My 3D Animation Thread

[Krynn72]

Hello hl2.netters! I am wondering if you all would be interested in following my work as I progress through my Computer Animation course at my University.

A little backround on me first. I had an interest in Computer Animation since I was a freshman in High school. The interest grew in me until I was ready to graduate from the High school, and during my last year there I had started learning Alias's Maya on my own through tutorials and other online resources.

As graduation came closer I began looking for schools that could teach me Animation. I found that all the ones I like were very expensive. Now I dont like even asking for twenty bucks, so having my parents dish out that kind of money for me was something I didnt really want to do, so I ended up choosing to go to a local state university. I figured that while I was really into computer animation, I might find that I have more interest in some other category. At any rate, I tried to stay as close as possible to animation so I started off with a Computer Science degree. After a year of that, I knew it wasnt even close, so I switched to graphic design. Quickly I realized that this wasnt going to get me anywhere either, so I dropped out for after just one semester in GD.

So here I was working part time as at a retail store, no longer in school. Now I felt like I had wasted my parents money (and a bit of my own). I had come to the conclusion that computer animation was the only thing I really wanted to be doing. So I took the plunge, and with my parents support I enrolled in the computer animation course at Full Sail.

Which brings us to the present. I am now in my third month of the course (a 2 year bachlors degree). The first month was general education, so I had English Composition and "Historical Archtypes and Mythology". I was able to transfer out of English Comp, because I had already taken it at the state university. The mythology class was pretty interesting though, we got to learn of some myths from all over the world and the idea's behind each culture's mythology. It was pretty interesting. I ended up getting a 94 for the class. Aparrently you need a 95 or higher to get an A, so I was sad

The second month was Object Perspective (a two month class) and 3D foundations. Object perspective is an OK class. We basically sit in the class for 8 hours, two times a week and draw stuff. Its not that great of a class since the teacher rarely teaches us anything, and in fact she usually goes home within the first 45 minutes. I dont blame her, since she already had another 8 hour class before us, but it usually means we get left with Lab Instructors ("Labbies") who dont teach us really.

3D Foundations was a blast though. We started using maya, and learned pretty much the basics of everything in Maya. Now I had some experience in Maya from my own self-teaching, but most of the people had no idea. We were all in a group of 6 people, and at the end of the month we all had to have a 6 second animation. Everyone had to model two props, a character, a "puppet-style" character, then rig their character, then animate their character, then light their scene, then set up their camera, then render their scene, and finally combine it all into a .mov. Thats not including any if the 5 other individual projects we had to do either.

So after a few all-nighters and a lot of work I got all my stuff done. At the bottom of this post I will post links to some of my work so far. Check out my Final render.

This month I am taking Model Creation, which is a NURBS based modeling class. Its all modeling, which is what I really like doing so its been really fun so far. Im a week into the class and almost done with all the tutorials we have to do, so soon I will begin work on my Final model. I plan on doing my computer headset. Only mine doesnt have a mic.

Also this month in Object perspective we are going to the zoo to draw animals, which we will then take 3 and morph them into one creature. Should be pretty interesting. Also, we will be making maquette sculptures. Ive never done any sculpturing in my life, so mine will be pretty god awful, but it will be cool none-the-less.


Alright then... my hands are getting tired, so im going to bring this post to a close. Ill post some of my work thus far for you guys to see and comment on. Also please tell me if you guys are interested in me continuing this, I will not take offense.

Final group project for 3D Foundations: 32megs!
Story line: Two Guards escort two prisoners to come before the king. The prisoners attack the guards, one is able to steal the spear from a guard. The prisoner throws the spear and kills the king, then the two prisoners escape by climbing a tree and exiting via the rooftop.

My stuff: I modeled the guard on the right, and made him into the puppet style character. I also modeled the torch holders and the tree on which the prisoners escape. I animated my guard, and set the camera to focus on him (a requirement for the project), so its hard to see what happens to the king. Also, I had to light and render my own scene.



Individual projects for 3DF:
High Res Character: Poly limit 2000 quads. Smoothed and unsmoothed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/highres.jpg

My own Personal projects:
Guitar: Made as a logo for Ren Fiction's contest in general discussion. Not technically a "Logo" heh. I just wanted to practice my 3d.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/tar.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/RenderedGuitar.jpg

Speaker: Same as above. Again just for practice and not really a logo.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/883da4cc.jpg

Helmet:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/Helmet.jpg

CPU Heatsink:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/HeatsinkWeb.jpg

Sword:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/Sword_Submit_Render-1.jpg

Modern Roman Swat Character: This is a WIP that I started WAAAY before coming to school. I dont think I am going to finish it, because now that I look at it... the topology is all sorts of messed up. I might redo it at some later point (probabaly for my character modeling class) and take it all the way to finish.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/romanSwatRend.jpg

Weapon for that character: Also a WIP that is probably as far as its going to get. I made it to go with the roman swat character. Kinda too futuristic I think to fit in with him.
*will upload later*

 

[Vegeta897]

I can't see a damn thing D:

 

[Krynn72]

Yikes, your right. Photobucket killed it. Well, Im not sure if I should be linking to my school's link, but what the hell. Here is that same render at its original res and not mutilated. Please note, it will take quite a bit longer to download.

https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2006/08/video/16039_video_Final.mov

 

[Krynn72]

Update: I got a 100% as my final grade for that 3D Foundations class.

Thats the first 100% I have ever gotten in my life EVER. Im so psyched!

 

[Fliko]

You go to Full Sail?

Hows that university like for teaching?

 

[Krynn72]

Woa, somebody posted!

Its pretty good. A lot of people have trouble keeping up however. Its very fast paced and you need to learn stuff waaay faster than a normal school. If you ever come here, plan on spending a lot of your "free time" on your computer or in labs working of this stuff.

But you do learn it. For instance last month I went from knowing nothing about shaders, texturing or lighting, to being able to make a full scene in less than four weeks. The month before I had never modeled a thing using NURBS, but in 4 weeks I had made 3 models which all looked pretty good.

This month we are doing character modeling, which focuses mostly on making an anatomically correct character. So far I have learned a lot on how to keep my mesh cleaner than that other character I posted, and better ways to go about modeling the head and stuff. You will be able to see the difference when I show my new character versus my other one from 3D Foundations.

Personally, I like the school a lot. However, if you are someone who likes to party all the time, and would rather not work on your projects almost all day, then it might not be for you.

Well, here are some updates.

Model Creation Final: My computer headset ( This one: http://www.pctronix.co.nz/images/AHP512.jpg) Unfortunately I dont have the final scene file with me (its on the schools network) so it doesnt have the last few changes I did. I had shortened up the earpieces so they were more round as opposed to oval, and I had fixed that seam in the headband. I got a 90.5% on it (which translates to a B)

Shaders and Lighting Final: Still awaiting grade.

 

[Stormy]

Have you done any 2D drawn animation on your course?! Have you been learning the animation principals?!

 

[Krynn72]

We went over the principles in 3DF very briefly, and then a little more in depth in our drawing class, but we do have a few classes dedicated to just 2D animation. The first being "2D Animation" which will go over the following (I took it from the syllabus) :

Basic understanding of the 2D process
Have a working knowledge of all the Principles of Animation
How to flip and roll animation paper to check the animation
How to identify and draw Keys, Breakdowns, Inbetweens
How to make a Flip Book
How to read, make and use an animation chart
How to shoot and playback animation using the Pencil Test Equipment
How to observe life, describe natural movement, and apply this effectively for successful animation
Demonstrates keeping volumes consistent in an animation sequence
How to exaggerate/enhance drawings for better action and personality
Working knowledge of using movement for a purpose

And then after that we have a storyboarding class, and possibly another one that i cant remember.

But we havent even started animating yet. We are still in the modeling/texturing/lighting stages. I think next month is our last hardcore modeling class, and after that we get more into animation.

 

[Stormy]

Balls, I just wrote a bloody essay about animation and managed to hit back and get rid of it all

At the moment I’m in my 3rd year of uni and I’m doing a game design course in which we do modelling, texturing, animation, rigging, everything! And the one thing that I have learnt from it all is how important the basics of animation are. Our first year was dedicated to 2d animation. We didn’t touch the computers once until the second year! At the time it was a bit tedious and boring but I understand why we done it now. Those principles are so important to animation without them your work is lifeless.

Basically what I’m trying to say is don’t concentrate on max, I know it seems important but once you know the interface is easy to use and with every model and texture you will see major improvements. But if you have that understanding of animation will be amazing. Really pay special attention to timing, spacing, follow through, arches and squash and stretch. These are just a few but I always go through my animations once they are done and make sure these things are in!

Some things I would recommend!
• Learn the principles and how they work. IMPORTANT!
• Do some life drawing, it will give you an understanding of shape and volume and will make your animation flow far better
• When you create characters workout what mood they are in and think how best you can portray that mood with the principles you know now so well! One way of doing this is you get off your ass and walk around the room pretending to be your character. You will look like a moron but you then see what is moving and how best you represent that using your principles.
• Lastly a book. Its called the “Animators survival kit” by Richard Williams he was the director of “who framed roger rabbit” Buy it and read it and you will understand how important 2d animation is.

Alot of that probley dosnt make to much sence but i was abit more lazy writing it the second time round.

 

[Krynn72]

Awesome. I really appreciate the effort you took to write that (twice). Thanks.

I am told that we actually get the Animators suvival kit in one of our classes, so I wont even have to pay for it. I have pretty much read through every book I have gotten so far, and that one will be no different.

One of my friends already knows a bit about animation, and I always see him walking around and doing wierd stuff, and sometimes I help him... so acting stuff out shouldnt be a big problem. Also, my current teacher said that later on we will need to take pictures of ourselves making a bunch of expressions for our facial animations. No doubt that will be a bit of fun.

Like I said before, I really appreciate your comments, and hopefully when I get into the animation classes, you and others will critique the WIPs I post.

 

[Stormy]

Yea ill defo try and give some crit when you post some work up. Just been taking a look at my old animation, i was so damn lazy with it all but i some how managed to get an understanding of it all. Was to busy getting drunk every bloody night to do any work hehe.

This thread has made me want to do some more 2d animation, i might grab me a peg bar when i go into uni today and do a few quick 1 second long animations.

 

[Krynn72]

Wow, old thread is oooold.

I have new stuff though.

My first completed 3d animation: A knight needs to get through an obstacle course. I was pretty unimpressed with the class, didnt learn a whole lot :|

Low quality: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/?action=view&current=Sean_Maloney_Render.flv
High quality: https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20447_video_Sean_Maloney_Render.mov

I am in 2D animation right now, which is sooooo much better than the 3D one, in terms of learning how to animate.But I forgot to grab my files off the server last class, so all I have to show is one small project. It was our second one and we just needed to show different weights and forces acting on a ball and something else. Im in an animation club that my friend has just started, and he got a bunch of teachers to join it also so hopefully I can get a lot better.

Ignore my friend's fingers. Hes not too bright, and put his hand in the way TWICE while i was shooting it.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/?action=view&current=SM-physics-001-0001.flv

 

[Stormy]

Ah fantastic, its good to see you got your hands on some 2d animation. I havnt done any for a cople of years now but its somthing i want to get into again once i finish uni. You learn so much more from working in 2d then in 3d and really gives you a chance to think about the principels rather then mucking around with some complicated 3d appilcation interface.

I think your knight is fantastic, some really nice character movment going on. I like the floppy feet he has at the start wile he is walking along the beam gives a great sence of a loony toons character, funny, abit dopy. My only crit would be the jump/fall. I think it would be quite fun to have a cartoon style air time. But just generaly i think he falls a little quickly. Its a good place to show a little antispation in your animation and i think it would finish it off nicely. Very good tho.

Post more i want to see.

 

[Glo-Boy]

Oh man, you need to leave full sail, like 10 minutes ago.

 

[Krynn72]

Oh man, you need to leave full sail, like 10 minutes ago.

What do you mean by that?


Here are some of the other projects I had.

First project, perpetual ball bounce. Just to get used to the equipment and show squash and stretch:
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20814_video_1smBounce.mov

Same ball bounce, but with strings on it to show secondary action:
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20816_video_7SMOverlap.mov

Whip. I cant remember what it was supposed to teach ahah. Follow through maybe?
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20815_video_6SMwhip.mov

Pendulum. Showing slow in and slow out, and teaching solid drawing (IE: not having the length change and destroy the believability of the animation)
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20817_video_3SMPendulum.mov

Bouncing ball with descending energy:
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20818_video_5SMDescending.mov

Guy turning his head. I think this was to try and get us to move things in arcs rather than straight from one pose to the next:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v325/turkeyslapper/?action=view&current=4SMHeadTurn.flv

 

[Krynn72]

Hmm, I cant edit my last post so I gotta make a new one for my latest two projects. A run cycle and a jump.

https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20876_video_10SMRun.mov
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/02/video/20877_video_11SMJump.mov

Stormy, you were certainly right. I can understand why 2D animation is so important... it definitely improved my grasp of the principles. I really really wish we had this class first. My knight scene could have been so much better. Ah well, we have more classes later.

Next month (IE: about a week from now) is our rigging class. Its going to be crazy. We build an entire rig by scripting it using MEL. Its going to be hard as hell (which is why its the only class we take that month)... but at the end we will have a script that will be a one push automatic rig for any humanoid bipedal character. Freaking sweet.

Also, the other class I am taking is scripting basics. It was pretty cool also, because we get to build a duck, and have it attack other people's ducks in "Duck Wars". Unfortunately at the moment I cant show it, because the script only works in maya 7, and i have maya 8. Ill figure out a way to post it though, because its pretty sweet.

 

[Dan]

I mostly work with industrial design software rather than stuff geered toward graphics, but isn't there some way to make the cable on the headphones follow a smooth spline rather than have jagged turns in it.

 

[Krynn72]

Thats how I created it. I made a nurbs (non rational b-spline) curve and extruded some geometry along it. The reason its faceted looking is that I didnt set the spans high enough, and there wasnt enough detail in the geometry to accurately deal with the curvature.

 

[Tyguy]

nice work

 

[Krynn72]

Thanks.

I thought I had posted these before, but I guess not. At least not in this thread.

Here is a WIP. Concept art first

And this is my Production modeling final. I was pissed about the grade, I got a C, but almost failed my final. I think my grade is unfair since someone in my class passed with a severely deformed human model that looks ridiculous. But hey... employers care about your demo reel and not your grades, so w/e. Also, forgive the shitty render... he required us to put them in a "high school portrait" which is lame.

And finally another WIP: For a challenge on CGArena.com with the theme "Punishment"

 

[Beerdude26]

Very nice, especially the head.

 

[TCfromBN]

I'm no modeler but the ear looks a bit small on the head.

Just a bit of constructive criticism.

 

[Glo-Boy]

What do you mean by that?

Well, the former digital art director for ILM and a professor who helped to build renderman have both told me that Full Sail is an unfortunate place to be for the creative minded because the art department is so lacking. They said because of this, most of the demo reels look like, and I quote "rat shit". And what's even more unfortunate, is that the students who have enough talent to hook a job usually end up modeling golf clubs and car rims for their careers.

So if I were you, I'd transfer to a four-year school and get a real degree with a real art background. That way you'll have a better chance at exercising your creative muscles in the future while everyone else has to slave over blueprints and unoriginal crap. And that isn't to say you're on the wrong path, you'll probably get a job when you're done. You've got some sweet models and scenes set up. Good luck on your endeavor.

 

[Krynn72]

Thanks for the word of warning. But at this point its too late for me to drop out, and to be honest i wouldnt really want to. Idunno, maybe those guys were talking about Full Sail from before we had the bachelors degree, but it doesnt sound very accurate. For instance just today I went to a talk by a Full Sail graduate who was a upper level compositor on a lot of big blockbuster movies (X-Men III, triple x state of the union, and is currently working on the sequal to bruce almighty). Graduates have worked on all the spiderman movies, a graduate modeled the head of King Kong, multiple people have gotten jobs at EA and Rockstar and several other game companies. A graduate did all the Burger King commercials where the King was swapped in for a football player in live action. A graduate is the rigger and technical director for Blur Studios.

I admit though, that a lot of the demo reels are crap. The main reason for this though is that they are all from the Associates degree, and thats only a 1 year thing. 1 year to learn everything and make a demo reel? You cant really blame em.

Here are a couple of the reels from those people I was talking about.

Malcolm Thomas-Gustave (guy who works at blur studios now)
Original student reel:
http://www.malcolmthomasgustave.com/reel/Reel2004/malcolmTGReel_High_ikfk.mov
Current pro reel:
http://www.malcolmthomasgustave.com/reel/ReelFeb2007/MalcolmTG_Reel07_Med_IKFK.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-4uqjFtgtg

Andrew Hwang (graduated I think 2 or 3 months ago, now working at Liquid Development)
http://www.andrewhwang.com/REEL/Hwang_Web(High).mov

 

[TCfromBN]

Holy sh*t.

That guy has so much talent.

 

[MJ12]

I've been curious about 3D animation, and I've been studying it quite a bit, how would you compair it to other Art Mediums?

 

[pixelbow]

I like the animation....

I think for a student just starting out your doing great.... Many animators take several years to get really going good. School is what you make it.... don't rely on your your teachers to make you good... make yourself good and get your teachers to help you become better.... keep up the good work.... good luck

 

[Krynn72]

I've been curious about 3D animation, and I've been studying it quite a bit, how would you compair it to other Art Mediums?

It depends on how you are comparing it. If your asking about how easy it is to expression your artistic ideas, then its probably more difficult. The only reason for this is that the tools (the computer, the software etc) are quite a bit more complicated than other mediums. It takes a lot longer to learn how to fully use 3D software than it does to learn how to use a pencil and paper, or paint and a paintbrush.

Its also more "industrialized". What I mean is, 3D animators usually work for companies instead of for themselves. There are freelancers mind you... but most people get jobs from a company. What this usually means is high quality work done as a team, but its not your own creation really. You dont get to make many choices when you work for someone else. Freelancing is great though, but you need the skill. I think its harder for 3D freelancers than it is for others, because everyone can tell what is bad CG, but in 2D art, there isnt a definitive line separating good art from bad.

I think you should look at websites like CGSociety and 3DTotal and see whats going on in the industry. CGSociety has a lot of articles on companies work, and galleries with both professionals and novice work in their forums. 3DTotal has a lot of gallery images from hobbyists and freelancers, so you can see what they are up to also.

Thanks for the kind words pixelbow.

The past two months have been pretty technical so there isnt really much to show at the moment. MEL scripting and rigging. Next month however is another animation class, which is the only class I have that month so it should be a good turnout for work. Also, I am going to start modeling some content for my demo reel. First up is an Imperial Roman soldier. I think its going to be sweet.

 

[Krynn72]

New animation:

https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/04/video/22049_video_Maloney_Sean_0704_JuiceBox.mov

 

[Remus]

Sorry to hijack your thread but it thought it would be better if i put it here.
Just a little animation I did testing some modifiers in 3dsmax.
Pisses me off that Youtube f*cked up the image quality:flame:

[YOUTUBE]kcVlAuIaMwU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Krynn72]

Hmm, does 3DS max come with that ocean as a preset? Ive seen almost the exact same ocean shader in a couple animations now.


Also, since this was bumped, I started working on a new project. This one is on my own, and not a class assignment. I'm modeling it for my demo reel. It'll be a fully decked out roman soldier. Im modeling all the accessories as a warmup before I start the character. I just ordered a new character modeling book from Ballistic, and im waiting for it to release and for me to get all the way through it before I make the character. So far I have modeled the shield, gladius, and scabbard. Next thing I will make is the Pilum (throwing spear), pugio (dagger) and then a Ballista (which will be standing next to him in my demo reel). Here is a reference pic, and then my crap renders.

These are posted in order of when I rendered them. There are some improvements to the shield and the sword by the end.

 

[Remus]

Hmm, does 3DS max come with that ocean as a preset? Ive seen almost the exact same ocean shader in a couple animations now.

Well actually there's no such thing as a ocean preset. Unless you mean the texture, well there is a standard water texture in max however I didn't use that but it ended up looking similar, eh whatever .

Also is there any way I can make the videos I upload to YouTube look better?

 

[Krynn72]

No, they turn everything to shit when you upload it. You could put it up for download on sites like rapidshare or something, but you cant stream it. Also, I think putfile.com doesnt degrade quality as bad as youtube, so it may be a better alternative.

 

[Geogaddi]

Nice stuff.

I'm strongly considering 3d animation as a field of study.

I'm a junior in high school. Any advice? Eh? Eh?

 

[Krynn72]

Yeah, draw a lot and make a portfolio. Also, it depends on if you want to do actual animation or just 3D art. For me, I like making 3D content, and still images. So this school is good enough for me, but if you want to do animation, then go to a school that dedicates itself to that. Animation Mentor is a online school with teachers from pixar/disney etc. Their students produce some of the greatest animations ive seen ever. Its only 15 thousand and its like a year and a half i think. Many of their students get a job at pixar or disney straight out of graduation. Also, California Institute of the Arts is a great school, and their animations are fantastic. They focus a lot on 2D animation which makes it a lot easier to learn animation and also gives you that skill set. Also, Vancover film school is great to learn 3D art, but their animation area is quite lacking i find.

I would recommend you check these schools out. Also make sure you check out their student showcases and demo reels to see what kind of stuff their students can make.

http://www.animationmentor.com/index.cfm
http://www.vfs.com/
http://fv.calarts.edu/

 

[Krynn72]

Update:

2 new animations from my character animation class.

Attitude walk: Assignment was to move the character from one chair to another, showing some sort of emotional state.
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/04/video/22507_video_Maloney_Sean_0704_AttitudeWalk.mov

Bad Milk: This was to show a change of the character's emotion.
https://media.fullsail.com/gallery411/2007/04/video/22505_video_emotionchange.mov

Also, i made some minor progress on the roman stuff.


I made the Pilum (basically a throwing spear), and modeled their Dagger (called a pugio). I have the UVs laid out for the dagger and plan on starting texturing later tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for looking, and please comment and critique!

 

[Krynn72]

Bump! Possibly for great justice, but who knows!

Heres the character. I think ive come a long way since I started this thread

and the helmet (not textured yet obviously)

Anyone know of a good alternative to Maya's hair/fur system. It pretty much sucks.

 

[Shippi]

.

 

[Krynn72]

Thanks. If you want a head start on it, you should get yourself the personal learning edition of Maya, and then check out some training sites. 3dbuzz.com has a lot of great material, especially for the beginner. If you can afford it, you can also buy their Mastering Maya: The Fundamentals DVD which has 82 hours of training, and will give you pretty much everything you need to just take it from there and keep improving on your own. There's also other sites that have free tutorials, 3dtotal.com learning-maya.com and a bunch of others you can google. They're nowhere near as good as the video tutorials from 3dbuzz.com in my opinion though.

 

[Krynn72]

Update on the project:

Updated zbrushed character (sorry for the rapidshare link, photobucket was giving me trouble, and I couldnt think of any better place to upload it):
http://rapidshare.com/files/42971924/SoldierWIP2.mov


And for anyone who doesnt want to, or cant download the movie, heres a few screenshots.

And the WIP armor: