Neat to see him move. There’s some pass through with the left arm and the body. Why not have it come up and also grasp the lightsaber in a two-handed style?
Kenn
Alien1 - new rig/animations
CuTnPaste
#42
hi,
essentially because it’s a test to examine the rigging made by nottoshabi… 
anyway, I’ll emprove it asap!
thank you
cut
:hmm:
Kirt
#43
Question … if it’s a test of the rig, how come most of the animation is in the facial morphs set up by Ila?
I think a better test would be to set up a stationary camera and have the character do more routine things (pick up an object, turn around, bend over, jump, etc.). Also, you should do it all against a neutral color background. The black is too extreme and distracts from the movement. I can’t really see anything off of this latest animation other than the arm problem already mentioned.
The previous test (inside fist’s cockpit) reveals a problem with the deformation of the alien’s hands that needs to be corrected. Make sure you take a look at Stahlberg’s tutorial on joint deformations. I think this is a good way to solve many of these bend problems.
CuTnPaste
#44
Ok…
I’ve done this animation for fun…maybe I’ve lost the target …
sorry…
ok…good idea to make test animation as you mention before.
About the rig…nottoshabiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :surprised
c u soon
CuTnPaste
nottoshabi
#46
Kirt I knew about Stalbergs process, but the reason I did not use it form the beginning, because it will triple the weight of the file the model is already at 30 megs. The deformation processes that I used are the default Maya deformations with a lot of tweaking.
With Stalbergs process the model will deform right but it will be useless, because it will be impossible to move or render. If we have to throw it in a scene that have animations and other characters and an environment, I think it will create a problem. I was hoping we can get away with some stuff with camera angles and editing, if not we will need to take a look at the original mesh for better deformations.
nottoshabi
#47
Ok I have been going over the Alien. And this is what I think would help the deformations. The main problems are at the waist area and the crotch. I think if we take out the pocket and the belt and put them in with textures would get us better deformations. Also the legs are to short for his feet when he walks, he kind of kicks him self in the but. I would also recommend converting the hi rez to subDs instead of polies.
From were we stand thats the best deformations we will get out of the Alien. If we go a different way of deformations I think the model will be very heavy to work with witch might give us problems later on down the line.
Also if there models that are ready for rigging please let me know.
BlueCougar
#48
Ila has mentioned to me before the possibility of me modeling the alien #1 with some different geometry. I would be willing to model another one or even modify the current mesh. Ila and Kirt if you are out there, gimme some feedback on this.
Kenn
ilasolomon
#49
Yes of course, It would get better if you touch it up with your talent, or if you like, re-done it from scratch.
anyway I send you the mesh in FBX format. (if you can’t import the mesh from the maya’s mb)
BlueCougar
#50
Go ahead and send an FBX of the mesh since going back and forth will loose some of the elements of the rigging in Maya.
Kenn
PaxtonGerrish
#51
helooo everybody…
sorry I dissapeared right after introducing myself… I guess im kinda sneaky like that…
during my lunch-break i was playing around with the alien 1 rig, and i think the rig should probably be changed …
correct me if im wrong but a character like this should probably be bound in low rez with a poly smooth on top… also the foot controls need to rotate from the heel, or atleast the ankle…he needs hips… (as in have the root near his waist and have a bone or two extend down from that) … and he needs more controlls in his torso. he also needs individual shoulder controls. I couldnt find any blendshapes but maybe i missed em… Im pretty sure ila modeled them… (stops to breath)… but i dont see em
did i download the wrong rig i wonder?
oh and blue couger, are you still going to edit the model? I personally dont think theres a serious problem with the big feet, just something for the animator to work around…
PaxtonGerrish
#52
oh yea heres the test i did
its rough and mostly liniar keyframes… and i was having to key on nearly every frame because the polevectors seem to wig out prety bad
make sure you put media player on loop… as its a cycle…
nottoshabi
#53
Hey Pax thats nice, I like the run. I had problems with skinning the waist, because the pocket is modeled in the mesh it gave me a lot of problems with flexabilaty in the waist area. I did not try the low rez under the hy rez method yet. But I dont thinck it will change since the pocket acts like a plate, its quite stiff. But for the other things like fixing the rig thats not a problem at all, I will gladly fix that. If you see anything else wrong with it let me know.
OK! :thumbsup:
Nice run 
P.S. Go to Window/Animation Editor/Blend Shapes they should be there.
BlueCougar
#55
I like the expressiveness of the jog you have him doing. Actually the mesh I was going to primarily mess with was the face but if its all good to go roll with it man. I can always model a seperate one for close-ups to the face if necessary. Ila doesn’t think enough of the great work he did and wanted me to rework already great mesh. Lets see more stuff!
Kenn
PaxtonGerrish
#56
hey ken,
I guess you didnt notice that there is absolutly no hip or torso movement… but thanks for the compliments
If you want to tweak the face, go fer it… re rigging the head would be no problem… however it does mean someoned going to have to do some new blendshapes…
I was also thinking about how we animators are going to show any emotion in those eyes without brows or any controls. for the … um … Eye hole flaps…
maybe we could do the ol magical floating brow?
Kirt? any ideas?
Edit…
hey notoshabby or cutn paste have you guys started doing anything from the story board… do you want to do a little test directly from the intro sequence? to get a feel for it all.? only with alien 1 of course… I could render it here on the farm even…
tell me what you think…
ps… i re rigged alien 1 and posted on the main page… tell me what u think if you get time.
Kirt
#57
Yeah, I have one idea …
Deform the shape of the eyes to convey the idea of eyebrows where there are none. By squashing and stretching the eye and geometry surrounding it, you can put quite a bit of expression on the character’s face.
Here’s a couple of examples from the storyboards that illustrate what I mean.
Also, resizing the iris and cornea of the eyes will help with some expressions (such as shock, surprise, nausea).
PaxtonGerrish
#58
Awsome… Il mess around with some deformers on the eyes this weekend… (something i havent yet used in maya), but i assume there prety much the same as the FFDs in max… Im also hoping to do some tests loosly based on the Intro story board… Is there any way i can get fists ship model ?
I noticed some audio files in yourweb archive… Are the aliens going to speak, please say they speak
cheers and beers,
paxton
nottoshabi
#59
Hye Pax great idea lets do some story board action. Let Kirk pick what ever he wants to see animated and lets do it I’m totaly psyched about it. 
Kirt
#60
paxton - Yes, the aliens speak. However, they don’t speak any recognizable language. I’m thinking of writing down a few ‘most excellent’ phrases muttered from my 2 year old son and converting these into the alien’s dialog.
We have the ship about 80% complete, and models for the characters that should be good enough to put together roughs for the opening sequence. I think you guys should go for it and we’ll fill in the details later. Even if you’re animating in 3DS it’ll be good to break down the shots as an animatic to see how everything flows and if any changes are needed.
Once we get this sequence done, some of the music and sound fX guys will have something to play with for awhile.