3D Animals in Motion

22.1.14

Most recent progress

And this is where I have got to now.

Next I will animate the feet to give it more of a natural feel and move the whole of the body to make it feel there is wind.

Lastly I will look at animating the individual feathers to make it look like there is some wind. I don't know how that will look.

And I will want to add a sky background and add the textures and material to make it look better.

Progress so far

I decided to go back to the slower flapping version as it felt easier to animate in.

After I was satisfied with the wing flaps, I started with the up and down movement of the body. (blogger does not want to properly link these for some reason)

The feathers just fixed themselves sometimes, and I chose to ignore them in hopes they will fix themselves.

They did, every so often.

This one is where I made sure the head was as level as it could be compared to the movement of the body.

I tweaked the feet to give it a more natural feel as well as rotating the body a tiny amount.

I wanted to have the eagle flap a few times before soaring, so that was my next step and I cycled all the keyframes, then baked them so I had 3 wing flaps and stopped the cycle to work on the gliding part.

The next step was to animate the eagle coming out of the wings beating down into a glide with the wings outstretched. When I chose to bake the animation I kept half a wing flap where it was coming down to mid-point. I started with the wings to move slightly as birds don't keep them still in a glide, then worked on the body movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_3L9CuiAY4&feature=youtu.be

21.1.14

Flight cycle sketches

Here are the sketches I was using when I was animating the wings flapping from online reference.

This was comparing real bird wings to the rig I was using.

15.1.14

Wing improvement

Flying animation

The horse animation is on hold for a little while.

So I moved onto the flying eagle this week, which I suppose would be a bit simpler. Rig is still a bit dodgy, but workable and there are plenty of references for it such as;

http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thEkFMaB5CA&list=PLFBsfzVsWWmlTB-N_iLVVYK4-U-As6ULC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfFOcxJf2k

So here's some process videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfFOcxJf2k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqBMEZTW94&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E1mByB0hoM&feature=youtu.be
This one has some feathers sticking out. This rig is pretty delicate that if I move a wing wrong or just move it, a feather would randomly poke out which slows down my progress to try and correct it so it doesn't look as bad.

bottom view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8qx_T1_8MA&feature=youtu.be

Here's the most recent
Front - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnzYYm0NS6A&feature=youtu.be
I've rotated the wings on the up and downward beat.

Side - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNKs24649PQ&feature=youtu.be
At the base of the wing there is a weight error, I think. Where it pops up. I'm struggling to correct that, but I think I'll leave that until later. The wings folding back doesn't look right, it makes it look like it's swimming rather than flying.

Top - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmDGSZJZmDM&feature=youtu.be
This view makes the wings folding back more obvious and not as good as I thought it would be, so I will have to move them forward again and not fold them as much. I think it would've looked ok on a smaller bird, not an eagle.

7.1.14

key frame roughs

Unfortunately my PC has died. These aren't the best photos of the sketches, but it's all I have until it's fixed.

These are the main key frames for my animation to get an idea of how I want them to move.

7.12.13

Back to basics

A list of tools and where they are on Maya. I will update this as and when.

Shortcuts

Alt W = Move tool

Alt E = Rotate tool

Alt R = Scale tool

Shift E – Set keyframe rotate

Shift R – Set keyframe scale

Shift W – Set keyframe translate

Shift and drag = Highlight timeline and right click snap

E & left mouse button = choose different rotate settings

Useful settings

Show > Nurb curves on

Preferences > Settings > keep keys at current frames = when the framerate is changed it adjusts it to match and keep to a whole frame.

Key Modified Attributes = Will only keyframes in the selected controller (ie translate X or Rotate Z)

Rotation Interpolation > New curve default > Quaternion = to prevent gimble lock where the rotation axis overlaps

Tangents > change tangents like auto, linar, stepped

Camera Sequencer > good selections for camera cuts in a scene.

Time Slider > Key ticks > selection for channel box will show only selected controller.

>Tick span = set to 1 and can see all frames numbered, 4 every 4^th frame and 0 is default.

Playback > All = playback animation in all views

Set key options > Set keys at: prompt will transfer a key to another frame(s)

Graph editor

pin rotate or translate to keep showing on graph editor

Shift, Alt & right mouse button to stretch view in GE (like using F)

View > Buffer curves = outlines the last place the graph editor was

Breaking tangent – tangent > break tangents

Re-timing tool (stop watch icon) > double click to create a timer handle = space out to speed up an animation or slow down

Preferences > Settings > Animation > Graph editor: Snap value to adjacent keys

Cycle animation tips:

First and last frame the same
playback range – last frame off timeslider
33 frames is good for breathing cycle, halfway (frame 17) for down
Graph editor – shift click on both first and last keys and hold shift to grab both out tangents and adjust
more important to get look rather than have clean values

Bake Cycle Animation

Getting an animation to stop after a walk cycle:

highlight all character's controls and go to graph editor
Graph editor > Curves > Baked Channel > reset settings
set start and end time
sample by > click sparse curve bake channel – to match the keys done already
Bake
Curves > Pre and post-infinity >constant
done

Motion Trails

Animate > Create editable motion trail > reset settings > create

Highlight key on the screen to change keyframe of position

Turn on modify keys > put to 1 > click on screen to add a key frame > don't forget to turn off

Pinning keeps the control in view when de-selected

Beads on are useful