DIGITAL CHARACTER ANIMATION 2

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Providing the basics of traditional cell animation, this step-by-step color guide provides the necessary information to create convincing computer-generated characters in 3D. The cross-platform CD-ROM includes: multiple walk cycles on various 3D programs; lip sync examples; and more. It is useful for courses in Computer Graphics and Animation.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Volume I
• 1 Basics of Design (p. 2)
• Approaching Design as an Artist (p. 4)
• Knowing Your Character (p. 4)
• Making Decisions (p. 4)
• Categories of Design (p. 6)
• Realistic Designs (p. 6)
• Stylized Designs (p. 7)
• Designing a Character (p. 8)
• Head and Body Proportions (p. 8)
• Eyes (p. 9)
• Feet (p. 10)
• Hands (p. 11)
• Clothing and Other Accessories (p. 12)
• Designing Your Own Characters (p. 13)
• Designing on Paper (p. 14)
• Using Images as Reference (p. 15)
• Designing in Clay (p. 15)
• Getting Sculpture into the Computer (p. 17)
• 2 Modeling Basics (p. 20)
• Surface Types (p. 22)
• Polygonal Surfaces (p. 22)
• Patch Surfaces (p. 23)
• NURBS Surfaces (p. 24)
• Modeling Strategies (p. 25)
• Keep It Light (p. 25)
• Mixing and Matching Surface Types (p. 25)
• Modeling Basics (p. 25)
• Basics of Polygonal Modeling (p. 26)
• Polygonal Modeling Techniques (p. 29)
• Subdivision Surfaces (p. 30)
• Booleans Are Evil (p. 33)
• Basics of Patch Modeling (p. 34)
• Creating Patches from Curves (p. 36)
• Stitching Patches Together (p. 39)
• Three-Sided Patches (p. 41)
• Modeling with NURBS (p. 42)
• Curves on Surface (p. 42)
• Joining NURBS Surfaces (p. 43)
• Metaballs (p. 44)
• The Trouble with Metaballs (p. 46)
• Animating Metaballs (p. 46)
• Conclusion (p. 47)
• 3 Modeling Bodies for Animation (p. 48)
• The Structure of the Body (p. 50)
• The Skeleton (p. 50)
• Muscles (p. 54)
• Construction Methods (p. 54)
• Segmenting Bodies (p. 55)
• Seamless Characters (p. 60)
• Modeling a Seamless NURBS Body (p. 64)
• Conclusion (p. 67)
• 4 Modeling Hands for Animation (p. 68)
• Examining the Hand's Structure (p. 70)
• Flexibility of the Hand and Fingers (p. 71)
• The Fingers (p. 71)
• The Thumb (p. 72)
• Modeling Methods for Hands (p. 74)
• Modeling Segmented Hands (p. 74)
• Modeling Hands from Polygons (p. 75)
• Modeling a Hand with NURBS (p. 78)
• Modeling Metaballs Hands (p. 83)
• Adding Realism (p. 84)
• Fingernails (p. 85)
• Knuckles (p. 85)
• Tendons (p. 86)
• Skin Creasing (p. 87)
• Webbing (p. 87)
• Conclusion (p. 87)
• 5 Modeling Heads for Animation (p. 88)
• The Structure of the Head and Face (p. 90)
• The Muscles of the Face (p. 90)
• Basic Head Modeling Methods (p. 93)
• Paste-On Features (p. 93)
• A Face with Flexible Skin (p. 94)
• Topology and Facial Modeling (p. 95)
• The Pole at the Mouth (p. 97)
• The Pole at the Ears (p. 98)
• Which Topology to Use? (p. 99)
• More Complex Heads (p. 102)
• Modeling a Polygonal Head (p. 103)
• Eyes (p. 106)
• Internal (p. 106)
• External (p. 107)
• Asymmetrical Eyes (p. 110)
• Eyebrows (p. 110)
• Teeth (p. 111)
• Tongues (p. 113)
• Connecting a Head and a Body (p. 114)
• Neck on the Body (p. 114)
• Neck on the Head (p. 114)
• Head, Neck, and Body as One Object (p. 115)
• Conclusion (p. 115)
• 6 Skeletons and Mesh Deformation (p. 116)
• Hierarchies and Character Animation (p. 118)
• Manipulating Hierarchies (p. 118)
• Pivots and Joint Rotation (p. 119)
• Skeletons and Hierarchies (p. 122)
• Manipulating Hierarchies (p. 123)
• Forward Kinematics (p. 124)
• Inverse Kinematics (p. 124)
• Which Kinematics to Use? (p. 128)
• Building Skeletons (p. 128)
• Building a Body Skeleton (p. 129)
• Hand Skeleton (p. 132)
• Mesh Deformation (p. 133)
• Direct Assignment (p. 133)
• Weighted Assignment/Envelopes (p. 134)
• Advanced Deformation Tools (p. 136)
• Deformation and Surface Type (p. 137)
• Skeletons and Segmented Characters (p. 140)
• Other Deformation Methods (p. 140)
• Lattices (p. 140)
• Clusters (p. 141)
• Spline Deformation (p. 141)
• Conclusion (p. 143)
• 7 Posing Characters (p. 144)
• Posing (p. 146)
• Animating with Poses (p. 146)
• Pose-to-Pose Animation (p. 146)
• Straight-Ahead Animation (p. 147)
• Combining the Two Methods (p. 147)
• Posing a Flour Sack (p. 148)
• Setting Up a Flour Sack (p. 149)
• Posing the Sack (p. 149)
• Posing Characters (p. 150)
• Balance (p. 150)
• Symmetry (p. 152)
• Weight (p. 153)
• Staging (p. 153)
• Creating Strong Silhouettes (p. 154)
• Line of Action (p. 155)
• Staging Multiple Characters (p. 157)
• Staging and Camera Placement (p. 159)
• Moving the Camera (p. 159)
• Conclusion (p. 162)
• 8 The Basics of Character Animation (p. 164)
• The Importance of Timing (p. 166)
• The Process of Timing (p. 166)
• How Much Time? (p. 168)
• One Thing at a Time (p. 169)
• Developing Good Timing (p. 169)
• Timing and Software (p. 170)
• Curves (p. 170)
• Dope Sheets (p. 175)
• Paths/Trajectory (p. 176)
• Using Timing to Suggest Weight (p. 177)
• The Language of Movement (p. 179)
• Arcs (p. 180)
• Slow-ins and Slow-outs (p. 181)
• Force and Drag (p. 182)
• Squash and Stretch (p. 185)
• How to Squash and Stretch a Character (p. 187)
• Anticipation (p. 190)
• Overshoot (p. 193)
• Secondary Action (p. 194)
• Overlap and Follow-Through (p. 195)
• Cycles (p. 198)
• Moving Holds (p. 199)
• Putting It All Together (p. 200)
• Conclusion (p. 203)
• 9 Walking and Locomotion (p. 204)
• Understanding the Mechanics of Walking (p. 206)
• Feet and Legs (p. 206)
• The Hips, Spine, and Shoulders (p. 207)
• The Arms (p. 209)
• The Head and Spine from the Side (p. 209)
• Animating a Walk (p. 210)
• Timing the Walk (p. 210)
• Keeping Your Feet on the Ground (p. 210)
• To Cycle or Not to Cycle? (p. 213)
• Beyond Walking (p. 229)
• The Run (p. 229)
• The Skip (p. 231)
• The Sneak (p. 232)
• Animating Four-Legged Walks (p. 233)
• Conclusion (p. 235)
• 10 Facial Animation and Dialogue (p. 236)
• Methods for Animating the Face (p. 238)
• Morphing (p. 238)
• Single-Target Morphing (p. 238)
• Multiple-Target Morphing (p. 239)
• Modeling Morph Targets for Animation (p. 239)
• Lower-Face Poses (p. 240)
• Upper-Face Poses (p. 242)
• Upper-Face Poses for Stylized Characters (p. 243)
• Other Facial Poses (p. 243)
• Assigning Targets (p. 244)
• Manipulating the Face (p. 244)
• Creating Facial Expression (p. 246)
• Basic Expressions (p. 246)
• The Brows and Expression (p. 248)
• Symmetry and Expression (p. 248)
• Complex Expressions (p. 249)
• Animating the Head and Face (p. 251)
• Animating the Head (p. 251)
• Eye Direction (p. 251)
• Blinks (p. 253)
• Overlap in Facial Animation (p. 256)
• Animating Lip-Sync (p. 256)
• Recording Dialogue (p. 257)
• The Eight Basic Mouth Positions (p. 258)
• Reading the Track (p. 260)
• Animating Dialogue (p. 262)
• Mouth or Body First? (p. 262)
• Animating the Mouth (p. 263)
• Eyes and Dialogue (p. 264)
• Head Motion and Dialogue (p. 264)
• Body Language and Dialogue (p. 265)
• Conclusion (p. 267)
• A Suggested Readings (p. 268)
• Index (p. 272)