During those soothing holidays, I still took some time to work and when I came back I made a animation test of my autorig.
The first video is a walking cycle made with a character a teacher gave us during the second year and rigged by me.
The second video is a small animation that follows the walking cycle. it's just supposed to test the Bends, the IK spline and my IK_FK matching tool.
(some definitions at the and of this article)
the matching tool is not completly accurate, mostly when the articulations are bended the wrong way or on an other axis than the x one. but it's still very usefull to switch from a mode to the other.
just one more detail. I didn't plan any of these animations and I spent only one day to make the two of them.
I already feel my animation teacher's wrath about the planning ^^'
Voilà. I wich you all lots of happiness for this year, except if you're a cold blooded baby killer of course or something alike.
See ya.
Modeling:
When you create a CG movie, you need to model your characters and environment.
it's like sculpting whatever you want from a simple shape created by the software and by adding it points (or vertices), edges (lines between vertices) and faces. there are many other ways but I learned with this one.
When you create a CG movie, you need to model your characters and environment.
it's like sculpting whatever you want from a simple shape created by the software and by adding it points (or vertices), edges (lines between vertices) and faces. there are many other ways but I learned with this one.
Rigging:
When the modeling is done, to be able to animate the character, we need make it... movable.
yes, a modeled character at first, cannot move. except if you scuplt in it even more.
so we will cearte a skeleton (with "bones" attached by "joints"), attach the model to it (a process called "skinning") and and create controlers so the animators don't need to get the bones hidden inside the model.
we give it lots of other options to distort the character or object in different ways so the animators can have maximum control over it.
all this is called rigging.
IK and FK:
there are several modes of manipulation for the bones (cf rigging):
-FK or Forward Kinematic: it's the default mode to move the bones.
when you move one, all the others in the hierarchie wil follow.
it's mostly used on the arms, the spine or the leg when the character is falling.
-IK or Inverse Kinematic: when you use IKs, you create a tool that goes from one bone to an other and when you move one in space, the other one won't but all the others between them will rotate so the bone chain will stay coherent.it's often used on the legs or on the arms when the hand is attached or posed on something.
there are several modes of manipulation for the bones (cf rigging):
-FK or Forward Kinematic: it's the default mode to move the bones.
when you move one, all the others in the hierarchie wil follow.
it's mostly used on the arms, the spine or the leg when the character is falling.
-IK or Inverse Kinematic: when you use IKs, you create a tool that goes from one bone to an other and when you move one in space, the other one won't but all the others between them will rotate so the bone chain will stay coherent.it's often used on the legs or on the arms when the hand is attached or posed on something.
IK_FK matching tool:
when you create a rig with a switch to go from IK to FK or FK to IK, the targeted object will go back to it's last positionof the mode it's going back to.
so we can create a tool (IK_FK matching tool) so the arms, for exemple, will go to the other mode but won't move.
very usefull for the animator
Autorig:
Rigging is a long process in CG animation and very repetitive.
but on maya (cg software) and probably others (I only learned this one), when you do something, it writes it down in what's called the "script editor".
exemple: I put the z translate of my cube from 0 to 3.5:
setAttr "pCube1.translate" 3.5;
And anything I write in the script editor (and it understands) the software will do.
So I rig as usual, except I take note of what maya writes. then with language trick I can make it do the same thing with the left arm that it did with the right one and all sort s of things like that.
it took me 2 month to make mine but now I need 1 day to make my character movable instead of 2 weeks.(on maya, the language is MEL or Maya Embeded Language and on 3D studio Max it's Maxscript).
Rigging is a long process in CG animation and very repetitive.
but on maya (cg software) and probably others (I only learned this one), when you do something, it writes it down in what's called the "script editor".
exemple: I put the z translate of my cube from 0 to 3.5:
setAttr "pCube1.translate" 3.5;
And anything I write in the script editor (and it understands) the software will do.
So I rig as usual, except I take note of what maya writes. then with language trick I can make it do the same thing with the left arm that it did with the right one and all sort s of things like that.
it took me 2 month to make mine but now I need 1 day to make my character movable instead of 2 weeks.(on maya, the language is MEL or Maya Embeded Language and on 3D studio Max it's Maxscript).
IK Spline:
an IK spline puts a curve in the selected bone chain. then you can't wove the chain by moving the bones themselves but when you move and distort the curve, the bones will follow.
pretty cool for a spine.
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