This course^ covering the design and construction of digital characters will focus on motion; primarily skeletal animation and surface deformation. Rick^Grandy will discuss the biomechanics of real animals, taking the knowledge learned from nature and using it to help create creatures^ that move in a ^believable way. He'll also discuss when to break the rules, and how to improve the performance of your characters.
Award-winning^ independent director Greg^Jonkajtys shares his^experience designing and executing the visual effects for his new live-action short film The 3rd Letter. Topics will include storyboards and animatics, shooting with the^Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera, blending computer generated effects^with real props, and^extending live-action sets with CG.
In this class, David Meng^ shares his thoughts on how he includes personality and expression in a character bust, striving to avoid anything innocuous or generic but still keeping subtlety in the sculpture. The practical aspects of working with^ plastaline and armatures will be addressed, as well as the subjective aspect of creative influences and the challenges involved in creating something that will^ entertain and surprise viewers.
This ^series introduces the essential techniques for creating digital sets and backgrounds, an area of visual effects growing in prominence. In this third disc of a series of three, visual effects designer Eric Hanson begins with rendering a Maya scene into layers and passes, then leads into the various approaches for professionally compositing and integrating a digital set into a live-action background. He examines the main composite tree in Shake, illustrating the use of the various render passes including diffuse, specular, reflection, shadow, z-depth, effects and ambient occlusion. ^Throughout the disc, Eric uses a^ sample scene of an urban environment to highlight all essential steps. This series is designed~ for all advancing intermediate Maya artists.
