Performance Animation
Introduction to Mocap
Quick rig
I began by importing this skeleton mesh into maya.
I then opened the quick rig menu rigging section, clicked on add with the rig selected and create/update.
The next step was placing my points. on the parts of the skeleton specifically the joints. This is useful when Binding so my mo-cap can run smoothly once placed on it.
I clicked on create update in the skinning section which now allowed my skeleton to be mo-caped.
Retargeting
The motion capture was now brought into the scene but before I can plce it on the skeleton I had to retarget the motion captuer data to the skeleton
This was done in the human IK window by assigning the selected bone joint form the mocap data.
Once that was done in the top of the IK window I set the Character to QuickRigCharacter and set the Source To character1.
My motion capture was successfully placed on the skeleton creating a short animation.
Assignment 1
I began by importing the Zombie mesh which was downloaded from Mixamo website. The mo-cap file I downloaded that I am going to apply to the mesh is the Zombie walk.
From the Quick Rig tool with the zombie character selected I clicked on the Sep-By Step button and and clicked on the plus sign adding the geometry.
I changed the Embed method to polygon soup in the guides menu and clicked create update.
I then rearranged the markers that appeared on the character and moved them into the correct areas to make sure they were in line with the joints.
Once I finished, I clicked create update on the Skeleton settings and also clicked update on the Binding Method in the skinning section. This connected the skeleton to the character.
I now had to apply the mo-cap to my character. I began by changing its X, Y and Z axis from the channel box to get it into the T pose.
From the character definition menu I had to assign the selected bone to each part of the body on the mo-cap.
Once I finished assigning all the selected bones I was ready to place the mo-cap onto the character.
In the Human IK I set the Character to the Quick rig character and set the source to be character 1, this applied the zombie walk mocap to the character.
To create an environmental background I added in a skydome light and added a forest HDRI.
The scene was fully rendered for the final animation.
Assignment 2
I began by importing the mo-cap data into maya. The mocap data I chose was the front flip mo-cap from motion library.
Once the mo-cap was in the scene I opened the time editor to start creating the slow motion jump effect.
I right clicked on the timeline in the editor and clicked on 'split clip at current frame' in between the time of the jump. This was them stretched out and blended with the split frames creating the slow-mo effect.
When I was finishing editing the motion capture I now had to apply it to a character which was from the Mixamo website.
From the rigging menu I went to quick rig and select auto rig. I then applied my mocap data to the character through the human IK window.
I began to create an environment to place the animated character in so the images above and below show me modelling buildings and lamposts for the environment.
I also added previous work from one of my rooftop assignments into my scene, addding to the environment
My animated character was now brought into the created environment
I was now deciding the best place to place him in the for the animation.
Once my character was in the correct place I wanted to create a path my camera could follow so I went to create - curve tool - CV curve tool.
This is the path I created for the animation.
A camera was brought in which I used to record the animated character to create a close up slow maotion jump.