Bench303

3DNY EUI/CA CD review

One of the most common topics in the EIU forums are those about Character Animation.
Although EI version 5 does not come with special tools (key driven sets) for Character Animation, it is still possible to animate characters, as this CD will explain perfectly.

3DNY
So 3DNY comes with its Master Series for Maya and EIU : EIU Modeler. Now 3DNY starts with its Jumpstart Series. And the first CD in these series they bring out is EIU/ Character Animation by Gustavo Munoz and Mark Hannon

EIU/CA comes as one CD with a password. You have to retrieve a keypass to proceed, so connection to the internet is needed. After copying some files to your harddisk dubble click to begin the training.

The CD contains three chapters: modeling, animation and lipsync.

Modeling

The modeling section is about modeling a complete character: from head to toe. Mark Hannon has done a really good job in explaining how übernurbs work and how to make your animation later on work best. Every bodypart is treated with care as it nearly is an anatomical lesson! This section is one large movie.

Charcter Animation

The character animation section is done by Gustavo Munoz. He introduces three rigging sets; Geometry bones, auxilliary bones and control bones. In depth he explains why and how this smart rigsystem works. Then your not done yet as intermediate bones, weight maps, binding the model and proxy models are extensively dealt with.

And of course that is not all, as the usage of labels and the project window setup is explained thoroughly. The hands and feet are given attention to in detail. Many pictures accomplish the story and tells us what could go wrong and how to solve this irrigularity.The character animation section is done by Gustavo Munoz. He introduces three rigging sets; Geometry bones, auxilliary bones and control bones. In depth he explains why and how this smart rigsystem works. Then your not done yet as intermediate bones, weight maps, binding the model and proxy models are extensively dealt with.
And of course that is not all, as the usage of labels and the project window setup is explained thoroughly.

The hands and feet are given attention to in detail. Many pictures accomplish the story and tells us what could go wrong and how to solve this irrigularity.

At the end of this chapter some nice features are added to the character, like autocentre of gravity, automatic pelvis rotation and a bodyswitch system.
Then finally the character makes ist first steps in its virtual world.

The last chapter on the CD is about facial animation and lipsync. There are two ways explained here: in EI with morphing and with Headgames. Although this section only contains a few movies and a pdf file in which all is explained, it is a good addition to the subject of character animation.

conclusion
My opinion is clear: this is one of the best educational CDs for EI I have been waiting for. The chapters are easy to understand and contain some very good tips, possibilities and answers to many ask questions about character animation setup. If you are a beginner or more advanced this CD completes the understanding of charatcer animation in general.

The two cons to this CD are two different flaws. One is the way the CD works: when the program starts there is no way getting back to the finder without using cmd-tab (mac). I also noticed that when Expose is enabled, and your cursor hits the a hot corner the screen turn black.
The other minus is the lack of a short intervention about how to change keyframes within the f-curve editor once the animation of your character has been set up. This is also a tricky part in animating and I would have liked to have some tips about that.

But with these minor flaws, Electro303 rates this CD as the best buy of the first kwarter of 2004.