shhLIFE!

Heya folks!

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!

Thanks for all the kind words and support!

-jason

Heya folks!

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:

Enjoy!

I received an email yesterday from a person who purchased the Animator Friendly Rigging series and found that two mel scripts were missing:

js_matchObj.mel and js_matchObjUI.mel.

I’ve heard of others missing these as well, so I added them to the downloads page, along with js_iterator.mel.

If you’re missing them.. enjoy!

note: you must be logged in to download.

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that it’s important to share your ideas as much as possible.  That’s how innovation happens.  It’s how things progress.  It’s how we learn.  I’ve never been afraid to put my own ideas out there because I know I’ll get back more in return.

As soon as I released my DVDs on character rigging, I started seeing them pop up on warez & pirating sites.  People have been sharing them with friends, downloading them from various locations, burning dvds, etc.  While it directly takes away from my own pocket, there’s nothing I can do to stop it so I don’t stress about it.

I figure, as long as people are out there using this stuff, then it’s a good thing.  If they really appreciate it, then maybe someday they’ll send me a thank you email, or a postcard, or 10 bucks, or whatever.  Or they’ll tell others to go buy my stuff.  Or they’ll buy me a beer at siggraph.

Today I got an email from someone who actually created an automated way to create the “Animator Friendly Rigging” rig that I developed for the AFR series dvds.

Automated “Animator Friendly Rigging” – Free Character Scripts / Plugins Downloads for Maya.

Some people would probably think that I’d be offended by this, or ask him to take it down.  After all, they’re techniques I developed, right?  This stuff contains scripts that should really only be available through the DVD series.  It’s my intelectual property he’s messing with!

But I’m not, I’m actually quite stoked that he liked my stuff enough to spend the time to try and automate it.  It means that my ideas aren’t nuts and that they’re worth following.

My whole point of the DVDs wasn’t to say “this is the be-all end-all of rigging technology”, but to say “hey.. this is how I like to THINK about rigging.  You should, too!”

If you just download this script and create a rig with it.. yeah, you’ll have a pretty sweet rig with lots of functionality.  But you won’t have learned the point of the DVD, and that’s how to THINK about rigging.

So, here’s what I say.. download the tool.  Try it out.  See how you like the rig.  If you dig it, or at least intrigued by it.. then go purchase the DVD and see why certain choices were made.  Learn about the process, because in the end.. THAT’s what you need to do to be a good character td.

Autodesk® Maya® Techniques | Animator Friendly Rigging Part 1 Product Information – Autodesk, Inc. Online Store.

A number of people have asked what specifially is covered in my two DVDs – Integrating a Creature Rig Withing a Production Pipeline and Fast Animation Rigs, so here ya go!

Integrating a Creature Rig Into a Production Pipeline

1. Definition of a “Pipeline”
   1. Examples: Film, Modeling, Shot
   2. Determining how animation rig itself fits into the rest of the pipeline
   3. Animation-based transfer
   4. Control-based transfer
2. Definition of a “creature”
   1. Creating a node to represent the “creature”
   2. Defining Types of nodes
3. Orienting Joints
   1. Manually Re-orienting joints
   2. Automatic re-ordering
4. Animation Control Concepts
   1. Iconic Representation
   2. Limiting Selection and keyability
   3. Rotation Order
   4. Extra Gimbal Control
   5. Customized PickWalking
5. Automatic vs Manual Shoulder Control
   1. History of the discussion
   2. Constraint based control
   3. SetDrivenKey based control
6. Creating a “realistic” forearm
   1. Radius and Ulna
   2. Creating the Control Structure
7. FK/IK Back Control
   1. History
   2. Creating the spline IK
   3. Adding Stretching
   4. Creating the IK Control Structure
   5. Adding FK
   6. Adding Twist
   7. Adding Stretch Warning
8. Procedural Animation Rigs
   1. What is a procedural rig?
   2. Creating the rig
   3. Updating the rig
9. Included MEL Scripts
   1. endName.mel
   2. jsChannelCtrl.mel
   3. jsConstObj.mel
   4. jsCreateCreature.mel
   5. jsDefineCreature.mel
   6. jsGetShape.mel
   7. jsListCreatures.mel
   8. jsMovIn.mel
   9. jsMovOut.mel
   10. jsOrientJointUI.mel
   11. jsPickWalk.mel
   12. jsRenameWindow.mel
   13. jsRotateOrder.mel
   14. jsScaleJointsByCurve.mel
   15. jsUnlockTransforms.mel

Fast Animation Rigs – Bridging the Gap between Speed and Functionality

1. Fast Animation Rigs
   1. Global Concepts
      1. Display Layers
      2. Easily identifiable Controls
      3. Appropriate Rotation Orders
      4. Tidy Scene
   2. Leg Control – fast reverse foot setup
   3. Isolation of Movement
      1. History
      2. Head
   4. FK/IK Arms
      1. Maya’s fk/ik toggle
      2. jsFkIKSetup – a better solution
   5. Misc Speed Techniques – What’s fastest?
      1. Direct Connections
      2. Expressions
      3. Point Constraint
      4. Drive from same source
      5. Math Nodes
   6. Other Speed Techniques
      1. Object visibility
      2. Shaded Mode
      3. Nurbs vs Polys
      4. Keeping track of FPS
2. Pipeline Methodology
   1. File Structure
      1. Base Directory
      2. Revision System
      3. Resolution System
      4. Updating
   2. Incremental Rigging – Blocking, Animating, Finessing
      1. Switching Between Rigs
      2. File Referencing
      3. Transferring Animation
3. Fast Animation Technique
   1. Gather Information
   2. Thumbnail
   3. Staging
   4. Blocking
   5. First pass
   6. Second pass
   7. Third Pass
   8. Facial
   9. Secondary/External
4. Included Mel Scripts
   1. jsAddBoolAttr.mel
   2. jsAddMessageAttr.mel
   3. jsAddStringAttr.mel
   4. jsAlignToJoint.mel
   5. jsChooseItem.mel
   6. jsCopyAnim.mel
   7. jsCopyPos.mel
   8. jsCopyRot.mel
   9. jsDuplicateControl.mel
   10. jsErrorMsg.mel
   11. jsFindChildJoint.mel
   12. jsFindConnected.mel
   13. jsFindFkIkChars.mel
   14. jsFixPrefix.mel
   15. jsFkIkArmRig.mel
   16. jsFkIkSetup.mel
   17. jsFkIkSetupEverything.mel
   18. jsFkIkWin.mel
   19. jsGetRefFile.mel
   20. jsMakeFkIkConnections.mel
   21. jsreferenceRig.mel
   22. jsReferenceRigUI.mel
   23. jsRigUI.mel
   24. jsToggleFkIk.mel
   25. moveIkToFk.mel

People have been asking, and I’ve finally gotten around to providing both my Fast Animation Rigs DVD and Integrating a Creature Rig within a Production Pipeline DVD as downloadable from LULU.com.

You can access them and other items in the store.

I’m often asked if these titles are still relevant in the industry today, and I have to say I still think they are. They’re obviously older techniques (they came out in 2001 and 2002), but many people consider them to be really great learning tools and I’ve had amazing feedback from them over the years.

I hope people find these useful!

Originally posted: Tuesday, 05 June 2007

So after finishing recording of the videos, I decided to record myself creating a walk-cycle with the AFR rig.

Enjoy!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zrObqm4Fm0

Originally Posted: Monday, 12 June 2006

We’re making the most rediculous video of all time.. it’ll either be great, or.. well.. stupid.

Edit:  I finished shooting the video & editing it together.  It’s available on youtube.. and if you purchased the Animator Friendly Rigging DVD series, you’ve seen it.   Enjoy!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvHG0OkCWJ4

I’ve created a Downloads page that has scripts from the Animator Friendly Rigging DVD series.  I’ll be adding varioius mel scripts and fixes to that page, so keep checking back!

Oh yeah, and happy holidays!