Introduction
Now I really started to do performance animation, I am very nervous, because this is to use the animation knowledge I learned this semester. I believe that I have made progress, but I do not know if I will encounter unsolvable problems in this blocking.
By the way, before doing animation, I have been learning Maya’s animation. I think it is particularly useful to understand Graph Editor to do animation. If you are interested, you can search for self-study on my blog. I made detailed notes in it.
Tips:
1. Make sure that the channels of some frames have been keyed, otherwise autokey may cause your character’s previous actions to also change.
2. Not every animation is 24 FPS probably is 30 FPS.
3. Don’t forget the controller that adjusts the knees of the legs. This is the controller that controls the direction of the knees.
Problems:
1. Do not import the image plane in perp, otherwise the attributes of the reference image cannot be changed.
2.At first the frame rate was wrong, my video was shot at 30 frames/s.
3. The hand cannot be fixed in one position.
4.The arm is always rotated excessively.
5. How to rotate the feet where I want.
Process
I first edited the clips I needed in Premiere and exported the video and audio (AIFF).
The next step is to set up my model, image plane, and audio in Maya. At first, I made a mistake. I imported movie in perp cam, so once I moved the camera, the image plane would move with it. After looking up the Internet, I knew that I had to load in the fixed view (front-z).
Secondly, after I imported the audio, I found that its playback speed was different from my reference video. After checking, I changed 24FPS to 30FPS.
A ground is very important, but I often accidentally select the ground plane, no matter how I lock the parameters, it is useless. Finally, I added and locked the plane in the layer panel, and the problem was solved. Of course, the model itself has been added to the layer. This is especially convenient for my subsequent animation because I can switch on and switch off at any time to check whether my model meets my reference.
The production process is complicated. Before this, I also knew that a dance requires a lot of details. This is also my hope that this assignment can improve my animation skill. But inevitably, I also encountered some troubles:
For example, the character’s hand cannot be fixed. In the video, he touched his knee to bend over, but in the case of Fk, once the character bends, the arm will move down, so I switched it to Ik, although Pop up, but this is better than using Fk to make my hands move.
Also, I do not know why the character’s legs are moving. I mentioned this in the previous blog. I just moved the position of the current frame, but the previous position has all changed. I had to keep ctrl+z back to the original position. After checking, I found that it was because I had not changed the value of translate before, which caused Maya to have no auto key. I translated the frame before the Key so that my legs will not move.
But the problem of the legs did not stop, the direction of the legs would suddenly change. But this answer is easy to find: this is because I forgot that I adjusted the legpole, which is a controller that controls the direction of the legs. I just need to adjust its value back.
There is a problem that I cannot solve until now, that is the rotation of the feet. The animation I want should be toe rotation, not heel rotation, but as soon as I adjust the position of the rotate tool, the animation of the entire foot will change. So, I can only use rotation and translation in the top view to make the feet look more like rotating along the toes. (But when I write this blog, I have solved it! Probably I can adjust the toe spin in foot controller.)
It may be a problem with this model. Ray does not have strong chest muscles like David, so his armpit muscles will be strange when I raise his hand. According to the previous feedback video, Luke adjusted the small foot controller, and I also adjusted it. It is not the main controller, so Ray’s body outline looks more natural.
The same situation also has the curvature of the buttocks. To make Ray look softer, I try to make the buttocks more curved.
Now it is time to make emotion. In fact, although expression is important in dance, it is not very obvious in my camera perspective. The difference between Ray and cowboy is that cowboy has clear control points to control the cheeks and cheekbones, but Ray does not, so I simply gave up the transition to modify the facial controllers. Mainly highlight the mouth shape.
Because it is too slow to watch directly in Maya, I can only use playblast to check whether the expression is qualified. Sometimes, my mouth opens too slowly, and it feels like my mouth is catching up with the lines. Also, I do not think Ray is not enough to Coquettish, I can make him more attractive because he dances like this. So, I added half-closed eyes and raised eyebrows, especially eyebrow raised, the effect is very good.
I made it based on two of my videos. In order to feel the changes in facial expressions, I put the mirror on the table.
At this time, I have not moved the position of my eyes, because I have not polished, the position of the head may change. Besides, now, some expressions do not look very natural, so I decided to spline and polish my animation first.
Conclusion
Blocking took me a long time, but I am glad that I can solve some problems by myself. At the same time, the mistakes I made before can now be avoided. However, I did not carefully adjust some actions in blocking, so I am worried that I will spend more time in polish.