Character Animation 2010

Above is an image of the Bear's workplace, the offices of Paddington Insurance - "Looking after you and your honey".

After finding the Biped walk mechanism will work with Ernie, I have started matching him with the environments to create the beginning of his Bad Fur Day. I have also attempted giving him a shocked (referenced from this strange TV programme... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzzuq3UXLOk) and scared expression (inspired by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDnzwBmsNJs), both of which need work.

The basic story so far is: Ernie is on his way to the office wearing his hat (which, again, needs work!) when he walks across a very windy bridge... And of course, the hat ends up in the water which makes him sad (aww!). He then has to cross a busy road, which scares him...



The quality of animation, lighting, texturing and rendering in no way reflects what the finished product will be, and the Biped is still visible through the model at this point. The car models are downloaded from a free model site, the environment textures a mixture of completely original and adapted from online images. All of Ernie's modelling and texturing is orginal.

So, my first attempt at a walk cycle using keyframes didn't work out as expected:



Because only the arms and legs are moving, the bear looks like he's skating. Even making the feet tilt didn't help. And there's tearing everywhere. One way to correct this is by using the Biped walking system...

I have now given the bear an outfit to suit his personality, and rendered a short animation to show the biped movement still works with textures applied:

I have started texturing Ernie by applying a UVW Unwrap modifier. Using Face mode to select the model then Flattening the map in the editor helped create a coherent map. I then manually rotated the sections of the map to create this template at high 4096x4096 resolution to minimise blurring on close-ups:



The map went through 3 stages to create the right look and lining up the eyes and mouth was a challenge:



The fur texture was taken from an internet image, shrunk for the second image and had an Ocean Ripple effect applied for the third and final style. The eyes are not completely even but I think it adds to the bear's look...



With the first style, the fur is too big; it's too "mirrored" in the second one; but brilliantly fuzzy in the third.



As seen above, the early fur textures had problems tiling on the front and back of the bear. The fuzzy texture still suffers from this but it can either be fixed by re-mapping the object or giving the bear clothes of some kind.

I have now attached the bear to a Biped so he can move his head, arms and legs. The hardest part of this process is moving the bones in line with the mesh and ensuring the Areas of Influence on the Physique envelopes are correct. If the areas are too large, clipping will occur when the character moves and if they are too small, pulling and tearing in the mesh will occur.

Below is a video of Ernie dancing/swimming/demonstrating movement:

After receiving feedback on my previous bear model, I received a tutorial from Rob on modelling an object from a box by manipulating vertices/polygons and using tools such as Extrude, Bevel, Chamfer, Weld and Cut to sculpt one half of the basic shape, which was then Symmetry'd and TurboSmoothed:



As can be seen above, the TurboSmoothed bear is in a pose ready for rigging. I then decided the head was too small and adjusted it:



The next step was to give the bear some ears:



These were created by extruding two polygons on the side of the head and Bevelling the front face inwards. Next, Ernie needs a cute button nose...



This was created by extruding a poly at the front of his nose then Cutting down the middle. I Bevelled one half to create a nostril, the other half would become the skin in the middle when the mesh was mirrored. Acting on feedback, I made the bear's head shape more curved at the back and below is my progress so far:



Bear-like? Hopefully...!

A note about using Symmetry: When using Symmetry, it is important the vertices on the side to be mirrored are in a straight vertical line. Some on my mesh were not, which caused holes in the mesh when mirrored and smoothed. This required the vertices to be moved into line (Make Planar is a useful tool for this). Also, holes in the mesh can occur when manipulating vertices to model complex areas such as the eye sockets. Target Welding was useful for fixing this as it connects two separated vertices.

I have altered an environment used for a previous side project to suit the style of my animation. Textures are 100% original except for the tarmac, which is edited from an online image:



This will be the road the Bear will cross on his way to work. In the corner of the shot is a downloaded car which will almost run him over...

I have applied a new technique for the shadows, which use Mental Ray Raytracing to produce smoother-edged and softer shadows.

I have now created a script for my animation, which should allow the use of many different emotions, as well as a list of objects needed and the visual style the animation should take.

Here Comes the Bear/Glass Half Full Bear

- Business Bear is walking to work in a tie with his briefcase and trilby

- He comes to a busy road with lots of traffic, he looks left and right. Scared
- Runs across the road, horns tooting as cars brake
- At the other side he's panting, exhausted

- Continues journey across bridge. Gust of wind blows his hat off!
- Hat lands in water, he runs to edge shocked
- Dejected bear walks off, head hung

- Bear walks towards office building
- From behind, Walks into office, it's empty!
- Bear looks puzzled
- Suddenly, everyone jumps up, "happy bithday Bear!" banner pops down from ceiling etc
- Bear smiles!

Assets Required:

- Build bear
- Acquire highway, can use environment built for previous side project
- Acquire cars, can be downloaded
- Build bridge and bump mapped water with verges, use default Max trees
- Build office building outside, towering glass, environment map of city on bumped glass
- Build office interior with cubicles, has windows at end, chairs can be downloaded.
- Acquire or film video of people in office and mix with scene, getting correct shadows is important

Visual Style

Should be soft lighting and shadows with glare/bloom from the sun

I have started modelling my character for the animation - a large cartoon bear who will be able to walk and act like a human:



He is far from finished - he needs hands and textures. I have started rigging him by using Physique to attach him to a Biped. So far I've managed to get the arms rigged pretty much correctly but tweaking the areas of influence for the legs and head is tricky:



The next step is to rig everything then give the bear hands and texture him. I will also start building environments.