Im Back and now a Graduate!

Sorry for not updating in the last couple weeks. I have been doing a lot of independent projects that have been taking up my time. At the moment i have been a graduate from Full Sail for well over a month and it is nice to do projects no longer school related. At the moment, my team and I are updating a project we have done for a contest and hopefully get a high detail res version for i can show you all. So yea hopefully soon we will have that finished.

More news to share is that i am developing another demo reel and continuing in making more rigs, mainly focusing on toons and/or quad legged related characters or characters with no legs at all. Just to show i can develop all types of rigs and some will be available to any animator who desire to animate them.

Well that is all for now...be back with more updates soon.

Demo Reel

This is a low res version of the demo reel. I thank all my animators that has help me create this.

Demon Flight

This is another Highlight animation on my demo reel.

Animation done by Travis Clarke. A fellow friend and great animator. The audio on this is alarming however this animation was timed and paced to that part of the song.

Music by Pretty Lights - The City of One

Diva Frisbee Animation

This is one animation i have for my demo reel, just thought to show the highlights of my reel in its own glamor show. This animation is done by Jin Hoo, a great animator i have to work with. Taught me lots of secrets on how to work with an animator and how to improve my rigs for more animator friendly.

Im Back

Well hello my followers, been a long time since i have updated my blog. Well ladies and gentlemen i have return with lots of updates and knowledge to share. Within my time off from the blog i have developed a W.I.P Demo Reel and lots of animation test from great friends/ animators. So for the next few post will be a wave of craziness and awesomeness. Hope you all enjoy.

Render Test Animation For PCC3

Another Render Test animation. I have done the animation, the shading/lighting and the rig. Robert Reategui have done the model. This took me about 12 hrs to render on my computer 0.0, yea it took forever, but i do have to say i took a very nice nap.

Great Dane Tail motion test

A simple motion test of the dynamics of the great dane i have rigged. Soon i will have it animated.

Great Dane Render Update

An update on the texture i have done a month ago. I added textures to the eyes and improve the color...next is to add fur and change the body look.

a render walk cycle test, my good animator friend did the animation for me. i kinda miss up on the cycle. im not sure what frame to start and end on so dont mind the popping this is just the first take on it. all textures may change in the next update.

Skin Shader Test

I am not that great with skin shader in maya or even texturing, but this is some test i have done to understand the material.

PCC 3 Render Test

An asset that i am currently working on, I personally made the texture and light setup. I am considering on changing the texture once i develop my demo real. The character base texture is black with some red cloud design, once the character is shine with any light source( with color or not) the arrow designs shall show and if the light shine on it is a color...like right now purple, the character skin will change to that hue.

Motion Test

Dark Chao Tail Motion Test from Joel Pizarro on Vimeo.

Great Dane Jowels Motion Test from Joel Pizarro on Vimeo.

iKSpringSolver

Today i was kinda reintroduce to the -ikSpringSolver- in maya. From what i have been told and research for the past few hours is that this solver is best for non-traditional character ie: Dog with more than 3 or 4 joints. It gives a even influence throughout the joint chain.

However thru the few hours of hassling with the solver there are some tricks i would like to say to achieve a successful motion like an RPsolver. First off, to get the -ikSpringSolver-

1.) Mel section on the button of the maya window; type ikSpringSolver
2.) In the ik Handle tool, open the option box and the -ikSpringSolver- node will be "unlocked"
3.) Next is to select you joint chain, like you normally would for any other ikHandle
4.) Some people out in the forums suggest to group the ikHandle and do a parent constaint from the Control to the handle group pad, However when i do that i develop an offset or no direct influence to the knee, for an example when i rotate the "Master/move all control" the knee just rotates on its own, so i just do a normal parent constraint like i would do for a normal ikHandle

(I will do another test on step 4 to see which method is better)

5.) select the "Master Control/Move all Control", this step is important, if you have already tried to rotate the "Move_All_Control" you will notice an offset or the knee rotates on its own, to solve this issue is to select the move all control, parent constraint it to a pad of the joint you have used for the ikSpringSolver. I used the master rig for the mement, i shall do another update to inform is that step is a good idea or not.
6.) and in the End you have made a useful Ikhandle movement.

7.) To add a pole vector icon is not recommend. From my test of using locators and controls the pole vector method doesnt work successful. If you have tried or done so you will notice the knee rotate and do the offset, when you rotate the move all control. Dont worry it is not fully broken. To my knowledge and me playing with it for a few hours, i believe the pole vector is overwriting the rotation values or something.

A solution to this is doing the "No-Flip leg method," from my many recreation attempts it work successfully. If you wonder what the no flip leg method there are many videos on youtube that explains that method.



~Additional Thoughts~

One issue i am dealing with is the fact that when zeroing out or doing the undo command sometimes pops the ikhandle out of place, i just reinput the zero into what i moved. I shall do many more test to figure out a better solution but yea...I hope that this works out for everyone. I may do a podcast or a just capture my method on how to do it, but yea thats the end.

Original Chao

Well after a long chat with my modeler, he seems kinda displeased with the turn of event of his model, so i took it upon myself to rig his original piece with no alterations what so ever. Started at 2:50am on 4/11/2011, i predict i will have this fully rigged, no proxy, just bind within 3 days....scraping my PCC 3 rig and removing all toon and squash from the rig. I will post the time tracker and images of it.

Pcc3 Motion Test

Head Tail Motion Test from Joel Pizarro on Vimeo.

A simple Motion Test and my first Vimeo video post.

Week 01 on PCC3

Progress of my Pcc3 asset.....Week 1, which is like only 3 days of work. Haven't gotten the bind all work out, but the proxy is well done. I also have the "dynamic" set for the head tail and the tail, may need a for more influence or sliders to mess with and it will work out fine. Well, time to continue working

Devil Chaos Chao

A Character i am rigging up for my last and final asset for PCC....this model was created by my friend Robert. This is the proxy geo version of the model, so excuss me for the loss of some geo. I have the basic idea and rig done, however at the moment i cant show you it until it has been finalize.

PCC2 Renders

All texture and lighting was created by me, just tests renders to see what the character will look like in a pose and under the lighting/texture conditions.

PCC 2

Well this is a dog asset i have been working on all month...at the moment the rig is completed, just need some minor clean-up work,but in all it is done. At the moment i am texturing this dog, it is a bit weird at first since its been nearly a year since i actually shade and light anything, but yea. First Render shot.

Create Blendshape

While i saw this unique tutorial on how to make hair systems and the settings for it..i discovered something interesting about the idea of "create blendshape." as i sat there watching it..the use of that same node that we all use for just geometry it can be use for curve,joints and etc. as just and output/input history. like what u use a color blend for..its the same thing but can link that output/input into other things.

Dog asset

Dog Asset....

I am Rigging this dog, at the moment spent about 20 hrs rigging it, and came across some difficult situations as shown above. This is my first time rigging a 4 legged character. but i am glad with the results. Trying to keep the character clean and less of control icons everywhere,but the idea of better deformation is my downfall. I have a general idea what to do yet the bind itself is a challenging foe. but nontheless i dont give up so easily, hopefully within a week i can focus on the facial features than the body.

Blendshape Gone Wrong

Well this was a funny turn of event. As it comes to my knowledge, when creating a head blendshape to a character for example a dog, the vert count is really important. Not only the vert but the amount of verts from the original model to the blendshape. This was not really a test but a unfortunate accident, on how i dup his head and smooth the original character without knowing the outcome. As you can see the edge quality becomes more than less crap when the blendshape is activated.

I have also done a test on selecting both the original and blendshape head and hitting smooth and it does some bad outcome...test it out if you like. But in the end i have figure if your planning on smoothing the character anyway..smooth it and then dup the heads...

Morning

Test animation on the flower. I had my good friend do a simple animation for i can see what is needed to be work on, as in the weights or how the pedals and such bends.

Flower Power!

Flower Power!
Yea i agree it is totally random to show an image of a flower but, i was ask today to "rig" or i should say make this model for animator friendly so i did....didn't took me long to make a rig for this since it is such a simple model. However i added a few things for my personal test on deformers and such.

Hand Animation

This is a test animation that i have done, just to show a finger test on how it folds and such...i have some weighting issue but this is like a couple ways down the save files. soon this model will be fully animate ready, even tho it is fully rig, just from my stand point it is not ready

Face Rig Troubles

Attempt 2 for my face rig...the first attempt was a somewhat successful achievement to do. I learn the value of more joints does help transition between large areas. The reason for the second attempt is for a more useful face rig...able to rotate and a better fall off between the area of the face. Furthermore having the local rotation of the controls facing the correct way would be helpful if selecting the right and left side of the face. Well i hope i can make a useful face rig that can be animated.

Input Window Malfunction

The input window is generally use to reorder inputs such as blendshapes below the skinCluster node. An error code or refuses to open is a rare, yet frustrating event. From my general knowledge this event happens only in Autodesk Maya 2011 and no other verisons of maya. For those who have google this event would have come across a good informing forum, hopefully.

well otherwise you have come across a good forum or not, the code you may have come arcoss in mel format would be:

-reorderDerformers blendshape skinCluster tweaks; -

Do this simply in the script editor under the mel tab and the next thing you shall notice that nothing happened, nothing at all. However, do not be mad. If you save the file out as a different naming convention, close down maya and reopen the file. As you right click or however way you access the input window, it shall appear and working to its normal functions.

Face Rig

My first attempt on making a Facial Rig for my character. I am using a joint system on this face, placing them on certain areas where the human muscle lies. The reason i thought of doing this way is how the geometry edge-f low is similar to the muscle placement. Soon i will make a video of the facial rig doing simple face expressions.

The red, blue and yellow squares are controls for fine detail movements. The green circular controls are for the animator's use, giving them a much more quick result instead of handling the smaller controls. I am also deciding on adding presets; such as "smile, frown, disgust" for the animator to use for block-out purposes.

Blendshapes

Blendshapes....The way of the clusters....it is very useful to do if you dont want to do the joint system, but it is time consuming if you want to make accurate shapes. My method is to make a cluster on key parts; the cheeks and lips, even out the cluster weights on that part and the rest shall be easy.

Lab Monitor

Well at the moment i guess i can say that i have been working as a open lab monitor for Fullsail for about more than a year now...it is really cool maintaining and helping others out in the lab. a great atmosphere to be in, surrounding by other artist learning and developing their skills.