Hey Guys,
I'm sorry for the lack of updates. I was feeling really good about moving forward on the movie with my last post but this month has been tough on my free time and it has really halted the movie.
Don't worry. I'm still working on it. I'm just not able to work on it as much as I would like. I was hoping to have the Max model done weeks ago and instead I'm still working on cleaning up the rig.
Still, I'm having a lot of fun working on the model when I can. Despite my lack of updates these last few weeks I still feel as though I'm moving forward. My goal is to do another test animation with the Max model once I have completed cleaning him up.
I will try to do better keeping you in the loop.
Later!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Cleaning Up the Rig!
Hey guys,
I'm still working on cleaning up the Max rig.
So, what does that mean exactly? Basically, now that I have the rig finished I've applied the rig and created an armature, or system of controls that allow me to move and pose the model. In order to do this, I join the rig to the model and apply automatic weights that basically use the location of each bone to decide what part of the mesh will move when I adjust the controls.
The automatic weight feature really makes this process move along quickly, but the problem is the software doesn't always apply the weight where you want it applied. So, when I move one control, at least initially, some parts of the mesh will move when I don't want it to. In order to fix this, I have to clean up the weight painting to apply only to the parts of the rig I want.
This is what it looks like...
As you can see, when I move the selected bone in the model the colored area is what is affected. I took this pic shortly after cleaning up the area that makes up Max's left eye brow. Now, only his eyebrow will move. That wasn't the case before I took this pic. Initially, parts of the top of his head moved when adjusting the brow and that made it look like he had horns. A few minutes later, after I cleaned up the eyebrows, only the brows move.
As you can see in the picture above, there are a lot of bones in this model and I have to go through this process of cleaning up the weight influence for each bone.
This is going to take a little while.
I'll keep you posted.
I'm still working on cleaning up the Max rig.
So, what does that mean exactly? Basically, now that I have the rig finished I've applied the rig and created an armature, or system of controls that allow me to move and pose the model. In order to do this, I join the rig to the model and apply automatic weights that basically use the location of each bone to decide what part of the mesh will move when I adjust the controls.
The automatic weight feature really makes this process move along quickly, but the problem is the software doesn't always apply the weight where you want it applied. So, when I move one control, at least initially, some parts of the mesh will move when I don't want it to. In order to fix this, I have to clean up the weight painting to apply only to the parts of the rig I want.
This is what it looks like...
As you can see, when I move the selected bone in the model the colored area is what is affected. I took this pic shortly after cleaning up the area that makes up Max's left eye brow. Now, only his eyebrow will move. That wasn't the case before I took this pic. Initially, parts of the top of his head moved when adjusting the brow and that made it look like he had horns. A few minutes later, after I cleaned up the eyebrows, only the brows move.
As you can see in the picture above, there are a lot of bones in this model and I have to go through this process of cleaning up the weight influence for each bone.
This is going to take a little while.
I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Sad Kitty, Sleepy Kitty...
Hey guys,
Well, I was able to get some more done on the Max rig!
I've cleaned up the view of his eye controls and adjusted the influence of his ear controls so now I can shut his eyes and move his ears. Here's what I'm able to do...
That's right. We got sad kitty followed by sleepy kitty.
I'm having too much fun but I still have a lot of cleaning up to do so now it's back to work.
Talk to you later.
Well, I was able to get some more done on the Max rig!
I've cleaned up the view of his eye controls and adjusted the influence of his ear controls so now I can shut his eyes and move his ears. Here's what I'm able to do...
That's right. We got sad kitty followed by sleepy kitty.
I'm having too much fun but I still have a lot of cleaning up to do so now it's back to work.
Talk to you later.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Making Tremendous Progress on Max Rig!
Hey guys!
Man, I took some time off the movie these last couple of weeks and the payoff was terrific! A small break must have been exactly what I needed because when I started working on the rigging this week suddenly everything made sense.
Here's a sample...
I know, this looks like some of the other pics I've done but the truth is I have made some major changes behind the scenes and this pose only took me seconds to make.
I still have some cleanup to do on the controls but I am very excited and I feel as though I'm back in business.
I'll keep you posted!
Man, I took some time off the movie these last couple of weeks and the payoff was terrific! A small break must have been exactly what I needed because when I started working on the rigging this week suddenly everything made sense.
Here's a sample...
I know, this looks like some of the other pics I've done but the truth is I have made some major changes behind the scenes and this pose only took me seconds to make.
I still have some cleanup to do on the controls but I am very excited and I feel as though I'm back in business.
I'll keep you posted!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Still Having Trouble with Rigging...
Hey guys,
Just wanted to give a quick note so you know I haven't given up.
I am still having trouble rigging the Max model. I have literally deleted a dozen rigs over this last week. No matter what I do I just can't seem to get a handle on it.
Still, I haven't given up. Perseverance prevails and I will continue to work on this until I have it figured out.
Please be patient. I am bound to figure this out sooner or later.
Just wanted to give a quick note so you know I haven't given up.
I am still having trouble rigging the Max model. I have literally deleted a dozen rigs over this last week. No matter what I do I just can't seem to get a handle on it.
Still, I haven't given up. Perseverance prevails and I will continue to work on this until I have it figured out.
Please be patient. I am bound to figure this out sooner or later.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Took A Small Step Back...
Hey guys,
Been working really hard on rigging Max's face. So hard, in fact, that I kind of screwed up his model!
I know, that sounds bad, but I've been doing so much tweaking in order to get him to blend with his rig that I somehow destroyed his symmetry and made him look a little uneven in the face.
In order to fix that, I cut him in half and mirrored him in order to regain his symmetry. I know, this sounds pretty extreme but the truth is that it isn't. Mirroring is the process used to build the model in the first place so it really wasn't all that difficult.
So, what's different? Really, not much...
Max 2.0 is on the left and 2.1 is on the right. As you can see, he looks the same. Well, OK, there are some differences. First, his eyes are shaped slightly different. Not a whole lot, but enough that you notice in the side by side comparison. He also has different whiskers. This is because I had to de-fur him in order to rebuild him and since his whiskers are basically long strands of hairs I had to rebuild them. This is perfectly fine with me since his previous whiskers hung a little funny and his new whiskers look more natural.
The other thing I've been thinking is that once I have Max Rigged I'm going to probably need to rebuild Xam. I really don't want to do this but I have made a lot of modifications to Max to get this rig to work (or almost kinda work) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to integrate this rig with the current Xam model. I'll just have to wait and see. The only reason I mention it is because I just happen to be thinking about it while I'm typing this.
So, I'm afraid I'm still not done working on the Max rig. I've still got quite a bit to do but I wanted to let you all know that there has been a bit of a delay and why.
Now, back to work on rigging. I'll talk to you later!
Been working really hard on rigging Max's face. So hard, in fact, that I kind of screwed up his model!
I know, that sounds bad, but I've been doing so much tweaking in order to get him to blend with his rig that I somehow destroyed his symmetry and made him look a little uneven in the face.
In order to fix that, I cut him in half and mirrored him in order to regain his symmetry. I know, this sounds pretty extreme but the truth is that it isn't. Mirroring is the process used to build the model in the first place so it really wasn't all that difficult.
So, what's different? Really, not much...
Max 2.0 is on the left and 2.1 is on the right. As you can see, he looks the same. Well, OK, there are some differences. First, his eyes are shaped slightly different. Not a whole lot, but enough that you notice in the side by side comparison. He also has different whiskers. This is because I had to de-fur him in order to rebuild him and since his whiskers are basically long strands of hairs I had to rebuild them. This is perfectly fine with me since his previous whiskers hung a little funny and his new whiskers look more natural.
The other thing I've been thinking is that once I have Max Rigged I'm going to probably need to rebuild Xam. I really don't want to do this but I have made a lot of modifications to Max to get this rig to work (or almost kinda work) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to integrate this rig with the current Xam model. I'll just have to wait and see. The only reason I mention it is because I just happen to be thinking about it while I'm typing this.
So, I'm afraid I'm still not done working on the Max rig. I've still got quite a bit to do but I wanted to let you all know that there has been a bit of a delay and why.
Now, back to work on rigging. I'll talk to you later!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Making Some Progress On Max's Face Rig!
Hey guys,
Well, I promised I would work on Max's face rig this week and, as promised, I have.
I initially didn't want to post anything because I am so far off of where I need to be, but I felt like I needed to give an update despite how awful the rigging looks.
So, are a couple of pics that show what kind of control I have at the moment that also show how far I still have to go...
Pretty terrible, huh?
Now, If I wanted to make this look better, I certainly could have, but it would have taken a lot of time and that is what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want to have to spend 30 minutes to make a pose look good. I want to move a couple of controls and have the perfect pose as quickly as possible.
That means I still have much to do.
That said, I better get back at it. I have a feeling I still have 10 hours worth of work until I've tweaked this to the point I want.
Wish me luck!
Well, I promised I would work on Max's face rig this week and, as promised, I have.
I initially didn't want to post anything because I am so far off of where I need to be, but I felt like I needed to give an update despite how awful the rigging looks.
So, are a couple of pics that show what kind of control I have at the moment that also show how far I still have to go...
Pretty terrible, huh?
Now, If I wanted to make this look better, I certainly could have, but it would have taken a lot of time and that is what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want to have to spend 30 minutes to make a pose look good. I want to move a couple of controls and have the perfect pose as quickly as possible.
That means I still have much to do.
That said, I better get back at it. I have a feeling I still have 10 hours worth of work until I've tweaked this to the point I want.
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
An Inadvertent Break...
Hey guys,
I admit, I haven't done a whole lot on the movie this last week but I had no idea until I clicked on the blog that it had been 10 days since my last update!
Rigging is really kicking my butt and I decided to take a breather for a couple of days. I truthfully can't believe 10 days have passed since I last worked on Xam and Power Dog.
So, I promise to re-double my efforts this week and see if I can at least get something done on Max's face rig.
I'll let you know how that goes.
I admit, I haven't done a whole lot on the movie this last week but I had no idea until I clicked on the blog that it had been 10 days since my last update!
Rigging is really kicking my butt and I decided to take a breather for a couple of days. I truthfully can't believe 10 days have passed since I last worked on Xam and Power Dog.
So, I promise to re-double my efforts this week and see if I can at least get something done on Max's face rig.
I'll let you know how that goes.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
March Madness...
Hey guys,
Well, March hasn't been kind to Xam and Power Dog. More specifically, it hasn't been kind to me trying to animate Max.
As I've shown, getting his body rigged is a pretty easy process. The problem I am having, and have been having, is getting his face rigged. No matter, what I try, I just can't seem to make it work.
So, I decided to build a very easy and simple model, something with little features that would require a very basic rig and, being the Whovian that I am, I decided to build a quick model of Doctor Who's cute, little Adipose character.
Right now, like Max, I only have his body rigged but I wanted to do a quick test video and this is what I got...
Again, this character is from BBC's Doctor Who. I wish I had thought of this adorable, little guy.
So, as you can see, I'm still working on the movie. True, it may seem like I've gone off into the weeds but I really believe working with the Adipose I will get a better understanding of basic rigging.
Of course, I'll keep you posted.
Well, March hasn't been kind to Xam and Power Dog. More specifically, it hasn't been kind to me trying to animate Max.
As I've shown, getting his body rigged is a pretty easy process. The problem I am having, and have been having, is getting his face rigged. No matter, what I try, I just can't seem to make it work.
So, I decided to build a very easy and simple model, something with little features that would require a very basic rig and, being the Whovian that I am, I decided to build a quick model of Doctor Who's cute, little Adipose character.
Right now, like Max, I only have his body rigged but I wanted to do a quick test video and this is what I got...
Again, this character is from BBC's Doctor Who. I wish I had thought of this adorable, little guy.
So, as you can see, I'm still working on the movie. True, it may seem like I've gone off into the weeds but I really believe working with the Adipose I will get a better understanding of basic rigging.
Of course, I'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
I've Been Rigging on the Max Cat!
Hey guys,
Well, I've gone through literally half a dozen face rigs since I last posted.
It makes me sad, because I really liked what I was doing with the shape keys that allowed me to get the pics you see in my previous posting, but I could never get them to work right.
Since then, I've tried other ways of rigging the face but I just can't seem to make anything work. Rigging a face is considerably more complicated than rigging the body. Either that, or I'm just making it difficult.
Still, I will continue to work until I find something that works for me. Now that I'm looking at the earlier pics, I really like what I see. Perhaps I will revisit the shape keys. That truly is the best looking expressions I've been able to produce.
I'll keep you posted!
Well, I've gone through literally half a dozen face rigs since I last posted.
It makes me sad, because I really liked what I was doing with the shape keys that allowed me to get the pics you see in my previous posting, but I could never get them to work right.
Since then, I've tried other ways of rigging the face but I just can't seem to make anything work. Rigging a face is considerably more complicated than rigging the body. Either that, or I'm just making it difficult.
Still, I will continue to work until I find something that works for me. Now that I'm looking at the earlier pics, I really like what I see. Perhaps I will revisit the shape keys. That truly is the best looking expressions I've been able to produce.
I'll keep you posted!
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