Evaluation of Advance 3D Character Animation.
The initial task of the project was to focus more upon the subtlies of expressions rather than unrealistic erratic movements. I tried to create something simple but effective.
I found the subject easy in terms of looking at facial expression, though that task became hard once it came to putting that research into practice on a 3D modelled character. I found the most difficulty in the modelling as a whole. But once I got into the rhythem of things I managed to model a human head which I've wanted to do for a while. So this was my first model of a human head. And it took about 3 days to do altogether.
The model was originally supposed to be a full human head, using a human reference model. But when I got further along with my model I found out I didn't really need to have the back of the head or even the ear. So he became an alien like person. Which works from a creative stand point.
If I were to do this again I would deligate my time better, so I had enough time to create something bigger and more elaborate. The first idea was to have the model get aggrivated at not being able to speak to the other person on the phone, but my expressions went a little bit wrong and he ended up being angry and seemingly looking as though he is swearing to the person on the phone. If I had have spent more time on the animation as I had the modelling I would have been able to make it longer and more detailed to fit the project brief. I honestly find using maya quite difficult, so this project was quite alot out of the comfort zone. But it felt good doing something further out of my understanding. Enabling me to learn new things and I was able to help and recieve help from peers which helped me learn more about the program as a whole. I quite enjoyed this brief even though it was very stressful and took an awful lot of time and patience. I took a steady leap with doing a human head model. Soon I hope to be able to create a full body with great amount of detail.
Rendering was my biggest problem as you have to open up 'Adobe After effects' to complete the sequence only to find that when I came to putting it together it was only 2 seconds long and half of the animation was missing. When I went back to fix the problem the files wouldn't render and save properly so I couldn't upload them into After Effects. Reguardless the sequence has been rendered and there is a 10 sec playblast video of my animation.
Friday, 16 December 2011
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Summary of Scene and process
Summery of Scene and process
In my scene there is a man on the phone, I'm going to say; to his wife. And she is talking or ranting without letting the man speak.
Main tools for the modeling
Create Polygon Tool
Extrude
Append to Polygon tool
Insert edgeloop
Interactive split polygon tool
Deformer
These are the few tools I used to create my model and animation. The main process started with me drawing the outline of the eye and mouth, nose area with the create polygon tool. Then extending outwards. Moving and reshaping each verticies to create the appropriate shape. With Maya 2012 which is on the university laptops everytime you create a polygon it places another one on top of it. Creating an excess amount of faces. This created a problem when I tried to extrude my shapes to expand the face. This led me to the append to polygon tool. This allowed me to create individual polygons that could connect to each other. Editing the vertisies as I went. This method is a lot more time consuming but I find this method much more accustomed to the way I work, having intitially tried to create a head with the 'cube method'.
The modelling was the most time consuming part of the whole project due to the alter while creating part. But I feel I was able to make a better model that could be animated more efficiently.
After modelling I began creating joints rig to be added and bound to the skin. Enabling me to create facial movements, from precise points on the face. Moving them to create the desired animation. I had to keyframe the components seperately so that everything would move properly, that was my main problem with opening the file up again after I'd animated. The joints moved but the face did not. So working round this problem I detached all the joints and re attached them. Keyframing the actual face model to move with the joints. So even if the joints seperated from the face again it would continue to move appropriately.
In my scene there is a man on the phone, I'm going to say; to his wife. And she is talking or ranting without letting the man speak.
Main tools for the modeling
Create Polygon Tool
Extrude
Append to Polygon tool
Insert edgeloop
Interactive split polygon tool
Deformer
These are the few tools I used to create my model and animation. The main process started with me drawing the outline of the eye and mouth, nose area with the create polygon tool. Then extending outwards. Moving and reshaping each verticies to create the appropriate shape. With Maya 2012 which is on the university laptops everytime you create a polygon it places another one on top of it. Creating an excess amount of faces. This created a problem when I tried to extrude my shapes to expand the face. This led me to the append to polygon tool. This allowed me to create individual polygons that could connect to each other. Editing the vertisies as I went. This method is a lot more time consuming but I find this method much more accustomed to the way I work, having intitially tried to create a head with the 'cube method'.
The modelling was the most time consuming part of the whole project due to the alter while creating part. But I feel I was able to make a better model that could be animated more efficiently.
After modelling I began creating joints rig to be added and bound to the skin. Enabling me to create facial movements, from precise points on the face. Moving them to create the desired animation. I had to keyframe the components seperately so that everything would move properly, that was my main problem with opening the file up again after I'd animated. The joints moved but the face did not. So working round this problem I detached all the joints and re attached them. Keyframing the actual face model to move with the joints. So even if the joints seperated from the face again it would continue to move appropriately.
Week 1-12
Brainstorming ideas. Going to be looking at 'Frustraited' And 'On the phone with a talkitive person, not allowing you to speak' The main aspect of this animation will focus upon the eyes, eyebrows and very loosely the mouth. I did initially want to do a full human body but I have great difficulty with modelling so I am just going to do the head instead.
Finding reference photos have proven difficult. I originally did photographs of myself to be modelled and animated. But when it came to trying to model them they were just unusable. I had to search around on the internet- google mainly to find human head refences.
I found one and began to model only to find out that they levels of the eyes, nose and mouth didn't match up properly. So I had to search for a different reference to use.
This led me to finding this image. Which featured red lines that set up the eyes nose, chin and mouth. So I began the modelling again.
Using the create polygon tool I first began work around the eye outlining the area. And then extruding outwards, then I did an outline of the outside of the mouth and nose. Once I had them outlined I began to 'Append Polygon' ande bridge together to the two pieces. Allowing me to fill in the rest of the face.
I did originally mirror the eye and the mouth section and use duplicate special. Which in the begin it did work. Every piece I placed on one side appeared on the other, but later on that stopped working along the lines so I deleted the half finished side and just started full work on one side to be duplicated onto the otherside.
Once I have finished the model I think I will be using deformers to create the animation. Hopefully that will go well. I have currently had trouble with using maya on my laptop as the maya is 2011 and the university's is 2012. 'Ignore Version' is checked but at the file freezes when trying to open it. So hopefully that will open when I get home.
Maya did not work when I got home so I had to come back at 7pm into the labs, uni is rather eerie at this time. But it had the advantage of being quiet I finished the model and then smoothed the typography giving a nice clean finish.
The ears were just going to have to be cut from the main model as they were quite unnecessary on the grand scale so I didn't include them. But that didn't affect the overall outcome.
Rendering has been difficult each frame does render but trying to create a movie out of it that works in real time just doesn't work. So I've only got a playblast of my animation. I'm quite happy with it, considering how hard I've worked on it and how long it has taken me.
Hopefully when I got a chance to do this project again I'd space my time out better and not leave things until last minute. Considering what I managed to do in such little time. I could have done so much more with extra time.
Finding reference photos have proven difficult. I originally did photographs of myself to be modelled and animated. But when it came to trying to model them they were just unusable. I had to search around on the internet- google mainly to find human head refences.
I found one and began to model only to find out that they levels of the eyes, nose and mouth didn't match up properly. So I had to search for a different reference to use.
This led me to finding this image. Which featured red lines that set up the eyes nose, chin and mouth. So I began the modelling again.
Using the create polygon tool I first began work around the eye outlining the area. And then extruding outwards, then I did an outline of the outside of the mouth and nose. Once I had them outlined I began to 'Append Polygon' ande bridge together to the two pieces. Allowing me to fill in the rest of the face.
I did originally mirror the eye and the mouth section and use duplicate special. Which in the begin it did work. Every piece I placed on one side appeared on the other, but later on that stopped working along the lines so I deleted the half finished side and just started full work on one side to be duplicated onto the otherside.
Once I have finished the model I think I will be using deformers to create the animation. Hopefully that will go well. I have currently had trouble with using maya on my laptop as the maya is 2011 and the university's is 2012. 'Ignore Version' is checked but at the file freezes when trying to open it. So hopefully that will open when I get home.
Maya did not work when I got home so I had to come back at 7pm into the labs, uni is rather eerie at this time. But it had the advantage of being quiet I finished the model and then smoothed the typography giving a nice clean finish.
The ears were just going to have to be cut from the main model as they were quite unnecessary on the grand scale so I didn't include them. But that didn't affect the overall outcome.
Rendering has been difficult each frame does render but trying to create a movie out of it that works in real time just doesn't work. So I've only got a playblast of my animation. I'm quite happy with it, considering how hard I've worked on it and how long it has taken me.
Hopefully when I got a chance to do this project again I'd space my time out better and not leave things until last minute. Considering what I managed to do in such little time. I could have done so much more with extra time.
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