Sorry for the delay in the rest of the AFR series being available. The content is ready, but I’m having trouble getting it available on lulu.com. For some reason the movies aren’t uploading correctly, so I’m not able to make a product for purchasing.
I’m looking into alternative vendors besides lulu.. if any of you know of good eCommerce websites that will host and distribute content, please let me know!
As most of you know, for the past two years I’ve been working as Head of Character Animation on Megamind. We’ve been working hard, and it’s been a lot of fun. Animation is cranking away, and I can’t wait to see people’s reactions to the film in November!
The latest trailer has come out and is available online now..
This has been a real epic journey, and a real learning experience for me. It’s a joy to be able to now have some of our film out there for people to see!
Whew! Part 3b is up and available now! I’m finding that it’s taking about 2 hours or so to convert each section to be available for download through lulu, so at this rate hopefully I’ll be done by the end of the week!
Go straight to the page, or check out the preview video:
I’ve started working on getting Part 3 up and available. This morning I finished with Part 3a. This section discusses arms, and how to handle switching between FK and IK. It also looks at locking down elbows, and a whole bunch of fun stuff!
Go straight to the page, or check out the preview video:
There are 2 other parts to section 3. They continue with more arm work, and also getting into the hands and the fingers. I’m currently selling each part individually much as Autodesk did (‘cept for nearly 15 cheaper per part). If people are interested in purchasing entire sections as a bundle, or the entire AFR series as a bundle, I’m more than happy to do it. Just let me know if this is something you’d be interested in, and I’ll make it happen!
To re-iterate.. Currently the parts break up like this:
part 1 | parts 2a & 2b | parts 3a, 3b, 3c, | parts 4a, 4b
I can sell them all individually, as bundles for each section, and/or as a bundle for the whole.
In my continued quest to get all the Animator Friendly Rigging tutorials available, I’ve just finished uploading Part 2b – the continuation of Part 2a.
This part focuses on finishing the Torso rig, and gets into the head and neck. It’s quite a long one.. the movie file that comes with it is over 800 megs (yipes!), and is about 2 hours and 40 minutes long.
Here’s a preview of the section where I talk about the head:
And a demo of what types of controls you have with the head and torso:
Currently part 2 is broken into two bits.. 2a and 2b, simply because that’s how Autodesk had broken it up originally. I’m happy to continue providing them as a separate bits, or combining them into a single part 2 if people are interested. Let me know if that’s desirable, and I’ll do the same with parts 3 and parts 4.
A number of people have said how much they enjoy the js_greasePencil script I wrote a while ago, but they’ve been having trouble downloading the movie that shows how it works.
So I uploaded the movie to youtube and put it on the downloads page. You can also see it here:
Some day I’d like to re-write greasePencil so it’s actually got good drawing tools and isn’t such a hack.. but I probably won’t get around to it for a while. Of course, if Autodesk wrote it appropriately for integration with Maya, that would be AWESOME, too.
Continuing with the act of getting the Animator Friendly Rigging series up and running, I’ve now got Part 2a available for purchae from lulu.com!
Just as before with part 1, I’ve uploaded an example pdf with about 13 or so pages demonstrating some of the documentation, and also provided a 6+ minute example video (low resolution, but gives you a little bit of an idea as to what you’ll be getting, presentation style, etc).
And if you haven’t seen the reference I’m talking about in this example video, you can see a low-resolution version here:
Yes. We do look like idiots.
Thanks again for all the kind words about the series! I’m going to keep uploading them as I get them ready!
As I mentioned earlier, the Animator Friendly Rigging instructional series will no longer be available through Autodesk. It’s been a great run with Autodesk, and they have done a wonderful job selling the series. However, they decided that they will no longer be selling the DVD online.
I have received such great feedback on the material, that I decided to keep selling it through lulu.com. So over the next week I’ll be making sure all the material is available online, and as a special bonus I’m going to be dropping the price for a little while!
I’ve posted the first dvd on lulu.com already, and will get the rest up ASAP.
If you go to the AFR – part 1 page, you can find a PDF and video excerpt to show you an example of what it is you will receive when you purchase the material.
I look forward to getting all the material up and available for people to see!
A lot of people have asked me over the years where they can find the js_greasePencil script for Maya that I wrote a while ago.
This is a handy script that lets you draw on top of your Maya scene. You can use it for thumbnails, roughing out timing, drawing arcs, etc. It’s pretty basic, but handy to have!
Anyway, I’ve added the script to the downloads page. If you’re logged in, you can download it here:
I’ve received a few emails from people saying they’re having troubles with some of the scripts from the Animator Friendly Rigging series. I’d like to get all those issues solved, so if you are having trouble, please comment in this post so we can get it all sorted out!
It looks like Autodesk may stop selling the DVDs on their website soon, so I’m going to try and sell them myself through lulu.. the same way I’ve got the other two dvds selling. Once I make this move, I plan on putting up some specific information on this site about each DVD, including an example of the documentation, a sample of the movie, and quotes from anyone who has used the DVDs and found them useful. If you’re one of those people.. I’d love a quote or two!
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