Magnetic Hands – space object improv tip
In improv I learned a technique that I can help with animation: First I should explain space object: An object that`s used in the scene but which doesn`t really exist. A mimed object. In general, anything that doesn`t support weight (like a chair) should be a space object. To better sell your interaction with a [...]
check your shot from multiple angles
One thing I’ve learned: it’s important to watch your animation in several camera angles (front, side, render camera, etc). If it reads well in multiple camera angles, then you know you’re nailing the proper body mechanics. Here’s a short post by Wayne Gilbert: Do Animators Use Camera Angles to Hide Animation Flaws?
Class 1 tid bit – personality walks
I posted this inside of AM for class 1 — someone asked me to repost it here, since comments get cleared. So here you guys go! Got some tips for personality walks! What I suggest: record yourself just walking normal and think about how it feels. After, walk again changing one aspect of your walk [...]
Tip for cleaning up arcs
I need to note this. (mostly for class 2 and 1, those working with Ballie) when cleaning up arcs: a trick I found useful is to watch the edge of the control curve. If you frame by frame it, hop to each key frame (with “.” and “,”), you can better see pops in the [...]
Splining Notes
Start with the root (hip). Hide the legs. Use the edges of the control curves to help see where the arc of the rotation is on a part of the body. Block to spline in chunks — such as from one contact pose to another. To fix timing, you can go to linear from stepped, [...]
Blocking and Splining Notes
Blocking: – use clean numbers. round to the nearest tenth or whole number – match the pose to the animation, not the reference – zero out rotations whenever you can (so you don’t get values like -720 or 5343 or crazy numbers that freak it out) – for every pose, look from every angle in [...]
Expressions in Maya
Nice tid bit help with changing values across several channels (highlight multiple boxes and do this): In the channel box, you can change the current value with the following: Type +=n to add Type -=n to subtract Type *=n to multiply Type /=n to divide % as a suffix indicates a percentage-based operation (For example, [...]
Visualizing Arcs
In the viewport/3D space: To see where an a control was on the previous frames, select the control and click the “Ghosting” button on Animation shelf. Turn it off by clicking the button on the right of the ghosting button. In the graph editor: Select the curves and click the buffer curves button. This will [...]
Ballie – using the controls
Here’s a couple of things to think about when you animate Ballie: *When the foot is in the air, animate the rotate channels. When on the ground, use foot roll, ball roll, ball twist, and ball rock. *Think of the foot in terms of a pendulum: when the foot is planted, the knee is the [...]
Animating Tailor
Turn the tail off when you start! Animate just the ball first. Follow through and the overlapping action (the tail) supplements the first (the ball).