digital media
advanced three dimensional animation
des 487

overview

policies, grading, procedures

weekly projects

links

historical timeline

 

Week 1

Demonstrate and discuss

semesters projects:

• bounce
• walk cycle
• lip sync with facial and body animation

lip sync project

due week 4

• 20-30 seconds of dialog
• by changing the setting, characters expression and interactions with environment, original meaning (content, intent, interpretation) needs to change.
• facial and body animation based on selected dialog.
• recording reference footage.

review in class:

• creating a new project folder
• animation prefs
  • frameRate NTSC 30
  • keep keys at current frames
  • auto key modified attributes
  • tangents:(this will change with use. start with clamped
  • blend with existing connections
  • timeline: keyticks:active, max playback speed: 30)
• Keyframe concepts
  • channel box keySelected
  • autoKeyFrame
  • setKeyTool
  • moving keys in timeline
    • shift leftMouseDrag, middleMouse drag
  • setKey tool
• graph editor
• channels
• working with keyframes ,curves and tangents
  • delete,scale, copy, paste

• 01_timeline and prefs
• 02_setting Keyframes pt1
• 03_set KeyTool
• 04_moveCopyKeys
• 05_displayKeyTicks_copyPasteKeys
• 06_graphEditor_intro
• 07_graphEditor_deleteScale
• 08_graphEditor_copyPaste

part 1

BOUNCING BALL (teaching notes):

1. set up project folder
2. set prefs: units>meters, 30 fps, camera clipping plane 10,000
3. display>grid>length 20, grid lines>5, subdivisions>5
4. Render Settings
   1. common tab>image size>CCIR 601/quantel NTSC
   2. maya software tab>quality>start at preview and change to production for final output
5. turn off interactive creation
   1. make poly plane 40 by 40 units
   2. make poly sphere (channel box>input>polysphere>radius>.5
   3. rename sphere>ball
6. save option box>incremental saving
7. save
8. lighting
   1. select the window you want to render from
   2. touch 7 on the keyboard to get to lighting mode
   3. for an outside shot use a directional light
   4. adjust its rotations (position does not matter, think of it as the sun)
   5. select light and in attribute editor turn on shadow maps and adjust intensity
9. select ball>assign new material>Blinn
   1. in attributes rename the shader to ball shader
   2. turn off reflectivity
   3. select color checker icon>texture tab>ramp
      1. interpolation >none
      2. select 4 colors and evenly space them
      3. set type to either u or v ramp to get beach-ball look
10. select the groundPlane>assign new material>lambert>rename to groundSurface
    1. select color checker icon>texture tab>file
    2. floor texture
    3. set 2d placement node for square size

part 2:

1. set ball in initial position
   1. rotate so it is not perfectly aligned
   2. modify>freeze transformations
   3. double click rotate tool and set to>local
   4. channel box>lock unneeded parameters
2. set keyframes for ball at contact and rise positions on x and y
3. open graph editor and manipulate the tangents
   1. break tangents at contact
   2. weight tangents if needed
   3. scale curve as needed
4. add keys to rotation and fine tune in graph editor
5. move timeline marker to contact frame
6. add squash deformer (animation>create deformers>nonlinear>squash)
   1. select squash handle on outliner
   2. open channel box
   3. select squash1
   4. zero out the rotation parameters for the squash handle
   5. use >factor input: to squash and stretch (maintains volume)
   6. adjust boundaries to get proper deformation
   7. using the outliner: parent the handle to the ball
7. adjust the position of the ball at contact frames
8. set keys for squash factor
   1. try a setting of -.4 on contact
   2. advance 4 frames and set factor key to +.4
   3. advance 4 frames>set factor key to -.2
   4. advance 4 frames>set factor key to +.1
   5. advance 4 frames>set factor key to 0
   6. set factor key at start frame 1 to .00(do not do this one frame prior to contact)
   7. select the squash handle and open the graph editor
   8. select any squash factor in the list and hit the F key to center curve
   9. select the keyframe at frame 1 and set the tangent to "step tangent"
9. if you need to scale time
   1. make sure to open all elements in the graph editor prior to scaling, such that you see the factor and squash nodes.
   2. after scaling make sure to select all keys and go to edit>snap
10. test render and adjust lighting
11. show>camera>all windows
12. camera,aim (select camera in outliner>open attribute editor> camerashapeNode, scroll down to object display and adjust locator scale to 100..
13. select new camera in perspective view
14. view>camera settings>film gate
15. focal length
16. playblast
17. render settings>common tab> set up file name, image format (iff or tiff)
    1. iff will import to AE but not QT
    2. when naming the file output name, use a / (slash) to create a folder within the images folder to hold your sequence of images.
       • example: hg/scene1
18. render menu set>batch render

• bouncing ball references
  • bouncing ball reference images
  • http://www.ima.umn.edu/~arnold/graphics.html
  • http://www.awn.com/tooninstitute/lessonplan/bounceball.htm
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKJegbjS4N8
  • http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=
    bouncing+ball+animation+mentor&aq=f

View

in the DM 3D animation resources folder:

• bouncingBall_tutorials

assignment
due next class

• complete pt1 bouncing ball tutorial
• find proper audio file for independent project

 

professor harvey goldman • office hours: rm 353, T 3:40-5:00, W 2:00-3:00, R 4-6
please make an appointment via department secretary Charlene Ryder, rm 302, cryder@umassd.edu