Blogpost 8: Week 4 - Exercise 1 - Scripting in Maya

Scripting in Maya allows the user to use scripts to do different functions and tasks in Maya. The functions could be seen on this site: "http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/Maya2012_Getting_Started/index.html". There are two different scripting languages used in Maya. MEL (Maya Embedded Language) and Python. Python is a new scripting language that has just been introduced into Maya, which means that the majority of the scripts are still accessed through MEL. To know more of Python, the website reference is, "http://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/".

In Lesson 1 of the entire chapter, I was introduced to the basics of MEL scripting, eg. MEL command lines and script editors. By using MEL scripting, I was able to create polygons onto the stage without needing to use the interface provided by Maya. With the help of the script editor, I was able to enter in codes and creating polygons with different heights and positioning them into different x,y,z axis of the stage. Even renaming the polygons' name could be done through the script.

Adding different polygons onto the stage by using script editors.

I found out that the Script Editor is a really useful tool especially when I want to have a look at the entire history of tools and changes that I've made in my animation. All the values and positions could be seen as long as I know how to read the MEL scripts. 

Not just positioning the polygons, the polygons could be moved by using codes in MEL scripting such as, "move -r -5 0 0;". As well as removing objects from the stage by the command, "delete;". This would sum up Lesson 1.

Lesson 2

In lesson 2, I'm tasked to screenshot a lit and rendered cube with the properties of, Width = 2, Height = 2, Depth = 3. First, creating a polycube by using codes. "polyCube;" is the code to creating a cube in the stage. Then editing the different properties by the following three commands, "polyCube -edit - height 2;", "polyCube -edit -width 2;", and "polyCube -edit -depth 2;"

Next, I'm tasked to insert a directional light using codes, and through that, renaming it to main_light, setting attributes for it as well. All these could be achieved simply by scripting, hence, with the knowledge of scripting, an animator could execute fast commands through the script editor.

Adding in directional lights and setting its resolution through scripting

Re-positioning of the directional lights and controlling its intensity with the following codes

This is the rendered image for Lesson 2. By the use of directional lights and shadows using the MEL scripting language, such images could be modeled and made in Maya.

In the Lesson 3, I will be handling with a barrel, learning how to make use of the script to show a rolling barrel animation. Through Autodesk Maya tutorials, I will learning how to use codes to rotate anything that could be found the stage, learning that MEL Script Editor could recognize most programming languages.

First, rotating the barrel with the following codes, "rotate -r 0 0 90;". This allows the barrel to be rotated in 90 degrees of its z-axis. Further into the tutorials, I found out that MEL also supports other data types that are common to most other programming languages. A testing can be made to show this.

Rotating the barrel to 90 degrees in the z axis

The Script Editor could recognize most of the programming languages

In the above image, the output of the Script Editor shows, "this is a test" at the bottom right of the screen. Also, variables can be declared and assigned a value in the same statement.

To declare an int variable, type in the following codes of, "int $testInt = 5; print ($testInt/2);". The output should display the number of, "2", as seen in the image below.

Declaring an integer variable in the Script Editor and an output of ,"2" can be seen in the output portion.

With the knowledge of this, we are ready to start with animating the rolling barrel. With the codes given,"duplicate; move -r 0 0 $diameter_barrel;", the barrels will be duplicated and aligned side by side with each other. The variable of $diameter_barrel is declared previously in the starting of the tutorial, allowing the scripting to recognize it and re-position the barrels side by side to each diameter of the barrel being duplicated. This can be seen in the image shown below:

Duplicating the barrels in the first row with the used of the declared variable previously made in the starting part of the tutorial, known  as $diameter_barrel.

With that, the first row of barrel is completed. To stack the barrels in a triangular arrangement by duplicating the existing row in both X and Y, a little part of trigonometry is needed. The following is the reference provided by Autodesk Maya from the website: http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/Maya2012_Getting_Started/index.html.

Explanation of triangles given by Autodesk Maya through basic trigonometry.

This diagram aids in the stacking and positioning of the barrels using basic mathematical functions and degree to radian conversions that could be executed in MEL scripting.

With reference to the above images, we could declare a new variable to store the value of the Y offset by typing the following: "float $Y_offset;". Also, by using some mathematical functions, with the following sentence: "$Y_offset = $diameter_barrel * (sin(deg_to_rad(60)));" Extracted from the website:"The assignment operator evaluates the right and side of the expression and assigns it to the left hand side. The degree to radian conversion function is the first to be evaluated, as it is within the most interior set of brackets. The sine function calculates the sine of the angle given in radians. The sine value is multiplied by the diameter to calculate the Y offset. The variable is assigned the calculated value." A notice that has been given from Autodesk Maya would help deeper understand with the following functions, "The variable $diameter_barrel does not change in value. Only the variable on the left side of an assignment operator changes in value."

Conversion done through MEL scripting from degree to radians. The result is being highlighted in the image above.

To Stack the rows of barrels

When stacking the barrels, the using of the $Y_offset would really help a lot since the values were already placed into the variable, done in the previous step.

With the help of the variable $Y_offset, the barrels could be positioned easily.

To Add Rigid Body Nodes to the Barrels using MEL 

In this step, we will be adding "weight" to the barrels through the use of MEL. Furthermore, the gravity of the stage could be declared with the dynamics of the animation being created.

With the following codes, dynamics of gravity will be added into the animation.

To Create a Plane for the Barrels to stimulate against

To allow the barrels to be stimulated, we have to create a plane to allow them to stimulate against. Then selecting the plane to add rigid body nodes to it as well.

Adding a plane and rigid body nodes to it to allow the barrels to stimulate against it.

As result for the whole of Lesson 3, the following could be stimulated and seen in the playblast shown in the video below:

In the video shown above, we could see that the barrels falling against each other and took awhile before slowing down until a complete stop, something that's really interesting done through MEL Scripting.

Through Lesson 3, I've learnt the importance of MEL Scripting even more, knowing that it could help adding dynamics such as gravity, as well as declaring variables and the calculation of mathematical functions to be used in animations. They are really important and I've learnt so much in just through the whole of Lesson 3.


For Lesson 4, I'll learning the basic codes to create windows and user interfaces in Maya through a built-in Maya procedure. In the first exercise, I'm given the codes to enter into the Script Editor, creating a window, showing it too at the same time. The example can be seen below.

Creating a window in Maya

Next, with the following codes of, "window -resizeToFitChildren 1 testWindow; columnLayout;" , a window with the title, "testwindow", can be created and shown after entering them.

Creating a window with the title: "testwindow". 

Further into the exercise, I'm taught with the codes of creating windows but not showing it out in the user interface. And also creating windows to delete away the previous window. In reference with the image below,  2 concepts are taught by Maya (extracted from http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/Maya2012_Getting_Started/index.html):
1) The if statement allows a certain part of code to execute depending on a condition. The section of code within the curly braces only executes if the statement inside the parentheses evaluates to true.

2) The paired back-ticks within the parentheses (' ') indicate that the commands within them are evaluated first. This is a useful part of writing MEL code: you can make certain commands (here, the conditional statement) dependent on other commands (here, the evaluation of whether the window exists), which execute and evaluate first.

"if" statement used in MEL to delete away existing windows. Explanation of the codes can be seen above and below the image.

Together, the if statement and the evaluation mean that only if the result of the window existence query is "1" (the window exists) is the window deleted. Otherwise, the section of code within the curly braces is skipped.
These concepts are really important and as of creating windows, I have to continuously keep track of the windows that are created and which ones should be deleted as Maya will not inform if the window does no exists or such, due to Maya skipping that section of code that does not "exist".

Buttons to store variables can be created too through MEL Scripting. The following shows the codes and how they are able to create a window with buttons.

Creating windows with buttons to store variables

Procedures are a set of instructions that allows the user to separate a section of the script and reuse whenever needed. The following example shows how the makeroll procedure can be made with the help of a polyCube. A makeroll procedure can be made by typing in the following: "makeRoll roll_Cube 0 1 1 0;"

makeRoll procedure being executed to the polyCube, making the cube roll when being moved and when the frame is set more than 2

Time to time we'll see files called Maya Script files. Problem is, we have to learn how to actually load them into Maya. To do this, go to File > Load Script in the Script Editor. When loaded, you should be able to see the script in the Script Editor in the MEL bottom column. The use of this helps to load User Interface windows saved in a script. You can see the example below:

Script loaded into the Script Editor

When the script is loaded, this window will appear, which has been created by the script.

These created buttons does not do anything even when clicked or slid. In the following examples, would show how the user interface would be linked to the buttons so that they can be used, and also saving the interface for future use.

This is the user interface created after going through Lesson 4, really tedious process and requires lots of understanding.

This line of code will help to save the user interface for future use.

After going through Lesson 4, I felt that Autodesk Maya is a very flexible program that allows the animator to create user interface windows and change every detail and parts of Maya just by the use of MEL Scripting. With the help of MEL Scripting, I find Autodesk Maya being a very customizable, allowing it to change to the liking of how the animator wants it to be. Learning this really do help and gives me deeper understanding of Autodesk Maya.

Blogpost 7: Week 2 - Exercise 1B & 2 - Blocking with Sound Files and Animation

For exercise 1B, I was assigned to choose a sound file from several given ones to act as a video reference, and blocking them out as well. Similar to the previous exercise, a full body video was taken to show the entire body movement, including the facial expressions. Exaggerating the actions to make it as detailed as possible to be seen in the video, I took a few retakes before finally confirming on one video to work on with. I chose the sound of "Harry Potter: You Dare", with the sound of one of the characters in the movie, Snape. I'm tasked to act out the audio file as Severus Snape in Harry Potter the movie. The video is shown below:

Video on acting out Severus Snape saying, "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?", to Harry Potter (camera).

There are some errors that I have to admit that I've committed. My lip sync wasn't really in sync together with the given sound file and my last action was a bit to exaggerated. Still, the overall idea was there and the poses were detailed enough for me to use them as a video reference for my blocking exercise. The sentence that was heard in the audio file was by the famous Severus Snape talking to Harry Potter, saying," You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?" With that, I tried many different ways to show the emotions and weights in this sentence, also according to the real acting seen in Harry Potter the movie.

Similar to the previous exercise, I've taken screen shots of the entire video, blocking my actions that can be used in animation. This is the starting position.

 My arms started to move as I turned, as if looking at Harry Potter saying, "You ...". Body is slightly slanted as well as the script went on.

 As my body continued to turn, my arms raised higher, directing at the camera as if Harry Potter was standing there. At this point, the audio file reached, "You dare ... ".

 Secondary actions could be seen here as my legs moved together with my body as I turned face to face with the camera. The audio file had reached, "You dare use ...".

Using my arms to help in the acting of the audio file, I was having the mindset of Severus Snape's slow and evil talking style, with his movements always swaying, and fast at times when he's agitated. My leg lifts off the ground as I started walking towards the camera. Body leaning towards the stationary foot. Audio file: "You dare use my ...".

At this point, my entire body is facing straight up with the camera, as my hand continued to move but slowly moving downwards, together with my leg stepping forward towards the camera. Audio File, "You dare use my own ...".

In this block, my head is facing up in the air, but my eyes still locked at the camera, giving some anticipation in the sentence/words that are going to be said after. Audio File: "You dare use my own spells ..."

In this image, my face slants sideways while talking to show a questioning tone as the Snape asks the question. My leg came to a complete stop, having my body still moving forward towards the camera. My other feet is preparing to leave the ground as well. Audio File: "You dare use my own spells against ...".

Over in this scene, my hands are placed on my chest, indicating and stressing on the word "me" as the audio file continues to play on. Audio File: "You dare use my own spells against me ...". 

Audio File: "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?"

This is the very last scene of the entire audio file. Hands are opened wide, anticipating an answer from Harry Potter, and head tilted sideways as I asked the question, providing the mood to be there. My face is kept serious to show the coldness in the voice of Severus Snape. Body leaning to one side as Secondary Action is seen. I found out another mistake that I actually made in this blocking exercise. My right arm didn't really move much throughout the entire acting, except this last scene. It would better blocking if more body movements were made when videoing this, but I kept having the mindset of the movie itself, that Severus Snape isn't someone that moves much and talks with swaying body postures in a very weird and slow way.

After completing this exercise, I was assigned to continue on with Exercise 2. Exercise 2 is like a continuation of the blocking exercise in 1B. Given with all the blocking images of the audio file, "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?", I was tasked to block in all the key poses in Maya using a full body rig. Recommended by my friends, I decided to use the Norman Rig that could be obtained from this website: "http://www.11secondclub.com/resources". Norman Rig is a remarkable piece of model that has many controls, to the point that I had to search online and ask help on controlling the different parts of him. The guide to Norman Rig could be seen on this site: "https://sites.google.com/site/normanrig/". Really appreciate the creators of Norman Rig to actually provide a full detailed information about the rig so that all the parts of Norman could be utilized effectively for my given assignment. After a few days of working in Maya, I completed the assignment that could be seen below:

Animation for Severus Snape saying,"You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?" to Harry Potter.

Although the task was to just block in the different key poses by using the video reference and image that I've acted in the previous exercise, I decided to take one step further by animating the entire video with the imported audio file.

At first, it was really difficult as Norman Rig is quite a complex one to understand. There are so many controls that I spent quite awhile to understand and learn them. I began by looking at the images of me acting out the audio file, and slowly animating the model, body part by body part. After that, I shifted the poses to different keyframes so that the poses were aligned together with the audio file. Then, I started doing the tedious movement of his lips and jaw, lip syncing together with the audio file. I must admit, Norman Rig has really great controls for his mouth, that really display a good amount of different kinds of effects that I want to have. Then, the eyes and facial expressions were put into consideration, such as frowning faces and surprised moods that the audio file delivered. With the given great controls, I was quite pleased with my final result of my animation. Included tongue movements to match together with the words that ended with a L and eye blinks to make the animation more realistic. Though I must admit that I didn't really do much in the graph editor, just some minor changes here and there, I'll try to edit the animation as soon as time was on my side.

In conclusion for these exercises, I really enjoyed doing something that stacks on to help the other following assignment. It's like taking one step at a time and I'm actually completing something that I'm quite pleased about. Honestly, if it wasn't with the help of the video reference of myself acting, the animation would have been a dull and unsatisfied one. In the website of, "http://www.11secondclub.com/resources", there is a section where by people upload different videos of their animation, using the exact same rig, "Norman Rig". I was inspired by the animations that could be done with the exact same rig that I'm using. The different poses and how they match together with the sound, together with different camera views seen in Maya, their animation was plain awesome. Furthermore, with the knowledge of past exercises, I didn't really have much trouble with the animation except about understanding the controls found on the rig at first. This actually thought me a lesson as well, that I have to really understand my rig before I start animating it. Or else, I'll really miss out some important controls that I can utilize to make my animation into a much better one. Though really satisfied with it, I know there are still tons of room for improvement to go, and I'm willing to try and be better each and every time.

Blogpost 6: Week 2 - Exercise 1A - Blocking

In this exercise, I'm given the assignment to record down a video of me and my group mates, acting out a scene from 4 choices. Scenes are Dawn of the Dead, The Godfather, Planet of the Apes and Frankenstein. I've selected the scene The Godfather to block out my movements as I have an idea of how the key poses should be acted out like. The basic flow of the scene is, A leans backwards and swings forward to hit the jaw of B. B groans, holding his jaw at the same time and slowly spins and falls to the ground. In the following scene, I'll be acting as B.

This is the entire video of the scene. If the contact of the fist and my face was closer it would create a better blocking pose. But I was able to capture the different poses of the entire scene, which would be beneficial for animating with this references from the video. 

This is the starting stance of me (left) and my classmate Tai Heng (right). Providing anticipation in animation terms, together with the emotion of anger and disagreement between each other.

Tai Heng lifts his fist straight towards my face, creating a leaning forward action when executing the attack.

This image shows me getting hit in the jaw, having my hands moving towards my jaw after getting hit. Tai Heng's fist is still in the air to show follow up actions even after he attacked.

At this point, I moved backwards and turned around, with my hands still on my jaw. Notice that Tai Heng's fist is still in the air. The emotion of pain is shown on my face as I headed towards the wall right behind.

I leaned against the wall to show myself stopping the force exerted from Tai Heng's fist, with one of my hands holding against it. Getting dizzy and light-headed after the attack.

In the given scene, I'm told to slowly turn and fall to the ground after getting hit. My hand is still touching the wall, showing it slowly leaving away from it as I head towards the ground.

This continues the action of slowly falling towards the ground. 

As I touched the ground, my right arms hits the floor at the same time with my knees to keep my balance. 

This is the final pose taken for the entire exercise, with me curled up in pain after getting hit from Tai Heng.

In this exercise, I feel that the camera should be right in front of me as I hit the ground and providing me chances to block out the emotions carried on my face as I was about to fall. However, at least in this view, provided me the motion of my legs and entire body throughout the entire video. Tai Heng helped a lot in showing follow up actions as his fist are still held up in the air even after the attack. By blocking out the poses gives the animator detailed information of the entire video, and  a rough idea of how the animation should be like. Shown in class on Week 1's Friday, Disney animations were also using real actors to act out scenes for the animators to look at and animate them into well-known cartoons.

Blogpost 5: Week 1 - Exercise 3 - Questions for Week 1

I'm tasked to answer 3 questions about blendshapes for this exercise.

Question 1
Does a blendshape require the base mesh and the target mesh to have the same number of vertices? Explain your answer, with reference to how blendshapes actually work.

Answer: Yes. During an animation, if the base and target mesh are not selected with the same number of vertices, deformation of the model may happen during an animation. Furthermore, blendshapes can work in layers, which means that by creating more blendshapes deformers, allows you to make very complex shapes that could be animated as well.

References: Mastering Autodesk Maya 2012, by Eric Keller and Todd Palamar, Chapter 6: Animating with Deformers, Page 314 - 322.

Question 2
Can blendshapes only be used for facial animation? If not, prove it! Animate something and post in on your blog.

Answer: No. It can be used on arms, legs or even the entire body as well, especially when showing logical bends without deforming the model into a very bad state.

Visual Reference of Blendshapes being used in arms.

To prove this, I looked back into my 3DVA models and picked out Spidey to show this example. Through blendshapes, this can be achieved for Spidey's arms.

Spidey Rotating his entire arm forward

References: Using Corrective Blendshapes to Improve deformation - http://www.mixamo.com/c/articles/using-corrective-blend-shapes-to-improve-deformation

Question 3
If you want a character to look angry, you might decide to create a target mesh of the character's head and then modify it to have an angry expression. This is NOT how it should be done. Why not? And what would be a better approach? (Hint: you want to give the animator as much freedom as possible.)

Answer: This is definitely a bad approach. The reason behind it is because when you're animating a model, the animation may feel angry at that moment, but what happens when he starts talking and doing some other stuffs that would require the animator to move the character's head back to the original way of how it looks like in the first place? And also, the animator would take a very long time as this is a very tedious process of moving parts and parts of the mesh to and fro to create just a few seconds of animation. By using blendshape editor, the animator can move the target mesh in a very detailed manner, including addition of values so that if any parts of the animation requires the face to be made back to original, it could be done so easily through the editor.


References: What is mesh - http://blog.slinkstyle.com/what-is-mesh-and-how-will-it-affect-sl-some-faq-ive-seen-and-can-answer-here/
















Conclusion
Didn't really have a requirement to write a conclusion of the lesson for the 1st week, but I just want to say some thoughts about the subject. Going through 3D Visualization and Animation (3DVA) was really tough, maybe because many basic fundamentals were learnt through this subject, parts such as rigging and modelling. But coming into 3D Production and Foundation (3DPF), has been one enjoyable subject. Having to do facial expressions through the different tools provided in Maya has been really fun, as I had interest in animating game characters or making 3D movies. I know I'm not the best out there, but I'm willing to try and give my best out of myself. My greatest enemy is myself.

Something that has really made me thought over about is one of the lectures that Mr. Douglas had given my class about Facebook and social networking sites. I remembered clearly, he said that Facebook makes people think positively about themselves, only VIRTUALLY. A really clear example that he explained was, when you make a comment about something that makes a few people online laugh over it, may make you feel that, "I'm a humorous person". Well, in reality that doesn't really show that you're humorous. When the same joke is used when talking to people in reality, others may think that, "It's a really bad joke." And in the end, you make a fool out of yourself.

Furthermore, he explained that Facebook takes away our concentration from work once we first looked at it. Facebook continues to show people's post and lets you scroll down non-stop reading almost anything that catches your attention. Personally, yes it's true. Having in mind of only wanting to look at Facebook for 5 minutes, brought me to the reality of 30 minutes being wasted instead without me even knowing it. Well, just wanting to thank him for letting most of us notice this, as this is for our own good.

In conclusion, I really look forward into the future exercises of 3DPF, especially the one on blocking/videoing, activities that reminded me of the really fun subject, Motion and Sound (MOS).

Blogpost 4: Week 1 - Exercise 2B - Cluster and Blend Shape Deformers

For this exercise, I'm tasked to create an expression with the knowledge of Cluster and Blend Shape Deformers learnt from the previous exercise. I decided to create a sad face, which is something that I've not tried since the start of the lessons. I searched online for a few visual references to look at the facial movements when someone slowly turns sad. Looking through the results, I noticed that the face slowly becomes long whenever someone becomes sad. Their mouth slowly moves to an upside down U, cheeks moving downwards together with the edges of the eyebrows. There's a small little frown too at the center of the forehead, which shows unhappiness in a person's facial expression.

Visual Reference:http://www.google.com.sg/imgres?q=sad+face&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=4K5VhKkV6Y_0sM:&imgrefurl=http://darrenfereday.blogspot.com/&docid=GaBRsNHefYjlRM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5G90UARiKSLozx3MPPRG854NeWdaOz-Ee_uL8c7dXOk9SMDxqXcONQc_ZbLQe4nh-xBOgGz93ZaMTclPJ5_SW2Q_itoydQyWKAvSinb6kaiLGivUAnBr1ExwsB879_CpB-fPk7z1spTid/s1600/SadFace_DFereday.jpg&w=589&h=653&ei=lDYST9meNIfZrQeiofDsAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=164&vpy=253&dur=2584&hovh=236&hovw=213&tx=111&ty=155&sig=114820841924978340573&page=8&tbnh=115&tbnw=100&start=176&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:176

The four different emotions, including sadness

Using the same concept and methods as the last exercise, I selected parts of the vertices to move them after creating a cluster deformer for them. Using the Blend Shape to control the amount of changes to the original face to show sadness after. The result of the exercise is shown in the video below.

Video for Sad Face using Cluster and Blend Shape Deformers

Blogpost 3: Week 1 - Exercise 2A - Cluster and Blend Shape Deformers

In this exercise, I'm given a link from Maya website: "http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/Maya2012_Getting_Started/index.html", and follow the clear tutorials given to create cluster and blend shape deformers.

Maya Tutorial Explanations:

Cluster Deformers enable you to control a set of an object's points (CVs, vertices, or lattice points) with varying amounts of influence to create a target shape for an animation.

A Blend Shape deformer provides an interface for blending between various target shapes, to control the range of movement for the cluster on an object or face.

First, creating a smiling face with the given model. Before starting to select the vertices of the face, we have to understand which parts of the muscle in the face must be changed to create a sweet smiling face. Cheek muscles are usually contracted to produce a smile. Entering into vertices mode of the object, by using the Paint Selection Tool, I was able to select the cheek and parts below the nose without much difficulty. Then, creating Cluster from Create Deformers > Cluster allowed me to create a control for the selected vertices to be moved.

The cheeks are slightly raised to show a smiling face.

Then, choosing Edit Deformers > Paint Cluster Weights Tool, allows the smiling face grayscale to be seen. Looking into the Paint Attributes, changing the [Paint Operation:Replace] and [Value: 0.5]. Click onto Flood. This gives all selected vertices to be given a weight of 0.5. Furthermore, Paint Cluster Weight Tool helps to select some parts of the cheeks to be given more weight, to create a more realistic animation when the model smiles.

Next, look into Window > Animation Editors > Blend Shape. This displays the Blend Shape editor, which has a slider for changing the base into the target shape, and buttons for setting keys. This allows the model to be moved by dragging the slider, giving more or less weight to the cheeks.

Using the Blend Shape editor to move the cheeks more accurately.

With these tutorials, I was able to create a smiling face and a frowning face, by using the same exact tools taught and used previously. However, I wasn't really satisfied with it because it didn't really show the facial expressions that well and clearly. In the next exercise/blogpost, I would upload a better model done, by selecting not just the cheek and forehead muscles to create a frowning and smiling face. 

Result of the entire exercise. A better version will be uploaded in the next blogpost.

P.S. Sorry about the white background text found at parts of the blogpost. I'm not sure why this happens, but it does from time to time on Blogger.

Blogpost 2: Week 1 - Exercise 1B - Boris Animation (Personal Dialogue)

In this exercise, I'm tasked to record my own voice and animate the dialogue with Boris. In class, I've learnt that the scene and mood of the animation is important. The reason is because, animations are being animated with the knowledge of what mood they should be in in the current situation, and what should their facial expressions help in displaying their current feelings.

Role: Servant of a master.
Character: Kind and friendly.
Tone: Questioning.
Dialogue: "How's your day master?"

By having all these information, I can roughly think further of how Boris's facial expressions and head movements should move accordingly with the current mood. By reading through the dialogue, I looked through some online materials regarding on how the animation should be like when they are asking a question. A noticed that most of them end with a slanted head, showing a very friendly expression, at the same time asking a question too. Learnt from the previous exercise of having Eye Blinks and editing in the graph editor to help the animation look less robotic were also added into the animation. Also, injection animation principles of "Anticipation" and "Follow Through Actions" helped in creating a more realistic animation. The result of the animation is shown below:

Boris Animating with my own dialogue.

Blogpost 1: Week 1 - Exercise 1A - Boris Facial Expression

This is the 1st exercise of 3DPF. I'm tasked to follow the audio given, and create the facial expressions by focusing on 3 main parts: Lip-sync, phoneme, and the overall mood of the entire animation. Firstly, I tested the different controls of the model's face, to have a rough idea of where do I start when animating it together with the audio. Then, I marked the key frames where the jaws will be opened widest or smallest, and the parts where the cheeks and eyes should be moving. The result will be shown in the video below:

Boris Animation (EXAMPLE GIVEN BY LECTURERS)

Boris Animation (1st Try)

I wasn't really that satisfied with my work after comparing with the given example animation. There were clear head movements in the example which made it even more realistic, giving weight to the different words. As a result, I took time to listen and asked myself questions like,"What are the words that I would show weight by using head movement when I speak this sentence?" Giving words like "POWER" adds realism into the animation when head movements were added. Moving the eyes also helped to show a very negative and fierce side of Boris, which was also one of the actions that was given in the example given. The result of my 2nd try is shown below.

Boris Animation (2nd Try)

After looking through my 2nd animation, I thought of doing something that Mr. Douglas (Lecturer) had suggested during class. Adding blinks to the eyes. I tried it out and it did helped to make the animation even better. Also, Mr. Douglas suggested that editing in the graph editor helps the animation to be less robotic, and I edited parts of the graph editor such as the movement of the head, jaws and eyes to make the animation as realistic as possible. I'm quite satisfied with my 3rd try, though I know there's still much more room for improvements to be made.

Boris Animation (3rd Try)