Torso Rigging

Hey oh,

Well its a new post, its a new year and the US has a new president.

But im sure most of you have been foaming at the mouth for another post from me. So what do i bring you today.

Well before i go into what i have been upto i thought i’d share with you a tip to reading this blog.

Recently i have discovered google reader (yeah i know im a bit behind the curve), and i have to say its awesome. From any location i can check if there have been updates on my favourite forums, websites and blogs without checking on them one by one.

So if you were one of those fools (like me) who would check websites everyday for updates, subscribe to this this blog and any other site that has an RSS feed.

Anyways…

Just like the previous post, rigging and Houdini is the focus. Dont worry modellers, next post is for you guys.
So with the continuation of translating the Animators Friendly Rigging for Houdini, i have jumped over the first of many many hurdles.

The IK torso rig.

Although this will be the first of many character rigging updates i wont be posting all of the minor milestones.

Just the ones that are interesting to look at and post about.

This is what ive done so far.

This video is an initial overview of the Torso Rig.

The second one goes more into the creation process with refinements to the torso along with early development of the Head and Neck setup.

For google reader users, here is the vimeo link.

Torso Rig

Revised Torso Rig with Head and Neck

There is not enough time to talk about what is going on (mainly with the torso rig), that i have decided to make it available for download.
You can get it over at over at odforce.

Odforce Post with Rig Attached

If you can improve on it, or have any tips to make it more efficient then please let me know. Leave a comment.

Next update will probably be on anatomy and how bloody difficult it is.

Also, i still haven’t found anyone who can solve the ball rotation problem. Don’t know what im talking about. See the “Help!” post.

Until then, happy new year. (just in time for the next month )

…and don’t forget to subscribe.

Anatomy study 01 – The back

Hey guys, when i created this blog i had tried to make it all about my 3d progression as possible. And while there have been a few instances where i have deviated from this path, some to test out features of wordpress, others just because i took my eye off the ball. AKA plugs (which i still feel are kind of warranted since the number of places for modellers/techies can never be enough).

But every once and awhile a piece of news will float around the internet and shock the world, to the point where i cannot turn away.

Tara Reid has cellulite!!!!!!

(im not sure if its actually cellulite rather than she has had too much liposuction so there is no more fat on here stomach, but it makes for amazing reference for old people with lopsided breast implants, poor girl)

Oh yeah and Autodesk has now bought Softimage.

WTF!!

Can lighting strike twice in the same place twice. Well of course it can. And it has (well not at the same place but at another big company). The guided bolt came down from the gates of Autodesk and struck its competitor between the eyes. I imagine it has been hard to keep this from spilling onto the forums and i must say they have done a pretty good job of it. (And i have recently heard that Softimage staff found out pretty much the same time we did, so we can see why it was so easy to contain).

A lot of people are saying it was expected that Softimage was gonna get bought, but from Autodesk was another thing.

Im not gonna harp on about this since I dont really want to say something stupid…… too late.

One thing i found awesome though, was i said over on odForce “I just want Kim Davidson to say ‘This will never happen to SideFX’ ” , which is a pretty naive and selfish comment, since i understand that sometimes its necessary to sell in order to keep the product and the staff alive.

But 7 hours later after a good nights sleep i woke up to find i had a message from none other than the president of SideFX software. I wont say exactly what he said, but suffice it to say he reassured me of SideFX and Houdini’s future (at least for the time being). I know you can never say never, but along with the fact that SESI is a privately held company, Kim’s passion for Houdini and the craft of CG, i think SESI is pretty safe.

The main thing people really worry about with acquisitions is, possible price increase, lack of innovation, job security (if you work for the target) and possible discontinuation of the product. And although Kim never said it in so many words, i felt the message he was putting out was SESI are in control of their products, their creative path and want to serve their customers to the best of their abilities.

back to business

So anyone notice the title of this blog post. This thing is meant to be about anatomy. I just thought i would take the opportunity to inform people of current affairs (yeah like you dont already know, but it will be cool to look back on this in the future)

Regular readers will probably know i have dabbled a little in anatomy over the year. Little attempts that i spend way to much time on and eventually looks horrible/wrong. Well the main reason it looks so bad is my knowledge on anatomy.

So last week i ordered a book, recommended by Scott Eaton (recent addition to the Artists/Modellers links). “Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist”. If there is anyone looking to further their knowledge for artistic purposes GET THIS BOOK. Its a cheap, informative and exhaustive look into anatomy for the artist. (ok thats the plug of the post). Get it now.

In the interim i decided to try learn as much as i could. One area where my skills have always failed me is when i model the back. I just never turns out right.

So i took a few anatomical images and decided to do an ecorche study (which i have never done before). (above right)

Also I wanted to sculpt the image on the left to completion but i knew i didnt have the knowledge or the reference to do it justice, so it will sit quitely on my hard drive untill i feel im upto it.

But eventualy the book. Ive spent the last two days just crawling over the images and text with no discernible order but this morning i decide to put this thing to use.

I did my first sculpture of a back in a very very long time.

It took a little over an hour from a base mesh.

I almost exclusively used the clay tubes brush, and built up the forms and boney structures and i must say it was a joy to watch my model come to life. Its not perfect, in fact i can already see areas that need a lot more work but i think its some of the best work ive done since its rooted in actual anatomy.

I dont expect to create models with the same quality i usually do using this technique and knowledge.

It will take a little time and patience, but already i have cranked something out in an hour of what might take me well over 3, and thats because i knew what i was looking for and not just trying to replicate an image pixel for pixel. So it’s a lot of practice really, its probably the biggest factor that will make you / me faster.

Andrew Loomis: Figure Drawing for all its worth

Along with these images the first thing i did when i decided to get back into anatomy was to look at the resources i already had. A few years ago i remember a few of Andrew Loomis’s books. One in particular that sparked my interest was “Figure Drawing for all its worth”. Alot of useful stuff and is a very good read. Its pretty hard for me to read book on the computer, dont know why but the books were out of print at the time. but i have heard his family are to re-release them (so i will stay tuned for that).

One of the early exercises in the book is on proportion. Many tips in the this section but here is my first attempt of the idyllic man.

I wish i could talk more about this but this post is already getting a bit long in the tooth.

I cant wait to see where this book takes me, im having a lot of fun and learning stuff along the way.

So over the next 50 years you will probably see some more images of my learning process. (since i hear it takes a long time to learn this stuff). I still havent come to that crossroads when modelling figures, should i model that penis or vagina?

Hope to post more frequently in the next few months considering it didnt take that long to make these images and i know thats what a lot of you guys like to see.

And yes, the bee project is still alive. It needs some adjustments but i will be furring it up .

Take care, bee safe.

-andrew

1000+ Hits and Fur Virgin, no more!

This post is lengthly so grab a cup of something.

Yes thats right, this silly little blog that still has a wordpress affix has had over 1000 hits. I guess its a bit of an achievement (but who give a crap, most sites gets that in a day). Even though less than 1% has commented, should i take that as a hint that the rest of the web hits are just people who stumble here by accident and leaving swiftly? Let me know
But what the the point of this entry, well i have had no reason to update except ive been working on a particular project…
You may remember the post a while ago about me getting frustrated with Houdini Fur. Well since then SideFX has released a multitude of written tutorials on the mechanics of the Fur Sop and Fur Procedural (although if SideFX is listening i think the people would love to see a workflow walkthrough).
So here are my pathetic results after nearly 30 day of tinkering.

The model was made in Wings 3d, and took a night to make (2 hours tops). Someone please let me know where to find good mouse reference. I spent nearly 2 hours alone looking for decent images, and i got a handful and the rest were of the mechanical variety. So this is what i have to so for my efforts, not much but i think ive made some ground especially with the last image (below).

So to help any Houdini wannabe’s outthere, like myself. Let me explain how i got from the model to the last image. ughhhhh… here is the network (much easier).

So for those who use houdini you shouldnt be too scared, the nulls are referenced by an object merge in another object, but to be totally honest you should check out the written tutorials that come in the help files. go through them, dont just look at the files go through them (it really helps).
I guess the only difference from the example files and my setup is the Fur Procedural has varying root width. I have painted the model with a Paint SOP and that is fed into a Attribute Create SOP which uses the painted points to control the density, (although im thinking of using a texture map to have greater control, but this method is much faster). Im going to try and use this method to control the length but the model obviously isnt that high rez so it might be a bit hard. BTW the parameters needed to control these options are in the fur sop help files. When the skin geoemtry is reference its carried over to the Fur procedural (to check MMB over the Skin GEO to see if it has eg FURDENSITY, FURLENGTH). You need to also reference them in the Fur SOP for preview purposes.
The normals have been combed with a Comb SOP to govern the direction of the fur. If you have a symmetrical model be sure to use the mirror tab (also used it in the Paint SOP).In a few tests i did edit the copied lines, just before the Fur sop, but its was way too labor intensive. There needs to be some changes made to the Edit SOP by the developers which allows the Brush option to have a move/tweak option, kinda like Zbrush’s Move brush. Its more like sculpting at the moment.

In a nut shell, thats it, and im still working on the lighting, dynamics and rigging, so its an expansive project but one that is really getting me around Houdini.
So there should be enough in there for users who have gone through the tutorials but need some sort of insight. One piece of ….. Two pieces of advice i would give when making Fur is, Dont give up and dont be afraid to start all over again (you learn something new each time).

After all that i have to say, making an almost completel Fur covered model has to be one of the most difficult things to do in CG. Even big studios have trouble with it. I know this isnt a news blog in particular but one fella who knows Fur is Andy Boyd (who was recently interviewed by odForce). Here is a few pics he did for Framstore in the rexona commercial.

Mandrill

Andy has since moved to LA where he now works at Method Studios. And here is one of the first things he has worked on there.

Method Studios

Interestingly, here is Framestore again, without Andy on the Super Squirrels commercial.

Framestore

Now im not trying to stir some shit up here. You can see what im saying without me having to say it. But the factors in what might seem a simple observation are pretty influential. You have to consider the people on the team, the software/pipeline, the client and of course the biggest factor of all TIME. Now im sure Andy wont take all the credit, not alot of people would (If you accept credit when something good happens, then you gotta accept the blame when something bad happens,) but I think we know Andy had a big part to play.
One thing i will say is the Fur dynamics in the Super Squirrels spot was amazing, and really made the sequence hold up. Maybe thts why as a still it might not look overly impressive.
Framestore has created some of the best work in Europe, i just hope that Andy taught his techniques to few people before he left (and that they were tied up on some other project so they couldnt work on Super Squirrels spot).

Again I dont know the full story, its just my take on it.

So thats it for what must be the longest post on the site. I will no doubt see you within another 30 days.

Just joking, see ya soon

-andy