Creating A Character Walk Cycle in Maya

Here is a rough description of what I did in order to create a walk cycle!

After some research:

• Games
• Usually walk cycles that stay in one spot are used in games. Having the whole object parented to a root object, then simply moving the root object through the scene, readjusting the feet so that they are planted correctly.
• Films:
• For films we probably don’t even want to create a cycle if its for film, because in film its likely that each scene is different and the walk cycle need to have alot more details.

Creating a stationary walk cycle helped me learn lots of important animation principles! It wasn’t submitted as part of my assignment though.

 

 

 

 

1.Framing:

When & where the frames are keyed is important, since we are working on a 24 sec walk cycle. My method is to key the first and last frames with the same values. Any key in between(except the middle frame) should have another key at X+12 frame.

i.e. if i create a key frame @ frame 3, i will key another frame at key 15.

2.Laws of Physics( Squash & Stretch):

Squash & Stretch makes an animation come alive. Our muscles are constantly squashing and stretching with every movement. For example our feet are squashed when they make contact with the ground, and stretch when lifted.

3.Follow Through Movement

Follow through is the secondary movement caused by another action. Heavier parts cause momentum and drag, and in turn cause other joints to also move.E.g. when leg swings, hips also swing

4.Weight Shift

The body will always try to compensate by shifting weight by adjusting the body’s center of gravity through postural adjustments.

5.Rythm

The movement of the joints have to be in sync. Eg left leg out,right hand out.

6.Slow in Slow out

Acceleration and deceleration of joints is important to make the animation look realistic. Eg. Arm swing, if we don’t use slow in/slow out the arm movements will be very rigid.

 

Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

Assignment 1 Playblast

Animating frame by frame is hard! skipped a few frames , resulting in jerking animation.

 

Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

3DVA_WK5 Weight Part 2_Exercise

Reflection:

Firstly animating the bigDog is much harder than it seems, no idea why the exported playblast is jerky. Anyway here is a list of things that I have learnt while animating the bigDog.

• Comparative Anatomy: An animal walks in basically the same pattern as a human crawls. Imagine that you are crawling and then you get pushed! That’s how bigDog should be animated.

 

• Squash & Stretch: The joints and body of the creature must simulate the effects of squash and stretch. For example when bigDog is falling towards the side and stops its fall with an opposing leg, the affected joint must bend to simulate “squash”. And “stretch” when the joint extends after being “squashed”’.

 

• Weight Shifting: As weight comes down on FL,BR is also raised in order to compensate. As bigDog shifts weight from one leg to the next during a movement, hip will drop to the side that has no support. (super hard to make it obvious though!)

 

• Line of Action: Always follow line of action through the body when animating!

  My animation skills are still mediocre, I will rework the bigDog animation and upload another enhanced animation in the future!

–
Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

3DVA_WK5 Weight Part 1_Exercise 1

bigDog!

Exercise 1:

i) The sequence of leg movement is always BR-FL, BL-FR, FR-BL, FL-BR. It is always the opposite legs, diagonally that moves in unison.

ii)First of all notice because of its leg movement BR-FL, BL-FR, FR-BL, FL-BR, at any one time there is always 2 feet of the opposite and diagonal ends on the grown. The opposing legs cancels out the weight of the dog. This is a little hard to explain, try standing up put your left leg in front and position it slightly towards the left of your body. Now move your right leg back and position it towards the right of your body.

Compare this to standing with your feet together, the weight of your body is spread out between 2 points instead of being concentrated on a single pivot point. Therefore by always having 2 legs of the opposing sides on the ground at all times the bigdog can distribute its weight and balance itself.

iii)

1. Initial/ at rest
2. Rotation & Translation due to force from push.//Right leg raised to shift body weight for stabilization.
3. Full body weight on left leg //increased tumble,stability decreased
4. Legs criss crossed, right leg is new pivot. //decreased tumble, right leg providing opposing force
5. Left leg extend to the left, wider stance = stability //decreased tumble,decreased movement to right
6. Regaining control
7. Left leg apply stopping force //sideways movement stopped
8. Momentum causes body to sway
9. Body righted as it is stabilized.

–
Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

3DVA_WK4 Skeleton Rigging Summary

For week 4, we took a comprehensive look into Maya’s skeleton menu. By watching a collection of videos.

Anticlockwise, pictures 1,2,3,4,5

1.Creating joints and IK handles: In order to create the skeleton of the body.IK handles act like the muscles of the body while joints act as the body’s pivot point.Establish a system of hierarchies to control joint movement. Eg.Wrists should be parented to shoulder collar, so that when the shoulder blade rotates, the hand/wrist will also rotate.

2.Constraints,constraints,constraints: In this series of video tutorials we learned to use pole vector , point and orient constrains in order to constrain the movement of joints.

3.Set driven key: allows us to specifically manipulate a particular joint while using a control object. Eg the curve around the feet

4.Wrap Up: While following this set of video tutorials, I realized that most of the stuff being thought are the fundamentals of MAYA. Something that most of us students already have, except that this time we are bringing them together. Simple MAYA procedures such as parenting, and constraints being stacked(ps* can’t think of a better description) in order to form a complex end product. Complex Maya animations/figures can be broken down into their basic components!

19 videos in this course

1. The Joint Tool
2. The Insert Joint Tool
3. The Connect Joint Tool
4. The Reroot Skeleton Tool
5. The Remove Joint Tool
6. The Disconnect Joint Tool
7. The Orient Joint Tool
8. The Mirror Joint Tool
9. The IK Handle Tool
10. The IK Spline Handle Tool
11. Weighing
12. Enable IK/FK Control
13. Enabling/Disabling Selected IK Handles
14. Joint Labeling
15. The Skeleton Generator
16. The Characterization Tool
17. The Character Tools
18. Enable locator Snap

–
Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

3DVA_WK3 Eleven Rig Posing

Bonus objectives for week 3, no idea why its called Eleven Rig though(Elven Rig)?

Girl Sitting: I decided to compose this pose with a more playful approach.

Girls Generation: Yoona I think, not a big fan of SNSD.

BasketBall Player: This pose required the model to follow the action curve/line of action specifically in order to give the impression that the model is actually changing his direction of movement.

–
Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

3DVA_WK3 Spiderman Posing Part 2/2

Spiderman Pose 2

• The hardest part of posing this model was to reflect the gravitational forces and muscle tension in Spiderman’s model. This is especially so for Spiderman as his actions must reflect his character, Spiderman is strong, flexible,agile. By posing his joints at an angle we can mimic the effects of tension, or rather the rubber band effect.

 

• Spiderman looks as if he is ready to pounce onto someone. Gravitational pull and weight must also be reflected to add to the model’s realism. (Line of Action))Notice how the shoulders/leg/feet are angled. This gives the impression that Spiderman’s body is actually supporting his weight.

Spiderman Pose 3

Spiderman Pose 3 represented a tougher challenge in terms of posing, the usual legs/arms were easy to pose. However I realized that the Spiderman still looked weird, then I realized that  the hips/chest/waist had not been angled. Spiderman’s body was not following a line of action, this caused it to look weird.

Secondly I thing that the fingers/arm position helps the audience to embody the character of Spiderman. It helps to make the pose more natural too, making it seem that there is energy in Spiderman’s scissors kick.

–
Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

3DVA_WK3 Spiderman Posing Part 1/2

This week’s objective is to learn how to animate Maya Models using rigging controls.
Below are pictures of my work.

I found that it was easier manipulating the model using IK(Inverse Kinematics), FK(Forward Kinematics).

FK vs IK: FK tend to be better for mechanical movements, on the graph editor FK tend to be have very steep gradient. While IK tend to result in curves [Curves = Better for organic models!].

Flexibility: Because Spiderman is human, all the joints/body shape have to look natural and flexible. Spiderman is supposed to be extremely agile! The posing have to be done in such a way that it emphasizes on flexibility.

Human Anatomy: Spiderman should only be in poses that the human anatomy is capable off, for example his head shouldn’t be rotated 180 degrees

Weight Distribution: Gravity and muscle tension must be reflected in the posing. Eg. Shoulders blade are angled to reflect the muscle tension as Spidey hangs from his web.

Behaviour,Character and Personality: The final model pose must encompass the behaviour,character and personality of the “Character”. It’s hard to explain what this means, in short Spiderman should be like how Spiderman is portrayed in the movies etc. A “3D model’s” behaviour, personality and character can be reflected upon just by looking at how it is posed/animated.

 

Part 2 up next!

–
Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

3DVA_WK2 Cow Modelling

This week’s lesson was basically E-Learning, because of my carelessness I skimmed through the instructions and ended up doing more work!

 

1. Skimmed through instructions and ended up with Cow head on the right. Lets call this Cow 1

2.Cow 1, completed and smooth shaded. Although it looks fine, there were many errors! Ps, this was done free form without following the instructions. Took me many hours to complete this.

3. Back to the drawing board again, this time working on Cow 2 after watching the tutorial videos. Dumbfounded by how much time I could have saved by watching the videos.

4. Faces & Extrusion, from a simple cube to a cow head. Extruding faces and manipulating these extruded faces in order to form the general shape of the cow head. This is the basic steps to modelling any 3D model. Very Important!

5.Features & Proportion, learning that the features of a subject must always be proportionate in order to look realistic, or simply to make the subject recognizable. Eg. Nostril should occupy 3/4 of each half of the cow stout.

6. Mirror Geometry, delete the faces on the untouched side and mirror it! Works like copy/paste and saves the effort of modelling both sides of a model.

7. Combine & Vertex Merging, starting out with simple shapes create the basic body structure than tweak the body shape by manipulating vertexes.

8.Make sure parts have corresponding vertexes, tweak the subdivisions. This is to streamline the modelling process. Delete faces that will not be seen from the outside!

9.Repeat,repeat,using the techniques described above. Model out additional parts and manipulate the vertexes for a more lifelike appearance.

10. Completed Cow 2, observe how having more/less subdivision can affect the outlook of the model. More subdivision (higher polygon count )= smoother, at the cost of rendering performance. Less subdivision = lower rendering overhead. The final model must be able to strike a balance between performance and looks.

11. Performance is important! Imagine having 100 high polygon models being rendered on screen at the same time, less powerful computers might slowdown/crash etc.  Therefore remember to strike a balance.

12. Details, adding additional details to make the model more life like and to give the model a personality. Eg. this is clearly an exaggerated cartoony cow.

 

Final Thoughts:

Skimming through the instructions was really a blessing in disguise. Because I was too lazy to read through the instructions, I modelled my first cow using whatever skills I have picked up while learning how to use Maya. By watching the tutorial videos, I had many Ahah moments, this insight and prior experience has allowed me to learn from my mistakes and create a much better cow model, within a fraction of the amount of time I spent on Cow 1.

–
Jasper Phua Kai Wen
Games Entertainment Tech
C260
Temasek Polytechnic

Refined Sketches!Character Development Part 2