4/29/10

ANIM 623: Lighting Test Stills

I know I already posted a video of this, but to give you an idea of what it takes to light and render a scene like this, here are a few stills from the animation.





I still have some tweaking to do before I'm done. Looks like it's time to buckle down and get to work.

Figure Modeling: The Contrapposto Standing Figure Part 3

This week we focused on refining our sculptures. I got it to the point where I was satisfied with it and didn't want to overwork it anymore, so I stopped. It's a fairly good likeness to Naked Lady, if I do say so myself.








Human Anatomy: Hands and feet

I'll just say this much: Hands, I like. Feet, I no like so much.






4/22/10

Human Anatomy: Ecorchè - Arm Muscles


Human Anatomy: The Muscles of the Arm

I'll never take picking up a pair of chopsticks for granted now. Having looked at just how many muscles there are in your arm whose sole purpose is to curl or extend your fingers, I am amazed!



This was my favorite one to draw this week.

This is supposed to be a satyr, I think. Just in case you are confused...

Figure Modeling: The Contrapposto Standing Figure Part 2

This week we focused on the lower half of the figure and on resolving the forms there. I am a little bit more pleased with this week's work than last week, mainly because the overall sculpture has more of a likeness to Naked Lady. I've never been one that likes rough sculpture, so seeing things a bit more resolved is kind of fun.








4/20/10

ANIM 623: Lighting Test

This morning while I was waiting for some stuff to get done that didn't require my computer, I let it sit and render out a low resolution video file of my animation. I have been playing with lighting for about the past week and I have discovered that lighting in Maya is not very intuitive. As you watch this, you'll see some artifacts that I hope to get rid of by the end of the semester. Essentially, after I light the darn thing and then spend some time tweaking the animation curves, all that is left is to render it out.

4/18/10

A.L.F.R.E.D. - Smoothing Out the Animation

I always budget way more time to this than is probably really necessary. After the animation is stepped out and blocked in, the next step is to basically put in the velocity of each of the parts in the scene. Essentially, all you're doing is changing the speed of transition between the XYZ coordinates of each piece via a velocity curve. (This is the point of the animation where I said, "Hey, I recognize those things! Those are from calculus. They tell you how fast an object is going!")

There are still some tweaks that need to be made here, but for the most part, I like what I am seeing.


Also, I discovered that I will probably get rid of the palace background. The specific shader I am using on the floor that essentially uses the background image, but allows you to cast shadows on it (kind of as a way to fake a background really quick), doesn't seem to be working with the fire particles. Every other piece of geometry is casting a shadow in the scene, except for the smoke. Ugh! So my solution is to build a background set, which actually shouldn't take long. I am much further ahead on this than I thought I would be. Keep forging ahead!

4/15/10

A.L.F.R.E.D. - Blocking Out Animation

Some of you may remember last semester when I was doing animation. Well, this is the blocking stage for what ALFRED is going to be doing for this class. Essentially, I am setting up the key poses first off to get a sense of timing. Next is creating smooth inbetweens of the animation until it gets all polished off.


Fun stuff. I am anxious to get this completed, but it is going to take some deep concentration.

Figure Modeling: The Contrapposto Standing Figure

This week in figure modeling we started work on a contrapposto pose. (Finally, Naked Lady gets her chance in the 3D spotlight!) The human body is amazing in how it knows how to keep balanced. In a contrapposto pose, one of the legs bears the majority of the weight of the body while the hips tilt to the side. The shoulders also tilt opposite of the hips in order to keep everything balanced. Go ahead, try it. Stand up from your computer and strike a pose. You'll see what I mean.



I had to cannibalize on the the Naked Men I sculpted earlier in the semester in order to have an armature. It was either that, or make another one. I took plenty of pictures of Naked Man #1 before I tore him down. It was a tender moment.










I mainly focused on getting the gesture of the upper body blocked out this time around. Next week, when I work on it, I will resolve the lower half (and probably wind up changing a lot in the process).

Human Anatomy: Ecorchè - Lower Leg Muscles



Human Anatomy: The Muscles of the Lower Leg

Who knew that your leg had so darn many muscles, most of them with the sole purpose of being able to move your toes and such?