Minor - Character Orphographs

 In preparation for modelling my characters, I've made all 5 orthographs.

Klepto-Man

Robert Banks

Lenny

Benny

Denny

Minor - Animatic & Proposal OGR

Art Jam - Session 2

 This week Meg's Art Jam was a much simpler task and was mostly a chill-out session.

Our task was to create characters out of a bunch of random shapes and blobs.

Minor - Updated Character Designs

 I finally got around to updating each of my characters. I wanted to get these all done before I get to work on my animatic.

I'm reasonably pleased with how these came out. I think I can now get to work on making orthographs. 

Klepto-Man

Robert Banks

Denny

Lenny

Benny

Minor - Epic Man Redesign (Klepto-Man & Script V5)

 So I wasn't super fond of the original name "Epic Man" and have been looking to replace it all summer, I believe I finally got a final name for the character.

Since the final joke in the script portrays the hero as a kleptomaniac, I wanted to play with this for the name as a way of setting up the joke. I've been trying to decide if I prefered "Captain Klepto" or "Klepto-Man". I've currently settled on Klepto-Man as it flows a little better in the script.

Here's some quick sketch work on the redesign. If you remember back to my Epic Man design, you'll notice it's not very different, that's because the classic superhero look is still what I'm going for, I just wanted the design to fit more with someone called Klepto-Man.

All that's really changed is I've added a bandana to cover his face. I'm unsure whether it should replace his hair or not. I also haven't decided if his eyes will have pupils or not.

I still don't know what to do with the symbol on his chest, or if he should even have a symbol.

The main difference in this design will be colour. Epic Man was yellow and orange, warm, friendly colours, whereas with Klepto-Man I want to use light blue and teal, colder, but still quite friendly.

Other than redesigning the character, I've also been working on the script. Moving from script v4a, I've written 5a and 5b.

5a is the exact same as 4a, but "Epic Man" has been replaced with "Klepto-Man".

5b changes some of the dialogue from the narrator in the opening. This is based on my meeting with Tom, where we joked about the city seeing Klepto-Man more as an annoyance than a superhero. I quite like this idea, but I would much like to hear other opinions on this.

If you read these two scripts, please tell me which one you prefer and if there's anything you think needs changing. I'd like any feedback as I would honestly like for version 6 of my script to be my final.

Maya Tutorials - Session 2

We went through three different rigging tutorials this time, so I can't think of a fitting title.

Anyway, as is the norm, lesson started with a 5 minute Moom posing challenge.

Comparing the Moom I posed to the reference, you can see what I've missed out on.

Moom is too rigid, where as the ref's spine is slightly tilted to the side.

I never got around to posing the hands.

I forgot to pose the feet and the knees are a bit too bent, resulting in Moom looking like they've just landed from a jump, rather than going into a jump, like the reference.

At least Moom isn't injured this time.

On to the actual lesson.

Task 1: Curve Driven Squash & Stretch

Starting with the familiar torso of Jetpack Jones.

When rigging JPJ you make a ribbon spine, in this ribbon spine is a specific curve. This curve is used to create a custom node, a curve info node, used to make squash and stretch work with the model. To create this node type "arclen -ch on ribbon_volume_driver_crv" into the MEL command line. Once executed, bring the curve into the node editor.

Here is the node editor with the ribbon curve fully graphed out.

Going back to the ribbon spine, select the three control joints and bring them into the node editor.

Here is everything laid out so far.

Just like the tutorials from last week, three multiply/divide nodes are needed to get this to work. One normaliser, then one for the square root, and then a last one to divide. In the actual lesson, Alan did show us how to change each joint individually, however I can't remember how he did this, so I'm not going to have a very good squash.

But here we have Stretch Pack Jones.

Task 2: No Flip Pole Vector

Back to the half rig from last week, we look at the leg this time.

The leg rig has a separate control for the knee, which is gives more control for animating, but it can be a bit of a pain when trying to do something simple, like walking. 

Delete the knee control and set all the pole vector values to 0.

Bring out the pole vector's X value. Also add a "Twist Ctrl" attribute to the foot control.

Bring the leg IK and the foot control into the node editor, as well as adding a plus/minus/average node. 

Plug the foot control's Twist Ctrl into PMA input 1D[0]. Plug the leg IK's Offset into input 1D[1]. Then take output 1D and plug it into the IK's Twist. Make sure to set the IK's offset to 90 at this stage.

If it all worked, you should now be able to control the knee from the foot control.

Task 3: IK/FK Switch

Starting with this half a torso.

Duplicate from the shoulder joint twice.

Delete the fingers from the duplicates, as we'll only need the shoulder, elbow & wrist joints. Rename each chain (Bind, IK & FK). Individually parent each IK/FK shoulder & elbow to their Bind counterparts. Connect the wrists with point and orient constraints.

Create a locator and place it above the shoulder. Add attribute: L_Arm_IK_FK. This is the switch. Using set driven keys, connect the locator to the IK and FK constraints.

Added IK handle from the IK_shoulder to the IK_wrist.

Added control for the IK

Added pole vector and elbow control for the IK

Added FK controls

Added hand control to the IK

Complete FK controls

Complete IK controls

Minor - Scripts V4a, 4b & 4c

 So for my fourth draft of the script, I have three versions.

4a is the same story from V3, just with a few amendments.

4b is the same but with one of the henchmen removed. I did this to see if the story still worked with less characters. In my opinion it still works, but I don't think it's as funny as it is with all three henchmen.

4c is a small experiment with starting in medias res, with the story then going back to the start in scene 2. I'm not too sure about it and would like some other opinions.

As of uploading this, I've already started V5, which is working from 4a. However this can easily be amended if people think b or c are better. If anyone has anything they'd like to suggest, please let me know.