UC Berkeley Main Campus
Department of Art Practice, Center for New Media, Fall 2004
We learn to write basic expressions using MEL
Use your character from previous assignments, duplicate it and attach the two characters' IKs to each other with locators and constraints, so the locators can control the motion of both characters. Animate the characters, using the locators, to simulate a coordinated movement among both, such as a tub of war, a dance, or one character lifting the other.
Deliverable: Post a 30 second playblast movie of your coordinarted movement animation on the server in a folder with your name. Be sure to use compression for your movie, maximum file size should not exceed 10 MB. The due date is the next Wednesday.
Review: All timely creations will be reviewed and discussed in class on Wednesday
Sample File: A basic sample file is downloadable here.
Notes: When creating your hierarchical model, be sure to freeze transforms on each object before grouping it under another object. Also note that grouping objects in new groups rather than inside each other is the best practice: it provides more overview, makes adding objects to your hierarchy easier, and allows you to control the pivot point of a group of objects independently of the pivot points of the contained objects.
For an extra bonus point, add a correctly timed sound effect (not music) to your playblast movie in post-production using a video editing tool such as Quicktime Pro, Vegas, Premiere or Final Cut.
Main Course Website
More Expressions
Biped Motion
Last Year's Finals