![]() This is the first mainstream alternative to the ubiquitous spatial techniques that not only improves on skeleton-based rigging, but also improves it. Previously, new approaches to rigging and animation have been notoriously fickle and offered limited control over a character, and have often proved time consuming in cleanup and post production. These can be used for face, body and clothes rigging Pixar intends to use this to replace traditional skinning and bone-based methods. This new method uses constructed lines that contour a character’s mesh, creating a network of splines across a character mesh - called a “ curvenet”. It’s likely that Pixar will be encouraging universities and studios to begin learning the curvenet workflow as time goes on. Pixar has long held tradition of pioneering the digital media industry - they even released their in house renderer, RenderMan, for public use. This new solution completely shakes up the current process, which is more intuitive and art-based. Pixar’s latest innovation, Curvenets, have been articulated on in a recent tech document. It’s for this reason that games typically only prioritise complex facial animations for cut scenes, with a far simpler facial rig and animations being used in real-time. Allowing light to reflect dynamically on a character as it reacts and moves is typically expensive, especially when things like clothes, emotion and body language start being added. The final barrier for a great animation in a game is rendering and processing cost. ![]() In addition, games development and 3D modelling in general are steeped in free tutorials, whereas 3D and 2D animation content is often locked behind paywalls or subscription services, with many animation roles in studios requiring a closely related degree as a minimum. On the other hand, traditional animation requires hundreds of hours of manually weighing vertices, adding keyframes and adjusting deformations, not to mention the rigging process. ![]() In addition, compared to the rest of the art pipeline, software and techniques have improved massively over the years, with software such as Blender and Unreal Engine constantly updating their resources and free plug ins, which allows the creation of 3D assets to be far more intuitive and creative. Games in particular have long struggled with facial animation - think Mass Effect Andromeda, or Fallout 4 this is a direct reflection of a high skill barrier and a highly competitive industry. This is problematic, as media relies heavily on realistic, emotive characters to immerse their audience. The entire animation pipeline has hardly changed since it’s inception in 1991. When it comes to reinventing modern techniques, Pixar somehow always manages to come up with something unimaginably futuristic - and their newest approach to rigging is no exception. ![]() Pixar has long been the holy grail of pioneering in the animation field. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |