Rigging set up so far..

Ok so here's a little playback review of how rigging has been going up to this point.
I have been following the Maya Character Rigging book which i have been improvising off and adapting so that it fits with my gorilla as in this book we are following the rigging of a bipedal insteda of a quadruped and the character is also in a T pose which mine isn't.




















In this screen shot we can see a joint placed in between the top leg joint and knee joint, i have placed this in there to act for the roll bone which will help to create a more fluid look in the arm movement with the rotation.

So i haven't remembered to take screenshots for everything as i've been deeply engrossed in the actual rigging.

Continuing on and following the book i then went on to create nurbs circles to act as controllers for the hip, head, waist and neck. Working on handles for shoulder clavicles, setting preffered angles on legs and arms on the rotate axis so to make sure that they bend the correct way so not to deform realistic limitations.

Applying pole vector constraints was the pickle in the book, i only noticed that after applying my ik handles for the arms, for me to then create a pole vector constraint wasn't working.
This is because i had been told to create an ikSCsolver (single Chain solver) instead of an ikRPsolver, (rotate plane solver) difference being that one wont allow me to add the constraint - why does this not work? I'm not sure i guess we're wanting to work towards the nurbs circle acting which is going to be my controller for which way the knee will point, and that isn't possible by using a single chain.

Also another thing was after conversing with a friend also on the book they also had trouble with the IKFK switch as i was originally working towards having both IK and FK, i would've liked to have tackled this but due to error in time management i'm guessing i wont be able to meet the deadline by doing so. So i had decided to just go on and work in IK.

I have worked in creating attributes for the feet to allow a heel twist, toe twist, foot roll and a toe wiggle. I will also need to do this for the hands but i'm going to think of adding a curl on the tip and palm so that i can get a grip for the hand.

Of course without using set driven keys these attributes are pretty useless as whats the point of having an attribute with no settings? Set Driven Keys aren't unfamiliar to me as i remembered them pretty well after last year when learning how to apply it to fingers. So simply loading driver and driven and then making sure that i remember to key at the beginning when everything in at value "0" and then when i change the values to Key again to make sure that they've been set. So i did this to my foot using the attributes mentioned before which will help for a nice little walk.

































Above are just some screenshots showing my rigging settings.

I still need to ;
-create and parent my eye balls to the geometry
- create a base for the rig
-skin
-paint weights

and then over all animate.

hands...

So before i had modeled my gorilla with normal human feet and given him fingers.. however with the deadline creeping up i had decided to not get too involved with applying set driven keys with the fingers.. so i mittened his hands and i have also kept the thumb on there.



I had originally thought of this.. but never really covered the hands, i think i'd focused too much on bigger details, where the hands convey a lot of expression.
I have also chosen to have wiggly nostrils and that strong brow line for helping expression, i'm going to be disappointed that i'm not going to have a happy standard when im finished.

This last week or so i have fully put my attention to rigging, and i wanted to have worked more on developing details such as little tufts on his elbows in Zbrush and wispy eye brows.
I have begun to model some old glasses which i will post about separately.

So i have re modeled this hand and in the UV editor i have already set it so that the palms of his feet and hands are the light pastel colour like the under belly.

UV layout 2

Textures, i am going to retrieve images of plastercine and try the bump map for a more clay look once i have gotten the colours sorted. I am re-doing the uv editor as i had made it more complicated than i'd needed to, so here's the different types i can get,

1. Planar Mapping: Planar mapping projects UVs onto a mesh through a plane. This projection is best for objects that are relatively flat, or at least are completely visible from one camera angle.
-good for the bottom of his hands and feet

2. Cylindrical Mapping: Cylindrical mapping maps UVs by projecting based on a cylindrical or spherical shape wrapped around the mesh. These projections are best for shapes which can be completely enclosed and visible within a cylinder or sphere, without projecting or hollow parts.

3. Spherical Mapping: Cylindrical and Spherical mapping map UVs by projecting based on a cylindrical or spherical shape wrapped around the mesh. These projections are best for shapes which can be completely enclosed and visible within a cylinder or sphere, without projecting or hollow parts.
- not so great for my textures as when the image wraps around the gorilla

I plan on using planar for the bottom of the hands and feet to make them the pinky pastel colour so that we can tell which side it the under side of palms.

I had selected the faces for the palms and Create UVs> Planar map, this is the same for the nose and under belly.

So for the rest of the body i want it to be the same colour so to do this i had selected all the faces which hadn't been planar mapped and the planar mapped them..





















^^ (selecting faces) ^^

So thats my existing UV set. You can see from the gorilla view on the left that he is black instead of the purple colour i was after, although today i've had up and down problems with rigging which i will write about with a separate blog, but the UV was working earlier on this day until i got a corrupt maya file which didnt allow me to select anything outside the outliner window. That was interesting.

So i am happy with my UV now, all i need to do is apply that bump map!! I am using an image from the internet which i will edit in photoshop, desaturate and then bring into maya bump map.

Although i am in love with my little plastercine looking nostrils

UV layout

Planar mapping - chosen selections like chest, hands under and ontop
Automatic mapping - whole body so that i can set a general colour.


















I'm thinking to apply a bump map which uses the black and white for creating depth to the look of my texture on Cornelius. To do this i will need to scan or photograph clay or plastercine and take that into photoshop to saturate, so i am able to then apply the UV and then apply the bump map on that material where my UV is.

I was going to take my gorilla into Zbrush but have decided after smoothing i like the look of my gorilla as he has the smooth appearance, maybe i could add a tuft on his elbows and nails but i'm thinking to model them in perhaps, minute details.

Now that i have set up my UV's in the texture editor i can come back and texture when i like and edit it whilst continuing to work on the rigging process. I have been looking for tutorials on how to rig a quadruped and having little success.

So i need to complete rigging using IK/FK
Paint weights
and animate

At this point in the brief i am feeling a little at a lose end, possibly procrastinating on the rigging progress and for Pocahontas, i might have to leave her as just a model and animate Cornelius more.

As i've seen other peoples models im feeling a little inferior.

What is Claymation? Visual styles

Well, from my understanding Claymation is another way of using a different material (clay) to create Stop-Motion. However in this brief we have been assigned to is asking for a CG Claymation which is where we create a model in a 3d package and give it the look of Clay - Stop-Motion. So in this post i'm just going to dig out some existing claymation films both CG and Stop-Motion.

Flushed Away - Aardman












Ok so here's a movie using CG Claymation, Dreamworks were brought in to work on this film to create the models in CG to try a new approach and work method. For the textures i was interested in how some times you can spot an added thumb print in the render.

Chicken Run - Aardman















A traditional claymation but with using raw materials i'd not really noticed before now that the edges are smooth, for some reason i thought they'd be obvious to the tools being used so when comparing the work of the CG and traditional i can't really tell. CG claymation just takes away some restrictions had with traditional claymation.

The shapes used on claymation are layered, so nothing terribly too complex, that could be because that being a feature film using too complex models would increase the difficulty and need more time to model and shoot these characters.

Aardman - Creature Comforts

















Look at those shapes!!! loving it, all these characters have a great sense of weight.

















Cute, Owls from Aardmans' Creature Comforts series. The roundness, and the different colour used for the white part, the line isn't perfect which gives it a more natural feeling for some reason, maybe because things aren't symmetrical all the time, so when i'm texturing i should certainly take this into account, also again with the shapes, i can see the circles.

Pigeon Pilfer

Pigeon Pilfer from Michael Stevenson on Vimeo.

This being a different look completely from Aardmans clean models, by clean i mean smoothed out, i love that the eyes are just little slits, and you can see the thumb and finger shapes when the pigeons have been moulded to a new shape. The movement on these characters is not real really, when the pigeon gets hit at the beginning at almost waves as it loses its balance, getting away from restrictions that you can do any things in claymation as you can easily mould it.

Chess Claymation



Movement and how they move from one space to another is very creative, and how they kill eachother is funny. It seems much more like you can touch these materials, more organic than when using CG which is what i love about it, i'm crazy texture touchy person.

verdi traviata choeur bohemiens



Oh my i'm in love, look at how the characters move!!! The food moves with perfect weighting, the way the blobs move with the principles of a bouncing ball, and the red ones just kick a foot out and shift all the mass.

Summary;
Weighting is very important
Texture doesn't need to be rough
Don't need to have all symmetrical on the body of gorilla.
Simple shapes and curves





One last thing.. i love how the instruments are shot as though they're coming to life, on the video there is a part showing the inside of a piano, but the idea of animating an inanimate object really gets my imagination going. the lighting is also quite dramatic in the sense it gives us the centre focus on whats going on :)

Cornelius Model p4

Ok seriously now, finished the model to a standard i am happy with.


















I have a nose.. and a stronger brow. Though the next thing i noticed was his back needed to be broadened into the top of the shoulders as opposed to the shoulders being an obvious difference seen below.





















So in conclusion there are some screenshots below of my model at the ending stages.
He needs eyes and mouth.
























































Maybe make the eyebrows more wispy. I like the lego looking nose. Maybe instead of doing blend shapes for the face i could use simple bones or something for adding expression.

Texture next either with 3D paint tool or UV mapping.. or both?

Cornelius Model p3

Ok so we're still here.. but i think i am happy with Cornelius not going into Zbrush as his appearance set in the brief says that he is going to be of a claymation style. So i am adding more detail when modeling him in polys to get the appearance of claymation.




















Not a very clear image above.. but the other day i was browsing online and remembered one of my favorite tv shows from when i was younger.. Beast Wars - Transformers, released in 1996. This is a very early stage of cgi animated series' produced by Rainmaker (previously known as Mainframe) these guys also did the kids show Reboot. Amazing. So a new found love of company name and good memories of their work.

Whilst watching Optimus prime takes on the form of a gorilla.. and a basic model here from the screenshot above gives a good idea of size ratio of body parts. So whilst finalizing my gorilla i noticed some things mine lacked.


















So one of the first things noticed is the arm length and thickness.. i have now adjusted my arm to sit more in the body and part of the chest.


















I have also neglected working on the head whilst focusing on the body, so i have begun the head from my sketches of the grandad-look with glasses. The chest also needs to be brought upwards towards the head.




















Ok so thought, lets get an idea of what he'd look like when smoothed.. looks nice i thought..




















Still work to be done but im happy to move on after working on the head some more and maybe sorting the top of the back near the neck, and work on some eyes/mose/ears.. basic facial shapes. I'm still quite tempted to give the gorilla only 3 fingers as i am not going for a realistic look. However i have already modeled him this way.

Next step.

Sort head/top back and neaten back legs.

Then;
- I will look to blend shapes for the facial expressions
- Texture
- Joint placement
- Rig Set-up FK IK
- Skinning (painting weights)