Essential Steps to Follow for Motion

 

  1. Review the Motion Bible for your shot

·        Use the timing from the bible—if you have a suggestion for a different timing, present both the original and your suggested change during review

  1. Review Video Reference (Actors)

·        As you watch your video reference, pay attention to the provided notes for assistance

  1. Shoot Your Own Reference

·        Composite(s) of the actors’ video reference/notes

·        Helps with feeling the actions as you do them yourself

  1. Review Your Reference

·        Take notes similar to those provided for the actor reference

  1. Make Planning Sheet(s)
  2. Reference the set

·        FILE>>CREATE REFERENCE

·        Choose the completed set (Set or MiniSet)—find it on My Network Places rather than on your computer (need an absolute path)

Paths: \\ntdfs\cs\unix\projects\instr\animation\cse460_sp04\_Shared\Set\Set.mb
 
\\ntdfs\cs\unix\projects\instr\animation\cse460_sp04\_Shared\Set\MiniSet.mb
  1. Import Characters and Load Mocap into Maya (provided my Daniel F.)

 

Importing Motion Capture Data To Characters in Maya

 

 

 

1)                  Open (Import) the rigged Character from the following path:

\\ntdfs\cs\unix\projects\instr\animation\cse460_sp04\Models\Characters\Rigged


2)                 Import the Motion Capture Data (*.v  file) from

\\ntdfs\cs\unix\projects\instr\animation\cse460_sp04\MotionCapture\

! Make sure the V-File reader Plug-in is loaded, otherwise an error message will appear. Here is how to load the Plug-in: 


- Open the Maya Plug-in Manager:




 

 

- Check the Boxes next to “MayaVfileReader.mll”





3)                  Open the Maya Script Editor:




Open the MEL script for the character. (File | Open Script)



The Script can be found here:

\\ntdfs\cs\unix\projects\instr\animation\cse460_sp04\MotionCapture\MEL_SCRIPTS

! Each Character has its own MEL Script.

Run the MEL script to apply MoCap motion to the rig.
To Execute the Script go to Script | Execute

! Be Patient, running the script will take some time, because we added the baking of the channels and the deletion of static channels into the script. The character will move for the time the script is running.



Once the script was successfully executed, close the script editor.

4)                  Open the Graph Editor and fix the parts where the MoCap data is broken.




5)                  Simplify the curves for baked channels. As you can see, all the baked channels now have heavy curves with tons of key frames, which make it hard to make changes to the motion.


To simplify the curves, open the graph editor, go to Curves | Simplify Curve.



! Check the options of the Simplify Curves tool to get the best results. Settings might have to be different for every curve.



END


  1. Import the Props (only the necessary ones—don’t want excess geometry)
Path://ntdfs/cs/unix/projects/instr/animation/cse460_sp04/Models/Props
  1. Import New Version of the Animatic Camera (coming soon to a server near you)

·        In the meantime, reference the animatic for the camera (for framing purposes for the reviews of your shot)

  1. Make adjustments/Apply secondary motion
  2. Finishing Touches
  3. Saving

·        There will be folders for each sequence in the shared space

·        Create a new project named after your shot number (INTRO_100 for instance) within its respective sequence folder

·        This will organize all of the scenes, images, etc.

·        Save iterations of the animation within the scenes folder

·        Keep a copy of the most recent iteration outside of the scenes folder so it is clear for the lighting team and other teams who need to find it quickly