Over the course of the past ten weeks I have been the main Rigger for our project. I also helped with certain effects.
I feel that my work and work flow has been realized to sufficient level. With the work of myself combined the high level of work presented by my team and the great planning overlooked by our director, this project may not have been successful in either meeting the standards we desired, or the deadline we were constrained to.
Here is our final product.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Job Research: Component 3
The animation industry is one with a very broad spectrum of job roles. It is this variety that brings about a common issue that all practitioners must face: What exactly is my line and am I good enough to get a job in that line?
Addressing the first question: what is my line? Although I am still not entirely set on the exact line that I am still very interested in Rigging. Despite what my final line will eventually be, I would like to develop this interest into an industry standard so that I can have a broad range of skills.
In order to understand whether I am compatible for this job role I need to do two bits of research. One is to list the skills I have.
The next is to list the skill requirements necessary for high end rigging jobs
Compare the skills that match up.
And finally, for the things that are missing- how do I go about improving myself to meet the requirements?
My Skills
Having a maths and physics background, I would consider myself to have a logical mindset. I like to do procedural work that has a step by step framework. I really enjoy having time to work on a key part of a project and testing/troubleshooting problems. Although i find this quite a technical role, sometimes I feel that you have a certain amount of artistic freedom. i.e how a rig can be made- yet it is still constrained to some functionality. Usually, when there is a malfunction, it is due to a logical reason.
As well as individual technical work I understand the importance of team work and good communication within a production pipeline. Having had experience with rigging within a pipeline I have had to maintain a good level of communication to both modelers and animators. This quality reflects my ability to work successfully with in a team- a crucial part of our industry.
Finally I would say that one of my most central assets is my enthusiasm for my subject as a whole. This has pushed my interest in this subject in terms of acquiring knowledge. I tend to look at projects in its entirety and do my best to try and find as many logical solutions as I can.
Companies
Here are a list of ideal job-roles from ideal studios in London.
Framestore
"
Framestore NY is looking for Riggers to create and refine realistic skeletal, muscle, facial and mechanical rigs on a wide variety of CG creatures and/or mechanical props for high-end VFX projects.
Responsibilities
• Create fully scripted rigs and refine them according to animation and lighting needs
• Prototype, implement and refine puppet (skeleton), body (muscles), facial, cloth (deformer based) or mechanical rigs
• Troubleshoot and fix rig issues, collect artistic feedback and fine tune rig behaviour
• Become an expert user of the extensive rigging toolset
• Contribute to rig modules or libraries to add functionality
• Create simple tools to help animation workflow and rig interaction
• Work within the pipeline and rigging standards
• Meet delivery deadlines under production constraints
Skills & Experience
• A passion for creating believable CG characters and the attention to detail
• Advanced Maya Mel or Python, GUI scripting, ability to follow strict coding standards
• Experience with fully scripted modular/functional rigging
• Analytical and artistic skills, creativity, visual problem solving
• Team work, communication, and time management
• Experience with medium or large libraries, shared code base, cvs or equiv
• Ability to write technical documentation and present your work (wiki, screen cap, etc)
• Basic knowledge of anatomy for bipeds and quadrupeds, skeletal and muscle
• Good understanding of constraints and deformers, how they work and their limitations
Desirable Knowledge
• Maya muscle custom rigs, pose-space deformations
• Skin jiggle, sliding and wrinkle techniques
• Facial anatomy, realistic eye and mouth rigs, Facs breakdown
• Life drawing or organic modelling esp. human anatomy
• Basic knowledge of dynamics (maya hair, comet, nCloth, nParticle, etc)
• Strong math background, esp matrix math, geometry algorithms
• C or C++ programming Maya plugins
• Experience with body Mocap: rig hookups, offset rigs, retargetting, etc.
"
Double Negative
MPC
From the three above cases we can deduce the common qualities that are required by a rigger.
Personal Skills:
Enthusiastic, Team member, Troubleshooter, helpful, friendly, have overall general knowledge on other topics related to the pipeline.
Technical Skills
Thorough Character rigging, Anatomy, Deformations, Scripting/Programming.
Matching up
Amongst all of the qualities I would say that I do have some of them whist others need to be built upon and developed.
for example I do think that I have some experience with creature rigging, and also some experience in working along side a production pipeline.
I have also taught myself some of the aspects of scripting that can go hand in hand with this field.
Improvements
In order to suit myself better to this job role I thin that I would need to become more familiar with anatomy in general. Since this is the basis of Rigging I feel that I would need to do further study in this area to understand kinematics and body structures.
Other than this, I do feel I am on the right track and need to continue gaining experience with a variety of rigs. By doing this I would be gaining much necessary experience, facing and solving problems that would accumulate my knowledge of rigging. I also need to continue teaching myself scripting to a sufficient level and try to see the relevant applications within rigging.
Finally, and probably most difficult of all is to find relevant work experience. This should be done by starting off as a very junior role (i.e a runner) and eventually develop a network of contacts who can advise me the best way of achieving my goal. Ideally it would also be nice to network with current riggers to try and learn as much as one can about the area as needed. Using this method I would be able to show relevant work experience as well as have project experience to back up my rigging knowledge. I think that if I work on these aspects and continue to develop them, then I would surely be able to achieve a job as a rigger by the time I graduate.
Addressing the first question: what is my line? Although I am still not entirely set on the exact line that I am still very interested in Rigging. Despite what my final line will eventually be, I would like to develop this interest into an industry standard so that I can have a broad range of skills.
In order to understand whether I am compatible for this job role I need to do two bits of research. One is to list the skills I have.
The next is to list the skill requirements necessary for high end rigging jobs
Compare the skills that match up.
And finally, for the things that are missing- how do I go about improving myself to meet the requirements?
My Skills
Having a maths and physics background, I would consider myself to have a logical mindset. I like to do procedural work that has a step by step framework. I really enjoy having time to work on a key part of a project and testing/troubleshooting problems. Although i find this quite a technical role, sometimes I feel that you have a certain amount of artistic freedom. i.e how a rig can be made- yet it is still constrained to some functionality. Usually, when there is a malfunction, it is due to a logical reason.
As well as individual technical work I understand the importance of team work and good communication within a production pipeline. Having had experience with rigging within a pipeline I have had to maintain a good level of communication to both modelers and animators. This quality reflects my ability to work successfully with in a team- a crucial part of our industry.
Finally I would say that one of my most central assets is my enthusiasm for my subject as a whole. This has pushed my interest in this subject in terms of acquiring knowledge. I tend to look at projects in its entirety and do my best to try and find as many logical solutions as I can.
Companies
Here are a list of ideal job-roles from ideal studios in London.
Framestore
"
Framestore NY is looking for Riggers to create and refine realistic skeletal, muscle, facial and mechanical rigs on a wide variety of CG creatures and/or mechanical props for high-end VFX projects.
Responsibilities
• Create fully scripted rigs and refine them according to animation and lighting needs
• Prototype, implement and refine puppet (skeleton), body (muscles), facial, cloth (deformer based) or mechanical rigs
• Troubleshoot and fix rig issues, collect artistic feedback and fine tune rig behaviour
• Become an expert user of the extensive rigging toolset
• Contribute to rig modules or libraries to add functionality
• Create simple tools to help animation workflow and rig interaction
• Work within the pipeline and rigging standards
• Meet delivery deadlines under production constraints
Skills & Experience
• A passion for creating believable CG characters and the attention to detail
• Advanced Maya Mel or Python, GUI scripting, ability to follow strict coding standards
• Experience with fully scripted modular/functional rigging
• Analytical and artistic skills, creativity, visual problem solving
• Team work, communication, and time management
• Experience with medium or large libraries, shared code base, cvs or equiv
• Ability to write technical documentation and present your work (wiki, screen cap, etc)
• Basic knowledge of anatomy for bipeds and quadrupeds, skeletal and muscle
• Good understanding of constraints and deformers, how they work and their limitations
Desirable Knowledge
• Maya muscle custom rigs, pose-space deformations
• Skin jiggle, sliding and wrinkle techniques
• Facial anatomy, realistic eye and mouth rigs, Facs breakdown
• Life drawing or organic modelling esp. human anatomy
• Basic knowledge of dynamics (maya hair, comet, nCloth, nParticle, etc)
• Strong math background, esp matrix math, geometry algorithms
• C or C++ programming Maya plugins
• Experience with body Mocap: rig hookups, offset rigs, retargetting, etc.
"
Double Negative
RIGGER
- Job Title: Rigger
- Department: 3D
- Location: London
- Closing Date: N/A
- Reports To: Head of Rigging
- Direct Reports: N/A
Key Purpose of the Job
The Rigger is responsible for creating animation rigs for characters, creatures, props and vehicles. The role may require the implementation of proprietary tools to aid in the creation of a rig. The Rigger must collaborate with the CG Lead and the Animation Lead to develop the most suitable rigging solutions.
Needs To Do
- Work closely with the CG Lead to ensure that the rig is pipeline friendly for texturing, lighting and rendering
- Work with the Animation Lead/Supervisor to develop an intuitive and responsive rig for each character
- Work with The Rigging Lead to meet project schedules and manage their time to the successful delivery of rigs within those schedules
- Communicate with the Modelling Department to ensure that models are suitable for rigging
- Communicate with the R&D Department where necessary to effectively help develop the tools and technology to aid in delivering high-quality rigs
Needs To Know
- Previous CG experience, ideally within feature films
- Ability to perform visual and analytical problem solving in 3-dimensional space, including the ability to accurately interpret 3D layouts and analyse 3D form
- Ability to problem solve and predict potential problems with assigned tasks
- A thorough knowledge of Maya and Mel
Needs To Be
- Ability to work well in a team environment
- Highly motivated
- Adaptable
- Accepting of change
Measures of Performance
- Must achieve set quota per week/month
- Make sure team meet weekly/monthly quota
MPC
| Rigging TD | |
| Location: | Vancouver |
| Job Code: | R001 |
| # of openings: | 1 |
| Description | |
Duties and Responsibilities:
| |
From the three above cases we can deduce the common qualities that are required by a rigger.
Personal Skills:
Enthusiastic, Team member, Troubleshooter, helpful, friendly, have overall general knowledge on other topics related to the pipeline.
Technical Skills
Thorough Character rigging, Anatomy, Deformations, Scripting/Programming.
Matching up
Amongst all of the qualities I would say that I do have some of them whist others need to be built upon and developed.
for example I do think that I have some experience with creature rigging, and also some experience in working along side a production pipeline.
I have also taught myself some of the aspects of scripting that can go hand in hand with this field.
Improvements
In order to suit myself better to this job role I thin that I would need to become more familiar with anatomy in general. Since this is the basis of Rigging I feel that I would need to do further study in this area to understand kinematics and body structures.
Other than this, I do feel I am on the right track and need to continue gaining experience with a variety of rigs. By doing this I would be gaining much necessary experience, facing and solving problems that would accumulate my knowledge of rigging. I also need to continue teaching myself scripting to a sufficient level and try to see the relevant applications within rigging.
Finally, and probably most difficult of all is to find relevant work experience. This should be done by starting off as a very junior role (i.e a runner) and eventually develop a network of contacts who can advise me the best way of achieving my goal. Ideally it would also be nice to network with current riggers to try and learn as much as one can about the area as needed. Using this method I would be able to show relevant work experience as well as have project experience to back up my rigging knowledge. I think that if I work on these aspects and continue to develop them, then I would surely be able to achieve a job as a rigger by the time I graduate.
Monday, 21 March 2011
A Rough Word on Schedule and Pipelining
One key aspect involved in this project is to work together as a production team. However, this brings up a pipelining issue that "Industry Exercises 3" addresses, that is not necessarily directly connected to CG.
In this field, it is common for practitioners to go one and be free-lance practitioners. People in this category and eventually everyone, should be able to know what their time is worth in terms of price.
In class, we were given a very interesting thought that I had overlooked. We were posed the question by our tutor (Jared Taylor) "How much our last project would cost a client?" The question was a very simple one, yet not one that I had ever considered. We then collectively started ourselves how long the project took us to do, the average hourly pay we would like, whether it was a sustainable income and whether the finished product was worth that much- i.e. would a client pay that much for it.
Conversely we had to start thinking that if a client did approach us and ask "How much would a project cost and can it be done by such time", how would we quantify our time and the variables we would need to take into account.
This brings up an important issue on scheduling. The only way in which we can value a project is to understand how many man hours it takes to create the end product. then one can calculate the raw hours that it takes to fund the project. However we then must take into account that not everyone can go away, do their parts and then we all bring back our finished products for a final assembly. Some (actually most) jobs are dependent on other jobs finishing. i.e Rigging is usually dependent on the model being finished, as is texturing and UVing. Then we can answer the next part of the question, which is how long it will take for us to do the project.
Taking these into account requires us to have a plan the lists all of the jobs that need to be done, in what order and by what person, given the constraints of the group and also include time that may be resulted in unforeseen delays. A good director and scheduler would want all people to be working at the same time. Anyone who is unoccupied is wasted time which is equal to wasted money- and budget is the underlying constraint of all.
To carry out the otherwise laborious task of organising work, we will be using a software that is highly regarded in animation companies globally- Shotgun. This software should be regarded as a professional tool to help us organize our workflow and serve as the backbone of who should be doing what at any given time.
In this field, it is common for practitioners to go one and be free-lance practitioners. People in this category and eventually everyone, should be able to know what their time is worth in terms of price.
In class, we were given a very interesting thought that I had overlooked. We were posed the question by our tutor (Jared Taylor) "How much our last project would cost a client?" The question was a very simple one, yet not one that I had ever considered. We then collectively started ourselves how long the project took us to do, the average hourly pay we would like, whether it was a sustainable income and whether the finished product was worth that much- i.e. would a client pay that much for it.
Conversely we had to start thinking that if a client did approach us and ask "How much would a project cost and can it be done by such time", how would we quantify our time and the variables we would need to take into account.
This brings up an important issue on scheduling. The only way in which we can value a project is to understand how many man hours it takes to create the end product. then one can calculate the raw hours that it takes to fund the project. However we then must take into account that not everyone can go away, do their parts and then we all bring back our finished products for a final assembly. Some (actually most) jobs are dependent on other jobs finishing. i.e Rigging is usually dependent on the model being finished, as is texturing and UVing. Then we can answer the next part of the question, which is how long it will take for us to do the project.
Taking these into account requires us to have a plan the lists all of the jobs that need to be done, in what order and by what person, given the constraints of the group and also include time that may be resulted in unforeseen delays. A good director and scheduler would want all people to be working at the same time. Anyone who is unoccupied is wasted time which is equal to wasted money- and budget is the underlying constraint of all.
To carry out the otherwise laborious task of organising work, we will be using a software that is highly regarded in animation companies globally- Shotgun. This software should be regarded as a professional tool to help us organize our workflow and serve as the backbone of who should be doing what at any given time.
My part in "Post Production and Visual Effects" project
An interesting aspect of the "Post Production and Visual Effects" unit in particular is the relevance it has to industry. In this country there are a number of Production houses that specialize in integrating live action footage with CG. Such studios include names such as Framestore, Cinesite, Double Negative, The Mill, Passion Pictures, and many many more.
This unit gives us the opportunity to practice skills that would directly make us employable in the future.
Having worked successfully with my group for my former project we decided that this would also be (more or less) the group that we would stick to in this term.
Our initial idea was a simple one that has been done before and will be done again in the future. However, where we wished to distinguish ourselves was in the quality of our work. We used films such as Cloverfield, District 9 and Godzilla as an example of such a product and decided to have a monster/creature/alien chase/attack film.
Using skills that myself and my group adopted from the last project, team work would be an essential part of this assignment. We would need to be very organized about the jobs that we would all be doing. With the vague idea in our minds we all knew the specialisms that we wanted to work on. The following are my group and the general jobs we would be taking part in.
Greg Martin- Tracking and Effects
Olliver Kane- Modelling/Texturing/Lighting
Myself- Rigging and Effects
Joe Henson and Nick Georgeou- Animation
Stephanie Joy- Compositing
In this project I have chosen to develop my skills in rigging by creating the rig that would eventually be used in the final piece. I will eventually be making a shot set of tutorials that will discuss rigging in general and then go into greater detail about the painting weights process.
This unit gives us the opportunity to practice skills that would directly make us employable in the future.
Having worked successfully with my group for my former project we decided that this would also be (more or less) the group that we would stick to in this term.
Our initial idea was a simple one that has been done before and will be done again in the future. However, where we wished to distinguish ourselves was in the quality of our work. We used films such as Cloverfield, District 9 and Godzilla as an example of such a product and decided to have a monster/creature/alien chase/attack film.
Using skills that myself and my group adopted from the last project, team work would be an essential part of this assignment. We would need to be very organized about the jobs that we would all be doing. With the vague idea in our minds we all knew the specialisms that we wanted to work on. The following are my group and the general jobs we would be taking part in.
Greg Martin- Tracking and Effects
Olliver Kane- Modelling/Texturing/Lighting
Myself- Rigging and Effects
Joe Henson and Nick Georgeou- Animation
Stephanie Joy- Compositing
In this project I have chosen to develop my skills in rigging by creating the rig that would eventually be used in the final piece. I will eventually be making a shot set of tutorials that will discuss rigging in general and then go into greater detail about the painting weights process.
Introduction to the Brief
This blog documents the progress of my college course work for the unit "Industry Exercises 3".
The rough outline of this brief is highly correlated to another project which I am involved in named "Post Production and Visual Effects", of which the objective is to create and integrate 3D effects into live action footage.
The objective of "Industry Exercises 3" however is to
a) Have a critical understanding of the range of techniques and skills underpinning animation workflows as they apply to broadcast media.
b) The ability to initiate a team animation project, and realise it independently, to broadcast standards.
c) Critically locate their work in terms of its creative and artistic merits in relation to contemporary animation practice and the broadcast media.
d) Consistently apply animation skills and techniques appropriate to the standard expected for an entrant to professional animation or visualization
e) The ability to analyse, evaluate, and improve team performance while working within that team.
This in its context is an exercise in building and developing a systematic approach to tackling 3D problems within a project. With the appropriate level in documentation, we are building up the skills that one needs in order to develop and reflect upon development.
By choosing a subject within "Post Production and Visual Effects" I will be able to focus on this subject alone and build my skills in this area.
I would then be able to use the small aspect of what I have done within a production team to communicate my ideas and then implement them within a pipeline.
Then, collectively and individually, we would be able to reflect on our approach and then find out methods in which we can improve ourselves for future projects.
Using industry as a benchmark- we could effectively critique our work relative to industry, highlighting the requirements that we need to fulfill in order to eventually be effective practitioners with a CG pipeline.
The exact details of what part I will be involved in will be clearly stated in the next posting.
The rough outline of this brief is highly correlated to another project which I am involved in named "Post Production and Visual Effects", of which the objective is to create and integrate 3D effects into live action footage.
The objective of "Industry Exercises 3" however is to
a) Have a critical understanding of the range of techniques and skills underpinning animation workflows as they apply to broadcast media.
b) The ability to initiate a team animation project, and realise it independently, to broadcast standards.
c) Critically locate their work in terms of its creative and artistic merits in relation to contemporary animation practice and the broadcast media.
d) Consistently apply animation skills and techniques appropriate to the standard expected for an entrant to professional animation or visualization
e) The ability to analyse, evaluate, and improve team performance while working within that team.
This in its context is an exercise in building and developing a systematic approach to tackling 3D problems within a project. With the appropriate level in documentation, we are building up the skills that one needs in order to develop and reflect upon development.
By choosing a subject within "Post Production and Visual Effects" I will be able to focus on this subject alone and build my skills in this area.
I would then be able to use the small aspect of what I have done within a production team to communicate my ideas and then implement them within a pipeline.
Then, collectively and individually, we would be able to reflect on our approach and then find out methods in which we can improve ourselves for future projects.
Using industry as a benchmark- we could effectively critique our work relative to industry, highlighting the requirements that we need to fulfill in order to eventually be effective practitioners with a CG pipeline.
The exact details of what part I will be involved in will be clearly stated in the next posting.
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