551310 - 3D Character Animation

:: Research ::

I hadn’t attempted weight painting before, so I wanted understand the principles. I looked at the below video, along with the materials on canvas while I was trying to understand the theory behind the process.

Ref.1 – Academic Phoenix Plus (2019). ‘Rigging for Beginners: Painting Weights in Maya’

Much like when learning how to UV models I picked up my own style for the technique and found myself developing my understanding of the method through trial and error.

:: Production ::

Next, I had to correct the skin so that it behaved as expected (Fig.1). This meant adjusting the weight paints such as for the legs (Fig.2) so the sin behaved as expected (Fig.3).

Fig.1
Fig.2
Fig.3

The body was pretty simple, however parts of the model such as the tie, hair and eyes did require more thought. The tie was heavily effected by the spine joints (Fig.4), which meant moving the tie also deformed the torso (Fig.5).

Fig.4
Fig.5

The clothing needed adjusting, as moving the legs or arms made the body clip through the clothing (Fig.6). I’m told that this was due to the weight painted areas not matching between body (Fig.7) and clothing (Fig.8). However, I couldn’t see a noticeable difference in the two.

Fig.6
Fig.7 – body leg joint
Fig.8 – trouser leg joint

Thankfully, I found a video that detailed how to use the copy weights tool.

Ref.2 – Jeremy P (2014). ‘Quick Tip: Copy SkinWeights (Overlapping Geometry)’

This method stopped the clipping (Fig.9) so that the clothing stuck to the body like a second skin (Fig.10)

Fig.9
Fig.10

For the tie, I had to disconnect the spine from the mesh, then set up the weight paints for the tie joints (Fig.11). allowing the tie to move separately from the body (Fig.12). Making sure the tie wouldn’t clip through the collar of the shirt (Fig.12).

Fig.11
Fig.12

Next I made it so the hair base joint only controlled the hair on the head and not the bun (Fig.13). Then painted the bun so that the external hair joint controlled that part of the hair (Fig.14).

Fig.13
Fig.14

:: Shape Blending ::

Next I moved to the shape blending. There was a video on canvas I could use to show me the principle of blend shaping however due to the drastically different head shape used in the tutorial (Fig.16) to my own (Fig.15) it wasn’t helpful beyond showing the principle.

Fig.15
Fig.16
Fig.17

It was difficult making facial expressions look good on such a stylized face. But, I ended up with three expressions, (Fig.17). I would have liked to have a face with the mouth open, to add facial options. However the mesh provided didn’t have an openable mouth.

Fig.18 – Blink
Fig.19 – Sad
Fig.20 – Happy

I made closed eye model for blinking (Fig.18). A sad expression (Fig.19) and a happy face (Fig.20). I like these expressions but understand in a studio it would likely be better to manipulate individual parts of the face rather than set expressions for greater control.

:: References ::

Academic Phoenix Plus (2019). ‘Rigging for Beginners: Painting Weights in Maya’. [YouTube Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA5gVcLEZWk&ab_channel=AcademicPhoenixPlus (Accessed 11/05/2022)

Jeremy P (2014). ‘Quick Tip: Copy SkinWeights (Overlapping Geometry)’. [YouTube Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23jF5Cm2_g4&t=88s&ab_channel=JeremyP (Accessed 25/05/2022]