Where are all the good 3DSMax Animation tutorials?
It would seem that Maya is superior when it comes to animation. I use 3Dsmax but I can not seem to find any proffesional tutorials for it. All I see in gnomon is maya, maya, maya and more maya animation tutorials. All I can see that 3Dsmax has is stuff like tutorialized which are beginner and not even related to games. I know alot of people use Maya but prominent companies like Mythic and Blizzard use Max. How on earth did those guys get so good with the lack of tutorials. I know you can teach your self the basics of animation with books such as "Animators survival guide" but there are hardly any 3Dsmax game related animation tutorials that will teach you things like the curve editor and such.
Any help ?
Any help ?
Replies
http://paulneale.com/tutorials.htm
We use Max here for animation, along with the CAT rigging/animation plugin. Our animators do amazing work with it, but it all really comes down to their animation skill vs. their technical skill with the tool, like 90% vs. 10%.
I have some prior experience with rigging and I'm looking to start up again.
Do you also know of any animation focused tutorials? I mean, what you've linked there is great but it's mainly for a technical artists role with an animation focus.
I was wondering but I forgot to ask one question. How do you get the CAT plugin?
I've heared alot of nice things about it.
It has it's bugs and quirks, but it's also quite awesome. One big downside is lack of official support, ever since Softimage was acquired by Autodesk. Even before then, it was just one guy, and if he was out you were out of luck. New licenses were also tied to their server, looks like the Subscription upgrade (v3) got rid of that, thankfully.
As for tuts, sounds like you have his book already.
http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/index.html
Keith Lango also has some good anim tuts.
http://keithlangotutorials.blogspot.com/
Edit... Animation meat is a nice storehouse of animation links & info.
http://www.animationmeat.com/
I mean, look at Digital tutors. Thousands of maya tutorials and 500 max ones.
No Max animation tutorials at all in gnomonworkshop yet amazing maya ones such as Animation fundementals.
I'm clueless as to how animators who use Max in companies such as Mythic and Blizz got so good.
Both use dopesheets, both use a curve editor, and, minor changes in how things are keyed depending on the rigs.. When it comes down to it, you just have to find where the same button is hidden in the new software.
There are scripts that allow for maya users to keep their remaining hotkeys and port them into max, and vice versa, so that the transfer to the new software is that much more seamless.
The programs are quite similiar when it comes down to handling simple hand keyed animation.
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When I was first starting out, I knew only XSI until my first job opportunity.
I was to work for a small gaming studio in vancouver, that used only 3dsmax. I was given a weekend to pull together 6 animations, as an art test using the new software.
And I remember, that the biggest difficulty I had was finding out how to set keys on the bones since Biped handled it a bit differently.
I got to thinking that Maya would have some sort of easier Curve editor because right now I'm still like "How the hell do I move this curve to make the right impact and speed on this biped hand when it thrusts downwards? I can't tell because of a stupid curve"
As you can tell I'm sort of a newbie with animation.
As well, keep in mind that 3dsmax has a special curve editor for the Biped alone.. It's name is workbench.
I wouldn't suggest using the regular curve editor in 3dsmax to make changes to the biped.
Thats cool.
Uhm.. I never knew about this "Workbench" thing : )
Yet again...Ive never seen a good tutorial. Im gonna go check that out.
My biggest problem is that I can get a nice pose and such and follow the teachings of Richard williams but it still comes out bad because of the screwed up timing when max starts.
I just checked out Workbench..I've never used that surprisingly.
It's the same as the curve editor for other objects or is there some cool features?
This is going to be a very silly question but : Does everyone use the work bench curve editor? Even in games companies?
The 'Workbench' is suppose to allow curve editing, but I've never been able to get very good results with it. With Biped, I usually have to add extra keys instead of tweaking curves. Like I said, Biped is a fickle beast.
If you want proper curves, you'll need to use traditional bones in 3ds max.
I mean... I watch a mythic developer video about animation for inspiration and the lead animator uses bipeds.
Edit -Oh woah, never realised I was in the presence of an EA Mythic employee.
Alex, did you know someone called Jeremy Dale? Or was that at a different studio. I bookmarked your work for inspiration : )
If you just want to animate, then no, don't build your own rig as it will take a lot of time learning all the technical aspects of rigging (though knowing how things work 'under the hood' is very handy). Biped is an OK rig, it's just different then most rigs and thus you need to animate a little differently with it. I personally never use the Workbench. It doesn't seem to work like a normal curve editor from what I've seen and I've never taken the time to see what it can do.
And yeah, I worked with Jeremy. He was the lead animator for Warhammer Online.
Pretty kickass work.
And I actually do want to learn how to rig. It seems that most animators websites have atleast a couple of rigs showcases or even just the skill of rigging mentioned on there page.
I'm setting out to understand the basics and the complexities of animation and all the technical stuff aswell. I know for example, in Bioware they have jobs for riggers and seperate jobs for animators but my main focus is to be an animator not a rigger. I'd just like to make my own rigs and I'm fully up for it.
Paul Neale's site that was posted earlier is a great place to start.
Looks like I'm coming up for post '666' :O
heh.
http://www.11secondclub.com/resources/#3DSMax
Get to the animatin'.
Because the intro to character rigging on Paul's site is for those older versions.
Glib... Woah! thanks. The famous rigs that everyone uses ;P I was actually looking for those. I love the one by Peter Starostin.
I've not actually had experience with using somone elses rig. I take it's okay to do it aslong as you give them credit? I mean.. I don't really feel right about it and that's why I want to make my own rigs.
Well, I've seen an exceptionally good animator who can also rig...expectionally well.
http://www.bradnoble.net/animation/index.html
I'm gonna give it a try. I already have some past experience. I forgot to mention that. I just haven't rigged or animated in around 2.4 years.
I think it's fine to use someone else's rig, just make sure to say you only did the animation.
Max's animation hasn't changed drastically since max 5, AFAIK.