Maid Chan anime character

Here are some screen shots of our Maid Chan character that we worked on in the last class.
Maid Chan is a computer avatar from the popular Japanese anime 'Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo'.

First Class

During our first class, we learned some basics for using the 3DS Max program.  \We learned to control the viewport and how to create and manipulate basic 3D shapes.  We learned how to animate and render.  We created a biped skeleton, did some basic animations, and rendered it to a movie.

Here's a summary of keyboard controls:

Think of the viewport as looking at your scene through a camera.
You can rotate, pan, and zoom the view using these keyboard keys:

• Middle mouse button + ALT-KEY = ROTATE the view of our scene about the selected object.
• Middle mouse button = PAN the view left/right/up/down
• Mouse wheel = ZOOM the view in and out 

After creating several objects in the scene, you can manipulate individual objects using the mouse and these keyboard keys:

• Q-key = enable just the pointer, so that you can click and select objects
• W-key = enable the MOVE tool.  Then click drag on one of the 3 arrows (X, Y, and Z) on the selected object.
• E-key = enable the ROTATE tool.  Then click drag on one of the 3 rings (X, Y, and Z) on the selected object.
• R-key = enable the SCALE tool.  Then click drag inside the yellow triangle to scale the object larger or smaller.

Here's a move render of one student's BIPED animation.

Click this link to download a high resolution copy of this movie.

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

In our last class, we created and rendered a paper origami scene in 3dsMax.  For the paper material, we used the mental ray A&D material with translucency enabled.

The next 3D Anime class starts this Thursday.  Hope to see you there!

Here are a few anime movie clips that we made in previous classes.

Naruto
          Credits:
          Music is 'Tom Sawyer' by Rush.
          I modified this Naruto character and texture.  I downloaded it as a free resource from the internet.
          But I can't remember where I got it from.
          Motion file was a free resource downloaded form the internet.  And, I can't remember were I found that either.

Miku Chibi
(This is only a 30-second sample of a longer video that we made in class).
          Credits:
          I modified this character from an MMD character and rendered in 3DS Max.
          Music is 'Levan Polka' by Sony/MMD.

The evil cat from the anime "Azumanga Daioh"

Osaka yawning in the anime "Azumanga Daioh".
          Credits:  The background video clip is from the anime "Azumanga Daioh".  It's shown for comparison to our 3D version in foreground.

YOKO 3DS MAX RENDER

Here's a render that I made from the Yoko (MMD) character that I showed you in class.  As we discussed, the goal is to create an animated video that doesn't look 3D, but has that flat 2D anime cartoon look.   The idea is to come up with a process that looks very good, and that  can be streamlined for processing video frames quickly (no photoshopping frames by hand!).   

I used the 3ds Max Ink and Paint shader (with Ink disabled).  That shader gives much better control of the shadow colors.  And I used  mental ray contours. 

In the next class we will learn this technique.  I'll provide a Naruto character in class that you can use.  See you in next class!

Russ

Class Sylabus

What will we do in this class?

This class is for people who love producing art.  Hopefully you will learn how to use 3D animation computer tools to make your art better.  Here's my summary plan for the next 6 weeks.

CLASS#1
   INTRO TO 3DS MAX,
   INTRO TO ANIMATION WORKFLOW:
          MODELING, TEXTURING, LIGHTING, ANIMATING, RENDERING
   TOON SHADING & RENDERING
   COLOR APPRECIATION
   SCRIPT WRITING
   SCENE CREATION, CAMERAS, LIGHTS
   DISCUSS PROJECT

CLASS#2
   MODELING AN ANIME CHARACTER (PART1)
   MODELING HEAD, BODY, HAIR
   
CLASS#3
   MODELING AN ANIME CHARACTER (PART2)
   MODELING CLOTHING
   CHARACTER TEXTURING
   DYNAMIC TEXTURES FOR EYES, MOUTH MOTION

CLASS#4
   CHARACTER RIGGING AND ANIMATION
   CLOTH & HAIR DYNAMICS
   APPLYING MOTION CAPTURE TO CHARACTERS
   VIDEO RENDERING
   AUDIO AND VOICE TRACK.  ANIME-STYLE LIP SYNCING.

CLASS#5
   ANIME CHARACTER ANIMATION
   MORE HAIR DYNAMICS
   ANIME CARTOON STYLE VIDEO RENDERING

CLASS#6
   DEBUT FINAL PROJECT - AN ANIME-STYLE VIDEO CLIP
   PIZZA PARTY & WATCH VIDEOS