Table Of ContentLightWave 3D™
Character Animation
Timothy Albee
Wordware Publishing, Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Albee,Timothy.
Lightwave3D7characteranimation/byTimothyAlbee.
p.cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN1-55622-901-1
1. Computeranimation.2. Computergraphics.3. LightWave3D. I.
Title.
TR897.7.A432002
006.6'96--dc21 2002001741
©2002,WordwarePublishing,Inc.
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ISBN1-55622-901-1
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0203
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Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter 1 About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Who is This Book For? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 The Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 The Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 2 Inverse Kinematics: Its Strengths and Weaknesses . . . . . 7
2.1 IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 IK’s Strengths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 IK’s Weaknesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
LightWave-Specific IK Weaknesses (at the time of this writing) 10
Flipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 IK Setup Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 IK Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 3 Prepping Your Character for Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1 Where is He Going to Bend? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2 Pre-bending to Help IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 4 Boning Your Character. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1 Adding Bones to Your Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2 Spinal Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.3 Hand Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.4 Foot Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.5 Fingers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.6 IK System Skelegons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 5 Converting, Organizing, and Aligning . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.1 Converting Skelegons to Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2 Organizing the Schematic into Something Helpful. . . . . . 73
5.3 Aligning the Spine, Pelvis, and Feet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.4 Bone Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.5 Recording Pivot Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.6 Recording Bone Rest Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
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Chapter 6 Putting IK to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.1 Terminating IK Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.2 Creating Goal Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.3 Activating IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.4 Activating Individual Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.5 Deactivating Individual Manual Controls. . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter 7 Point Weighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7.1 Point Weighting Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.2 Beginning the Point Weighting Process . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.3 Swapping Models and Testing Weight Mappings . . . . . . 128
7.4 The Use Weight Map Only Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7.5 Finding Stray Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.6 Straightening the Feet for Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . 140
7.7 Putting Him Through the Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
7.8 Tidying Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Chapter 8 Using the Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.1 The Model Itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.2 Root. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.3 Pelvis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.4 Spinal Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.5 Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.6 Hand Translation Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.7 Hand Rotation Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.8 Shoulder Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
8.9 Elbow Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.10 Foot Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.11 Toe Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.12 Knee Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.13 The Fingers and Thumb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
8.14 Notes on Modifying the Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Chapter 9 Life Drawing — The Next Logical Step. . . . . . . . . . . 167
9.1 The Standing Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9.2 The Seated Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
9.3 The Reclining Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
9.4 The Character and Weight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
9.5 The Timed Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.6 The “Cool Walk” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
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Contents
9.7 Clickin’ Them Heels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
9.8 Batter Up!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9.9 Life Drawing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Chapter 10 Reviewing Animation Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
10.1 Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
10.2 Squash and Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
10.3 Gesture and Line of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
10.4 Anticipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
10.5 Drag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
10.6 Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
10.7 Easing In/Easing Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
10.8 Moving Holds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Chapter 11 Advanced Animation Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.1 Silhouette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.2 Exaggeration (“Bad” Poses) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
11.3 Snappy Animation (Modified Timings) . . . . . . . . . . . 237
11.4 Circular Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
11.5 Successive Breaking of the Joints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
11.6 Overlapping Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
11.7 Entertainment Value (Presentation). . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
11.8 Acting, Not Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
11.9 The Importance of Thumbnails (Planning Your Scene) . . . 248
11.10 Pacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Chapter 12 Taking a Scene from Start to Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
12.1 Do Your Homework.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
12.2 Talk with the Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
12.3 Scene Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
12.4 Visualize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
12.5 Thumbnail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
12.6 Exposure Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
12.7 Animate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
12.8 Examine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
12.9 Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
12.10 Revise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
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Chapter 13 Important Points for Every Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
13.1 Composition/Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
13.2 Appealing Poses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
13.3 Anticipation, Drag, Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.4 Weight/Timing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.5 Entertainment Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.6 Characterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.7 Character Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.8 Storytelling/The Distillation of One Main Idea . . . . . . . 270
13.9 What’s Best for the Production (Don’t Grandstand). . . . . 271
Chapter 14 Additional Practice Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
14.1 The Technique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
14.2 Life Drawing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
14.3 Scenes to Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
14.4 Scenes to Create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Walk Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
14.5 Where to Go Next. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Chapter 15 Digitigrade Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
15.1 Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
15.2 Plantigrade Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Chapter 16 The Next Logical Step... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
16.1 Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
16.2 Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
16.3 Watching Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
16.4 Other Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Chapter 17 Finding the Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
17.1 Radiating Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Exercise 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Exercise 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Exercise 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
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17.2 The Psychological Gesture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Exercise 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Exercise 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Exercise 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Exercise 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Exercise 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Exercise 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
17.3 Characterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
17.4 Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
17.5 The Animator’s Trust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Chapter 18 In Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
vii
Foreword
Perhapsyou’reoneofthosepeoplewho,asakid,satinadarkenedmoviethe-
aterwatchingagreatanimatedmovieandsaidtoyourself:“Iwanttodothat.”
IknowIwas.Atthetime,allIcoulddowasdrawmyown“flipbooks,”as
therewasverylittlewrittenaboutthetechniqueofanimation.Thebigbreak-
throughformecamewhenIdiscoveredsomethingcalledan“AnimationKit”
atDisneylandsome45yearsago.Itconsistedofasimplelightboard,some
modelsheetsofDisneycharacters,abookleton“HowtoAnimate,”andsome
punchedpaper.
Withthisanimationkit,Icouldfinallycreatemyownanimation!Afterseeing
myfirstpenciltests,Iwashooked.Myfatewassealed.IknewthiswaswhatI
wantedtodowithmylife.
Ofcourse,myfirstworkwasquitecrude;somynexttaskwastofindawayto
learntheskillsittooktobecomearealanimator.
Agenerationortwoago,therewerenoschoolsteachinganimation. Aboutthe
onlywaytolearn“thecraft”wastoserveanoftenlengthyapprenticeship
withajourneymananimator.Slowly,underthisapprenticeship,thesecretsof
animationwouldberevealedataratedesigned(nodoubtforjobsecurity)by
thosewhoheldthefewpositionstherewereasanimators.
IwasluckyinthatIwasabletostudyunderthegreatmasteranimatorArt
Babbit,whoanimatedthequeeninSnowWhiteandGeppettoinPinocchio.Art
maintainedthatananimatorshouldbesomethingofaRenaissanceman.He
shouldbewell-readandbewellversedinthearts,includingpainting,drawing,
music,dance,andfilms.Inotherwords,inordertoportraylife,youneededto
understandlife.In1980,Artdislikedintenselytheideathatcomputersmight
someday“takeover”theanimationbusiness.Hesaidiftheydid,theoperator
wouldhavetobeananimator.Hewascertainlyrightaboutthat.
Theartofanimationwasbroughttooneofitshighpointsduringthe1940sat
theDisneystudiosbyagroupofanimatorsknownas“thenineoldmen.”
Theywerereveredbytheirunderlingsasalmost“god-like”andhavesince
beenaccordedthegreatestofrespectbyeveryoneintheindustry.Theperfor-
mancestheyleaveustodayareamongourgreatestculturaltreasures.Their
workhasservedasaninspirationtocountlessyoungstudentsofthecraft.
Anyseriousstudyofanimationmustincludetheworksofthesemasters.
ix
