Final Conclusion

The project is finally finished and i am in some ways relieved. It has been a long 9 weeks of intense concentration and patience and in the end i did learn a hell of a lot.

In the beginning i said that i wanted to do the whole process of conceptualization, modelling, texturing, rigging and then finally animating it for one single character.

The modelling stage was thoroughly enjoyable and it is an area that i am definately interested in going into. I followed some tutorials which i got off the web and that was a major part in me getting through the first hurdles of modelling and from there on i never looked back.

The UV mapping was a major headache for me as i struggled to learn it. The main problem was choosing the right form of mapping for my model and i never really decided whether i wanted to planar map it or automaticallly map it first. In the end i chose to automatically map it and then texture it. I feel as though i haven't fully learned how to UV map and that is something i will work on and rectify over the holidays.

UV mapping is still an area that appeals to me and i am gonna work on it and improve my skills so it becomes second nature to me as with anything in maya.

Rigging was interesting and i had mixed feelings about it but learnt alot. I found out that when i was rigging, my model should have have been modelled seperately and not as a one entity. It's something that i will take into account and also that was one of the reasons why UV mapping was difficult for me as i combined the hold mesh and i couldn't take it apart for mapping.

Putting in the skeletons was pretty easy, especially if you know your human anatomy. The paint weighting stage of the model was frustrating as the amount of time it took to paint it and get it right was a long process. I also found out while paint weighting that there were still problems with the geometry of the model and that is something that i will work on when i model in future.

Animating the character was fun but i didn't really spend a lot of time on it because of the other areas i had to work on. Using the Richard Williams Animator's Survival Kit Book was a really good point of refrence and it teaches you the basics of animation and its principles. A really good book and one that should be with everyone for life. Animation is an area that i will also look to improve upon as well as the other areas that i mentioned.

Overall i think i have learnt and improved in most of the areas that i have explored for this project. I will continue to learn and improve and take what i have learnt so far and build on it.

IK handles placed and Walk Animated

i have placed the IK handles on the model and that was pretty much very easy to do. I didn't fully rig the model because the IK handles that i have placed should give me a competent moving rig and animation on the model.

For the walk animation, i used the Richard Williams Animator's Survival Kit book as refence for my animation. In the book, there is a page where it shows you how to do a 2D walk cycle and i basically applied the same principles on the 3D character model.

This is the first test that i did with the IK handles and the walk animation. I hid the mesh so i can see what the animation looks like on its own with the rig and handles.

The animation is okay but could definately be better.

Here is the walk animation cycle with the mesh and it looks again average but its gonna have to do for now.

So this is the final animation rendered and surrounded by textured backgrounds.

Textured Model

Ok so i have textured the model using simple colours as i intended and i think its come out pretty decent.

So as you can see here is the model and its been textured pretty much all the way.

I did consider putting a logo on his T-Shirt, like a london zoo logo with some creature designs but i just ran out of time.

Rigging & Paint Weighting

Haven't posted in a while so here's what i have done so far.

I decided to start rigging the character first rather then texture it as i wanted to get the more time consuming rigging out of the way.

I pretty much started putting the skeleton joints in the mesh from scratch and i was following a specific tutorial in placing and position the joints in the correct way. Its all based on the human anatomy and if you know where your joints are in your body then you just apply the same principles into the model.

Once i have finished putting the joints in the model i then binded it together as one entity. The process is called skin bind. After that was done i then started on the paint weighting of the model.

Paint weighting is important as it adds weight to the model, this will help to keep the mesh in place. So when your animating, the mesh will stay intact and will not go all over the place.

When your paint weighting, you basically paint on to the model like a brush. The white area is where the weight is applied and the black area in the model is where there is no weight applied.

I have come across problems during paint weighting. One of them was that my macbook couldn't handle the paint weighting process and kept quitting. So i decided to use a PC and also upgraded from using Maya 8.5 to Maya 2010. I did purely because it was the only version of maya that was on the PC at Ravensbourne.

So as i expected, paint weighting was time consuming as with anything in Maya. Once paint weighting was done at around 70%, my next stage was to start putting in the IK handles which will help to animate the character. The reason why i stopped at half way at paint weighting was because putting in the IK handle and animating it revealed more anamoly on the mesh of the model. So thats why im gonna paint weight it more when i put in the IK handles on the model.

Modelling the Character

Before i started my modelling i looked at some tutorials to learn the basics of modelling a character again and i found this great tutorial from the "Simply Maya" website. The tutorial demonstrates how to model in low poly and smooth it afterwards in maya. Alternatively it can be taken into Zbrush and smoothed and refined there, it can even be textured in Zbrush which i am considering.

But at this point i just want to start modelling the character first in Maya and keeping the poly count as low as possible.

So as you can see in the image on the left, i have imported my image refrence of the character in maya as an image plane.

I started modelling the head using nurbs as it is more easier to manipulate and model. The neck was created seperately using a nurbs cylinder and both of the head and the neck were connected using an operation called booleans. Afterwards i just converted the head and the neck from nurbs into polygons.

The next stage here, i am modelling out the body and arm using a polygon cube and attaching it to the head. This process involves quite a lot of extruding and moving the geometry around using vertices.

The shorts are done seperately here. I used a polygon cylinder for the basic shape of the shorts. Just moving the geometry and vertices around helps get it into the shape that i want. I also had to delete some faces as i am only modelling half the model. This is because afterwards i will duplicate that half model and mirror it onto the other side. This saves time and helps to keep the model in line and accurate.


So the model is coming along nicely now and you can see that the hand and feet are now fully modelled and connected to the rest of the body. The feet and hand had to be modelled seperately but they were not extruded from the body it self.

The hand and feet were basically combined with the body and then merged with the vertices afterwards.

As i am modelling along the way i sometimes mirror the geometry to see how the other side will look. I do this so if any changes need to be made i can do it pretty much at that stage rather then going back after it is fully modelled which could cause a headache.

I'm nearly finished now. The eyes were created by simply using polygon spheres and placed in line with the eye socket. The socket itself was created by deleting some faces and using the split polygon tool to create the shape of an eye. I had to move some vertices around and merge them to get the shape right. The ears were the same process and pretty much more extruding. I had to also extrude and refine the nose as well as the mouth. All that is left now is the hair.

Here is a quick picture of what the model looks like when it is not selected or highlighted.

Ok the hair is done now. This was pretty easy as i just extruded from the head itself so nothing too complicated there.

At this point the model has been duplicated and mirrored on the other side. I combined and merged the vertices to complete the model and make it as one. A few little adjustments have been made but other then that i am really happy. Its pretty close to the original concept and i did change a few little things here and there but overall its turned out better then i expected.

So the modelling is over and i have to say i really enjoyed it. I didn't have any major problems and the tutorials that i have followed were really helpful in acheiving my end results. The whole process of modelling took about a week and a half. I could have produced the model by less then a week but i was slacking a bit and was being distracted by other projects, but hey i'll put my hands up and say no excuses. There were moments were i did get stuck like doing the eye socket and maybe a bit of the hand, but because my concept of the model was simple these hurdles were easily solvable.

Ok i guess the next process is either rigging or texturing, i haven't decided yet but it could be one of those. I'll let you know on the next post.

Final Character design

This is my final character design of Willie Billiams and i am pretty happy with it. As you can see the concept has a front and side view of the character. I will use this as my image refrence when i start modelling it in Maya.

The image below is just a colour version of the character. I wanted to keep the clothing simple and have that summer feel to it as the brief states that the character is going to be used for a London Zoo animated Advertisement. I did experiment with a few colours for the clothing but in the end i wanted to stick with bright colours as i wanted it to represent his hyperactive personality and the essence of him being a kid.

Lastly the image below is me trying to experiment with facial expressions for my character.

If i do decide to animate the face then i will probably use a process called Blend Shapes which needs to be done in Maya. Its a thought for now, but if everything goes as planned and on time then i would like to do some facial animation.

Ok thats it for now. I will now start modelling the character in the 3D application sofware Maya and hopefully be posting the images of how it is looking as soon as i can.

Character Concepts

Ok so i have been busy producing the concepts for my character and i have finally found the time to upload the images of what i have been doing up in the blog.

These initial sketches were drawn at an early stage while i was trying to figure out how i wanted my character to look. I really tried experimenting with the appearance of the character and sketching out possible design look as alternatives. Eventually i narrowed down my choices and chose the one i wanted to go ahead with as the final design. Above in the 2nd picture you will notice that i highlighted the character that i chose and made a little comment.

The reason why i chose this character was because it had the best overall child quality look to it. I really wanted to stay close to what the brief had described of the character and that was my focal point when i was drawing the character concepts. The rest of the characters i drew were fine but it didn't really look right, some were too simple and some were a bit exaggerated and over the top. The character i chose to go ahead with, had a bit of both and the right balance of look.

As you can see above, i took my final character design and started to produce more concepts to refine it and add character poses which i could potentially use when i animate my character.

Very simple and quick pose sketches that i did which i learnt from my life drawing experiances and looking at refrences in the internet.

More research & refrences

Here are some more image refrences that i have been looking at and which i have mentioned in the previous research post.

Wallace & Gromit is probably one of the more popular and iconic characters from Aardman and in general Claymation. Two of their short films "The Wrong Trousers", "A Close Shave" and its feature length "The Curse of the Were Rabbit" received academy awards.

Chicken Run is a Claymation film which was produced by Aardman Animation Studios and was released back in 2000.

Creature Comforts is also produced by Aardman Animation studios. I have watched this a couple of times on ITV and really found the facial and body animation convincingly expressed. The audio voice of these general everyday people that is lip synced with the Clay characters is impressive and funny. I think in some ways it has made me think more about facial expressions and Lip Sync, i only have to look at myself and see how my eyes, head and mouth move in flow with my voice.

Here is an image of Pocoyo which i also mentioned in my previous post. Again i have watched this many times on TV and the web and i just love the simplicity of the characters and the animation.

This is obviously CG claymation and this is the look i want for my character.

I also found out that Pocoyo is produced in Spain and the software they use to achieve their CG clay look is created using SoftImage XSI.

Noddy is also a CG claymation. What is interesting about this TV show is that Noddy was previously a pure Claymation but since then, the studio behind Noddy have decided to move into the Digital CG claymation. This is also evident for Postman Pat, another kids TV Show which was pure claymation but since then was adapted into Digital CG claymation.

Just some Refrences which i have used to sketch character poses for Willie Billiams in a character sheet. These poses displayed in the picture demonstrate that the boy is hyperactive and it is a useful refrence as hyperactive is Willie Billiams main personality aspect.

Here is a link which i have checked out for information on Claymation and the history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_animation

The Website below is the Aardman Animation Studio Website and i have checked out it for more information.

http://www.aardman.com/

This link below displays a concept artist who produced drawings for the Jak & Daxter Game. His name is Bob Falei and it gave me an idea of how i should go about producing the concepts for my character.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=jak3&message.id=61054

And this link below is the studio who produce Pocoyo. A quick warning for this link, it is in spanish as the Studio is from Spain.

http://www.zinkia.com/

Research & Refrences

The brief for the character design states that the client wants a claymation look to their characters. So i have been surfing the net and have been looking at videos of claymations, to get an idea of how the texture and movement of clay can look like.

The company best known for producing claymation is Aardman and i have been looking at some of their work on Youtube. I'm specifically looking at the way they are animated and how they move as i may use this for my character animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFfK5vl5N5g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6SwfidmOI4

I also found this kids TV show called Pocoyo which airs on CITV. I really liked the look of the design and how it is not a completely claymation textured look but more CG based. It definately differs in terms of texture compared to the Aardman animation as they are more of a natural claymation where as Pocoyo is CG based.

I really think the Pocoyo CG claymation will suit my character design and the look i am going for. Simple and slick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxu3jfqpItE

As for refrences for my initial character design and the concept look that i want, i found some examples of the look and personality that i want of my character Willie Billiams to have.

This specific picture of a kid is more me considering a possible clothing

refrence for my character.

I want my character to have simple clothing

so i am just thinking about a T-shirt and a trouser shorts for the kid

This Incredibles image of Dash has given me thought for the personality that i want Willie Billiams to have. The brief describes Willie to be hyperactive and being obsessive about creepy crawlies. So this tells me that the character has to have a colourful and fun design look so it reflects his personality.

This is an image of a CG animated character from a kids TV show called Jimmy Neutron.

I like the colours and expression of this character so this has given me food for thought about the overall design i want for my character. Obviously it still has to have some claymation look to it so i haven't forgotten.

Ok. I will continue a bit more research and then crack on with the actual drawn concepts of the character Willie Billiams.

Industry Excercise 1 brief

We have received our project brief for the Industry Excercise 1 assignment and from what i have read, looks pretty interesting.

Ok so in the project brief it states that i have to choose from 3 briefs, these briefs are

Brief A: Game Design - Build a Chop Shop Enviroment for Rockstar North

Brief B: Animation - Create an Ident animation for National Gallery

Brief C: Character Design - Design & animate some characters for Axis Animation

After reading the whole brief in full and some time to think i have decided to go for Brief C: Character Design.

Brief C: Character Design

Source: Jon Beeston

Editor -- Axis Animation

http://www.axisanimation.com/

“We would like your students to design and animate some characters for us for a potential animated advertisement for London Zoo. We are thinking about using a visual style that reflects traditional “Claymation” techniques but will be generated using CG processes. The characters should be worked up from the following list:”

1. Willie Billiams – “A hyperactive nine year old on his first visit to London Zoo with an obsessive interest in creepy crawlies.”

2. Pocahontas Billiams – “Willie’s sister, she’s seven years old but much more relaxed and more knowing than her sibling. She wants to be a gorilla.”

3. Wilhemina Billiams – “Willie and Pocahontas’s grandmother, she thinks everything smells bad and is worried that a chimp or one of those nasty bonobos might escape and “Poo in her hat.””

4. Wee Eck McGlone – “London Zoo’s long suffering head keeper sixty, bald, curmudgeonly, Scottish, fiercely patriotic and obsessive about sweeping up dung.”

5. Cornelius – “A middle aged silver back gorilla, the most civilised and sensible occupant of the zoo by far.”

“Your students should consider the following points when working through their character designs:”

• “If they work in 3D then they should concentrate on two characters from the list per animator.”
• “If they work in 3D then they should be using one of the major 3D packages, i.e. Maya, Lightwave, or Max. The characters should be fully modelled to a maximum resolution of about 100,000 polygons, decent texturing is vital, we won’t accept a model alone at this stage. The model should be rigged”
• “We expect to see support work on paper, development drawings and character sheets that should include orthogonal views, i.e. front, back, top, and side, and a more expressive drawing of the character in a typical pose.”

“We would like to see some expressive animation sequences that demonstrate the functionality of the rig and also character performance.”

The reason for choosing Brief C is because i really want to successfully create an actual Character that has gone through all the stages of modelling, texturing, rigging and animation.

I have never gone through the whole process so i want to work on these weaknesses and build on my strength which is concepts and modelling.

Also i enjoy the idea of designing a character as its much more creative and rewarding when you have created your own character from scratch and that is one of my main motivations for this brief.

So from the brief C i have decided to design one character which is the boy Willie Billiams. I spoke to Jared briefly and he said that i could stick with one character if i go through the whole process of the four areas.

The four areas i will be working on this character are

2D Conceptualization

Character Animation

Visualisation (and modelling)

visualisation (texturing and rendering)

Finally i have decided to work on my own as i really want to refine my skills and also decide and focus on the area i would like to specialise in. I have worked in groups before and i have enjoyed it but for this brief i want to work on my own. Definately i want to work more in groups in future projects as i would like to gain more experiance and knowledge from others around me.