Previs Still, Maya lattice deformers and a moody backdrop

Previs stills - working on the final shots of 'Thaw' and the timings...
I prefer the look of a growing 'shoot', rather than fully formed leafs....and I love this moody, abstract backdrop...
It's been great to scroll through the saved render shots, as it's given me a glimpse of how the water droplets will look once animated, by way of lattice deformers....

Maya Rigging: joint creation, and axis rotation for finger and thumb joints

Rigging and joint creation for fingers and thumbs...

Showing the joint hierarchy and naming conventions highlighted in blue, in the Outliner

 As the movement of the thumb joint, is at an angle, compared to the fingers, the rotation axis within the thumb joints needs to be adjusted.
Below is an example of the handwritten notes I take in class, in addition to the live tutorials and brilliant work sheets that Sean creates...
By listening, watching and writing simultaneously, I can get a deeper understanding of what is required...

Image below of the joints in 'component' mode....and each individual gismo and rotation axis being adjusted.
L_thumb_01_bind joint retains the same orientation in X,Y,Z axis, as the finger joints (e.g Y is vertical, X and Z are at 90 degrees)
L_thumb_02_bind joint (second joint down the chain) has the orientation adjusted, so that the Y (green) axis is rotated outwards to about 45 degrees (perpendicular to what would be the thumb nail).
And the X (red) axis points directly along the chain to the next joint along...

The rotation orientation adjustment was made created in the Perspective view by eye...

 Selecting the hierarchy in Outliner and testing the rotation of all joints simultaneously

Creating heel locators, snapping to the ankle joint then repositioning (making sure that the pivot point is also moved)

Locators indicating inner and outer foot banking....
Outliner shows parenting hierarchy

Ice Shader in Maya, using Blinn, Noise and Bump maps

Experiments with ice-shader techniques in Maya...following this tutorial link 

and then further experimentation and adjustment of settings....

Test heads using the mia_material_x presets

 Blinn material with the transparency turned down

 Assorted tests adjusting the transparency settings, Raytrace options, refraction and glow intensity

 The Raytrace settings at '4' give a fiery look, which could be a good effect when the ice men are about to melt

 Using a ramp shader and a bump map with a noise node in hypershade...the bump map depth is set to 0.005 to give some texture...
Next step is to continue adding lights so that the features begin to stand out

Elbow and hand controllers - Maya Outliner hierachy

Loud Ceilidh music playing, whilst creating elbow (E) and hand (cube) controllers, constraining > pole vector and parenting to the 'spine_03' joint

Outliner on the right shows the hierarchy....

Zbrush Retopolising for export into Maya

Zbrush Retopology Class - creating a low poly head using ZRemesher

Duplicated low poly head below; orange/black dotted lines indicate the 'ZRemesher Guides Brush'.

Using symmetry mode 'X' I drew on the guides (around the eyes, mouth, nose and neck)

Setting the Target Polycount to 2 - Quad count was around 7000

Setting the Target Polycount to 1 - Quad count was around 3000

Generating 'dummy' head geometry for retopologising

Duplicate the highpoly head - rename to 'Decimated_head' > Zplugin>Decimation Master>Pre-process current (NOT ALL!)> set percentage of decimation (e.g 10%) > press Decimation Current.

Export Decimated_head subtool as an obj file

Save!!!

Preparation for retopologising in Maya

Quad Draw tool does not support the 'X' symmetry function, so we have to delete half the head, work on that and then duplicate, mirror and merge

Using the quad draw tool, to draw live 'magnetic' quads onto the head.

We deleted most of the quads around the eyes, mouth and nose, as these areas are the ones that are likely to have most deformation when it comes to animation.

Quad draw and 'CTRL' then allow for multi-cuts and additions of edge loops to create good details

TOY SCANDAL 'Hunny Bunny Stole My Money': 3D CG Animation

TOY SCANDAL 'Hunny Bunny Stole My Money': Going Live group project with Axis Animation, Glasgow. May 2016

   

TOY SCANDAL - Going Live Vimeo -Axis Animation from Andrea McSwan on Vimeo.

Maya, Premiere and our Previs!

So, my first real experience of using Premiere and Maya simultaneously - and creating a 3D previs!

Wow, this was a lot of fun.....great to see the storyboard coming to life!

Troll Doll photogrammetry and topology

So a new learing curve - and more experience with Maya and Mudbox and Zbrush!
And file imports, send to's and polycounts!
Here's a little Trolls journey from the Ebay post box to virtual reality

 Photogrammetry - still shot

An .obj file 'captured' on 123D Autodesk capture - imported into Maya - hundreds of thousands of Triangles!!!

Retopologized in Mudbox - and the triangles turned into quads

I tried to 'send to Maya' but there was some glitch with the polygons - so I imported it as an .obj file and this is how it looks!

A virtual Troll and a good base to clean up and model from - now over to Aimi and Sheila to tidy up and create good topology for lip sync - this innocent looking Ebay Troll has got to be able to shout and holler at the top of it's lungs!

Using cylinders to model torsos, arms and legs

Using cylinders to create a torso, arms and legs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZekghp78x8&list=PLR6NkeqscAx1G47ES3keltSaZi4DNOpXk&index=40

Autodesk proving useful for tool tips and hot key short cuts....