AnimSchool would like to introduce Dustin Han, an AnimSchool student in our Character Program focusing on rigging. Dustin, can you tell us a little about yourself and what 3D experience you had before entering AnimSchool?
I
recently graduated from a 4 year college before coming to AnimSchool. I
studied Computer Engineering with a minor in Studio Art. I did some
Flash development work at a start-up social gaming company before
deciding to pursue my interest in 3D. I actually had very little
experience with anything 3D or CG related before entering AnimSchool.
The only experience I had coming into AnimSchool was a single class I
took at my university that covered the very basics of using Maya.
However, because I was a student studying computer engineering and
studio art, I did have a good foundation in both programming and fine
arts which has been a tremendous help during my time learning to rig and
model characters at AnimSchool.
Are there any artists that inspire you?
I
don’t necessarily have a list of artists in my mind that I can just
start talking about especially because there are so many inspirational
artists out there that it would make it difficult for me to pick a few.
In general, the artists who inspire me most are those who love doing
what they do and clearly show this through their work and dedication.
This pretty much goes for anyone I come across, artist or not. Also,
artists who started from a dream and made it into a reality through hard
work and perseverance are great inspirations to me as I hope to one day
have similar success.
was definitely challenging to convert a 2D image into a 3D model
especially when you only have one reference picture to look at. A lot of
the character was left to my imagination such as what his back side
might look like, but this challenging aspect provided a great learning
experience and just made the modeling process more rewarding. Also,
being my first full character model, it was definitely challenging just
to get the model to look appealing and match the artwork. I found it
difficult to get the sharp corners found in the character design into my
3D model especially when trying to keep the topology reasonably low. I
went to one of the general reviews provided by AnimSchool near the end
of the term which definitely helped and looking back I wish I could have
attended more to improve my model. So future students, I definitely
suggest you guys attend these review sessions as you can never have too
many people critique your work.
in a T pose and then pose your character or pose your character out and
then transfer him into the neutral pose? Is there anything you would change about the process you did for the next character you model?
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| Character design by Cory Loftis |
basic low poly primitive shapes such as cylinders, cubes, and spheres in
order to have a reference later when putting it back into pose. From
there, we moved the model into T-pose and began modeling it from there.
This made it easier to get proportions right and to mirror over left and
right sides. After finishing the model we used our blocked pose as
reference to get it back into pose and apply final touches such as
wrinkles on clothes and accessories such as my character’s hammer and
bags.
our models so I’m not sure I would change too much. Although, because we
modeled with the intention of basically just creating a statue, for my
next model I will probably pay more attention to modeling with the needs
of rigging in mind beyond what was covered in class. This includes
things such as providing enough topology for deformations and making
sure the model is easily skinned since the model I made in the
intermediate class is made up of several meshes in order to make it
easier to pose the character. My model actually has no torso or legs
under his clothing. As I continue to study rigging and creating more
rigs, I believe I will start to understand more of what the needs are
for future models I make.
How did you become interested in becoming a Rigger?
Initially,
I did not realize rigging even existed when I first became interested
in 3D and animated films. All I knew was I wanted to be a part of making
the amazing films I was seeing in the theater. It was only natural for
me to want to become an animator at first since the animations were
what I was seeing at the top layer of the films I was watching. I did
not realize there was so much more happening underneath. Because of this
mindset, I often pushed aside my dreams of becoming an animator due to
my technical degree in computer engineering and not wanting to put it to
waste. I figured I could maybe land a job as a software engineer at a
video game or film company.
However, as time went on, I began to realize I could not simply
ignore my interest in the creative and artistic aspects of things
because it was just a big part of who I was. With that, I began to
research and found that there were positions in game and film companies
called Technical Directors/Aritsts where both (although varying between
positions) technical and artistic skills are used. It kind of just
opened my eyes to the industry and helped me to continue pursuing my
dream. I decided to focus on learning to rig because I really enjoy
characters in films and would love to work directly with them.
Eventually though, I would love to delve into other aspects of the
pipeline.
Now that you’ve had a couple of rigging classes at AnimSchool, do
you view 3D films differently? What do you notice now, that you didn’t
before?
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| Character provided by AnimSchool |
The classes have definitely opened my eyes to the amount
of work it takes to create a feature level rig. There are just a ton of
things to take into consideration when designing a rig for animation.
Now when I watch animated films I’m even more amazed by what I see as I
now have a better appreciation of how much effort goes into developing
these rigs. Coming into a rigging class with no prior knowledge, I
naively thought it was just placing bones into a character to allow them
to move and be animated, but there are just several more layers of
complexity on top of that including creating clean deformations,
understanding relationships between the different parts of the rig, and
taking advantage of these relationships to provide a flexible and
intuitive rig for animators to use with ease.
Looking back at past films, what character would you have loved to model or rig? Why does this character interest you?
I
am a big fan of the Toy Story films so I would have loved to rig Woody
or Buzz. It’s amazing how much emotion and character can be brought out
from a toy through animation. I can only imagine how challenging it was
to rig a toy in order for it to come to life yet retain its toy-like
qualities during the animation process.
How has your experience been at AnimSchool? Do you have a favorite process or tip that you’ve learned?
My
experience at AnimSchool has been great. I have learned so much in the 4
terms I have been here. Just being taught by industry professionals who
have worked on some of my favorite films is an amazing experience as
you can be confident in knowing that what you are being taught is
relevant to what companies want to see. The AnimSchool community is
great and everyone is so supportive of one another. It’s just a great
feeling to learn with people sharing similar goals. I’ve become much
more confident in general after producing work I never could have
imagined before entering the program.
I have learned so many great things from AnimSchool that it’s
difficult to pick a favorite, but just because it’s fresh off my mind
from this past term of intermediate rigging, I really enjoyed my
instructor’s (Ignacio Barrios) approach to creating IK FK Switches (or
any kind of space switch) with the use of Maya’s blend color nodes where
you simply blend the transformation values of the IK and FK joints
together to provide the values for the driver joints as opposed to using
constraints. It was just a great example of how there isn’t just one
way to solve a rigging problem.
