Final Movie: Part Two - Adobe Flash

I always had the idea in the back burner to mix media, and I felt this project would be the right time to display my skills. I've been using Adobe Flash Professional CS5 for about 4 years now, and I wanted to combine 2-D and 3-D animation.

Because key framing is very crucial for animation, key framing in Flash and in Maya are done pretty similarly. The main difference is that in Maya, you have to create models, which then have to rigged in order to be animated, while in Flash, you have to draw things in layers and each layer then has to be animated. For example, in the picture above, each of the girl's arms, her head and her torso are on different layers.

Once I finished the Maya and Flash portions, I quickly threw the two files together in Windows Movie Maker to add the sound effects and voila!

Final Movie: Part One - Maya

This project started out and wanted to be a lot of different things, but in the end, this small animated short is comprised of three different programs: Autodesk Maya 2015, Adobe Flash Professional CS5, and Windows Movie Maker (Trust me, I really wish I had a better video editor.)

So with that in mind, I will split this blog into three separate sections so it doesn't get too crowded with information.

I started out using one of the pre-rigged models from http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/ultimate-rigs-maya-rigs-maya-character-rigs-free-maya-rigs/ and created a NURBS plane. I originally wanted the subject to be a cow and the location to be out in a field/on a farm to fit the theme of UFO invasions with farms and crop circles and such. However, do to complications regarding a rig of a cow and background images, I altered my idea, but still kept the general idea.

Because (thankfully) of the "Animate a Rig" assignment, I already had a decent amount of experience with this rig. I also decided it would be cool to play with a darker atmosphere (which is also easier, so hurray for that) and then contrast it with the other half of the short.

I also learned a lot about how to use a camera and lights. The camera is a pretty big "character" in the short and I had a lot of fun playing with it. I really like dynamic camera angles and I only hope to improve my technique. Overall, it could use improvement, but I'm happy with how the Maya portion turned out.

Assignment 4 - Animated a Rigged Model

So after finding a bunch of free rigs to download, I decided to humor myself and make the big, beefy guy dance.

Rigs can be found here: http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/ultimate-rigs-maya-rigs-maya-character-rigs-free-maya-rigs/

After unzipping and opening the file, I started him leaning to the side, but still at a semi-neutral position. The goal is to have him kick his leg out a few times, jump to his other leg, have him kick his other leg a few times, and have him jump back to the starting position. I also created a NURBS plane as a floor so I could get used to having a model/rig move without having it clip through the floor too much.

Much like this.

The key things I learned from this was how to control a pre-rigged model and how to make actually animate in Maya. Fortunately, my experience in Adobe Flash Pro has already had me used to key framing, so once I got the hang of how to key frame in Maya, it basically became second nature.

The hardest thing was probably keeping track of all the body parts of the rig. Fortunately I was going for a more cartoon-like movement, so exaggeration of the limbs was acceptable. Even so, things clip and distort so easily. Also making the movements flow naturally was difficult, but I eventually came to a product I liked.