Messengers Tail Update 5

Almost Done!!

i can finally see the light at the end of this project, i have been showing my current progress to as many people as possible and collecting critiques and revisions as i go. this did however force me to re render a few of my scenes but made the overall product look better.

After sitting down with Nick we decided on a plan of action for the ending of the short. this game from watching the new Ori and the blind forest trailer. the plan is to have a build up leading to the glowing eyes of the statue and having a quick cut to a small eco of sound as the original melody leads the title text into frame. This can be seen in my Beta 2 cut in the link below.

As for finalizing this project i still need to add in the fixed ending title (fixed the clipping) some small edits on cuts and import the final pass of the music.

I hope to have everything 100% finished for Monday.

Here is a link to my Beta 2 cut

https://vimeo.com/159551603

Messengers Tail Update 4

Update Number 4!!

So progress is going smoothly as i am reaching the end of the project. i tossed together a rough cut 7 (link below) to send away to have the final music composition done.As for the animation the shots are all in and revisions have been complete (until more are added) and i am just re rendering out the final shot due to the water having some issues when rendering.

I also added in blockout title cards and end cards, Brittany is currently working on a logo for the end title as i work on some simple after effects words for the text.

I hope to have the final Edits done in the next week or so as long as the final renders run smoothly.

Here is a link to Rough Cut 7

https://vimeo.com/157885405

Messengers Tail Update 3

Update 3!

In the last two weeks alot of progress has been made, all final animations have been set in, ncloth has been remodeled and is now working, lighting is almost finished and final renders are going.

i was also lucky enough to get to hear the second pass of the music from nick and was blown away, i hope to have the final cut for him in the next week or so.

Current goals are to finish the polish and revisions on reaming shots and have them rendered out by the end of reading week.

Here is a link to Rough cut 4 (final 2 scenes are not final animations)

https://vimeo.com/155254583


and here is scene 3 with renders.

https://vimeo.com/155732796

Messengers Tail Update 2

Update 2 2/4/2016

Progress is going good im ahead of schedule by about a week. the base animation for the entire short is in. im currently showing it around to build up critique so when i move into my finals i can have it all done together in one shot.

This Friday im having my second meeting with Nick to start the first pass of the music. i was able to put a rough cut of the shots together with rough timing so i could give him the most possible time to work on his compositions. The first set on music should take around a week-2weeks to complete.

As i am waiting for the music i plan to start on my final passes for each scene. (Also to meet my vertical slice date)

This will include

• Final Animation polish and revisions 
• Final Camera work and polish
• Lighting pass/Effects 
• Adding any textures (if needed) 
• Final Set Dressing/Placement 
• Render (Mental Ray/AO)
• And final shot approval from Proffs/Peers

Here is a link to rough cut 3 

https://vimeo.com/154000739

Messengers Tail Update 1

First Update

Before production started on final animations i decided to take my layout files around for critique. After a few days i built up a large amount of revisions that in the end would save me time. These included combing the title shot and charm wall fly in shot together, only having a single shot of Kon taking the charm from behind the wall rather then two and to break up the path shot from one static camera to two moving cameras with a transition in between.

At this current stage i am still considering taking out the path intro shot and the very beginning of the short depending on total length in the end.

I am currently on time to have all animation done by Feb 14-15 and i plan to send off a rough cut of the short to have the first draft of the music done for it.

Here are some links to view the progress

Layout- https://vimeo.com/149374449

Rough Cut- https://vimeo.com/151325518

Scene One- https://vimeo.com/151097215

Scene Two- https://vimeo.com/151267277

Scene Three - Still in block out

Scene Four - https://vimeo.com/151596562  (Has been Finished will upload new verison)

Proof Of Tech Working Notes

- Decided on topic (Quad IK Leg)

- Opened my rig and tred messing around with the IK tools

-Built a working leg but does not wok at all after i bind the skin.

-Went on Digital Tutors and youtube to find IK tutorials

-Found 3 possible usable tutorials

-Just found out my rig skeleton needs to be redone, the reason i was having issues was my joint orientation and position.

-Edin recommended i look at more anatomy pictures to help me correct joint location

-After redoing the skeleton the IK leg seems to be working.

-Something still seemed a bit off so i grabbed a Quad rig from online and compared it to my own, turns out i need to create 3 IK chains down the leg to give me more control over the ankle and foot.

-I also noticed under the example quad rigs leg controller it had attributes that could control the knee/foot, i will have to look into adding that later.

- for some reason im still not having the same kind of control as the example rig and i cant get the toe to bend properly.

-After doing some research online and a few form posts i figured out i needed to add a Null joint to the end of the foot and add a 4th IK chain

-So after adding the Null joint the foot seems to be working for the bend and the knee.

-Now that the bend is working im going to try and parent a controller in.

-After spending 20 min on messing up parenting i now have a control on the foot.

-Never mind the control is scaling weird with the base node.

- well i feel dumb, the reason it had scaling issues was because i dident freeze controls and delete history.

-After fixing that the control on the leg is working and i Finally have a bending leg (that needs alot of weight paint)

-Going back to the idea of the attributes im going to now look online and see what information i can find. i currently know how to add and connect attributes but not how they will act with the leg ik.

-After about 2 min i found a perfect tutorial on how to set this up. the part i was missing was i needed to set up the IK chains in groups and connect the attributes to the leg controller in the rotate X axis.

-After a bit of messing around with the connection editor i now have working attributes connect to the foot controller. i think i may almost be finished this leg set up.

-...nope after re binding the skin i found out the mesh freaks out when the leg bends up to far, i think i might have an idea on how to correct this, if i create a knee controller it might help move the mesh.

- so after i looked online for a bit i found bout to make a knee controller i need to create a poll vector on the IK and Aim constraint it to a locator.

-For some reason my IK chain wont let me add a poll vector.

-After a few quick emails with edin i found out my IK handles are wrong and need to be set to rotate (one small option box i missed)

-So after redoing all my IK legs (again) i can finally connect my poll vector and aim constraint.

-All thats left to do is get the parenting right an i should be good to go.

-So i finally have a working IK quad rig, i can even copy it to each other leg (just have to swap out the IK chain and re connect the attributes.

-After learning how to use the poll vector i though i might be able to do something similar to making moving eyes. in the end all i had to change was the type of constraint to a aim constraint and it works great.

-to make it a bit more user friendly i parented the eye controllers into a single control to move both eyes at the same time.

Proof Of Tech Quadruped Rig Part 3 Poll Vector Knee

Proof Of Tech Quadruped Rig Part 3 

Poll Vector Knee

In this final part of the IK leg tutorial we will be looking at creating a knee control using a basic poll vector set up.

the first step is we must create a locator Create>Locator 

make sure you have it visable under Show>Locator

Then you need to position the locator in front off the characters knee 

Next we need to constrain the locator to the IK chain.

Select Locator> Select Top IK Chain> Constrain > Poll Vector 

If done correctly the knee should fallow the locator.

Next we will create a Nurbs Circle to act as our controller 

Center the controller on the locator and freeze transform delete history and name controller. 

You can then parent the locator to the Controller, if done correctly the controller should now control the knee.

OPTIONAL 

For a final step i prefer to parent the knee controller to the foot controller just to keep it organized but that is just my preference.