Lab 6: Collaboration, Character, and Sound
IDS252: 3D Animation, Spring 2015

Goals

The goals of this lab are to:

• Collaborate with another person.
• Learn how to organize a complex, collaborative Maya project, including File Referencing!
• Use gesture and foley sound effects to convey emotion and tell a story.
• Understand the difference between using pose-to-pose vs straight-ahead animation. See book excerpt 3 Ways To Animate
• Deliverable: A 10-20 second animation with 1 or 2 characters. Gesture and sound are used to tell the "story". See Evaluation Sheet (pdf).

Maya Tutorials

• The only required online tutorial is on File Referencing, but this one is VERY important. You need to do only the beginning part up to, but not including, the part on proxies. Copy the entire FileReferencing folder which can be found on cs-render in the folder:

  \IDS252Sp15\IDS252Resources\Lab6Files Paste it wherever you plan on working. Set the project to the folder FileReferencing.

  In Maya, go to Help → Tutorials. Click on the link Getting Started with Maya 2015. In the contents, click on Getting Started with Maya, and then File Referencing and do Lesson 1: Using file references (up to, but not including, the part on proxies.) This tutorial will not be collected.

• There are many other tutorials available in the online help and digital tutors. I encourage you to poke around to learn a few extra skills that interest you.

The above tutorial will not be collected.

Files and Folders

• In this lab you will work with one other person.
• On cs-render, in folder \IDS252Sp15\Lab6\MayaProjects, create a folder whose name is derived from both partners' names, e.g. last names and first initials. Place your Maya project and editing subfolders in this folder. There should be only one Maya project - it will contain the maya scene files for both partners.
• When you have completed the lab, please copy your animation over to the folder: \IDS252Sp12\Lab6\FinalAnimations\. Name your quicktime animation file based on the names of both partners AND the initials of the musician.

Renderfarm

You are encouraged to try out the render farm. See directions here: Farm. It is best to try it first during lab time when you can ask for help.

Project Directions

• Pick a Partner: In this lab, you will work with one partner.

• Foley: The animation should contain two or more foley sounds. A variety of foley sounds are available in the folder \IDS252Sp12\Lab6\FOLEY. You may select any of them.

• The Animation: The animation should be a brief scenario lasting 10-20 seconds with 1 or 2 characters. Use the foley sound to direct what the scene is about. Listen to the sounds you have been chosen and brainstorm ideas about what these sounds represent. Remember that "Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking." Keep the scenerio simple. It is better to have high quality animation that is simple and expressive than to have complex but awkward animation. The focus should be on gesture and sound.

• Characters: The characters should be chosen from the rigged characters: Bloke, simple_human, or Andy. If you want to use a different rigged model, please consult with the instructor before using it. Andy (short for “androgynous”) is a character you haven't seen so far. The rig has the advantage that one can select different parameters to give the the appearance of a girl/boy/man/woman. The files you need to use Andy are found on cs-render in the folder \IDS252Sp15\IDS252Resources\Rigs\AndyRig_v1.4.6. Note, you need to copy the Andy scene file (andyRigv1.4.6.ma) into your own project's scenes folder and you need to copy all of the files in the sourceimages files into your own project's sourceimages folder.

  If you plan on having more than one character in your scene, make sure they are distinguishable either by using a different rigged character or by changing the appearance of one of them. For example, if you have 2 blokes, you can change the color or give one of them a hat.

• Environment: The environment should be minimal, e.g. containing only a few objects (if any) other than the characters themselves. Any objects that do appear should be there for a reason, i.e. they should play an active part in the interaction or in setting the mood or scene. Shading and texturing can be minimal, however, do pay attention to lighting and to a choice of color scheme.

• Camera: It is recommended that you use only a few stationary cameras with simple cuts as the transitions. Pay attention to continuity between cuts. To manage the cameras, you may want to use Maya's camera sequencer and ubercam (ask if you need help with this).

• Storyboarding: Once you and your partner have decided on a scenerio, do the following:

  • Download the Lab 6 Collaboration Form (doc) and write out your scenario description in words (a few sentences or a paragraph is fine). The Shot List and Task List will be described below.
  • Once you have written the text, sketch out the primary actions (very rough storyboards) on paper. It does not matter if can't draw. Stick figures are ok. Pay attention to the camera location (framing) and relationship of the characters to each other and the camera (staging) as well as the characters' gesture (body pose/language). This is exploratory. The goal is to begin to hash out with your partner the visual elements of the story before you invest a lot of time implementing anything in Maya. Act out the scene to get an idea of the approximate timing. Remember, the final animation should be between 10 and 20 seconds. Indicate on the storyboards where the foley will be.
  • When you are ready to animate, you are to use these storyboards to block in the key frames using pose-to-pose action.

• Division of Labor:

  The Task and Shot list form your contract with your partner about who will be doing what. By writing it out you will avoid a lot of potential conflict and finger pointing the road (believe me):

  • Task List: In your Lab 6 Collaboration Form which so far contains your story description, you will see a Task List. Decide which partner will be responsible for which task and place their names into the appropriate slots. Note, the editor is the person responsible for putting the animation together in Adobe Premiere.
  • Shot List: Break the scenario into its "shots". A shot is normally a camera cut (e.g. camera changes position) but it can also just be a convenient spot for a transition (e.g. a character walks off the screen at the end of shot 1 and comes back at the beginning of shot 2). Each shot should be assigned to one of the partners. Each partner is responsible for all of the animation in their assigned shots. It is common in an animation for more than one animator to animate a particular character. If you feel strongly about changing this, consult with the instructor. In any case, each person must do some amount of animating - it is not ok for one person to do it all.

    Once you have decided the shot break down and who will do what, fill in the Shot List contained in your Lab 6 Collaboration Form. Be sure to fill out all columns of the form. The content may be modified as you go but it is important to have a starting point. If you do make changes, it is important that you update this form (make a new version rather than deleting the original).

• Project Setup:

  Once all of the above has been completed, you can now get started in Maya.

  • You and your partner are to create a single Maya project in which to work. All scene files should be in the scenes folder. There should be a separate scene file for each of the following:
    • Each character
    • Each prop
    • The environment (may contain all of the props which have been imported or referenced)
    • Each shot where each shot will reference (not Import!) the environment and the characters in that shot. When possible, avoid multiple levels of referencing (e.g. a file references a file which references a file ...). Before creating the references, be sure that the characters, props, and environment being referenced are cleaned up.
    • Make sure that all assets (e.g. textures, maya scenes, sounds, source images, etc) are somewhere inside the project folder.
    • Remember, don't use the default lambert shader (lambert1) because Maya will get confused if different referenced files have a different "default" shader. Instead, always create new shaders for your models.
    • Layers: Learn how to use layers so that you can focus on only the parts that you are working on (ask if you don't remember how to set these up).

Loading Music into Maya:

• Import the sound as you did in Lab 5. You can shift the sound so that it starts at a different frame by right clicking on the timeline, selecting Sound, and then select the small box to the right of the name of your sound. (see picture below) This will bring up the attributes for the sound. Change the Offset to move the sound to a different frame. For example, set Offset to 5, to shift the sound over by 5 frames.
• For the second sound, import it as you did the first. To see and manipulate the location of both sounds, it is probably easiest if you use the Trax Editor. Click on the timeline, select Sound, and then make sure that Use Trax Sounds is selected (it probably already is, but good to check). Now, open up the Trax Editor by going to the top menu Window → Animation Editors → Trax Editor. Click on the small arrow to the left of the word Soundtrack in order to open up the sound track and see your sounds. You can drag the sounds around using the mouse.
• When you render the animation in Adobe Premiere, you need to import and place the sound at the right place. Depending on the animation, you may be able to do this easily by shifting the audio file with the mouse. However, if more precise placement is needed:

  Jot down the sound's offset from Maya. Use this time to align the audio in Adobe Premiere. Note, in Adobe Premiere, the time units are hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. For example, if you are using 30 fps, the time of 00;00;02;8 corresponds to 2 seconds (i.e. 60 frames) plus 8 frames or, in other words, the 68th frame.

Evaluation

On Tues Mar 3, bring your storyboards, and a printed copy of your completed Lab 6 Collaboration Form containing the story desciption, shot list, and task list. This will be reviewed by the instructor during class or lab. The Lab 6 Collaboration Form will be collected.

On Thur Mar 5, place your final animation on cs-render in the folder \IDS252Sp15\Lab6\FinalAnimations. Also place your (possibly updated) Lab 6 Collaboration Form in this same folder. Turn in your storyboards.

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