This is my Playblast video of my Joe Rig's step and jump animation:
Making the steps became surprisingly simple after going through the walk cycle as both are very similar, with the exception of elevation change as the step progresses. Making the jump, on the other hand, was fairly hard but still manageable. I decided to make my jumping animation similar to a standing-broad jump as I am very familiar with the keyposes (since us students do standing-broad jumps a lot back in primary and secondary school).
Monday, December 19, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Project: Walk Cycle Animation
These are Playblast videos of my Joe Rig walk cycle animation at three different angles:
Making these animations weren't too tough for me since I got prior experience in dealing with walk cycle animations. Regardless, making them were still tedious and hard, especially considering how the rig has no neck and very thin limbs. The lack of a neck make the animation appear unrealistic and make me skeptical to animate the head. The thin limbs jerk a lot in the earlier stages of animating, forcing me to do frame-by-frame keyframing at times. Still, I am proud of my animation.
This is the reference I used:
Making these animations weren't too tough for me since I got prior experience in dealing with walk cycle animations. Regardless, making them were still tedious and hard, especially considering how the rig has no neck and very thin limbs. The lack of a neck make the animation appear unrealistic and make me skeptical to animate the head. The thin limbs jerk a lot in the earlier stages of animating, forcing me to do frame-by-frame keyframing at times. Still, I am proud of my animation.
This is the reference I used:
Monday, December 5, 2011
Project: Character Sketch Design and Appearance
These are the final sketches of my character, Jaden Highland.
Due to limitations in free-hand drawing, and my lack of skill in it, I had to modify the pictures slightly with Adobe Photoshop to show the character's full-body.
Description:
As mentioned in my previous post, Jaden wears a blindfold despite not being blind. Hence, its implementation is crucial in the character design. One thing to note is that Jaden was never meant to be feminine appearance-wise, hence she was given a somewhat bulky but mostly athletic built to fit in with the universe she was in. This can also be seen in her arms, where muscles are barely visible, along with the width of her body and her proportions being similar to a male (wide shoulders, thinner hips). However, her hair was kept long and flowing to preserve her feminism. She was given a revealing, strapless top to represent her vulnerability as, though powerful she may be, she was still young, immature and mortal.
When it comes to color, her blindfold and hair will be black to represent the gloominess and darkness of the storyline and situation she was thrown in. Her top apparel will be made dark purple to display her capability to control both Light and Dark (Blue + Red = Purple).
These are previous sketches done before I finalized the design of her head and face.
To be frank, I was already satisfied with my first sketch but I decided to continue exploring other possible facial features. I tried shortening her hair, making her face chubbier and skinnier but ultimately, my first design was chosen as it fits her character best.
Inspirations
Due to limitations in free-hand drawing, and my lack of skill in it, I had to modify the pictures slightly with Adobe Photoshop to show the character's full-body.
Description:
As mentioned in my previous post, Jaden wears a blindfold despite not being blind. Hence, its implementation is crucial in the character design. One thing to note is that Jaden was never meant to be feminine appearance-wise, hence she was given a somewhat bulky but mostly athletic built to fit in with the universe she was in. This can also be seen in her arms, where muscles are barely visible, along with the width of her body and her proportions being similar to a male (wide shoulders, thinner hips). However, her hair was kept long and flowing to preserve her feminism. She was given a revealing, strapless top to represent her vulnerability as, though powerful she may be, she was still young, immature and mortal.
When it comes to color, her blindfold and hair will be black to represent the gloominess and darkness of the storyline and situation she was thrown in. Her top apparel will be made dark purple to display her capability to control both Light and Dark (Blue + Red = Purple).
These are previous sketches done before I finalized the design of her head and face.
To be frank, I was already satisfied with my first sketch but I decided to continue exploring other possible facial features. I tried shortening her hair, making her face chubbier and skinnier but ultimately, my first design was chosen as it fits her character best.
Inspirations
Illidan Stormrage
Warcraft Franchise
Inspired Jaden's blindfolded appearance and her dual powers (Light and Dark. Good and Evil).
Starkiller a.k.a Galen Marek
Star Wars Franchise
Adobe Flash Drawing of Jaden Highland
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Project: Character Design
Name: Jaden Highland
Tagline: Mistress of both Light and Dark
Catchphrase: "I am not blind!"
Brief Introduction: Jaden was a simple, 20 year old young lady, forced into maturity when her life came crumbling down in the midst of war.
Story
In a fantasy universe filled with mythical creatures, aliens and magic lives Jaden Highland, a human female and daughter of a pair of war heroes. Living her entire life without a father, Jaden was forced to look after herself throughout her childhood, though she still maintained her childish demeanor, constantly playing pranks on her triplet siblings. Though young, she was able to master the use of magic naturally, going so far as to be able to control both Light and Dark magic. She despised the occupation of an enemy faction, the Cultists, within her home planet, never trusting them or their leaders. She could do little about it, as her people, the Salvagers, lost the war.
However, she was forced into maturity when she was the only survivor of an assault upon her family by the government. Vengeful, she secretly formed her own rebellion, which she inevitably leads despite her youth. Forming new alliances and fighting with Light and Darkness on her side, she strives for a better future for her people. Her enemy was an aged man, known to many only as Dark Viper and the one who slaughtered her family. Little did she realize that Dark Viper had a connection to her past.
Driving Force
The death of her parents made her realize how terrible the toll war has taken upon her people. She wished to end the occupation and restore the Salvagers to their former glory, going so far as to risk her own life in the process. She also wished to avenge her family by hunting down and slaying Dark Viper, although she soon learned he was her seemingly deceased father, the only thing staying her blade from ending his life. Upon uniting the entire world against the Cultist, she made one final stand against them and defeated them, though the cost was her own father. Her ultimate sacrifice was her former life, as she gave it up to become the new Queen of the Salvagers, since they desperately needed a new ruler.
Traits
Appearance:
1) One of her key features is her blindfold, which she always wear and was rarely seen taken off. Due to her naturally strong magical potential, her eyes give out a blue glow as bright as a flashlight. To avoid blinding others, she wear the blindfold to block the glow. Fortunately, her glowing eyes allows her to see through one solid object, namely her blindfold, so she is not truly blind.
2) She is noticeably tall, towering an average man and capable of doing things that are otherwise difficult for an average woman to do, such as reaching out for tall objects or overpowering a man in combat.
3) Jaden has mastery over Light and Dark magic, something which she displays by causing her katana to glow either blue, red or purple. Due to this, she is able to control good and evil magic and allows her to take down almost any adversary.
4) Her katana stands out from most in that it has a carving on the blade, saying, "I love you". It was unknown to her where the carving comes from but it was then revealed that her father personally carved it for her mother in their youth. This carving is the one thing keeping Dark Viper's sanity in check.
Behaviour:
1) Despite the situation she was in, Jaden maintained a playful, sarcastic and somewhat childish demeanor. She happily jokes around with her fellow rebels and tries to keep everyone in high spirit. However, rather ironically, she was rarely seen smiling. Only during combat or after traumatizing experiences will she get serious.
2) She was one of the only known warriors of her time to fight in the Reverse Grip fighting style, that is holding her katana in the grip with the blade facing backwards. Regardless, she fight as gracefully as any warrior and was able to best many other warriors in combat.
3) She was also very humble, almost unnaturally as said by one of her fellow rebels. She never claim to be a great warrior despite her unique fighting style and she especially refuses to be acknowledged as a great leader, even though she brought the Salvagers to victory. Regardless, she accepts almost all praises given to her by her friends.
Short Dialogue
Jaden: What are you looking at?
Rebel: Your blindfold miss. Are you blind or something?
Jaden: Yeah sure. I'm blind and I can see perfectly well that you have three rings on your right index finger, one of them ruby and the other two sapphire.
Rebel: What? How'd you know that?
Jaden: I am not blind! I can see through my blindfold.
Reed: Don't listen to her soldier. The blind beauty can't see anything.
(Jaden grabbed a nearby food and threw it into Reed's face)
Jaden: Hah! How'd you like that?
Reed: Mmm. Tasty actually.
Jaden: You want some more?
Tagline: Mistress of both Light and Dark
Catchphrase: "I am not blind!"
Brief Introduction: Jaden was a simple, 20 year old young lady, forced into maturity when her life came crumbling down in the midst of war.
Story
In a fantasy universe filled with mythical creatures, aliens and magic lives Jaden Highland, a human female and daughter of a pair of war heroes. Living her entire life without a father, Jaden was forced to look after herself throughout her childhood, though she still maintained her childish demeanor, constantly playing pranks on her triplet siblings. Though young, she was able to master the use of magic naturally, going so far as to be able to control both Light and Dark magic. She despised the occupation of an enemy faction, the Cultists, within her home planet, never trusting them or their leaders. She could do little about it, as her people, the Salvagers, lost the war.
However, she was forced into maturity when she was the only survivor of an assault upon her family by the government. Vengeful, she secretly formed her own rebellion, which she inevitably leads despite her youth. Forming new alliances and fighting with Light and Darkness on her side, she strives for a better future for her people. Her enemy was an aged man, known to many only as Dark Viper and the one who slaughtered her family. Little did she realize that Dark Viper had a connection to her past.
Driving Force
The death of her parents made her realize how terrible the toll war has taken upon her people. She wished to end the occupation and restore the Salvagers to their former glory, going so far as to risk her own life in the process. She also wished to avenge her family by hunting down and slaying Dark Viper, although she soon learned he was her seemingly deceased father, the only thing staying her blade from ending his life. Upon uniting the entire world against the Cultist, she made one final stand against them and defeated them, though the cost was her own father. Her ultimate sacrifice was her former life, as she gave it up to become the new Queen of the Salvagers, since they desperately needed a new ruler.
Traits
Appearance:
1) One of her key features is her blindfold, which she always wear and was rarely seen taken off. Due to her naturally strong magical potential, her eyes give out a blue glow as bright as a flashlight. To avoid blinding others, she wear the blindfold to block the glow. Fortunately, her glowing eyes allows her to see through one solid object, namely her blindfold, so she is not truly blind.
2) She is noticeably tall, towering an average man and capable of doing things that are otherwise difficult for an average woman to do, such as reaching out for tall objects or overpowering a man in combat.
3) Jaden has mastery over Light and Dark magic, something which she displays by causing her katana to glow either blue, red or purple. Due to this, she is able to control good and evil magic and allows her to take down almost any adversary.
4) Her katana stands out from most in that it has a carving on the blade, saying, "I love you". It was unknown to her where the carving comes from but it was then revealed that her father personally carved it for her mother in their youth. This carving is the one thing keeping Dark Viper's sanity in check.
Behaviour:
1) Despite the situation she was in, Jaden maintained a playful, sarcastic and somewhat childish demeanor. She happily jokes around with her fellow rebels and tries to keep everyone in high spirit. However, rather ironically, she was rarely seen smiling. Only during combat or after traumatizing experiences will she get serious.
2) She was one of the only known warriors of her time to fight in the Reverse Grip fighting style, that is holding her katana in the grip with the blade facing backwards. Regardless, she fight as gracefully as any warrior and was able to best many other warriors in combat.
3) She was also very humble, almost unnaturally as said by one of her fellow rebels. She never claim to be a great warrior despite her unique fighting style and she especially refuses to be acknowledged as a great leader, even though she brought the Salvagers to victory. Regardless, she accepts almost all praises given to her by her friends.
Short Dialogue
Jaden: What are you looking at?
Rebel: Your blindfold miss. Are you blind or something?
Jaden: Yeah sure. I'm blind and I can see perfectly well that you have three rings on your right index finger, one of them ruby and the other two sapphire.
Rebel: What? How'd you know that?
Jaden: I am not blind! I can see through my blindfold.
Reed: Don't listen to her soldier. The blind beauty can't see anything.
(Jaden grabbed a nearby food and threw it into Reed's face)
Jaden: Hah! How'd you like that?
Reed: Mmm. Tasty actually.
Jaden: You want some more?
Week 4: Weight Shift Animation
This is a video of a weight shift animation exercise done:
Like the Big Dog, I had difficulty making it appear as if gravity and weight is being applied. Regardless, with a bit of up-and-down movement, this was achieved and added in an extra movement in the shoulder, knee and head for the sake of realism.
Like the Big Dog, I had difficulty making it appear as if gravity and weight is being applied. Regardless, with a bit of up-and-down movement, this was achieved and added in an extra movement in the shoulder, knee and head for the sake of realism.
Week 4: Big Dog Animation
i) If engineered or programmed badly, BigDog would fall over. Watch the full video again, and describe how BigDog’s legs move while walking– ie. what is the sequence of leg movements for one complete step? Use the terms BL, BR, FL, and FR for the back-left, back-right, front-left and front-right legs.
The Big Dog starts by moving its FL foot and BR foot simultaneously at the direction it was being pushed. This was done to maintain balance and to prevent the whole body from tipping over. After one step, the opposite legs (FR and BL) will move and this sequence will repeat until it regained its balance. As it raised its leg, the body raised slightly and dropped when the leg touches the ground. Needless to say that body is tilted due to gravity pulling it down as it lost its balance.
ii) Explain how this sequence of movements manages to balance BigDog’s body weight.
The moving leg acts as a form of a support for the body as the angle and the impact upon the ground stops the body from tipping over immediately. Hence, the lack of balance reduces with each step, eventually coming to a halt when balance is retained.
The moving leg acts as a form of a support for the body as the angle and the impact upon the ground stops the body from tipping over immediately. Hence, the lack of balance reduces with each step, eventually coming to a halt when balance is retained.
iii) Look at BigDog_kick_slow_motion.mov. Draw a storyboard of BigDog stabilising itself after being kicked.
You should draw the key poses. You don’t need to draw well – but you must show the leg positions and the body rotations around the X, Y and Z axes for each key pose.
Starting from the left, the first keypose is when the Big Dog is standing still. The second keypose is when the one frontal leg and the opposite back leg is raising. The body rotated and raised slightly and, though mechanical, the legs move in the arc. The rest of the legs remain still. On the third keypose, the moving legs touches the ground and the body lowered slightly. The second and third keyposes repeat with the body rotation gradually reducing. Eventually, the final frame would be the first keypose to show that it has regained balance.
The following are a pair of videos displaying a Big Dog model animated to resemble the original video:
Making the animation is deceptively hard as I made a total of 7 retries. The difficulty mostly comes from showing the weight in the movement of Big Dog and to show the lack of balance. This was achieved through rotation and up-and-down movement of the body. I am ultimately proud of my work as I worked very hard for it.
Week 3: Rigging
The following are screenshots of poses taken from the finished rig model:
Pose 1
Pose 2
Pose 3
Reverse Foot Lock
Other Screenshots
Rigging was a lot tougher than I ever expected and not to mention extremely tedious. I now have a new-found respect for 3D modelers. I learn a lot from the exercise, such as how to create our own attributes and controls, along with binding the skeleton to the model. These would be very useful in making our own 3D models and rigging it for animation. Pretty much sums up the saying, "Hard work always pays off.".
I faced a lot of difficulty in the rigging despite how straightforward the tutorial was. The tutorial never mentioned that the solution for IK handlers needs to be set to rotation, so when I was doing Pole Vectors, an error occurred and it took me a while to be able to find a fix. Also, weight painting was especially hard and tedious, especially considering how consistent testing is the only way to find out if the model works as intended. Ultimately, my model is somewhat faulty but, as seen above, still capable of posing. Majority of the faults were on the arms and especially the legs (the leg had difficulty bending).
Rigging was really a new experience for me, even though I've rigged a model on IN3D previously. Regardless, that model was simple in comparison to this bipedal one. I know I will return to the tutorial should I ever need to rig a model again.
Pose 1
Pose 2
Pose 3
Reverse Foot Lock
Other Screenshots
Rigging was a lot tougher than I ever expected and not to mention extremely tedious. I now have a new-found respect for 3D modelers. I learn a lot from the exercise, such as how to create our own attributes and controls, along with binding the skeleton to the model. These would be very useful in making our own 3D models and rigging it for animation. Pretty much sums up the saying, "Hard work always pays off.".
I faced a lot of difficulty in the rigging despite how straightforward the tutorial was. The tutorial never mentioned that the solution for IK handlers needs to be set to rotation, so when I was doing Pole Vectors, an error occurred and it took me a while to be able to find a fix. Also, weight painting was especially hard and tedious, especially considering how consistent testing is the only way to find out if the model works as intended. Ultimately, my model is somewhat faulty but, as seen above, still capable of posing. Majority of the faults were on the arms and especially the legs (the leg had difficulty bending).
Rigging was really a new experience for me, even though I've rigged a model on IN3D previously. Regardless, that model was simple in comparison to this bipedal one. I know I will return to the tutorial should I ever need to rig a model again.
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