Maybe i missed up the topic, but here is the deal.
I have some few questions about animation, so any experience animator would be grateful to share his experience.
For very high animation, like those from Movies. Avengers, Hobbit or Avatar, i see lot of MoCap. My first question is, Can be done the level of animation with Mocap, to be done without it, i mean just with keyframing?
Like Dobby/Gollum/Hulk, movement, expression?
For Cinematic/Live action movies. How is animated so much higher polygon model? Like Hulk in Avengers or the 6 legs creatures from Avatar?
Does first thing is rigger the lower version of the model, and then the details are applied by some texture maps?
Replies
I'm not a movie animator, but I think high-polygon movie models are animated much like game models. I saw a rig for a movie model that hid the high-poly model to increase the speed of the animator's real-time display, so they could animate easier. It had a low-resolution version of the model, just so the animator could see the forms and prevent interpenetrations. Search on youtube for movie animation rigs, you should find some.
Texture maps... you probably mean displacement? Yes, probably some movie rigs do this.
So there is possible, for animate to replicate realism animation, like mocap provides? Do you know that kind of animator? Which studio, animate without MoCap.
For movie animation rigs, i tried many times to find a model. But i can't, everything is low poly in game model.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni3R4FkC6YI"]CGI VFX Showreels HD: "Character Rigging" by - Matt L Derksen - YouTube[/ame]
Although lots of human animations in movies are mocapped, most creatures are not. Even human motion isnt sometimes. You still need the mocap actor to be able to do the motion, so if its some insane fight scene, or exaggerated movement, or flying or something, it still needs to be keyframed. Also, dont look at mocap as an easy button that requires little of the animator. Mocap is just a tool. Good mocapped animation was heavily influenced by the animator. Pushing poses, timing, etc.
As for what studios do hand keys stuff? Most of them, purely because not all animation can be mocapped, and most movies that require 3d have something in it that cant be.
Maya has the Maya Muscle system, I think its included if not it should be.
Last of Us actually had a muscle system for the characters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=myZcUvU8YWc#t=1083s