WK 7-Adding texture to polygon hand.

This week i learnt how to texture the hand i had created from a previous tutorial , using texture mapping or projections , also how useful and necessary bump mapping is for visual effects, i worked in the UV texture editor were i had created sets of the top and bottom of my hand to then be placed in the editor to unfold and take a snapshot were it can then be put through photoshop to add color through a phong material after the two halfs being sewn back together neatly and apply to the polygon hand created in maya .  I  took a snapshot of the U.V editor to show the two halves of my image:

After taking a snapshot it can now be painted in photoshop,  and applied through a phong material.

here shows my final hand textured.

With reference to external work , i found this topic also a great interest of mine i was exciting to see the final product and comparing this with work such as sully in monsters inc i felt as though it was one a main interest in animation. With the source i used below it captures the effectiveness of sullys fur and also boos hands how they have been made and animated, this is useful as it relates to the importance of texturing.

I felt comparing my work to Pixars i  felt my hand was very good i want to touch up on illumination materials for elements such as nails ,also i would like to have liked to use bump mapping on the fingers and possibly over the knuckles however ran out of time in order to keep myself up to date . I would also benefit from adding in realistic textures for freckles and veins however as my first time texturing i felt my work was successful.
As mentioned above i would like to develop areas such as bump mapping and the use of other materials to expand my knowledge and make my hand more realistic again . I plan to address this issue next week if possible.

WK 6- Creating a polygon hand.

Today i learnt how to create a realistic hand using polygons , adjusting the uv components , extuding faces of polygons and was also introduced to new tools such as inserting polygon tools and offsetting polygon tools in order to create new edges, i found this exciting and really enjoyed doing it, by making very rough hand shapes using keys 1,2 and 3 i was able to soften the image have both mesh and block to visualize what was needed to be done next or what needed to be changed. This also was interesting as the exact techniques in order to create knuckles wrinkles and depth were demonstrated by using basic tools and slightly changing the U.V components .I used a reference for this hand to get the proportions correct, i used my own hand here and scanned in the image which i later imported into maya to get the correct ratios and created a duplicate of my hand in C.G.I.

This polygon hand has been converted to smooth mesh, the nails were created by using split polygon tool and the extrusion tool. below shows the more simplified approach to this task were a polygon was used and 3 insert offset edges were inserted which enabled me to extrude faces for the fingers.

This was extremely helpful and relevant with external sources proving this also. As this was a well spaced tutorial that allowed me to keep up with the demo and download all files with enough time ,and individual parts were thoroughly explained that left no room for confusion in any way.

This will be usefull for future projects as this covers all aspects that could be needed with a project if i was to use polygons as a basic structure, also the knowledge i learnt in itself has allowed me to explore my own way in which i could create the same task in a way i find easier. This practice could be helpfull when creating models and characters in a realistic form or that of fantasy. An external reference of this practice is in animations were characters are used in human form such as ratatoullie trailer by pixar:

Again with references to professional work i would like to consider my hand successful , through trial and error with the knuckles and fingernails which i had spent many hours mastering i was finally happy with my work being the first time i had created my own model, based on my hand , in this area i feel i could however develop further understanding of UV components in order to create cuticles or further markings of the hand which i could not achieve.

WK 5- lip syncing

This was a fun tutorial , experimenting with jason osipas mouth controls default grey, and creating my own mouth controls. With this i learnt how animators can use controls to control facial expressions , mouth movements , and other parts of the body, i learnt that blending shapes save a lot of time rather than creating lots of individual mouth shapes, and the basic movements being wide and narrow as one part, open closed.

facial movements by Jason Osipas book stop starring for lip syncing.

Here are screen shots of my own mouth controls created i the tutorial with the use of blend shapes:

unfortunantly i could not provide a clip of this as there were difficulties creating a clip and uploading to you tube.

Using these two techniques i am able to create full speech with  a character and sync it with audio.
In CGI films such as UP by disney pixar the use of blend shapes are used to provide consistent speech that flows beautifully were expressions are created off the back of the dialogue, the clip below was a good source in which i found how usefull this technique can be in a fully animated film.

In order to gain a more in depth knowledge, this tutorial covered all the basic principles that i had to think about. This was important to me as i felt that this is what i would need to learn and understand in order to bring more life into my characters  also drive the storytelling process forward. In previous tasks before the specialist unit i found i would tend to over animate my characters lip syncing . So this was extremely helpful and relevant to my area of interests. Below is my task fro lip syncing i used a downloaded rig off the internet called generi blue that came with controls, so from here i chose my own dialogue and then created my character singing to the lyrics.

With reference to professional work i felt for the level of knowledge i gained ,my work for this task was successful to the best of my ability ,  being both the mouth controls and my own task ,i am very pleased with the final outcome of both. I plan to look back at this task and tweak anything i feel can be improved further to my abilities. i want to address this as soon as i have free time to do so.
below is the professional reference i used to compare my lip syncing to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVdlxwX6A7g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AAdkfiamU
 Both these clips are created by aardman animation 3d stop motion, i used these clips also as they show great facial expressions were talking or giving a shocked expression, they are extremely well made also beleivable as they were created based on real peoples movements and voices.

WK 4-FK, IK systems (leg)

This tutorial was interesting, i learnt a great deal on forward kinematics and Inverse kinematics as this was a task for the leg joints i learnt that the two points to consider when creating a leg was the joints and the F.K and I.K systems that would be used. I learnt about other tools in maya which could be helpfull  such as I,K handle tool , adding effectors , and how its a lot more easier to work in a lower proxy model with lower polygons. rigs were also created to allow movement in the leg.
I felt the importance of this was to create a realistic skeleton of the leg which can be used to animate later. also how the leg is constructed in joints by using pivots and how the foot needs many functions in order to tip toe balance on heels , run ,walk and dance using a three joint system.
As reference to external work i felt this could possibly be useful in the future however i did not feel as though i would like to concentrate on this aspect of animation in the future, it was great to understand further concepts in maya, just did not feel as though it was a strong point for myself.

I feel the task i completed was of a good standard the leg controls worked well with no errors also the foot element worked well, thee ball joint in the image is moved to the ankle as i was rigging at the time of the shot.
Here i do not feel as though i could develop much more in this area as i successfully completed the task, however i would be interested to know how to make leg/foot controls based on arrows to the side of my character so when animating the character could perform based on movements of the arrow controls set up .

I plan to gain further knowledge by researching into books for basics in leg rigging, although i would  not like to pursue this task further i am interested in the possibilities when it also comes to creating my own characters to develop this idea.