OK, here comes the 2nd part of creating an Animated Pivot by a good friend of mine. In this post he describes on how to actually go ahead on setting up a pivot controller with a bit of maths involved. The offset part is still a bit tricky and will be described in Maulik’s up coming post 🙂
Seems like Sinka is getting some momentum. I found this really interesting animation done by Justin Tan. The motion, body dynamics and expression seems really fluid. I like the snappyness … really good job 🙂
Ok, here is a little different topic; not the regular CG stuff but the nature! Recently I went on a treking trip from Pokhara to Ghandruk, which is about 300 KM west of Kathmandu. The breathtaking views and sceneries here are some of the best in the world. You can almost feel the gigantic Himalayas above your head with beautiful village and wild green forest. These places are what I would like to call heaven on earth … the true Sangrila! I am looking forward to visit there again 🙂
Feel free to check out some of the snaps on my flickr page …
This seems like a new start up image for upcoming Autodesk Maya 2012. Looks familiar, doesn’t it!? Very interesting … hmmmm!
This is insane … just blew my mind! The next generation video game engines are becoming ultra real and sophisticated. I wonder pretty soon we will have full featured CG animated movies made from game engines … really coOl, I am already waiting to play video games made out of this engine 😀
Ok, here is a new way of presenting news, interesting 🙂
When I watched the movie with 3D goggles on an amazing big screen I was like OMG … this is breathtakingly beautiful with all those stunning artworks. I wonder how was this movie actually made, the blend of live action with CG environment was stunning. Anyways, I got some of my questions answered reading this awesome interview with the artist working behind the scene to create this one of a kind epic Legacy 🙂
Here is the link to the interview … Click here to be mesmerized XD
Image-Metrics, worlds leading solution for facial animation in games, movies and commercial is conducting wonderful webinar session running from 4th of April. Jay, a very good friend of mine and rigger (technical artist) working at Image-Metrics is conducting this webinar.
I got an opportunity to grab a sit for this one of a kind webinar session fully dedicated towards facial rigging and facial animation using Image-Metrics proprietary software “Faceware”. Faceware is an Über cool, state of the art technology for facial animation, and I think it is one of the best out there. Anyways, the webinar session is really informative and attendees can raise there hands for any questions, tips and suggestions. I am really looking forward for the next session which will deal with actual facial performance capture 🙂
Oh yes, for the link to the webinar session … Click Here!
Also, peoples at Image-Metrics are very willing to share and see people benefiting from the rising CG community. Therefore, anyone interested can get there hands on their state of the art facial rigs and builds, which includes a collection of hybrid rigs for games and films!
So, what are you waiting for, get yourself a free rig from this link … Click Here!
Finally, I want to thank the peoples and fellow friends at Image-Metrics for this one of kind meeting round up session. I hope that more peoples and studios out there learn from this and organize similar session for people like us and the community. I wish Image-Metrics and staffs working there a very warm best wishes and a big THANK YOU 🙂
Links:
Jay Greiner
Jonas Avrin
Image-Metrics
Here is a really nice and handy little tutorial by Keith on creating squiggly cartoony line art render for your 3D image.
Here is the tutorial link on Keith’s blog post 🙂 Squiggle Line Tutorial
You will use the properties of a primitive cube’s pivot point to animate it rolling on its edges. This process will involve the use of the Channel Control window to make certain attributes keyable. Once they are keyable, they will be available in the Channel Box for you to set keys and edit their value. In this lesson, you will also use the Graph Editor to refine the animation curves to get exactly the kind of motion that you need.
STEP ONE
Place a primitive poly cube into the scene and scale it to X=2, Y=2 and Z=2.
Select the Move tool and place the front of the cube at 0 along the Z axis (Z=-1).
Press the Insert key to go into edit mode and then move the pivot point to the middle of the cube’s front bottom edge.
You may want to use grid snapping to help you position the pivot.
Now press the Insert key to return to the Move tool then move the cube to the origin. (Y=1)
STEP TWO
Select Display -> Transform Display -> Local Rotation Axes and Rotate Pivots. These icons will help you visualize these components as you begin animating the pivot.
STEP THREE
Select Window -> General Editors -> Channel Control and select the following non-keyable attributes:
Rotate Pivot Translate X
Rotate Pivot Translate Y
Rotate Pivot X
Rotate Pivot Y
Use the Move button to make them keyable attributes. They will now appear in the Channel Box.
STEP FOUR
With the cube selected, set a key for Z rotation at frame 1.
Go to frame 10 then set Rotate Z to -90 and set another key.
STEP FIVE
Return to frame 1. Select the Rotate Pivot Translate X, Rotate Pivot Translate Y, Rotate Pivot X, and Rotate Pivot Y in the Channel Box then use your RMB to choose Key Selected.
STEP SIX
Go to frame 10.
Open the Attribute editor and select the pCube tab.
Expand the Pivots section.
Expand World Space section.
Set World Rotate X Pivot to 2. You should notice that the pivot moves to the front of the cube. Now you can continue rotating the cube.
In the Channel Box, set a key for the Rotate Pivot Translate X, Rotate Pivot Translate Y, Rotate Pivot X, and Rotate Pivot Y channels.
Editing the World Rotate Pivot in the Attribute Editor affects these four attributes therefore they must all be keyed.
STEP SEVEN
Go to frame 20.
Set another linear key frame for a Rotate Z to -180. Set the World Rotate Pivot to 4 then set keys for the four pivot channels in the Attribute editor.
If desired, keep rotating the cube and moving the pivot using the steps outlined above. If you playback the animation at this point, the roll of the cube will not seem correct. You need to change the animation curve tangents for the pivot attributes.
STEP EIGHT
The incorrect motion is because the pivot point needs to stay in one location for 10 frames then jump to its new location.
Open the Graph Editor.
Select the four pivot action curves
Select Tangents -> Stepped.
This will create the desired results.