Friday, December 16, 2011

Walk Cycle 2 : Option 3 (Joe walking up the stairs and jump)


This is my second walk cycle. I chose this one instead of the emotive one because i thought it would be more fun to try out what i have learnt from walk cycle 1:standard walk cycle, this time with a climb on a stairs and then a jump, next landing safely on the ground and then finally standing straight up again to do his celebratory applause for completing the jump safely.

And yes it has been fun. Like standard walk cycle, i have learnt so much from when i first started and i think i did well. My research for this one  is this image here 


I've been told by my lecturer that this is a correct one to follow. I feel that i did a good job, i'm happy with it and i hope you feel the same way:) Here is a video of the back perspective view,


And the side view also.

 


   

Standard Walk Cycle


This is my standard walk cycle. I learnt and exercised  from this project, key poses (contact, down, passing, up, contact), hang time, fine-tuning, timing and gravity. Following reliable walk cycle poses like this one here


I like this one because its really clear cut. Especially the part with the height. It helped me a lot to get the basic blocking right so i would recommend this one:)
The challenges i faced were particularly the hands. When i first started out, they were moving back and forth so quickly because i was trying so hard to pose them and keyframe them with the blocking poses by following the walk cycle pictures like the one above and what i realised after that was i should be syncing them with the movements of the leg (right hand out, left leg out) instead of depending on pictures so much.
Then i learnt about creating hang time with one keyframe at the front and back of the main one.

And here is the side view also for better viewing,

and also the front view,

 


Hope you like my standard walk:)

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Big Dog Animation

For this animation, we had to make use of the pendulum effect too so that it looks smoother when it moves. Paying attention to the weight and anticipation is really important in this exercise because it really shows whether we understand those principles or not because Big Dog is falling and moving, trying to regain its balance. So what i did was make sure the body only rotates when two legs moving in the same direction hit the ground to stabilize itself! That's when the weight will shift! And i moved two legs at one time to synchronize them. Something funny was, my Big Dog somehow turned out to move like a lady. It led me to thinking, is the animator a girl or guy possible to tell from just watching the animation?

     

Weight Shifting animation

This is my joe rig doing weight shifting. It may look short and simple but weight shifting can not be done without any thinking and calculation. The important thing about this is to be attentive to which leg is shifting so that it looks like the weight is there. And the body cannot be jerky or not smooth. Have to think 'pendulum'.



     

   

Character Development

Research and planning

I got inspired when I was searching through pictures of superheros and all of them were young and strong and able-bodied. Like how spiderman’s body transformed after he got bitten by the spider, it shows just how much comic artists liked to make their characters seem perfect. So I wanted my character to have a flaw but live with it and adapts to it to make himself stronger. 


At first I wanted to put the flaw on one of the senses in located at the head. Visually-challenged was a good option because it didn’t affect anything else, like the hearing which is very important to fend off enemies coming from every direction but comic character, Daredevil, has already that flaw and since I already mentioned how important hearing is, I wouldn’t go on to say why I didn’t choose that after.


So I thought about the body parts again and I thought hey the leg would be different. Like how if a pirate in the past loses one of his leg and uses a prosthetic leg, he would walk really clumsy. I wanted my character not to be clumsy but very agile and fast even with a prostatic leg.

I added in the medieval era and crossbows and I thought it was similar to Van Helsing! However, my story is different from Van Helsing’s. Mine was about a boy learning how to lose his anger and hate and be focused on the sense of justice instead in his journey and van helsing was about a hero doing the right thing all along because he was trying to get rid of evil. 
                               

                                 

I wanted my character to be in a fantasy world set in the olden days which makes the environment more interesting. And to make him more memorable, I decided to make my superhero a little more different so I made him young and gave him a prosthetic leg and a signature walking stick. In my research on prosthetic legs, I found this story about a great and kind man who never stopped serving the society in every way he can until he can no longer do so. So I thought I would share it on my blog too
J
http://www.bowen-therapy.com/index.php?inhalt=bowen-therapy.history
Things i thought about when creating my character
1)Emotive nature of the story – Fantasy
2)Environment of the character – he grew up alone with his grandfather and trained hard to make himself strong enough to defeat the faeries
3)Physical capabilities – Strong arm, flexible body, one prosthetic leg
4)Strength – Righteous, brave, determined and smart
5)Weakness – Filled with hate for faeries
6)Emotive capabilities – Always holding on to his walking stick, squinting his  eyes when he is suspicious or coming up with a plan
7)Accessories – Costumes (shirt, lace up vest, waist sash tie, boot and wooden prosthetic leg)
                           - Props (Crossbow and magic walking stick/ telescope)
8)Surface Texture and Color – Fair skin, Gold Blonde hair, Green eyes, white shirt, brown vest and tie, prosthetic leg, black leather boot
Character Overview
1.      Name: Fendrel
Tagline: The Fairy Hunter
Brief Introduction: A young boy was born with legs that made him jump higher and run faster than anyone. His great ability soon travelled to the ears of the queen of evil fairies who felt threatened by his existence. When she came for him, his parents lost both their lives trying to protect him and he managed to survive secretly, though with only one leg left. Now he is back as a brave man with a prosthetic leg and legendary weapon: a magic walking stick that doubles as a telescope (for aim) and a crossbow to take revenge.

2.      This purpose is to tell a story..
In the medieval times, in a world where faeries are evil and feared, they come out to hunt and feed on human souls at night to stay young, Fendrel, a young man with a score to settle with the fairy queen, takes on the mission to kill all evil faeries. But first, he has to find the mysterious, cloaked merchant to exchange his normal walking stick for the magical one that opens the secret portal to the fairy land. The merchant ends up being his good friend and sidekick. And they both go on the journey together.

3.      What is the driving force of your character
Fendrel will forever remember the pain of losing both his parents and hate the faeries thus he is determined to take revenge and kill all faeries no matter how dangerous he knows it is. He will not let anyone or anything get in the way of his mission. However, through an incident, he finds out that his cloaked sidekick is actually a fairy but a good one and he has to find it in his heart to forgive her and accept that not all faeries are bad and not let hate control his life and perspective of everything. This helps in the end when he spares the lives of good fairies.

4.      What traits are unique to your character
Appearance:
1.      He has a wooden prosthesis leg and carries a red walking stick. He may not depend on the stick for balance much but it’s a very useful telescope to help him spot the flying faeries from far away. The wooden leg has springs instilled in them to aid in his movement well.
2.      He carries a crossbow with him and uses it skillfully for far range attacks. So fast and deadly, faeries don’t get the chance near him.
3.      His key features are his big eyes which are so green and his stare is unwavering which shows his hate and how unafraid he is.
Behaviour:
1. No one hates the faeries as much as fendrel does. He clenches his teeth every time he hears the word and hunts them down as soon as he sees one.
2. Fendrel walks with his chest up high and steady. Even though he holds a walking stick.
3 . He hardly smiles because he does not let his guard anytime for anything. Not even humor.

5.      Write a short dialogue sequence between your character and another person.

Fendrel: Two apples.
(Storekeeper glances at him)
Storekeeper: You know what they say about green eyes, it’s the faeries’ eyes.
(Fendrel clenches his fist and glares at him)
Fendrel: Do not even compare me to those filthy creatures.
Storekeeper: It is only a joke! HAHAHA!
(Fendrel remains still, glare not softening at all)
(Storekeeper’s laughter dies down immediately)

My drawings. This is not my forte but i tried this is how my character would somewhat look like.



other poses:


       

SPIDEY: 2 other poses

This is a continuation from the first spiderman pose. I went to research a little more on spiderman's signature poses and i found some really unique ones. Before i carry on, i want to say how much i like working with this rig because its so fun! Spiderman just looks like he is in the air in MAYA and can work any crazy pose you give him! Here are my two other poses. I hope you like them:)


This is one i really like, spiderman looks so alert and 'springing with action' and i think i did i pretty good job with this one:) I liked that i managed to keep the feeling of spiderman's feelings in that picture but making changes to the angle.


                       
   
Spiderman over here is swinging himself through the city again and i like how this picture captures his flexibility and strength. As you can see i had some struggle with keeping the shoulders from looking droopy. Here is what i have right now after trying for quite awhile but i'll keep looking into it:)

     

Rigging: Woman Pose, Weight painting

POSE 1



 
POSE 2






POSE3






When i was working on these poses, i found parts of the body that needed the weight shifting tool. The back and chest were the troublesome ones. When i bend the back, the whole chest would get sucked inwards and when i moved the arms down from their usual 90 degrees the chest would look deformed and it took awhile to got my model to look human again. There were too many areas i used the weight painting tool at already so i will show you one example here.

Before weight painting - very uncomfortable looking chest and back area.



     

Weight Painting process and after


TADAA!! Don't you think it looks much better? :)

And here is a picture of my foot controller. It works pretty well:) And i'm glad it did after all that hard work!