Ninja – An animated test

Hello.

I’d just like to share, that I’ve recently bought myself the awesome ‘How to Cheat in Maya 2010‘ book by Eric Luhta – and I’d have to say, that it’s simply awesome. He’s got some pretty kick ass work flow methods in there, and some bad ass tips ‘n tricks. If you get yourself a chance to buy it – or want to improve on your animating workflow, I highly recommend it. I was quite happy with my ‘old’ workflow, thinking that I would never change it, but Eric’s book has opened my eyes to a simpler – yet more effective way of animating, and I think it’s already improved how I approach a shot, and the quality of the animation. He uses tweenMachine to create the inbetweens etc – but I’m much happier using FunHouses’ TradigiTools – as it’s incredibly easy to use, and I know the guys behind it :) (If you don’t use either – check them out – great plug-ins.)

So! With this new knowledge – I decided to follow one of Eric’s tutorials on a short animation, of a Ninja doing flips and some subtle acting. It’s been an awesome experience working on it, and so far I’m very happy with the way it’s turning out. Here’s my current version:

(The Ninja and House was already on the DVD)

My next pass will be cleaning up some bits here and there, and perhaps a quick render – but I’m really happy with how things are turning out so far.

Here also – is a compiled video of my animation progress – from Blocking in Stepped mode, through to adding more inbetweens, copied pairs, then splining – with the refining pass at the end. I hope you enjoy the progress – and check out the book!