We have been continuing to update the video on demand AIR (Artist In residence) interview video with descriptions and time marked video notes.
Rigging Dojo Artist in Residence ( A.I.R ) “A la Carte” Replay Store from Rigging Dojo on Vimeo.
Title Breathing Life into Zombies
Date July 30, 2014
Length 1:25:58
Presenter Sterling Reames
Bio Principal Animator at Bit Fry Game Studios. Also worked as the Senior Animator at Proletariat animating the living, the dead and the living dead in World Zombination.
Topic(s) Behind the scene view of rigging World Zombination characters
Description Discusses what it took to get the characters rigged and animated for the game + free World Zombination character rigs.
Brief Outline 2:36 – Day-to-Day Work
5:56 – Referencing and Changing Rig
8:55 – Rendering Process
20:33 – Creating the Look and Movement
- Maps
- How to Add to Rig System
- Weights
- Rigging Experiments
- Lots of Controls
1:03:31 – Other Tools Needed?
1:15:44 – What’s Next?
Title Simple Solutions To Complex Problems
Date August 21, 2014
Length 1:42:18
Presenter James Direen
Bio Senior Rigging Artist at Reel FX Creative Studios. Recent works include Rock Dog, The Book Of Life, Free Birds and Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem 3D.
Topic(s) How to find a balance to overthinking a solution
Description Shows how the three steps to working through a problem were used for The Book of Life characters.
Brief Outline 2:43 – Overview
7:10 – Analyzing the Issue
8:40 – Eyelids Rig Example
21:08 – Designing the Solution
27:11 – Arm Rig Example
47:19 – Script Node for IK/FK System
52:45 – Working Through Production
54:40 – Refactoring and Reusability Concepts
1:00:59 – Radial Angle Driver Example
1:22:11 – Q & A
Title Day of the Dead Treats
Date October 31, 2014
Length 1:27:17
Presenter Josh Carey
Bio Co-founder of Rigging Dojo and Head of Rigging at Reel FX Creative Studios. Recent work includes Rock Dog, The Book of Life and Free Birds.
Topic(s) Techniques used for The Book of Life characters
Description Discusses how custom plug-ins and surface projections were used for the characters in The Book of Life as well as other rig examples
Brief Outline 1:21 – Sausage Lips
24:11 – Chuy Controls
38:52 – Commercial Project
49:18 – Looney Tunes Smears
51:32 – Happy Rig
58:58 – Ribbon Example
1:01:10 – Q&A
Title First Steps
Date December 3, 2014
Length 1:35:17
Presenter Evan Cox
Bio Associate Technical Animator with Deep Silver Volition. 2013 graduate from Michigan State University with a BA in Game Design and Development. Rigging Dojo alumni.
Topic(s) Getting your foot in the industry door
Description Evan explains his process for learning his craft then applying it to get a job in the game industry
Brief Outline 8:25 – Why Is This Relevant?
10:35 – Educational Aspect
30:31 – Scripting Projects
- Automated Facial Rigging System
- Google Image Search
49:19 – Look to Those Above You
54:39 – Transitioning to a Work Environment
1:02:10 – Glad I Did – Wish I Had
1:10:18 – Q&A
Title Matt’s TD Toolkit
Date December 12, 2014
Length 50:22
Presenter Matthew Kapfhammer
Bio Pipeline Architect with Neoglyphic Entertainment. Also worked as Motion Capture Pipeline Developer at Weta Digital. Recent work includes Furious 7, the Hobbit trilogy, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Man of Steel and the Avengers.
Topic(s) Using third-party tools and programming concepts for writing code
Description An overview of the various areas of a pipeline and the different tools needed to make the workflow process easier
Brief Outline 2:18 – General Work Concepts
13:00 – Software Type Tools
22:34 – Making Sure Code Works
33:50 – Versions and Source Control
36:59 – Resources and Further Reading
38:48 – Q&A
Title Triangle Vision for Problem Solving
Date February 26, 2015
Length 1:25:05
Presenter Robbert-Jan Brems
Bio Co-creator of Xoliul Shader and Technical Artist at Eidos-Montreal. Recent work includes the stealth video game Thief.
Topic(s) How to divide and conquer any problem you want to solve
Description Methodology for breaking down problems into different components to find new solutions
Brief Outline 5:36 – Building Blocks
16:51 – The Process
25:52 – Learn Something New Every Day Tool Example
40:35 – Feedback Tool Example
50:51 – Q & A
Title Well-Behaved QT UIs in Maya
Date April 8, 2015
Length 1:12:11
Presenter John Hood
Bio Pipeline Supervisor for Sony Pictures Imageworks. Recent work includes Pixels, Hotel Transylvania and Edge of Tomorrow. Currently working on The Angry Birds Movie.
Topic(s) Tips for creating UIs with QT and PySide
Description Covers concepts for creating UIs in Maya that behave correctly
Brief Outline 2:39 – Getting Started
8:54 – Core Class Structure
25:50 – The Business End of Things
56:31 – Why QStandardItemModel
Title Fast Rigs
Date July 29, 2015
Length 2:00:24
Presenter Raffaele Fragapane
Bio Rigging Supervisor for the film VFX division of Animal Logic. Recent work includes Walking with Dinosaurs 3D.
Topic(s) Tips for resolving performance related issues
Description Understanding performance fundamentals in order to evaluate and improve how fast a rig is processed
Brief Outline 2:30 – Graph Theory
- Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)
- Dependency Graph
- Push – Pull – Hybrid
50:17 – How Threading Works
1:13:09 – Running Parallel Evaluation
1:30:22 – Q & A
Title Python for Production Or – How Not to Screw Everyone
Date September 2, 2015
Length 1:22:21
Presenter John Hood
Bio Pipeline Supervisor for Sony Pictures Imageworks. Recent work includes Pixels, Hotel Transylvania and Edge of Tomorrow. Currently working on The Angry Birds Movie.
Topic(s) Tips and tricks for creating Python scripts for production
Description Introductory tutorial on ways to organize scripts for maximum amount of reuse and extensibility
Brief Outline 3:43 – What It’s Not
8:20 – Marriage of Programming and Down and Dirty Coding
10:23 – Key Concept – Model/View Architecture
- Library
- UI – Entry Points
- Testing
28:54 – Example
Title Getting Organized and Keeping It Simple
Date October
Length 1:31:47
Presenter Jeff Brodsky
Bio Character Technical Director at Disney Feature Animation. Recent works include Big Hero 6, Epic, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Rio.
Topic(s) Ways to simplify and organize a rig
Description Discusses Rigging Dojo’s short film rigging course, Big Hero 6 spine rigging and organizing a rig
Brief Outline 0:57 – Rigging for Cartoon Production Class
6:25 – Using GitHub for Revisions
11:53 – Character Framework
38:04 – Organizing the Rig
47:32 – dRig System
54:35 – New Big Hero Spine Rig
1:02:34 – What to Show on Demo Reels
1:10:57 – Q&A
Title UX for Rigs and Tools
Date June
Length 45:18
Presenter Chad Moore
Bio A veteran technical artist, animator, manager and director specializing in character animation for games and game cinematics. Co-founder of Rigging Dojo and Senior Technical Project Manager at Mad*Pow.
Topic(s)
Description
Brief Outline 2:50 – UX Overview
7:43 – Examples
- Turbine Toolbar
- Tactic
- Env Switcher
23:27 – How to Get Started
23:50 – Recommended Reading
24:51 – Deciding UX Changes for a Rig
33:27 – Axure Mockup
39:11 – Let’s Build Something!
Title Rig Feedback and Deformation Review
Date Unknown
Length 1:11:56
Presenter Brad Clark
Bio Co-founder of RiggingDojo.com, character art and technology consultant working with next generation rigging and animation software projects and technical software support for Motus Digital.
Topic(s) Feedback and deformation review of student rig created by Aaron
Carlisle
Description Covers joint placement and deformation setup and provides tips and advice on skinning and deformations
Brief Outline 1:51 – Model and Joint Issues
41:53 – Deformation Corrections
56:39 – Final Thoughts