some links to visit when frustrated over photoshop’s alpha
http://www.onoff.ch/2007/01/04/premultiplied-alpha-problems/
http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2005/10/compositing_pre.html
Archive for the 'CG and Animation' Category
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Check out Christopher’s reel on character rigging and animation at http://www.christophercrouzet.com/showreel.php
After the rigging a few characters using IK chains in maya, its hard not to wonder when maya would have a equivalent of 3d studio max’s Biped. Well it happens that Maya HAS one, and due to my ignorance I had only just discovered the cool FBIK.
Full Body IK (FBIK Solver) was a feature from Kaydara MotionBuilder that got integrated into Maya when Alias bought Kaydara. It simulates complex real body kinematics that is hard to achieve using manual IK. An example would be having your character reaching down to pick up an apple from the ground. With FBIK, the whole body follows the hand movement, creating realistic bending of shoulder, spine, hips and knees. With traditional IK, you’d probably need to key all the aforementioned handlers by hand.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find any good tutorials online, the closest I could find was Mastering Maya 8.5 on google books. However a detailed explanation and tutorial can be found on Maya’s help, although a tad more difficult to follow, nonetheless provides all the information you need to get a working rig.
I’ll post my adventure with FBIK when I have time during the holidays.
Some tools to help you work with FBIK
FBIK CharacterControl – simulates Motion Builder’s native character control UI
BipedFactory – Helps you build your skeleton in minutes
Another Tutorial on how to setup a FBIK
http://tutorial.jcwcn.com/3D-Graphics/Maya/Character-Setup/2007-06-23/1437.html
For those of you who find yourself in ZBrush’s online help a few times too often, Pixologic has a downloadable indexed and searchable documentation for ZBrush 3.1, you can get it at:
http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Downloadable_WebHelp_System
It is common to want to bring your model out of zbrush to do up the uv’s (although it is always a better idea to deal with them BEFORE getting into zbrush), but importing the edited .obj back into zbrush can be a hassle, esp when your model ‘explodes’ inexplicably when you move up the subdiv level.
Example of a exploded model:
Exploded model
To save a few souls, below is what worked for me and you can try to take note of the following when nothing seems to work:
(Tested with ZBrush 3.1 and Maya 2008)
In ZBrush
When exporting from zbrush, make sure you are at the lowest subdiv level.
Under Tool->Texture, make sure you have UV enabled:
Enable UV
Under Tool->Export, turn off the ‘Grp’ option and on the ‘Mrg’ option as such:
Export from ZBrush
In Maya
Go to File->Import Options, and set the settings as below:
(Note: When editing DO NOT move the vertices in maya, only edit the UV’s)
When exporting, go to File->Export Selection Options. Select OBJ and off all the File Type Specific Options in the last section:
Back in ZBrush
Import the .obj while still at subdiv level 1.
After import, move up a level to check if it explodes.
Feel free to leave any comments whether this worked for you and also for others to benefit from your experience =)
This is a short animation I created a few years ago, about pencil and a sharpener. Its called The Pencil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-CGTczACYw
Spent around 6 months on a P3 system running 3d max 4 or 5 I can’t remember.
(Update: Audio is disabled by youtube due to copyright issues, well done Youtube!)
For those who have not seen the movie Kungfu Panda, it’s a 3D animated feature about a panda dreaming of kungfu greatness and eventually realizing his potential after going through various humiliation and training. While the film was undoubtedly high in standard, as expected from the producer of Shrek, I was surprised by its well executed opening sequence, which was done in traditional 2D animation.
Barely two and a half minutes long, the audience is treated to a fast paced action sequence with superb timing, color, character, staging, sound effects and narration, and did I mention timing? I feel that although the rest of the elements worked great together, it was the timing and pacing which managed to pack so much back to back action and effects into the 2 minutes yet allowing enough time for the audience to take it all in. Every motion had a purpose and was well planned to carry on the story and pace.
You can download the piece in quicktime format at Art of the Title, and enjoy it frame by frame.
http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/10/03/kung-fu-panda/
A set of great tutorials on texturing at CG Talk that should not be missed. For beginners and the average mapper
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=46&t=77484
Came across Processing today, excerpt from site below:
Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool.
Sounds interesting, can’t wait to give it a try this weekend.