brenblog

Some beautiful high res video reference of Amur and North Chinese Leopards curtesy of The Big Cat Sanctuary. Follow the links below to find the videos on facebook. Luka, Amur Leopard https://www.facebook.com/TheBigCatSanctuary/videos/1916203335255568/   Artur, Amur Leopard https://www.facebook.com/TheBigCatSanctuary/videos/meet-artur-an-amur-leopard-meet-the-cats/597943617748712/   Atara, North Chinese leopard https://www.facebook.com/TheBigCatSanctuary/videos/meet-atara-the-big-cat-sanctuary/580703632963297/ Gif captures: Luka, Amur Leopard

Some excellent anatomy reference from Paul Smith, very useful rigging reference for deformation and muscle behaviour. Moving anatomy reference- shoulders from Paul smith on Vimeo . Moving anatomy reference- Neck 1 from Paul smith on Vimeo . Moving anatomy reference : Torso 1 from Paul smith on Vimeo .

Notes and observations on the Weta FACS action unit list.

 Here's a complete list of action units I've managed to derive from digging through Weta breakdown videos.

Weta sharing their secrets behind the amazing work on "Junior" aka CG young Will Smith on Gemini Man.

Some more stunning work from MPC, this time from the advertising team, with some very nice hand rigging!

Some fantastic "motion x-rays" of various limbs flexing, giving us some great reference for rigging and deforming CG humans.

Nice in depth look at the stunning work from Framestore on the CG stag in The Crown and the Lemur in His Dark Materials. Impressive use of houdini for the full CFX workflow, including muscles and fascia on the body, as well as flesh simulation around the lips used to very nice effect. Always nice to get a glimpse of another studios animation control scheme, and an absolutely stunning final render. And....this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJr76sTTZBc&feature=share I've been following 3Lateral for a while now, the results they get from their digi-human face rigs are among the best in the business. I admire their data driven approach to face rigging, but more importantly how the data is interpreted in a way that strongly respects real world anatomy. Nice to see a solid FACs rig in action, interfaces like these are not the most comfortable for an animator to use, but a necessary evil for this level of realism!

          Stranger Things 3 : The Mind Flayer & Starcourt Battle | VFX Breakdown by Rodeo FX   from Rodeo FX on Vimeo .

Really nice in-depth article from beforeandafters.com on the ILM IMocap system, something I've spent a good portion of my mocap career paying close attention to, nice to finally see an "official" explanation of the process! https://beforesandafters.com/2019/09/10/computer-pajamas-the-history-of-ilms-imocap/?fbclid=IwAR35cyQIYN2mt0traKgjhOl-wmg-dTCuzW_a4uQ1w6W8anelVWLqLT5SbW8  

Nice in-depth look at the FACS, PSD and Mobu systems used on God of War 3.

Couple of interesting takeaways from the Lumberyard SDK: "Ground alignment" for solving leg IK poses to ground slopes: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/latest/legacyreference/char-ik-leg-foot.html "ray scanning" or RayWorldIntersection (plus local culling for performance) https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/latest/userguide/physics-world-entities-raytracing.html Ikinema achieving something similar in Unreal Engine: x

Setting skinCluster weights in one fast API call Aaron Carlisle : http://abc-td.com/using-getweights-and-setweights-in-the-maya-python-api/ Chris Evans useful post on the Maya message attribute: http://www.chrisevans3d.com/pub_blog/mighty-message-attribute/ Jaw pivot placement: http://www.chrisevans3d.com/pub_blog/the-jaw/

Ah fascinating critter, I'll be honest, not my favourite cat, but quite sweet all the same. One thing I did notice however is that big bag of wrinkly skin is actually quite revealing about their anatomy. As a character rigger, things like wrinkles are often an after thought, something you add on as a nice extra, but when you see images like the ones below, it does illustrate how significant they are in defining a creatures shape. What we can learn from the Sphynx cat, is that all that loose excess skin is actually a necessity to allow it's wide range of movement. The blue lines represent the compression and tension of the skin in the two poses, note how much the skin gathers up around the wrists when the limbs are tucked in, and how stretched out that skin is when upright. Think of it like doing yoga wearing a loose pair of trousers compared to wearing tight fitting jeans :P

Really nice, detailed look at the Weta horse bone/muscle/fascia/fat/skin simulation. Something I'm only just noticing now is how detailed the bone movement is, right down to the tiny carpal bones, and the tendons sliding perfectly over them! Fantastic work, and fantastic reference for the rest of us!

Some pretty interesting screengrabs from the Apes 3 VFX breakdown. Note the clean separation between muscles, and the colour grouping of the fur sim. WETA FACS rig in action, interesting pose library tool on the left. Oh hello there. Weta Featurette "Making History" for WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES from The HMC Network on Vimeo . Nice article on Bad Ape and Alita face rigs: https://beforesandafters.com/2019/03/20/she-eats-a-lot-during-this-film-you-know-giving-cg-characters-some-bite/