Useful Websites:

Model: https://www.turbosquid.com/

Sketchfab – The best 3D viewer on the web – no rig

Model Library — THE BASE MESH

https://agora.community/assets rig

https://thinkinganimation.com/category/cg-resources/rigs/ (rig previews)

https://animationbuffet.blogspot.com/ (rig previews)

https://www.highend3d.com/character-rigs/c/downloads?sort=newest

https://discover.gumroad.com/3d/rigging?query=rig&max_price=1

AZRI Rig

Texture:Textures for 3D, graphic design and Photoshop!

Search Results on ambientCG

Parking Lot By Railway • HDRI Haven (hdri-haven.com) HDR

Week 1

Summer project

Week 2

• Tuesday

We were introduced to the three sides project and in the workshop on Thursday we learned more about the importance of storyboards and how to draw them to better present our stories.

• Fridays

For toolkit we learned about the twelve principles of animation, which we had previously learned about in 2D animation, but this time we thought more in terms of 3D.

Week 3

• Tuesday

During the pre-production stage, I talked to tutor about my ideas and he gave me some feedback, including the movement of the camera, to think more extensively and to flesh out the story and characters with details.

• Friday

Toolkit – bouncing ball

Week 4

• Tuesday- Subdivision Modelling
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwN5TEGMuHwLQD3xlMNdWK7RPSRO_75qC

We were introduced to subdivision modelling, which simply means that the points, lines and surfaces that make up the model need to be arranged neatly and logically to form a good edge flow for easier modification and use. For example, triangles are best avoided and retopology is a feature that helps us to optimise the model. The more detail there is in the curved areas, the more lines there are. Maya can save moving presets of the five organs, which can be put together to form an expression

We were also introduced to a number of modelling sites and softwares:

1. https://www.marvelousdesigner.com (More suitable for fabric clothes sofas, fashionable designs are used a lot
2. CAD/parametric Product design, military tools, no need to delete history, main tuning parameters
3. Photogrammetry Take a lot of pictures from many angles and upload them to generate scenes, the textures are quite good and suitable for architecture
4. Lidar scanning/scan geo Scanning to model
5. Voxel modeling volumetric pixel/3d pixel

Homework

I went home and watched a few demonstrations of Subdivision Modelling and then I followed it up with a chess piece and coffee cup to further my understanding of the importance of clean and correct point lines for smooth. During the modelling process, I gained a better understanding of extrusion, polygon cutting and other functions.

• Thursday Storyboard Workshop

Grouping – bring all the elements together

Contrast – shape colour light

Balance – keep elements balanced

Rythym – provide a sense of movement

• Friday

We animated a sandbag to simulate human movements and emotions and had an initial introduction to the use of character rig

Week 5

• Tuesday Modelling technique
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwN5TEGMuHwKD3N1rjNc9QxBNuLWq3WLS

Insert EdgeLoop

Bevel Edge

Fill Hole

Bridge

Target Weld

Mesh > Combine

Circularize

Append to Polygon

Delete Edge/Vertex

Extrude

We have chosen some objects to model on this modelling site to practice using maya.

https://thebasemesh.com

• Thursday: Animating a Tailed Ball

We used the tail ball model for the animation to deepen our understanding of inertia and the timing of the jump.

Homework – Unwrapping uv

We were set to make a box with the aim of understanding more about the unfolding and stitching of the UV.

Week 6

• Tuesday – Blockout environment

We are working on our 3 sides project.

I was modelling a sofa and curtains and my computer crashed three times while using icloth, which was a bit painful.

• Thursday Animating a Biped Walk Cycle

We have made a walking cycle with a character rig, the important point is that when the character’s feet touch the ground, the motion line of the animation should be linear.

We were introduced to the import of the reference, which requires first exporting the video in AE as a 24 fps .png sequence.

The “#”represents the number, then just find the view import image in Maya’s panel adjust its depth, tick the image sequence and you’re ready for reference.

Week 7

• Tuesday RIG and Parenting – See this unit in the menu

• Thursday – Heavy lifting

The feedback was that the movements were somewhat slow and stiff.

Tips:

Adding Constraints to the Rig

For the heavy Lifting exercise, you may want the box to follow the hands of the character. It is easy to do so by parent constraining the hand control to the box.

Create a locator and snap it to the hand control (Create > Locator). Freeze transformations (besides the clear history)

Duplicate the locator and parent them one under another

Select the HandCtr locator you’ve just created, shift-select the hand control of the rig and go Constrain > Parent

Select the boxConstraintCtr, shift-select the box and go Constrain > Parent

• Friday – Toolkit

We learnt about the effect of different materials in light, and the use of different directions and different lights.

Week 8

• Tuesday – Blocking out environment

• Thursday Find/record a good video reference for a Ball Throw

We learned that we can use the step mode in animation, only the poses that you set up without being distracted by the in-betweens that Maya creates.

Week 9

We were set to look for references to animating expressions on the character rig.

I got a better understanding of the controller controls and keyframe settings, but sometimes it took some time to find the controller in rig, but it was all sorted out later.

Week 10

http://kylekenworthy.blogspot.com/search/label/Acting%20Reference

We were set to do an acting animation, find a lip sync reference and study the movement of a person’s mouth when they speak.