Little Side Project.

Since we don't have any assignments to make for the Maya Springboard anymore and I really want to try out all the things I've learned in the past few weeks, I decided to start a little side project...I tried to create a solar system in Maya. I don't know why, it just came to me one day. I started with one sphere, then added another one. Then added some stars in the background..and after about a week I ended up with something like this....

Click on the image for a higher resolution

Now there are still alot of things that could be better in this shot...but that's very difficult and advanced stuff. Let's just say that with my knowledge on texturing and lighting, I can't complain how this turned out. Now alot of people are asking me how I made this. I know it seems very hard to make but its made using the things that I've learned while working on my assignments.

Now just to show that it's really not all that advanced, here's a screenhot of Maya when I was working on this project. It's very basic, but it gets the job done, right. Btw the little green object just on top the the blue sphere is actually the camera I used to make the image I showed you on top.

Click on the image for a higher resolution

Now I'm not going to make any other projects, because in just a few weeks the main animation course starts, so I'll probably read some animation books to refresh my memory on the twelve principles of animation. My next post will probably be in january. So, I quess till then!

The end of Maya Springboard

Can hardly believe it, but the Maya Springboard is actually over! I've learned alot as you can see with the assignments I made and I'm real glad I participated. I feel ready now to start the main Animation Mentor course on 5 January of 2009. The Springboard did exactly what I wanted it to do. Make me feel more comfortable with the 3D software Maya and teach me a lot of cool new things I can use in future assignments.

Well since we have no more assignments comming up I won't be posting again till January when AM really begins. Waited so long for this and now it's just a few weeks away :)!!!!

But I still have to talk about the most recent and last assignment I made for the Springboard. Check it out!

For me this was the first real animation assignment and also the most fun! The beginning was easy blocking out the poses. This jump for example has 12 key poses. Can you spot them ? ;)

After blocking the hard part came. Creating breakdowns between the main keys. I did that on the second day. On the third day I started working on the inbetweens. Now that was hard for me, because I'm still trying to train my eye to find bad inbetweens. I'm still not happy with the landing, but I'm sure when the main course starts I'll be more experienced and know what to do to improve it. And today, day 4, I spent all my time on polishing the animation in the graph editor. So, make all the animation curves nice and smooth and make sure the animation didn't contain any ''hickups''. So basically make sure the jump has a nice arc going up and down.

I made another render here so you can see the jump from another perspective...

Alot of people are telling me that the animation is too short and they can't believe I've been working on it for 4 days. Well that's one of the bad things about animation. It's a very time consuming medium. Just a fun fact... Did you know; that on average, animators who work at Pixar/Dreamworks etc work 4 years to create about 1 minute of animation. Here's a small calculation to show you what I mean...

In one second of animation 24 different images flash by..so in 1 minute:
60*24= 1440 Now remember that's just 1 minute!! Imagine a feature film like madagaskar or Kung Fu Panda wich are about 90 minutes long. You'll get 1440*90= 129.600 individual ''drawings'' or images!!!

So yeah...this jump has a little over 80 frames and flashes by in not even 4 seconds...but that's animation. A VERY time consuming artform, that I just can't get enough of ;)

Animation Assignments

We'll instead of 1 week it took me two weeks to finish the animation assignments...The main reason for that is that my computer has been acting weird for a few days now ,so I had no choice but reinstall everything on my computer. And when you do something like that of course there will be alot of little issues that take alot of time to fix. Now everything is working perfect again, except for 1 or 2 small programs..but you can't have everything right.

Anyway, about the assignment this was the most difficult one so far. That's because it involed using constraints. Constraints are basically connection points wich are used to connect 3D object together. So when you see a 3D character picking something up or holding it in his hands/tentacles/claws etc in a 3D movie, you can be pretty sure there were constraints involved. And since I've never used it before I needed to get used to it, but I'm getting the hand of it slowly but surely...

Now below I've uploaded the two assignments that I've finished last week. Starting with the crane picking up a green can and placing it on a platform...

I'm pretty happy with how the animation turned out, but because I reinstalled Maya the default settings were restored, so I couldn't use the tool I needed to add weight to the can just after it finished sliding. You just see there's something wrong with it at 0:07 sec. But it was too late for me to fix it because i had another assignment waiting on me. But overall I cant complain with how it turned out to be...

The other assignment was was to use timing and spacing to create a heavy and a light ball.

This assignment also had its problems because I started animating the lit that opens first. And then the heavy ball falling out of the box. I still think that the heavy ball falls to fast, but I'm unable to fix it because I'll have to reanimate the lit all over again. Sure it seems like nothing but I actually spend 5 hours working on that. So basically if I change the speed of the heavy ball I'll have to begin all over again, because the ball would go through the lit. And since I've put alot of hours into that I decided to leave the heavy ball like that. Hope it's not THAT noticable.

Ok so at this moment it's 02:45 am in the morning. And I'm working on next weeks assingment. It's actually a one legged character and we have to make him do a jump. I'm halfway now so I hope I can upload it in 3 days...

Here's what the model looks like.

Final!

Didn't think I was going to say this but my assignment is final. I've put alot of hours into it and I'm happy with how it turned out. Just a gym with a sunset behind some palmtrees. What more can you wish for right. Well as I said I call this assignment done and I'm already preparing myself for the next one.

This week we're actually doing some very basic animation. The assignment is to animate a bouncing ball. Nothing fancy, it doens't even have to look great. It's just so we learn how to set keys and work with the animation tools in Maya. But I'll try to make it look decent and not like a total disaster. But all that is next week, now let me show you a image of my last assignment...

Here I gave all the objects in the shot a texture, wich took me about...4-5 hours.

And then all that remained was to light the shot. This took me about 2-3 hours. I've put 3 lights outside the gym wich simulate the sunlight, and there's one light in the gym to fill up the room with some extra light.

So there you go. Three weeks in Maya and you'll end up with something like this. Now let's make some basic bouncing ball animation! :)

Maya SpringBoard!

Ok, It's been a while since a posted something, and alot has been going on.

First of all Maya Springboard started 3 weeks ago and we've been doing alot of excersises, wich is good! We started to learn how to navigate around Maya, but I've used Maya before so that wasn't much of a problem. After that we learned some basic moddeling, so creating 3D objects in Maya. After that it got a little harder when we had to create a character. A simple one though, but it was harder then the first assignment.

Now this week were actually working on a set. We have to build a enviroment for our character. I decided to make a gym, because there are alot af props you can put in a gym. Now the set is pretty much ready, still have to tweak some things, but the biggest problem is texturing ang lighthing the scene. That'll be hard since i have never textured or lit anything in Maya before. But i get alot of help from the students here so I don't think it'll be that big of a problem. Now before I go here is what the scene looks like now.

Next week I'll show you the final scene, so texured and lit and all. Still so much to do....

Gearing up...

Ok today I dicided to call my internet provider and upgrade my internet speed. I upgraded my internet connection from 4Mbit Download & 1Mbit Upload to 12Mbit download & 1.5Mbit Upload. I need a faster connection because I dont want any problems while I'm attending AM.

Talking about AM, 3 days ago I got my Username and Password , so now I can actually go into the school for the first time. There's not alot going on yet, just some training video's to teach us how to use the schools website and get used to the tool and interface. But it's pretty cool to see the people behind the school and to see how everything works.

I can't wait to actually begin animating, lets hope the days go fast ; ) The Maya Springboard begins on the 29th of Sept at 12 PM PST, wich in my time is at about 21:00 at night. I guess I'll continue counting down days and read some more books on animation... ( You don't hear me complaining ; )

Almost there....

I woke up today and i realized....just seven more days to go before the account setup begins for the Maya Workshop! Can't believe how fast the days are going! To be honest they're not going fast enough, because im bored senseless at this point...I know alot of people are going to hate me for saying this, but I really have nothing to do all day. And on top of that the weather here in Holland is getting worse every day.

So with nothing to do, bad weather and days passing by like nothing, I decided to continue reading the two books we have to read for AM. The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston and The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. I think I'll start with The Illusion of Life, because it's about the beginning of animation, the Walt Disney company and those classic animations we all know and love.

So I'll let you know how all that goes and I'll be posting again on the 10th :) Till then....

The Beginning...

Today I finally got the GREAT news that I got accepted into the program of Animation Mentor. I've been waiting all week to get the result of my application and now it's official. In the Winter of 2009 I'll be a student of the Animation Mentor Online School.

But before that I have signed up for the so called Maya Springboard Workshop. The Workshop basically teaches us how to use the 3D software Maya and the Animation Mentor online campus tools. I can't believe how fast the days are going.

Anyway...just a few more weeks and it's time to start persuing my dream as a 3D Character Animator!

'' Congratulations Winter Student! You have been accepted into the Winter Term 2009 for the Advanced Studies in Character Animation program at Animation Mentor!

From everyone here at AM, Welcome to Animation Mentor!''

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!