viewing guide

Posts with 'IWP' as their title are my Independent Work Process for Assessment purpose. Searching for 'IWP' on the search bar on the left filters out other researches and materials.

Thursday, 21 May 2015

Experiment - Simple Adobe Premiere Pro Composition


A very short clip made within an hour to see how Premiere Pro works.

Learnt to:

  • Import media (Image & Audio) files
  • Use multiple layers of visual elements
  • Apply visual effects to images
  • Use Keyframes to move, distort, rotate and change opacity
  • Export videos

                

Adobe After Effects vs Adobe Premiere Pro







I've always wanted to learn After Effects, and this video nails down why I've been having a hard time using the program.

Maya Practice Work






A humanoid model that I've been working on for both fun and practice on more complicated design.

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

[Final Presentable works]


[1st Animation] - The final, shortened & editted version.

Made with Pencil 2D, Photoshop, and Vegas Pro 10.
 Required revising of the techniques I've already had the knowledge of.
This is a 2D animation demonstrating my skill of developing & communicating a narrative story in the format of moving pictures. It is also my first animation involving both traditionally & digitally composed images, so this work was very experimental although I've used skills I've already had.



[2nd Animation]

Made in Maya 2014, Vegas Pro and Photoshop.
My first experience of 3D modelling/animation and in Maya.
Although being a very short, not-serious animation, I'm most proud of this for the process of making I've went through. I've decided to have as much fun rather than stress out with the new technology, because I've already done the serious thing in the other animation. I didn't have as much time to go through very deeply into the more complicated parts of animating in Maya(also had to get some help from Vegas Pro with things I couldn't figure out how to do in Maya), but I think I've satisfied my expectation I had on the work.


Overall, it has been very rich and satisfying semester for me. I've been very interested in animation that it inspired me to start studying art, after all.

Sunday, 10 May 2015

[Final] DUCKS





Video editted in Sony Vegas, after converting the Maya images into GIF animations.

Saturday, 9 May 2015

Personal Interest _Free 3D animation program MMD





 There is a free 3D program that I've known about for some years.
It is made to animate 3D characters developed in a specific modelling program: 
Hexagreat.

Both programs are pretty old, but they do nail down the basics of 3D modelling & animation, and they are easy to use. The programs are originally made to be distributed in Japan. 
I've been wanting to properly learn how to animate in this program to this day, as it is the easiest 3D program I could learn, and it's pretty descent despite being accessable without a payment.










This program is great for humanoid characters, especially for manipulating their facial expression and make the characters hold/wear accessories and objects with very simple steps.







IWP - Rendering, Exporting as image sequence & converting into GIF

I know I can make image sequence very easily in CS6 or newer version,
but I did not have the program on my personal system. So I used an online GIF maker:
 
 
 
 
 
Followed the rendering tutorial that I've uploaded on this blog previously.
I didn't manage to successfully use the Trax Editor, so no long looping walk cycle here.
 
Maybe I can make a bunch of GIFs showing the duck from different camera angle, and make a vedio in Sony Vegas instead of Maya?
 
 
 
 


Friday, 8 May 2015

Thursday, 7 May 2015

Maya: Rendering An Animation Tutorial







Proper animation rendering has to happen at some point.



IWP - Walk Cycle Playblast



Stage 1 - Feet Controllers moving




Stage 2 - Root Rotation




Stage 3 - Knee Motion edited



Stage 4 - Butt Jiggle added + Intro included

IWP - Preparation for a Walk Cycle: Trax Editor, Character Control, Reverse Foot Joints

After experimenting with the duck character, I've decided to make a simple walk cycle animation for the final presentation. First, I had to learn about some tools that would be useful for animating such repetitive movements as 'walking'.


Tools for ease of work & reduction of error





Trax Editor for repetition of movements & adding audio


Visor for saving the motion as an importable clip for the Trax Editor,
and for viewing & importing assets



Point Constraint Tool for when making the Reverse Foot Lock


 

Character Set for making clips in the Trax Editor (its specific role/function, I've forgot)




Adding Attribute to the Foot control(most appropriate setting as seen in the image)


Character Control

In the previous animation, I actually wanted to rotate the character around, but the joints wouldn't move as I wanted them to move. Making the Character Controller actually ables me to do exactly what I wanted to do without crushing the polygon into 7 million pieces.



Simply create a circular curve under the feet of the character,
and parenting the entire body to the circle curve allows me to control the character universally.


Reverse Foot Lock

Reference:

http://www.rigging101.com/free/reversefootlock/index.htm







Must remember to create the IK handles for the legs & feet before Point Constraining the Reverse Foot Locks.

The Reverse foot joints must be Point Constrained to the IK handles rather than to the joints.


The Point Constraints should appear under the IK handles rather than the Reverse Foot Joints.



Foot Control


Similar to the Body Controller. Enables the toe to bend & create more natural feet motion.





Parent Constrain the feet curve to the reverse foot heel.