Tag: aut

Mocap: Final Product

The question I was trying to answer for my Motion Capture project was: Can I use motion capture to successfully animate a non-human character?

The answer, much to my surprise, is YES!

It’s safe to say this motion capture final render won’t work its way into any award shows, however, I realise that I shouldn’t be so hard on my self. I took a risk and tried to achieve something that was outside my comfort zone, so it’s also safe to say I actually managed to pull it off, if not somewhat awkwardly.

This is one project that I will be spending more time on though, so check back later and hopefully, Vardo will be doing some pretty inspiring things.

Motion Capture: Vardo, and the test results

What I have learned throughout this experience is, that I have managed to create a solution that will work for previs, I have a way to go before I can call this avenue of research finessed enough to satisfy me. I need to create a solution that will keep the wheels reliably on the ground, and also have them move more easily with the body, I need to figure out how to add doors, and windows to Vardo that are able to be keyframed and move seamlessly with the Vardo’s body.

I have concluded that the best, and a somewhat easiest way to achieve a good result to have the motion capture actor stand with their feet together. This way, when weighting the skin to the foot controls it is easier to maintain an equal distance from the wheelbase.

While running my tests I compared both methods, and although I do love the way Vardo jumps all about in the version where the entire mesh is parented to the rig, I much prefer the usability of having the wheels and base separate. Going forward, I will consider trialing a blendshape, or ncloth simulation.

Overall, I am happy that I made it work to a satisfactory level, but I would love to see this through to a more usable and versatile solution.

Below is a comparison of the two different models I trialed.

I have dozens of other test videos!

Modelling Vardo for Motion Capture

I have a tendency to overdo things, so after my first few trials, I realized I had to pull it back to be able to test my mocap without taking HOURS repainting skin weights. Below is a super sped up video of the modeling process.

I do have footage of how terrible this model worked out and will include it in my making of the video, one thing I soon realized what I wasn’t going to be able to make the wheels, doors, and window shutters move independently of the while ensuring the travel with it in a seamless manner.

Below is a schematic of how I finally managed to put Vardo together. But parenting the wheelbase to the foot controls I could move the entire vehicle with the main character controller, and by parenting the wheels to the base I could place keyframes on them.

 

 

UPDATE I just had a brainwave about how I could make this better!

Motion Capture: Recording the data/cortex/Motionbuilder

I am quite fortunate to have a friend named Jenny who was happy put on the mocap suit not once but twice. For some reason we had technical difficulties with the first capture session so had to go back. In preparation for my trails, I asked her to do a series of basic moves: Happy, sad, angry, etc, as well as a hip bend and turn.

Here is a photo of what such a good sport she is.

mocap capture photo

Then after collecting the data off, I take it to the cortex suit. Fixing the data is something that does actually get easier in time, so I managed to clean all my data in a few hours. If anything can be said about it, it’s tedious and requires high attention to detail. I can’t record the screen so you will have to settle for this low budget cellphone footage. however, it does the job.

Then it’s off to motion builder where you retarget all the motion points to a character. Which led to some interesting results to start with.

More on this later!

 

Motion Capture: Development/Research

Somewhere between my last post and this one my experimental motion capture project took a bit of a left turn. In part because of time constraints, but also because another avenue took my interest.

I decided to combine my Animation Capstone Vardo with my Motion Capture in an effort to create a way I could use motion capture technology to create a pre-vis in preparation for creating the keyframed animation.

I wasn’t entirely sure I could achieve this, which worried me. I don’t take failure well, especially when I am sure that I can figure something out so I doggedly started my research into how I could proceed.

After casting a google net I realized that there isn’t that much research into this practice yet, and although plenty of people are making arms longer to create an ape, or applying the data to a monster character there hasn’t been too much experimentation using it with vehicles.

The anthropomorphized Vardo of my Capstone is inspired in part by the Pixar animation Cars, but you can learn more about my project by watching my video essay on the subject of using an anthropomorphized non-human character.

Below is the video that inspired my own search for a solution to my problem, and although they are using methods that outweigh my current knowledge with time and practice I believe I will be able to come up with an appropriate solution.

 

 

The Animated Documentary – The Idea Stage

As part of the requirement of this assignment, I have to keep a visual diary, which I do anyhow in a ‘real life’ book I will also keep it here. I actually started this in a word document with the caveat that I would put it here too if I could figure out why my WordPress was giving me the white screen of death in the admin section (news flash, it a broken plugin).

I have actually had this idea in my head for a while, to record my 7-year-old twins talking and animated a segment, so I guess it stands to reason that this is the first thing I would think of when given the assignment to animate a documentary. In the interest of covering all basis’s I will be coming up with a few alternative ideas, such as interviewing my Father about experience of being a Romany Gypsy, my Mother in laws quilt group, my husband’s job as an IT professional,  my sister’s job as a high school teacher, how my son feels about having Asperger’s and ADHD.

I decided to focus on someone in my immediate family group, as I know they will be willing participants. Mostly though, I want to talk to my twins about a situation that happened in their school at the end of the last term.  My girls it seems are crime stoppers. They caught a group of 11 and 12-year-old boys stealing speakers from outside their class room and managed to chase them off and provide information that leads directly to the boys being identified, and dealt with. Here are some other questions I will be asking them: What is like being a twin, what is a bully, what do you do if someone is bullying you, tell me about Cub Scouts.
Here are a few notes that I wrote in my physical journal about ideas that I have been generating. I love the idea of also including the girl’s art work in some way.

My girls may be twins, but they both have a very distinct style when it comes to their art work and how they express them selves. If I got ahead with this idea then I would like to incorporate that individualism into my animation as both girls talk.

The top two images are drawn by Violette, who loves reading, writing, and mathematics, the bottom two are drawn and created by Erynn, who says she hates reading and writing but loves to create art work, draw and colour.

Violette’s art work tends towards the two dimensional with written subtitles. Erynn likes to use the scissors to create 3d works of art, she uses a lot of mixed medias and has a very interesting take on the use of perspective.

Resources looked at: 

Part of the creative process is watching other animated documentaries in an effort to identify styles that we liked and methods used.

After watching the suggested documentary and personal narratives, I made the following notes what aspects I liked:

Baba, by Joel Kefali – Painterly, great transitions, painted look, always I motion, childlike, use of typography to emphasise mispronounced words. The simple block colouring tied the story together without confusing the eye.

Coi Army Learning – Why Not Associates – White board look, hand drawn, great transitions.

Storm Whale, Moth Collective – Nice texture and feel

The Wiki Man, Moth Collective – Loose animation style, animated word, not overly complicated or confusing, not too much to look at, vision not confused, I liked it, the idea of rebranding potatoes.

Sarah’s Story, Moth Collective – Childlike drawings, but not childlike, the view reflects Sarah’s feelings and thoughts rather than focusing on the story she is telling about what happened to her. Its meaning was much more metaphorical. Every day is a gift.

 

My Mothers Coat, Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits – I like the sound effects in the background, the simple lines. This is possibly rotoscoped. The lines were minimal as were the use of colour. Life should be a walk you share, share everything, do not waste time. I found something mesmerising in this.

Liars need a good memory, James Heredia – Collage, paint, digital. Nice integration of video and collage.

Keona + Chantelle – The Wrong Trainers, Arthur Cox Animation – I LOVE the cardboard box cut-outs and childlike drawings. I really love the child perspective in this animation; how they tell about the time, she fell out the window and described how far she fell. I like the way the children talk about their parents, and how they want to help them. ‘Small crushed up houses”
And in the interest of not spending the rest of the day copying links and posting the other pictures that I promise are in the word document here are some other animations I watched:

A is for Autism, Tim Webb – Childlike, hand drawn, dealing with a subject matter important to me as I have an autistic child and brother, I like the integration of the live action and animation.

Asperger’s Syndrome – Stop Motion. Music Matters, Nick Cave – Really love the line drawing and use of typography.

This Land is Mine, Nina Paley – I like the simple vector like graphics used in this animation, I also like how it feels as if it is portrayed as platform shoot’em up game.

Mound, Allison Schulnik – Pencil titles, simple uniform colour pallet, great depth of field, all characters are similar, but yet unique.

A-Z Clip, Sarah Cox – Great childlike perspective. Cut out, paper texture, some great transitions and cuts.

Oregonian ‘Transformation’ Bent Image Lab – I like the origami look and the fact that they took a newspaper and turned it into something else.

Lesley Barnes Herzog and the Monsters, GSA DDS MDes Animation – I like the cut out feel, almost like it could be a pop-up book. The incorporation of typography and books, and the 3d effect created with a drop shadow. I like the interesting perspective.

Shofar, JNFA Dancing Diablo – I like the hand drawn doodles circling the live action.

Creative Freedom, John Kelly – Great integration of live action and 3d, and hand-drawn.

Back to the start, John Kelly – Cute 3d animations, really love the way the camera pans from left to right as the buildings are created. Surprisingly moving, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the emotive music too. The models are very textural, which grounds them. Despite the non-organic shapes.

Josh Pyke middle of the hill video – I liked the cutout view and the integration of the live action with the animation.

The Thomas Beale Cipher, Andrew S Allen – Integration of newsprint, fabric, collage, and live action, textures used to create animation.

Pam’s advertisement, AssemblyLtd – I really like the use of texture in this adverts, the way the 3d models have been almost flattened, lots of Kiwiana.

Next up, recording the audio! Check out the next blog post for more on this.

Mocap, Mash in Maya

I just fell down a rabbit hole of the internet but in the process discovered this video that has a quick overview of Mash inside Maya and it’s so good it makes my brain want to explode. I can really see the vector graphic thing working well for my character!

Anyhow, I wanted to share the video here while it was still in my mind so I can come back to it later. I’ll add a few more here as I go.

I had to test drive the SVG vector tool immediately! What I can say, is that I don’t think I’ll be doing my character quite like the ones in the image below.

Word figure testing

Here is a video that is talking about Mesh scattering.

Here is the webinar on Mash, that I have to watch. I have a lot of watching and learning to do.

Mocap – Research WHP

I have no idea what I should be calling these titles, so this one has WHP as a shorthand for Words Have Power, which is what I think my sequence is starting to be called, it’s like my sequence is starting to take on a life of its own, it’s one of my art babies. One I am hoping is cultivated and grown, not the kind you have to retire to the place all your old files go to collect dust.

I have scoured the internet in search of inspiration for what my character is going to look like, and although I still haven’t got it nutted out entirely here are some images that have inspired me.

group of inspiring images

So many images here are leaving me feeling inspired, in particular, the one on the top right. I like the combination of lines of the face, hair, arms and legs, and the text making up the dress. Although the one on the bottom right appeals to me too. These are both options I intend to explore while creating my sequence.

another group of ideas to inspire my work

the second set was supposed to focus more on what the area my character is going to dance in will look like, but I was also drawn to a mixture of ink lines and font used for clothing. I rather like the 2nd to top image on the left of the 3d words jutting out of the walls. In the video, Dr Angelou talks about how words get into your things, into your walls, your carpet, your floor, so I intend on incorporating words either I this manner, or by using a texture map.

This is just a small collection of the images I have collected during my research. Stay tuned for my next post which will show you some of the concept art works I have been working on.

Mocap experimental movement and the ideas.

The first half of my Motion Capture Minor for the 2nd year of uni is dedicated to creating a 30-second sequence which explores alternative, non-figurative, abstract and/or experimental visualisations of movement and the body in motion.

This project is leaving me excited and nervous in equal measures, and the possibilities I could explore are seemingly endless. The first idea that popped into my head was to use a combination of live action and motion capture to create a bubble man, that would float up and away from the Trouble Monsters (my twin girls) and start a dance sequence in the sky that would end with the bubble man popping. A quirky funny idea that I’d love to create and the first few weeks were devoted to coming up with ideas on how I could accomplish that.

pster on the bus stopThen, a few days before we were due to film in the motion capture lab I spied a poster on the wall behind the bus shelter and a new idea took place. This idea was so strong that it eclipsed all thoughts of bubble men and compelled me to change direction completely. I hadn’t actually spoken to Greg, our MoCap teacher before our filming session, so I wasn’t even sure if it was possible, so for prudence’s sake, I took footage for both ideas, so I could always come back to my dancing bubble man later if I wanted too.

Thankfully my dancer could understand what I want to communicate in my piece and I got my footage in one take. The idea that I have in my head has been a bit tricky for me to draw out, concept art is a skill I am still developing. However, I have  the words spoken by Dr Maya Angelou called “Words have power” in an interview with Oprah as the backdrop of the sound, and my figure dancing is made from words, the words on her body will either by Dr Angelou’s poetry, or perhaps (and I’m just thinking this right now as I glance over at the bus stop poster) words that empower people, in particular woman. to create not exactly the bus stop poster, but a form that looks like a person in form only, but it’s words.

I still haven’t quite figured out how I am going to build my figure yet, currently I am still completing tutorials, however, I am thinking I could use a combination of the Toon Shader in Maya, the ink outlines, and the text builder.

See my next blog post for more on the development of my idea. Below is the Dr Maya Angelou video that I am using to base my sequence on. I am using the powerful words of Dr Maya Angelou, the human form, and words themselves to create a sequence that show that words really are things.