₦airaland Forum

@LxDaBest
Why not create a thread in nairaland called free maya tutorial and post some of your
knowledge and expertise there. I am sure folks like us will really learn from your vast
store of knowledge.

Nice work. Just to add to what AdamuW said. You guys need to spend more time on character design.I can see a little personality on the goat character based on its design. But apart from that the rest of the characters are just plain. Your audience needs to identify or connect with your characters. Either love them or hate them. Again your animation style needs to be definite. With a goat being on trial, I suspect your animation borders on commedy/cartoony style. Let your animation reflect that. Otherwise good job. We are all learning from you guys.

@linclon
Depending on your method of animation, if you are using pose-to-pose animation, make sure each pose has the proper outline.The work on the interpolation b/w each pose using the graph editor. You may also need to adjust the timing of your animation. But really, you need to upload a sample of your animation. That way one can easily assertain what is wrong with your animation.

@nigerninja
May we see your portfolio?

When you talk of architectural walk through, will the final output be an avi video or an interactive application just like the type you have in cg games.

@xothemik
Nice one!. Very good use of ZBrush for detailing. You could try to use the projection Master or the Poly-Paint tool.
You already nailed the facial structure.

@graphikdon
Thanks for taking the extra time to show the wireframe of your model.
We learn more by observing the topology of 3D models. Nice model though.

Can you display the side view and if possible the wireframe. I would love to see ur topology.

Will really like 2c the final render ( don't mind my pun on cebas final Render plug-in for 3ds Max).

The wings need some detail. Could use the same details as those found in bats or similar creatures.

@reschild
If you can but type maya on google,
But why maya 7? There most recent version is maya 2009. The current personal Learning edition(PLE) starts from version 8.5.
The sooner you start with the recent versions the better you footing. There are a couple of changes in the UI and if you are familiar with version 7, it can be quite a shock to find out that the interface has been reshuffled when you get the chance to work with recent versions. Peace man!

@kemji
Pls calm down. We are all artists and should help and learn from each other. Check the India; some major animation companies in the USA outsource some of their work to India. Why? The artists there are willing to work real hard, share
knowledge and resources. The animation industry there is gradually picking up steam. We could do the same here in 9ja.
Peace man!


@res
Glad to see your post once again. If I may ask, what software package are u tryin to learn?

@OKX
I wish I could join, but I am under constraints.

@all
I wish there is a way we could convert all these arguments into something creative. Time spent on trading blames could be used in discussing ways we can push the animation industry forward. I guess, we could find a way to keep the thread active until something definite comes up from either OKX or reschild. Take kia all and peace.

@sojioguns
I will get in touch through your email. Thanks

@sojioguns
Location matters. I am based in abj and I guess you in Lagos. Can you suggest a solution?

@Kemji
My modeling skill is moderate. I think I can be able to make comments on your 3D samples.

@everybody
It is quiet in here.

@kemji
Where are you?

@sojioguns
I have checked your demo reel. Pretty tight.

nice!

@reschild
What is happening man! Your thread needs your impetus.

@kemji
I admire your determination. That is one of the characteristics a true gfx artist possess. I am looking forward to see great
animations and graphics from you. But make me happy by trying to learn either 3ds max, maya, or softImage.

@sojioguns
Currently, I am emloyed. I am hoping to start freelancing but do not know the terrain very well. Perhaps, you could give me
a pointer or two about the freelance market in 9ja. I will be greatful if you can pass me your email address.
Thanks and God bless

@Kemjisuper
Thank you very much for considering my humble contribution to this thread. First, I am not yet a 3D graphics pro yet. Although, I am a Maya/3ds Max power user, I am still a student. There are others on this forum like OKX, Grafikdon e.t.c who are greatly skilled. I will consider myself a professional when I am employed by Pixar or Disney.
Regarding the test animation of reschild, I agree we have been innundated by Hollywood cg movies and they have defined our expectation of how the movies should look but you must consider the fact that in such movies, they have millions of dollars to employ hundreds of professionals in each phase of the production pipeline,i.e Modeling,texturing,rigging,animation,rendering and post-production.
Even in a one-man production like the killer bean, it took Jeff Lew quite a while for him to make killer bean 2 a hit. Be patient with reschild animation.It was just a test to get a feel for the production pipeline. As soon as some basic problems are dealt with, the animation will come strong.
I have seen your animation. In Zorod vs Demigod,
1. At the start, when the camera was zooming in on the characters your characters were perfectly still; this is very bad. In a face off as this your characters should depict the tension of the moment, that moment when adrenalin is rushing through their body.This could show itself by the slight twitching of the fingers, the subtle shifting of the center of gravity and weight of the characters as they prepare to enter an advantageous position to fight. Imagine if two people were about to fight how will they be acting prior to the actual combat? This is what your viewers should see and this in animation terms is called ANTICIPATION.
2. The camera work was an overkill.It was horrible. The camera was just flying over the place. In such a scenario, the camera work should be slow, dead slow. This helps to build up tension. Surely you must have seen in movies before the protagonist and antagonist engage in mortal combat the camera is slow and you can almost hear the silence before all hell let loose.
In animation there is a term refered to as RHYTHM. You just can't animate in a straight, linear fashion. Your animation must have a rhythm. Just like in music, you have ups and downs and it is the contrast that makes it exciting.
3.Your characters only blinked once or so throughout the period.You should have focused more on their faces.The creasing of the eyebrows, snarling and curving of the lips as each character tries to make himself fearful.Surely you have seen dogs fight. But before they fight they growl and snarl at each other. All the lines of actions from the feet and limbs of the characters should all lead the viewers to the faces of the characters as this is where the primary emotions are displayed. This in animation is called ACTING. Aside from animating, your characters should be able to show personality and act. That is why pixar and disney animations are great. Apart from the great appeal their characters exibit, they can also act their part through skillful animation.

In the Zorod animation,
1.Just as I observed in reschild test animation, your key poses are weak. You should strive to make your key poses STRONG and DYNAMIC. Get a good book on anatomy and drawing. Study how the line of action passes through the body and limbs and how this in turn affects your poses.
2. There is no Anticipation.Read my former post.
3.In traditional animation, there is the animator and his assistant (the in-betweener ). The animator creates the key poses while his assistant fill the spaces between the key poses. In Cg Animation, consider your computer as your assistant. Your assistant cannot do better than the key poses you give to it. In addition to your key poses, you should insert additional breakdown poses as this gives you absolute control over your animation. You had problem in this area when your character was transitioning from the roar act ( mostly hand animated ) to the walk cycle ( from a library i guess). You were relying on pre-made animation (correct me if I am wrong) which you virtually had no control over. The contrast between the roar act and the walk cycle is quite obvious. Learn to do your own walk and run cycles. For instance, ( remember tu-face animated music video. do not mind my joke ) if you had already created your walk cycle from a library and the animation supervisor suddenly changes his mind and says " no I want a double-bounce walk-cycle" what will you do?
4. The transition between the walk-cycle and the run-cycle is too sudden. This happens when you have no control over your animation. Professional animators can spot this from a kilometer away. The head of your character while runing is too stiff. If you had done this run-cycle yourself, during the contact and passing positions the head should be bobbing up and down.
I guess I am out of time but if I may offer one candid advice. Stop rely to much on poser.It will not get you very far in the professional circle and it prevents you from going deeply into the nitty-gritty of modeling, texturing, rigging, animation techniques which is quite common across all 3D apps out there.
Lastly, go easy on reschild and contribute your own quota as you use to do. The Cg industry in Nigeria is just starting and we all need to make sure that it is here to stay.
If in any way you have been offended by my comments, pls accept my humble apologies.
Take care and God bless.

@reschild
I am humbled by your kind offer and acceptance of my observation.Unfortunately, I am busy with office work but I can chip in
when it is convinient. Using 3DS Max default skeleton cannot give the flexibility you desire if you are relying on keyframe animation but it can be convinient when you are using mocap files or exporting your 3D assets to Motionbuilder. Furthermore, if you are building your own rig, think of incorporating a little squash and stretch feature on the model as this is useful when you need to hold extreme poses for a couple of frames.I am not suggesting the cartoony stuffs but just a stretch or squash as your character enters extreme poses ( e.g. raises up his hands and roar ). I dont know if your character will be talking but in anyway you must start considering setting up a good facial rig to express the character emotions as contained in your action sheets for him. I can only see his model sheets but no action sheets. Probably you you have somewhere and have not posted it.
For now, take care and God bless.

@reschild
I commend the efforts you have put in your project. Be not offended If I point out some few problems.
Your animation good as it may lack some fundamental animation principles. I know it is a test animation, but still from
your storyboards this principles should be addressed.
1. The line of action of the character is not coming through. You must put in your arcs for the spine and limbs.
2. You animation must show anticipation. From the sqaurting position your character should be able to show us the viewer
what is his intension, what is passing through his mind at that moment, etc
3. When you animate the arms, try to add offsets as the arms is made up of a couple of hinged joints. Just like break dancing where you move the shoulder before the elbow etc,
4. Your key frames for the character animation must show strong poses and silhoutte. Your key poses for your animation will either make or break your animation.
5. Try not to attach your camera to a spline while animating. Instead use jump cuts or dissolves. If you want to add the Matrix type camera moves the process is slightly involved but I will explain in another post.
I can see you are learning Maya. It is good as most production pipelines often uses a variety of 3D packages.
Lastly, take heart and don't give up on your dreams. Till the next post, take care and God bless.

It is nice to see that you guys are starting to pickup steam again. I had been actively following your thread. It has been a source of information for me about CGI development in Naija.