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“I've watched Alex Alvarez's
training DVDs on Dynamics... and they are
amazing! I've learned so much from the lectures, they have
helped make me a better visual effects artist. I started
using Maya for effects animation when I joined Square USA
for the film "Final
Fantasy" about
4 years ago. I wish I had these DVDs then. Well, better
late than never.”
- Andy Chen
Effects Animator
Dreamworks Feature Animation
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Once geometry has been Smooth
Bound to a skeleton, vertex weights must be edited to design
the skin deformations. Maya's default weighting algorithms
can give a good starting point, but the skin will be riddled
with problems. Continuing from 'Skinning, 1', we look at the
workflow for effectively editing weights using Artisan and
the Component Editor. Every major region of the body is addressed
including the hand, foot, knee, pelvis, shoulder, abdomen and
chest. While weighting, we also discuss what results one can
hope to achieve with the goal of anatomical accuracy in mind:
weighting alone can only take you so far, but it is the crucial
first step.
Product Code: SKI02
Paint Weights Tool
Component Editor
Mirror Weights
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Export/Import
Weights
Prune Weights
Disable/Enable Normalization |
 01:
Introduction
02: Overview
03: Foot
04: Knee
05: Hip
06: Mirroring
07: Hands
08: Shoulder
09: Mid-Section
10: Credits
Click here to
view a sample clip from this DVD. Note that while this
clip is 640x480 the actual movie size is 720x480 with
higher quality compression. View the stills to the right
to see the actual resolution.
Alex is founder and director of The Gnomon Workshop
and of Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood. Alex has been published
in industry magazines, websites, and books - plus he has taught courses
at several major trade conferences. His character animation projects
have appeared on many computer graphics websites, on the cover of the ‘Maya
Character Animation’ book published by New Riders, and his 'Zufuhr'
project was commissioned by Alias for their Siggraph stage presentations.
Alex is president of the Los Angeles Alias Users Group and sits on the
Advisory Board for Highend3D.com. Prior to Gnomon, Alex worked for Alias,
as a consultant and trainer for studios in the Los Angeles area. Alex
is an alumni of the Art Center College of Design and the University
of Pennsylvania.
For more of Alex's work, visit:
www.alexalvarez.com.
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