Slow out/Slow in and Secondary Movement

I also tried out a little hdr lighting

Slow out and Slow in & Secondary Movement from Ryan Mowery on Vimeo.

A short animation attempting to achieve three things.

1. Use slow in and slow out moving techniques.

Basically, adding more frames at the beginning and end of the motion, and having fewer frames in the middle. This gives the movement a more realistic look.

2. Have secondary movement.

This is basically having things move, in addition to the main action. For this animation, the balls keep rolling, even after they are no longer the focus of the shot.

3. Use HDR lighting.

This is all done using light probes. A very easy technique.

I have to say the HDR lighting is the only thing i feel very accomplished with here

the animation techniques are based off of some disney animators 12 principles of animation.
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html

More animation/video work here

http://www.vimeo.com/rmowery

Object and Frame

Even though we are turning this in as Jpegs, here is a rendered version i did

Object and Frame from Ryan Mowery on Vimeo.

Finally Finished!

Dude Guy Dance Guy is complete. I will post the final version of this song and dance + the 5 minutes collaborative piece we have all been working diligently on.

A little late, i know

This is the animation i had critiqued a couple weeks ago, it still is using the MoCap as well as the old nonsensical texture. I want to post a new animation of what my character is doing now, just so you could do a comparison and see how mcuh better it has gotten.

But anyway this animation isn't horrifically bad, it just has a nightmare amount of problems.

DGDG Feb 2010 from Ryan Mowery on Vimeo.

Animating screen captures

Animating is really starting to come along now. I'm getting better at easing in and easing out, as
well as getting the rhythm of the body movement down.














Here is a small screen shot and render of one of DGDG's poses:)

March 2nd In class Work

a new begining...

Today i accepted a truth i have been avoiding for 2 weeks now. So Motion Capture is not the way for my creature, Dude Guy Dance Guy to go. I've been thinking this for a while now, and it took seeing my peers animations to fully understand that MoCap was not the way to keep moving.

It is sad, since i have spent almost 2 weeks solid weight painting the smallest details on the character, trying to polish the MoCap into a usable device. Then to finally realize it's not going to work is a defeating feeling. But i will push on :)

Not so bad though, i will now understand how rigging a character start to finish works, and I will figure out IK solvers as well. All of these things i just blew past early on in the course because the MoCap was so much more interesting to me, and it didn't require the knowledge of these steps.

I'm still going to render out a small full 6000 frame MoCap animation of DGDG dancing, but it will be on my own time. I am now embarking in a different direction.

I will still also keep learning about MoCap, and posting it to the blog as part of my side project. Perhaps try again when my animation techniques get a little more polished.

NEW IDEA

As the final project the creature people are going to make a Creature Talent show.

Each person gets at least 20 secs of animation for their character.

800x600 @ 24 fps are the specs

Then they will all be put into one giant file. i think after effects will be used to composite the pieces.

I will have a story board up by next thursday of what i want my characters movements to look like.

I still want to Dude Guy Dance Guy to dance.

AudioPhile AKA Dude Guy Dance Guy aka DGDG is almost done

Here is a more up to date version of my character Dude Guy Dance Guy, doing a weird dance move. His arms have some problems still. But he is rocking some fresh new Adidas so he doesn't care.


I want to start designing a backdrop for this dance to take place. I am not sure if i want it to be in a city, or on a stage or what. I just don't know at the moment.

I have also been thinking of sounds for this animation. The song i will use will have to have the right tempo to match the dance.

A couple words about MoCap.

Where i left off last time, was just uploading the MoCap to my blender file.

After uploading the c3d file, you give the MoCap a parent child relationship with the mesh. Select the MoCap bones, then the mesh and hit ctr+P. In my case i then made the eyes parent child relationship to the model as well.

Now once i did this my model went nuts.

To correct the problems that have just popped up, Weight painting must be done.

Weight painting is where all of the magic is going to happen. Here is an image of DGDG in a pose, and below is the weight painted version to show what bones are effecting what.



By weight painting the bones of the mesh, you are telling the bones how much to effect each part of the mesh. When i first attached the MoCap to the mesh, the head was stuck in the body and the body was twisted around. Weight painting helped solve those issues.

Spend the majority of your time weight painting the model, IK solvers were not helpful for me, so i didn't bother to use them.

New Eye

I have been unsatisfied with the eye i previously made, and today i finally took steps to correct this.

This is the new eye
This is the old eye
This is an unwrapped texture vs the just color textures i had before. It some slight tweeking, but i liek this much more, it matches the body texture much better in my opinion. The green is closer to the body, and it has more detail.

Motion Capture: An ARTD 471 Side Project

I wanted to upload a small 1-2 sec test animation of the character so far but time is not on my side today. So instead I'll start working on my side project a more in depth look at motion capture.

For my 3D character I decided it would be a fun route, for the animation, to try to incorporate Motion Capture.

To start with

http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/

This is a really good site with free High Quality Mocap files. Be sure to download the c3d formats if you are using blender.

Motion capture is Readily available online, alot of site charge you but some are free.

These files are huge. A lot of them 120 frames a sec, it will take a bit to load up.

Once it loaded up alt + a to play the animation.

Next step is to attach the armature to the model.

I will be posting, from time to time, more info on this subject. It is a new subject to me, so i will post any interesting articles, sites, and Tutorials i find.

Body Done. Onto Texturing

I'm done with the body. for the most part. I am now starting the texturing process. These textures are just a test run, more an more it looks like i might have to unwrap this guy. All the texture's I'm finding are not what i am looking for.


Blank, no texture, body is done.

Just playing with a skin and chrome texture, added the speakers for fun.


Similar texture to the one above, just playing with the color. I can decide what color to make him.

Almost done with mesh

I like the way things are going now. There was an issue with the hands that was corrected today and i started to add the speaker/audio input system.

The speaker on the front isn't as polished as i would like, but i will continue to refine it. i might fix that with texturing/unwrapping.


I plan on finalizing the mirror modifier and erasing half of the mirrored inputs on this guys back.

Character modeling full force

Tutorials are saving my life at the moment, the body is going well, im having a little trouble with keeping the poly count low, but i think it will work out in the end.

For future use*

16:30

http://montagestudio.org/tutorials-page/modeling-tutorials-page/modeling-a-lowpoly-character/

Quick array work

Just to keep in practice

First step of character

Here is just the head, i don't know how i feel about it, the mouth will def need to change. i like how the glasses are going. I think its looking a little to ninja turtle-ish. That will change once the body is created...


Not having a computer at home is making this process take FOREVER

character design ideas

I have Narrowed my choices of my 3d characters down to 2...

This is an alien with no mouth, just a speaker in the center of his body. This would be kinda fun because i think conceptually this character is interesting. I would not need to render any clothing, all i would need is a skin texture. At the same time i dont know if this guy would be as fun to create as Fat kid. He has hands, which would be a challenge.

A pudgy obese kid, who wants to be a super hero. Here i would emphasis his big frame and his skinny legs. This character would be fun to draw in a lot of ways, the clothing would pose its own set of issues as well as having this character look

Here are some samples of what i am sort of going for and more can be found here

http://graphicalerts.com/23-awesome-and-inspirational-character-designs/


I have yet to seriously attempt a humaniod character in blender, so either choice will be a challenge.

Meeting with small group for character design project

Quick basic idea for character. I don't think i'll be using it though

The rest of the class was making screw drivers, I thought I would make one again, just for fun.

Day 1

Good to be back!

Golden palace

3D Gold

Final Project

This project focused on Electronic waste and how much of our old technology goes to landfills vs how much gets recycled. This walking camera is "created" out of the wasted, no longer desired, obsolete technology. It is a drone that surveys the electronic waste landscape, collecting data.