Games Animation Blog - Main task - Catwalk Cat Fight
The main task for this years Games Animation unit is to create as series of cyclic game animations based on a theme of our choosing, - We have chosen Catwalk Cat fight - Inspired by Zoolander
Biography
Kay is a catwalk model/international Spy for higher, specialising in tracking down VIP targets - her most recent work being in the fashion industry investigating missing models and several other things, She hates this assignment and is really annoyed with the addition of a recent noob to the show that is making allot of mistakes and causing issues for her investigation.
Week One
Games Animation Week Two - Walk Cycle and Trax Editor - This will be the first of the four animations to be included in my final animation.
This weeks animation is all bout using the trax editor in Maya to blend to animations together using Character Sets
First Task Walk Cycle
The first part of this task was to create a walk cycle - I choose to base this upon my main project - Catwalk Catfight, I set up the aniamtion so that it has 30 keyframes, and that the body is in the same position at frame 1/0 that it is in frame 30.
The video makes this walk cycle look really Stiff and Wooden - I think this could be fixed if i worked more on the timing and adding a few extra key frames into the animation to add more movement into the Hips
Wire Frame Side View
These videos really do not do my animations justest, In fore site i should of Used the trax editor to create a longer cycle to show it off better
Pushing Animation
The next task is designed for us to get used to using the Trax editor and character sets as well as the options available to us as a whole
I create the four poses above based upon the shape of my rig, Four different thumbnails, and specifically strong poses that will allow me to create string poses in my Animation, Hopefully this will help me to block out the animation allot easier
Task Four - Motion Capture and Motion Builder
This weeks task is all abut using Motion capture with Motion builder
Motionbuilder is not that dissimilar to Maya - similar controls, viewpoints and tools
Using File, Motion File Import i import a series of pre caught motion capture footage - These show up as blue 'Markers' in the viewport.
Hitting CTRL + W will change the view so you can see all the markers in the Viewport
The next step is to import an Actor into the scene, this will take the place of the final character Mesh, You will find this is the asset browser under characters
This is what the actor will look like in the Viewport
Next i line the mesh up as best as I possibly can to the 'Markers'
After this i create a marker set, this allows you to assign the markers to body parts
You drag the corresponding markers to there corresponding actor sets, In this case , LfFtHead. LfBkHead, RtFthead, RtBkHead are assigned to the marker for the head, Its important to note not all markers are needed for this exercise, From here I need to merge the character I plan to use the Motion capture data on
- This was something i was actually really interested in learning and something i would be interested in learning more about
Research
Games Animation
This blog is going to be set out two different ways - There will be a post for each weekly task and and overall post for the cyclic animation side of the project which will be broken down into sets of posts one for research and one for the animation
Games Animation - Week One - Standing Cyclic Breathing
The first task for week one is to test are rig by creating a simple 50 key framed animation
The first task for week one is to test are rig by creating a simple 50 key framed animation
Games Animation Week Two - Walk Cycle and Trax Editor - This will be the first of the four animations to be included in my final animation.
This weeks animation is all bout using the trax editor in Maya to blend to animations together using Character Sets
First Task Walk Cycle
The first part of this task was to create a walk cycle - I choose to base this upon my main project - Catwalk Catfight, I set up the aniamtion so that it has 30 keyframes, and that the body is in the same position at frame 1/0 that it is in frame 30.
The video makes this walk cycle look really Stiff and Wooden - I think this could be fixed if i worked more on the timing and adding a few extra key frames into the animation to add more movement into the Hips
Wire Frame Side View
Final Animation
These videos really do not do my animations justest, In fore site i should of Used the trax editor to create a longer cycle to show it off better
Pushing Animation
The next task is designed for us to get used to using the Trax editor and character sets as well as the options available to us as a whole
I create the four poses above based upon the shape of my rig, Four different thumbnails, and specifically strong poses that will allow me to create string poses in my Animation, Hopefully this will help me to block out the animation allot easier
Task Four - Motion Capture and Motion Builder
This weeks task is all abut using Motion capture with Motion builder
Motionbuilder is not that dissimilar to Maya - similar controls, viewpoints and tools
Using File, Motion File Import i import a series of pre caught motion capture footage - These show up as blue 'Markers' in the viewport.
Hitting CTRL + W will change the view so you can see all the markers in the Viewport
The next step is to import an Actor into the scene, this will take the place of the final character Mesh, You will find this is the asset browser under characters
This is what the actor will look like in the Viewport
Next i line the mesh up as best as I possibly can to the 'Markers'
After this i create a marker set, this allows you to assign the markers to body parts
You drag the corresponding markers to there corresponding actor sets, In this case , LfFtHead. LfBkHead, RtFthead, RtBkHead are assigned to the marker for the head, Its important to note not all markers are needed for this exercise, From here I need to merge the character I plan to use the Motion capture data on
Research
I start my research of by looking at a series of videos of catwalk walks,
Although I had already started my research
Catwalks research 01 - This walks is a very posed walk, almost every move the model makes is exaggerated - Right from the legs to the head, every pose is strong and defined
Catwalk Research 02 - This catwalks is completable different to the first one I looked at - the walks is allot less defined and it focuses upon the idea of a simple walk to the end, a defined pose and a walk back
Catwalks Research 3 - The final Video i look at shows a balance between the two, A single walks there and back, with a couple of posses at the end
Walk Cycle
I really want to have a simple basic walk cycle - Just concentrating on walking forward- And maybe some form of elegance to the character.
I am still not happy with this walk cycle, It still very Juttery and needs more time spent on it#
Still pose/Idle Animation
I created an Idle Animation as part of the first weeks Game Animation, Although I originally created this for my catwalk animation i want to create one based upon my walk cycle going to an Idle animation and then being able to create My catwalk Pose 01 and 02 from this Animation.
Pose Animation Block out
Below are a series of poses that i researched for the pose I want to create for my animation, the top left pose is my favourite - This pose would need to be repeatable and easily re-usable at the end of each walk
Below you can see some of the research images i used to reference when animating the pose.
Second Walk Cycle
I need a second walk cycle for the catwalk so that the model and final scene has more variance in the final scene - This time i wanted to exaggerate the hip movement allot more than I had previously
The final Animation Cycle will be some form of Loss/grievance - Originally my character was going to win , however we decided that the animations and that the poses was allot weaker and that it would make sense for my character to lose.
This was my final animation, Due to an issue with the Trax editor there is a lack of 'Cycling' going on - However this was one of my favourite animation to create for this unit as I got to create something more than a standard walk cycle.
Final Video Link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hWEmfTsOs0&feature=youtu.be
