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Storytelling Conceptual

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Storytelling: The storytelling module looks at the tools and techniques used by industry artists, animators and directors to create powerful storytelling images and animations. Maya and MotionBuilder

STORYTELLING OVERVIEW
The Storytelling module will walk you through the tools and techniques used by the Film and Video Games industry professionals for telling a story using Autodesk MotionBuilder 2010. The techniques you will learn in this module are a sampling of the methods most frequently used by professionals. You will work with prebuilt characters, a set, and audio files to focus on storytelling through lighting, timing, and cameras. By the end of this module, you will have created a short animation that you can use in a demo reel when applying for jobs in the film or games industry.

CJ headshot.jpgCJ Markham – Author

CJ Markham is an award-winning animator who specializes in creating new pipelines for some of the industry’s biggest names and helped present MotionBuilder at Siggraph 2004.
His career has spanned multiple disciplines where he has not only won an Academy Award for his work on Peter Jackson’s King Kong, but also created some of the most memorable scenes from the critically acclaimed “Grand Theft Auto IV” which has shattered existing sales records.

He is currently working for Rockstar Games and living in London, England with his wife and baby daughter.


Getting Started

You will need:

  • Autodesk Maya
  • Autodesk MotionBuilder
  • A computer with at least 2 GB RAM and video card able to run Maya and MotionBuilder.

Skills needed for this module:

  • Basic knowledge of key frame animation.
  • General familiarity with computers.
  • General familiarity with film theory principles.
  • General familiarity with traditional principles of animation.
  • Experience navigating 3D space.
  • Experience with scaling keys.
  • Experience with play controls.

Key Terms:

Constraint:
A mathematical algorithm that can be applied to an object to change how it behaves.
FK:
Abbreviation for Forward Kinematics animation principal (all control of a limb resides in the parent of a limb's skeletal hierarchy and transfers down to its children).
IK/FK:
A combination of both animation principals acting simultaneously, resulting in increased control of the behavior of a limb.
IK:
Abbreviation for Inverse Kinematics animation principal (control of a limb of a character being at the child end of limb’s skeletal hierarchy).
Joint:
Also referred to as a bone, several joints or bones make up a character skeleton.
Key:
Abbreviation for apply a key frame; this is done by pressing the ‘K’ key while in MotionBuilder.
Node:
A reference point in the hierarchy of a character or object skeleton.
Parent/Child:
Refers to a constraint that drives the translation and rotation of the designated object.
Pivot:
Refers to the location at which an object can be rotated from.
Rotation:
Changes to the angle of a joint.
Skeleton:
The core structure of joints that drive a character.
Take or Takes:
A system built into MotionBuilder that allows multiple animations to exist in one file.
Translation:
Movement along a straight line in any direction on the X,Y, or Z axis.
Walk cycle:
A short animation of 30 to 40 frames of a character walking that can be replayed to appear as one continuous walk.