Quick Rig and Weight Painting
Creating the rig for the character was a very smooth step. I simply followed everything that was shown in class, and it’s looking great!
Weight painting was A little bit more complicated at first. Every time I finished a section, I locked it. In doing this I didn’t know that by the time I got to the final element if every layer was locked, it would start deforming the mesh. Fortunately, I was able to figure this out and it all worked out fine.
Update – Gun Position
I was trying to figure out how I would create the gravity effect on the weapon, attached to the character’s shoulder. After giving it much thought, I thought It would be better to just change its position so that I don’t have to be worried about trying to make it believable.
I reckon this is a wise decision. Instead of trying to make it more complicated by adding effects, this simple rotation should solve this problem.
Update – Rig Issue
Unfortunately, I have tried everything but the rig doesn’t seem to work when I set the animated rig as a source. For some reason, The legs become all distorted and deformed. I have tried reassembling the dots from the mesh individually, redone the rig and weight painting, and nothing.
And Kelvin couldn’t tell me what was wrong because this is most likely a problem to do with the software or the mesh. He doesn’t know… I don’t know… This is giving me a huge headache!
Update – I am so dumb sometimes…
I swear to God… Why me? So basically, I am so dumb that I position the character’s hands in the wrong position. According to the T position, the hands should be facing down. As a result, when I try to apply some sort of animation to my wolf, it assumes the hands are in the position they should be and distorts the wrists.
I thought a lot about this. I tried rotating the hands but couldn’t because the mesh was already done, so my decision was to remove the hands and give him some gloves. I am not happy about this but I think it’s the best solution I have for this issue. Therefore, I created a pair of green gloves to match with the helmet.
I am not happy about this but I think it’s the best solution I have for this issue. Even though it’s not ideal, the result isn’t bad at all, still not my goal. Oh well…
MoCap Alternative
I have been thinking about it and even messaged Kelvin regarding this decision. I think it is better to use Mixamo instead of trying to find mocap animations since I have been having so many rig issues. Fortunately, someone broke the mocap suit and I’m allowed to do this otherwise, I’d be doomed.
I tried using Mixamo and it looks so good! I even recorded a video of the wolf smashing expectations XD. This was fun.
Update – Lowering mesh definition
I didn’t know about this but apparently, there is a very easy way to lower the mesh definition. This solved the problem I had with the flower. Thanks to this, now the flower mesh is much smaller and I can finally combine it with the weapon without having to wait for it to process the action for seconds. Thanks, Kelvin!
Mixamo Animation Demo in Blender
Even though the tail gets a little distorted, it works! And this would be an issue anyway, even if I had gone with the rig option. I’d probably have to animate the tail, otherwise. this actually gives it some bounce and it somewhat feels natural.
Overall, this experiment was very successful!
Animation Sequence Sketch
I used Procreate to sketch out the general idea for the wolf’s movement. The idea is to have him relaxed at first, then straddled, ready to act and finally celebrate this holiday’s victory. My goal is not to express violence, as this holiday’s core celebrates the peaceful nature in which the revolution was conducted. Therefore, I want this character to be mild at first but also show he is ready to fight if necessary (so not weak). This is pretty ironic at the same time because this character is supposed to represent a ferocious species of wolf, which in this case is a metaphor for the strength of the Portuguese people that was used peacefully rather than physically.
It’s also important to note that I had to check what was available on Mixamo first since the library is pretty limited. However, I reckon I found some pretty good shots to use in the final animation. They are already selected on a list I created during class.
Combining Animations in Maya – Try
There really isn’t much to say here, since I found out that I have no idea how to blend each action smoothly and other arent many tutorials for this software. I also had the issue that I couldn’t move the character if it was walking, for some reason.
But to cut this short, I’m switching back to blender, since I have found multiple tutorials on how to tackle this problem, there.
Combining Animations in Blender
This was a much smoother process. Every step was so clear and easy to follow that I seriously question Maya sometimes XD. Anyway, I followed a great YouTube tutorial that I will post below and that will save me the time of explaining what I had to do.
The results are very promising! The ease in and out tools are so useful and have made the transitions almost perfect.
Update – Animation
Now that the actions are combined the next step is to set the scene. So adding lights, the camera, a background, etc.
I am so excited! The hardest part is complete now it’s adding small details and this will be ready in a couple of days!
Background
I don’t want to lose my time focusing on elements that are not extremely relevant right now. So I downloaded two images from a free stock website and will use them as background. I think they kind of resemble Portuguese traditional buildings, despite some details that make them look medieval. But they are useful nonetheless.
Update – Background
I used the images as they were but soon found out that they blend with the wolf’s colours too much and make the viewer lose focus on the character’s movements. So to summarise, I changed the hue and colour values in photoshop to create the contrast between oranges and their opposite colour, blue. Same thing for the ground.
Extra 3D models + Easter egg ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
At some point in the animation, the wolf climbs something. In this case, I decided to make it a building. I quickly modeled it using Maya and imported it into blender. I also used a building model from sketchfab for the structure next to the one I created just because I thought it would add more realism and detail to the scene.
Again, I made them both able for the reasons mentioned above.
The Easter egg is a play on the tradition of the dictator’s portrait. It is very common for dictators to make people hang portraits of them on the walls as a sign of submission and blind loyalty to the leader. Salazar, the main dictator responsible for the country’s misery and regime, was no exception to this rule.
If you look closely at the obstacle the wolf is jumping over, it is a broken frame with a picture of Salazar. This was meant as a sign of overthrowing the regime and leaving behind irrelevant ideas.
Camera and lights
These were both fairly quick steps. For the light, I just added a sun and used a medium intensity yellowish light to make it look cartoony yet still visible and clear. I don’t want to make the lighting too complicated by mixing colours and creating effects. It’s just a simple animation and again, I want to make everything clear and visible.
As for the camera, I just changed the positions and rotations, added a few frames and voila, done.
Rendering
I have to say this. Blender has the smoothest and most well-designed rendering process of all the 3D software I have used. I was able to export it as a video directly instead of an image sequence. I can also change different settings such as the format and the resolution. And the best thing of all is that it only took a few minutes to make a medium resolution (which is already pretty good), soI was able to render the whole thing a couple of times until I got something I was happy with.
I am still planning on doing a high-resolution one but that might take longer since I applied a subdivision modifier to make the character mesh smoother.
But I am happy to say this was the last step and my animation is finally ready! I thought I could add some sound effects but I think this is more than enough and honestly, I am tired.
Sound
For the audio effects, I went with something very simple. Some crowd sound effects I got from Youtube and for the walking part and when the wolf stretches its arms, I created a quick recording of my hands tapping and my fingers cracking on my phone. But what I think made a big difference here, was “Grândola, Vila Morena”. This song was played on the morning of this holiday to give the official signal to the population and the military forces that it was time to strike. It remains one of the most iconic Portuguese musical pieces due to its historic relevance.
I think it works pretty well with the moment the wolf gets startled and then immediately gets prepared for action, just like the Portuguese people, 48 years ago.