Where do you get your techniques?

Vailias

Im in the process of working through an advanced rigging book suggested by another polycounter, and have come to the realization that I knew jack about actually rigging characters till now. Or rather, my actual control rig knowledge was dated from bone envelope only days.

So my question becomes, how do you stay up on the latest features or techniques for your work? Do you just read the help file of each new release of software in its entireity? Do you have amazon send you lists of new books that may be in your genre? Are you a member of some secret mailing list?

Im finding a lot of info in just this book, that cant be gleaned from maya help, as it uses nodes intended for shader networks as animation controls. So of course if Im looking for animation help topics those things wouldnt come up. Its these kind of obscure, yet quite powerfull, techniques that I wonder how you find out about.

MoP

I usually find new techniques from other people... but yeah, where do they get it all from?!

rooster

whats the book? I hate rigging..

poopinmymouth

I learn a fair bit from other people, but I also figure out quite a lot on my own. You have to get into the experimental mindset. Always be watching for potentially useful things while you work. Maybe you try something new, and the result isn't what you wanted, but try to think if it'd be appropriate in another instance. When doing a personal project, don't be afraid to go the long way or try new things, that's where the majority of my new techniques come from. When at work I have to be in efficiency mode, so I tend to do things the tried and proven way, and I don't find as many new things then.

Think about it like science. Every new technology has to be researched and invented. There isn't a company that makes Science 8.2 service pack 3, and the scientists read the "what's new?" file. They take what they already know and try to combine and experiment till they figure out new things. Then they document and remember those for future use. That's how the people who come up with new techniques in any field operate. Experiment!

Ruz

I suppose its hard if you are learning on your own to learn amazing new techniques, but working in a company , you have a variety of technical artists who are actively creating new methods of doing stuff and they way they do it is dependent on the particulat task.
Most animators I know seem to have a natural aptitude for rigging stuff and tend to learn max/mel script as well to aid the rigging process.

I suppose the secret is to lean the basics , then get creative.

fogmann

Vailias, are you going through Art of Rigging books? If so, don't be surprised that you found out about whole lot of rigging techniques that you wouldn't even dream would be possible, because those books are just amazing in terms of revealing awesome tips and techniques, that you can't find anywhere else. I wish there was more books like that.

I'm subscribed for years now on HighEnd3d Maya mailing list, and I've learned a whole lot of new things from there, because it's populated by very responsive group of professionals that give each other tips and troubleshoot, although it's mostly effects and rendering related.

Vailias

Fogmann: no sadly. I wanted the art of rigging vol1 but it was sold out, so I picked up Inspired 3d Advanced Rigging and Deformations.
Thanks for the tips. I do experiment and try new things, but sometimes there are things I don't even know exist to experiment with. (like one time when writing javascript I didn't know I could link a math library, and tried to figure out how to write a square root function) I mean my previous rigs used driven keys, IK, constraints, and expressions to automate a lot of dependant secondary motion, but the fine details of maya's node archetecture were very much unknown to me. The very existance of the mathnode/utility group was unknown to me, and its so horendously usefull. My previous best rig was quite user friendly, but still can have loads of improvement with the new things I've learned.

Part of the problem with personal projects at the moment, is they have deadlines, and I have little free time, so everything has to be in expediency mode.
It just seems like these type of techniques are things one should know if one expects to get a job in the industry, however these sorts of techinques are somewhat obscure.
It feels like a catch 22.

KDR_11k

As a Blender user I simply read the changelogs. Alhough the pace of change for that seems to be a bit slower.