ART 484 Advanced 3D Computer Animation
Spring 2010
M, W 2 - 3:50 PM, ENGR 005B
Dan Bailey, bailey@umbc.edu, x2163, ITE 101E
Eric Smallwood, Teaching Assistant. , IMDA Graduate Program, IRC Technical Director
This rigorous and intensive animation course builds upon ART 384 Computer Animation. The course is designed for the serious 3D animation student who is expecting to continue working in animation. The course will be the most beneficial to students who can take the skills learned in this class and use them in Senior Projects, Independent Studies, Graduate Research, IRC Internships or subsequent senior level special topic courses. It continues the approach of increasing skills and artistic practice in all areas of 3D animation: concept, modeling, animation, rendering. This is not just a software training course. While understanding advanced software tools will be necessary to attain the objectives of this course, grade evaluation is based on your development and successful demonstrations of mastery of timing, visual design, and cinemagraphic abilities.
The requirements for the course consist of 6 short assignments, a final project due at the end of the semester and a technical exam. The course schedule and assignment due deadlines are subject to change. These will be announced in class.
Throughout the class, students will be encouraged to find their own artistic voice. Work presented in class that is primarily derivative will be graded extremely low. Sometimes copying another artist's work or ideas can be an important learning process and it is encouraged, but this work should be done outside of class assignments. The more animation a person produces, the more skilled they become.
Presentation of renderings and animations are expected to be done professionally. Participation during class is important. Discussion between peers and introduction of concepts and concerns shared by the entire group makes a more dynamic and interesting semester. Students are expected to attend regularly and participate in discussions. Topics of interest may never be covered if the questions are never asked.
Students can expect to spend a minimum of 8 hours outside of class per week completing the assigned work (10-15 is more realistic). The software programs used in this class are very powerful, but also very complex to master fully in a short time. Classes will start promptly at 4 PM. Chronic lateness or more than two unexcused absences will result in lowering the student's final grade. Assignments turned in late may not be accepted or will be lowered by 1 letter grade for each class meeting missed. Incompletes are not considered without extreme circumstances and with medical or other documentation.
In planning for this course it is critical for students to schedule time each week to complete assignments. Students should not think that they can catch-up on assignments at the end of the semester. Assignments build upon previous ones. Being behind only compounds problems.
Students must adhere to the policies of the Visual Arts Department and the Office of Information Technologies regarding the Computer Labs. Failure to do so will result in the student loosing access to the Labs or Vart Disks. Downloading pre-existing models, shaders, lights, animations from the internet to fulfill an assignment and claiming them as your work is plagiarism and will be considered to be academic misconduct. See policy below.
Academic Integrity. By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UMBC's scholarly community in which everyone's academic work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty. Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty, and they are wrong. Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include, but is not limited to, suspension or dismissal. To read the full Student Academic Conduct Policy, consult the UMBC Student Handbook, the Faculty Handbook, or the UMBC Policies section of the UMBC Directory [or for graduate courses, the Graduate School web site].
Required Text Book: Introducing Maya 2009 by Dariush Derkhshani. Readings and tutorials will be required from this book for the course. Though ART 384 and 484 do require reading all the chapters or doing all the tutorials in this book, it has been adapted as a textbook because it provides a solid foundation. Students in their own time should read the entire book and do all the tutorials.
Vart Disks. The course includes numerous tutorials available from this web page, and example or tutorial files available on the pub area of UMBC's "vart" disk.
This course and grading will use Blackboard. Unless otherwise stated, all assignments will be turned in at class time on a CD or data DVD disk.
1) NURBS Modeling. For animators not working in real-time applications, NURBS are highly efficient, lightweight, and create excellent surfaces for deformation animation. For animators working with polygons, NURBS can be an excellent method for initially creating a surface and then converting it to polygons for final output. NURBS modeling is also difficult and not intuitive.This first assignment is to continue gaining skills with NURBS modeling.
Read pages 164-179 and 191-202 from the textbook, Introducing Maya 2009
Do the Axe Head tutorial on pages 195-197.NURBS Modeling
Organic Modeling, Creating a "Triffid"
Modeling a NURBS Dog
Modeling a NURBS HeadCompleted Triffid Tutorial, (5% of grade). Due in class 2/17, Maya scene file, submit on disk
Completed NURBS model of your own choice, (5% of grade). Due in class 2/17, Maya scene file, submit on disk.
2) Polygonal Modeling of Head. Successful deformation of geometry requires different modeling techniques than simple "grouping" of primitives. These exercises and assignments introduce students to some fundamentals of constructing continuous surfaces using polygonal surfaces.
Read pages 116-136 from the textbook, Introducing Maya 2009
Block Modeling a Polygonal Head
Modeling a NURBS Head (or generate polys from curves)Organic Model of Head, (10% of grade). Due in class 2/22, Maya scene file, submit on disk.
3) "Why Me, Part 1": BlendShape Animation. This will be the first step of two to create a complex animation of a head talking as it is manipulated by a robot arm. This first step will be to create the different blendshapes needed for mouth positions and facial expressions. A custom face control will be created and a short lip-sync animation will be created. The voice recording should be written to support the action applied by the robot arm in Part 2. Soundtrack should be between 5-10 seconds.
Creating BlendShapes and Animating Lip Sync
Adding Attributes
Example of AnimationCompleted Lip-sync Animation with Sound (10% of Final Grade). Due in class 3/8, Maya scene file, submit on disk.
4) "Why Me, Part 2": FK, Set Driven Key, Clusters, Non-Linear Deformers, and Constraint Animation. Using a variety of deformation animation techniques, the head will be picked up from the conveyor belt and manipulated by the robot arm for 10 seconds before it is placed back on the conveyor belt.
Read pages 116-136 from the textbook, Introducing Maya 2009
Completed Animation with Sound (10% of Final Grade). Due in class 3/29, Maya scene file, submit on disk.
5) "Walking with Grace": IK Animation. Students will construct a simple skeleton, attach an IK Chain to it and create 2 simple walks forward of at least 5 steps. The first walk will be a normal realistic human gait, the second should be an exaggerated one that shows personality. No geometry is required. The assignment will be presented within Maya.
Completed Walk (10% of final grade). Due in Class 4/12.
6) Rigged Skeleton
Completed Rig (10% of final grade). Due in Class 4/19.
6) Skinning. Attaching an IK skeleton to a model. Assignment should be a model that is rigged with an IK skeleton that contains at least 3 branches/limbs/chains from one root node.
(10% of Final Grade).Due in Class 4/26.
7) Technical Exam (10% of Final Grade) In-Class 1 hour exam. Wednesday, 5/12
8) Final Project. Completed animation presented as a
movie. (20% of Final Grade)
Project Requirements: