Pose to pose animation

Transcription

"Incoming!" "If you managed to kill them, I assure you, they were not like me." Pose to pose animation. This method allows an animator to define important acting beats in a simple, easy-to-edit format, setting up a framework on which to build complexity and nuance. It works like this: pose a character, scrub in time, pose again. Transition between the poses using a variety of techniques such as inbetweening, splining, and offsetting. This series of four tutorials will cover all the basic steps necessary to create animation in this style, starting with the most fundamental step: posing. Character animation is the art of body language. To make an effective pose, we'll need to draw on that language. A pose can be likened to a single image that encapsulates what the character is thinking, feeling, and doing. From the Heavy's clueless stare to the Scout's conceit, this single image says, "I caught you off-guard, and now it's time to dish up some punishment." Even a character standing in place expresses a lot. Every pose in this stationary group shot expresses something about who that character is. Take a look at the Spy, for instance. We could describe his attitude as strong, in control, composed, arrogant even. We also get the sense that he's listening in, observing without being observed, ready to get the drop on the blue team. Let's have a go at creating this pose. Launch SFM, and create a new session by clicking on the Create button in the start window. For this tutorial, we'll use the map called "stage." Right-click on the viewport. Select Load Map. To help find the map, type in "stage" in the Filter dialog box. If it doesn't show up, make sure Mod Filter is set to All Mods. Double-click on the map name to open. Now lets's load in the Spy model. Click on the plus icon in the Animation Set Editor, then click on Create Animation Set for New Model. Type in "hwm/Spy" in the Filter box to help find it. Make sure the model filter is set to "All Mods," just in case it doesn't show up. To get a better look at the Spy, use the W, A, S, D, and Z and X keys, in combination with left-click drag, to navigate the camera around the scene. Now let's place him on a more appropriate spot on the floor. Enter the Motion Editor by clicking on the Motion Editor icon in the Timeline window. The green area, known as a time selection, denotes the region of time that animation will be applied to. By default, all of time is selected. Let's place the Spy in a more appropriate location. Holding down the Ctrl key will display all controls in the model's hierarchy. Between the Spy's feet is a control called "rootTransform." Moving the rootTransform control will move the entire character. With the Ctrl key still held down, left-click to select it. Left-click-drag the square in the center of the manipulator. Notice that the Spy moves relative to the camera plane. Whilst dragging the manipulator, try holding down Alt. Observe that by moving the mouse left or right, the Spy will move towards or away from the camera. Now, while left-click-dragging, try holding down Shift. Now when you move the manipulator, it will snap the control to the floor. Note that the time selection has turned orange. This means that changes applied are stored in a temporary buffer known as the "floating modification layer." To apply changes, press Enter. Now let's try moving his hips. Hold down Control. Hover the mouse over the Spy's hips until you see "bip_pelvis." Left-click to select this control. Alternately, select the control from the animation set window. To rotate the Spy's pelvis, click on the rotation icon. Now a rotation manipulator will appear. Left-click-dragging on this manipulator will rotate the control around its pivot point. To rotate around a single axis, click on one of the three colored axes on the manipulator. To translate, click on the translate icon. A translate manipulator will appear. Translate the control using one of three methods: left-click-drag the square in the middle to translate relative to the camera, left-click-drag an individual axis to translate down that axis, left-click-drag one of the circles to translate along a plane. Note that just as in a human skeleton, many of these joints are not designed to be translated. Translating the arm, for example, will cause the character to get bent out of shape. Though it is possible to animate the Spy just by rotating all of his joints, for this tutorial, we'll create what's called a "control rig." A control rig will allow us to move the character kind of like a marionette. Press Ctrl+Z repeatedly to undo the changes we've made, and return him to his default pose. To create additional controls, right-click on the top node of the character hierarchy. Find the menu item: Rig. Under it, find "rig_biped_simple." Observe that the arm and leg joints have disappeared and have been replaced by hand, elbow, feet, and knee controls. These controls can be rotated and translated. Also note that this time, when the pelvis is moved, the hands, elbow, feet and knee controls stay in place. Ctrl+Z back to the original pose, being careful not to undo the new animation controls we've just created. Next, let's put a revolver in Spy's hand. Load in the model "w_revolver." Next, select the Spy's right hand by holding down Ctrl and left-clicking the control "rig_hand_R." Note that rig_hand_R is highlighted in the animation set window. Next, find the revolver's rootTransform. Expand the revolver's hierarchy by clicking on the plus icon next to "revolver," then expand the control group called "Body." Under it is the rootTransform control. To "lock" the revolver to the Spy's hand, left-click the Spy's hand, named "rig_hand_R," and drag it onto the check box next to the revolver's rootTransform. The check box has now been replaced with a lock icon. Now when the hand moves, the revolver moves with it. To move the revolver closer to the hand, we'll use the snapping technique we learned earlier. Select the revolver's rootTransform from the animation set window. Using the translate manipulator, left-click-drag the square in the middle. Whilst dragging the revolver, hold down Shift. The revolver will now snap to whatever is directly behind it. Position the manipulator over the hand and snap the gun to it. Continue to rotate and translate the revolver until it sits in a more natural position. Don't worry about the fingers for now. We'll get to them later. Now that we've done all the setup, let's get to the fun part and start posing him. It's good to start with the broadest parts of the pose first. Let's start by turning him away from us a little, so that he's a little more side-on. Hold down the Ctrl key to display the animation controls in the viewport. Whilst holding down the Ctrl key, press the Shift key. Now we can select many controls at the same time. Go ahead and select rig_hand_R, rig_hand_L, rig_foot_R, rig_foot_L, and rig_pelvis. Switch to the rotation manipulator. Rotate the controls until the Spy is turned away from us a little bit. Let's give him a more solid stance by lowering his center of gravity. Select rig_pelvis and translate his pelvis down slightly. Select the feet controls and pull them away from each other, just enough to take the bend out of his legs. Posing requires observing the pose from different vantage points. To orbit around a control, select that control and hold down Alt. Left-click-dragging in the screen will now orbit the camera. To make him more arrogant, let's thrust his hips forward and puff out his chest a little. Rotating his shoulders back will help get that puffed-out-chest look. Now let's bring his gun up so that he looks like he's ready to use it. Rotate and translate rig_hand_R and rig_elbow_R until the gun in roughly in place. To help him look composed, let's place the Spy's left hand behind his back. To help switch between translate and rotate manipulators, try using the E and R hotkeys. To get the "listening in" type of feel, rotate the Spy's head so that he's looking over his shoulder. Tip his head up slightly to make him look like he's staring down his nose. To give the Spy a more intense expression, select the face control group. In the preset window, click on the Emotion tab. Find the slider called "specialAction01." Left-click-drag this slider to the right, about a third of the way. To get the Spy to look out of the corners of his eyes, open up the Face control group and select Eyes. In the lower portion of the preset window are sliders that control the eyes. Left-click-drag the "eyes_right_left" slider to the right. Now let's pose the fingers. By default, the finger controls are not displayed in the viewport. To display the finger controls, open up the RigArms portion of the hierarchy. Under the RightArm and LeftArm control groups are the RightFingers and LeftFingers controls. Right-click, and make them selectable. Select a finger control and rotate it by left-click-dragging on the red axis. If the revolver needs to be adjusted, do so by selecting its rootTransform and moving it accordingly. To finish up, let's break up the stiff, up-and-down look of his posture by adding a slight curve to it. Select rig_hand_R, rig_hand_L, and rig_pelvis. Translate these controls slightly to the right. To add some curvature to his spine, individually rotate his spine controls so that his back bends slightly to his left. Continue to refine the pose until satisfied. And there we have it. Save the file as we'll be using what we've created for the next tutorial. To recap, we've learned a few things about what to look for in poses, and some strategies and tools to create them with. In short, if you can load a character, attach a "control rig," enter the Motion Editor, and use the rotate and translate manipulators to pose... ... then you're well on your way to the next step: making poses across time. See you in part 2.