Hand setup with automated wrinkle maps by Pavlo Kotliar

Character Articulation through Profile Curves

Character Articulation through Profile Curves from Pixar Graphics on Vimeo.

A new approach by Pixar Graphics for character articulation that produces detail-preserving deformations fully controlled by 3D curves that profile the deforming surface. 

The deformation for the mesh is controlled by profile curve much like line art with Bezier handles to fix and articulate the underlying geometry. Looks like a blend of 2D line art controlling 3D geometry, very intuitive process resulting in better deformation with art directed profiles and volume preservation! I would love to see this implemented on all 3D platforms in the near future! This could be the end of needing to create skin binding, facial blend shapes, adding helper joints and corrective blend shapes but resolving with good old line arts driven by a traditional puppet rig. Rig driven by wire curve deformers with indirect bind for articulation is something that I am familiar with but never thought those wire deformers could have the possibility of being hand keyed and posed in vertex level with Bezier handle controls much like traditional animation. Very interesting!

Presented by Fernando de Goes, William Sheffler, Kurt Fleischer SIGGRAPH 2022. Check out the documentation here.

Love, Death & Robots

Love, Death & Robots... how did I miss these mini episodes on Netflix for so long! Some amazing CGI shorts... 

My favorites listed below: 

1. Beyond the Aquila Rift (Loved it!) 

2. Zima Blue (The way the story twisted and the overall stylization) 

3. The Secret War (Always a big fan of Metro 2033 vibe and a post apocalyptic world doomed by underworld creatures) 

4. Pop Squad (Fascinating storyline, CGI stylization loved it!) 

5. Snow in the Desert (One of the best CGI humans!) 

6. Life Hutch (The integration of live action + CGI blended so well that at some point it wasn't uncanny and very believable. 

7. The Drowned Giant (A Drowned Giant on the beach... narration nailed it!)

Bone Spring

bonesprings from Mads Ringdal on Vimeo.

Bone Spring! Very cool setup by Mads Ringdal.

Eric D. Legare 2019 Animation TD Demo Reel

Animation TD show-reel by Eric D. Legare. The skin simulation on the bull using Houdini was pretty impressive. Overall a great show-reel.

Cascadeur

Check out Cascadeur, physics based animation tool-set! You can try out their beta version here. With all the AI deepfake and machine learning emerging; this tool-set also uses machine learning for pose prediction and physics! Looking forward to seeing more development in these fields.

AI brings Mona Lisa to life

Deepfake and machine learning! AI takeover :)

MocapX

This looks really promising! Currently out for folks with iPhone only, the app is available for purchase from iOS store. A free trial version would have been better for testing purpose. Check it out here.

Fast and Deep Deformation Approximations

fdda implementation (maya plugin) from Matt LeFevre on Vimeo.

Custom implementation of the paper "Fast and Deep Deformation Approximations" by Matt LeFevre.

Croods 2 Rig Features

Croods 2 Rig Features from Stephen Candell on Vimeo.

Croods 2 rig features by Stephen Candell, Nathaniel Dirkson, Kevin Ochs and Jaryd Snover. Amazing deformation and love the presentation!

Collision Offset Skin

collisionOffsetSkin from TianShaopeng on Vimeo.

This looks promising! Collision Offset Skin tool by Tian Shaopeng. Beta version download here.

Paul Hong Demo Reel

Demoreel_2018 from Paul Hong on Vimeo.

Impressive cartoon rigs by Paul Hong!

Mush3D

Mush3d - www.mush3d.com from Luiz Elias on Vimeo.

Mush3d by Luiz Elias is really cool tool-set which allows user to sculpt 3d animation in post. This 3d sculpting application is aimed to fix and add extra level of details to animations. Get it here.

The Food Thief RIGG - Technical breakdown & Rig Analysis

Truly a mind-bending rig by Mindbender Animation Studio! Love the 2D super cartoony look and feel of the setup and it's modularity!! Character setup by Richard Kazo and his team at Kippcase Rigging Studio. Watch trailer below.

 
The Food Thief - Teaser Shot from Mindbender on Vimeo.

Below is my crude rig analysis for this cool setup :) 

It is a very clever setup! The setup is mimicking a stop motion feel and style of cartoon design and deformation, just like how we can mold clay into any form. If we think of it simply (simplicity can be complicated :), the rig seems to be based on a lot of blendshapes (PSD), modular setup with clever deformation dependency graph (there are some benefits of modeling history in this kind of rig build where we can utilize construction history to rig advantage) and animation gimmicks setup and of-course the ShrinkWrap! The placement of the arm, leg, etc all seems to be different geometry with respective setup. The body transformation (specially the mouth) is a very cleverly art directed morph! You can see how there is a thin lining geometry for covering. Then there seems to be a final render mesh on top, with fur and all rendering goodness riding on top of the modular rig underneath! And then there are new tools like Shot Sculpt which allows you to refine shapes post animation!!

For reference take a closer look at Ren And Stimpy! :D

Shot Sculpt

Shot Sculpt from Luiz Elias on Vimeo.

Shot Sculpt tool-set by Luiz Elias looks very promising. Fantastic! You can download trial version here: http://luizelias.com/ssculpt

Vital Skin by Vital Mechanics

This looks promising! Check out Vital Skin FX used in simulating realistic skin deformation.

The Art of VR - Sotheby’s Exhibit by MacInnes Scott

Real-time facial motion capture and rendering technology interpolating visitor's facial expression to animate photo-real digital avatars of President Obama and Trump.

ZIVA VFX

ZIVA VFX – Chris and Jernej Discuss Visual FX Results from Ziva Dynamics on Vimeo.

Here is a really cool product that you can test ZIVA VFX. I have just tried it out and the tissue system and simulation is very cool, pretty fast too. I would love to integrate it into realistic character rig, great for muscle, tissue and fat sim. If you have checked out Puppeteer Lounge recent webinar here, you will notice that the simulation was done using nCloth. You can apply the Ziva tissue system with similar rig to get even better results. The Ziva's built in simulation is faster compared to nCloth in Maya and more tuned for fleshy simulation. Try it out for yourself!

Direct Selection of Character Controls in Maya from Stephen Candell

Direct Selection of Character Controls in Maya from Stephen Candell on Vimeo.

Check out this video overview by Stephen Candell on setting up direct selection controls inside Maya which replicate a similar workflow we see with Pixar, Dreamworks and similar big studios. The idea can be well integrated into any rig system thus creating a clean and intuitive setup for the animators. Give it a try!

Sony Pictures Imageworks Face Rigging Demo Reel

Sony Pictures Imageworks Face Rigging Demo Reel from Stephen Candell on Vimeo.

Sony Pictures Imageworks face rigging show-reel by Stephen Candell.