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New year, new luck
13 years ago
Well, I wasn't intentionally leaving this account so long with an update... neither have I been lazy, to be sure... I spent the last month updating my Space Navigator plugin for C4D. Since the internal controller is horrible, non-extendable, and does not properly work with the navigation modes, I originally regretted my buy of this little piece of hardware a lot. With the new controller, it is a piece of fluff, and I like it very much (even if it is not strictly necessary for navigation).
I keep wondering: how can one make animation easier - more fluent, quicker, smoother, easier, more natural. Early animations only had forward kinematics. Then we got inverse kinematics to save ourselves the need to "reach the goal" ourselves. Then there were puppeteering hardware thingies, like the infamous Dinosaur Input Device. Then we had motion capture. Now there is the Kinect, making motion capture (of sorts) cheap, and mocap has gained the ability to capture facial expressions and transfer body motion to different body structures.
Technology sure is there. Whether a hobbyist can use it is another question; even if you can afford the devices, you may not have the space to mocap a scene. If you have mocap data, you still face import, transfer, and smoothing issues. If you have the character moving, you may land in Uncanny Valley. And then there is the general issue on squash and stretch, anticipation and follow-through, exaggerated movement, and impossible angles that you may want to achieve a cartoon look. Both cartooning and mocap have their uses, but are they compatible?
I'm not quite "there" with animation; there are quite a lot of questions to dive into. Well, new year, new luck; I can already see where my free time is going.
I keep wondering: how can one make animation easier - more fluent, quicker, smoother, easier, more natural. Early animations only had forward kinematics. Then we got inverse kinematics to save ourselves the need to "reach the goal" ourselves. Then there were puppeteering hardware thingies, like the infamous Dinosaur Input Device. Then we had motion capture. Now there is the Kinect, making motion capture (of sorts) cheap, and mocap has gained the ability to capture facial expressions and transfer body motion to different body structures.
Technology sure is there. Whether a hobbyist can use it is another question; even if you can afford the devices, you may not have the space to mocap a scene. If you have mocap data, you still face import, transfer, and smoothing issues. If you have the character moving, you may land in Uncanny Valley. And then there is the general issue on squash and stretch, anticipation and follow-through, exaggerated movement, and impossible angles that you may want to achieve a cartoon look. Both cartooning and mocap have their uses, but are they compatible?
I'm not quite "there" with animation; there are quite a lot of questions to dive into. Well, new year, new luck; I can already see where my free time is going.
As new tools come out, and existing tools become more accessible, new possibilities certainly open up for the 'regular folks'. Some of the fanfic out there is getting quite impressive. But you still really need to know what you are doing in order for it to work out. Sure, tools might be getting easier to learn, but the artform itself still requires skills that must be learned. Anyone can get their hands on a copy of blender, make a 3D spaceship, and then composite it into a scene... but unless they have skilled up in the actual art, it's going to look underwhelming. And once you have skilled up in the relevant field to the point where it starts to impress people, you're no longer a member of the "regular folks" :p
Tools and tech are amazing and exciting. But they still need to be wielded by a skilled tradesman to make a polished piece.
The quality of the rig has a lot to do with it, FWIW. IK is certainly a necessary tool, but it has the tendency to be overused a lot. For a lot of movements. You always need the end goal to be anchored, and animating that anchor point to make it look like it is organic takes effort. It can certainly be done, but FK can generally do it easier. I know that in a lot of student work I see, the animation of their hands often has that "IK" look to the movement.
I guess that applies to all breakthroughs, really... the core art and technique doesn't change with technology (though obviously new technologies can open up new mediums or styles), technology is simply a tool to be used. Like any tool, you have to harness it, not rely on it. Otherwise you will end up with IK arms and lifeless ragdol physics.
FWIW, I can certainly see how mocap and more styalised animation can be compatible. All mocap needs to be manually cleaned up anyway, and there is always room for animators to tweak movement or poses, even from such data. 'Mocap cleanup' is really an artform in itself when you look at it that way. The animator can certainly has the potential to exaggerate movements and change proportions as they go along. You could also write a script which could do that kind of stuff on the fly depending on speed of movement and such... though IMO that's getting close to relying on tools too much, and you will end up with less than stellar results.
In the end though, I don't think it makes much difference how many tools are made - you still need the artist to make the actual art.
Then the animation itself... I believe it needs a mix of techniques anyway. You start with FK for the basic movement to express weight and center of gravity, then let IK help with the pesky elbows, have some ragdoll physics and expressions for secondary animation, and end up with motion mixers, heh.
Finally you throw it all away and cry a little.
Indeed, to make it look good you must have the proper art skills; you won't even know what's wrong - no, you won't even know THAT something is wrong with your animation.
I do not really have hopes of becoming a great animator; we lowly folks who don't do it for a living can only devote so much time to the hobby. But it is such a fascinating thing
And wow, you sound like you've been leveling up on some hard core methods there. I would probably end up crying too :p.
But who's to say you cant be a great animator? You, I suppose... but I bet you're the only one who's ever said that :).
Oh, BTW have you seen that new doll which can communicate poses into 3D programs? I don't know how effective it is, but it fits in with the whole breaking down technical barriers to animation theme. I am angry with myself as i have forgotten its name and cant find it on google, but I will ask around at work tomorrow as we were talking about it a while ago.
it is definetly cheap nowdays but even tracking animation will need the patience and skill to clean up and to develop