IK-v-FK: Which is Best?

IK - v - FK - which is best?

One question that often confuses student animators is "IK vs FK" - Inverse Kinematics (IK) vs Forward Kinematics (FK).  The IK -v- FK debate is a bit of a techie question - it's not immediately obvious what these terms even mean, let alone how to explain which option you should choose.

IK -v- FK is really about hierarchies - usually shoulders, arms and hands.  If a character's hand controls are set to IK, then you are controlling the hands from the bottom of the arm hierarchy, from the hand control.  If you set the controls to FK, then upper arm, shoulder and body is in control of what the hands do.

In a walk cycle, you usually set arms and hands to FK, because the arms are swinging, controlled from the shoulders. But if you were to animate a sword fight, where the position of the hands is key, then you would likely choose IK.  For a bit more visual clarity, watch the short video below.

"It Doesn't Work!" - How to Solve Tech Troubles

Why Doesn't It Work?

"It doesn't work"  is a problem frequently encountered by our students at BNU.

Remember that every technical problem, no matter how infuriating, has a solution. One of the key skills our students learn at BNU is how to solve problems - and find solutions, so that production work can continue. Digital artists face an endless stream of technical hiccups.

Back Up Your Data!

Hard Drive - full of moving parts

There are few things more depressing than being told by a student that their hard drive has died, and they have lost all their work.

Losing your data means starting afresh, going back to the beginning to start again the long, slow slog of building up a demo reel.  It's hard to over-stress the importance of backing up your data. It's a pain in the neck, and it takes time, but never forget that a hard drive is a delicate piece of technology filled with vulnerable moving parts.

Hard drives don't last for ever and, like all tech, will (eventually) let you down. The secret is to back up your data. But how best to do this? We take a quick look at some of the options.

Why Does Maya Batch Render Too Dark?

Utah Teapot

Lighting your scene using Autodesk Maya can be a tricky process. You get your lights to look just the way you want them to, and when you render out a single frame, everything looks fine.

But then, when you come to do a Batch Render of your final frames, Maya gives you a very different result - the images look much darker. Which is not what you wanted at all.

So why does Maya do this - and what is the solution?

How To Get The Classic Graph Editor Back

New look Graph Editor

Not everyone is a fan of the Maya 2017 interface. In particular, the new-look Graph Editor isn't necessarily as easy to use as the old version.

Fortunately, it isn't difficult to get the Classic Graph Editor back.

Keyframe MP - Video Playback for Animators

Keyframe MP Overview from Chris Zurbrigg on Vimeo.

KeyFrame MP - Video Playback for Animators - is an excellent video playback tool that does the job that QuickTime Pro used to do - only even better.  Most free video players, such as Media Player, won't give you frame-by-frame playback, making them of limited use to animators.  KeyFrame PM is a video player specially made for animators, with super useful features like scrubbing (with audio), single frame advance - all the stuff you need as an animator to play your work back frame by frame and trouble shoot the mistakes. At $79, KeyFrame MP isn't free, but it's much, much better than most of the free stuff out there. And, since Apple has stopped supporting the cheap and cheerful Quick Time Pro, KeyFrame MP now fills a big gap in the animator's tool kit.

Questions about our Online MA

I often get asked questions about the online MA in 3D Animation from prospective students, seeking to know more about what is actually involved in this unique degree. Which isn't surprising - after all, it's a big committment of time, money and energy to embark on an MA. I always welcome questions and do my best to answer promptly. Below is a list of some of the most common questions, with answers.

How to Load 3DS Max Files into Autodesk Maya

Visit a website like Turbosquid and you will find plenty of cool stuff, much of it free, to help you with your animation. You might want to download a set, or a prop, something to make your shot come alive.  After all, you don't want to waste precious time modeling complex props and sets - you want to get on with your animation.

But what if the only available file type for download is a 3DS Max file? Max is a popular platform for learning animation and, while is it much less widely used in industry than Maya, there is lots of great free content out there in the 3DS Max format. So, what we need is a way to import 3DS Max files into Maya.  Fortunately, it's pretty easy when you know how.

Book Recommendation - Animation Methods by David Rodriguez

Animation Methods by David Rodriguez is a very, very good book on learning animation in Maya.  It's a book that focuses primarily on 3D Character Animation, a step-by-step guide for learning Maya, and the Maya animation tools. It also has useful sections on how to get into the industry, how to make a great demo reel, and how to get a job in animation. We think this is a very useful companion book to the animation and VFX course at Bucks.

It is also an unusual book in that it makes extensive use of QR codes - meaning you can use your smartphone to scan the codes and then view a 3D animated clip of the lesson. So, not only can you read the lesson, but you can also see and understand it through a video demonstration. 

Make Your Own RenderFarm With Backburner

Render by Gilles Tran - Wikimedia Commons 

Rendering, as my old tutor at Escape Studios used to say, "is where everything starts to go wrong". Here at Bucks we expect our students to present finished, polished work for their assessed submissions, properly lit, textured and rendered out. But this poses problems - render times can be long and, as deadlines loom, any technical failure can be fatal to a timely submission.  So, in the absence of a high-end render farm, how do students render their work on time? The answer is Backburner - the poor man's render farm.

RealFlow's Deliciously Viscous Student Challenge - Worth $3,000

Time to enter the RealFlow "Deliciously Viscous" Student Film Challenge! At stake is $3,000 in prize money for the winning submission. RealFlow is one of the newest and most exciting software packages for creating realistic fluid motion in an animated environment, and $3,000 of prize money is a worthy prize pot. So, how does it all work?

Simon Maddocks Brings Lighting Masterclass to Bucks on Monday 20th April

Visual Effects Lighting specialist Simon Maddocks will bring a Masterclass in Lighting for Animators to Bucks on Monday 20th April. We're excited to welcome Simon to High Wycombe; he is a highly accomplished veteran of London's visual effects industry and he brings a wealth of experience to our VFX classroom. Simon's visual effects credits include Godzilla, 300: Rise of an Empire, World War Z, Iron Man 3, John Carter, Moon, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, The Golden Compass, Underdog, The Omen, V for Vendetta, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, King Arthur, The Day After Tomorrow, Star Trek: Nemesis and, well, you get the general idea.

Handbrake - a Great Way to Reduce Video File Sizes

Handbrake. Free to download.

What is Handbrake? Handbrake is a video transcoder,  a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. It's super useful for reducing the size of big video files without losing quality, and best of all - it's completely free.

How To Make a Batch Render of Your Frames in Maya, and Export a Movie File

How do we make beautiful renders in Maya? "Utah teapot" - Wikimedia Commons

How do you make a Batch Render of your frames in Maya?  Remember that computers will drive you crazy, and when it comes to technology, things rarely go to plan. Google is always your friend when it comes to troubleshooting technical problems. Someone out there will have the answer - if you can just ask the right question.  Below is a technical cheat sheet that should help you to create beautiful, final rendered images - and a movie file - without too many tears.

How to Use Live Action Reference to Create Believable Animation

Horse in Motion by Edward Muybridge

How can animators use live action reference to create believable animation?  Back in the old 2D days of hand-drawn animation, rotoscoping (as it was called) was a legitimate, if much debated, method of achieving a realistic look and feel to your animation.  Today, the technology has changed, but 3D animators can also benefit from using live action to help inform their animation, and this is especially the case when doing complex animal or creature animation. So how, in practice, does a MAYA animator use live action reference to get a great result? Below are some techniques for making it work.

PAIE - a free Plugin For Maya

Maya, industry standard software

Autodesk Maya is a powerful piece of software, free for students to download, and now the industry standard for 3D animation around the world.  But Maya does have its weaknesses, and one of them is the difficulty of copying and pasting your animation from one rig to another. Got some great animation you want to copy on to a new rig? Computer says no. But now the free PAIE plugin by Jacob Weiner has made it all much, much easier.  Here is how it works.

Maya 2015 Bugs - Problems and Solutions

Last year Autodesk released Maya 2015, free for students and universities, and another leap forward in what has become the leading software for the animation industry around the world.  However, like many new releases, it is not without its bugs and glitches. Here are some of the main bugs, and some possible solutions.

Maya Says You Can't Save Due to "Unknown Nodes" - What Should You Do?

Autodesk Maya is a big and complex piece of software, full of traps and pitfalls for the unwary. The "Unknown Nodes" error sometimes occurs when you are trying to save your work, but Maya won’t let you save. This can be frustrating, and the solution is not obvious. What is an unknown node anyway? And what should you do when this happens?

What is the Euler Filter in Maya? And When Should You Use It?

Dr Leonhard Euler by Jakob Emanuel Handmann.  Image: Wikipedia

Look under the Curves menu in the Graph Editor in Maya and you will see a button marked Euler Filter. Not knowing what it does (or even how to pronounce it), you have probably never used it - why would you? But don't be deceived by the odd name.

The Euler Filter is a very useful tool in Maya, one which can solve - almost magically - some of the most common problems we get in the rotations of curves, problems which can seriously mess up your character animation. If the rotations on your character's arms are going wild, and no amount of keyframing seems to help - you probably need a little help from Dr Euler.

What is the best platform for animation in Maya - a Mac or a PC?

 

One question we get asked a lot at Bucks is this: "What should I use for animation - a PC or a Mac?" The good news is - you can use either one. The bad news is - you should really use a PC. Here at Bucks our classrooms have both PCs and Macs, but in general we recommend our students use a PC for several reasons.

Firstly and most importantly, the vast majority of animation and visual effects houses work on PCs. Secondly, a number of free (and very useful) Maya plug-ins will only work on a PC. In particular, the Parent Master plugin, which is seriously useful for attaching and un-attaching objects in Maya, does not work on the Mac. Finally, audio playback in Maya can be troublesome on a Mac. All in all, the PC wins because it is a broad-backed platform that will help prepare you for a successful career in the animation and visual effects industry.