Henerz 3D Character Animation Blog: March 2011

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Reference videos (more learning)

Unlike the rest of my class I am using blender instead of 3D Studio Max for my assignment as I am much more familiar with this package and at this stage I think my work would benefit more from sticking to what I know best rather than trying to learn something new this late in the game. I will learn other 3D packages though (3DSM and Maya) to broaden my abilities and be more prepared for industry work.

Due to this it is important that I do my outside learning because the lectures in class are based on Max.

Topology Overview: The Head

http://www.blendercookie.com/2010/01/28/topology-overview-the-head/

This is a very useful reference video to show good ways to model a human head/face. (Not a tutorial).

Notes:

Blender 2.5 Animation

There is a new version of blender that I am trying to come to grips with, they have changed a lot more than the previous updates I am use to, but they seem to have improved it for the better. I did not realise until now that I could get the version of blender which is why I tried to follow the Bouncing ball tutorial using the older version and it was very difficult indeed and very time consuming as well, because it was really quite different. Now I have Blender 2.56 I will go back and see if I can improve on my animated bouncing ball.

This is a short tutorial to show some of the new animation features in blender 2.5

http://cgmasters.net/animation-tutorial.html

Notes:

Week 2 work

https://vle.anglia.ac.uk/Modules/2010/EJ315001S/SiteCollectionDocuments/3D%20Character%20Animation%20-%20Overview.pdf

This week our lecture was a brief overview of character animation. We learnt about good modelling techniques in order to have a character that is practical to rig, this included things like having more circles of vertices at areas that need to crease more such as joint like a shoulder or an elbow, it was also recommended to use armor to cover up such areas so you don't need to worry about your model creasing badly. It helps to have big joints as well.

It was recommended to use reference sketches that are to scale to help you model your character.

You need to consider how you will model your hands, use glove hand modelling if you do not plan to move individual finger much, in my case I think I probably will like to have some proper fingers for my character.

Consider the mesh geometry so when you com to moving areas like the face, you will be able to create goo expressions.

We talked about offset movement, anticipation, weight transfer, exaggeration and different types of movement, such as vertical and projectiles (all of which I have already studied in my 2D animation module), these are all things I need to consider when modelling and animating my character.

The lecture also discussed camera angles, which can give you different perspectives and some types are ideal for certain types of scenes. A camera can be very useful when making an animation.

Bouncy ball