projectblog

Re-rigging Anna!

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:13:54 +0100

So I'm re-rigging Anna !
Using abAutoRig 3.3 and also doing facial rigs.

And so Ian helped me to go about the rigging in 3D2 on the annav2 - and that is made up of the meshes that I exported from anna.mb as objs. But alas, I realize that I should have used the original anna.mb, as I still want to keep the blendshapes. I should have simply detach the skin(s) from the original skeleton, and go from there, thereby retaining the blendshapes.

So what I do now is:
Import anna.mb into annav2, detach anna from the old skeleton, then copy weights from annav2 to anna. This is my annav3, :-) In this way, I will have the blendshapes of anna, and the painted weights WIP from Ian's 3D2 session.

0. annav3 - is annav2 with anna.mb imported.

1. detach skin, char, eyes, dress from the anna.mb skeleton - now the mesh shift back to the original unbounded pose (which is the same as the meshes duplicated for the Blendshapes)

2. now bind to the new skeleton (which is from annav3)
(i leave annav3 bounded as well to the new skeleton)

3. also i need to add influence on the 7 joints that had been bounded on v2 (so that the when copied will be the same as annav2). <-- do this first before copy weights since the weights were also based on these influences.

The seven joints are:
LUpperEyeLids_1_joint
LLowerEyeLids_1_joint
L_Cheek_Bone_2_joint
L_Cheek_Bone3_joint
UpperLips_5_joint
LowerLips_2_joint
LowerLips_1_joint

4. now I copy skin weights - i tried the default copy (by spatial) but it isn't ideal -checked the jaw control deformation is not OK; so should copy skin weights by UV (also Bashir said on 26/3/12 during the rigging workshop that since mesh has moved should copy by UV) and it works - tried in class. phew!

As I'm rigging there are various things I find useful to record here:

1. paint weight - select the joint by right clicking on the joint, then "select influence"

2. copy weights - select the mesh to copy from then shift select the target mesh, and Skin>Edit Smooth Skin>Copy Skin Weights. I find the information from [1] to be really useful - see pp. 421, 455.

Useful References:
1. Learning Autodesk Maya 2008 The Modeling and Animation Handbook

The Man who Planted Trees

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:06:50 +0100

I was so excited when I got the DVDs of The Man Who Planted Trees from inter library loan. Despite having a pressing assignment deadline, I just have to watch it.

It is so so so incredibly beautiful - Frederick Back's work is just so beautiful that I was so mesmerized, and so inspired. The story - is also so beautiful only Frederick Back could have been able to produce the animation for it....

I really love hand drawn animation ... it has such charm and beauty that i find kind of missing in 3D....

Cutout !

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:43:42 +0100

So here's my first cutout, all ready to animate.

And this afternoon, I've finally gotten a taste of cutout animation (putting it under the Oxberry camera).
No mean feat, but loads of fun.

Strange for one having relied so much on a computer, but now, a refreshing change of using scissors, pencil, paper and loads of imagination. I love it!

Hmmm....
Starting from frame 130
Frames 130-177 for Title (24 frames) and first shot (24 frames) - EWS that shows the tree, girl on swing (Anna?), butterfly.
Frames 178-207 - zoom in to full shot (haha, just rapid clicking of the exposure button until it reaches the desired zoomed in position). I really don't know how I should do the zooming.... anyway, just by gut feel...
Frames 208-310 - Animate ! Girl on Swing, squirrel climbing up the tree and jumps onto swing, butterfly fluttering, girl gets down goes to the flowers and exit frame.
Frames 311-358 - freeze last frame for 2 seconds (24 X 2 frames)

(And yes, I made a mistake in between, forgot to put down the glass panel, and clicked expose. Damm! No undo... )

In total - 228 frames (9.5 seconds)

How will it turn out? I'm so eager to see it! Haha, unlike Maya, I can't tell till the film is developed, hopefully week after next?

Oh yes, I call it "Childhood" -- memory of actually! Always such happy memories....

Now, I can't wait to get my hands on Claymation! Next!

Sleeping Child

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:39:05 +0100

This is the first pose of Anna that I did - so serene, a sleeping child.
It reminds me of this song - Sleeping Child. My all time favorite! :-)

So serene, a sleeping pose

Sleeping Child -- Michael Learns to Rock

The Milky Way upon the heaven is twinkling just for you
And Mr. Moon he came by to say goodnight to you
I'll sing for you, I'll sing for mother, we're praying for the world
And for the people everywhere gonna show them all we care

Chorus:
Oh my sleeping child, the world's so wild but you've built your own paradise
That's one reason why I'll cover you sleeping child
If all the people around the world, they had a mind like yours
We'd have no fighting and no wars, there would be lasting peace on earth
If all the kings and all the leaders, could see you here this way
They would hold the earth in their arms, they would learn to watch you play

[Chorus]

(Cover my child) I'm gonna cover my sleeping child (Keep you away) keep you away from the world so wild
Keep you away from the world, away from the world so wild

It's Beautiful, It's Magic!

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:19:01 +0100

Frantically and flustered, I rushed to COFA. Will my white hard disk with all my precious backups of my various work and sound resources still be at general access lab F104? It was the afternoon of Saturday 28 Nov, and COFA Annual was coming to a close on Sunday. I didn't plan to go to COFA.

"Hi, excuse me, I err, had my hard disk on this Mac", I said to a lady who was working on the Mac which I left my hard disk plugged in the day before. She smiled and pointed to a hard disk on the desk. "Oh thanks! Thanks a lot!" It was such a great relief. I went to a Mac and logged on, and funnily, I saw a thumb drive with a key chain bearing the name "ANNA" on it plugged into this Mac. Someone also forgot her thumb drive! Anna? I wrote her an email to let her know she left her thumb drive behind, and that I would keep it for her in case it got lost. " ... I'll be at COFA on Monday to take down my work at COFA Annual -- it is called 'Anna's World' at F106."

So since I was in COFA, I went to F106 to look at other students' work. As I was looking at Cosmin Hrincu's portfolio, a kind looking gentleman walked in and headed straight for Anna's World. He said to his family (a lady with her daughter), "I like this one". I was touched! I couldn't help stealing a glance in their direction, while they were intently watching Anna's World. "Is this your work?" they asked when they saw me smiling, and I said "Yes". "It's based on Mister God, This is Anna?", asked the nice and friendly lady. "Yes, have you heard of it?" And the kind gentleman nodded. "We also have an interactive one - for iCinema", I said enthusiastically to them, "Please take a seat here... you see, I'd tried to put this as a Web version... actually it runs in iCinema... we just had a screening on Thursday, and I am trying to request another screening next week for someone I really want to show it to... well, if it comes through, it would be really nice to invite you to see it too!" They smiled, and their genuine interest and enthusiasm sent a warmth to my heart. The gentleman said to me, "I came here on opening night and I like this. It's beautiful." "We have one of your bookmarks", the lady added, smiling. And they said encouragingly, "keep up your beautiful work!"

Anna's World bookmark

It was quite a bit of work to get Anna's World iCinema version to work on the Web (working till the wee hours of the morning to find a way to put in cameras so the user could still navigate around Anna's World, putting in the sound for non-AVIE version, improving various aspects including collision handling, floor boundary, closing the house door, daisies in shader, adding a title and instruction, testing the VMO...) and getting help from CSU to install windows on Mac (it didn't work well on Mac OS X). But it's all worth it! I'm really glad I could bring Anna's World iCinema to COFA Annual! :-)

Little Sarah, looking pretty in her beautiful frilly white dress, covered both her ears with her hands. Sitting in the front row of EG02 with Esther and Daniel, she watched Anna's world turned topsy-turvy in red amidst loud gust of wind. I couldn't help smiling whenever she does that. She has seen Anna's World couple of times in the studio CG09, so she knows what to expect. And when Anna says "Last piece, violet", Sarah turned to me and said, "The spell is broken!" I looked at Daniel and we both smiled. It was really nice to see the kids at COFA Annual opening night on Tuesday 24 November. It would have been great if their parents were there too to hear their voices - as Anna and Jaws!

"Anna is beautiful!" Professor Trevor said to me, with a warm smile. I was so delighted. Everything becomes so worth while! Despite his very busy schedule, Professor and Carmen, together with Patrick and Vivien, came to see Anna's World on opening night.

You see, one has to see Anna's World with the heart.

Sarah said, "the spell is broken!"... Sarah covered her ears .....

The Art of Doing Nothing

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:58:44 +0100

stand animation....
.. to do...

SVN on Mac OS X (Using SCPlugin)

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:57:11 +0100

Just thought of putting this which I posted on iCinema wiki on Oct 25 for my reference ...

Tortoise SVN on Windows is a breeze, but with Mac, it is not that easy.
I spent the thu before AVIE trying to get SVN client - SCPlugin, to work on my Mac Pro (Mac OS X 1.5x), and it kept showing it is an outdated version 1.4.x.
I decided today to give it a go again - and hmm, ok, perhaps I should download the i386 one that is a later version 1.6.2.

And now I spent the whole afternoon trying to SCPlugin to work because it kept showing "issuer is not trusted" - so is it because it is a self-signed cert? hmmm...

The good news is, finally I got it working and thought to share with anyone who needs to do the same.

So here's what I did:

Download SCPlugin at http://scplugin.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList - the one I downloaded is: http://scplugin.tigris.org/files/documents/1368/45959/SCPlugin-0.7.3q-SVN.1.6.2.dmg
Uninstall the previous version (remove these: /Library/Contextual Menu Items/SCFinderPlugin.plugin and /Library/Receipts/SCPlugin.pkg and log out or restart)
Install the new version on my Mac
The SVN contextual menu appears on Finder similar to Tortoise SVN -- cool!
But...when I tried checkout, it complained that scplugin issuer is not trusted (for https://edwards.cse.unsw.edu.au/svn/icinema-studio)
After googling around I saw these this: http://www.virgiliofavero.com/2009/07/29/scplugin-problem-with-certificate/ and following it - it works!

Note: Earlier I tried this http://www.nabble.com/Avoiding-%22Server-certificate-verification-failed%22-td17263413.html; i.e. exporting the certs and putting cert.pem into open SSL directory, but it didn't work -- 'cos I reckon the icinema-studio svn cert could have been self-signed... therefore (6) could work. Ok, give it a go !!

What I did to get it to work: (details on point 6)

Last login: Tue Aug 4 23:33:35 on console
$ /Library/Contextual\ Menu\ Items/SCFinderPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/SCPluginUIDaemon.app/Contents/bin/svn ls https://edwards.cse.unsw.edu.au/svn/icinema-studio
Error validating server certificate for 'https://edwards.cse.unsw.edu.au:443':
- The certificate is not issued by a trusted authority. Use the
fingerprint to validate the certificate manually!
Certificate information:
- Hostname: edwards.cse.unsw.edu.au
- Valid: from Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:11:40 GMT until Thu, 25 Jul 2019 22:11:40 GMT
- Issuer: iCinema, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, AU
- Fingerprint: 97:50:81:82:78:03:ba:66:e9:18:66:15:19:a3:20:2e:82:4a:44:b4
(R)eject, accept (t)emporarily or accept (p)ermanently? p <== type p
Authentication realm: <https://edwards.cse.unsw.edu.au:443> iCinema Studio Repository
Password for 'shu': <== enter your Mac password
Authentication realm: <https://edwards.cse.unsw.edu.au:443> iCinema Studio Repository
Username: <== enter SVN username
Password for '<SVN username>': <== enter SVN password
Projects/
Tutorials/

Viola! It works!!! :-)
Oops, gotta go back to doing my project2 (sigh...no free computer in fbe yesterday ... hope can find one tonight!)

It's the Shots!

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:17:07 +0100

I really love to do the animation. And playing with interesting camera angles is fun!

"I'll add one where we shoot from underneath the spinning magical papers!" so I said to Simon excitedly, "a low angle shot." That became shot 34b - and with 37, 38, 39, I was done with key poses. 4 shots in one day on October 16 - the Friday of week 12!

So here, I've Anna looking bewildered by the spinning paper - one of my favorite shots.

Anna and Jaws looking at Spinning Papers

Jaws Jumps up excitedly towards Papers

The "Rule of the Thirds" is really useful -- my favorite technique. I always try to put that into practice by putting points of focus and interest into the areas of thirds... It does indeed make the shots more interesting and effective. And yes, not forgetting of avoidance of "crossing the line".

And the other shot I've so much fun doing is Jaws jumping on the tree branch to dislodge the violet paper. I fussed around quite a bit with where the paper should be and how it should be dislodged. And also finding interesting camera angle. This time it is high angle looking from above the branch. I can't help laughing doing this shot, making Jaws jump with gusto -- and the tree branch springs up when Jaws is in the air, and down when Jaws lands on it. I really like the result of it ... it looks believable!

Jaws dislodging violet paper with Anna looking up

For Sarah

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:57:47 +0100

"Dear Shu, I hope you can finish Anna well." -- little Sarah, who just turned five on the second voice recording.

"Sarah asked to write this message and she recited it, Joy is not wrong about her texting" -- text sent by Esther on 31 Oct.

"I want to see the movie!", said Sarah excitedly in CG09 on the first recording on 13 Oct. "You gotta text her!" Joy urged Sarah.

So I guess, how could I disappoint Sarah? And seven-year old Daniel too! "Anna World" is their movie!

"How did Jaws get up the tree?" asked inquisitive Daniel, "And why doesn't looking through Blue turn the red patches Violet?"

With Tony's help, we were in good hands. CG09 was all ready for the kids to do voice-over -- Sarah becomes Anna, and Daniel, Jaws. The mic was lowered to Sarah's height, and the kids excitedly went into the sound-proof "booth", with Joy coaching Sarah patiently, "say Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, then say Violet?"

Daniel tickled Sarah so she could laugh. And we all laughed. "shhh.... we only want Sarah's laughter, Ok?'

"Jaws is up on the tree, so you say 'Jump Jaws, Jump!', Ok?" Joy explained to Sarah.. and then "huh? hmm... Rainbow! You can talk Jaws, You can talk...."

But how do you cry? So we went to YouTube and looked at how Boo in Monster Inc cries. And Sarah, so naturally, cries.

"When is my turn?", asked Daniel. Hmmm... how does Jaws "talk"? "What do I say?", Daniel looked at me. In fact, I don't know how Jaws should talk. So I told Daniel, "Err, just say 'oh oh, ee ee, ah ah, oo oo, umm umm umm, ah, ee ee ee....hmmm, huh...'"

Sarah and Daniel are just amazing! Superb. I simply love their voices, and them! Their excitement, their joy, and enthusiasm becomes my motivation to do the sound, and the movie, well.

... to be continued....

on sound ... recording ... design... foley...

Anna's World

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:31:41 +0100

Anna's World is a whimsical world of magic!

In my mind's eye, I could almost see it even as we were building it. It's not just the environment, it's also the sound, sights and experience that we wanted to build. Yes, the sound. Little Sarah and Daniel will be thrilled to hear their voices!

"I'll be putting in a lens flare!" so said Simon over the phone. "Cool!"

Anna's World - a whimsical world of magic!

"It's going to be really so beautiful and magical!" so I said to Simon, happily seeing the daisy turns from white to red and pink with the Daisy Glows script that uses the Interpolator BB.

Anna: "Daisy!" and the daisy turns from white to red to pink

Meanwhile Simon was working out his sophisticated Night2Day script. "I like your night ambience, really so nice and the fire flies..." I said to him. The fire flies make it so magical!

Fire flies everywhere!

With the house[1] re-UVed, re-textured and imported into Virtools, and the door open animation tested, we were ready to combine our work. My scripts were exported from my working composition, and imported into Simon's composition, and renamed as AnnasWorld. It was quite a bit of rework in merging, but I was thankful at least the scripts can be exported as nms and imported into the merged composition. I suppose there might have been a more efficient way of merging compositions...

I couldn't wait to get my hands on playing with emmiters - I wanted to put fire on the log in the house. So I took a look at ......

I really enjoy doing Anna's World. I'm always so happy to see little Anna, walking around looking at various interesting things -- "Jaws, daisy, door, rainbow, butterfly ....", thanks to the Anna Look script by Matt. I love it! And when Anna comes close to Jaws, she would say softly, "Jaws", and Jaws would wave to her and say "Oh oh!", followed by Anna's amused laughter.

Anna:"Jaws" and Jaws waves to Anna: "Oh oh!"

References & Attributions
1. House is taken from Learning Autodesk Maya 2008 Foundation (04-animationBasics_01.ma)

... to be continued....