Resources about Movie Type animations

I worked now already with IK Constraints and general FK animations in Blender. I would like to dive into the way movie type animations are made like for example the blender movie project guys do. What I look for is especially to get an understanding of how to design multi level armatures. I tried to look in the stickies but they are riddled with 404 pages so I thought it’s best to ask straight away.

I’m not sure what you mean by “movie type animations” … but when you say “like for example the blender movie project guys do” and “how to design multi level armatures” … how about just getting the latest version of the Mancandy rig or getting the training DVD ? Bassam was one of those “blender movie project guys” and Mancady is definitely “multi leveled” …

Though I will say that when I started using Blender and figured out it’s animation system basics my instinct was to go into complicated rigs … but I will tell you after the past year and with some more thought and experience complexity doesn’t necessarily mean better quality . Look at the millions spent on something like Beowulf and all how crappy that turned out … A good animation rig is only as good as the animator behind it (yes I know Beowulf was mostly motion capture but that is precisely why it is crap) … which just means you need to look at things carefully … like all good art . You can get “movie quality” animations with a simple rig just as well as a complex one that you program to do autonomic functions . It’s just a matter of how well you understand and perceive the world around you and be able to translate that into an animation . And even with autonomic functions if you don’t actually understand the mechanics involved you will not be able to reproduce it in CG, but if you don’t understand how CG animation works you won’t be able to implement your understanding of the physical mechanics either …

So if you are asking is there resources for translating life into CG, then no you’ll have to research that on your own, i.e. your get your self a goos book on physiology and try an implement that into CG formats/rigs (and in my opinion if you get to it you’ll be the first, despite all these crappy Hollywood “solutions” that never look realistic) . But if you just want more complex rigs/setups look at the foot rigs in most competent riggers (like Bassam or Calvin) that should let you get a feel for “multi leveled” rigs …

What I look for is more how to blender system can be used better. I have a rig with some IKs in place ( which is a game rig so certain constraints apply ) and the idea is to get some easier controls. If you have to twist and turn a neck with 6 bones around by hand over a lengthy animation it can not only suck time but also cause in-between keyframes problems. So I wanted to take a look at how movie grade ( or just advanced ) rigs are set up to learn a bit about what is possible with blender and how I could use ( or not use ) them to improve the work flow and result I can obtain. It would help a lot if I could reduce the number of active controls ( non-deforming ) down to a more manageable level.

I have a simple easy to use rig I am working on. You can download it and try it out.
http://home.windstream.net/collinsfamily04/blenderpage.html
Let me know what you think. It’s stil a WIP, so I’m trying to make improvements while keeping it simple.