alt+a) but if you have two characters you could use one and call it char1 and the other one char2 and assign them to two hotkeys or whatever.

If you want a key on everything you just need to use the hotkey and press S later on, knowing a bit of script you could do the selection and key with a single hotkey, but I find it really more useful on this way, since I could decide where I want a key all.

-Hide/show curves on stewie to use Grease Pencil tool from AM menu easily


On stewie rig v094 to be able to draw with grease pencil with nurbs activated (you'll have to use GPIKR from am shelf tools to be able to select stewie controls) because right now, if you do it without hiding the nurbs controls it's such a mess with all those lines on the screen.

Hide curves
select -r stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility ;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.layout" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.head" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.ikspine" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.ikleg" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.leg" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.arm" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.fkarm" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.ikarm" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.squash" 0;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.blink" 0;

Show curves
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.blink" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.squash" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.ikarm" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.fkarm" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.arm" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.leg" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.ikleg" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.layout" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.ikspine" 1;
setAttr "stewie_ac_rig_v094:stewie_ac_C_visibility.head" 1;

Copy all that code under script editor (bottom right) under the MEL tab and then select all of them, press middle mouse and release it under custom shelf tool.

I guess that you could do that with bishop or other stewie or rigs from am, just select the rig, go to the outliner, select the rig, the ac_anim and then the ac_C_visibility change all the curves to hide or 0, open the script editor, copy the code and create a new button, then do the same but changing 0 for 1.
If somebody knows script I guess it will be easier to create a simple IF to do all of this on just one single button, but as I'm not that good I have it with two buttons, one for show, one for hide.

-Put Playblast or reference on top window

For this last part, I used to take playblasts and draw over them on tvpaint, and then open the video on quicktime, put it to the top with this little program https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31354384/tools/AlwaysOnTopMaker.zip , and then translate the draws over maya too, but right now I'm using the blue pencil plugin by Chris Zurbrigg (alumni here) which is great and saves me a lot of time.

Always on top is really useful when you're working on maya looking to a videoreference too, because on that way the videoreference won't get lost under maya.


I think that's all, hope it helps somebody and feel free to comment, ask or add anything.


martes, febrero 28, 2012

8th week, walk + strength

For this week, we block a vanilla walk with ballie, a ball with legs, and we had to do one pose showing strength, so we learn an important thing for this week, how weight affects body, and how to do a walk.




7th

On this 7 week, we didn't have to do any pose, since we had to focus on tailor, a ball that's similar to a squirrel, with big tail that overlaps all the way. Let's see how it turns on my animation doing some kind of circus thing to get to the other side. I had to rig a simple trampoline to achieve this animation, but it was really simple to do.


lunes, febrero 13, 2012

week 6 is over

We pass through the middle of the class 1 so fast...it looks like it was on yesterday the day that we start this amazing journey.

For the last class we had to focus on overlapping action with a pendulum, doing some movements and let him settle in 200 frames, it was a though assignment because it looks easier at first look, but as you go deep the thing is getting really complicated! I guess that my settle is too long, and I should make it with less time, but I'm going to polish it for next week :)




This next week I'll try to have some fun with tailor, which looks really awesome and really hard to make it works, but I'll try haha

martes, febrero 07, 2012

4th & 5th

Some work that I did on week 4 and 5, balls with different weights and obstacle course + devastation pose.

revision of excitement pose



I did the obstacle course on flipbook first to check the timming, althouhg I made a more cartoony feel than basketball and maybe I'll have to make a revision changing everything this week.




obstacle course


heavy and light ball



See you next week :)

martes, enero 24, 2012

3rd Week :O

Time is moving really fast, but it's cool. On this week we had to make and excitement pose and a bouncing ball assignment with a feeling of a basketball. I did a revision of last week pose following my mentor critique. So here we go...

For this week excitement pose I tried to do something like a charcoal effect to lead the attention to the center and play with negative space, hope it works :)





domingo, enero 15, 2012

2nd week complete

After a lot of changes on the pose, because it looks so static before, finally I'll leave it as it is now and wait until my mentor say something.
It was harder than what I though, because his big head annoys me a lot when I had to move the right arm and leave it away from the head to help the silhouette, and as it's not on the ground it was harder to make him feel alive.

By the way, on yesterday I had my old demo reel reviewed by Sandy Christensen, an amazing animator who worked on pixar, as freelance or in videogames at lucasarts for example, very good tips on the demo and very appreciated to her because all the effort that she puts correcting the shots and giving tips to make it better.



See you until next week, with a ball assignment and some excitement sketches and pose.

lunes, enero 09, 2012

Class 1 Week 2

It's a bit long to explain here, but after the big kit kat that I take on the blog I want to retake again and make a week update at least.

You'll think, why the entry is called Class 1 Week 2, or why I turn to English again haha, but it's because I started Animation Mentor last week.
It's an amazing place, full of people from everywhere of the world who wants to learn animation, so the webpage and all the stuff and people there are pretty cool.

My mentor is Chad Stewart who seems an awesome mentor because all his students talks very well of him, he worked on Simpsons, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, the emperor's new groove as 2D artist and Surf's up, Stuart Little 2, Open Season...as 3D artist and actually is a freelance.


That's just a brief introduction about what's coming next, so I'll try to keep this updated and I'll put my stu pose at the end of the week, so bye bye!