Art 173 A The Illusion of Life: Facial Animation – Steve DiPaola
Due Wednesday
Feb. 21st
Instructions – Create an emotional animated sequence using the bingo blend shape model.
Save it to a compressed movie file in facial on riso/assignment 4 with you name
Follow these instructions as needed
1 - download this file - bingoface1.mb
2 - open maya (keep this
instruction sheet around to view)
3 - create a project file
called yourname-face1
file:project:new - set the folder and name
4 - open the face blend
shape maya file - bingoface1.ma
file:open scene
5 - note the base face in
the middle and the blend faces are around it
6 - click F2 to get in to
Animation mode
7 - if not already there
open the blend shape window
window:animation editors:blend shape
8 - try a slider and note
how they blend the base head with any blend head
9 - make the blend heads
invisable with the layer editor
window:general editors: display layer editor
click facialPoses; click Invisable: close layer editor
10 - zoom in and position
the base head to fill the scene
alt LMB: to rotate
ctrl-alt LMB: making a bbox around the base head: zoom to
size
11 - turn off grid
display:grid
12 - if not already there
open the outliner window
window:outliner
13 - note the objects of the
scene
14 - click on the + of
"face" to expose the children "facialMuscles" and
"Eyes"
15 - click on the + of Eyes
to expose the right and left eye
16 - click on the object you
want and use rotate and the blend shapes to modify the face
face to rotate all
eye_left and eye_right to rotate the eyes
facialMuscles with blend shape to animate the facial area
17 - set up the animation
time line
set the begin frames to 1 and 1
set the ending animation frames to the end numbers
use the timeline set up at the rightmost end of the
timeline, set to 15 or 30 frames a sec
18 - position the animation
slider to the key you want
19 - use the blend shape
sliders and set keys
key all or key
reset all - reset everything
20 - set keys for the head
and eye rotate
animate:set key
21 - script out your scene,
act it out, time it (and set your timeline and fps accordingly)
22 - use a mirror to
visualize the face
23 - create you animation
24 - use edit:keys to manage
keys ( delete, copy, paste, ...)
25 - use help:search to help
you with any problems
26 - use the animation graph
and other tools you've learned in the last maya assignment
27 - save often
28 - set lighting, materials
to push your story mood ( if need be)
29 - occationally test
render a frame to preview
30 - use playblast to test
render you movie
window:playblast
31 - change the global
rendering options to tiff (and anything else you want)
window: render globals
32 - batch render you frames
f5:render:(save) batch render
33 - read the frames into
after effects and create a compressed movie ( mov, cinapac is good)
34 - consider doing test
renders (at smaller res) to visual your piece
35 - always save your
animation file
35 - send me your compress
movie file in facial on riso/assignment 4 with you name
36 - if needed, see assign 3
additions on sudac.stanford.edu/facial for instruction on making extra blend
shapes
37 - have fun, your creating
life out of pixels