A Loosened Noose is a Bruising Nuisance...

... or something like that. 

Instead of doing the normal Andy Rooney bit this week, I'm just going to show and tell what's been going on in the past few days, other than work.

The Purpose, Process, Progression, and Philosophy of the Animation Pipeline is nearing its final draft stages.

I'm beginning the presentation of Micro-Hydro Communities next week and hoping to secure the lecture hall at Henderson County Public Library.

And the following two animations have worked their way into this weeks offerings.

Fire and Smoke Simulation in Maya

This is the second simulation I have finished, and although it was the type of challenge I enjoy, I also found out there is not really any one best way to simulate anything.  You can either figure out your own method, like I did through trial and error, or copy someone elses system.  The choice is ultimately up to you.

  The original version of this had most of the aesthetic kinks worked out and for this version I moved the key light, and added a kicker to illuminate the front of the building some, with a 20 degree offset, right, to the key.  It didn't dawn on me the source of the light, given the fact that the background plate was showing the light coming from the background.  So the original location of the light coming from the front served no real purpose other than to yell out "Something is wrong here..."  I also adjusted the camera path and the focal length, to accomodate the issues with smoke bounce and illumination.  You can still see some of it, but not as bad.  Lesson learned regarding boolean of an object when it needs to interact with a particle system.

The Tell Tale Heart Redux Character Animation

All jokes aside, character animation has got to be one of the most rewarding aspects of the field I am in.  The original version of this had many bugs, which I was responsible for.  But in my ignorance, I happened to stumble upon a sort of strange jerky articulation that I really liked.  What I didn't like though, was the end frames of the original, and some of the lighting.  I adjusted the ending camera path to incorporate an ease with the additional 60 frames to the ending.  I repositioned the front kicker light, animated the hands and sway, and adding some more weight to his stance during weight transfers.