Back to basic! Bouncing ball and walk cycles

Sick day at home.  Slept all morning.  Fed myself lunch, now my brain is feeling hungry.  Before I passed out again, let me fed my brain with something delicious.

So I am going back to the basic again!  Recently I got a web link that listed a lot of animation worth revisiting.  That's a great idea!  Not only to see how much you have grown and how your style have changed, but also revisit some of those golden rules of animation, and use it with the knowledge I have gain from iAnimate.  Freakin awesome right?!

Ok so here it begins!  The first thing I did was bouncing ball.  Laugh out loud not!  I actually reviewed something that I forgot.  

When the ball hit the ground, we all know that there should be a contact pose before it squash right?

OK! I got that. what about the pose that leaves the squash pose?  Should it be the red one? Or should it be the green one??  According to animator survival kit, it should be the green one.  "You see the change here and then the ball is off again. "

What about a character that's jumping?  "You want to keep the feet on the ground when he takes off, it will give more change to the action. "

Super interesting!  Now onto walk cycle!

Long forgotten love.

I like how some project reminds me some skills that I haven't used for a long time.  I was reminded today how modeling can be fun at times.  So when I got home, I dug out some old model I did before, but never got a chance to finish it (zBrush is so frustrating to me!). Still very proud of it!  I just need to learn Mudbox or Zbrush to give the sneaker more detail. (How many things are on my learning list!!)  Yeah.. one day I will. lol  (burying it back...)

My lovely adidas sneaker!  Just the right one.  The left one have a different pattern on it. 

AFR stretch and squash controller icon

Rigging a bouncing ball's squash and stretch control right now from AFR.

This reminds me of a command "parent -s -r".  It does the same thing as our usually parent command.  Its just that in MAYA in order to reparent shape node under another transform node, we need to "type" in command.  The usually drag and drop in outliner or hitting p won't work.

So the same thing, choose the child(ore children) then the parent (remember to freeze scale first...), then run the command "parent -s -r".  This way we don't need to parent the curves under the disc ctrl, then make them reference. Save some time!

Moving on to the next Rigging class - AFR!

I have finally finished the rigging tutorial on Digital Tutor a few days ago.  It is a real good beginner video like I said in earlier post.  But I feel the rig that I have used in the professional world can do more than that.

So I did some research on what I should look into next.  I found this book being recommended by a lot of artists out there, "Body Language : Advanced 3D Character Rigging" , also the series of video AFR(Animator Friendly Rigging ) by Jason Schleifer.

By Eric Allen & Kelly L Murdock

AFR by Jason Schleifer

After reading about Jason Schleifer's About section on his website. I decided to go for AFR first.  He started out in Alias talking and promoting MAYA, and moved on to Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and by the end , he's already a lead animator.  Then he moved back to US and works in PDI Dreamwork (still my dream studio, I would read AFR for this), and he will be the head of character animation in the new film coming out in 2014.  I can only say, Damn that's cool.

AFR next!

Animation Reels

For 2012 Dragon year, my updated reels!
my animation reel,



my Character animation reel,



Last but not least, my game animation reel!

Attaching Buttons on Jacket? 4 ways to do it.

The rivet tool is very useful when attaching buttons on jackets as we saw in the tutorial.  Delano used a classic rivet tool in his course.

Since I have MAYA 2011, it comes with a new tool called Point on Poly constraint.  I was excited to try it out.  Too bad it doesn't do a nice job on keeping the orientation of my object.

As I was searching around, I found 3 tools that serve the same purpose, classic rivet tool, djx rivet tool, and surface attach tool.

So now we have 4 tools that does the same thing!  The question is which one is better.


djRivet tool : use follicles, can do multiple button constraints at once,  with good  UV layout, smoothing the poly is fine.  No need to select components, just select the buttons first, and the jacket, then type hit your shelf button.

rivet tool*1 : use locator, can only do on constraint at a time, has problem after smooth polygon.  select a component, create locator where the component is, parent constraint.

surface attach tool*2:  Feels like the rivet tool, also make a locator on the target object.  Constrain one at a time.  After poly smooth, go select cMuscleSurfAttach node, press fix button.

Point on Poly tool : create problem like above, don't like.


1*."the classic rivet script uses two edges of a mesh to create two curves, which then are lofted together, the resulting NURB is read with a pointOnSurfaceInfo and the parameter UV coords from said node define the position of a locator. He uses the pointOnSurfaceInfo node, along with a modified aim constraint, to achieve proper orientation for the locator so that it follows the orientation of the mesh face."

2*.  Its under animation tab, muscle, bonus rigging , surface attach.  If you can't see muscle menu, check if your muscle plug-in is loaded through plug-in manager.

IK handle offsetting and show all input window error

Problem 1. unwanted IK handle offsetting

When rigging the arm with IK, MAYA generate an IK handle and an effector.  Before you move the effector, make sure that the IK handle's attributes are not modified or locked, and IK handle are not grouped under any other nodes, otherwise when you attempt to move the effector, it will seem like it is locked in space, and the joint will start to offset.

Problem 2.  "All input" window is not showing, maya giving "Error: Object `row 1` not found"

This has to do with the layer that the mesh is sitting on.  Delete the layer, and save the file, reopen, problem solved.

Problem 3. change the order of attributes in MAYA

Sadly, this function is still not in the basic package of MAYA 2011.  This problem dated back in 2003(first question found on the internet).  Luckily we have a script made by comet.  It was developed for MAYA 5, but with a little tweak, it works perfectly in 2011.

This is what you have to do.
1. go download comet attribute editor. http://www.comet-cartoons.com/melscript.php
2. put the script in your script folder, in my case, C:\Users\antarlian\Documents\maya\2011\scripts
3. open it in MAYA script editor(or any other text editor), go to the end of the script, replace the cAE dropToBottom procedure to :

global proc cAE_dropToBottom(string $obj, string $attr)
{
  // renameAttr ($obj+"."+$attr) ($attr+"TEMPREN") ; // there
    // renameAttr ($obj+"."+$attr+"TEMPREN") ($attr) ; // and back again
    deleteAttr -attribute $attr $obj;
    Undo;
}

in Maya 2011, renaming an attr doesn't change the order of the attr anymore, that's why it won't work.  But if we delete the attr first, then undo, the attr will pop up at the end of the attr list.

4. run the script,  cometAttrEditor();

MAYA puppetry Rigging

Recently I got into learning how to rig.  I have always felt it is a very useful skill, but have assumed it is way too technical for me.  Who knows, I might enjoy it after all.  Especially right now there's no deadline pressure, always a happy experience to learn new things when there's no deadline involved.

So it begins. I have started going through Digital Tutor videos and found one I think it's a good starting video, Cartoon Character Rigging.  The instructor is Delano Athias.  He did his best to make the whole learning experience fun.  I appreciate that.  Good beginner video to get your feet wet.

For more thorough understanding of rigging, I will probably have find another course to take.

I am going to post the problems I have run into and the answer to the questions up here.  Hopefully soon I will be able to use my own rig to animate. :D

Film history project.

I have this problem chatting with my american friends.  I can understand every word they are saying, but I can't get the joke!

To me, language is much simpler than culture.  A lot of these jokes come from the movies that were popular before I am here.  So I got this idea of going through all time favorite films in US, or in film history.  Maybe by the end of this project, I will be able to understand more of my friends' jokes, also be able to use these films for my own animation reference.

This is already day 3 into my film history project.

I have watched Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino on day 1.  I now understand the reason a few years back my friend Cory made a huge deal when he got his bad mother f****r wallet.  I imagine this film is very innovative when it first came out.  The non-linear story structure still hooked me in after many years. And Uma Thurman is hot~~

Day 2, I watched The 400 Blows by François Truffaut, the defining film for the french new wave, a new way of telling story in a non linear form.  Directors have become the author of the story.  Yup, a lot of directors nowadays are influenced by this movement,  such as Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar-wai.  Also last month when I was in Pixar master class, this film was mentioned for its acting.  A lot of the lines are improvised.  I guess that's one reason why it looked natural.  This movie is a character study film.  Later on Francois Truffaut made more films about this character, how he grew up, how he fell in love, got married.  I watched it on a rainy day, good mood setting, lol.

Today's menu~ Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.

Trip to LA

This past month I was in LA working.  The weather there is beautiful!  Now back in NY, these drizzling days make me miss LA's sunshine even more...

A lot of thanks goes to my good friend Dony on this trip.  He made this thing possible!  Met me the first night for dinner.  Took me and the ppl in the studio to ramen every friday.  Introduced me to his friends.

I was living on Sawtelle and Santa Monica, sharing a place with my awesome roommate, Chris.  He offered to pick me up from the airport.  He seemed very nervous with a stranger in his car.  But he's still very considerate, asked me if I had lunch or not.  We went to In-And-Out burger for lunch!  LOL  Right off the plane I got a taste of LA, nice!  I met his girlfriend, had dinner with his friends, met his twin brother, met his parents, met his dog.  Haha, I missed you all.  Before I left, Chris bought me a goodbye dinner with his gf and friends.  All you can eat Korean bbq, meat lovers heaven!  Thinking about it now makes me really hungry haha.

Roger's friend Ed lent me his awesome electric bike, my yellow iron horse lol.  This babe took me around LA most of the time.  I love her.  I rode all the way to the beach, 30 minutes on electric.  I got lost mid way and went inside a gas station to ask for a map.  The guy was nice enough to point out the direction, saved me the money to buy a map.  He started flirting with me in the end,  "it's so far, u are going to get exhausted, how about I take you there? "  LOL, my bike is electric, I am sure I can get there without a drop of sweat.  Ed and his wife Debbi took me out for dinner several times. Tofuya, Brazilian cafe.  Yum!

Shawn is another guy I need to say thank you million times.  Regardless how far he lives from Santa Monica, he picked me up every weekend, and showed me around LA.  It was really fun hanging out with him.  We caught up a lot of things. Blizzard, Night market stinky tofu, Indian beer house with hot waitresses, Optimus Prime's footprint on the wall of Observatory (lol), Kodak Theater, Venice Canal,  Balbo Island with 5 million dollar houses.  I regret I didn't bring a camera..T_T

Jan is another guy I have to say thanks.  He made this working experience really fun.  He's also the one that I ask for places to go.  I really enjoy working and chatting with him.

All other friends I met, Mark, Joe, Jean, Michelle, Thanks!  Hopefully I would have the chance to work with you guys again in the future.

Because all the ppl I mentioned above, LA is so awesome.

another painting. Pin up girl

This definitely got out of control when I finished sketching her.  The painting got more and more interesting to me to a point that I feel if i don't finish it, it is a shame.  

so here it is, 

painting. CLOWN

Draping is so hard to paint!  I remember since I was a kid, I hated painting draping.  In elementary school six grade, I took Beauty and the Beast poster and copied it.   I remember how tired and frustrated I was when I got to Belle's dress. I guess this is still the same for me.  lol, I never really know how to paint draping.

I forgot to post the most recent JUMP!

so , I never posted the final version of my jump over the gap.  But it was done a while ago!

and one little note here, I haven't change the shoulder when he's in the air. need to do that.

here it is,

Lifting Weight!!

Yay! I have my models and props ready now! Now the fun part! Animate!

Here's how it looks like,

Heavy Lifting!

Lifting weight that is!
I thought I had an awesome idea in the beginning, but after a few days test, I think I have to abandon that idea.  It focuses way too much on acting that's not weight lifting.  It will look cool, but doesn't serve my purpose.

Luckily, I have another idea in my mind.  Excited.  Have to test it out too.  But I have a feeling this is going to work way better than the first idea.  Fingers cross!

So many things have happened recently.

Globally or personally.

Feeling weak about moving on with my animation...

Interview of Pixar President, Ed Catmull

Sunday in American Museum Of Natural History

I went to AMNH this past Sunday.  I was supposed to meet up with a group, but got there late and couldn't find anyone.  So I decided since I was already there, might as well start to draw!  

Animals. They are hard!!  Plus it was weekend, a lot of people and kids around, I couldn't get into the mood of drawing realistically.  So I just drew whatever please me at the moment, and ended up with these messed up drawings.  

As I was drawing my gemsbok, a little girl came over and looked at my sketch book.  She paused , and turned to the display window quickly, then turned to look at my sketch book again.  She ran off , and yell to her dad, "Daddy! what is she drawing?!"    Her dad said to her calmly, "We have to be respectful..." as they walked away slowly.  I wonder how her dad would think when he saw my sketch book...  "OOh! thats a Gemsbok being shot!"

Blocking is done!

First blocking of Tobe jumping is done! Yesss!  Now I can move on to the next stage!  :D
Comments? Suggestions? Very welcomed!

* so Roger just brought up this good point, he can't tell the width of the gap!  I am a bit concerned about that when I was blocking too...  Any idea to fix that?  I need the camera to stay still though...

Moving on! The Big Jump!

ok! so for the next fun project, I have two ideas.

First one, deadline will be on 2/13/2011.  That project would be for fun.  I can already see how the style for the project should be, but I haven't had a story for it yet.  That one will be in development for another few days over the christmas holidays.

Second one, The Jump!
Tobi is going to make his big leap over the gap! Hahaha, this is going to be fun!

This Christmas holiday is busy!

I will be doing research for my second idea these free days...Blocking should be pretty soon!