Michael - When working in a Maya pipeline much of the work is done using Maya or tools built within the Maya framework. But there also tend to be tools created that exist completely outside of Maya. Using such tools takes time to learn, but just as any new tool would.
I have worked in completely proprietary pipelines with software that is very foreign. But how difficult it is to learn & use varies. I tend to be a visual person, so some pipelines felt more artist friendly to me and I could get in and become productive fairly quickly.
Other pipelines have been more low-level techie and I found myself struggling. I would often reach a point where I would say, "You've done this before! Why is it suddenly so hard?!" In these cases I have launched Maya and refreshed myself on the basic technique. Not thinking so much about the tools but the fundamental idea. Then it gets a little easier.
We tend to use a LOT of scripted rig building. And I would recommend any studio to do so. It can be done in stages, like building a foundation rig or rig components. Then building additional rigging on top of that. And so on. But a human is a human is a human. The foundation skeletal structure can often be reduced to a similar & simple structure.
The deformation needs may vary; that is where the layering will come in handy.
I *hope* my tutorials are accessible to non-techie people. I consider myself a non-techie person and want to make these basic techniques & tools understood but the majority. For those of you who have seen my tutorials I hope you think that there really isn't anything magical or hyper-techie going on. They are more solid, basic techniques and (hopefully) some unique solutions for rigging certain parts of the character.
I am hoping to make a simple character available soon for download. Since I am not showing anything secret in my tutorials I have no problem with giving it away. the tutorials are for those want want to learn how to create their own rigs.
I also want to build a framework using the scripted rig building ideas I show in my tutorial such that it is open to anyone and everyone adding components to it. So there could potentially be a library of arm solutions, spine solutions, etc... but don't hold your breath, it may take a minute!
George has asked some interesting questions! Seriously, I just returned from lunch with some buds and we were talking about what we hoped to be doing in the future.
I hope to still be working in this industry 5 to 10 years from now. Further into the future I have always thought of teaching fulltime. I enjoy teaching and would love to do so. The only fear is that I would quickly lose touch with the never-end progress of tools and techniques, so some combination of teaching and production woudl be the best of both worlds.
I do not play any musical insturments. I started briefly to learn the drums and threaten my wife that I will do so again in the near future!
I could put my reel online... but don't laugh!
I think there is quite a lot of room for technical advancement in rigging. For me, the indication of an advanced technology is when it feels like magic. What I mean is that the technology/tool is almost invisible and allows you to do your work or finish a task with ease.
Like a microwave oven; it would be stupid to have to understand the inner workings of microwave energy to nuke last nights pizza. Our tools are still in their infancy. So many times you still want to reach into the screen and just "pull" the mesh where you want it. That is a sign of technical immaturity to me... but it is advancing quickly!
If 1= red and 2 = white then 3... well, if I were the uber-patriot I would say blue. But my first inclination is to answer green (passing from red on thwe color wheel, through to white at the center to the opposite color).
you said you want to be in the industry 5-10 yrs from now, but where do you see yourself as an artist in the future?
do you want to stay as a TD? As a TD myself, and from working in a small studio, i get pulled in all sorts of directions from pipeline dev, particles, modeling, to animation, but most of the time i'm just working with TD related issues. I'd love to focus more energy into developing my skills as an animator, but it can be difficult to grab that kind of production time. Do you ever get to jump over to non-TD/rigging tasks at WDFA (or do you have a desire to?)? with a team that large, are you stuck doing one thing for awhile?
is there any specific thing related to rigging that you personally would like to take to the next level, or something that you've always wanted to focus on improving? ie, the next amazing facial rig, a system that makes hand posing faster, etc etc.
thanks, and good luck with your training dvds - they look great
-josh td @ the animation farm
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------------- Josh Carey Character TD The Animation Farm --- www.vfxcreator.com joshuac@vfxcreator.com
Where do I see myself in the future? Well, after I win the lottery I plan on retiring to an island in the Caribbean! But my "Plan B" is to keep working as long as the industry can handle me! Eventually I would like to teach, but because I would want to keep one foot in production maybe teach part-time.
Personally, I would love to improve my MEL skills and particularly learn the Maya API even on a cursory level, where I would prototype deformers, etc. And I hope to imrpvoe all my skills in the areas of character creation; illustration & design, sculpting, rigging, cloth & hair, texture painting, etc.
I am not all that skilled in many of these areas due to the fact that I have been fairly narrowly focused throughout most of my career.
People can migrate into different areas at Disney. And they have a great training department that will continue to improve in the near future particularly. And there are so many people to learn from. As I said above, I love the character end of the pipeline & process, so I want to do the things I am doing now but more.
I believe there are so many areas for improvement in rigging in general and hope to add a little bit toward that advancement.
Hi, really hyped about your turtorials, I ordered the rig one to try out . I am a half pro taught and self taught animator, and having a chance to try out the rigs of pros will be awesome, thanks. Looking forward to the rest, Aaron any chance getting a pro animator buddy or yourself to have tutorial on using the character rig for acting and action shot ,facial stuff and thoeries in action going on, alot of it also that I would have to just turn off the computer and keep on doing it the next day? I think It will be another great addition if not in the works already. The pro classes is just too outrageous and out of budget for the regular dedicated budding animator. Thanks
I feel there are so many great resources for animation that I might steer clear of that. Then again, I know some incredible animators and do intend to include them into the Fahrenheit line-up. So we'll see.
Well, this thing is going to be ending soon. Before the seesion ends I wanted to thank everyone for their questions and interest in rigging. Sorry if I did not answer ALL of your questions; I tried to steer clear of divulging anything proprietary about my current or past employers.
And I wanna thank Rick and CG-Char for inviting me to their forums for this discussion. I hope everyone got something out of it; I sure did!
Thanks and I hope to continue the back and forth!
-Aaron
« Last Edit: April 28, 2006, 05:55:43 PM by aaronholly »
This concludes another week of Ask The Pro. I'd like to thank Aaron for taking time out of his schedule to participate. This was our first rigging pro, and I'm glad that we finally had a chance to get one in here! Also, a big thanks to all those that participated or just simply stopped by to read.
This forum is now closed to everyone except Aaron. Aaron, you may either call it quits or answer any questions you didn't get a chance to.
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