I haven’t found the scene file error, but I did find another issue in jsReferenceRig.mel.. turns out that for some reason when trying to reference in the .rig file, the reference node is locked so it can’t add the “animControls” attribute (line 249ish). I added this line at 249:

lockNode -lock off $reference;

and that seemed to fix the problem. I also then updated the fileDialog line in jsRigUI.mel to look like:

$result = `fileDialog2 -startingDirectory ($dirName + “/*”)`;

and it worked perfectly.

I’m guessing in your situation, the .rig file might not be in the same place as your scene files that it’s trying to reference? Can you tell me what the .rig file says?

cheers!
-jason

As you open jsRigUI in Maya 2011′s script editor, you’ll see from line 184 ($result = `fileDialog -dm ($dirName + “/*”)` the rest of the whole script turns red after the “/” sign.

I think this is caused as Maya updated some script syntax, here is a part of Maya 2011′s documentation on fileDialog command:

“The fileBrowserDialog and fileDialog commands have now been deprecated. Both commands are still callable, but it is recommended that the fileDialog2 command be used instead. To maintain some backwards compatibility, both fileBrowserDialog and fileDialog will convert the flags/values passed to them into the appropriate flags/values that the fileDialog2 command uses and will call that command internally. It is not guaranteed that this compatibility will be able to be maintained in future versions so any new scripts that are written should use fileDialog2. See below for an example of how to change a script to use fileDialog2.”

// Old way:
fileDialog;
fileDialog -directoryMask “/usr/u/bozo/myFiles/*.ma”;
fileDialog -dm “*.cc”;

//
// Recommended way:
fileDialog2 -startingDirectory “/usr/u/bozo/myFiles/” -fileFilter (“Maya Ascii (*.ma)”);

Btw, I found that Danielpk suggested some way around for jsReferenceRig a long time ago on cgtalk:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52104

but even after changing that part of the script as shown by Danielpk, jsRigUI still doesn’t work for me, it still reports: “// Error: Cannot find the scene file. //”

I also did try some tweak with the updated command fileDialog2 but still could not make it working.
“// Error: Cannot find the scene file. //”

Looking forward to hearing from you, Jason. Thanks a bunch!

Have you been thinking about making a kit about facial setup?

I may, but for right now I’m pretty busy with my day job. never say never, though!

Can you turn on line numbers in errors in Maya so I can see what line is returning the error? that would help diagnose the problem.

cheers!

enjoy!

I just wanted to know that whether your tutorial includes high end rigging of character? Like
FK IK automated switching. I have brought many tutorials in the past but none inlude that. Can you guide me with the same.

Thanks
Ashley

I am student of 3D Animation at Seneca College in Toronto. One of my teachers gave me your name as one of the best animators and riggers. I’m glad that I know about you now and will definitely go through your videos and use your tutorials.

As one of our assignments we should talk to an animator we have never met before and ask some questions. I don’t want to take so much of your time, some short answers to my few questions would be greatly appreciated. And it will help me and my fellow students to learn more about you and the route you have taken to get where you are now.

here are the questions:

1. What path have you taken to become an animator?

2. What type of work are you doing now?

3. Where do you want to be in the future?

4. What is your favorite movie?

Thanks very much for your time and answers,

Tahereh

Anyway, if you tried to contact me, do you know what email address you used? I searched through my mail and can’t find anything there regarding chinamarker.

cheers!
-jason

Thank you so much for creating these series, as they are of great, great help of guiding me through my project workflow.

However, I don’t know if it’s because I was doing sth wrong, but I’m having a small trouble with jsRigReferencing:

When I ran jsReference Interface (from Fast Animation Rigs) on Maya 2011, after the path to the macMan.rig file specified, the script loaded the rig with low-res model successfully but also reported:

// Error: Cannot convert data of type string to type string[]. //

Then the jsRigUI could not load the rig with high-res model as in the tutorial.

I also tried to use these scripts for my own project. Even though my low.ma, high.ma and the rig file are all in the same folder, the script encountered this error:

// Error: Cannot find the scene file. //

I’m not sure if it’s a version compatibility issue or not.

I know you are super super busy, therefore I would really appreciate your help.

(I bought your series on LuLu.com and still have the order receipt with me)

Also, is there any quick peek at “Integrating a Creature Rig” available anywhere?
Much appreciate your help.

Thanks

Ross

I would love to do more training.. But time is so difficult to come by . Heading up the animation for a movie takes quite a bit of energy and time, and then with family.. Well.. There just isn’t a lot of time available. . I’m having a hard enough time keeping up with email as it is! Heh . But someday, I would like to do more…

Btw, I repeat a question I made several months ago, any plans on doing another training series, focused on animation? I know you are a super busy person, but I don’t lose hope to be able to learn from you besides the blog!
cheers

I am trying to buy the tutorials via the downloadable route but everytime I click on the link Im forwarded to lulu.com website while I’m getting the following message. “We’re sorry, the item you requested is not available.” Is there something wrong with the link?

Thanks,

Kostas

I was just wondering where I could find your twos.mel script, if it’s still available for download. I’m working on my graduate reel and it would definitely help me a lot.

Thanks,
Natalie

Thanks very much! I’m glad you’re enjoying the book.. Tina wrote a really great one!

I don’t have twos.mel on me, but I did find it here:
http://www.cgmaxx.de/download/mel/twos.mel

it was written a looooong time ago, so I don’t know if it works in the latest builds of Maya. But hey.. may as well check it out!

cheers!
-jason

I read about you in Tina O’Hailey’s book, Hybrid Animation. I also browsed your website and wanted to sincerely congratulate you on all your achievements – I’d like to be as good as you someday. I just wanted to ask you if the twos.mel script is available anywhere for download, as I’m working on a 2D/3D reel and it would help me very much in going through these tutorials found in the book.

Thanks very much,
Nat

sorry if annoying and thanks in advance

These tutorial are awesome.
Do you plan to make some video for rigging quadrupeds or birds ?

sorry if annoying and thanks in advance

These tutorial are awesome.
Do you plan to make some video for rigging quadrupeds or birds ?

oh ok

not sure when the pilot is coming to nickelodeon.. I’m not involved with that part of things. my focus is all on the feature animation side.

i was wondering because i have had the time of my life writing one for Monsters vs. Aliens

ps, when is the tv show going to start up with the pilot on Nickelodeon?

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

Thanks

im a devote fan of the Movie and am concerned im going to miss it like the BOB app…

Are these dvds same one which were available for Autodesk subscribers and if so is there any update on them.

Thank you very much sir.

https://groups.google.com:443/forum/m/?hl=en#!topic/animatorfriendlyrigging/jt7Q-eim_bk

joey

Cheers!

My DVDs don’t cover any skinning material.. They are focussed on creating animation controls that are intuitive and fun to use. If you are interested in learning about muscle tools definitely check out some of the other rigging tools out there.

Thanks for buying them!

Thanks, Arthur

Cheers

I’m writing you with a question about the js_createIkStretch.mel update.
I’m trying to downloaded but when i’m trying to connect Vanilla server i had a problem with the certain error which appear : Fatal Error in Gdn_Database.Query(). I saw a chat conversation about a man with the same problem. It was from July. You have said that you would fix it. Please , let me know if you still trying to cope with it?
Please let me know how can i get over that.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!
Best,
Plamen

If you’re more interested in rigging for faces, check out the Stop Staring book by Jason Osipa.. it’s quite good!

Can I achive this with your latest Animator Friendly Rigging ?

Thanks in advance for your reply

Nothing new since then.. but you should have had the docs the whole time. Did you not get them when you ordered them from autodesk?

enjoy!

thanks a lot

Imagine IF you had teach how to rig the head?

It is sad, interned is a safe-heaven for bullies.

Your interviews are awesome! You should write a book and see how it does on lulu. When I was in school there was a copy of your rigging bundle that I watched a lot. its great to see more material available here.

-Sam

So jsFkIkArmRig.mel is used by the jsFkIkSetup.mel script. If you have the docs that you used when you purchased the dvd, page 48 starts the documentation on how to use it.

Do you have the docs that came with the dvd & jsFkIkSetup.mel?

when/where did you purchase them?

I’ve bought your AFR bundle a long time ago and there was no
documentation about the scripts that you gave us.

I’m trying to figure out how to use the jsFkIkArmRig.mel for exemple.

How can I get those documentations?

thank’s

JP

as for your question, what do you mean by “the old fashion way?” I think mocap can be very useful, but I think that’s important to recognize what it takes to bring a mocap performance to the level required for communicating true intent and emotion. Quite often it’s assumed that just taking the mocap directly will work perfectly.. but that is almost never the case. Certainly for a performance of the caliber of gollum, king kong, avatar, etc there must be animators behind pushing and exaggerating and clarifying the performance.

-Tom
Redwood City

enjoy!

in your readme file, you mention a video tut? .. but you have changed a domain, so that link does not load up .. would you, also and please, have this movie available as well ? .. i would like to show it to the students, would be faster that way

thank you much
david

yep, the script is definitely still available! you can download it here:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/animatorfriendlyrigging/jt7Q-eim_bk

I would like to quickly ask if your script for drawing in Maya is still available. I was not able to find the DOWNLOAD page that you refer to in your blog, neighter a log in …

so I wonder if it is still available. Would be awesome to use it, we are having currently animation courses with Andy Schmidt from Pixar, he is a classical animator at also and I would like him and the students to use your script for planning their shots .

would it be possible to use this great script .. ?

thank you much
david

I was curious if the greasepencil script runs on MacOS as well?

what exactly is going on when you try and load the scripts? if you just source one of them in maya, will it work? are just the icons not showing up?

cheers!
-jason

thanks

thanks for the great tutorial with scripts

I have recently started with your awesome rigging DVDs, but am stuck at the rigging of the head. The js_setUpMultiConstraintscript doesn’t allow me to make the rot constraint on the head_anim. I have read that there is a fix for it but I cant seem to find it anywhere on the site. Now it seems that the forums are down so I guess that’s where I would be finding the downloadable fixes. Is there any other way to get a hold of them?

Thanks

Ewald

woo!

Thanks!

nope, it’s not over.. to enter the code, click on the “order now” button once you get onto fastspring’s site. Enter all your information, hit “next” and then there will be a place to enter the code on the next page. Enter it where it says “Update Coupon” Once you enter the code and hit enter, you’ll see the price update.

As a Sr. Product Manager we use something similar, bite sized tasks, in Agile project management. The basis is that you take a larger task and break it into stories. Instead of putting a big long multi-week bar that says “Administration Interface” with a deadline at the end, you do little “stories”. “An admin can login.” “An admin can add new users.” “A admin can sort the report by date, most recent first is the default.”

Little individual snipits of the whole and written in a way that, in essence, gives the work flow of the tool. The little stories are then prioritized and given “points”. Sort of like “If you have only enough budget for 3 points worth of work, do you want to spend them on three 1 point additions, or one 3 point addition?” And the estimated difficulty is the point weight.

Small chunks, do the important stuff first and if you can, sneak a few small, easy to do tasks in there to enhance the project.

So get your character to deliver his line to character B at the bar, and get the important actions in (sitting down, the dismissive look, looking at char B and saying “You just don’t get it, do you?”) and toss in a few “low point cost” enhancements (swirling his finger in his drink glass, a well timed eye roll at what char. B says, a fidgit in his chair) and add what you can, when you can. Then move on.

I actually haven’t paid for the full deal.. I’ve just enjoyed the free ones. There are definitely ones that are more effective at any particular time than others.. but overall I really like Todd’s take on trying to keep creative AND produce effectively.

Which ones worked for you and which ones didn’t quite float your boat?

(yeah, I see Todd Henry is reading. But, I’m sure he can take the honest truth if you have a less than 100% positive response)

You may need to create a procedure that will check and see if the “shift” button is being held down, if it is then you can add to the selection. If not, then it’ll replace the selection.

or, you can use select -toggle and that will toggle the selection for the specified object.

thanx in advance
satya

Thanks again, J!

I know right now I’m still learning over at iAnimate.net, working on mechanics so I can get that out of my mind or at least increase the visibility through it to the idea of the who and the what and the why but you’ve shared some great thoughts on approaching a shot, given that most of what I spend my time animating right now, the walking, jumping, running, might be considered by many as simple when compared to conveying a subtle emotion or a deeply rooted intent hiding a sub intent obfuscating a desire.

I wonder if you might have some thoughts you could share on, lets call it a checklist, that could run the gambit on what a feature animator should concern themselves with no matter what shot they are tasked with, something that might help me create a routine and get a handle on my insecurities with a methodology.

I guess what I mean is, I know its a balance of technical and artistic, of knowing the lines and hitting the marks, if I could see the big picture as a methodology I think it would be a big help to me the way my mind works sort of a logical…

Step one – What’s the intent
Step three hundred eighteen – check your spacing on the pinky

But you know to a level of detail that isn’t for comedic effect

I’ve seen amazing insight into performance and I’ve been reading about spacing and timing since I’m 10 but I struggle with the juggle, heh, finding the balance that should be me as the animator I hope to be.

If you have some thoughts there I’ll be your best friend.

J.

Back home i’ll try it.

I seem to be having problems signing up on your forums. It keeps telling me I need a reCaptcha key, and when I click the link to get a key it sends me to a 404 error page.

Is there something I’m missing?

It’s a tough balance and it’s not really one I’ve had to deal with personally because I’ve always been an animator. But more time isn’t always going to give you more quality. From a technical stand point it will but not really from a conceptual one. I think the fact that you are spending a lot of time away from your desk thinking about your shot or the next thing you’re going to do in your shot is very valuable. I find the things that slow me down are working on things that I’m not familiar with or haven’t done before, basically stuff that I find difficult to visualise in my mind because I’m not familiar with the type of action or idea. The less time you spend on the computer searching for ideas the faster things will get done. But that’s easier said than done, because some shots are just bastards and need a good beat down on the computer before you find the right path!
Not sure where I’m going with this but thought I should say hi!

Bring on part II! w00t!
-Phil

I have done a few animation classes for AnimationMentor, and every once in a while I do a post about animating and stuff.. but I haven’t thought about selling an Animation-related class yet. I’ll keep it on the back-burner though! I really appreciate the kind words about my teaching style.. thank you!!

Just posted a note on how to fix this.

http://jasonschleifer.com/afr-community/#/discussion/9/js_createstretchsplineui-labelalign-bug-fix

I’m a student at VFS in Digital Character Animation.
As a classically trained animator, your AFR is awesome.

So is Grease Pencil! Does it work on a Mac?

Thanks,
Connell

Thanks anyway, i used the new icons, reduced the size, because they rendered huge.
Note: I’m not a skilled Maya user.
BTW Maya 2011 complains allot about “”The -la/-labelAlign flag is obsolete and should not be used”".

I’ve heard of that happening before.. I’ll contact support and see what I can do!

One more question. I bought the AFR, and it showed that 4b was part of the bundle download, but I didn’t see it in the download page as a link. I was able to download 1, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 3c and 4a

Thanks,

Frank

cheers
s.

I thought I answered before, but I’m happy to answer again! The AFR characters do indeed have scaled joints (actually joints that translate, simulating scale) and multiple skeletal rigs.. so if you take the rig exactly as we create it, it won’t work for Unreal.

However, there is more to the AFR series than just a rig. The whole series is really about how to go about creating an animator friendly rig. It really speaks to the whole process. This is why the first course is geared towards creating a bouncy ball rig. Everyone can create a ball rig, but can you create one that suits the animators needs? What’s your process for creation? The course teaches you a systematic approach to rigging that will help in any situation.

I know you’re really busy, and i’ve asked before, but i was wondering whether AFR is good for rigging characters for use in Unreal? Ie, Unreal doesnt like scaled joints, nor multiple skeletal riggs. Just one rig, skinned, with the diversity needed to create dynamic body poses. Is this achievable with your AFR tutorial?

Thanks!

My brother in-law gave me AFR.
I am learning from it by rigging some of my characters.

I’m going through your really great tutorials and noticed, that the script ‘js_createSkelGeo’ doesn’t work for me.

Error message:
string $tmp[0];
clear $tmp;
js_createSkelGeo $tmp;
// Error: string $tmp[0]; //
// Error: Line 1.15: Invalid redeclaration of variable “$tmp” as a different type. //
// Error: js_createSkelGeo $tmp; //
// Error: Line 3.22: Cannot cast data of type string to string[]. //

Thanks for any help!

Stefan

Just saw this at work ans I am currently animating Penguins. Really great to see….Penguins are not this extreme but great ref.

What kind of information would you like to know? I’m happy to talk about whatever I am legally able to!

Can you tell us more about creating of Megamind? Brilliant work!

-jason

Thanks,

Roger

A little late to comment………..loved the movie…..and all the characters, the animation and characterisation was amazing

What’s happened to the free download of Animation Insiders?
Have I missed a window, can’t seem to locate it anywhere?

cheers
Steve

Cheers!!!

I would be nice to see your lecture on animation. No need to do the whole animation sequences. Just full lecture from start to finish on obstacles, challenges in animation pipeline. The reason is because animation styles may varies from studio to studio.

I love your lecture, it is the best of all ever since the first two DVDs.

Chulsa Heng

I am working on a rig for a video game that I am making with some friends. I want to utilize the IK Stretch Spline on the rig, but the game engine we are using requires me to bake the animations on the actual skeleton before I import it in, so when I animate, I bake the animation and when I get rid of the constraints the head does not follow. I think it does not follow because the rig isn’t fully connected because with the IK Stretch Spine, it is a broken apart rig. Is there any way to make that a complete rig? Can I have 2 rigs (broken apart and whole) and somehow constrain them to each other or something? The volume control on the IK Stretch spline would be awesome to use, I just need some help getting it into Unity Game Engine.

Thanks for any insight or tips you can give Jason.

thanks so much for ordering! Fastspring leaves the links up for only 14 days. I’ve created new links for you and re-sent them to you so you can continue downloading!

enjoy!!
-jason

I´m making some rigging tutorials and it is just great to see that you can “create” a bit I will look at bit more into this script.

Reza, thanks very much for the kind words about megamind.. it was a lot of fun! We had many many people on the show, so it’d be hard to mention all of them.. i can tell you people who did specific effects if you like!

can you introduce the guys who did the character models/shaders????

Thanks again.

Thx allot.

Any help would be much apprietiated.

Thanks,

Derek

Hope your well.

Sorry to be a pain but I just wanted to pick your brain regarding the Animator Friendly Rigging dvd. I’ve been following the tutorials and they’ve been great but I’m at a stage where I am mirroring one side to the other and I seem to get many problems that arise. One in particular is applying the Stretchy IK to the arm – either it does’nt create the node network correctly or it places the stretch on the translate Z instead of the intended X.

Now i’m thinking it would be best to just re-create the other side from new rather than mirroring the joints over (use them as a base to make sure the new joints are in the correct place though) but in doing so, I would lose the function of the mirrored behaviour – which I know is not the right way to go.

Any help would be great.
All the best.
J

I’m interested in getting your AFR tut’s. I have the student version of Maya 2011 Win 64. Were your tutorials created with an earlier version? I’m sure the concept and theory will transfer over, but just wondering if newer versions since the tut’s creation will have so much more powerful tools to them that might not get covered. Thanks for any help on this.

You will want to un-parent the arm geo before changing it otherwise it will flip as well. Hope this helps.

John

Of extreme value for me in the series was the explanation of rotation order and why you should/would change it.

I rigged a character according the dvd. it works like a charm. M really thankful to you,learnt tons of stuff from it. i have a small problem, i need a stretchy on off button for arms. i have tried using nodes, but its not working.. Can u tell me how the hierarchy wud be. . thanks.

I was wondering if js_getStretchAxis.mel update and js_createIkStretch.mel Update mentioned in Javier’s PDF were still available to download? The versions I have don’t work on the joints on the right side of my character.

Thank you,

Jackie

Thanks!
Ali

I was studying your AFR rigging and its great !!
Right now I am building a less complex rig without any stretchy spline and twist.

But having a small Prob I don’t know if this is the right area to ask for help.

I got into a problem when I had to attach the hand joint with the arm. When I parent the hand group with all the Bend, Sides geo and other finger joints with the actual wrist joint, every thing works. Except the bend and side for hand. As its in your DVD.

I also tried other steps from your DVD which is something different from your rig. IK works but then when I pull the Hand control far it takes the hand away from Arm.

Is there a way to put the hand intact when I pull the control out from its limitation and make bend and side work as well. I have only tested it with IK arm.

Thanks
Sunny

Fast animation rigs is more about making rigs that work quickly, not how to create rigs quickly. If you’re under the gun to get rigs up and going quick for commercials, I’d recommend two things.. first, get yourself a quick rig building toolkit that will get you what you need fast so you can get the work for your clients done. Raf’s Setup Machine is pretty good to start with: http://www.anzovin.com/products/tsm2maya.html

Then, I’d recommend getting Animator Friendly Rigging so you can learn more about what types of things you’d like to do, and get more instruction about how to build rigs. This way you have a method of delivering what you need right away, and also a path for how to better your skills in the future.

I don’t have anything on facial rigging in these dvds.. I recommend jason osipa’s “stop staring” series, it’s really great!

Cheers

Camilo

@jason

Going to part 2b now! Still loving it!

And even though you recorded these a couple of years ago, I think they are Uber Fresh!!

Cheers
Remi

cheers!

I didn’t see anything on the AM website though…

Well loving the first part so far!! Great stuff!

I wish there were more flip-throughs of books like that… I buy so many books online I have no idea what the art to text ratio looks like usually.

thanks for the interest!

- Nicolai

Cheers

Camilo

Uh nevermind… I saw them on Lulu now. Sorry, I was on my Evo 4g when I was browsignt eh site and it’s not as easy as a computer.

I’m having a problem getting the length attribute for the fingers set up correctly. When I run the Length script, I get weird scaling for every finger except the middle one. It seems that some of the joints in the other fingers are scaling along the z axis instead of x. The joint orientations seem to all be the same, so I’m not sure why it’s scaling in z for some joints and in x for others, even within the same finger.

I tried taking a look inside the js_SetDrivenKeyLength script, even though I know very little about MEL, and it seems there’s a js_GetJointAxis.mel that gets the axis, but I can’t find it in the scripts folder. That’s when I hit the end of my knowledge!

Any help you could give would on this issue would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for a great rigging series, and continuing the support on AFR even with your busy schedule!

cheers!

First off…you’re rigging series is amazing! Seriously awesome stuff. I had to learn rigging as fast as possible for a project I was working on and it was made very easy and painless thanks to your teaching. So, thank you very much!

I have a question about the “js_matchObj.mel” script included in the dvd series. When I try to run the script after selecting the “ik_hand_anim” as instructed, I get this error: // Error: Cannot find procedure “js_getAttachedObjects”. I don’t know virtually anything about MEL scripting right now, so I can’t figure out how to fix it. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for everything!

Im Big Fan of you , im really happy to say i met in abai fest 2008 ,, it was happy movements i didn’t took picture but i still i remember few words wat u said …and Oops sorry let introduce myself

Im Balaji,Rigging Artist from Bangalore,India nothing question i want critics abt my Work but i have Small (WIP) Video abt my rigging stuff …i have to add few stuff like Quadruped n Hanuman(INDIAN HULK) soon i’ll upload n send to you

i don’t know whether u have time to reply may be im wasting ur 4 mins time of me im sorry for that ..

But i just waiting for ur reply sir

Thank you & regards
Balaji

I started downloading your AFR bundle but then realised that I would go way over my 2gig monthly allowance. Yes, 2gig, and I’m paying, via student loan, about $100 a month. I paid by Mastercard. I cancelled all the downloads except AFR_01. Can I get it on DVD and how much extra would it be? From all the comments I’ve heard, I couldn’t wait to get it. So when I saw I could download it, I jumped at the chance. I’m a student at Te W?nanga o Raukawa in Otaki, doing year two computer animation. Maya is the main programme. If you’ve ever wondered what the natives of New Zealand do when they’re not rigging, come and visit. We’re about an hour and a half north of Weta. When not in class, I’m a security guard there. Call 0800 Wananga x 870. Later.

So generaly speaking (unless like you said, that the shoot would still be clearer in stepped mode (because of a to much mushy spline interpolation) you will go into Spline Interpolation in the Rough Cleanup…
While other time we will pass this Rough Cleanup (meaning deviding the shoot in small part, and hiding the arms and legs to concentrate on the Hip/Torso) and go straight to a First Pass if the shoot is pretty simple and doesn’t need that “layered” (for the body) kind of method.

I am correct ?

rough cleanup and first animation pass can almost be the same thing, depending on what the shot looks like and how confident your are in the shot’s direction. Sometimes a rough cleanup is just going into the stepped poses and adding a few more breakdowns but staying in stepped mode if that’s the clearest method of seeing the shot. Other times you just go right from rough staging to a first pass because it’s an easy shot that can handle it.

Sometimes you need to get the weight into you blocking pass.. other times you can wait (or weight.. heh) until later to focus on it. It really totally depends on the shot.

So should I classify “breaking my shot down in to easily discernable chunks” under Rought Cleanup or First Animation Pass ?

Thx very much.

I don’t know why I never included the cycle at the end.. just didn’t think about it when making the video.

Yesterday only I found this page, I was searching for it.

I was thinking that the shelf is same in all the folders, but now I removed the previous shelf and I use the shelf in AFR_04B and it is having the scripts ready , thanks again.

However, whatever mocap was doing only influenced our animation rigs in the sense that we both started from the same skeleton. We had much more freedom to do what we wanted on the animation/rigging side.

I only have the first half so far.
Thank you!

The lessons are built for Maya, but the concepts apply to all packages.

Now, to answer your question..

What I ended up doing for lord of the rings was build an automated system that would build the entire rig based off components. I had various scripts that would build a hand, or a leg, or an arm, or a torso.. and for each character I would have a “make” script that would define what components would be called.

The thing that is important in that system is to define a “base” rig that is consistent across all characters that your build system can use to add the various components. Since on LOTR we were using the ASF/AMC format for handling motion capture, we decided that an ASF skeleton was our base rig. This is simply a skeleton that is named consistently with consistent rotation orders.

Each character would have that skeleton defined first, and had that skeleton in a specific location on disk (in a sub-directory for that character). Then, we could call the “make” file that would then call the various rig components (mel scripts) that would use the common skeleton pieces to build their rigs.

For example, the directory structure could look like:

chars > gollum > gollum.mel
chars > gollum > asf > gollum.asf
chars > gollum > lowGeo > gollum.obj
chars > gollum > hiGeo > gollum.ma
chars > gollum > rig > gollum.ma

the gollum.mel file looked something like:

——————————
char_importSkel;
char_addLowGeo;
char_addTorso;
char_addArm “l”;
char_addArm “r”;
char_addLeg “l”;
char_addLeg “r”;
char_addFace;
char_cleanupRig;
——————————

Each of those char_* scripts would know how to use the appropriate joints from the asf to build themselves correctly.

does that make sense?

I used to use RTM but I didn’t like the way they handled “folders”, nor the fact that people have been asking for sub-tasks for years and years and years and the developers just keep ignoring them. That’s one of the things I really like about toodledo and nirvanahq.. the developers are SUPER responsive.

Today from AFR 03A, I saw that I do not have sdk copy,sdk auto,sdk length,mel blend,add A,mel match in my Animation Friendly Rigging shelf. If I put them in the script folder, well they appear in the shelf with the remaining or I should do something else. Thank you sir.

Sapphire ( same person from cgtalk ).

Just haven’t found anything else yet that’s really “sticking”, you know?

I did not know about Stylish!
That is pretty neat in order to change the visual style!

Thanks for the heads up

@ Jason: Keep the articles coming!

Maybe I should change the test to 14.99 us?

Pay no attention to the empty space between my ears!

Really great news that you’re now selling these as I’d purchased the first half from Autodesk but now i can purchase the rest from you directly.

Just wondering about the price difference between your stated $14.95 and the $18.95 that is on the actual sales website. Which is it supposed to be?

Cheers,
Josh

I had recently started using labels/filters in gmail for incoming mails but I notice those don’t carry over too well on the iPhone. Basically if you tell it to skip the inbox, you’ll never know you have an email on the iPhone unless you check each folder manually. But, then I guess that’s the whole point of using the inbox like you do as a starting point so you can process everything.

I’m actually looking forward to seeing the next version of Blender since it looks that it’s been improved in terms of animation quite a bit.

It is also great that people is applying the same techniques to other softwares. I did enjoy AFR a lot!

I hope to see the same things in other softwares. I am not using Maya at work at the moment and I miss some of the things.

In any case, thanks for sharing Jason!
Take care!

Great stuff.

+1 vote from me.

Thanks Jason!

Then I have tags for each project. To make it clear you can do things like: p.Pick Water Feature, p.Raise Roof, p.Research New Car
etc..

then you can assign multiple tags, so if picking water feature and researching the new car are your projects, you tag with 1. My Projects AND the project tag. That way you can search by project, or by what’s your and what’s someone elses.

You can probably simplify this by just changing the first part of the project to be either mp.Project name for yours, and op.Project for someone else..

1. My Projects
2. Others Projects
3. Reference
4. Archived

Other than that, you do not add a tag/label for each specific project. Is that right?

I don’t have any current plans on doing any material on animating, but I do have a couple of courses that are being used in AnimationMentor.com

I’m thinking about writing something on clarity in blocking.. would that be interesting for people?

It is always great to see people sharing their ways of organizing themselves. I have a question though.

I have been trying to establish the same system for myself. I use labels as folders in gmails but then I’m not sure about how are you adding tags to your emails. Do you use a special tool for that?

Once again, thanks for sharing

Dave

Have you any plans on creating DVD’s on animating? You’re an awesome animator as well. Would love to see some sort tutorial on your workflow for animation.
Similar to that shot where you spoke about how you broke down the animation, at the end of the “Fast Animation Rigs”.

And…150 emails an hour is just insane! O_O

okay, I checked into it. fastspring has a policy that changes based on the file size. For small files it’s a few days, for larger files it can be up to two weeks.

For these files since they’re so big it looks like the policy is 15 attempts or 14 days. Hope that helps!

Thanks for looking into it!

I’ll check into how long the downloads are available.. that’s a great question!

I have a question about fastspring. I checked their site and I couldn’t seem to find it (I probably missed it since i tend to do things like that. >_>)

When I purchase your videos, does it have a limited time in which I have to download the videos? Or can I download them anytime in the future? Some Ecommerce sites seem to have a limit, like you have to download everything within a week and the link will expire, etc.

The reason I ask is, as I mentioned before, I have the worst connection known to man, so it will take me quite a while to download everything. :p

Thanks again Jason, so stoked about this being available now!

Not for creepy reasons. just ‘cuz I think it would be cool to see!

thanks matt!
-jason

It’s kind of surprising what we’re actually able to do these days in games so I think these techniques are likely to be much more applicable than a few years back. And if not then its time i kicked some of our animation engineers in the butt to make them work!

BTW I still wear my ‘hi Im an overworked computer graphics special effects artist and sometimes i like to think people give a shit about my opinion’ bag I got off your old site years back with pride!

I’m not doing any corrective blendshape work in this material, as it’s focused more on the animation rig and not on the skinning side of things.

As for whether or not it’s good for games, some of the theories would work great, but on the arm rig here there are a bunch of things that I’m doing that may not specifically apply, or even be possible in the game engine. Things like stretchy arms, twisting segments, etc.

But many of the concepts for figuring out what an arm rig needs to do would definitely apply.

Cheers!

I should have all of the training material available through there by the end of the night, tonight.. including (hopefully) the bundle!

Hope all goes well, can´t wait to get my copy.

Josh

thanks for puchasing the material! I’ll check out the movie tonight when I get home.. if you can email me your receipt from lulu.com I can forward you a working movie!
jason.schleifer (at) gmail.com

First of all, loving the series. Been wanting to get more into rigging for a while now and this is a great course. However, I seem to be having a problem with AFR_2A’s mov. It cut’s out at about 1:40:30 with the audio starting to go out and then just nothing but sporadic bits of audio every now and then and a frozen frame visually.

I tried redownloading the vid again from lulu.com to no avail. Any ideas?

Thanks!
Josh

any other suggestions?

http://pulleyapp.com

And here’s the help/faqs:

http://help.pulleyapp.com/faqs

actually, the dvd is now available for sale from this site! check out: http://jasonschleifer.com/afr/animator-friendly-rigging-part-1/

cheers!

The AFR dvd doesn’t get into skinning because the technology there is changing so much, and i haven’t found anything yet that is super consistent between studios. Most places have their own muscle/skinning system.

yeah, I use FK all the time as well.. totally depends on the shot, and what’s happening at that specific moment in the shot.

How does that sound?

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for the entire package, so I think that’s a great idea! I’ll definitely offer the complete set as a single package deal when it’s all uploaded!

Are you planning to release them as DVD’s? I wouldn’t mind paying a little more for a tangible version of them.

As I had mentioned earlier. I vote for the whole thing as a bundle!

Again, thank you for making all this available.

If you want to run it based off the selection, you should create an empty array first.. for example:
string $tmp[0]; clear $tmp;
js_createSelGeo $tmp;

That would work.. the shelf button should do this automatically, however so as long as the shelf is working, you shouldn’t have to do this.

The same thing with the js_createStretchSpline, it’s supposed to work based off the gui. So you run js_createStretchSplineUI and then it will call js_createStretchSpline for you.

Does that make sense?

there is the feedback:

i pasted “js_createSkelGeo;” in script editor, then:

// Error: line 1: Number of arguments on call to js_createSkelGeo does not match number of parameters in procedure definition. //

and there is another problem, when i run “js_createStretchSplineUI”, it works, but when i run “js_createStretchSpline”, it feedback:

// Error: Line 1.23: Wrong number of arguments on call to js_createStretchSpline. //

Did i made mis-operation?

Thanks a lot.

-haruko

Can you open up your script editor, and turn on:
History -> Line Numbers In Errors

Then when you try and run a script, can you tell me exactly what the error is so i can help you fix it? I’d love to get to the bottom of this!

Thanks so much!

i have the same problem with ariel_atam, and more about the Mel Script problem is the shelves, i can’t load it into my maya2009. i run maya on Macpro, and set the script to the proper files, because the “splitSelJoint” works, it’s amazing, but the others are “red” in maya script box…T_T

Thanks o lot.

-haruko (little glasses girl O_O)

so tired.

soooo crazy tired. Then it took almost a full year after that presentation to put it into a presentable format for downloading.. but I’m glad I was able to get it together, because I’ve had such a wonderful response from people on it!

cheers!
-jason

AFR_Part_1.pdf and AFR_part1.zip are downloaded just by clicking on the file name, while to download ARF_01 you need to “save target as”.:)

Sorry again for the bother.
M

Funny that it’s called ARF instead of AFR.. i’ll check into that.

Update: I looked at all the files and it should be kosher. .are you still having trouble downloading it? has anyone else had any trouble?

But for some reason, I am not able to download ARF_01.mov . Has this happened to anybody else? Am I missing something ?

thank you and sorry for the disturb!

Matt

I would prefer to buy the whole bundle compared to each individual piece. Since I don’t own any of them yet. Getting the whole thing together would be awesome. Like your rigging bundle (which was by the way, one of my best purchases! )

Though, it would probably be good to put them up individually too. For those who had purchased them before but missed out on certain parts. :/

And thanks for adding the download sizes. Something I always check on due to my crappy internet connection!

That’s a good idea to have a deal if people are purchasing the whole thing at once.. is that something that everyone would like? Or are people interested in purchasing them just one at a time? Let me know your thoughts!

Also, I’ll add the download sizes to the pages to let people know how big they are. Great idea!

I was wondering, would you happen to be selling the AFR series as a bundle in the future? Like you did with the other rigging bundle you have on Lulu?

Another silly question (forgive me.. :p) What size are the downloads for each Part on Lulu? it doesn’t mention the size.

Thanks again Jason, your training has always been awesome!

How do I log-in so I can download the script.

And I’m going to throw in a comment to Beder. I use FK all the time. I do switch between FK and IK a lot. It depends on what’s needed in the shot.

I was just wondering what year each of these lecture DVD’s were made?

p.s. I asked the guys at speakingofanimation.com to perhaps consider you for a podcast sometime. It’d be a really cool edition for sure. I’ve kinda followed your stuff for a while now, you may not remember me but a few years ago I was trying to get in touch with you and I accidentally mistook you for Jason Busby? ahh, well it’s still past.

but yeh, about the DVD thing…

Steadystefano – Can you give me the exact method you’re using when trying to run the script? What steps are you taking? It should be working just fine.. what version of Maya are you running & on what operating system?

cheers
stephen

Fix: Select the LRAs of the twisty joints and rotate them 180º.

Steps:
-Select & hide the arm geo.
-Select the up arm and low arm start seg.
-Hit F8 to enter component mode, then click the ” ? ”
on the status line. This will bring up the LRA handles.
(“?” displays misc components).
-Select the up Arm & low Arm Start seg & seg 1,2,3
handles
-In the command line or script editor, execute the
following; rotate -r -os 180 0 0

PS: The Orient Joint tool won’t work because some of the segs may have rotations.

PS: I owe you a keg of the finest malt.. =]

John

It’s great when the people you love are doing well. Happy Belated Birthday! Cheers!

Ariel, can you give me more information about how you’re calling the js_createSkelGeo command?

-jason

I am studying your Animator Friendly Rigging series.
It’s amazing. It’s great help to me. But I have a problem that is when I execute the js_matchObj script,
it doesn’t work (// Error: Cannot find procedure “js_getAttachedObjects”.) I guess the reason is different version. I am using Maya 2010. Please, let me know. I am creazy for this.

Thanks a lot.

-Chulwan ( AAU 3D animation student)

The next book is currently in progress, the book will talk about character developpement.

Enjoy !

Oups forgive me, that sentence had no sence
Ok, i will go sleep

I was checking from time to time to the Book site, to see if it would be realese one day Since nearly half of the animatior are really “in the animation community” I think that book serie will be interesting. We will se

I would like to know how to fix this one. When I try to use the js_createSkelGeo, it gives me this “// Error: Wrong number of arguments on call to js_createSkelGeo.”

I’m using Maya 2009 btw.

Thanks and God Bless.

Best

-ariel

The Shelf button launches it with no errors:

source js_matchObjUI;js_matchObjUI;

I can load an object into the first field but then I get no other options (nothing under Match Object Options, Match Iteration Options…etc).

thanks man!

Hope life is been good to ya!

I might have a problem with my js_matchObjUI. It launches fine and I have the option to load an object but all the options/settings below that are missing their options (Match Object Options, Match Iteration Options…). I am running on a Linux. Have you heard of this issue before or have any ideas how to fix it?

Thanks in advance.
The rigging tutorials are great.

-Mike

Happy New Decade to you and the delightful family.

The AFR series especially goes into great depth exploring possible ways t do things and how you came to your setups and the Why’s behind it, and that really is the value.

Great work by both you and of course Mr.Farhan, its uses like you guys that make this industry so great to work in.

I just wanted to chime in to say that it is so true when you say it’s more important to know why certain decisions are made than to just follow formulas. A former instructor told me that a while back and it always stuck.

I also wanted to take a moment to say thanks for all the years of inpiration and positive energy!

(…and I did buy the AFR series a while back btw:))

-TJ