Trouble Shooting, Trouble Blending, Trouble In Maya Paradise...

Well maybe that's a but dramatic, but still.

SO i'm in the home stretch of my rigging process - before the final bind and weight painting. Working on the blendshapes and binnding tests has highlighted some aspects that need to be tweaked.

Due to the lack of bone/joint in the jaw, I can't get the teeth to move with the blending faces. So instead of my September reaction (which would have been panic), using and abusing Maya these last couple of weeks have given me potential solutions to this. As the mouth wont be moving THAT much in my animation, i've decided to add Set Driven keys to the upper and bottom set of teeth so I can rotate these via the head control when needed.

After being mocked by the eye brows, i've decided to create a separate blend shape for each eyebrow so I can control them individually without affecting the rest of the face.

These are probably the longest way to do things, but i'm trying to think practically, about the skill set I currently have, and how I can apply what i've learnt. AND i'll be the one animating her so i'll know where everything is and what it does :D

Some quick renders!

LATE NIGHT BLEND SHAPE UPDATE
SO after refusing to be bested, I wanted to investigate the mystery of my dodgy blendshape eyebrows even further. After lots of tests I realised that my issue was that I was just moving the eyebrow object on the new blendshape face instead of moving the vertices!

So now that i've done that all blend faces are loving me and working properly =D

I've also been looking at other models for a bit of inspiration.

Time to revisit the textures. I'm thinking of using Maya's paint feature...

Music to blend to: 
Ghost Love Score - Nightwish
8-Bit Bjork!! Stonemilker/Unravel - Bjork

Week 19: Going Live, Going Hungry, Going for Pizza

Yep.

Been doing a lot of group work this week for our Going Live project - its going to be taking up a bit more time than I realised, so I need to reorganise my schedule to make sure that i'm maintaining my final project.

What's good is that it's given me the chance to experiment a bit with more stylised designs - which again is something out my comfort zone. I'm definitely getting more comfortable with doing it, and its been fun to try out different things!

My designs for the matriarchs and ogre for our Going Live project

I've also carried on with my daily pose practices to keep my comfortable with anatomy, and test our different movements, and after talking to Barry about my project, I think this has been a good idea. 

From the beginning I knew that this project had to be simple (cause it's just me), which meant I had to choose an area of focus. And while my programme of study is music's contribution to character design, I know this would be addressed and tested in the pre-production process. Which left the story, environment and animation to contend with. By keeping the story and environment simple it means I can place a large majority of my focus on animating - mainly the dance sequence. 

By practising poses I feel like i'm gearing myself up for working on different angles, positions and perspectives. I'm going to start doing daily dance pose practices too so there's a direct link! I've potentially got Cristina to do the dance sequence which would be great! And I really want to give myself a couple of months to work on it and refine it!

Once i've finalised the rig and weight painted i'm hoping to start doing tests at the beginning of the month.

Success and hunger.

Music to mull and art to:
Billie Holiday: Solitude


RIGGING UPDATE: Although I may not need it, I decided that I wanted to create rig-able eyelids for my character so she can blink on demand!! Whilst I was at it I also rigged the eyes so they move on demand. 

Took me a while to find the best way to do this, and although I considered blendshapes, I felt i'd have more control if I created and rigged the lids. Now I need to work out how to attach the eyelashes and do blendshapes them i'm done!
RIGGING UPDATE- UPDATE: I've been working on my blend shapes which has been lots of fun. And FINALLY after 2 days i've figured out how to get my eyelashes to follow my eyelids sweep blink!!  After looking at heaps of tips (and non working) I figured out that by selecting the eyelash, then the eyelid and hitting WRAP I could get them to work together!

Here is my character throwing some serious shade.

I've tweaked a couple of the vertices on the lashes so they don't cross over to dramatically with their opposites, but all in al VERY happy! I'm probably now going to need to add a jaw bone to get the teeth and tongue to connect to for my blendshapes

So it's 5am....

And I think that's a perfectly acceptable time to blog and announce that I have FINALLY finished rigging (not including the face or weight painting, but still).

It's been a much longer process than I expected the second time round, but mainly due to the complexities of the rig. I DEFINITELY learnt a lot from this process, and again I feel like I know Maya a little better. But the main WIN from this is that I can now spot issues with the rig and know how to address them / where to look to amend etc. I usually would have had a wtf moment and restart from my last point, but working with the Node, Connection and Script editors has really helped.

A rest from Rigging

Back to some drawing.

Decided to redo my model and expression sheets for my updated character. I've also be doing daily pose practices which I think it's really helping and giving e more confidence to tackle various positions.

Aiming to redo my storyboards next AND make a 3D Previs. As busy as Going Live will be I really feel like it's going to arm me with the skills and confidence I need to really push this project forward... especially cause i've never done this before. ha.

Week 18: Reflect, Re-Interpret, Realise

New term, new modules and a nice new list of things to do!

Going Live
Firstly we've started our Going Live projects for this semester! In a group with Kaitlin (PM) Natasha, Cristina, Ritchie, Sushma, Ritchie, Amit, Ioanniss and Carlo. We're still discussing ideas of what we'd like to produce and i've already been having a think about where my skills would b best used.

I've already put myself forward to maintain the blog as my OCD permits it ha. Im also thinking that i'd be suited well to modelling (cause i'm loving it) and it would be potentially a good chance to model something that isn't a female human like my last 2 models! I'm also keen to help with the design / concept art etc. But i'd also love to try out any effects what we'll need as well as the animating process itself - which i'm sure we'll all be doing due to the work load.

Lots to do but i'm excited and feeling confident about it.

Reflection on Practice
Had a great session today which really really got me thinking about my processes, approach and the ways in which I evaluate myself and work. In terms of my work it really had me considering things I hadn't previously considered.

In terms of my journey so far during this course I really feel like i've learnt alot practically and about how I work best - music being a main driver, one that i knew was important, but especially so and I can link this to everything I do in some shape of form.

Here's my Reflective Learning Map.

I've definitely gone from the 'have I bitten off more than I can chew' stage to the 'bring it on!' stage. I'm so much more productive, picked up new skills, more confident in my art and trying new things, bit i've also picked up on where my weaknesses lie and how I can address these.

Although throwing in a but of Justin Bieber for the confidence i'm beginning to feel about my art, and the beat that was in my head when I was considering my map... obvously a lot of the lyrics don't apply, but the essence is there HA.

We also did some Reflective Dialogue - this could be with anyone, and the first person that popped into mind was Jim Morrison, which surprised me cause I thought it would be someone that I feel is directly impacting my creativity at the moment like Janelle Monae.

But after having my imaginary convo with Mr Morrison, I realised that i'm really seeking to also improve my storytelling skills (especially for personal projects), and making sure I keep the essence and core theme of my story throughout, and I feel like Morrison nails what with most of his poetry and a lot of his music with The Doors - 2 different ways of story telling but storytelling never the less. It helped A LOT and I pulled together some tips to help my writing flow.


And finally some nifty Structured Reflection - Recall, Relive, Re-Interpret, Respond. After flashing back to the horrors of dicovering UV mapping in semester one, this practice really REALLY helped me to see it in a different way and get something completely positive out of it.

Not only has UV mapping practice helped, but the Re-Interpret / Respond part made me consider the reasons why I haven't liked it as much as i'd hoped, especially due to my art /painting background, and how I can address this to make it more fun and positive for me =D

LESSONS LEARNT:

1. Listen to music when rigging to enhance to productivity and 'flow'
2. From Jim M on storytelling: 
• Empty the closet first and let the words flow 
• Create a story to a beat
• Keep the core and essence of the story you're trying to tell
3. UV Mapping - Find an alternative way to enjoy it. Paint the face as I normally would in photoshop (a front and side view), THEN splice and shape to fit the UV map (similar to mapping a real face to a model!) 

Productions, Precisions and Practice

I've FINALLY gotten round to working on my production timeline for my final project! As this is my first one I had a little scout around Google to find some thorough examples to make sure I haven't missed out anything. Also found a blog with some really useful advice.

The blog also directed me to the PERFECT video, which really captures what i think i'm going for with this in terms of texturing, movement and lighting!!


It's been really useful to see a full breakdown of what's needed and how much work there is to do O_O, but in terms of pre-production a lot of this stuff has been done which is good! But it has highlighted that i've neglected my environment, so will be bending Nicola's ear for some advice!

I've also decided to redo my storyboard/animatic so I can make sure that everything is locked down ahead of animating. I also need to start locking down my dance sequence and redesign for the music.

In terms of other projects, Amit's decided to rework his, and i'm gonna we working on some new designs and concept art this week! I'm a massive fan of the new idea and it's something i've looked at for previous projects. Will update with with designs later on! It's all great practice for me too and means i'm drawing everyday which is great.

Music to influence the concept art for Amit's project:
Porcupine Tree
Radiohead


RIGGING UPDATE: The legs are FINALLY done!! This is taking a bit longer than I initally planned bit there's lots to get my head around and I feel like its giving me real insight into the animation process and how i'll go about controlling it!

Just the arms to go.. and will think about a different system for the face.

Week 17: Clash, Clans, Cons

I've still been having a massive think about how I want to texture my character and the look i'm going for for my final project, and im still undecided. ALSO I did very much like the look of the style in the Clash of Clans advert, so this is something I might explore and test out.


I'm also still keeping up my sketching and testing out different colouring techniques/styles to see if this is something I could apply to my project/model. Also having fun with posing to make sure i'm not just focusing on my go to, which is portraits. These also link into my personal projects, and will hopefully get me prepared for my DeeCon comic.

I've also been doing a little bit of clean us and got some advice from Sean - some of the extra armour geometry was penetrating the main model which would cause issues when I animate so I've cleaned these up and made sure i'm paying attention to them in smooth and low-poly mode! I've used the snap tool and my keen (not so keen) eyes to try and get the extra topology to lie as close to the model as possible without interfering with it too much.

SO for now i've decided to just rigging her to do some testing and maybe texture after!

RIGGING UPDATE:
I've been thinking quite a bit a bout my rig and decided I wanted to try something a lot more advanced than i'd done for my semester 1 project - mainly because I felt this would help me understand other techniques and increase my skills and learn a bit of MEL scripting (I also like a challenge).

I'm using the Digital Tutors Advanced Character Rigging In Maya tutorial and it's tricky but i'm finding it quite fun and relaxing!

I also wanted to use  more complex rig because i've been thinking ahead to my story and for the dance movement that's needed, I think the flexiplane route would be a really good way to go, and help my characters movements look a bit more exaggerated.