shhLIFE!

One of the things that I’ve always said is that the techniques I discuss in Animator Friendly Rigging can be used in almost any package. The main idea is that even though the tutorials come with all sorts of mel scripts and files and explicit instructions for Maya, what people should take away are the concepts and theories behind the results.

Why should we rig the way we do?
What are we looking for?
What would help the animator the most?
etc.

That’s why I was totally jazzed to see this post on Vimeo:

AFR Rivalry! from MTracer on Vimeo.

It’s someone doing some of the same animator friendly rigging techniques I talk about in the material, but doing it in Blender!

That’s great! I love seeing stuff like this!

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.

What would you guys prefer?

-jason

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

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

Good news for all of you from the jonhandhisdog forum.. Javier (goosh) has started a new forum that a hope will take over where my old one left off!

Go visit it at http://rigging101.com/forum !

This is crazy.. it may be something that only animators & riggers get, but check out this crazy chicken-head-ik action. I never knew that chickens worked this way.. I wonder if other birds do the same thing??

Check this out if you own a chicken!