Transcription: Young Man Character Fully Skinned

I carried on with the Character pipeline to get them ready to animate, next on the list was skinning. And after skinned 3 characters and a half on the last project, it has been a really fast process.
Skinning allows the mesh to be bound to the joints and there fore being able to tweak the geometry as it folds. A logical process in which you paint weights on the vertices to deform as you wish. I have to admit I prefer to use the component editor to paint the weights however if any part is more complicated I get the paint brush tool.

So here is the videos of the different parts of the body moving and and deforming normally as a human body would do.

Skinning- Head no Hair

Skinning- Head W/ Hair

Skinning- Torso & Arms

Skinning - Torso & Arms W/ Jacket






Skinning- Hands







Skinning- Legs & Shoes

Now onto the old Erich zann and to fix the viol.

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Transcription: Viol Modelled and W/ Controls

So I began to model the most important prop in the whole animation, the Viol. Indeed, it is so important that Im treating it as another character, because it will be the vehicle to create some of the weirdest music ever played, and will have a lot of animation in it. So based on its turn around, I model it. I have to say it was fun to do this model maybe due to its irregularity.

I have took some time to layout  it UVs, so it is ready to be textured.

One last thing I did, was create controls. Based on my previous test of how to animate a string, I used the same method for the strings on the viol and also for the bow. Here is a small test animation of the viol moving the strings.

One problem that I found, and I will ask Alan tomorrow for some help, is when I move the overall group with the viol mesh and the controls, the strings have offsets. I would think maybe is a question of grouping, I will ask tomorrow.

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Transcription: Character Skeletons

Today, I quickly added the skeletons on the characters, so they can be skinned and rigged. A fairly easy process, though needs to be execute really well otherwise the character will have weird deformations.

For the Young Man, I have drew the joints as they were shown to us on the Character Pipeline Tutorial.

Character Skeleton- Young Man 

For Erich Zann, I added on more joint on his spine so the deformation of the spine will look better, being the character really stylised, I don't think it will be an issue of looking believable or not. 

Character Skeleton- Erich Zann

Today, I promised myself to take it easy so I will begin to model and add controls onto the viol. And next week I will concentrate on Rigging/Skinning, Concept Art and Environment Modelling.

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Transcription: 3D Characters UV mapped

So after the models being modelled and scaled, I began UV Mapping them. A really easy process, which can become quite tricky in situations. This process will allow me to take the UV maps onto photoshop and texture the characters.

An essential step to upgrade the look of your characters.

Erich Zann - UV Map

Young Man- UV Map

Erich Zann Insane Head - UV Map

And now I will get into more "techie" territories, joint placements (Skeleton), rigging and skinning.

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Transcription: Viol Strings Maya Tests

To take a break from the character pipeline work, I went on a hunt for problem solving. Knowing that in my short film, I will have close-ups of the viol being played, I wanted to find a way of creating the strings, and make them behave just like the real world.

Firstly, I thought I could maybe try to create the string as a piece of cloth and then use ncloth on the mesh and make the instrument played in which touches the strings a collider. So every-time it would touch it and the strings would deform.
Although the theory worked, the results was far from what I was expecting., the string just become to deform inside out, and getting weird shapes.

A bit of trial error.


However after searching online for solutions, I came across with a process that despite giving more work to do, as I have to animate the strings separately. it will give me much more control. So as I animate the hand or stick touching the strings I will have to animate the strings also.
This process requires to create the mesh string just like in the Ncloth example, then create a curve with a start, end and vibration point and then use the Wire tool to connect the two. For better control, I added a cluster in the centre and later a control so it would be easier to select and animate the string.

Here is a quick test of this method:

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Transcription: 3D Size Comparison Chart

Before, I get any further with the production process on the characters, I decided to scale them so I wont have issues at later stages, therefore more complicated to solve.

Here is the size comparison of the 2 characters, I will move onto laying out Uvs and placing joints, as well as model the viol.

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Transcription: Young Man Fully Modelled

Having the 2 pieces of body parts modelled I piece them together, and tweaked the size accordingly. After I added some extra detail on the collar which was not initially there, I have also originally built the waistcoat and the shirt in different layers, when I will add  "wrap deformer" on the top layer. So it will deform with the underneath geometry. Lastly, I have used a MEL Script (DJ Rivet) suggested by Alan, So I could add buttons on the clothes and when deformed the buttons move also., definitely a really powerful tool strangely not featured on the original software.

If I knew about it for the Narrative Project :)

Young Man Fully Modelled 

Young Man Fully Modelled Top Part

This post might seem quite "techie", but in fact its is easier than it sounds.

Now left to do before I get into more complicated processes, is scale the characters, lay out the Uvs and place the joints, then Skinning and Rigging can take place.

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