Daniel Cripps - The Ride - Animation blog

Quick note on problems I have overcome

2009-06-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

One of he problems that popped up towards the end of the project came from the system i had set up that allowed me to be animaing with references even before the final character models ad textures were complete.

The idea was that i would animate with the most up to date models available and simply update the references each time. This all worked without any problems until it was time to add the textures to the the rigged and skinned models.

I gave Dan, Anna and Jake each a version of the character they were to texture un-rigged so that the history could easily be deleted after they had added all their UV unwrap nodes without destroying the skinning I had. I gave the team specific instructions to follow so that things would work properly when the models were handed back to me. I then took the unwrapped models back and transfer the the UVs over to my skinned versions of the characters. This worked perfectly with only a couple of button presses for Lee. However, once receiving Cho back i found that somewhere along this process the mesh had been combined and separated a number of times resulting in a mesh that Maya considered different from the skinned version despite the topology being identical. This mean that the attributes could not be copied across like before.

One solution that didn't work was to export the skin weights from the skinned version and apply them to the unwrapped version. This did not work because both models need the same uvs for the weights to be transferred properly which of course they did not have (the problem in the first place!).

After a couple of hours trying to find a solution through trial and error, I went online and found a plugin which exported skin weights relative to their global position. So I skinned the unwrapped model with the default settings making sure that it was set up in exactly the same way as the rigged version had been and then had to mess around with the script for another hour or so to get the desired results.

There was a similar problem with kitty but it was on a much smaller scale so I just re unwrapped the problem areas as Jake's original unwrapping was basic and easy to reproduce.

Just one of the many stress inducing problems I faced every day that stopped me from doing what I had scheduled to do!

Time scheduling

2009-06-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

Here is my schedule for term 3 put together by Anna.

scene 8

2009-06-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

first scene comp tests

2009-05-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

grave yard last shot

2009-05-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Due the the giant zombie hand being way to giant, the only way I could get it to grab the cart made the shot afterwards pretty much impossible. So I told Anna the next shout would have to be behind the cart rather than in front of it but I was unsure on how to end this last shot. Anna suggested seeing them get pulled into the mausoleum and the doors slam behind them.

OK its way dark but you get the idea.

hair rig

2009-05-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

Using this tutorial:

http://rancie11.blogspot.com/2007/10/dynamic-hair-and-spline-iktogether.html

I made Lee's hair dynamic. It seems to hold up to fast movements will probably have to tweak it on a shot by shot basis.

cart rig

2009-05-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

I found a plugin on highend3d for vehicle rigs which ithough would be quicker than working out the expression for getting the wheels to turn the right amount. The plugin also makes suspension and controls yo turn the wheels, we dont need any of this for the carts however.

I also "rigged" the buttons! i rigged both even though one of them get pressed.

left overs

2009-05-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

Aim of the day 23rd May

2009-05-23T03:57:00.000-07:00

Scene 2 animate kitty -
Zombie hand -

UPDATES

Zombie hand displacement mapping.

This is Dans original modle which he tookinto mud and painted textures and displacement.

I extracted a displacement map through mud box and applied it in maya.

Displacement+bump+colour+spec rendered in maya.

Zombie hand rig

I decided to do an IK rig for the fingers as they will need to stay fixed to the cart

This is a walk test dispite the fact that the hand does no walking in the film....

Aim of the day 21st May

2009-05-21T04:42:00.000-07:00

get animation done for scene 5 - √

UPDATES

Aim of the day 19th May

2009-05-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

Finish animating final scene - √
Watch last TWO episodes of 24 season 7!!!!- √

UPDATES

Aim of the day 18th May

2009-05-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

Animate scene 9 shot 2 for at least one character - √

Aim of the day 15th May

2009-05-15T03:42:00.000-07:00

Twist links for Lee and Kitty - √
Final scene (9?) shot 1 - √
Bench press a whale - X

UPDATESSS

Kitty and Lee twist links

Scene 9

My idea for this shot was to have cho trying to get out of the cart before its stopped. Here is my initial attempt:

#

Not overly happy with this...

Aim of the day 14th May

2009-05-14T04:17:00.000-07:00

Scene 7 shot 7 - √
Scene 7 shot 15 - √
Facial animation for the caves - X (I have decided to work on this once the characters a final and ready to go into the scenes)
Fix Cho's rig/skinning - √

GO!

UPDATES

Scene 7 stuff

Ive changed shot 6 to a different angle so that the reverse shot that followed is no longer necessary cutting 2 seconds off the scene! I also rolled the camera a bit on the first close up of Lee reaching the boot to make it look like her arm is coming from the side more rather than the top.

Fixing Cho

As you can see in the picture below Cho's shoulders are crap. This is my fault for putting the joints in the wrong place when i rigged the proxy models.

As I had already skinned Cho there didn't seem to be an easy way to fix the problem, especially seeing as Ive done loads of animation with the rig so couldn't just redo the whole thing or it would mess it all up!

I exported the skin weights for her whole body and then detached her skin and deleted all the rig controllers leaving just the joints. I then repositioned the shoulder joints to the proper places:

I then used the same mel script I used to begin with to make the rig controllers again making sure that they were all named the same as the original controllers. Seeing as we are using references for most of our objects, including characters, it meant that i could just replace the old reference file with this new one and it all updated with the animation in tact!

All the characters have had wrist problems due to my plans for twist links not working out. Originally i thought that the rig script i used supported them. It does but the joints twist the wrong way... So i got rid of the twist joints in favour of corrective blend shapes. These worked ok but went a bit mental when doing anything other than rotating in x axis. Today I had a brainwave and thought that I would probably be able to add in the twist links but use influence geometry instead meaning that I wouldn't have to go back and add joints to the rig.

I asked Dan, Anna and Jake each to model their characters with the palms facing down and with a twist in the forearm
I created three cubes to act as the twist links that the arm would be skinned to
I wrote an expression which tells the fist link to rotate on the x-axis 75% of however much the wrist rotates by on its x-axis. I wrote similar expressions for the 2nd and 3rd links but made them rotate by 50% and 25% respectively
This image shows the rotation of each link when the wrist is rotated 90 degrees
This image shows how the links effect the mesh and how the twist tapers off towards the elbow.

Aim of the day 13th May

2009-05-13T03:54:00.000-07:00

Set up Kitty's face rig - √
playblast out first scene - √
scene 7 shots 5 and 6 - √
Fix problems metionetioned yesterday - √

UPDATES

Kitty's face rig. Unlike the other characters I moved the rig over to the side so i can actually see the face when animating it! Go common sense!

Aim of the day 12th May

2009-05-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

Scene 7 - shot 2 both characters - √
Scene 7 - shot3 both characters - √
Finish rig and skin Kitty - √
Watch 24 - √
Eat chineese food - √

UPDATES

24 is awesome:

Chinese food is good.

Kitty is skinned and ready to rock. Im sure there will be problems with it as im going through the animation but for now this works. As with all the characters the skirt will be animated with dynamics after the main animation is complete.

Ive just noticed some dead spots on some of the body parts. Ill makes sure thats fixed tomorrow.

Comp breakdown

2009-05-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

Aim of the day complete!

2009-05-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

Lee is bored of the ride by this point whereas cho is giving up hope.

Aim of the day 11th May edition

2009-05-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Scene 07 - shot 01 - both characters animated
Scene 07 - shot 01 - both characters facial animation

blend shapes

2009-05-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

This shows the controls I have set up on the face to drive the blendshapes I made below:

In addition to the shapes shown above I also have a narrow and wide shape for the mouth and later added left and right movement as demonstrated by cho:

The eyebrows and the eyelashes are separate meshes that are skin wrapped to the face so that they follow the brows and lids:

Kitty Edit

2009-05-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

On the right is a reshaped version of Jakes kitty model that I did while the others directed me. After geting home and starting blendshapes I found that some of the topology of Jakes orginal mesh was causing some un wanted creases and pinches so I re-modelled the head from scratch.

Scene 2 with extra shot

2009-05-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Here Ive added an extra shot between the start and end of the first one. I think it breaks up the first shot a bit better as well as giving a close up of the characters.

Test comp

2009-05-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

This is the result some comping together I did in After Effects for a shot from the cave sequence.

scene 2

2009-05-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

I think I will add an extra shot at the beggining of this to show more of a close up like in the previous post. From the current distance the animation looks too stiff.

scene 2 shot01

2009-04-30T16:20:00.001-07:00

This is just a close up of the animation on Lee for this shot. Lee is not particularly impressed with the shoddyness of the ride as she looks around and isnt really phased by the flickering lights either.

graveyard sequence

2009-04-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

In the original graveyard scene we had the girls being attacked by zombies. It was suppose to be a way of getting lee scared which would cause her character development at the end of the film. However, this scene wasnt really very effective. I suggested that we have some of kittys colthes lying around which would trigger a reaction in lee where she realises that shes worried about her sister who she has not seen since before they entered the ride. This playblast shows the new sequence.

I am particularly proud of the animation of lee trying to grab the boot. It was all hand animated using clusters and NO cloth dynamics or anything like that! :D

Laaaaava

2009-04-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

Jake has been working on lava and had some nice results, however when it came to scaling the shaders up to our huuuuuge scenes things started to suck. I had a go and came up with this after follwing a tutorial and making some adjustments:

opening titles test

2009-03-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Work has been done

2009-03-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

I have done loooaaaaadddssss in the last month or so and I really want to put it up and show it off but at the same time I dont want to give away some of the best bits of the animation! So for now most of it is gonna be kept under wraps and I'll maybe post really short animation clips and maybe renders of stuff as the scenes come together.

Cho adjusts her pants...

2009-02-08T08:42:00.001-08:00

Here we have Lee looking at the other two and deciding that shes going to go onto the ride knowing that they will follow. I gave Cho the secondary action of adjusting her pants a bit, hopfully it wont be too destraction from the focus which is Lee and adding the depth of field and focus shifting will no doubt help direct where the audience should be looking.

Updated animatic for scene 01

2009-01-25T13:46:00.001-08:00

Cho dance - Shot....11ish?

2009-01-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

Shot....7?

2009-01-23T15:50:00.000-08:00

shots 1-7 getting there

2009-01-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

Scene 1 shot 04 timed

2009-01-07T14:25:00.000-08:00

scene 1 shots 01 - 03 semi done

2009-01-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Scene 1 shot 4 : Cho and kitty running

2008-12-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

Rendered with playblastgathermatronics

19 Posts and no cell shaded renders!?

2008-12-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

There you go, with a nice thick outline too!

(note, The Ride will not be toon shaded.)

At last

2008-12-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

18 posts without a single render done with final gather?! What was I thinking? I guess I should change that right now!

Phew...

Proxy models and rigs in Maya

2008-12-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

Oh shit! I forgot to render it with final gather! :O

corrective blend shapes in Maya for muscle deformation and cloth wrinkles and skin weighting.

2008-12-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

As you can see in the previous post i didnt skin the high poly very well, in fact i just left the default skin weights and ended up with this

This is similar to what you might get at the elbow or knee joints. Sone good skin weight adjustment would fix this fine but it is possible to fix this by using corrective blendshapes instead. I created a blend shape for the cylinder and the adjusted it at the bent position so that the mesh was not collapsing on itself.

I then set driven keys so that the rotation of the joint turned the blendshape on.

As i said before you can do this with skin weighting so why use this method? Because it can be used to create effects like muscle bulges and cloth wrinkles as well as correcting hard to weight areas.

Referencing in Maya using proxies and high poly models and jazz like that

2008-12-06T07:41:00.001-08:00

To enable me to animatie while the others are still modeling we will be using referencing. This means that we can create low poly proxy models for me to animate and he replace them later with the high res meshes.

Here is an example using a cylinder.

Low poly mesh with joints, the mesh is parented to the joints rather than skinned as it is broken into two parts. as well as saving time skinning, it means that maya will run faster while I animate as it doent not have to calculate the skin weights all the time.

I saved the scene as "low poly" and then in a new scene loaded it as a reference

I then animated the low poly version

I saved this and then went back to the low poly file and created i high poly version of the cylinder that fitted over the lowpoly

After skinning the high poly i saved the scene as "high poly" and went back to the animated scene. I then replaced the low poly reference with the "high poly" scene

Because the joint names are the same in both the high and low poly scenes the animation carries across. It is even possible to create the high poly and then overwrite the low poly file and then reloading the reference instead of replacing it.

Making accurate train tracks in Maya

2008-12-05T15:51:00.001-08:00

I originally thought the tracks would be easy to make by just extruding along a curve. Turns out that just doing that can cause some problems when it comes to accuracy.

Firstly I made a cruve to represent the path of the tracks.

Then I created two cubes that the tracks could be extruded out of.

Just exturding one face out at a time doesnt work because it move the extruded faces to follow exactly along the curve like this

Combining the cubes and the extuding the faces at the same time works if the track is straight

However, as soon as the curve bends you start to get some unwanted twisting in the tracks

I thought a way to possibly solve this would be to have to separate curves so that each rail of the track could be extruded separately. Simply duplicating the curve however only works if the track is straight

At the bend the curves get closer to gether and are no longer parellel

One way i found to get around this problem is to make an object that represents the cart (or something that can follow the curve) I chose a cube. I duplicated it twice and then moved the pivots of the duplicates so that one was horizontally parallel to one rail and the second was parallel to the other. I then attached both to the curve using attach to motion path.

Moving the pivots meant that the duplicates wouldnt just follow the curve along the middle like what you get when extruding one rail on its own. Instead, they follow paths that stay the same disence away from each other at all times. I then created motion trails from the duplicates

Here you can see hoe they stay the same distance apart all the way along

Next, the motion trails can be converted into curves and the rails extruded along them to create an accurate track!

There may be a way more simple way to do this but i didnt find it! maybe im just stupid?

Lee run cycle test in Maya

2008-12-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

Lee run cycle

Kitty run cycle test in Maya

2008-12-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

Kitty run cycle

Rigging in Maya

2008-12-03T15:59:00.001-08:00

The way we plan to work is to use proxy versions of the characters to animate while the high res versions are being made. Ill use dans drawings to make the proxies to the same proportions as the drawings and then send them to Dan and Anna to make the high res, using the proxies as guids as well as the drawings. For rigging i found a mel script that automatically creates controllers for a skeleton. Its totally customisable so can be added to if needed. It might seem like cheating, but its not! I know how to set up everthing the script does so all its doing is saving time.

Above is the UI for the script. You just need to type in the name of the corrsponding joints and it will create the controllers for each one. Below shows some of the controllers on a bunch of joints.

Get the script from : http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/animation/zooCST---character-setup-toolkit-2874.html

Cho run cycle test in Maya

2008-12-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

Cho run cycle

full animatic with rough sound

2008-12-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

warming up for animation

2008-11-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

This is one of the actions that lee will be perrforming in the film. However the proportions of the random character rig i decided to use made it rather tough to get into the mind of a 10 year old girl, hence, this is probably not how she is going to move when i come to animate her!

UPDATED animatic

2008-11-06T15:18:00.000-08:00

A couple of new frames and all new sound effects! OMDays.

Some rough and shoddy character poses

2008-11-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

Lee looking all snobby/bossy

Cho looking like... well...

first rough animatic (medievil death room)

2008-11-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

My storyboards - medievil death room

2008-11-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

First shot shows the entrance gate closed, It raises at the girls come into shot...Cho is still desperately hitting the button in the hope that they might still be able to change paths. Lee is trying to hold Cho's arms back. Neither has noticed the room ahead.

The gate crashes shut behind them startling them.

they then look ahead and see...

All kinds of sharp instruments of death swinging across the track

An axe swings from right to left just in front of the cart

An axe swings just over their heads and the girls duck out of the way screaming

The axe swings past and crashes into the wall

A buzz saw rises out of the ground and spins towards them dropping back down just before reaching them

the girls look back at what they just passed through thinking that that was the end of it, but a spiked ball falls from the ceiling and swings towards them

they turn back to face it moments before it hits them. they scream and cover their faces. the room goes black just before it hits, the girls are still covering their faces.

Rough 3D blockout

2008-10-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

heres the block out i made to help us with the storybaording. Kitty's parts of the ride arent here nor is the end!

Test camera moves that could be cool, or not, who knows?

2008-10-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try out having the camera go under the track and take its own path throught the environment as it follows the cart.

This kind of shot will be a lot easier to figure out once we actually have the environment designed!!

Fings what I have done

2008-10-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

So while working on rough storyboards I have been making the 3D blockout which makes it way easy to change camera angles and reposition characters and things like that. It will also make it much easier to time things out for the animatic and maybe even a starting point for the actual animation!

I Also did some test making tracks and rails and making the kart follow the track accurately and junk like that and blocked out some shots from the mine kart sequence. Here it be:

So new production blog and that

2008-10-15T15:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, as the title says, this is a NEW blog and it will be where I post my stuffs that I will be contributing to our 3rd year film "The Ride". Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun...