The Blob - Walk Cycle #6

Blob Monster - Walk Cycle Test...

Clip 1: The basic forward movement.
Clip 2: The basic forward movement with some ground resistance and head bobbing.
Clip 3: Same as 'Clip 2' but from another angle.

Thoughts:
Although I smoothed out the animation in the graph editor, some of the joint movements still seem a little jittery and sudden. I think I'll have to go back and refine the movements a bit more.

Rigging & Animation by: Scott Westwater.

Finishing the wing test [v2.0] #5

Here is another look at birds and the movement of their wings. I also took a little advice from the 'Timing for Animation - Second Edition' book, as well as reference images like those featured in the previous Blog post.

Putting research and reference into practice.

Rigging & Animation by: Scott Westwater.

Animation Test - Bird Wing [v1.0] #4

A quick and dirty animation test (in progress) of a birds wing in motion, just three key frames:

1. Frame 01 = Up position.
2. Frame 15 = Down position.
3. Frame 30 = Up position.

Reference:
Some reference images I found on Google of birds in flight. (click on to enlarge images)

 NOTE: Personal though: "I was thinking along the lines of finishing this test and then duplicating the wing mesh for the other side of a body. Then attaching both wings to a crude low-poly body, something like a dragon - continuing the animation test from there..."

Rigging & Animation by: Scott Westwater.

Project Research #3

These ideas and list of animation sets is derived from watching numinous animation tests and game reels by various people on Youtube and Vimeo. Taking from them all a general break down of some of the most common animation sets used in videos and games. Along with less common animation sets seen on the internet and in games.

Possible Animation Sets for Project:

• Character idle animations.
• Character walk cycle animations.
• Character jumping animations.
• Character running animations.
• Character attack animations (kick, punch, weapon swing etc...)
• Character death animations.
• Character blocking attack animations.
• Character spinning animations.
• Character climbing animations.
• Character sitting animations.
• Character interaction animations.
• Character facial animations.
• Character emotional animations.

Some interesting demo reels and animation tests by others, these include examples of idle, attack, walk cycles and jumping movements.(Source: Youtube)

Maya Keyboard Shortcut List. #2

Software Reference: Maya Keyboard Shortcuts List (Print friendly .pdf format.)

I personally don't know about others, but I always find I can never remember the endless amounts of keyboard shortcuts available throughout several different creative software packages. So to help myself I managed to find a very nice print friendly .pdf version of the shortcut keys for maya.

I thought I'd share my findings with anyone interested enough to visit my Blog...

Advanced Animation - An Introduction & Project Brief. #1

Project Brief:
You will develop and produce emotionally engaging character animation. You are free to use any form of animation you wish, but should experiment with both 2D and digital 3D forms prior to production to ensure the most appropriate form is chosen for your concept. To lead the development of your animation, you should select one of the following fields in which to specialise.

Three topics to choose from:

• Narrative Animation.
• Animation for Visual Effects.
• Animation for Computer Games.

Introduction:
The final result of this project should result in a demo reel consisting of a varied number of animation test sets, using royalty free and educational only rigs. My chosen topic being 'Animation for Computer Games', the demo reel will consist of animation tests related to this topic and constructed in the same technical way that any type of animation for a game engine might be used for Industry standard use.

[Animation for Computer Games] - My desired project selection.