Blake Rig - How to drive the hands

Animator's Question:

I am unable to animate Blake's hands intuitively using the mouse and instead am forced to use the attribute editor to get his fingers to move. It won't let me select his digits with the mouse.

Is it something to do with a mode he is put it? I think the modes are called "FK - IK" however I can't find a way to switch them or any reference to them in "How to Cheat in Maya".

Do you know how to change these modes and if it will achieve the desired effect?

Our favourite rascal Sunny Kharbanda ~ Show Reel

Here's a selection of my recent character animation work. copyright 2009 Hardeep Kharbanda.
http://www.sunnykharbanda.com/

I've just been past Sunny Kharbanda's new blog and thought I'd post his show reel for the second years to see. Look! it's only just over a minute long. Note that down. His blog is full of sketches, so that should keep the constant scribblers happy.

I was thinking of how I am currently in animation student mode studying some Jason Ryan webinars where we are animating broad cartoony actions. I wonder if they will influence what I teach?

What I like about Sunny's reel is the cartoony style of animation being explored with a free 3D rig (Moom). There is also some 2D work in there showing off an understanding of animation principles.

According to Sunny's 'About Me' page he is now teaching animation at The Art Institute of Washington.

Have a read of his critique of "Up". And just for Will, here is how he made those old Warner Brothers style backgrounds. Oh, yes, there is a post on how to get that toon render on a 3D model, but you will have to facilitate your own learning for that one and look through the blog.

Kyle Balda 3D Masterclass - Character Dialogue

When I was in Paris for the Gobelins summer school, we were lucky enough to attend Kyle Balda's 3D masterclass. He has posted an "Acting Tutorial highlights" clip so you can get a taste of the process he uses to animate in 3D.

2nd year animators take note on what Kyle says about the root control of a character. It is something we have been covering in the walk cycle exercise. See how animating from the root can be used as the foundation of any body movement, be it in locomotion or acting.

[*Transform hippy metaphor huzzah!*] A tree can't sway without a solid root. Nor can you expect to move an audience without good animation at the core of your character. Always think of the root.

Aaaarrrrrgh! Max is caught in the fog!

When Max for Maya is opened, he is a massive rig and sometimes disappears in a grey wall of 'fog'. This is how first year animator Braden taught me how to fix that problem.

Meet the Parent(s) in Maya

A few of the second years are producing essential animation principle scenes (EAPS) with the character interacting with an object. This video tutorial will help with those sequences:


Watch 0000 Parents in How to Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Tips for setting up Max for Maya

Importing Max for Maya (character rig by James Hunt: http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/character_rigs/Max-for-Maya-4877.html ). He is big and not easy to scale, so scale everything up to him.

Applying an image texture in Maya

Some of the animators wanted to know how to do this, so here is one way to apply an image texture simply but effectively in Maya. It is based on this video tutorial from Swinburne University in Victoria. Thanks to Will for finding the tutorials on the Internet.

Golden Rule: Don't let modelling and texturing eat away at your animating time.

Some of the animators in the studio were interested in how to apply an image texture to a polygon shape.

The second in a series of three parts to the process.

Third and final part to this three part series of short Maya texturing video tutorials.

Maya - Setting Preferences for Animation

Is Maya playing too fast when you're trying to see your animation?

You can set your timeline and frame rate preferences by following the steps in the short video tutorial below.

Set up Maya for animation

Maya is "chugging"

Maya is 'chugging' from Frank G on Vimeo.

If you do this step to speed up Maya you may lose your sliders from your Blend Shape window. To fix that, if it happens, simply rebuild your Blend Shape as you were shown in the video tutorials using the Create Deformers menu in the Animation drop down menu set.

What happened to my Maya tool panel?

What happened to my Maya toolbar? from Frank G on Vimeo.