Fluids: ANM302 – Week 4

If you really, and I mean REALLY, want to blow someone's mind introduce them to the mathematics behind fluid mechanics. Yes, you are using mathematics to model how a fluid acts in a given situation. That's some serious, serious number crunching. This means two things: first, using Dynamics in Maya to simulate fluids and fluid-like substances is absolutely breath-taking; secondly, it means your computer is going to grind to a near halt attempting to do all the math! What is more amazing is the number of variables that you can tweak on a Maya fluid is quite large – you can do a LOT with it. We've already simulated squirting red dye into a glass of water (which slowed my home computer down so much that I thought it had crashed), simulated the Sun (which is fantastic since I love space simulations so much) and now – drum roll please – we're working on clouds. Dynamic clouds that will be able to be affected by wind and time. So, I can hear you to asking yourself, why not just use a picture of clouds and plunk it down behind the model of the airplane you just built? I'll tell you why, because I want to fly that model THROUGH the clouds and follow it with a camera. Understand that one of my great joys is playing a flight simulator called IL-2 Sturmovik, and the clouds in the game are great looking, but static. Now, in the newest version of this game the developers are touting the fact that they are going to have dynamic clouds – ones that would move, be affected by weather conditions, wind, and time of day. I wasn't that impressed until this week, when I learned just what goes into all of that. I'm really looking forward to delving further into fluids. The math is impossible to get my head around, but I do enjoy the end results.

Running Into A Wall: ANM 201 – Week 4

Right, I'm taking a moment form my usually happy and fairly upbeat discussion of what I'm doing/learning in Advanced 2D Animation to vent for a bit. We're still working on our run cycle projects – which is fine. Mine is still a ways from being done. The reasons for this are many fold. I get up, get ready for class, drive to school, attend class, eat lunch, drive to work, work, drive home, eat dinner and by about 8pm or so I am finally ready to work on homework. Well, no. Not really. I'm exhausted at that point. Adding to this I've been run through an emotional wringer due to events in my life recently (stress from work/school/finances, not to mention I haven't slept properly in nearly two months). I tried cutting my work time by moving to digital imaging for 2D animation, but it just doesn't work for me. I cannot seem to get the “feel” of drawing with a graphics tablet. Frustrating, but I can switch to pen and paper (traditional animation). It just takes longer AND I don't have a functioning scanner. To make matters worse, I went looking for a new scanner locally. No one carries them any more! To get a proper flatbed scanner I would need to order one online and wait two weeks for delivery. GAH! So, I'm going to work out my animation this afternoon. Ink it, and try to get into class slightly early to scan it (or photograph it on the test stand). One problem with this plan is class I have prior to ANM 201: ENG 260 – Acting for Animation. It's a fun class BUT the instructor is notorious for running long. So, there you have it. I keep getting frustrated, keep coming up with solutions, and seem to get foiled yet again.


It's been like this for a while, and I'm getting fed up with it.



However – and this is a very important addition to everything I've said here – I'm not going to give up. As bad as it gets (and at points it has gotten impossibly bad), I find that I cannot and will not stop. Life is hard and anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or trying to sell you something. I'll get through this animation and it will be up to my standards. End of venting session. Next week, I promise a more upbeat entry based on something new I've learned in class. Stay tuned...

Dynamics: ANM 302 – Week 3

Life is dynamic, or so they say. Who are “they” anyway, and why do they keep coming up with these pithy sayings? That question will have to wait. Right now we're going to talk Dynamics. I was about to say, not the kind of mathematical dynamics used in engineering which I flunked out of in college, but I would be wrong. It is that kind of dynamics. When you take and place a series of objects in a situation where one or more forces it applied and the objects interact, then you have dynamics. This is precisely the when I'm talking about in 3D animation. Dynamics allows you to set up a simulation (there's that wonderful word again) where you can have those nicely modeled object you built interact with one and other – as opposed to just having then pass harmlessly through each other, clipping away as they go. So, what was my introduction to this new wonder:  the classic physics collision, billiard balls. I have to tell you, it was a riot! Setting the balls up on the table, getting them some gravity, then “striking” them with a pool cue (an initial impulse) and watching them bounce around and smash into each other on the table was great. You'll note in my sample video above that I even broke the balls with too much force, sending one of they flying off the table. Cooler still in the one ball that is struck at such an incidental angle that it keeps on spinning to the end of the clip. All this from just a few clicks of the mouse. Stunning! I look forward to continuing with dynamics as we attempt to produce some realistic looking rain. I'll let you know how that works out next week. Until then, stay tuned...

More Running: ANM 201 – Week 3

So this week we are continuing our work with run cycles. To that end we video taped ourselves running – in the style we wanted to run – on a treadmill. Mind you, this is not for rotoscoping purposes. This is simply for reference. I tried to do a happy little jaunty run with my head up and leaning back. I don't think it came out that way, but hey, you work with what you have. Anyway, I'm currently working on perfecting the torso and leg movements before continuing this week with the head, arms, and secondary motion. What's secondary motion you ask? That's anything that moves because of the primary motion. For example, if I am wearing a scarf while I'm running then then running is the primary action. The scarf fluttering up and down behind me while I'm running is secondary (it is caused by the running). There is a LOT of this in animation. The gut of a fat man bouncing up and down while he trots along, or the tassel of a hat as a kid runs through the snow, or the hoses of a spacesuit as an astronaut bounds across the moon. But that's for later, right now I have to concentrate on getting the the basics right. So, I'm afraid I have to close here because...I have to run...

Newton Field: ANM 302 - Week 2

Let me reinterate what I said in my first post on ANM 302:  I LOVE PARTICLES!!! So now, we've moved on from emitting particles (which kind of sounds like a social faux pas) to affecting them. This week we're working with Newton Fields. And that's Newton as in Sir Isaac Newton, the guy who discovered gravity. Said fields are named after him due to the fact that they simulate a gravity well using his now famous equation of universal gravitation...and if you don't know it, you should. Anway, the Newton Fields in Maya act on emitted particles like gravity does on us. It pulls them, and when you link the emitter to an object, that object can be made to appear to be the most important think in the universe to those particles which seem to be chasing it. Here are an enormous number of possibilities this opens up, from schools of swimming fish, to flocks of birds, to anything you can think of. Now, of course, I'm going to have to think of something cool to do with this...

Running: ANM 201 - Week 2

Running. What can I say – it's something that we humans take for granted, yet it is an impossibly complex set of actions. Even more complex when you come think of it in terms of animation. You would think it was just a simple extension of the walk cycle: draw the keyframes, figure out the inbetweens, then recycle the drawings. Nope, not quite that easy. First of, it's drawing on “1s,” and that's twice as much work, then to get the best looking run cycle, you need to have certain keyframes be slightly different from each other. That makes recycling images right out, Add to that the lean, the decreased bobble, the decreased emphasis on arm movement and running becomes something completely different than walking. We're going to be video taping ourselves on a treadmill to be reference footage and then animate from there. I think this is going to be an interesting week, because to make a terrible pun: “We're going to hit the ground running.”

Particles: ANM 302 - Week 1

Particles, particles, particles! The fundamental stuff of the universe – or it might be waves. Not quite sure since the quantum physicists in the audience haven't figured that one out yet. But no, I'm talking about particles and their uses in Maya and 3D animation. So far I've learned how to pour a bowl of cereal (pictured above). Perhaps not intensely amazing unto itself, but it is opening up a world of simulations to me, and I REALLY like that. You see, I've been interested in simulations for a long time – ever since I learned what the equation for gravity was and wrote a lunar lander simulation for my Ti55 calculator back in Senior High (here's a hint: that was a VERY long time ago!). Anyway, it reminds me of the other reason I went into animation: scientific simulation. Dynamics, particles, and nparticles in Maya are not so much objects to be animated, but simulators to recreate real world situations. I think this just might be the key to where I want to go in terms of a career in animation. It's definitely something to look at. And on that note, I realize that I'm going to love this class...

Flow: ANM 201 - Week 1

I cannot help but think of the title of a recent movie, “Hustle and Flow,” as I write this blog entry. Simply because I am hustling to get it done, and the subject matter is flow. Flow – what does that mean? Flow is something that's found in graphic design, it's the way elements are arranged by the designer to purposefully lead the viewers eyes through a piece. That, however, is not the flow that I'm talking about. What I mean, in terms of animation, is the way an object moves. Pick up a piece of spaghetti that's soft from boiling and hold one end in your fingers, then gently move it back and forth. See the wiggle?That's flow. It's the sinusoidal movement of an object from an anchored source to a non-anchored end. Things like seaweed, flags, snakes, fish, string and the like move in this manner – it's also the type of animation we're attempting in class this week. In the old days of animation the term, “rubber hose” was coined to describe it. Olive Oyl's (from the Fleischer Studios “Popeye”)arms are a classic example of this. All in all, it seems simple enough, but the simplest things to describe of the most difficult to execute. I'll be posting my example in a couple of days, so stay tuned.