Even though I wasn’t able spend as much time on these pieces as I would have liked due to health issues this term, I’m happy with the results and how much I learnt.
For 3D animation, I was able to get more familiar with body mechanics and figure out what I want to improve on going forward. I also learnt a lot with the acting shot, including a lot of nuance with how the face should move when expressing emotion and talking.
For the experimental project, I was able to learn so much of Marvelous Designer and make a head start on creating the clothing for my FMP characters. While I would have also liked to have experimented with some visual styles, I’m glad the project allowed me to experiment with a new software that I might have felt too time stressed to do otherwise. I also really enjoy using Marvelous Designer despite the difficulties I had with it, and seeing the similarities between the interface and my experience physically making clothes and clothing patterns.
Took some time to get body suit not intersecting with itself and the model, but by adjusting both the fabric thickness and the skin offset of the model I was able to get stable simulations every time. However when I went to start simulating over the animation cache, something happened just between switching tabs that brought back some of the intersecting issues. I have a feeling its something to do with the tack on avatar tool, as that was the last thing I did before moving onto the next part that might have needed more testing. Removing all of the tacks seemed to fix the issues again, but I couldn’t figure out why the tacks caused these issues in the first place.
While trying different recording settings for the simulation helped improve the output a lot, I could still see a lot of issues that would have been fixed with the tack on avatar tool. I decided to just try and put the tacks back in place for the simulation to see if it still caused issues.
There were some of the same issues as before with the tool, but not as bad once the simulation settled a little. A lot of improvements could be made overall, but I think for future FMP work any tight fitting clothes might be better to model and skin/wrap deform to the rig or add in texture, rather than simulate. While I have seen some amazing examples of tight fitting clothing in Marvelous Designer, I don’t want to spend too long learning how to properly do what I’m realising is a tricky task when I could save time by using other techniques.
Once the simulation was complete and I was satisfied, I exported the garment to Maya so I could match up the clothes with the rig and set up the materials for streamlined UE5 import. This also gave me chance to fix the UVs (which didn’t export out of Marvelous Designer as I expected) and take a closer look at the pros and cons of simulating a tight garment.
Importing to UE5:
When importing to UE5, I realised I had forgotten to make the changes needed to the rig for smooth/streamlined import to UE5. I initially thought to use the editing rig scene I used in Term 1 with these changes already in place, but the rig I used for this project was an updated version and when I tried to reference in my old rig scene edits the animation messed up a little. The changes took a while to figure out but in themselves were minor, so I decided to just redo these with the current rig scene. Since I already knew what changes needed to be done, the process didn’t take as long as it did for my Term 1 project, but was still a lot more time consuming than I would have liked.
I did save a little time by reusing the materials from my Term 1 UE5 project, but I still had to repath and tweak them a fair bit (plus make new ones as the clothing/shoes are different for this project).
I also at this point set up a sequencer track with cameras, shots, and the alembic caches. During import I separated out the garment from the model so that I could have better control over the two components.
Making trousers and dress
While I originally wanted to make trousers based on the concepts I drew up, I ran out of time and decided instead to create simple baggy trousers that would work with the bodysuit. I plan to go back later and create trousers based on one of my concepts when I have the time to do so.
I had a little time towards the end that I debated spending on working on the set design of the window scene. However because the focus of this project for me was experimenting with and learning Marvelous Designer, I decided instead to make another simple garment to further improve my skills with the software. I decided to make a dress, and tried to incorporate some elements from my clothing concepts so I could also test these without needing to make the full detailed garment.
I didn’t notice until I brought the first dress cache into Maya, but the finger clips through the fabric early on and causes the fabric to bug out a fair bit. I went back and forth with the simulation settings trying to fix this, but the best I was able to do was to double the simulation quality (from what I used for the other clothing) and the issue is still present unfortunately. I tried caching out the walk animation from Maya at 48FPS, and I tried adjusting the fabric settings for the skirt, but neither of those (or both combined) seemed to make a difference. Overall I am still happy with the result as I learnt a lot from just this one garment, but it is disappointing that I couldn’t get it to simulate correctly.
Putting everything together
From there, it was the same process of setting up the Marvelous Designer exports in Maya, then exporting them out of Maya to UE5, putting basic materials on the asset and adding it to the sequencer along with the alembic cache.
While I’m still working on the bodysuit in Marvelous Designer, I wanted to animate a walk cycle to use for simulating the clothes in Maya. I added preroll frames at the beginning with the default pose keyed in. This is so the clothes have time to settle and move into the initial pose before the main animation begins during the simulation. I exported this out of Maya as an alembic cache, and tested quickly that the animation will import to Marvelous Designer which it does.
The next steps will be to finish the bodysuit and try simulating it on top of the walk cycle.
I also modeled a basic window scene in Maya and laid out the UVs so everything is ready for export to UE5, where I will add materials, lighting, and render from.
This week is final feedback before submission, so no assignment this week.
Week 8 Assignment: Spline
When trying to get some of the mouth shapes to look more appealing, I found it difficult to do so with some shapes without them losing a semi realistic look. For these instances I usually went with something in-between what I had and the shapes George drew in the syncsketch.
When I initially went to spline, the animation still felt very floating in areas, so I went back again and added more blocking keys in before splining again. This helped a lot, especially for the more subtle movements.
Spline Feedback:
Track the arc and ease in/out of the nose tip as the head shakes back and forth in the beginning, and soften these arcs
Push the mouth shapes more on the big open shapes
Careful with the blinks to not have the eyeball become too static on open/close
Play with spacing of the nose arc on “Everything”, its pretty evenly spaced currently
I remembered how much of a pain splining my body mechanics shot was due to a lack of blocking keys, so with this blocking plus I wanted to block as much as possible to make the splining process less daunting. I really like the results, and I’m actually pretty excited to go to spline this time around.
Blocking Plus Feedback:
Asymmetry is there in the face now, but needs pushing a lot more at points
Lead into the start of the dialogue with the mouth shape more
Have eyebrow lift and lead the head (then body) upwards
Expression should turn sooner during dialogue pause
Work on getting some of the mouth shapes into more appealing shapes
This week I managed to do a lot more work on the clothing concepts, and while I haven’t decided on a final look for the FMP character I’m happy with the designs for progression onto learning Marvelous Designer.
To start, I exported the Minerva M-Rig out from Maya in a neutral pose, and imported that into Marvelous Designer. I decided to try making the bodysuit first, as I assumed this would be the easiest garment to make. While the basic pattern was pretty easy to mock up, refining the cuts of the cloth along with getting such a tight fitting garment to simulate correctly proved very tricky, especially as I was completely new to the software.
In the end, I was able to cut the pattern up in a way that resembles my concept for the item, but I am still struggling to get the garment to simulate on the model. I am already wondering if tight fitting items would be more suitable as skinned meshes within the rig rather than simulated on top of the animation, but I want to keep pushing forward in order to learn as much as I can since that is my overall goal with this project rather than the visual output.
This week we were shown 360 videos. After creating animation for AR in term 2, I have wanted to improve on traditional 3D character/creature animation implementation with 360 output, as I wasn’t satisfied with the results due to the differences in how the animation is viewed not being considered as part of the process. However overall it isn’t one of my current primary interests, so this will most likely be a passion project I do in the future outside of showreel work.
Project Progress
I’ve still been struggling to make much progress, and I am currently debating the schedule for both this project and my FMP with the limitations I am now realising more.
While I want to create cool visuals alongside 3D Animation showreel pieces, I lack a lot of the technical skills needed to understand even what is possible for my project, let alone how to do it. It is a bit overwhelming with the time constraints, and I’m starting to think it might be best to focus more on learning Marvelous Designer for this project so I don’t overload myself.
As for the wider picture, including FMP development, it would be worth sitting down with friends of mine who work in industry in (what I would consider compared to myself) much more technical roles. I feel that sharing my ideas and thoughts with them and asking for feedback on the concepts will help me better plan what is feasible for me to do for my FMP.
Ultimately with my current health issues in the mix, I feel the need to cut back my current projects and push some of my FMP concerns to the backburner until after this term’s submission. While I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to achieve as much as I wanted to this semester, I would rather cut back and still have enough space to learn Marvelous Designer and create some clothing concepts than overload myself and only manage to do the bare minimum work and learn very little.
In regard to the clothing concepts, I have drawn out two more tops and I’m trying to get the shape down for the trousers. I’m finding it quite difficult to design the techwear pants, with the shape being very difficult for me to capture in a way I like.
I really enjoyed blocking out this shot, especially with the lessons I learnt from the previous body mechanics shot. I also enjoy lip sync in general, and with the added knowledge from last weeks class I like how the blocking came out. It feels a little chattery, but I think that will be easier to see and fix when I get to spline as I wouldn’t want to scale things back now and have to rebuild those same keys during spline.
Blocking Pass Feedback:
In general, make the face more asymmetric (raise one eyebrow more than other, have one corner of mouth lifted/stretched out more, have head tilted but brows/mouth tilting opposite way, etc)
On the beginning of the speech (frame 58, “so”) have the head turned more to the side so when the lips are pouted its visible in the silhouette
Have body moving into the flow of the speech, so have the body lift and sink at certain points following the tone
On “sacrifice?” have body sink into this, as the character’s emotion begins to switch
Could have him go to take a sip of his drink during dialogue pause, but stop and then slam cup down. It shows how erratic the character and his actions are in this moment
Body should go down with the cup and only lift after the cup makes impact, not on the impact
On the “Eh” of “everything”, push the expression more to really show that rage
In general, keep mouth shapes more simple and boxy, as it keeps them readable
The outer ends of the brows shouldn’t move nearly as much as the inner and middle portions, so keep an eye out for that
Most important thing is the vowels, the rest of the letters are there to help shape those vowels
When talking, it isn’t just the lips moving to create the sounds: tongue, lips, jaw, teeth, and vocal chords all go into this as well. Furthermore, these parts moving are followed by the rest of the face as the skin and muscles stretch and contract (eg nostrils, cheeks, etc).
The tip of your nose typically moves along as people talk, very subtle most of the time, but you will see it if you pay attention.
Phonemes: “smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or word element) from another, as the element p in “tap”, which separates that word from “tab”, and “tan”.
When we talk our jaw moves up and down, and the corners of our lips move in and out, these two things being the primary main movements to convey sound.
This week’s assignment:
Blocking pass: keys and breakdowns only
The week after will be blocking plus, so just put the essential keys to convey the idea for this week.
3/4 perspective view, stepped keys only.
Week 5 Assignment: Final Body Mechanics + Acting Plan
I again had the issue where I really struggled to get one reference with all the elements I wanted. I did enjoy making the planning sheet, and it was a good exercise to really get into the mindset of the character I’m animating.
Final Body Mechanics + Acting Plan Feedback:
Body Mechanics:
Hold the pose at 192 (when the character stands up and notices the audience/camera) until about 205
The transition following these feels a little odd, so could do with some tweaking
As she bows, the hips lock a bit so try to keep them moving
Acting Reference Footage:
Recommended going with reference no.3, as the cup shouldn’t go up and down as it does in no.1. No.3 and no.1 could be combined though to avoid the cup issue
I wasn’t in class this week unfortunately, but I was able to catch up with some of the content which for this week was around projection mapping. I recently went to see a projection mapping on the Battersea Power Station with some friends, so learning how this could be done was fascinating. As I’ve said previously for other techniques, this could be a really cool way to have a unique showreel piece using 3D animated characters or creatures, but I would need to put some thought into how to do so in a way that would work in a showreel. Maybe having a character interacting with the space they are projected onto could be an interesting exploration of the medium and demonstration of my skills in a different way to the standard showreel piece I usually see in 3D Animator reels.
Project Progression
I managed to make a small start on the concepts for Rahela’s clothing in photoshop, using the rig as a base for the drawings and the previously shown visual research as reference.
