Hi guys, I was having some doubts I would like to see answered, so I thought to ask here
I was watching some videos about using the same skeleton with different characters, and I was wondering, where does Skinning fit? I mean, correct if I’m wrong, but skinning is the process of setting how much a bone affects the surrounding vertex, right?
So where is that data stored? Is it on the Skeleton? Is it on the Mesh vertices? Is it on the Animation? And since vertices position change from mesh to mesh, how can this work smoothly across meshes with different topologies when sharing same skeleton and animations?
2)Well, number 1 above was the main doubt actually, all the other thing I would like to know are so vague that I wouldn’t even know how to ask them, so what I will rather ask is, do you know of any single online course or paper book resource that will both give me a complete understanding of the entire ProperCharacterTopology/Rigging/Skinning/Animating - Pipeline and also guide me to do some exercices so that by the end of it, I can be considered an Animator?
Basically what I am asking for is the [FONT=lucida sans unicode]Animator’s Bible, if it exists. No preferences between 3ds max or maya
Question 1:
As Bob said the skinning data is stored on the skeletalMesh itself. It doesnt matter if different meshes have different topology, they all utilize the skeleton on a reference basis, so the dependency is 1-directional. The skeleton asset doesnt care what meshes use it.
Question2:
I hardly doubt there is one praised source that will teach you all you need to become an animator. Each of the fields you mentioned is so incredibly deep that there is professional roles dedicated soley for that discipline. There is a bunch of youtube and vimeo channels/videos that teach things well enough, you just need to search for whatever aspect you want to learn, and someone will have provided a good info.
Now, there is a book considered core learning tool for ascending animators, you should check it out: https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X
Thanks Adeptus, though unless the cover of the book is misleading me, I think that book is more aimed towards the principles of animation, while of course essential to master the craft I was hoping to start with something like a complete course to the pipeline on the technical side, let’s say about animating a character in Maya, so making the rig, skinning it, doing some animations (idle, walk, jump, attack) ready to be used in game engines. I don’t need to learn all the deep stuff and awesome tricks all at once from the get go, just enough to be able to work the entire pipeline by myself, and then having at least the knowledge to know on what aspect I should improve.
Would surprise me if something like this didn’texists, since I know about the equivalent 3dModeling courses, that cover the entire 3dModeling pipeline for an asset (low poly, high poly, making uvs, baking textures, texturing, setting up the PBR material)
My question is still open, if you guys know about some Animation resource that could guide me trough the entire pipeline and that you would also recomend, please let me know which is it
