Kitchen progress example

I showed this example in class: the black and white kitchen work in progress entry by Jennifer Cram: Kitchen 2.0"

Tip of the Week:

Check out this guy's tips of the week. He's been doing it for a while, and a lot of the stuff he's pointing out is really accessible to newbs like us. This is the same guy who wrote my favorite stretchy limbs tutorials. It's a good thing to keep your eye on - I'm subscribed.

You all Failed!

No, not really, just kidding! Here are some pictures we took during the final today.

Oh my god! Orange shirt kid is how Sleasel has to move. I will do it!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0mwoBGYfU8&feature=fvw

In other news, I've gone through a whole semester of this class and still can't figure out how to embed YouTube videos on the blog. x_x

Google Books for the Win

Google books has animation references. I'm using one to help me with my neck control right now - it's pretty good!

Google Books

Neck Control

Ringling College Portfolio

Please go and check out the Computer Animation portfolio! The animation, "Dim Sum," had me actually laughing out loud!

I'm definitely going to apply here. I've heard Ringling's program has you work in teams to find and specialize your place in the pipeline. Great prep for a large-studio workplace, but not so good for expression of individual vision. Either way, it seems like a school worth looking into.

Toon Wood

Prof. Koning (Wobbe) helped me figure out how to have a wood texture drive a toon shader! This is epic!

Cel Shading/Toon Shading

CelShading.com:

Found here.

CelShading.com seems to be a community of artists devoted to the art of cel shading. Their forum seems to be down at the moment, but their downloads page features tutorials, articles, videos, plugins and models. If you're interested in getting a 2D effect out of a 3D program, this seems like a good resource for you.

Here is a cel shading tutorial from NMDigitalGraphics that Matt and Erika S. worked through today. Matt recommended it as a good one, so I'll try to follow through it before I continue looking for more. Their final product:

Squash and Stretch Tutuorial

Stretch rigging:

This tutorial guides the user through setting up a squash and stretch expression, and an attribute that can control the degree of stretchiness. It goes step by step through the math behind expressions, allowing the user to understand why the expression enables this essential of cartoon animation.

I am definitely interested in throwing this on Sleasel. I'll have to do it after I get the rest of the rig set up, but they say this will work over most any preexisting IK set.

Sleasel's Favorite Pub

... from here. I like the feel of this a lot - the deep, reddish, well-worn wood, the bar stools, the assorted liquor bottles, the dark spots of red, green and blue, the neon lights glowing softly in the back. This feels like a place that Sleasel would enjoy frequenting. I'd like to incorporate these elements into my animation/texturing project.

In a separate room in the back of the pub, three pool tables will be arranged in a smaller, darker room. I won't be modelling this room for my current animation, but I thought I would include reference for it here to give you guys an idea of the feel I'm after. By the way, the pool room image is from here.

Now here's my issue - the fur I was originally trying to pursue is not a possibility for the animation. Rendering times make it totally impractical for anything but still images. Instead, I'm considering working with the cell shading look that Matt posted earlier. Wikipedia has some good examples here.

BUT - the visuals of the pub seem so dependent upon the deep woody textures and dark subtlety of color changes that the cel-shading, or toon shading, might not really capture the feel of the pub. I'm open to suggestions about how to convey the dark, cozy, but somewhat dirty feel of the pub using the toony cel-shader - do you think just using rich color choices would work? How could I get a wood grain with the cel-shading? OR - perhaps there is another rendering choice I could pursue...

I'm thinking of signing up for/posting this to the CGTalk forum, but I'd like to get your input first.

Thought this would amuse you guys...

From this comic, Toothpaste for Dinner, that my friend just showed me.
www.toothpastefordinner.com/archives/2009/Oct/

Joint Adjustments

Here are images of Sleasel's adjusted joints - you can see, there are more in the neck. I also adjusted the positioning of the hip/collar joints.
Now he can shrug!Here's a general body-rigging tutorial I'm working through right now. Useful so far - gives info and useful tips about setting up joints: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/tutorials/P-maya/T-Maya-Rigging-Rigging-a-biped-character-for-animation/ID-125/

Rigging Logistics

Just stumbled across these tutorials/threads in my research - I'm collecting them and thought I'd share them here to run them by you guys. Some of them seem complicated/over my head, and I was hoping you could let me know if they're feasible options.

Stretchy Spines:
http://www.darksuit.com/tutorials/StretchSpine.html

(or, apparently, I can just scale the bones mathematically - check out the last post):
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=88&t=821678

Spline IK for the Tail:
http://www.animationartist.com/2003/08_aug/tutorials/softbody_tutorial.htm

Sleasel, Boned - in greater detail

I made a couple of edits since these were taken, but this will give you a general idea of how he's laid out.

The first bone in the neck and shoulder chains seemed fused together and could not move independently. Since these photos were taken, I shortened the first neck bone up from the breast bone, and added another neck bone to lend more flexibility in the neck.

I've also added a short collar bone between his breast bone and shoulder so I can lift/drop/roll his shoulders and get slightly more realistic arm motion. I'm trying to decide if these motions should be FK or IK. Any suggestions?

Sleasel, Boned

Er, I mean "jointed," ha ha!

He's dancing because he's happy to be back in action.

More Pumpkins for All

Ha ha, I made a pumpkin as well, Matt!

Not sure how to link the original file though! Will I have to upload it to a remote host..?

Gotta run to class - help!

Slow Motion Reference

Hey, guys! Just thought I'd share. Discovery Channel has a great show for animators out there called, "Time Warp." There are quite a few clips available on YouTube - check them out:

Bee Wings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khx-VkVSIOQ

Milking a Rattlesnake (some cool liquid effects):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm73uqOAMQw&NR=1

Water Balloon to the Face:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90VyvOhPmA0&feature=related

Tesla Coil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jgqJr7gFlI&feature=related

Popping a Zit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f-IgP7EYzU&feature=related

Enjoy!

Some UV Mapping Info

This website helped me get a slightly better idea of the potential of Maya's UV tools. It seems to be using a different version of Maya, but a little poking around our version led me to similar functions. Of particular use was the note on Mapping Strategies: http://www.jawa9000.com/Technical/UVs/UVs.htm

Also, the "Automatically move UVs for better texture space distribution" button within the UV Texture Editor was a bit of a help - NOT to be relied upon completely, however! Computers are NOT as smart as humans yet, apparently.

In other news - test renders of my slug show the non-subdivided version, even though:
a) Smooth Mesh Preview is checked
b) Smooth Shade All is checked
c) I selected all the edges and clicked Normals>Soften Edges

Any advice?

Kitchen 2.0

Second time around the kitchen scene! I'm a little more content with this one. It feels more realistic, and I was able to get a better understanding of how to use lights to sculpt the range of values in a scene. Hopefully the composition is a little stronger as well - I slightly altered the camera angle.

As I worked, I took shots at various steps. Here's the basic progression:

1 Directional light + background color:

2 Skylight + Window bounce

3. Floor and Ceiling Bounces. Shine added to bottle, globe changed to white.

4. Wall bounces + Effects light on bottle. Adjusted camera. Rotated fan, moved bottle, chairs, changed globe back to grey.

5. Corner fill lights, transparent phongs on bottle and globe. Lots of adjustments to the size, intensity and drop off of these images were made at this point.

Voila! What do you think?

Jen Cram's Kitchen v.1.0

Hi, guys! This is far from done, but I just figured I'd toss it up here and see what you all think! Any advice/comments/random thoughts are much appreciated!

Hope you're having a good week!