http://www.studentofanimation.com/images/IK.wmv
I downloaded Maya PLE tonight. Easy learning curve for the basics! I had some issues with it actually saving my animation with a scene - I'm sure coming across a manual or a tutorial somewhere will help me out with that. I have a feeling the scene/special MP format has something to do with it.
This has a familiar character lying with his back against a surface, and then getting up to a standing position. What happened though is, as I was doing the IK, I didn't have props or anything so I just edited the poses right there floating in space. So relative body positions are about what I want (First time using Maya so if there are ways to smooth things out that's for another day) but his body as a -whole- needs to be turned to keep his buttocks on the ground all the way until he tries to get his footing.
Keeping his butt on the ground means that when his right foot comes up weird, perpendicular to everything else (using the right hand for weight still) it should actually be above the ground hovering on the strength of the leg muscle until he can slide the leg up. Because there is no ground here you can't see it, but when he does stand up it goes through the grid floor. Basically my question is, in Maya, how do you animate object positions as a whole. I'm sure someone around here has messed with this free rig before; I imagine this situation's a bit different than creating a primitive and just bouncing it around.
Well you're also a good man, so ethics and legality don't really apply. If you buy academic (student/faculty), and the license says don't sell, don't sell. If it says commercial, you can sell; sell like you've never sold before :D
EDIT: Doesn't=don't....
(didn't mean to hijack your thread, my friend)
Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...
I'll forgive you for that if you can forgive me for listing two things and saying "doesn't" instead of don't...
I am waiting till tomorrow since tonight's didn't render and I'm going to add another anim here. Might as well make it my place for the time being to show off Maya learnings...
Scratch that, I figured it out. There was a semi-hidden control at the base of the rig I had to dig out, and that operates the entire character's pos/rot, etc...
The movement is pretty nice, but it doesn't look like he's standing up. There isn't and north south movement on his body. It looks like his feet sink into the ground. If you get the body to raise up, I think it'll work well.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Can someone give a quick overview of the whole IK thing? It makes sense on an intuitive level, but I haven't used a program that has it yet. I plan to buy Hash Animation Master pretty soon (just found out I can get it cheaper as a teacher!) and I'm wondering if that means I can get the guy to keep his hands glued on the handlebars while he turns the bike. The freeware program I'm using doesn't have IK, and the bike and the guy are separate rigs. Last night I got it worked out so when the bike's steering head is at minus 20 degrees, the arms go to a right place for steering, along with the body, but the hands slide a bit on the grips. Hoping Hash will help me around that.
Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...
rupert,
You can get Maya cheap as a teacher too. Like $300 cheap. Not as cheap as Hash, but that's a darn good price for Maya. Oh, and IK? I have no idea. :D
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
I agree; that's actually what I meant when I said
I like the individual poses. The big thing for me will be spending more time on going back and adjusting all the different controls so everything's always alive....If I rounded out the animation of this, it could be awesome for novice work...
EDIT > I have another animation (replace IK with Sssslap to view it) and one that I animated today -- though Maya froze from a render overload -- where I learned how to orient the object independent of the bones.
Forward kinematics is adjustment piece by piece. If you want to go from arms resting at your sides to doing a curl, you must first rotate the base of the arm at the shoulder, then rotate the relative position of the forearm, then the palm, fingers, etc...one by one in working order.
Inverse kinematics is much closer to puppeteering. In IK you would grab a joint or end, and move it to a new position, but instead of being one straight adjustment, anything connected to it would follow along. So you could go from arms resting at sides, and then pull the hand at the wrist out in front of his stomach and then drag it back a little to fold his arm. Set the key and you're done.
Even without IK if you made the handlebars separate objects, and the model you were using had independent hands, you should be able to parent the hands to the bars. In other words, for a specified period of time, they'd be locked as if they were one object. Usually that work around pivots too so once you curled the fingers around the whole setup shouldn't slip or budge.
If I were you, and I sort of am since I'm a student, I'd go the extra mile and get Maya since they're basically giving it away for that price. Unbelievable cost-benefit ratio there.
That way you have what you want, but also something to grow into.
So you're actually saving money. Go ahead and nab Maya's PLE that I've been trying out, so you can make an informed decision.
I was gonna come on here and impress everyone with my progress, but when I save my MP files and go and load them later, it loads up just one of the two characters I'm working with (or if I'm working with one, JUST that character) with no keys or ANYTHING. Two hours of work down the drain as far as presentation, but I least I got some learning in.
I'd love a fix for -that-.
What kind of limitations would be understood with the teacher license? I'm not really doing it for school, I'm a hobbyist who escapes the day to day challenges of life by dissappearing into my animations. :D Part of the fantasy is that someday other motorcycle enthusiasts and animators will want to own my cartoons. This little complication makes me question the legals of getting the ed license--even for Hash, but with Hash it's only $100 difference.
Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...
I dug up the info, and it says graduating students can make the jump to a commercial license from educational copies, where you can legally make money off of the work you do, but I think you're going to have to call if you want the same deal as graduates. If a student graduates he gets a one time deal where 899 upgrades you to a commercial license. And faculty can buy an educational copy; it just doesn't say anything about the graduate thing for faculty, because, well, you've already graduated. Like I said, give 'em a call. Exact same software, but if your goal is cashing in on the niche Hash might be your du jour.
From the site, the qualifications that apply to you:
Full-time or part-time instructors who teach at an approved education institution [accredited public or private university, college or community college, including primary and secondary schools].
Thanks so much for taking the time to look that up. Very kind of you.
I'm concerned about the ethics and legals, so I'll likely go with Hash after all for the time being, and that at the full price so I'm not doubting my integrity the whole time.
Thanks again.. You're a good man.
Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...