Long time coming

So I have been neglecting my blog, I know.  But I've always been wanting to post.  I've just been too busy.  even now, I should really keep working on my projects but I figured I had too many animations done and not posted that I really should do a massive update this week.  And next week... FINALS!  So you will see the final products of all the things I've been working on.
Also, someone gave me the idea to put tutorials online for various techniques.  I might just do that, once I figure out what to post.
Regardless, let's start with my walk cycles.  Yes, 2 of them.  The first is just a basic study with a tail, which is designed to help us figure out secondary motion.  If anyone out there things the tail or whatnot is automatically scripted to move, think again.  While big production houses might be able to set that up, often these things are going to be hand done.  Especially with students.
So... first the tail walk cycle:

Next up is a walk cycle that uses attitude.  It can portray anything at all, be it excited or sad or whatever.  I decided  to do an animation for a tough cowboy.  But I'm not really into cowboys... unless their robot cowboys.  So... here's a robot cowboy:

Now I bring to you a full character animation.  Sure the last animation was a full body robot rig, but I bound his hands to his hips.  This next animation focuses on controlling a character more, and acting.  Here, we have to show a change of emotion, and a shift of weight.

Speaking of weight... the next animation is all about lifting them.  Honestly, this animation isn't finished, I want to add a joke at the end, however it did satisfy the requirements of the assignment, which is to show a sense of weight and balance in a character, and use acting to make something look heavy. More importantly, we learned how to make a character look like they are holding something. We do this with Ik handles and locators, which can "attach" an object to another when used properly.

[Right now there is an error on Youtube, so I will upload this in due time.]

More?!  Well yes, there is lots and lots more!!  I have a project I will be uploaded parts of soon that involves a robot, a girl, and a junkyard.  Right now I'm calling it Junk, and it is only 3 shots.  In fact, it isn't even that.  it is really only 1 fully animated shot and 2 shots still "in production".  This is on purpose as it is to help students figure out how long it takes to make an animation in preparation for the senior project.  I will be posting some of the work on this later, so please look forward to it.

Finally, I have a dialogue animation.  It is not done yet, so what you see now is merely a Work In Progress (WIP) which is only on the second animation pass.  This animation is going to be an entry in the 11 Second Club. This will be done and entered into the contest by the end of the month, which is coincidentally at the end of the quarter as well.  In other words, this is my final project in this class.  Here is my current WIP.

One last thing, I have been working on a new portfolio website, as well as a new portfolio, resume, demo reel, business cards, etc. for my other class, professional development.  You can find my new site at DHixon.com, and I will be posting some things on here as well.

Well that's all for now, I have tons more work to do!  I should have work from my finals up by next week.  Don't forget to follow me on the 11 Second Club (look for my entry in the forums, under the name WeaklyAnimated).

Ta ta!

Basic 3D Animation tests

Yesterday I got to go to a talk from a Disney Interactive Director, and it was really inspiring.   He knew most of my teachers, and couldn't say enough good things about SCAD and the advantages we have here.  The day before I went to "AtlantAmation", a local film festival sponsored by SCAD, with many student films from SCAD.  While some were better than others, I was also inspired to make my own short film.  I may talk more about that later, but for now, I have several large projects looming over me.
Today, since I am knee deep in another quarter and already losing sleep over it, I will share with you 2 assignments I just completed.  These are both very simple animations using Maya, and are standard animation training exercises which you will see lots of.  The Bouncing Ball, and the Flour Sack.  The purpose of the bouncing ball is to understand some of the most basic principles of animation, those being timing, squash, and stretch.  If you look carefully, you'll see lots of bouncing ball animations online in every type of animation media out there, be it 2D or 3D.  The Flour Sack animation is designed to help develop your ability to emote through a character with no face and limited motion.  You are suppose to show a change in behavior or a reaction to an event or object through body language or pantomime.  Again, there are lots of animations out there of flour sacks.  I have a bouncing ball and a flour sack animation hand-drawn, which is posted on this site.  Just look for them.  Other than that, here are 2 new animations, this time in 3D!

Final Results

Well with the Winter quarter over, I have the final results of my classes.  At least, that is, I have final projects.  In all honesty I don't have as many this year as previous years, but I will be posting a little more in the near future from my Action Analysis class.  It was all drawing, and a really great and fun class, but I have to get together from images first before I am willing to show them.
The biggest project I did was actually the scenes I did in Autodesk Maya 2012, which I posted earlier.  However, I do have something else to show from that class which got me an even higher grade, and an A for the class (YAY!).  That would be a character modeled in Maya using "edgelooping" to follow the flow of the muscles of the character to allow for better animation and rigging.

Originally my design was a lot more... conservative than this... and it was boring as a result (boring as in my teacher said it looked like a men's room sign and required I change it).  So with some help from teachers and colleagues, I *ahem* enhanced it.  This was supposed to be a modernization of Annie Oakley... and I did quite a bit of research on her.  In the end, she should have an another layer of clothes at least.  That and I didn't model a gun.  So for now... screenshots of "Annie".

Oh... and if you are averse to nudity... 1) grow up... 2) avert your eyes.  But really... no details or anything, but the clothes are removable (which means I should be able to make better clothes later) but some of these might be NSFW.  Also, all of these are using the smooth preview so they are not renders, just screenshots.

Overview Front Shot

Upper Torso Shot

Face with Edgeloops turned on

Face without Edgloops

Upper torso Dynamic Angle Shot

Closeup of buckles around boots

Closeup of medals on coat

Closeup of gloved hand

Closeup of ear

Money Shot :P

Back with Edgeloops (without coat)

Back without Edgeloops (without coat)

Front with Edgloops (without coat)

Front comparison to character design sketch

Side comparison to character design sketch

So I made her body first, then duplicated the faces of her body to make the jacket in pieces and merged them together.  I actually used a cloth dynamic in Maya to let the coat and skirt rest on her body better, but the coat is so tight it didn't move much.  The gloves and boots are part of her body and don't come off.  Her hair was made one "strand" at a time, with about 2 dozen modeled individually.  The hat was modeled separately, as well as the buckles around her boots and the epaulettes and the medals. She was a LOT of fun to build, and I am working on fixing up her modeling a little, especially in her coat.  Maybe I'll add an undershirt option as well.  Her face isn't perfect either, so I will go back and tweak it some more till I have a better shape.  But all said and done, I made this model in about a week, and it is my first character model ever!  Pretty impressive for a first I think.

I will post more pictures later with better lighting and so forth, but I am having an issue where the coat is under "stress" (apparently a few vertices are poking through unnoticed...) which results in a funky artifact where the clothes are full of "banding"...  Check it out...

So I'll be fixing that at some point and posting more images later.  I'm pretty happy with it.  And yes... I've noticed she has a large chest.  Everyone keeps reminding me.

So next time I'll post some more on my Action Analysis class, as well as a review of Arriety.  I also got a request from someone to compare GMU and SCAD, so I will be writing up a comparison, although I think it will end up being more about the differences between my experience, a typical public college, and a specialty school like SCAD.

Aloha!