Next class starts Sept 8, 2016

The next 'Create 3D Anime Movies' class starts on Thursday Sept 8, 2016, 6-8PM.    In the next session we will model, rig and animate a 3d character, and then render a short video clip of the animation.  The class is free, and has a very relaxed format.  It’s open to adults and kids above age 13.    The class is intended to be an open forum for people at all skill levels for exchanging ideas related to their 3D animation projects, to practice or learn how to do 3d animation, and to show off each other’s work.   Our focus lately has been on using 3D graphics tools to render 2D looking cartoon animation.   

Here’s a quick overview of what we plan to do in the next class.  We use Autodesk 3DS Max to model and animate.   (The software is free -- students can use the free student version.  Others can use the 30 day demo version.)  Here’s a screen shot of the last anime style character that I was working on in the class.  The facial animation are 2D:  eye blinks and mouth animation (matched to a voice track) are from bitmap images using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.   Afterwards, some 3d facial  and hair animation is then added to the head.  After modeling and rigging the body, skeletal animation is applied mostly using motion capture.   We use mostly freely available motion capture data.  And, we sometimes use the Xbox Kinect to capture our own motion capture.  The final output is a short animation movie rendered from the 3D character.   That’s a lot to try to do in just 8 weeks (one 2 hour class per week).  So, I usually just explain all the steps in the workflow, and then focus on 1 or 2 aspects for a few weeks, and then jump to the end with a finished character and add animation and render to a movie.

Hope to see you there!

Russ DeWitt