Tuesday, February 26, 2008

3ds max

3ds Max

3DS Max is a professional 3D animation rendering and modeling software package used mostly by game developers, design visualization specialists, and visual effects artists. Learn tips to create rich, complex design virtualizations, realistic game characters, or 3D film effects.

3ds Max Tutorial

This is the 3dsmax tutorials section. You can read and submit tutorials to our system. All tutorials submitted allow you to upload graphics, files, or movies to share with other users. You also create a forum to continue discussions about tutorials.

PART 2, MAKiNG A SIDESHOW BOB BY JALO, Rigging and Skinning :

Hello again, Jalo here, how are yours? I hope you are fine..... In the part number 1 of this tutorial we saw conceptualization and modeling and we spoke of the important thing that it is, to prepare correct modeling, that soon was animated, then being started off to be anticipated that we mentioned before, the idea concept and modeled and now, we passed to rigging and skinning....

It is very important that we have think well, that type of structure and movements to the character... like the face expressions. He is important to know this well since on the basis of the movements that we want that it does bob, beginning to draw some structures and part of the system of rigging is to another good bigging.

Wath is rigging? .. for that you do not know it, summarizing it it is the structure of the body that goes to cause that our character move.... like our body. We have bones and these bones move on the basis of muscles... in this case the animator is the muscle of those bone to moves.

And skinning is the skin that is going to surround to the bones... in truth the skin is modeled which we did previously and the in fact this serious system that helped to deform the modeling one of the character, like a language says to the structure of rigging something as well as that this between means of rigging and modeled... the method is skinning....

Rigging....

We began with rigging of the Spine. I like to begin by this part... I have to go step by step solving the difficulties..... (they consider that this rigging is probable that it works for 70% of the takings that are needed and that of insurance there are to construct some others for realy you need specify scenes....) The Spine is a very important point at the time of creating animation... and when an animator tries to give him life to the character this must respond correctly and not to have movements rare, are several forms to do rigging for a Spine but I am going to tell the one them that uses...for Sideshow Bob.

The used commands in this character in rigging are hierarchy (Link) constraints, reaction, wirring, and try to visualize it in your minds, like a structure to create.

We have a pile of bones and these we are going to control to move it them by means of helpers or ui to parameter controlers, all of them to create dependencies of objects for soon is but natural and easy at the time of animating it....

Start to draw to 4 bones for the Spine which are going to control by 3 helpers visible for the animator. And other that will be for the Riggerman and a line spline with 5 vertex that when applying to them modif. Controler// spline IK to controler// with Link option is not the base to begin.

After creating 4 to helper that they above helped us to to the dependency of movement between the vertebrae, when we move those of down and vice versa... this dependency is created with position constraints, creating a progressive movement, example... a 10 movement that if first and the last chain moves 2.... Those of means are what they have position contraint.

Now the easy part je.... Link the part that has the dependency to link the 3 IK controls of spline and next helpers that also to ik control corresponding to its height in the Spine.

The idea is to create dependencies of movements this is not the solution for all the character is a possible one for this. The important thing is that they understand the process that is due to create and on the basis of this one it can be creating new riggings for situations in which one must solve the diverse situations that appear resolute the Spine Once, we must begin on the part of another one rigg that is the one of the leg and feet....

a: Similar as I constructed the Spine with respect to bones we created the bones necessary to define the structure that is going them to move, and this is defined applying to a HI IK solve... becouse is the system that more good react for hierachys complex and are quite light in calculations to solve them in simple move within 3dmax.

b: Next we pass to the foot, and adding some bones in the right place of pivots, we return to put HI IK solve.

Once defined the structure, we used the same logic.... Objects to helper that to serve to us as help to facilitate the movements.

This hierachy is important because by means of Parameter Editor of max we are going to construct spinners that by means of reactrions we are going to control to make the movement very easy of the feet.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Free Animation Resources

With this week's poll on using copyrighted materials in your animations, you might be asking yourself: if you can't use copyrighted materials without stretching your already-thinning pocketbook to pay royalties and fees, how are you supposed to produce any animations at all unless you spend ages creating everything down to the tiniest sound effect from scratch? Luckily there are plenty of free resources for animators to use, so you don't have to turn yourself into a one-man (or one-woman) recording and production studio. Many musicians and photographers put their work online for free use, and often only require a credit byline to acknowledge them for their work. Even better, if you can't afford those pricey animation software packages, there are also free animation programs that you can try.

3D Computer Animation Tutorials: Step-by-Step Lessons in 3D Studio Max

Even the most realistic and detailed of 3d digital productions has to start somewhere; a simple polygon, an extruded spline, a mapped texture. These tutorials in Discreet's 3D Studio Max v.4.26 will help you get that start, and get a grasp on the basics of working in a three-dimensional environment.

Traditional Animation

An example of traditional animation, a horse animated by rotoscoping from Edward Muybridge's 19th century photos.

(Also called cel animation) Traditional animation was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, which are first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels, which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one onto motion picture film against a painted background by a rostrum camera.

The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. Today, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color the drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery mediums, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media such as digital video. The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators' work has remained essentially the same over the past 70 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" to describe cel animation which makes extensive use of computer technology. Many early disney films used cel frame animation.

Examples of traditionally animated feature films include Pinocchio (United States, 1940), Animal Farm (United Kingdom, 1954), and Akira (Japan, 1988). Traditional animated films which were produced with the aid of computer technology include The Lion King (US, 1994) Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) (Japan, 2001), and Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003).

Full animation refers to the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films, which regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement. Fully animated films can be done in a variety of styles, from realistically designed works such as those produced by the Walt Disney studio, to the more "cartoony" styles of those produced by the Warner Bros. animation studio. Many of the Disney animated features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works such as An American Tail (US, 1986) and The Iron Giant (US, 1999)

Limited animation involves the use of less detailed and/or more stylized drawings and methods of movement. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America, limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in Gerald McBoing Boing (US, 1951), Yellow Submarine (UK, 1968), and much of the anime produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media such as television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and other TV animation studios) and later the Internet (web cartoons).

Rotoscoping is a technique, patented by Max Fleischer in 1917, where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copyed from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings (US, 1978), used as a basis and inspiration for character animation, as in most Disney films, or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001) and A Scanner Darkly (film) (US, 2006).

Stop Motion

Stop-motion animation is used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the type of media used to create the animation.

A clay animation scene from a TV commercial.

Clay animation, often abbreviated as claymation, uses figures made of clay or a similar malleable material to create stop-motion animation. The figures may have an armature or wire frame inside of them, similar to the related puppet animation (below), that can be manipulated in order to pose the figures. Alternatively, the figures may be made entirely of clay, such as in the films of Bruce Bickford, where clay creatures morph into a variety of different shapes. Examples of clay-animated works include The Gumby Show (US, 1957-1967) Morph shorts (UK, 1977-2000), Wallace and Gromit shorts (UK, 1989-1995 and 2000 - ?), Jan Švankmajer's Dimensions of Dialogue (Czechoslovakia, 1982), The Amazing Mr. Bickford (US, 1987), and The Trap Door (UK, 1984).

Cutout animation is a type of stop-motion animation produced by moving 2-dimensional pieces of material such as paper or cloth. Examples include Terry Gilliam's animated sequences from Monty Python's Flying Circus (UK, 1969-1974); La Planète sauvage (Fantastic Planet) (France/Czechoslovakia, 1973) ; Skazka skazok (Tale of Tales) (Russia, 1979), and the pilot episode of the TV series South Park (US, 1997).
- Silhouette animation is a monochrome variant of cutout animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. Examples include The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Weimar Republic, 1926) and Princes et princesses (France, 2000).

Graphic animation uses non-drawn flat visual graphic material (photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, etc.) which are sometimes manipulated frame-by-frame to create movement. At other times, the graphics remain stationary, while the stop-motion camera is moved to create on-screen action.

Model animation refers to stop-motion animation created to interact with and exist as a part of a live-action world. Intercutting, matte effects, and split screens are often employed to blend stop-motion characters or objects with live actors and settings. Examples include the work of Ray Harryhausen, as seen in films such Jason and the Argonauts (1961), and the work of Willis O'Brien on films such as King Kong (1933 film).
- Go motion is a variant of model animation which uses various techniques to create motion blur between frames of film, which is not present in traditional stop-motion. The technique was invented by Industrial Light and Magic and Phil Tippett to create special effects scenes for the film The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Object animation refers to the use of regular inanimate objects in stop-motion animation, as opposed to specially created items. One example of object animation is the brickfilm, which incorporates the use of plastic toy construction blocks such as LEGOs.

Pixilation involves the use of live humans as stop motion characters. This allows for a number of surreal effects, including disappearances and reappearances, allowing people to appear to slide across the ground, and other such effects. Examples of pixilation include Norman McLaren's Neighbours (Canada, 1952).

Puppet animation typically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting with each other in a constructed environment, in contrast to the real-world interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady as well as constraining them to move at particular joints. Examples include Le Roman de Renard (The Tale of the Fox) (France, 1937), the films of Jiří Trnka, The Nightmare Before Christmas (US, 1993), and the TV series Robot Chicken (US, 2005-present).
- Puppetoon, created using techniques developed by George Pál, are puppet-animated films which typically use a different version of a puppet for different frames, rather than simply manipulating one existing puppet.

Computer Animation

A short gif animation

Like stop motion, computer animation encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying idea being that the animation is created digitally on a computer.

2D animation

Figures are created and/or edited on the computer using 2D bitmap graphics or created and edited using 2D vector graphics. This includes automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques such as of tweening, morphing, onion skinning and interpolated rotoscoping.

Examples: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Jib Jab, Mickey the Squirrel

Analog computer animation
Flash animation
PowerPoint animation

A completely synthetic, computer-generated scene.

3D animation

Digital models manipulated by an animator. In order to manipulate a mesh, it is given a digital armature (sculpture). This process is called rigging. Various other techniques can be applied, such as mathematical functions (ex. gravity, particle simulations), simulated fur or hair, effects such as fire and water and the use of Motion capture to name but a few. Many 3D animations are very believable and are commonly use as special effects for recent movies.

Examples: The Incredibles, Shrek, Finding Nemo

3D animation Terms

Experimental Animation Techniques

Drawn on film animation: a technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, for example by Norman McLaren and Len Lye.
Paint-on-glass animation: a technique for making animated films by manipulating slow drying oil paints on sheets of glass.
Pinscreen animation: makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects difficult to achieve with traditional cel animation.
Sand animation: sand is moved around on a backlighted or frontlighted piece of glass to create each frame for an animated film. This creates an interesting effect when animated because of the light contrast.