Here is the final result. Have to say, I picked a fat charactor and that was a really bad choice for my first try out on weight painting/rigging. It still worked. My main aim for this project is not on rigging though, but to get the production chain moving I had to learn the stuff I haven't done before and even I dont want to.
But in the end it kind of paid off. I'm sure not my next rig would be much better and faster.
So As I continue to work on the rig, i found the proxy solution didn't really work out. I grouped the proxy mesh with the skeleton and it worked fine, but i simply can't find the button to skining the two mesh together. Well... I should find that tutorial again but I didn't. Instead I tried to learn how to use the weight paint tool and it worked.
When I first binded the skin, maya automatically generated a weight map which I find very annonying since it doesn't work and need to take a lot of time to be fixed. The thing is... once I replace an area with a value of 'zero', it will automatically sent the value to some other joints. Luckly there is a hold/unhold button which designed to fix this problem.
I bought my new iMac 2 weeks ago and this is a music I created for the penguin dance in Garageband. I haven't discovered how to screenshot on a mac system yet, so counld show you any image during the making process. I wanted to create this in Logic Express, but then I found this free Garageband software which is much more easiler to use.(less controll though)
The schedule has been updated. A lot has changed due to many delays. Camera shooting will be future delayed as my new brought camera has broken down. I am considering a change of plan for the backgorund design.
I didn't realise having a fat charactor could be so painful. I should have noticed and thought about why the tutuorial always use charactors thin like match sticks, because they are easy for rigging. The weight on my penguin seems to need extra bones and joints to support. Or there's another way to do it, that is to creat a 'proxy geometry' to simplify the mesh. Then bind the skin to the proxy, parent proxy to the real geometry.
Here is the final version of my penguin. The modeling process didn't take long as the design was quite simple. It now does not have the sence of personality yet. It is hard to bring the 2D spirt into 3D. Maybe after textruing and rigging it could feels more alive. Yeah...maybe it's just because of the T-pose.
An eariler stage of modeling, this is before smoothing.
Notice the lines on the body, it took me a while to place them in an organised order.
This is smooth version of the penguin before I re-organised the edges and vertex.
And here's the earilest version. Low poly, didn't fix the lines yet.
This is the very first drawing of my design to the charactor. I just want to create something rounded, fat and somehow have a big nose. And yet it has to be simple.
Eventually, it became a penguin look like charactor with a big nose. It has a angry face and fat body. I liked this design because you can almost tell its personality by just looking at him. Lazy? maybe.
Fat but still can be a good dancer. I'm going to make him becomes Tom Cruise.
The idea is to create a simple charactor and make it dance. I hope the whole sequence could be a 30 second loop. The main focus will be on the animation. Modeling and Rigging are also important as they are the preparation. As I have never rigged before, I need to do some more research into that. As for the animation, I have found some interesting videos from Youtube...
Tom Cruise dances in Tropic Thunder. This is the first video that poped into my mind when I thought about dance. Almost like a animated charator with a lot of exaggeration movement.
And here's something totally different in its setting and tone. Don't exactly know why I put it here...think I just really liked the acting by Al Pacino. Beautiful scene, prefect timing with the music. It feels like...when the high beat in the music comes up, there is a sence of power that breaks out from the actor. Then theres a sence of control over that power. Charming! really loved it.
Well, I know people have seems this a million times. Just look at the dog.. good animation, good timing and funny. And very simple! even no background. Oh yes this is inspiring.
Hey hot girls! yes! this is acutally the kind of stuff i wanted to do in my first year. But after I got my girlfriend, hmm....not so interested anymore. They are still good animation though. A little slow in terms of the music and some of the moves. Since the project has a 30 second limit, everything must move fast!!
WARNING! I'm warning you, if you don't like the big head/bubble eye japanese girlish stuff, DON'T watch this. I personly can't stand the cuteness of it, make me feel like girl by just watching it!! But must say, this is a well-known and succesful piece of animation. It's one of the first initial ideas that pops into my mind. Simple, powerful. Although it's power is to make people feel weak..
Right, Let's have something more manly. This is... well, I don't really know what's going on here, but this will work for my animation!
Some penguin dance. I like the charactor design, especially the little one at the end. It's simple, funny and fat, quite like Tom Cruise's role in Tropic.
Here's something really random. The most importance thing: it's short and still make sence. 30 second clip the same as my target. This is really ispiring.
