Character Development & Animation
Aim - 1. Design and develop a character for subsequent rigging and animation
2. Design and develop a rig for an existing model.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the key principals of rigging and animation.
Week 1 - 28/09/11 - Research & Reference Gathering
In Week 1 was introduced to Charactor concepting, reference gathering and story building as well as how to discover correct proportions and work-flows that would be helpful in creating concepts; for example sillouetting and then adding layers of grey scale paint to see what forms appear which in turn enabled me to view a variety of shades and effects and therefore develop the most promising lines.
Ideas on the Theme
General Location of this is set in England in World War II. Mad scientists are experimenting on prisoner's of war in an underground lab. The injections were mixed accidentally and contaminated with Plutonium and Uranium. Over a period of seven horrifically painful days and nights this turned these disabled mentally ill POW's into zombies. They invariably escaped and started eating everyone. The resident nurse trapped in the immense mile long destroyed underground lab has to fight off the hoards of Zombies.
Main Protagonist - A World Ward II Styled Nurse.
She is young - early twenties.
She has brown soft hair and is of average height.
Pale/ slight tan of skin.
Happy, out going, polite, hard working. Giggly. Strong willed when she needs to be.
Trained in the art of fighting since 6 years old..
Thin and under nourished she is surviving on worms, bugs and plants within some underground caves that she found. There is also a small under ground lake with some of those blind fish in it.
She has all the typical visual tells. - Nurse shoulder patches, a nurse Red Cross Hat, but her uniform tells a story in itself, scratched, ripped, bloody and dirty with the original white colour showing through; this is because she fights in water a lot and as it is a strong fabric it washes and holds its colour well over the year she is captive. I will also dress her in a Clean work uniform when conceptionalizing.
She has made two daggers from fabric and sharpened metal and or bones. She has a few weapons in her belt as well.
ALL she needs to fight effectively is...... speed.... agility... cunning.... stealth..... and the darkness as cover....
PLAN - Do quick sketch / Base mesh colour / Give relevant weapon.
QUESTIONS TO SELF
Head trouble? Who would play them in a film? Take Actresses Head and put it on. Pictures, ideas, trial and error.
Communication. Pictures. Has to show their Character so you can build MS.
look at proportions 7 heads 15/20K polys
CYlin - 10high/.12round
tight hair/hat something?
amazing hair/mixture polys/bulk/ - planes with alphas to add 3D Degree.
Week 2 - 04/10/11 - Concept Creation
In depth research into visual character conception. Props, equipment and research project, finished off designing the character's model sheets.
Below are three visual character background and story references when I was aiming for a spy type character. I did not proceed with this. I felt the concept was too unstable.
New Updated Character Ideas.
Main protgaonist - 1940's nurse. Against Zombies.
Progression of Character Conceptualisation
Production Notes and ideas to work on.
-- Front View -
-- Side View -
-- 3/4 -
Then Back.
Facial Expressions
Different Outfits - - Fighting / Work / Dress /
Gestures --
HOMEWORK - learn how to create a LEG RIG, pole vectors. Constraints. Make it hop on the spot.
--Developed this rig into my final Rig.
Week 3 - 10/10/11 - Edge Flow Dummy Project
Here I finalised the concept sheet.
Made save of Maya file - for animation - including.
Leg Hop rig -
Full body rig -
Arm rig with full hand - which then picks up ball and puts it onto shelf.
Plus did this with Character show Shots.
Week 4 - 17/10/11 - Modelling Clothes & Equipment
Finished Rig - IK all joints - Ball foot so on. Posed rig.
Model all character in 3d.
This with character - shots -
Character production shots below. From week 3-4 Only.
Week 5 24/10/2011 Monday - updates of the past 10 days.
Using Road Kill UV software. Uv's Before Hand.
Poly Modelling the Head -
UV'ing the dagger.
Week 7
Body Uv'ed
Life got amazing when I reached the point below.
Week 8 Finalizing Character
IMPORTANT
I visually looked at Levon's base mesh model to understand the correct core principles in relation to how to model the female form correctly. After visually studying Levon's base mesh - I was then able to create my own female character using the poly plane method of modelling which I found the easiest to use for this assignment because it allowed me to accurately model different areas of the female form like the eye and then connect them later when I wanted.
Since I would like my character in game to have cloth physics for 'some' of her clothing and I also want her to have interchangable outfits I have not deleted the 'skin' faces that are covered by the clothing.
eye ref - http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2010/168/9/2/Brown_Eye_Texture_by_jfreak86.jpg
jean ref - http://teenangster.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/indigo2.jpg
dagger texture refs - http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-prehistoric-bone-knife-model/633195
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/70219/70219,1248212722,2/stock-photo-skeletal-hand-clutching-butcher-s-knife-photographed-layered-with-textures-of-rust-34037392.jpg
I didn't use Z-brush for this model or any assets - I Felt there was no need.
Rigging and Animation Week 9
Character Rig - From Start to Finish.
My Video Link Below- Showing exactly what my rig can do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwCHJEYqERg&list=UUScnuqhn0OTR4Bf4nUD48zQ&index=1&feature=plcp
Including: Reverse Foot Control / IK Spline Spine Control / Knee and Elbow Pole Vectors / Clavicle Control / Finger Driven Keys.
Week 10 Skinning Video BELOW
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYurOAfhfsY&list=UUScnuqhn0OTR4Bf4nUD48zQ&index=1&feature=plcp
Animation Week 11 and 12
Task 01 - Collect images of strong idle poses of my character -
Strong Idle Poses of my Character in relation to her history.
Create an Idle using Max Rig tThat helps strengthen the character design. using my character history.
30-40 - Idle Frame (Extended idles) Doubt it.
Its a breath pose - 30-50 Frames - Its all ABOUT the pose - the breath is just a breath. For when the player puts down the controllers.
One of the Idle Poses 1 - Still
First Idle Animation Attempt Below -Crit was Good to keep it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT5mtpsrvJ4&list=UUScnuqhn0OTR4Bf4nUD48zQ&index=7&feature=plcp
First Extended Idle Animation Attempt Below- Crit was - Emphasize the angry fist movement a lot more. Named - Idle Extended.
Emphasized Extended Idle Video Maya File on the CD - Named - Idle Extended.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8BMHBm-RA&list=UUScnuqhn0OTR4Bf4nUD48zQ&index=8&feature=plcp
First Push Animation Attempt Below -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ndG6fE4Ks&list=UUScnuqhn0OTR4Bf4nUD48zQ&index=6&feature=plcp
MISC NOTES BELOW>
---- How u did the animations - reached this point ------ 4-6 SHOT THUMB NAIL SKECHTES ---
Model above
UV
Texure
Zbursh 1 thing BELT probbably
Fully rig it all
other learning rig
correct 2 animations push maybe -- full fisting
concept sheet for detailed / sharper.
ADD to blog site students 1
HAIR
3/4 pose + facial ones
ZBrush belt
normal map +spec
upload animations +Rig Test
video to blog - send to phil
fix Layering of Layers
--probably have to re do pole vectors - not boundcorrectly
clean hypershade - clean D saves all 100 lol - blog all
rig
weight paint
contraints- pole vectors -
3 pivot foot
(Notes - Dont stick to CSheet - For practicality. (Feet to close))
Haven’t Done Facial gestures - 2d poses - outfits - detailed animations. With more time and concentration it could all be improved and by using poly bake down methods and Z-Brush I would be able to improve that way There are mistakes with the transitions and orientations of some of the joints in the rig - for example the ball/toe joint of the right foot of the rig is incorrect - The weight painting is weak and some of the joints orientations and some of the Controllers are in correct with un frozen transformations as well.
