Tradigital Maya
Tradigital Maya A CG Animator’s Guide to Applying the Classic Principles of Animation
Lee Montgomery
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON
NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions .
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices Knowledge and best practice in this fi eld are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Montgomery, Lee, 1973- Tradigital Maya: a CG animator’s guide to applying the classic principles of animation / Lee Montgomery. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-12-385222-9 (pbk.) 1. Computer animation. 2. Maya (Computer fi le) I. Title. TR897.7.M648 2011 006.6'96—dc23 2011038124
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Printed in The United States of America
11 12 13 14 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset by: diacriTech, Chennai, India
For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.elsevierdirect.com
For all those new animators struggling to hone their craft, this book is dedicated to their endeavor and to the
fellow professionals and academics who commit their time to supporting their dreams.
I hope that you have as much enjoyment in reading the book as I had in writing it and that it stands up next
to the other great references on animation out there.
Special mention should also go to my friends and family who’ve supported me throughout my career and
particularly during the last 12 months as I worked on the book. Without the love and support of my
parents I would be nowhere in my life and I hope they’re as proud of me as I am of them.
vii
Contents Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xvii
Introduction – Traditional to Digital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Chapter 1: Arcs – Organic Movement/Natural Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Arcs in Object Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Localized Arcs – Human Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Chapter 1.1 – Animation Test – Bouncing Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Animation Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Maya Grid Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Creating the Bouncing Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Animation Preferences – Key Tangents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Selection and Transformation Tools and Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Animating the Ball Bounce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Copying and Pasting Keys and Setting Height Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Maya Graph Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Breakdown Key (In-between) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Playblast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Changing Key Tangent Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Ghosted Playblack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Refi ning the Animation Timing – Key Tangents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Squash and Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Looping the Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Loop Animation – Curve Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Loop Animation – Bounce Across Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Viewing and Editing the Trajectory Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Validating the Animation and Additional Edits to Refi ne the Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 1.2 – F16 Fighter Flight Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Introducing the Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
EP Curve – Motion Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Motion Path – Connecting the Model to the Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Editing Motion Path Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Contents
viii
Chapter 1.3 – Character IK Arm Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Maya Joint Chains, Forward & Inverse Kinematics, and Additional Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Pose Blocking, Timing & Spacing, and Motion Arcs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Animating with Forward Kinematics (FK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Animating with Inverse Kinematics (IK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
IK Rotate Plane Solver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Blocking in the Poses for the Arm Swing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
In-between Pose – Ease In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Validating the Timing and Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Motion Trail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Editing the Arc on the Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Shifting and Scaling Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Camera Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Editing the Arm Swing – Out/In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Looping the Arm Swing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Editing the New Motion – Arm Swing Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Follow-through on the Wrist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Elbow Angle (Pole Vector). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 1.4 – Character – Run Rhythm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Scene Setup and Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Lopping the Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Hip Sway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Looping Curves and Fixing Tangency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Looping and Extending the Run Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter 2: Anticipation – Building the Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
F16 Fighter – Takeoff and Fight Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Head Turn Animation/Animation Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
VFX – Dynamics Rocket Smash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Character Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Chapter 2.1 – Baseball Pitcher Throw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Reference and Thumbnailing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Character Asset and Display Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Full Body IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Posing and Keying Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Eff ector Pinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Full Body IK – Eff ector Pinning in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Contents
ix
Reach – T/R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Character Pose Blocking Part 1 – Idle Pose to Coiled Readiness Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Character Pose Blocking Part 2 – Readiness Pose to Moving Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Character Pose Blocking Part 3 – Readiness Pose to Pre-Release Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Chapter 2.2 – nParticle – Rocket Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Introducing the Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Animating the Mechanical Motion for the Rocket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Base Pivot for Pre-rocket Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Arm Crane for Pre-rocket Launch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Emitter Setup for nParticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Emitter Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Nucleus Solver – Ground Plane Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Tweaking the Eff ect on the nParticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Shading and Texturing the nParticles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
No Smoke without Fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Enhancing the Quality of the Smoke Eff ect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Chapter 3: Animation Editing – Timing & Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141
Timing & Spacing – Anticipation to Follow-through and Overlap . . . . . . . . 142
Timing & Spacing – Appeal – Mood & Characterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Timing & Spacing – Framing the Action – Camera Cuts and Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Chapter 3.1 – Timing & Spacing – Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Timing & Spacing Pt. 1 – Jump Animation – Spacing Contrast . . . . . . . . 144
Timing & Spacing Pt. 2 – Walk Spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Overall Timing for Walks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Timing & Spacing Pt. 3 – Run Spacing – Overall Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Timing & Spacing Pt. 4 – Run Spacing – Foot/Hip Spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Chapter 3.2 – Re-timing Action – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Introducing the Character Asset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Timing & Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Object Selection Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Editing Timing & Spacing – First Half of Swing Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Editing Timing & Spacing – Second Half of Swing Animation. . . . . . . . . 157
Timing & Spacing – Isolated Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Contents
x
Chapter 4: Animation Editing – Ease In & Ease Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
Chapter 4.1 – Ease In & Ease Out – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Overall Timing Edit – Ease In & Ease Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Viewing Timing & Spacing – Motion Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Editing Timing & Spacing – Ease In on Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Pose Edits – Ease In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Editing Timing & Spacing – Ease Out on Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Post Ease Out (Lead Out) & Moving Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Chapter 4.2 – Ease In & Ease Out – Head Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Rig Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Head Turn Animation – Blocking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Adding In-between Key – Linear Ease In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Smooth Ease In – Weighted Tangency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Smooth Ease In Pt. 2 – Double Take on Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Softening the Ease In – Additional Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Re-Timing the Motion – Fast Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Ease Out on Head Turn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Chapter 5: Staging – Framing the Action and Setting the Mood . . . . . . .193
Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Animatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Framing the Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Thumb-Nailing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Chapter 5.1 Thumb-Nails and Storyboards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Thumb-Nails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Storyboard and Breakdowns – F16 Fighter Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Chapter 5.2 Camera – Advanced Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Camera Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Viewport 2.0 Hardware Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Clipping Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Focal Length/Angle of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
DOF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Additional Viewport 2.0 Quality Settings – AmbientOcclusion/Anti-Aliasing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Motion Blur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Maya Software/Mental Ray Motion Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Rendering with Viewport 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Contents
xi
Online Chapter 5.1: Animatic – Camera Setup . . . . . . . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com
Online Chapter 5.2: Maya Camera Sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com
Chapter 6: Follow-Through and Overlapping Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Follow-Through and Overlap – Object Animation, Simulation, and Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Squash and Stretch – Maya Muscle Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
nDynamics – Rocket Smash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Chapter 6.1 – Baseball Pitcher Throw Pt. 2 – Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Pose Blocking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Character Pose Blocking Part 1 – Pre-Release Pose to Step . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Character Pose Blocking Part 2 – Foot Plant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Re-Timing the Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Weight Shift – Throw Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Throw Pose – Corkscrew Follow-Through. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Throw Pose – Corkscrew Follow-Through 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Chapter 6.2 – nCloth – Cape Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Modeling the Base Mesh for the nCloth Cape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Nucleus Space Scale Attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
nRigid – Adding the Character Mesh to the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
nConstraint – Connecting the Cape to the Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Previewing the Simulation – nCloth Rest Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Collision Thickness Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Geometry Cache – Adding the Character Animation to the nCloth Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
nCloth Attributes and Presets Pt. 1 – Leather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
nCloth Attributes and Presets Pt. 2 – T-Shirt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
nCloth Attributes – Refi ning the Simulation to Improve Quality . . . . . . 263
Increasing nCloth Mesh Resolution and Fixing Collision Thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Final Tweaks to the nCloth Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Chapter 6.3 – Prop Follow-Through and Overlap – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Full Body – Major Weight Shifts on Swing and Arc of Bat . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Upper Body – Torso Coil Rotation and Arm/Bat Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Start Pose to Swing Pose 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Swing Pose 1 to Swing Pose 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Contents
xii
Swing Pose 2 to Swing Pose 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Swing Pose 3 to Swing Pose 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Swing Pose 4 to Swing Pose 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Chapter 7: Secondary Action – Enhancing the Shot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
nCloth Simulation/nDynamics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Layered Animation and Supporting Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Detail Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Chapter 7.1 – Hand Animation Rig Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Introducing the Hand Rig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Attribute Connections for Finger Joint Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Working With the Finger Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Animating With the Rig Clenching Fist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Online Chapter 7.1: F16 – Plane Landing Mechanism . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com
Chapter 8: Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311
Pose to Pose – Walk and Run Cycles and Video Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Straight Ahead Action and Combining Both Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Chapter 8.1 – Pose-to-Pose Run Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Leg and Hip Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Mirroring the Pose across the Character (Left <> Right) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Copying Pose from Frame to Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Foot Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Centre of Mass – Weight Rise and Fall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Editing the Motion Curve Through the Graph Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Cycling the Motion Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Hip Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Upper Torso − Main Pose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Torso and Head Follow Through. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Torso Counterbalance Rotation – Part One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Torso Counterbalance Rotation – Part Two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Head Counterbalance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Arm Swing on Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Mirroring the Arm Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Hip Weight Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Chapter 8.2 – Dynamics Rocket Smash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Rigid Body Dynamics – Scene Setup and Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Rigid Body Dynamics – Refi ning and Directing the Eff ect . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Dynamics – Scene Setup and Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Contents
xiii
Chapter 9: Solid Drawing and Design – Form Meets Function . . . . . . . . .359
Thumbnailing, Draughting, and Traditional Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Dynamic Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Twinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Character Rigging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Chapter 9.1 – Dynamic Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Leg/Foot Angle and Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Hip Tilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Spine = S-Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Spine Twist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Hand Posing and Finalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Finalizing the Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Action Pose – 01 Gunplay – Blocked in Posing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Action Pose – 01 Gunplay – Refi ned Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Action Pose – 02 Swing – Blocked in Posing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Action Pose – 02 Swing – Refi ned Posing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Chapter 9.2 – Twinning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Twinned Motion – Gestural Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Refi ned Motion and Posing – Gestural Step. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Additional Edit – Timing Off set on Arm Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Online Chapter 9.1: Character Rigging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com
Chapter 10: Appeal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389
Appeal in Character Design and Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Production Design − Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Performance Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Chapter 10.1 – Production Design − Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Female Heroine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Male Athlete 1 – Baseball Pitcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Male Athlete 2 – Baseball Batter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Chapter 10.2 – Lighting and Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Viewport Renderer and Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Viewport 2.0 and Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Lighting – Three-Point Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Lighting and Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Chapter 10.3 − Character Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Scene Setup and Rig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Contents
xiv
Surprise/Shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Austere/Aloof. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Dejected/Subdued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Bright/Chatty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Chapter 11: Squash and Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .425
Manual Squash and Stretch and Deformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Character Posing and Squash and Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Facial Animation – Blend Shapes Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Dynamics – Maya Muscle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Chapter 11.1 – Animation Test – Flour-Sack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Squash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Twist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Follow-Through and Overlapping Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Ease In & Ease Out and Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Appeal and Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Chapter 11.2 Character – Hero Jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Online Chapter 11.1: Facial Animation – Blend Shapes . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com
Online Chapter 11.2: Maya Muscle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.tradigitalmaya.com
Chapter 12: Exaggeration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .465
Baseball Batter Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Walk Cycle Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
VFX Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Chapter 12.1 – Exaggeration – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Animation Lead-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Swing Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Exaggerated Torso Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Bat Angle Edited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Pre-Step Pose1 – Left Foot Raise Exaggerated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Pre-Step Pose2 – Hips Shift Forward Slightly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Exaggerated Action Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Chapter 12.2 – Exaggeration – HumanIK Retarget and Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Character Rig – HumanIK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
HumanIK – Character Controls Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
HumanIK – Character Retargeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Contents
xv
HumanIK – Retargeting Data to Control Rig – Bake to Rig and Cleanup after Retarget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Editing Animation on Animation Layer with Eff ector Pinning – Elbow Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Animation Edit – Exaggerated Walk – Dejected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Additional Edits 01 – Feet Drag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Additional Edits 02 – Head Lull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Additional Edits 03 – Hip Dip – Weight a Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Chapter 12.3 Exaggeration – Dynamics Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Dynamics – Scaff olding Setup Part 1 – Scene Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Basic Rigid Bodies Setup – Collapsible Scaff olding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Dynamics – Scaff olding Setup Part 2 – Rigid Bodies – Hinge Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Dynamics – Scaff olding Setup Part 3 – Hinge-Connected Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Dynamics – Roof Smash – Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Viewing the Additional Simulated Eff ects in Combination. . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Follow-Through and Overlapping Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Secondary Action and Exaggeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Chapter 13: Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .523
Chapter 13.1 – Recap – The Principles and Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Pre-visualization, Scene Layout, and Revision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Character Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Dynamics and Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Chapter 13.2 – Industry Trends Moving Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Industry Specialization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Digital Pre-visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Virtual Cinematography and Performance Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Video Games – Real-Time Animation and Run-Time Blending . . . . . . . . 526
Chapter 13.3 – Selected Reading and Additional Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Timing for Animation , Second Edition by Harold Whittaker and John Halas (Authors), Tom Sito (Editor). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Animation: The Mechanics of Motion by Chris Webster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes , V1 by Walt Stanchfi eld and Don Hahn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
The Animator’s Survival Kit (Paperback) by Richard Williams . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Contents
xvi
Acting for Animators: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation by Ed Hooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Cartoon Animation (The Collector’s Series) by Preston Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Animals in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Industry Periodicals, Websites, and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .533
xvii
Acknowledgments First, I’d like to thank the team at Focal Press for their dedication, support, and patience as I worked on this book over the last year. In particular, thanks to Katy Spencer, for her professionalism as we worked through the technical review and editing process and to Sarah Binns who has guided the project through to fi nal publication.
Thanks should also go to Mike Gasaway for his input during the technical edit for Focal Press. Mike’s understanding of the book’s focus and the commitment he showed in providing detailed input during the edit were invaluable.
Without Laura Lewin and the rest of the team at Focal’s belief in the initial proposal and outline the book would not have been such a success.
I’d also like to acknowledge all of the people I’ve been inspired by professionally within the animation industry over the last 10 years. This book is for the people who have the passion and skill to create the illusion of life through their craft.
The book would also not be possible without the vision of those who work tirelessly to defi ne, create, and improve the software and tools we take for granted in our daily toil as animators. The dedicated product design and development teams at Autodesk should be commended for their commitment to improving the tools and workfl ows we use every day.
xix
Introduction – Traditional to Digital
Many of the principles of traditional animation were developed in the 1930’s at the Walt Disney studios. These principles were developed to make animation, especially character animation, more realistic and entertaining. These principles can and should be applied to 3D computer animation .
– John Lasseter - Pixar, “Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation”, Computer Graphics , pp. 35–44, 21:4, July 1987 (SIGGRAPH 87).
FIG 0.0.1 Run cycle animation – animation arcs and key poses. Welcome to Tradigital Maya! – The source for Maya animators to expand both
their technical and creative skills with reference to the fundamental principles of animation. Please also visit this book’s Web site at www.tradigitalmaya.com!
Where Do the Fundamental Principles of Animation Come From? The fundamental principles of traditional animation are as applicable today in 3D animation as they were almost 80 years ago when they were fi rst applied at the Walt Disney Studios. The 12 principles of animation were originally taught at Disney as the basis for animators to create convincing and believable animation. Although the principles were fi rst applied to cell animation, they are equally as applicable today in 3D animation as they are to traditional animation media including clay-animation, stop-motion, and cell animation.
The 12 principles were originally outlined by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson in their book The Illusion of Life, Disney Animation . The book is considered a standard text for animators, and it is recommended that the reader of Tradigital Maya considers purchasing this title alongside other traditional animation reference guides.
Introduction – Traditional to DigitalIntroduction – Traditional to Digital
xx
What Are the 12 Fundamental Principles of Animation? The 12 principles of traditional animation are a series of fundamentals, which animators need to consider in practice. The principles were conceived primarily as a framework for animation based on the need to mimic natural weight, gravity, and mass as seen in movement in the real world. The art of creating believable motion in animation is a dark art requiring an understanding of how things move in the real world. Creating sequential frames of motion, both in traditional media and through computer animation that creates the illusion of life and vitality is the key to the animator’s job.
The principles can also be considered as a more general framework for creating engaging performance through animation. A number of the principles, such as anticipation, staging, appeal, and exaggeration, are less rooted in the technical practice of imitating real-world motion and are more directly related to creating drama or characterization. These are analogous to theatre, cinema practice, or acting.
The principles are covered in detail in individual chapter sections throughout this book. Understanding each fundamental principle is critical in creating animations that are believable and engaging for the viewer. Each chapter will provide an introduction to the animation principle that will be covered in the chapter tutorials that follow. As the traditional principles are applied together throughout the book, reference will also be made in each chapter introduction to how the principle has been applied alongside the other animation principles in other chapter tutorials.
Note
Other recommended reference texts for both traditional animation practice and 3D animation are provided in the fi nal chapter of the book.
FIG 0.0.2 Principles in practice – arcs, anticipation, timing & spacing, and ease out.
Introduction – Traditional to Digital
xxi
Summary of the 12 fundamental principles that are covered throughout the book are as follows:
Arcs – Arcs naturally occur in most motion in the real world because of the eff ect of gravity, inertia, and the hinged arc motion of animal limbs (see Fig. 0.0.2 , fi rst screenshot from left). Anticipation – An action should be preceded by anticipation; this is both a theatrical device and a fundamental of motion in the real world when objects and people gather energy before action (see Fig. 0.0.2 , second screenshot from left). Timing & Spacing – Eff ective timing & spacing of animation underpins all the other animation principles; understanding the intervals between major motions and how to edit keyframe timing to eff ectively convey the action is a key fundamental (see Fig. 0.0.2 , third screenshot from left). Ease In & Ease Out – Objects and people do not move at a constant speed or velocity. There should be a build up or acceleration to motion and a deceleration that follows. This can only be achieved through eff ective timing & spacing (see Fig. 0.0.2 , fourth screenshot from left).
FIG 0.0.3 Principles in practice – staging, follow-through, secondary action, and pose to pose.
Staging – Staging is a general concept that can be applied throughout animation. It is similar to framing in fi lm practice and is the ability to communicate ideas with clear and readable framing (see Fig. 0.0.3 , fi rst screenshot from left). Follow-Through and Overlap – Objects do not move at the same time; there should be a natural follow-through or overlap in motion, think of an arm swinging a bat or a fl owing cape, the motion overlaps after the body (see Fig. 0.0.3 , second screenshot from left). Secondary Action – Secondary action is motion that supports the main animation. Think background elements, characters props, or mechanisms that add interest and believability to motion (see Fig. 0.0.3 , third screenshots from left). Pose to Pose and Straight Ahead – Pose to pose and straight ahead are two diff erent methodologies that can be applied when creating animation. Pose to pose is the most commonly used methodology and requires the animator to “block in” the major poses for the animation before refi ning the in-between frames. Straight ahead is more spontaneous and is a less-planned approach (see Fig. 0.0.3 , right screenshots).
Introduction – Traditional to DigitalIntroduction – Traditional to Digital
xxii
Solid Drawing and Design – Skills in traditional arts including drawing, sculpting, and design are important in computer animation; without the ability to create believable forms and pleasing shapes in animation, the illusion will break (see Fig. 0.0.4 , fi rst and second screenshots from left). Appeal – Appeal is a general animation principle that can also be applied to production design. Appealing character design and performance requires an understanding of characterization and performance as well as eff ective application of the other principles in tandem to convey mood (see Fig. 0.0.4 , third screenshot from left). Squash and Stretch – Squash and stretch is a principle that is required when animating the natural change in volume or shape in organic or soft-bodied objects. In 3D animation, this can be mimicked through simulation such as Maya’s nCloth and muscle systems (see Fig. 0.0.4 , fi fth screenshot from left). Exaggeration – Exaggeration is another general principle that should be applied across all areas. Readability in animation is key and can only be achieved through strengthening or exaggerating the animation, so that it is engaging for the viewer (see Fig. 0.0.4 , right screenshot).
Each fundamental principle should be considered not just in isolation but alongside the other principles to create a unifi ed statement. For example:
• Eff ective timing & spacing of animation is required to create both believable ease in and ease out or follow-through.
• Without strong framing or staging of an animation sequence, the anticipation or build up to the action will not be readable or eff ective.
• Strong secondary animation on background characters or other elements alongside overlapping motion and follow-through will help enhance a sequence as additional elements add appeal to the overall mood being created.
Applying the Principles in Maya To get started, you’ll obviously need either a fully licensed version of the software or a trial version to work through the tutorials. The tutorials were put together primarily in Maya 2012; a fully functional 30-day trial version of the latest release can be downloaded from – www.autodesk.com/maya-trial.
FIG 0.0.4 Principles in practice – solid drawing, appeal, squash and stretch, and exaggeration.
Introduction – Traditional to Digital
xxiii
The tutorials in the book cover the full range of technical and creative skills that you’ll need to apply the traditional animation principles eff ectively in Maya.
Maya Tutorial Scene Files The Maya tutorial scene fi les referenced throughout the book can be downloaded from the book’s Web site, www.tradigitalmaya.com . Please refer to the instructions on the book’s Web site regarding installation of the Maya tutorial scene fi les and media. The scene fi les are organized by chapter section and should be downloaded prior to working through each chapter tutorial.
• Technical fundamentals – the Maya interface, navigating the scene and edit (see Fig. 0.0.5 ).
Basics of how to navigate the Maya user interface to select and modify scene elements will be covered in the initial chapter tutorials. Being comfortable with the user interface and able to select and modify the elements whilst animating is essential for getting great results with less frustration.
• Scene organization and selection and modifi cation through Maya’s display layers, Outliner, Channel Box, and Attribute Editor will be covered throughout.
• Accessing specifi c elements for edit from the Maya Attribute Editor will also be used throughout to change properties while animating. Diff erent display modes and toggles to speed up scene selection, preview and edit will also be covered.
• Technical fundamentals – keyframing and editing motion (see Fig. 0.0.6 ).
Initial tutorials will introduce you to the fundamental tools and workfl ows used to animate within Maya. Understanding the basics of how to set keyframes for animation in Maya on the timeline and how to edit motion timing and position is a key.
Technical workfl ows for further editing motion timing and keyframe interpolation through the Maya Dopesheet and Graph Editor will also be covered throughout.
FIG 0.0.5 Technical fundamentals – The Maya user interface.
Introduction – Traditional to DigitalIntroduction – Traditional to Digital
xxiv
• Character animation – inverse kinematics, control rigs, human IK, and posing (see Fig. 0.0.8 ).
The main focus for the tutorials within the book is character animation. Basics of working on isolated areas of character posing will be introduced in initial chapters alongside explanation of the fundamentals of inverse kinematics for character posing.
Full character control rigs will be provided for you to work through the full animation exercises in the later chapters. Both standard Maya character Control Rigs and Maya human IK Rigs will be provided. Both the technical process of posing characters for animation and creative workfl ows to create believable motion will be explored.
• Traditional media and reference (see Fig. 0.0.7 )
Usage of traditional media and reference, including thumbnailing and storyboarding, will be encouraged throughout the book. The principles of solid drawing and staging are required to eff ectively pose characters for animation that are naturally weighted and move correctly. Solid draughting skills are also required to create eff ective layouts for storyboards and plan out revisions to the animation whilst working.
Thumbnail pose reference will be provided for the majority of the character animation tutorials. Pose break downs for the extended tutorials will be provided either at the start of the tutorial or as the tutorial progresses. Creating iterative thumbnails to plan out specifi c body posing will also be encouraged as will creating your own reference thumbnails and revisions during the projects. The reader is also encouraged to consider other reference sources such as photography, video reference, and life study to assist in understanding how the character should move; additional guidance around where to apply thumbnailing and reference is provided in Chapter 5 .
FIG 0.0.7 Thumbnails and character posing.
FIG 0.0.6 Keyframing and editing motion – Motion Trails, Ghosting, Graph Editor, and Dope Sheet.
Introduction – Traditional to Digital
xxv
• Dynamics – rigid body dynamics (collisions) particle simulation (nParticle) cloth simulation (nCloth), and Maya muscle (see Fig 0.0.10 ).
Workfl ows for technical setup and refi nement of dynamics and simulation will also be a focus for the book. Although these areas are considered more the domain of a technical animator or Visual Eff ects Technical Director (VFX TD),
FIG 0.0.8 Character animation – control rigs, human IK, and posing.
FIG 0.0.9 Technical setup – connections, character rigging, and detail controls.
• Technical setup – character skeleton rigs, inverse kinematics, control rigs, constraints, and connections (see Fig. 0.0.9 ). These techniques are also covered in the online chapters, so please see the Web site for more information.
Although the main focus of the book is applying traditional creative skills in analyzing and refi ning animation, we will also be looking at the technical tools and workfl ows within Maya to create great animation controls and rigs.
Tutorials focusing specifi cally on Character Rigging, Blend Shapes Setup, and Maya Muscle are included as additional online tutorials available for download from the book’s Web site, www.tradigitalmaya.com .
Understanding the fundamental technical strengths and limitations of how your character or object control rig has been put together will help to provide a broader understanding of how the controls work for animation when posing and keying.
Introduction – Traditional to DigitalIntroduction – Traditional to Digital
xxvi
Additional Resources and Reference Additional Media and Online Book Tutorials Reference media, along with a number of additional online chapter tutorials, are also included on the book’s Web site for download: www.tradigitalmaya.com .
The additional online chapter tutorials complement the main book tutorials and cover technical rigging, setup, and cameras.
The book is not intended as an exhaustive guide to either all areas of traditional animation practice or technical application in Maya. As such, the reader should consider additional technical and creative resources as they look to expand their skills as an animator.
Maya Documentation and Tutorials The documentation and tutorials included with Maya provide a solid basis for working with the software. Please refer to the Maya documentation as you work through the tutorials in the book, especially if there are any technical areas of the interface or tools you are not comfortable with. Additional reference guides and tutorials for Maya are also available in both print and online, and it is encouraged that the reader considers purchasing these if they are looking to expand their skills in a specifi c area of the software.
Animation and Industry Reference Additional creative reference for traditional animation practice is also encouraged as the reader works through this book and looks to further their skills as an animator. A thorough understanding of both the media of computer animation and the current industry practice is also encouraged for any animator, whether they’re new to the industry or experienced.
their eff ective application to create believability to the viewer still requires a fi rm understanding of how to create natural weight, timing, and gravity through application of the traditional principles. As the eff ects are directed by the artist, creative decisions and choices are available to refi ne the results to enhance your animations and eff ects.
FIG 0.0.10 Dynamics setup – rigid bodies, nParticles, nCloth, and Maya muscle.
Introduction – Traditional to Digital
xxvii
Included in the fi nal chapter of the book are a number of additional recommendations for further study, which the reader should consider as they work through this book.
Please be sure to visit this book’s Web site, www.tradigitalmaya.com , for online chapters covering more animation techniques, as well as the Maya scene fi les referred to throughout the book.
Top Related