My longtime friend and former schoolmate could not post (although she is logged in!). So I posted the question for her.
People have often scratched their head when I tell them that I majored in philosophy at UCLA before going back to school at the AAC. "How did you get here from that major?"
I doubled in graphic design and simply loved philosophy. I worked in graphic design while at UCLA and during my senior year began taking the 2D animation classes in the UCLA grad film program; I KNEW this is the career I had been looking for! Back then there was not a clear path to working in visual effects.
I think philosophy has served me well as a character TD. that major is all about problem solving. Identifying the problem, cutting through all the clutter & getting to the core of the issue, the finding an appropriate solution. This is the bulk of what a character TD does.
I loved the AAC during the time I was there. It had its problems, but what school does not. I met many great people, was taught a solid understanding of the fundamentals and managed to land a decent job.
In a good environment, attending a school can accelerate your learning curve. Hopefully you will find yourself in a situation where the instructors and fellow students share their information & techniques. And you with them. This will allow people to learn from multiple sources. And being in a constructive environment will help you the many times you find yourself "stuck."
Attending the AAC was not cheap but it was worth it. This was the career I wanted to pursue so I saw it as an investment and spent as much time in that lab as my eyes and body could take (you know what I'm talking about Lynne!). I was making sure I got my $$$ worth!
And I worked at Rocket Science Games for a while during school, so that helped defray the costs for a little while. But I have no regrets other than I had not found this path sooner.
I am a student with still a year to go and am very interested in becoming a character TD after college. I would like to get an idea of where exactly I need to be to make the jump. So i have a few questions.
1. Outside of understanding how the software works, are there any other qualities that a TD should have or that you have seen that are beneficial to making them better at their job? For instance, I am studying up on as much anatomy (human and animal) that I can get my hands on, is there anything else?.
2. I am learning the ins and outs of MEL right now and am starting to develop some basic scripts, mostly macros that just automate tedious processes, for example, I am about to finish a script that auto rigs an entire biped. I know that this is a useful skill, and I was wondering how far I needed to take it to make myself desirable for potential employers? At what level do I need to be at to successfully communicate with TD's like yourself that have been doing this for a long time? How vital is it to learn other programming languages?(as of right now I just know MEL)
3. What is considdered a successful rigging reel? Just animated characters that show how my rig performs? How much MEL stuff should I throw in there? should it mostly be showing off the rigs or mostly the MEL stuff?
4. They say to show your best stuff first on a reel, is it more impressive to show a useful script first or a well rigged character moving around?
5. Is cloth and hair simulation something that I really need to get a grasp on? as of right now I don't know much about it.
6. For my last question I want to say that I know learning all of the above things are useful, but what is the essential stuff that I need to learn to get in the door and what can I pick up on the job and learn a little bit later?
thanks for taking time to answer these, I really appreciate it. Aaron (<--- not you, I have the same name!)
Well Aaron, if you want to work at ILM you mgiht have a good shot. There were THREE of us named Aaron at one time!
Understanding the software is a part of a larger quality; good problem-solving skills. Knowing our tool of choice allows us to get at a solution more quickly. In reality most software packages, even proprietary tools, work on the same principles. So understanding the fundamentals is the best thing you can do for yourself.
And since you will be working closely with animators and modelers, communication skills are a big plus. It is good having pride in ones work but not to the point of being defensive. Always defend a good idea or solution, but be open to entertaining other solutions. And never be afraid of simply starting all over again. Sometimes I head down a path, find out I am getting it all wrong, then back up and try something new. That goes back to building on the most solid foundation as possible rather than trying to patch something that is not all that good.
Showing MEL skills is always good. Building a GUI to build rig components or an animation GUI are good. Building a biped rig using MEL would be a great thing to show. FK-IK switching. Local-global toggles for the limbs. Even if it is fairly simple that is fine as long as it is solid.
Keep your reel short. Don't try to pad it; only show your best work. Add some good modeling if you can also; you might often find yourself building corrective blendshapes as a character TD. I would probably put the rigging stuff first; that is the meat of what you are being judged on. Showing a range of motion on a character (even if it is one) is great; focusing in on specific areas like the shoulders, scapula, pectorals, neck & throat... etc.
If you have good simulation work definitely put it on your reel. Hair and Cloth are becoming more specialized areas in our industry, but hopefully there will be opportunities to gain experience in these areas on the job. But it is not expected that many character TDs will have this on their reels. Thumbs up if you do!
Essentail skills? Just solid rigging. Humans. Animals. Props. It does not take a lot, just good. And I always try to tell people that if you are called in for an interview you have made it through the hard part; they like your work enough to be interested in meeting you. At that point it is a matter of being yourself.
Hi Aaron, Hope I'm not too late with questions. I'm glad you're doing this. Congratulations on the great work you're doing at Disney. The characters in Meet the Robinsons really move well.
1. If you consider the basics of rigging to be features like FK/IK switching and local-global toggles, what are some of the next most valuable features? That is, how would you prioritize learning/implenting these features in your own pipelines? And what are the relative difficulties of integrating these features?
Pose Space Deformers/corrective Blendshapes
Full body IK/breakable rigs
Silhouette control
Muscle systems of cartoony rigs (ala Incredibles)
Others
2. Do you have any opinion about Maya's FBIK? Is it similar to the rigs you've used at Disney?
3. Ditto about the Setup Machine?
4. What are the frontiers of cartoony character rigging that interst you?
5. Do you think it's reasonable to be a generalist or even multi-specialist in the professional environment anymore?
6. I can't read Kant. Can you?
Logged
------------------------------------------------------------- Barrett Fox - 3D Animator, Author http://www.barrettfox.com -------------------------------------------------------------
I tend not to think about "priorities" when it comes to things someone should learn. There are certain fundamentals in rigging that more or less form the basis for most if not all of the problem solving we encounter, so I would say learn the basics as solidly as possible. these might be kinematics, isolating motion, good & speedy deformations, etc.
I think of my job as an "Animation Enabler." I help craft the tools that an animator will use to bring their characters to life, so whatever you can do to help that process along is a good thing.
Perhaps a good idea for a reel would be taking the same basic character and rigging it twice. For example, a cartoony and realistic version of the same character. That would be a great thing on a reel, showing versatility and an understanding of the different needs for the different industries (animation & visual effects).
PSDs and corrective blendshapes are a great tool for defining the deformations on a character. These tend to be fast and art directable, which is a very important thing on any production. Having worked with muscle systems I believe that PSDs is a more powerful tool. Even if you use a muscle system to build PSD or corrective shape targets that is good.
But shapes are fast and you can tweak them to achieve a precise result, whereas muscle systems tend to get you "in the ballpark" and I personally feel are slow given the payoff. But that's just my opinion.
I've not used Maya's FBIK. Looks cool but it is counter to how animators want to control & isolate motion in feature animation. When someone poses the chest and arms they tend to want to be able to offset the hip and legs without affecting the other body parts that they have posed at all. But for other industries (i.e. videogames) I can see it being quite useful.
For feature animation, silhouette control is almost essential. Even with a fairly "realistic" cartoony character it is just a part of the principles that many aniamtors will expect to be able to take advantage off. It seems the more "realistic" a character the more you may want to maintain anatomical integrity, but some silhouette control is still good.
I think all of us wish we could be generalists. The past several years I have become more and more specialized but oddly enough things seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Riggers are now sometimes expected to deal with several aspects of a character; rigging, deformations, cloth, hair, shot finaling, etc.
Perhaps one may be more specialized in the beginning of their career, but the company and pipeline may have more to do with that than anything.
Kant is wild... but have you ever tried reading Husserl?! Yikes!
Thanks Aaron, So a follow-on question if I may. So what would you say are the best methods for implementing silhouette control in Maya?
Logged
------------------------------------------------------------- Barrett Fox - 3D Animator, Author http://www.barrettfox.com -------------------------------------------------------------
1. I'm curious to hear what sort of projects you enjoy doing, and if any - what kind of rigging do you do in your spare time?
2. Very pleased to hear about you're training series. I've personally also always felt compelled to share the little that I know. Yet thinking a few years back (i'm talking 10 or more) things were so different. I suppose the internet was not available in the same way, and in fact people were still developing the methods and tools that we all now take for granted. But somehow I feel that there is a real openness nowadays. Have you found this?
3. I've recently developed this crazy notion, that to the general public at least - animation (I really mean the motion of a character) is every increasingly less important - than say the mood (music?) and the look (the lighting, the models and textures, the backgounds..) And as an animator, that somewhat scares and saddens me.
What are you thoughts?
4. What ambitions do you still have?
Thanks.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2006, 03:20:50 PM by steveblake »
For controlling silhouette I like using a freeform deformer. Something an animator can just grab and tug into the pose they want, rather than a series of attributes. I try to build rigs such that the animator can stay focused on the screen. Not always possible, but when I can I do so.
As for projects I enjoy doing, anything challenging. I really do love rigging so as long as I am helping to build characters I am happy. I sometimes miss visual effects but I love feature animation. Didn't think I would at first, but I feel so much more involved with the story. I imagine videogames will feel this way in the near future as the technology allows for a more strong narrative in games.
I feel there is openness at the same time that some people shut themselves off. There is nothing magical about what I do or how I do it. And I love teaching so I am glad to share any non-proprietary techniques that I can.
I believe that the tools and hardware speed are allowing for the motion to become a MORE important aspect of film making! I *LOVE* the animation in "Meet The Robinsons!" It is so inspiring to see the characters move with such flexibility and... well... character. The tool is no longer dictating the style of animation but facilitating it. So perhaps it is the environment one finds themselves in.
Ambitions... I still believe I have a lot to learn. I want to enhance my skills and knowledge in every aspect of character creation. Going to begin taking a sculpting class fomr an INCREDIBLE guy here in LA who does a lot of work for the film industry (maquettes). Will take me years to get even close to this guys level, but I'll be learning from a very talented artist.
I want to return to modeling. And learn to texture better. And I keep threatening to sit down and start learning the Maya API. I doubt that I will ever be a competent programmer, but hopefully competent enough to write simple deformers & tools relating to the work I do.
So much I still want to learn and get better at!
That is how my caveman project started. I have a short idea I thought up about 8 years ago. There were thigns I wanted to learn and created a short film as a framework (I am a goal oriented person; I get a little lost if I do not have a clear goal I am trying to achieve). I created this carttony caveman model on the side a couple of years ago and decided to fulfill an old promise of putting a demo together.
Well, a few years and 10 hours of video later....
But in my spare time I think of specific problems and try to resolve them. FK-IK switching but on arms that can scale arbitrarily. Out-of-the-box skin sliding. Things like that.
There are a couple of ideas for shorts I have and will try to nail down one and start working on it in earnest. First I have to get a fun story then make it challenging for myself and anyone else I can trick into helping out if it is too large for just me to handle or involves apsects that I have little or no expertise at.
My 1st : How old are you? 2) How works your pipeline? Do you have to know what the char. will perform before you rig it(for example "reading" the storyboard?)? 3) When you think is necessary to use blendshapes for facial and when facial rig with cluster, bones etc? Then what do u think about Face Robot for Xsi? 4)If you use blend shapes will you model it or the modeler wil do it?
Thanks in advance!
Antonio Correnti
Italy
P.S. Sorry for my bad english!!!
« Last Edit: April 26, 2006, 01:10:31 AM by Antonio Correnti »
Author
Logged
