Seung-Hoo Ihm : Day by day learning animator

How to make birds fly good by Brendan Body

2010-10-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

An animator who did Legend of the Guardians from Animal Logic wrote a great tutorial about bird mechanics in his website. This is really deep study so that nobody wants to move on without visiting if interested in birds.

Check this out here,

http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/index.html

Parallel Parking by Yum Yum London

2010-09-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Parallel Parking from Yum Yum London on Vimeo.

First impression was.... nice render.

Overall impression was.... HAHAHA, WHAT THE...?

Show File path and name in the Maya view

2010-09-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

Making a shot film gave me a great lesson about many things. Especially about "Organizing."

When working "Repaired?", I had more than 30 shots for the whole sequence. Every each shot has tons of different versions and I switch those shots to the various versions every time in After Effects or Final Cut Pro. Sometimes that could be a newest work, or it may be a shot which I worked 3 days ago.

But the thing I struggled was, I can't figure out what the current version of the shot I was watching in the sequence.

Maya default HUD doesn't support what the file name is. So I sometimes put the shot version number on the camera name like "Shot_13_v12" but it was annoying because it is not automatic. And I usually make a thousand of save files using Mel script when I work, like shot_13_0001.ma to shot_13_0130.ma, it's already 131 files for the shot #13. That means "Shot_13_v12" camera name is already in 131 files unless I didn't change it.

Now if you need to change the shot to #121 of the Shot_13_v12 in the sequence, you need to figure out what the current version is in the sequence first, visiting library folders in AE or FCP, which will make you frustrated if you need to deal with numbers of files at the same time.

So I asked my friend Sean that if he can help me a core command about showing file name on the view, he gave me a clue and I modified it so that it has a nice looking and can be toggled. As I use another custom HUD in the lower side of the view, I put this one to the top left.

if (`headsUpDisplay -ex "currentFIleFullName"` != 0) {
    // change the first number below if you need to change the position of this
    headsUpDisplay -rp 1 0;

}
else {
    headsUpDisplay
    // this number should be the same with upper one
    -section                1
    -block                   0
    -blockSize            "small"

    -label                    "Current File Path:"
    -labelFontSize     "small"
    -dfs                       "small"
    -command            "file -q -sn"
    -atr
    currentFIleFullName;

    global string $gHeadsUpDisplayMenu;

    menuItem
    -parent $gHeadsUpDisplayMenu
    -checkBox true
    -label "CurrentFile"
    -command "headsUpDisplay -e -vis #1 currentFIleFullName"
    -annotation "Current Filename: display current file name";

} ;

Add/Remove Frames

2010-09-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is from Cameron Fielding's post http://fliponline.blogspot.com/2007/04/quick-trick-tap-your-timing.html And this is one of my favorite mel when I block a shot. Simply add or remove extra frames between keys so I don't need to grab all the next keys to slide. Many thanks to Cameron.

//to add a frame

timeSliderEditKeys addInbetween;

//to remove a frame

timeSliderEditKeys removeInbetween;

When an animator watches a movie...

2010-09-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

During my animation study in the school, most of teachers said that we have to watch movies a lot, as many as possible, to get some great eyes on acting. Well, I 100% agree with that, but recently I questioned, how?

People watch movies. Artists also watches, so do animators, too. But it was recent that I recognized that an animator should have totally different eyes when watching movies than the other artists or general people.

Actually I am a heavy watcher whether it's a blockbuster or award-winning movie. When I was in the college, I had been watching thousand Videos burning the midnight oil. The rental shop guy even asked me what are the best recent movies that people will like to make their proper marketing strategy. Until recent, I still watching movie as I have been doing; a story chaser, an eager for the fun point, and being entertained.

There are thousands of different methods when watching movies. If you are a writer, you may focus on the story first. You will look around the whole frame while you are watching that if you are a layout artist. You may focus on the lighting, OST, visual effects, and actors and actresses themselves.

This makes sense that an animator should focus on the acting itself. Yes it's true. But what is the next step you watch some great acting choices in the movie? Maybe you can utilize the acting into your own animation shots. I will also do so, as long as I remember the scene. That's why teachers told us.

But, what if you watch 30 great movies in an year?

Well, I believe I have a pretty good memorize skill, to me, it is really hard to remember all the great moments that I have watched. I can't even remember the movie title I saw 10 years ago. What if you want to find a specific scene that made you inspired before in 'The Hangover', but you cannot remember where the scene was, so you have to watch the entire movie to find out what you are exactly want?

Gee, I don't wanna waste much time. So, I made myself smarter. A Spreadsheet can help me a lot. Especially Google Docs.

What I have been doing so far was categorizing movie clips using Google spreadsheet so that I can sort easily whenever I need. Before doing this, I usually mark the time while watching movies. Then I capture the scene that I marked before using Quicktime Pro (or anything), save the clip to my disc and name it, like 'Lars and the Real Girl Ref - 01'.

And then I categorize the file by gesture type, emotion type, and dialogue type using Google spreadsheet. For example, the file Lars and the Real Girl clip number 4 has a strong character with arm and body gestures which are unique. Also the scene is about arguing and something worried/nervous emotions there.

If I want to reference finger gestures from my files, I can simply sort 'E' column so that I can watch clips which contain finger gestures or I can find another sub category.

I have been making this docs for the last 6 months and I already have 200+ clips which are categorized and ready to be sorted. I usually watch 3~5 movies in a week and get 2~5 reference-able acting clips from each one. Maybe I can get a thousand clips next year. Enough reason for doing this?

Another great thing is, my eyes for acting choice are much sharpened than before. Whenever I watch movies, I try to find as many as good gestures or moments from the scene to apply to my own animation.

Well, this also has cons; I couldn't enjoy enough than when I didn't do this while watching movies. So sometimes I try to become a generic audience just to enjoy the movie itself. But ultimately, this is really helpful to improve my eyes and acting skill stronger and stronger.

Highly recommend this. It doesn't need to be Google Docs. any spreadsheet will be OK and you can make your own category and method. This is just what I am doing and may be improved somehow next time.

The Cons of 'S'

2010-09-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

When animating in Maya, there are several ways to create keys. I think the most easiest way is to press 'S' key. But the big problem when using 'S' key is, it creates its own tangent which may ruin the timing and the spacing of the animation. Although I don't care how the graphs look like, these uninvited tangents make me annoying to spend extra time to fix it because it actually affects the animation somehow, especially in polishing stage.

Thanking to Michael Comet, at least I don't need to fix those tangent each by each, Using autoTangent.mel can save huge amount of time. But this is not a fundamental solution to prevent it.

So what I simply did is using this command,

setKeyframe -insert;

This makes that I can put new keys to all current attributes which have keys already, without affecting any other tangents. This is pretty much same with the second button(insert key) of the graph editor. (It's also same with pressing 'I' + MMB)

The only difference with that is, the button only works on the selected curve but the command works to all keyable attributes whether selected or not.

Now I have the original 'S' key mapped in 'Alt+S', which previously used as ToggleFBIKEffectorsPinState (which I don't know what that command is), put the command I show to 'S'.

And for 'Alt+S', I add a command at the end of the line

//this is the original command of 'S'

performSetKeyframeArgList 1 {"0", "animationList"};

//these are what I added

evalEcho "timeSliderSetTangent step";
timeSliderSetTangent step;

Because I will use 'alt + S' when blocking stage, the last two commands make the curves stepped key.

Now I have three different methods to key.

Alt+S : create key to all keyable attributes with stepped key.

S : insert key to ALL keyable attributes without affecting tangents.

I+MMB : insert key ONLY to selected curve without affecting tangents too.

The first one is for blocking, the other two for the in-progress stage. Really handy!

Infinite Frame Traveling when Undoing?

2010-09-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

Ex-Co-worker Morgan Loomis posted this mel before and I really enjoy using these days. So I would like to share. If I did 'alt + >' or 'alt + <' when working then tons of frame forwarding/backwarding happen when I undo it. This is a simple command that deletes forward /backward history so that allows to undo things what I really want to. I just switch commands from the original 'alt + >' and 'alt + <'.  Thanks to Morgan.

//forward
undoInfo -stateWithoutFlush off;
playButtonStepForward;
undoInfo -stateWithoutFlush on;

//backward
undoInfo -stateWithoutFlush off;
playButtonStepBackward;
undoInfo -stateWithoutFlush on;

If you want to see the original post Morgan did, visit here.

http://morganloomis.com/2009/animation-tech-tip-frame-step/

Mel vs Python

2010-09-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Now Maya has its own Python engine, I considered learning one of them when I have free time. I have little familiar with some script language because I've learned some programming languages before such as Basic, C++, Action Script, and JavaScript. But I didn't have chance to learn Mel Script before and what I know right now is to adjust and modify the script already exist to make my work environment better.

So, there must be some limitation cuz I didn't make them originally. This made me to think about learning mel or python as I am more curious about it and wanted to make my own tools.

So if the situation is same, I thought that I should learn the better one. Since Python was an up-rising language, I searched what benefit can I obtain when learning that. And the answer is,

No Need to learn Python.

As an animator, things I have been dealing with are only Maya commands themselves so far, for the last 5 years. Well, Python can be perfect to run 3rd party software, in-house tools, or something, easily using Python engine in Maya. But an animator doesn't need that much. For me, what I am doing is just changing graph attributes, toggle views, tweaking gimble locks, and checking motion trails. No need to call a tool outside Maya. If I need that, I may be a Technical Animator rather than a Character Animator.

So this made me to save some time to spend learning a full language. Not for me, Python.

Melscript Icons for Mac/Linux

2010-08-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Whenever you try to put some icons to the Maya shelf, you will have a trouble to do it if you use a Mac or Linux. So do I.

Maya in Mac OS (also in Linus or Unix machines) does not accept .bmp icons for some reasons. They only accept .xpm format as I still don't know what is the difference. And even more funny thing was, the .xpm converting from .bmp was only able in Windows OS, using the software that I have gotten from somewhere. That made me way annoying so far, but I do not need to struggle to copy .bmp files from my Mac to my wife's PC, convert them to .xpm files, and copy back to Mac.

I found a software called "Contenta Converter" which is for converting various formats of images and pictures. The things that I am thanking for it are, the software has .xpm format converting, able to run in Mac OS, and it's FREE as long as you use the Basic version for the personal purpose!

You can check the software here and download the basic version for free. Easy to use.

http://www.contenta-converter.com/download2.php

A line of women

2008-08-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

More Quicks

2008-07-16T15:50:00.001-07:00

1~3mins. @ Workshop

Some Quicks.

2008-07-02T13:58:00.000-07:00

1~3 mins, @ workshop

Lenny

2008-06-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

Idea sketching.

Thumbnails

2008-06-14T00:56:00.000-07:00

Char designs

2008-06-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

for my 2D class and Pixar 3 Class :p
One source multi use!

Inspired by Elle Fanning

2D LayOut

2008-06-13T17:37:00.001-07:00

Some layouts for my 2D project(WIP)

clothed figure

2008-06-12T16:26:00.001-07:00

@ workshop

Car

2008-06-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

I thin I was crazy... w/ pen, colored pencils. @2005

Genesis

2008-06-12T16:17:00.001-07:00

@ figure studio, 2006

More Quicks.

2008-06-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

15mins clothed.

2008-06-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

@ workshop

Life Drawings

2008-06-12T16:11:00.001-07:00

@ union square, yeaba buena park.

Some Figure Drawings.

2008-06-12T16:08:00.001-07:00

Most of those were done at the Figure studio class 2006. Spent around 6 hours each.

drawings

2008-06-12T16:05:00.001-07:00

When there was a semina at school 2007. Maybe Joon was doing a presentation:) I didn't pay much attention to him.. sorry lol.

hand and foot

2008-06-12T15:56:00.001-07:00

homework. sorry for the poor scan quality

More quicks

2008-06-12T15:53:00.001-07:00

with a prismacolor premiere and pencil. @ workshop

Quick Drawings

2008-06-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

done at the workshop. 7min, 3min