05 // Last Post

I've spent waaaaaaaaaaay too many - literally - sleepless nights trying to get my head around all this...

04 // Rigging the Soldier.... again

So Jimmy Comet let me down; the tutorial series of his which I was following along with had a few gaps in the process which quickly resulted in me completely losing track of what was going on. To counteract this unforeseen predicament, I located a similar tutorial by a man named Jamie Telford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA8X_KrmEhI&list=PL7LBwoM_OQiepN3-3mipmaI8NYiyNSGb_&index=54

This series proved to be quite a bit more direct and to the point. You can see the progress screenshots from my endeavor at the bottom of this post.

While his process was certainly a lot swifter and easier to follow along with, a major problem became apparent: he had no intention of rigging the hands of the character!! At first, I thought he was maybe saving them until the very end of the process. By the final video though, it had become very apparent that he'd never had any intention of doing the hands at all.

By this point, I really wished I had just asked for the link to the Digital Tutors tutorials, as I'm sure that would have been a complete set of educational videos covering every stage required to completely rig a character. But I didn't ask, as I didn't want to bother anyone. Silly me!

Nonetheless, Jamie Telford did a grand job of explaining most of the process quickly and concisely enough for me to follow along at a swift pace, so I now have a semi-working rig to show.

Next to be done is for me to create a tool that can assist the animator in some way. This is another part of the module that I've been dreading, as it will no doubt be quite heavy on the Python scripting. I will struggle onwards though...

03 // Lab #3... part 2

In the next part of the notes it says to create a skeleton for the Grunt mesh. After opening up the mesh I realise that I might find this one to be quite tricky, due to the relaxed pose of the figure - after all, this is the first time I've ever attempted to do this. Instead, I head over to TF3DM and download the Star Wars Republic Commando model (http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/star-wars-republic-commando-36729.html)

Now I don't know too much about 3D modelling, so I'm unsure if this mesh is ideal for what I'm about to attempt, but I'll keep on trucking nonetheless.

Now that I have a mesh to work with, I source out a tutorial that I hope will help me get a better understanding of the rigging process. Over on YouTube, I find this video series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_SMvqWNrMQ&index=53&list=PL7LBwoM_OQiepN3-3mipmaI8NYiyNSGb_

The man who produced these videos also offers his own tool to assist in the rigging process: a joint orient tool similar to the one already in Maya, but which seems a little more intuitive for a noob like me.

Following along with his videos, I find the process to be simple enough to follow and get through the majority of the rig creation quite easily.

I find the hand section to be quite tricky and technical but I guess it'll be satisfying to get it right, so I keep at it and try to get the mechanics of it working just right. 

Next in the process, I parent the limbs and spine to the pelvis and clavicle areas. After this comes the flipping of the left side to the right. Following along with the tutorial, I start to understand the importance of joint orientation and how it should affect the finished rig.

I think I got this part right, but it'll take another few goes before any of it begins to feel natural to me. Also, I won't really begin to really "get" the reasons of these actions until I've completed the entire process and can see the relation of each step to the finished product.

02 // Lab #3... part 1

After a very long break from anything Maya-related, I find myself playing catch-up and concentrating my focus on getting through the lab assignments for this module.

A few months ago, I had no idea what I was doing with Maya and Python scripting. Now, I still have no idea what I'm doing. This may or may not be fun!!

So opening up Lab 3, I get myself vaguely re-accustomed with Maya by working through the CubeMan pivot and rotation section of the assignment. I now understand the importance of hierarchy within the rigs. Everything goes relatively swimmingly, so onto the next part.

The Skeleton section proves to be a little more confusing; I honestly have no idea what's going on in this stage and I begin to realise that it's the third time I've attempted to do this part. I kind of understand what it is I'm trying to accomplish by rotating and aligning the joints, but full-understanding eludes me just now.

I decide to just follow along with the notes and hope that by getting further into the task, I'll gain a little more insight into this part of the pipeline. As far as I'm aware, everything seems to look as if I've done it correctly...

As I get to the scripting section, I realise just how out of my depth I really am with this: Python scripting to me is like trying to read a foreign language. I don't think I've even seen it before this module, let alone studied it, so when it doesn't work out for me I feel slightly demoralised. Perhaps there's a way I can wing it through the rest of the module without having to really understand what I'm doing with it?

Despite my first attempt not working out terribly well, I decide that given the looming deadline my main priority should be understanding the rigging process, so I don't spend too much time worrying about the scripting and move on.

Now I've worked my way through that part of the notes, I have a little more knowledge and move on to attempt my first character rig.