Ball and Tail

Here is a link for what we are looking for in this next assignment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMgVTlJNf0w Its about halfway through. The main objective of this assignment is to combine the last 2 assignments and make it jump with the tail emphasizing overlap. This should be a fun one and we can make the deadline on Sunday. Good luck! www.woodsideanimation.com/Tailey.ma


Danny "I never know when to type under or above my post" Young ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, this is so not finished but hey it's Sunday and due so here's what I have till I can sit down an animate the tail nice and proper. - Alexis
The tail kept separating from the ball in Maya, so I got frustrated and did this. ~Katie

-manlouk

Moving on...

Pendulum exercise... Here's the link for the maya file.

www.woodsideanimation.com/Pendulum.ma
and for maya 7:
www.woodsideanimation.com/Pendulum_maya7.ma

Look at the example videos and search YouTube for Class 1 Animation Mentor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe3MeI97cXE
-EXAMPLE

The objective is to move the platform causing the parts underneath to swing (an exercise in overlapping action). Do well.

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~Katie

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-Michael (WIP, pending critiques)

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-Man Louk

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-Alexis

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-Kait blahhhhhhhhhhh

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-Daniel

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-James

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Shot Mask

Hey all. If you've been checking out the work from Animation Mentor (and hopefully you have, or else you won't know enough about your competition), you've probably seen the black bar at the bottom of their in-progress assignments, which lists their names, the status of the assignment, and the frame count.

Frame counters are extremely helpful in critiquing someone's animation, but frame counting scripts in maya utilize the HUD, which results in a tiny, tiny number that doesn't read well online after compression and the like.

The shot mask animation mentor uses is not something added in post. It's an object within maya that updates the visibility of several polygonal numbers to keep track of the frame. They position it in front of the camera so that it occupies the lower part of the screen.

In order to help us critique each other, I've coded a similar shot mask. It has a place for your name, a frame counter, and a "Status:" label. I've added a control that lets you choose the text displayed there from the following list: Blocking, Rough, Refining, Polishing, and Final.

The mask looks like this:

















The same control also allows you to move and scale the mask. The background black bar can be scaled independently of the other objects, so you can make sure it fills the area you want it to without skewing the text.

You will need to change the name to yours, of course.

1. Create -> Text -> Option Box
2. Type your name
3. Select front "Verdana.
3. Select Type: Poly
4. Create
5. Delete the history on the selection.
6. Delete the curves that are left over from creation (they border each letter)
7. Delete the extra group that was created (check your outliner)
8. With all the polygons in your text selected, go to your hypershade, right click the material called "matMaskText," and assign material to selection.
9. Now use the group to which all the character belong to scale and position your name accordingly.
10. Delete my name, which is the group "ggMask_Name"
11. Make your group the Child of the curve ShotMask_Ctrl

The control for moving the mask is a curve beneath the center of the mask. It has an attribute called Status that will allow you to select the text you want for the Status line.












All righty then, that's a wrap. I hope this proves useful for you. Here's an example of what it looks like in a shot:



Download the file here:
woodsideanimation.com/shotmask.ma

Later!

Back to the Basics

As we all know, its hard to get into the industry. But its even harder if we don't have animation reels. So the next few weeks are going to be focused on getting some reel worthy material ready (doesn't mean rendered. Take a look at some reels online. Most of the best ones look like playblasts). If you haven't heard of Animation Mentor, go to their website now (www.animationmentor.com) and get motivated. They post their work up so we are just going to utilize the exercises they go through to strengthen our own animation skills. So, since we are starting our reel journey, why not start at the beginning again. The infamous bouncing ball. But not just any bouncy ball. Varying bouncy balls. Not sure what I mean?



So we will be using 2 separate balls here, one light and one heavy. This shouldn't be that hard so don't take forever putting it up, people. The faster we all go on this, the more we can cover to get some reel-worthy material going. That way, during the demo reel weeks at school, we can finesse and not have to worry about starting from the beginning. Good Luck to you! -Post Below


-Michael (Updated even more)


-chris


-Daniel (omg I posted!)


-Alexis


-kait :(

~Katie

-Alex


-ManLouk