ike’s Tech Blog

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gDeform release - gridDeform (III)

After some tries to use a grid as a deform method for an object, I decided to go other way and use LBrush for deforming the geometry. This script is not free, but you can grab a 45-day trial version at joealter.com. Remember also that you will need MorphX2 modifier too (look for it at lumonix.net) if you want to use this tool (do not worry, it’s free). Some creepy errors could happen if you don’t owe both of them!!!

Here is the link to the script. Just uninstall it and run the .ms file from MAX: gDeform

And a little video that show what the tool could be used for…

gDeform - How To from Iker J. on Vimeo.

Feel free to comment any bug related to the script

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gridDeform (II)

Last saturday, instead of partying all night long, I decided to move on with this tool and make it more user and production-friendly. I was motivated by the AniSculpt videos from Daniel Martinez Lara a.k.a. ‘pepeland’. The interface is a bit different, since he directly sculpts on the mesh, and I use a grid for tweaking the shape, but in the end all points to get more natural sillouettes and poses on the animation.

One advantage over Dani’s method is that with ‘my’ method it’s possible to tweak the animation ‘below’ the deformation, since the rig is still there (Dani works with a cached mesh). I’m still thinking about ways to make it faster and stronger, so I hope to show more updates as soon as possible

gridDeform - wip3 from Iker J. on Vimeo

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Sketching (I)

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Some recent projects…

Here are a couple of projects I’ve been working on Kandor.

- ‘The missing Lynx’ is a feature-film movie that is going to be on cinemas… these Xmas! ¡Todos al cine a verla estas Navidades! I did some additional rigging and fixes on some shots (when I arrived to the company the movie was almost finished).

- ‘Puleva: bailando en la terraza’ stands for a milk company commercial. I did here the skinning and rigging of all the characters.

Enjoy, and sorry for the crappy quality (sigh) of the videos.

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More, more!

Here it comes: the first version of my ‘fRig’ (dude, I love capital letters in the middle of the words :-). This is the (at this moment) result of almost 6 months of work, on the way between home and the studio. Things can always be improved, and that’s part of my job! I don’t know who is reading this, but you have to know that without the people at Kandor and CGTalk (and some pals from Ilion) this wouldn’t have been possible. And, WTF, I did know nothing of programming and I spent days and nights at home learning on my own. I want part of the merit too, muahahahahahaha!!!

Oh, by the way, this is not a demo reel that tries to get a job for me or anything. So no mail nor phone, because I’m pretty happy where I am now

fRig Progress Reel from Iker J. on Vimeo.

Mi primera versión funcional de ‘fRig’ ya está aquí. Contiene muchas de las cosas que he querido incorporar, así como muchas (ojalá fuera todas) de las que los animadores me han pedido (en el fondo sabéis que os quiero). Es el resultado de 6 meses de trabajo a caballo entre el estudio y casa. Teniendo en cuenta que en enero no tenía casi ni idea de programar creo que la cosa tiene su mérito… ¡pero no me detendré ahí! ¡Muahahahahaahahha! Queda todavía, como siempre, mucho por hacer… Y sólo pretendo compartir lo que llevo hecho (que dista de estar acabado). No busco trabajo, de ahí que no ponga ni el teléfono ni el correo en el video. Ahora mismo estoy donde debo estar…

It’s moving!!!

This is one of the tests that the animators at Kandor are doing to the rig. The rig has been generated using MAXScript, and in some days I’ll show some of its features. Although it’s gonna to be improved everyday… it can be animated!!!

Ernesto tests my rig! from Iker J. on Vimeo

Éste es uno de los ‘tests’ que los animadores de Kandor están haciendo con el ‘rig’, que se genera completamente por ’script’. En breve mostraré alguna de sus características, porque cada día que pasa arreglo fallitos e implemento nuevas mejoras y soluciones. De momento, ¡puede ser animado, que no es poco!

gridDeform

Here comes another little tool! It’s based on Bernhard Haux’s deformation reel (see here). The script creates a 2D grid perpendicular to the point of view of the camera and it lets you deform the selected object. For the moment it only works with non-animated.

gridDeform - wip2 from Iker J. on Vimeo

He aquí otra pequeña herramienta. Está basada en la que presenta Bernhard Haux en su ‘reel’ de deformación. Crea una rejilla 2D perpendicular al punto de vista de la cámara, permitiendo deformar el objeto seleccionado. De momento, sólo funciona con objetos que no tienen animación.

Real- time Dynamics in MAX

This is what I’m playing with at home: Verlet formulas to get real-time feedback in the viewports. This is the first approach, and although it seems to work, the code in ths script controller is dirty and the system stops working when hiding some of the participating objects (¿?). Oh, and the video is recorded over the frame 5000 to show that this spring solution is faster than the one that comes with MAX B-)

3DSMAX Real Time Dynamics - 01 from Iker J. on Vimeo

Esto es con lo paso el tiempo en casa: las fórmulas de Verlet aplicadas a objetos para poder obtener dinámicas en tiempo real e los visores. Lo que muestro es la primera aproximación y, aunque parece que funciona, el código del controlador es bastante sucio y todo deja de funcionar cuando, por ejemplo, oculto algunos objetos que participan en el sistema (¿?).

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‘Sticky Points!’ (II)

Eureka! Finally the script works as it should. Wow, I’m so happy… my first working utility! Most of the work comes from the guys at CGTalk (specially Félix!). I avoided double transforms and now there’s no issues in moving the head around. So, in theory, this little tool could be used in production… well, in fact I’m planning to use it next week at work for our next project: a TV advertising. Below you can see some fast examples (’fast’ because I spent less than 2 hours skinning and we all know everything can be improved) of how a mesh with morphs (or any other deformation) could be manipulated using the points.

Today I’ve been trying to improve the workflow for creating the points. Now, if the mesh is symmetrical, only the half of the points have to be created ‘manually’. The rest are built with a magic and misterious ‘Mirror’ button. Lots and lots of transformations and matrixes during all day, and I feel pretty proud of the job done. C’mon, Iker! Keep on working!

And thanks also to John Doublestein for letting me use the model from his andyRig for Maya.

¡Yujuuuuuu! Finalmente, el ’script’ funciona como debiera. Estoy tan contento… ¡mi primera herramienta que funciona! Gran parte del trabajo es mérito de los colegas de CGTalk (¡especialmente de Félix!). En esta versión de la herramienta se evitan las transformaciones dobles, deslizamientos no deseados… y tampoco hay ya problemas en mover la cabeza por ahí: los puntos siguen pegados a la cara pase lo que pase (gracias por el apunte, César). Así que, en teoría, esto ya se puede usar en producción… bueno, de hecho pienso usarlo la semana que viene en el siguiente proyecto que cae en mis manos: un anuncio para TV. Debajo podéis ver un par de ejemplos rápidos (”rápidos” porque tarde más bien poco en preparar las deformaciones y la pose) de cómo una malla con una deformación inicial dada por un ‘Morph’ puede ser deformada con los puntos.

Hoy he estado intentando mejorar el flujo de trabajo a la hora de crear los puntos. Ahora, si la malla es simétrica, sólo es necesario crear ‘manualmente’ la mitad de los puntos: la otra mitad se crea automáticamente con un botón ‘Mirror’. He mejorado también cómo se orientaban los puntos, lo cual facilita bastante el futuro trabajo con la herramienta. Qué a gusto se queda uno cuando las cosas funcionan…

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And then… a job found him!!!

Yep, a job found me here in Granada! I’m working at Kandor Graphics as Rigging TD. I have more responsabilities than I used to have in Madrid, so that also involves collaborating in the improvement of the existing pipeline. New quests! New glories to achieve! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I’m still working on all the stuff (well, ‘all’ sounds like there’s a lot of things here, and in fact there is not), planning to refine and use it on production. I’ll let you see as soon as I have cool things to show!