Post 14 - 'Relaxed' and 'minor injury' walk

Here are the first two animation cycles I have made. These were created using the pose-to-pose method as shown in the Gnomon Workshop DVD on animation fundamentals. I first created the beginning, middle and end poses. Then I blocked out the passing / in-between positions. These were created using the stepped tangent mode allowing for a clear understanding of the scene. Once happy with the timing and the poses, the tangents were converted into clamped / curved splines. Then, tweaks using the Graph Editor were made; keys were deleted and new keys made.


I am happy with both animations so far as they demonstrate a sense of weight distribution/balance and in the injury walk cycle some good offset limbs, as well as a delayed head spine. These have now been saved to the Trax Editor and so now I am going to begin work on the third cycle (major injury). This one will require another look at my game examples and maybe even some video reference of myself acting it out.


I also wanted to make an update on the progress on the Unity game engine. I have tried a couple of tests for importing the rig into it. These however didn't go so well. First off, the mesh when imported becomes distorted around the shoulders (although the animation does get imported). However, I have decided that I will not be pursuing this aspect into my project. The main reasons for this are:


1. I have very little experience with Unity and trying to use it effectively would take time away from animating and have an adverse effect on the quality.


2. Additionally, as the cycle motions would be the most likely sequences to import, it would (in my opinion) appear incomplete or missing parts of the project as the majority of it would be of death or assassination sequences which wouldn't make sense to then allow the player to make the character die. This seems to be a bit controversial and so for these reasons, I am focusing on animation and pipeline development.




Walk LINK
Minor Injury LINK

Post 13 - Work In Progress Presentation + marks

Today I had my work in progress presentation. All other animation students giving their presentations also were present and we each viewed each other's work. I gave my presentation using the web application Prezi. I feel that this went well. I broke down what I was going to cover and described the processes the project has gone through up until now. The main areas described were as follows:

• Updated project title and aim
• Breakdown of cycles and sequences (as described in post 07)
• Research resources sort after and used
• Software decisions (Maya and it's tools)
• Asset modelling
• Rig troubles and development processes
• Up to date and detailed timeline from now until the project hand in

I believe that the proposed timeline and project goals are realistic and achievable.


RESULTS

About a week later, I received the marks for the work in progress presentation. I received 16 out of 20 (approx 80% out of 100%). I am very pleased with this result. The feedback was very reassuring, with particular interest in the structure and the timeline that I proposed. This has given me some confidence in what I am aiming to achieve. The next step is to follow the time plan as closely as possible (this can be seen towards the end of my presentation via the link).


Prezi - LINK

Post 12 - Robin Butler Testing Agreement

I contacted Robin Butler (an Animator I wrote a case study on). I asked him if he would be willing to view my work and critique it. I've asked him to give feedback based on:


Quality of the sequence/s

How you would improve upon it

Suitability for video-game use (any changes needed to make them sufficient)

He agreed to help and I said that I would provide them in the form of YouTube links as and when they are finished. He suggested that it would be a good idea to try and get the animations into Unity 3d (a freeware game engine). This would be a great thing to do and think that if there is time to investigate this it would be time well spent. However, at this stage I do feel that I need focus on the animation side. However, I have downloaded Unity 3D and time permitting I will see what I can do with in the near future.

On top of Robin's feedback, I intend to critique my sequences myself. Hopefully the feedback that Robin will provide can then be used to improve and tweak the animations.


Robin Butler's website - LINK

Post 11 - Walk Cycle Mapping

A couple of weeks ago, I created a walk cycle using an earlier rig. I've decided to map this existing animation onto my newly established rig. This was achieved by consolidating all of the old rig's layers onto one layer and then importing it into the new rig's scene. This layer was then locked as a reference layer and the new rig was then animated using the stepped pose to pose method. Once this was done, the stepped tangents were changed into clamped tangents and mapped to minic the early animation. Once this was done, the odd layer/rig was removed and final tweaks and changes were performed.

As the clavicle control and other changes had been made, it was not an exact match. However, I am pleased with the results and have now saved this onto the Trax Editor. This required making a 'character set' of the rig. I also made a face sub character set, which encompasses the face. This means that any facial animations I make will be saved as a separate Trax animation and can be edited in the same way.  


I did come across a problem with Maya 2012 and that was that when a character set had been made, the Graph Editor could only show one curve at a time and not multiple ones. As I made a post on the CG Society, I got a response saying that it is a problem which Autodesk are currently working on. As I felt that this could be a major problem, I reverted back to Maya 2011. This was not a problem however, as all of the other tools I want to use are also part of the 2011 edition. 




Walk Cycle mapping - LINK 

Post 10 - Knife Modelling

Later on down the pipeline, I am aiming to create a few short combat sequences involving two figures. The weapon that I decided to try and use is a combat knife (as inspired by the Halo Reach Assassination sequences) I modelled the knife by using an image plane and importing placing a suitable knife template image. Then by using the 'Poly Modelling tool' in Maya, I traced the outline, then extruded and mirrored the handle to make it more 3 dimensional. I'm happy with the results and plan to use a series of key framed parented constraints. This will be tackled later on once I have finished the several initial cycles I stated I would create.

Original Image

Poly Model

Post 09 - PLAN B: The CONTINGENCY

As described on my last post, I was having a major problem with the Human IK rig and some functionality of the Graph Editor. I made my initial post on the 12th of July. As a contingency plan, I felt that it was in my best interest to plan for the worst. I had a choice of two options.


OPTION 1) Delete the Human IK rig (leaving me with a skeleton with no controls or Ik systems, but skinned clothing), and reconstruct the IK solutions and manipulators. This would be re rigging the feet, legs, hips, clavicles, arms, forearms, spine, neck and head. This would be a lengthy job and would need me to essentially reproduce the work I did for my last piece of work which took a number of weeks.


OPTION 2) Get the original Maya rig / mesh (which is already rigged and has controls etc) and import the clothing meshes and re-skinning them. This would also be a lengthy option, but the rig skeleton and controls would already be in place.


I decided as I didn't initially have a reply from the CG Society, to go for option 2. This would require me to 'pull an all nighter' and took from 6pm Tuesday the 12th, until 7am Wednesday the 13th. This may seem of of been a little crazy, but as the Human IK rig is different to that of the original rig, I couldn't import the skinning data of the clothing and so had to re-skin them. This did however give me a good opportunity to improve the original rig (constructed for an NSD module). Improvements other than the skinning of the clothing included:

• Spine joints 2,3 and 4 were re-skinned as influence covered too much of the torso.
• Hips upper and lower legs also re-skinned as too much pull was occurring in the hips area, effecting the skinning quality of the trousers / shorts.
• Advanced eye facial control nodes have had re targeted with new set driven keys (so now the eye lids open and close properly when the mesh is in smooth mode)
• All clothing meshes and the rig mesh have been given the custom 'Mesh Smooth' attribute for quicker animating and test rendering.
• The clavicle rig control's joint influence has been relocated closer to the neck, giving the manipulation a more natural look.

The rig now looks the same as the Human IK rig as al the same clothing models and rig meshes have been used. I feel that this was a smart move as the next day, I had the thread conversation with Shawn about both the Graph Editor problem, as well as the Human IK's uses. He said that although the Human IK can be keyframed, it is primarily used for Motion Capture and re-targeting. He said that any useful keyed animation would have to be on additional animated layers, increasing the workload 3 to 4 times (which I simply haven't the time to do).

Therefore, I have made the executive decision to abandon the Human IK rig and use the appropriately dubbed 'Contingency rig'. I am a lot more comfortable with this rig and feel that I will be able to get good results out of this rig in a shorter space of time. In addition, the stepped tangent function in the graph editor in much more accurate as there isn't a full body IK solver constantly trying to correct itself. 

It is a shame that I will not be able to use the Human IK rig in the way that I wanted to, however the way I see it, I now have a rig that I can plot motion capture data on and possibly use this for a future project. In addition, I will still be using other tools such as the Trax Editor, as well various 'Character sets and sub sets, the Graph Editor and hopefully the Sequencer.

So the project has gone as follows:

• Dee character rig to be used but not original enough
• My custom Maya rig to be used, but want to apply Human IK (FBIK)
• Custom rig has IKs attached so cannot be used, so made new rig
• Skeleton generator used and rebuilt rig, then applied Human IK
• Initial tests were successful, but cumbersome to use and Graph Editor / usage problem
• Fell back on original rig, but reskinned clothing and tweaked skinning / controls.

So the outcome is that I have now got a rig for motion capture data re-targeting, as well as a new and improved custom rig.

At this stage, I do not plan on using the Human IK rig as this project is more about key-framing as extensive use of the Graph / Trax Editor, but it would be good to at least experiment with motion capture data, so we shall see. The project is now currently back on track.

Post 08 - MAJOR Human IK issues!

Rotational Issues

Once established, I tried to animate using the stepped curve pose to pose method as I did with the first Maya walk cycle. To my horror, I couldn't edit the tangents of any rotational transforms in the Graph Editor. This was a major issues for me as I wanted to use the Graph Editor a lot and it is a big part of CG animation. I made a post on the CG Society website. The thread conversation between me and Shawn McClelland (Maya Product Designer: Autodesk Canada) can be viewed using this LINK.


The initial problem was that the rotational Human IK setup was set to 'Quaternion' and not 'Independant Euler'. This allowed me to now edit the tangents for all transforms from the Graph Editor. However, I asked him his advice on the Human IK solution as I found that using the Full Body/ Part Body IK setup was slightly counter intuitive when trying to create accurate poses (e.g. when trying to copy transform data from one foot to another would result in a slight snapping of other joints and so was very difficult to get full control). As I was finding it hard to do this, I asked Shawn's advice on the Human IK solver.


He confirmed that it is used mainly for re-targeting motion capture data, as well as being a system to quickly create non destructive editing of motion capture data. This would involve adding many layers of animation and so would increase the amount of work needed to be out into getting smooth and controlled results. This was a big concern of mine, but the advice and responses I received from him were extremely helpful and influenced me on my next move, which is explained on post 09.


A link to the video showing this problem can be found HERE, as well as below.




Robert Dyke / Shawn McClelland thread - LINK
Human IK / Graph Editor issues clip - LINK

Thank you to Shawn again for his help :-)

Post 07 - Additional Modelling & Skinning

Since setting up the Human IK, I wanted to add some other detail in order to create a series of animations with two different characters. I have created and skinned the shorts as well as some trousers, knee pads (a set for trousers and for the shorts), elbow pads and a stab vest). I have also changed the material attributes of the figure from grey to a skin colour. I have also altered the figure's chest to a white in order to appear like a t-shirt. These have all been skinned and placed them onto separate layers.

Armour

Trousers

These have been given an extra division so they appear much smoother. As I need to flip between the lower and higher resolution (for quicker animation and skinning); I have also added an additional attribute in the command panel, allowing for both divisions to be switched on the fly. I initially had a skinning problem with the chest plate when switching between high and low, but I resolved this by only skinning on the lower resolution and removing all of the non deformable history. (Note that the t-shirt colour has been added to the higher division so when the mesh is lowered, the white material attribute becomes scattered. This is not a problem however as the lower mesh is for skinning and quicker animating and all renders will be done using the higher division level).




I feel much better about this progress as I was concerned that any animation would suffer from the feeling of not being complete. Once I have fully tested the skinning and Human IK, I will begin to concentrate on animating. Most recently, I devised a plan of what animations I am going to be creating. This is a mixture of cycles and short animations involving two characters. They are as follows:


1) Walk cycle - Relaxed
2) Minor injury walk cycle - Clutching side, minor limp
3) Severe injury walk cycle - Very erratic walking, 'pain cycle'
4) Death one - Fall to knees, then stomach with arms up
5) Death two - Slips 'curves and twists', flips onto back
6) Close combat: Assassination one - punched then knife into chest
7) Close combat: Assassination two - sneak from behind, struggle then knife to slit throat
8) Close combat: Assassination three - punch blocked then kick to the side and knife to the head

This is the initial structure of what I intend to animate and are subject to change according to time and feasibility.

Post 06 - Life Drawing and the Ghomon Workshop

As mentioned in a earlier post, I have begun to attend life drawing sessions. I have continued this and feel that it is getting me up to speed with analysing weight as well as proportion and drawing skills. The following are a sample of images which I have done so far (although there are about 40-50 images so cannot show all of them). 


(PHOTOGRAPH SOME OF THEM AND UPLOAD).


They are taking a couple of weeks off as the organiser is moving into a gallery further in town, but in the mean time my supervisor suggested the website Posemaniacs.com, which is a great site for life drawing and is a very flexible way to get some quick drawings using their database of figure based images. I would be very interested to explore this site and get some drawings out of it.


One DVD series which I have begun to follow alongside the life drawing is Chris Kirshbaum's Character Animation (part of the Gnomon Workshop). This has shown me how to efficiently use and understand the Graph Editor. Below are a couple of tests and tutorials I have done using the first of this DVD series. These include the bouncing ball and the beginnings of a Maya walk cycle which has used the 'stepped' tangent pose to pose approach. Another Gnomon DVD that I have picked up is 'Pipelines for Video Games Animation by Scott Easley' This will help with the understanding of the Trax Editor and will be a good insight into how to approach an animation project.

Bouncing Ball - LINK
Maya Walk Cycle - LINK
Pipeline for Video Games Animation - LINK
Pose Maniacs - LINK

Post 05 - Reconstructing the Rig for Human IK

I wanted to use the Maya rig I created for my NSD module, however, as it is an already established rig with IK solvers and other effectors etc, I was unable to use the Human IK solver. In light of this, I made an executive decision and felt that the ability to use the Human IK solver would be extremely helpful; so any effort and time spent making this a possibility would be well spent. As a result of this, I quickly researched the skeleton generator (I tool I knew nothing about during my NSD rigging module) and deleted all but the head of the original skeleton. I will be using the same mesh as it still contains the facial blend shapes as well as the Face UI.

I created a new skeleton, lined it up with the mesh and then began the skinning process all over again. I then created the independent finger and toe set driven key controls so that these would function in the same way as in the original rig. The original head joints were then combined with the hierarchy of the recently generated skeleton. Once this was established, I began to box model some accessories (at this stage shorts and some knee pads). I intend to make a few more additions but these can be done along the way. I feel that it would be beneficial to have the characters in clothing as it would make a scene or animation clearer when more than one character was present in the shot and is better than having a simple anatomical rig. I plan on modelling a couple of weapons and possibly some light armour.


I have now applied the Human IK solver to the rig and created a control rig from it. This allows for IK and FK blending as well as many offer useful tools such as auxiliary effectors for object interaction and joint pinning. One thing which I didn't like about the Human Ik solver is the finger and toe controls. By default, these act as mini IK/FK controlled elements. When solved, my custom controls can no longer be used for digit control. To compensate for this, I configured the human IK solver to not include the digit joints. This resulted in the figure being able to construct a series of controllers which are not dependent of the main rig; therefore, the rig can be controlled up to the wrists and feet. The digits can still be controlled using the custom attributes. I have been testing this rig during each stage of development and so far has responded well.

Post 04 - Project Update Part Two: The Tech

In the last post, I wrote about changes I have made to the project brief, the inspiration that I will be looking into generally fleshed out my updated idea and why I have altered it. This post will be concerned with the technical side of the project and what would be at my disposal for animating.


I have finally decided to use Maya as supposed to 3ds Max as previously stated. This is because there are several animation tools available in Maya which are reasonably new and I feel that exploring these would be very useful to my development. Below is a list of some of the tools which I plan to research and use:

Graph Editor

A common animation tool for CG animators and one which is the key to the 'TIMING and SPACING' principal of animation. I currently have a selection of Ghomon Workshop DVDs which will aid in my understanding of how to use it's full potential. 

Motion Trails

Maya have recently made some advancements with the flexibility of editing keys and animations by using motion trails. A motion trail allows the animator to do what the Graph Editor does, but in the viewport. This acts much like the trajectory tools in 3ds Max, but has incorporated a series of tools such as beads in order to alter the motion path. This on top of being able to use non destructive animation layers allows for much more freedom and a real-time solution. 

Human IK

The Human IK solver can be used to re-target motion capture data plus other animation applications. This originally came from Motionbuilder but has made its way into Maya 2012. It is a quick and easy way to create a control rig with both FK and IK as well as a Full Body IK. This would be a great tool to use and will allow me to use a FBIK rig solution. In addition, auxiliary effectors can be created (and keyed) so that rigs can hold and use itmes (i.e. holding a weapon, or pushing another character in the scene).  

Trax Editor

An interesting tools, which allows the animator to save out animations as clips. Once stored, these clips can be blended with other clips, as well as edited at a later date. This allows for the same file to be used to animate different sequences as supposed to having to save out multiple copies of the same 'default' file. 

Sequencer

A tool that I have only just found out existed. This tools works in a similar way to that of the Trax Editor, but is used to organise multiple cameras in a scene and edit when these cameras are active in any given shot.

Graph Editor demonstration - LINK

Human IK - LINK

Motion Trails - LINK

Trax Editor - LINK

Sequencer - LINK

Post 03 - Project Update Part One: Title & Outcome

I have decided to go against my initial proposal created in the Research Practice module. I will be using one of my own rig/s, or create a new one for this project (as supposed to using the 'Dee character' by Manuel Sierra). This, as suggested by my supervisor would add to the project's uniqueness.

The new title for the project is as follows:

Game Mortality: A study into the effective techniques and methods for communicating character vitals through decrepitude and combat related death sequences.

The reason for the change is that the last project title suggested that I would explore emotion in games. This sounds interesting but was far too vague. I did a sub project last year where I animated an injury walk cycle. I enjoyed this and thought this would be a good opportunity to build on this interest and look into computer game examples for this project. Games that will be of influence include:

Game / Source        Point of Interest

- Dead Space 2             Close combat & injury cycles
- Halo Reach                  Assassinations / Stealth move
- Assassin’s Creed 2    Combat and use of weapons
- Resident Evil 5            Injury and counter cycles


I aim to create a series of short animations (approximately 6-8), depicting a range of statuses, as well as a series of close combat / assassination actions. Some of these will be cycled and others will be short action animations sequences. As the research orientates around video-game theory, these sequences will be created with a video-gaming context in mind. This will require research into secondary motion, as well as body language and the conveyance of thought. I feel that this has the potential to be interesting and will allow me to explore a range of possibilities.

I have also updated my research practice report with these amendments. This is a change for the better as the project is now more focused towards an end result. More details will follow shortly.

Dead Space 2 Struggle & deaths - LINK (18+)

Halo Reach Assassinations Clip One - LINK (15+)

Halo Reach Assassinations Clip Two - LINK (15+)

Assassin's Creed 2 Combat - LINK (15+)

Resident Evil 5 Advanced Melee Combat - LINK (15+)

Resident Evil 5 Deaths & injury - LINK (15+)