Term 2 week 4 and 5

Animation problems

Making the skirt move

Mixed both ncloth and blend shapes doesn't seem to work.

Ncloth might prove a simpler method for animation but I'm worried that it could cause problems. Already there is a small seam or gap between the ring on the bottom of the dress and the cloth of the dress. On the plus side, the cloth actual looks like cloth and cloth responses well the physics.

My other option is to use blend shapes to create the movement in the skirt. This will take a lot more time in the animating stage (And I'm running short on time as it is). The other problem with this method is that the Baubles deform when I set both the left/right and forward/back to active.

I feel like the NCloth model works better for my desires for the character. Blend shapes is simply to fiddly for this task and doesn't provide the result I want. I seem to have the functions sorted, but I'm sure something will turn up to bite me for my decision.

Turns out I was wrong, I couldn't get the ncloth to play ball. The Ncloth objects refused to stay with the solid object I attached them to. Even after hours of research and attempts I couldn't get it to work. This little science experiment cost me about a week of work on my character, but "Nothing ventured, nothing learned and nothing gained"

Thankfully, Rachel was kind enough to spend the time to make me a custom rig for the skirt. Even after all the time I spent researching the subject and watching Rachel do it, I still wouldn't be confident in making one myself. There are some steps I still don't quite understand. After some trail and error, I have the rigged skirt working properly. I will try adding some blend shapes to make the baubles move with some of the more pronounced dress movements.

Started modeling Marcus outside of class. He shouldn't take too long to make as he doesn't need to be very detailed. The most important part (the hands) can be imported from the dancer's model and reconfigured to fit my needs.

Did voice recording on June 4. Had some troubles as the recording board wasn't working properly but I managed to record. Don't know how it sounds in post yet but if need be I can re-record. Either way, a big thanks to Morgan M and Luke Page for doing the voices and putting up with my constant 'artistic' pushiness. Still need foley sounds. Will have to use the Zoons so I can do the recording by myself (none of my classmates seems to be willing to help with foley, or indeed record their own)