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| He's really wishing he read the job description BEFORE signing a contract. |
Please refer to FOL for assignment weighting and due date.
Weight Lift (WL)
Using the provided humanoid rig or an approved alternative (IK hands are required) you will animate a character lifting a large heavy ball from the ground and placing it on top of a waist high platform nearby. The ball is about knee high and weighs 60 pounds / 27.2 kilos. (the same as a bag of concrete). Using balance and weight shift, you will appropriately convey the mass of the object. Try to focus on the basic mechanics of the action and keep your plan simple. Please be safe when shooting reference for planning your assignment: 27 kilos is a lot of weight and back injuries are no fun.
PRO TIP #1 - Shooting video reference for this assignment will speed up the process significantly and give you rough timing. No need to lift 60 pounds: something even half as heavy will work fine.
Be aware that you will need to use IK hands to grab the ball and have proper constraints set up to keep the hands locked to the surface. Any rig that doesn't have IK/FK switching and snapping/matching will NOT be suitable for this assignment.
PRO TIP #2 - While you may be tempted to avoid constraints or switching between IK and FK for the hands, it will be next to impossible to succeed without these tools. Make sure your hands are in IK mode whenever they are touching the ball to get a good lock. I'd recommend the hands be in FK mode at all other times for best interpolation (arcs!).
For wrangling constraints, the video tutorials on vimeo.com/dlatour will be useful, especially Constraints: 2 Hands To Prop.
For wrangling constraints, the video tutorials on vimeo.com/dlatour will be useful, especially Constraints: 2 Hands To Prop.
The animation will be exactly 5 seconds long (120 frames @24fps) Featured principles: Squash & Stretch, Anticipation, Overlap/Follow Through, Slow In/Out, Timing, Exaggeration, and Posing (Solid Drawings)
Hand in will be as follows:
- Your Maya file, named <Lastname>_<Firstname>_WL.ma (eg. Latour_David_WL.ma). Rig must be referenced to reduce file size.
- A Playblast of your work, with the following parameters:
- Movie file type must be .MOV or .MP4
- Either H.264 or MPEG4 compression
- 1920 x 1080 resolution
- Animation controls and resolution gate hidden
- Frame counter (current frame) visible
- File size must be less than <250 MB
No .rar or .zip files please
What I'll be grading on this assignment:
- Does the object lifted look heavy, easing in/out appropriately for a 30 kilo mass?
- Does the balance of your character account for the weight of the ball especially during footsteps?
- Have you used IK controls and constraints to keep hand contacts solid and believable?
- Does the character hands switch between IK and FK mode where appropriate?
- Do you have appropriate anticipation for the lifting action?
- Have you animated your character showing clear lines of action and balance?
- Is your scene clearly staged with strong composition and silhouettes?
- Does the object lifted look heavy, easing in/out appropriately for a 30 kilo mass?
- Does the balance of your character account for the weight of the ball especially during footsteps?
- Have you used IK controls and constraints to keep hand contacts solid and believable?
- Does the character hands switch between IK and FK mode where appropriate?
- Do you have appropriate anticipation for the lifting action?
- Have you animated your character showing clear lines of action and balance?
- Is your scene clearly staged with strong composition and silhouettes?
- Have you shown your work for feedback and effectively applied notes?
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| Pretty drawings are not needed here, just something to figure what's needed BEFORE working in 3d. |
Additional Resources:
