Hey Guys,
Finally we have finished personality walk cycle for 1st character Bolo, we are very happy with final look and we hope you feel it and like it as much as we do :).
I will make proper progress post next time and I will show you my workflow for cartoony animation so stay tuned :).
It's a production blog of animated short film called 'Wild Love' which I'm creating with my friends. Hope you like it :).
Monday 25 June 2012
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Bolo - render test
Hey Guys,
We would love to show you first proper render of Bolo, it's like 70% done ;) (lighted by Piotr Orliński)
We would love to show you first proper render of Bolo, it's like 70% done ;) (lighted by Piotr Orliński)
hope you like it :)
Wednesday 25 April 2012
Bolo - Rig Development
Hey animation Maaaaniacs :D,
Here we have presentation of first more/less final rig of Bolo. You know already by designs that rigging and animation this kind of 2d look characters are not easy tasks, so we have spent a lot of time thinking about solutions, research and tests. Person who stands behind all riggs is my close friend Kamil Hepner. We have meet each other remotely when I was working as a freelancer in one company where he worked as a full time TD. We work together now at Platige Image and I am so happy about that fact :).
Kamil wrote an article about process, tools and methods he used to rigged the character, here it is:
"It's very important for the character TD to be involved in the early process of designing characters. We have started figuring out of what we need in the rigs just after the script and the first rough sketches of characters appeared . I knew we need full stretchable and bendable rig either for body or face part. We can clearly recognize on the concept designs the internal character of characters, it's very important that the rig should provide possibility for the animator to recreate sketched poses (closes as is possibility).
I'll try to introduce you some techniques used in this rig.
The whole “motion” rig was created by modular auto rig, written by me in Python, pyMel and mayaCmds.
FK <-> IK snap:
I wrote simple library in Python to handle automatic creation of switching and snapping FK and IK. The marking menu was created automatically. Whole system is character independent (every character use the same scripts).
Bendy limb:
Basically this setup is based on one curve with joints on it. But it contains some special features:
- Automatically straightening:
We can define straightening of bended limb at every angle of rotation.
- Correct elbow:
As I mention earlier this setup is based on one curve, this can cause problem with loss of the acute angle when the elbow or knee is rotated. I developed system which helps to keep nice acute angle of elbow (correctElbow) when the arm are not bended, there are also few attributes for controlling this system.
with correct elbow:
We can control the rotation of every part of limb, also we can specified how stretched or squashed limb should looks (volume control), also in the case of the elastic rig of spine.
Hand:
The fingers can by controlled by three ways, by FK or IK controls and by the attributes, of course fingers can be stretched and squashed no matter of what type of control animator use.
Dynamic re-parenting:
Some parts of body can be dynamicly reparented. We can also change rotation and/or translation space of some controls like: hand, foots, hip, neck, head. I wrote in python (pymel, cmds) small library to handle this switching, it is also character independent. That marking menus were created dynamically.
Deformations:
Most deformation based on smooth skinned joints, but I also use the PSD (pose space deformation) defromer (written by Mike Commet), corrective shapes was entirely modelled by me. On the top of all deformers is StrechMesh deformer (kickstand), I use it in some areas like shoulders, neck or belt for nice smoothing out deformations.
GUI:
Gui for characters was written in PyQt, There is one window for all characters in animation scene, animator just switch between characters by clicking on buttons with potraits of characters.
The animator can easily add to actual selection more controls by holding shift key. To avoid hard coding what should be selected or what should be done when we click on specified button. I create special library, which helps with this task. You just simply create GUI in designer, and simple file with relation between button types, controls and functions, basing on this file, the script recognize what should be selected or which attriburte should chagned when we change slider.
Face:
By the main controls the animator can change the main expresion of character face. But also he has the controls for bending and squashing the bolo face. At the last layer of controls there are tweak controls (blue ones) for the finally tweaking of the mesh.
This is the current status of the bolo rig. I'm still working of it to improve the functionality, GUI, tools and deformations. If it's possible, we try to supplement information about that on the blog and put a new videos.
Thanks for the patience...
Kamil Hepner - TD"
Hope you enjoy it, see you next time :).
Here we have presentation of first more/less final rig of Bolo. You know already by designs that rigging and animation this kind of 2d look characters are not easy tasks, so we have spent a lot of time thinking about solutions, research and tests. Person who stands behind all riggs is my close friend Kamil Hepner. We have meet each other remotely when I was working as a freelancer in one company where he worked as a full time TD. We work together now at Platige Image and I am so happy about that fact :).
Kamil wrote an article about process, tools and methods he used to rigged the character, here it is:
"It's very important for the character TD to be involved in the early process of designing characters. We have started figuring out of what we need in the rigs just after the script and the first rough sketches of characters appeared . I knew we need full stretchable and bendable rig either for body or face part. We can clearly recognize on the concept designs the internal character of characters, it's very important that the rig should provide possibility for the animator to recreate sketched poses (closes as is possibility).
I'll try to introduce you some techniques used in this rig.
The whole “motion” rig was created by modular auto rig, written by me in Python, pyMel and mayaCmds.
FK <-> IK snap:
I wrote simple library in Python to handle automatic creation of switching and snapping FK and IK. The marking menu was created automatically. Whole system is character independent (every character use the same scripts).
Bendy limb:
Basically this setup is based on one curve with joints on it. But it contains some special features:
- Automatically straightening:
We can define straightening of bended limb at every angle of rotation.
- Correct elbow:
As I mention earlier this setup is based on one curve, this can cause problem with loss of the acute angle when the elbow or knee is rotated. I developed system which helps to keep nice acute angle of elbow (correctElbow) when the arm are not bended, there are also few attributes for controlling this system.
with correct elbow:
without correct elbow:
- Independent rotation and volume control:
We can control the rotation of every part of limb, also we can specified how stretched or squashed limb should looks (volume control), also in the case of the elastic rig of spine.
Hand:
The fingers can by controlled by three ways, by FK or IK controls and by the attributes, of course fingers can be stretched and squashed no matter of what type of control animator use.
Dynamic re-parenting:
Some parts of body can be dynamicly reparented. We can also change rotation and/or translation space of some controls like: hand, foots, hip, neck, head. I wrote in python (pymel, cmds) small library to handle this switching, it is also character independent. That marking menus were created dynamically.
Deformations:
Most deformation based on smooth skinned joints, but I also use the PSD (pose space deformation) defromer (written by Mike Commet), corrective shapes was entirely modelled by me. On the top of all deformers is StrechMesh deformer (kickstand), I use it in some areas like shoulders, neck or belt for nice smoothing out deformations.
GUI:
Gui for characters was written in PyQt, There is one window for all characters in animation scene, animator just switch between characters by clicking on buttons with potraits of characters.
The animator can easily add to actual selection more controls by holding shift key. To avoid hard coding what should be selected or what should be done when we click on specified button. I create special library, which helps with this task. You just simply create GUI in designer, and simple file with relation between button types, controls and functions, basing on this file, the script recognize what should be selected or which attriburte should chagned when we change slider.
Face:
By the main controls the animator can change the main expresion of character face. But also he has the controls for bending and squashing the bolo face. At the last layer of controls there are tweak controls (blue ones) for the finally tweaking of the mesh.
This is the current status of the bolo rig. I'm still working of it to improve the functionality, GUI, tools and deformations. If it's possible, we try to supplement information about that on the blog and put a new videos.
Thanks for the patience...
Kamil Hepner - TD"
Hope you enjoy it, see you next time :).
Monday 26 March 2012
B'Cave
Here we have high poly Bolos cave :) ... concept of Lolas cave has changed a bit (everything for story!! :P) and we will show it soon :).
Tuesday 21 February 2012
Wild Love ROX ^^
Hehe :) ... this post is about rocks, we've been looking for nice shapes few weeks and I'd like to thank Piotr Orlinski for his patience becuase he was responsible for every model. The main goal was to fit properly Bolos 'sharp world' by designs and I'm very happy with final look. Here you have few rocks:
next time we'll present some screens of high quality caves, so stay tuned!! :)
Monday 6 February 2012
SOUND
Hi Folks,
There will be three types of sound in the movie:
- music
- sound fx
- character voices
Piotr Musial will cover first two. He is really talented composer and sound fx designer. Check his site in spare time: http://www.piotrmusial.com/
I am going to pick character voices, can't wait to do that ;). Here is stuff I am going to use:
There will be three types of sound in the movie:
- music
- sound fx
- character voices
Piotr Musial will cover first two. He is really talented composer and sound fx designer. Check his site in spare time: http://www.piotrmusial.com/
I am going to pick character voices, can't wait to do that ;). Here is stuff I am going to use:
- PC soundcard EMU 404
- Mixer Behringer Xenyx 802
- Microphone Behringer B-2 Pro
stay tuned :)
stay tuned :)
Monday 23 January 2012
Pedro development
Hi Folks :),
Today you'll get quick info about Pedro, our lovely veggie Dinosaur. I was thinking few weeks about Pedros character, design and overall look and finally I've decided that would be great to use references of Tapir as a main background. I've collected few references (for example droopys tired eyes ^^), sketched shape and had conversation with Artur about what he think. He loved the idea of Pedro looking as a 'Tapirosaur' and finally he created him. I hope you find him funny as same as we do :).
Today you'll get quick info about Pedro, our lovely veggie Dinosaur. I was thinking few weeks about Pedros character, design and overall look and finally I've decided that would be great to use references of Tapir as a main background. I've collected few references (for example droopys tired eyes ^^), sketched shape and had conversation with Artur about what he think. He loved the idea of Pedro looking as a 'Tapirosaur' and finally he created him. I hope you find him funny as same as we do :).
Tuesday 10 January 2012
Lola development
Hi Folks,
hope you had great Christmas time and hope new 2012 will be full of challenges and successes!! First few days after long holiday aren't easy but great thing about it is that you're coming back with completely fresh mind and you're hungry for work :D !!!
Lola is as tall as Bolo but design as you see is much sharper. The main thing was to show this sharp and moody character by shape and I believe we achieve desire effect :).
hope you had great Christmas time and hope new 2012 will be full of challenges and successes!! First few days after long holiday aren't easy but great thing about it is that you're coming back with completely fresh mind and you're hungry for work :D !!!
Lola is as tall as Bolo but design as you see is much sharper. The main thing was to show this sharp and moody character by shape and I believe we achieve desire effect :).
model created by Piotr Orlinski
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