Maya - wave principle & set driven key

Learnt about the wave principle and using the set driven key function for animation recently. Thought I'll put it up in the blog for your viewing pleasure.

In the first set of videos you'll see that the animation of one set of blocks look sort of wavy and more flexible. That's because of the use of offsets in the animation on each one of those blocks.

With Offset



Without Offset



This is from part of my "I got hit" assignment. We learnt about using set-driven keys to control many joints easily. This was for the hands & fingers. I actually made improvements to the model but that's in a different project file. These playblast videos are from the project file I used to practice how to use the set-driven key function. One of the good things about preparing the project so that I can playblast it for the blog was that I discovered several problems with the model and the rigging. Looks like I'll have to make further changes to my already improved model in my other file.

Anyways, here, take a look at two different animations using the set-driven key method.

Animation 1



Animation 2



enjoy

Maya - Walk Cycle

Made my first walk-cycle today. Here's playblast video of it.

cheers

Front View



Side View

Maya - The Sack & the Ball Shot 2 - Final

Okay, here it is. Finally finished Shot 2. Had massive problems with it. I think I must have rigged it wrong or something. Anyway, I learnt a lot about IK animation, amongst other things, from this assignment. Coo1. =)

Anywayz, here is the Playblast version and the final rendered version. I think the lighting is kinda strange in the final version. That's another thing I really do have to work on in the future.

Okay, am pooped. Suppose to do another ball bouncing in a room thing for today but don't think I can finish it. Good thing it is only extra credit stuff so hopefully they'll be okay with me handing it in one lesson late.

Here you go...

Playblast version:


Final render:


enjoy

Maya - The Ball and the Sack Shot 2 - continued

Okay, I think I got the sack moving more or less correctly but the ball will still need some work.

Still got the second half of Shot 2 to work on then I'll animate this ball and the other one. The ball animation is relatively simple compared to the sack.

Here you go...



enjoy

Maya - The Ball & the Sack Shot 2

I'm suppose to try and animate Shot 2 of the storyboard all by myself... yikes. You saw Shot 1 below. I had step by step animation instructions on that so that wasn't too hard to do... but man, Shot 2... it took me forever just to get to this point. I had a hell of a time trying to rotate the sack to face the right direction and that wasn't even the beginning of Shot 2, just prep for it. =)

Ah well... all things considered... I'm still having fun with it but I'll really need to get going if I'm to try and do the other animation I'm suppose to do by tomorrow.

So anyway, here's a look at how Shot 2's coming along. =)

cheers

Maya - The Sack & the Ball - 2

There were some problems with Shot 1 and I corrected them. Should look much better now.

Here's the link should you want to download it. Download me.

enjoy

Maya - The Sack & the Ball - to be continued

Here's a glimpse of what I was suppose to have been working real hard at work on for the last week or so.... sadly, I was in zen mode and have been really procrastinating on it.

Anyway, here is a playblast version of shot 1 of the sack and the ball animation.

IMO, it's quite horrid and my modelling skills still need serious work. =( But... I have to hand this in soon so I'll stick with this for now.

Oh... and here is the link to download it if you would like to view it at a higher resolution. Download me.

enjoy

Lazy Days....

Been a little lazy these few days but now am impatient to getting back to really working on Maya. Moreover, I will have to hand in another assignment next week so I can't really laze about too much.

But the last few days were very relaxing and rejuvenating. Went cycling and swimming, watched an ATV tv series (Legend of Fang De and Miao Cui Hua), did some Maya homework and generally did everything in a leisurely pace.... nice. =)

A little bit about Legend of Fang De and Miao Cui Hua. This series stars Patrick Tam as Fang De (Fong Tak) and Amy Kwok as Miao Cui Hua (Miu Cui Fa). Amy Kwok has been one of my favourite HK tv actresses for a very long time. I like her almost as much as I like Ada Choi. Amy has a really great onscreen smile and everytime she smiles in that goofy but endearing fashion, my heart melts. =) All in all, it wasn't a bad series. Amy and Patrick were very good in their respective roles and they had a lot of chemistry. Their characters were also rather interesting with Patrick's character and another male character (Chan Chin Pang's Lui Lou Fu) being the most interesting in the series. I also really like Fong Tak's mother and the actress who plays her. She, Amy and Patrick had a lot of chemistry too and the three were quite hilarious together. Chan Chin Pang was also really good as Lui Lou Fu and Lui Lou Fu himself is a very interesting character. The Mainland actress who plays Chan Siu Wan, Mui Cui Fa's shi-mei wasn't bad too.

The major letdown for this series was in the last section after the birth of Fong Sai Yuk. If you know your Chinese tv series and your Chinese folk heroes then you'll know that Fong Tak and Mui Cui Fa are Fong Sai Yuk's parents. The first portion before the great 18 year leap forward deals with the lives of Fong Tak and Mui Cui Fa when they were young and when they first met.

The series succeeds in the beginning not just because of the very good performaces from the leads but also because it had a whole host of interesting characters and relationships. Except for Luk Tung Tong, the big bad guy in the beginning, none of the major characters are 100% good or 100% bad, instead, they are deeply flawed. But the series doesn't get bogged down in a quagmire of overly serious issues. Instead, the series mixes in the right amounts of drama and comedy to give these characters far more dimension then the usual tv series.

Unfortunately, it suffers from a problem many Chinese tv series suffer from and that is, they don't know when to stop. They really should have stopped after the birth of Fong Sai Yuk. The latter section involving the young people got rather boring as their story seemed so ordinary and juvenile compared to the generation before their's.

Alrighty, that's it for now. Before I go, here's two pix of my toy collection. =D

cheers