Annotated Bibliography Part 2 3D/Maya-Focused Resources

References

¹² UCA Rochester 2016 Student Projects Gallery

Rochester, UCA. “Discover.” Computer Animation Arts, 2016, www.computeranimationarts.com/discover.

This one has a bit of a story to it in how it counts as a resource for my own project. Aside from seeming to be exactly the sort of high-end program I would want to inhabit if I could afford such a thing as grad school and to travel out to the UK, it provides several student blogs who show the results of following several high-detail tutorials on a variety of fundamental and stylization-techniques in Maya. One in particular, Poma, is a tutorial on 2D Facial Rigging that I really wanted to find, but could only access student blogs detailing their final results, rather than any of the actual process. (seen on http://manishadusilacaanimation.blogspot.com/2016/10/maya-stylisation-2d-facial-rigging-part.html & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAI7N8FEZTQ ) In other words, there’s fantastic resources here, but my understanding is unless I were a student those resources are locked off to me. Nonetheless, I can find equivalent resources elsewhere, and if the time and opportunity comes, I know where to go knocking for an in-depth academic program for 3D artists. Until then it’s a good basis for ideas.

¹³ Kuserkvfx Demo Reel & Portfolio Website

Kuserk, Andrew. “3D Generalist Reel.” Kuserkvfx, May 2015, www.kuserkvfx.com/.

Andrew Kuserk is a graduate from TCNJ who excels in 3D art from every facet. As his work demonstrates he has a firm grasp over several industry standard programs, and utilizes them in tandem to create professional quality models, rigs, animations and renders. If possible getting in contact with him could definitely help bolster my own workflow, and improve my own thesis project.

¹⁴ visuals9 Youtube channel (Rigging Research)

Chery, Farley. Rigging Research: Farley Chery's EnhancedIK Cat. Youtube, 12 Oct. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvp0AHsVch4&t=6s

Farley Chery was one of my professors when I was attending Becker College around 2012-2014. Though I never took any Maya courses with him, he has a series of videos on Youtube documenting rigging research he had done in Maya, as well as a handful of in-depth hours-long tutorials on Pluralsight (originally Digital Tutors) from 2011. https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/farley-chery

I don’t know how applicable those tutorials are with today’s versions of Maya, but at the very least the concepts should be valuable to learn. I’ll likely be looking further into his work now that I have a better understanding of Maya.

¹⁵ Rigging Dojo: Teaching the Art and Science of Character Rigging

“Teaching the Art and Science of Character Rigging.” Rigging Dojo, www.riggingdojo.com/.

Rigging Dojo is a website dedicated to keeping abreast of rigging technology and techniques, from 3D animated Netflix shows to significant figures in the industry, they’re a great resource to keep up to date on what’s happening in the wide world of multimedia. Aside from that, their Rigging 101 page and other offerings provide course curriculums that anyone who has a few spare hundred dollars sitting around can apply for and learn advanced techniques to help them learn the ins and outs of rigging. Pretty cool website, worth keeping in my repertoire of resources.

¹⁶ Cody Little: Animating 2D Eyes From a Texture in Maya

Little, Cody. Animating 2D Eyes From a Texture in Maya. YouTube, 1 Dec. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSLyA7eQWOU.

From Cody’s website (http://codylittle64.wixsite.com/codylittle) he establishes himself as a rigging and animation enthusiast, creating low-poly models and in context of this video, providing guidance of performing niche techniques to get stylized forms of animation functioning within Maya. As I share this interest in low-poly, and have seen animated 2D assets on 3D models used successfully on independent projects in the past, I plan to use Cody’s guidance here to potentially create my own animated 2D facial features, should 3D facial rigging prove too difficult to achieve in a limited period of time.

¹⁷ Garrett Shikuma: Character Eye Blink

Shikuma, Garrett, director. Animation School - Animschool: Character Eye Blink. YouTube, AnimSchool, 28 Dec. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=73jRo4fwU3I.

In this video Garrett Shikuma provides some nuances to a rigged model’s blinking. It doesn’t account for the process of rigging leading up to these animations, but as a general fundamental guide to animation principles it’s good for getting into an animation mindset after keyframes are implemented for more smooth, flowing animation.

¹⁸ Remco Willemsen Portfolio | 2016 Graduation Rig Project

Willemsen, Remco. “2016 Graduation Rig Project.” Remco Willemsen | Portfolio, www.remcowillemsen.com/#work--7,grad.html,2016_-_Graduation.

Remco’s portfolio covers a vast range of projects from game development to 3D, and his graduation project provides a really solid benchmark for a quality rig that could be applied for most situations. While there’s no instructional content as to how he got this rig done, the general overview of the process in itself is valuable, showing the time frame in which it was accomplished (14 weeks) use of facial controller attributes and explanation of the animation itself having only two weeks before his deadline. This may significantly change how I consider my own critical path, and how I spend Winter Break possibly reworking parts of my model so that the final result cooperates when I get to the animation stage.

¹⁹ Guilty Gear Xrd’s Art Style – The X Factor Between 2D and 3D

Motomura, Junya C, Presenter. “GuiltyGearXrd's Art Style - The X Factor Between 2D and 3D.”, YouTube, GDC, 21 May 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1032&v=yhGjCzxJV3E.

This source coming from Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear Xrd, which I’ve discussed prominently on this blog in relation to the goals for my own project, Junya Motomura goes in-depth on the technology and artistic approach taken to achieve a high-fidelity, 3D as 2D style for their game, providing good info on the additional software used in their pipeline, such as Autodesk Softimage, as well as specific details on how they achieved their cel-shaded art style.

²⁰ Maya Modeling Techniques – Character Clothes

Maya Sensei. Maya Modeling Techniques - Character Clothes. YouTube, YouTube, 23 May 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFzt2Xh2mTU.

I’ve been trying to cover as many different angles of Maya as possible in these resources so that I have a good range to fall back on and get support with as I need it. Though on my current model the clothes are modeled straight onto the character, I may find it better to try separating the clothes from the character mesh in the future. I see this causing rigging/weight painting issues down the line, but depending on my approach it may make other aspects such as cloth physics and interchangeable outfits possible, which would be great options to have.

²¹ Maya Tutorial – Low Poly Detailing (Hair & Facial Hair)

Mrs. G’s Digital Tutorials. “Maya Tutorial – Low Poly Detailing (Hair & Facial Hair).” YouTube, 4 Dec. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=f76nSa6tGyc.

In this tutorial Mrs. G offers an approach to building out low poly details on the face such as hair and facial hair. As The Horror exhibits both, and I’ve had some trouble up to this point creating his hairstyle in a neat fashion, her video may help me use a different approach to get a more effective hair modeling technique into practice.

²² Toon Shading with Arnold

“Toon Shading with Arnold” Toon - Arnold for Maya User Guide 5 - Arnold Renderer, docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AFMUG/Toon.

Directly from the Maya User Guide, this article explains the implementation of Arnold’s Toon shader preset, as well as connecting to various articles detailing its individual variable features. As I’m going for a stylized, soft pastel look, but may need to tone back from an approach such as Guilty Gear Xrd’s, this may be a good compromise, and in general the Maya User Guide should assist me with variety of troubleshooting issues and feature implementations.

²³ How to Rig an IK Leg in Maya

Swartz, Michael. How to Rig an IK Leg in Maya. YouTube, 31 Mar. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiU_KoPPTws&fbclid=IwAR1NiJLNko8oOsDi_M9o-J6xuOafSbR2JL-IbXWNOWBDtgOdzbn55O4VhyA.

Backtracking a bit, I’m considering using Michael Swartz’s tutorial here on IK Leg rigging as I’m feeling that reworking my rig could do a lot of good and save a lot of painful development in the long-run, and part of where the biggest improvements will lie are in the arms and legs. Being unable to get a reverse foot rig wasn’t terrible uplifting, so I think it would be valuable to start taking note of some basic rigging tutorials for a humanoid character. This is just a jumping off point, but offers a pretty in-depth process and even goes a bit into coding with Maya, which is something I’d like to introduce myself to at the very least for reference’s sake.

²⁴ Tech-Artists.Org Forum

“Tech-Artists.Org Forum.” Tech-Artists.Org, tech-artists.org/?fbclid=IwAR1kXqlYNn3HNstClQUT96onh1zUdmV_SzgBbxcfvKXsVmadYkoTpyPbYeg.

This last site is an open forum for technical artists, and may prove useful to lurk and search for prior threads dealing with any potential issues that may come up in my own project. Pretty open-ended, but useful to keep close nonetheless.