Where can I get a free character rig download for Maya 2013?

So...I start my placement in under a months time and will be using Maya.  I have just recently downloaded Maya 2013 but Im having trouble finding a free character rig download for 2013 to practice animating with, as this is what I will be doing on placement.  If anyone knows where I can download a rig that will work in Maya 2013 then PLEASE HELP!

Translation - final piece

So here is my final piece for translation.  After rendering out both 3dsmax files as jpeg images, I imported them into After Effects and rendered them out as videos.  As I had over 1000 images in both files, it got a little confusing knowing what I had or had not rendered out.  I found myself re - rendering a few times because the lighting wasn't quite right or it had cut of half way through the scene.  So really, it was just the rendering that took time, all in all the making of it probably took about 3 days.  The sound was also simple to put in.  I downloaded a marble bounce sound and cut parts out that were appropriate for my piece and placed it each time a ball fell.  Overall, I feel I have definately achieved what I set out to do.  The look is how I imagined, even though there is only one ball falling at each stage and the sound is also right.  Originally my aim was to not be obvious to the viewer what the animation was about and I feel I have also managed to achieve this, as I have replaced the sound I used as a reference to animate to, with the sound of falling marbles.  So, to me it doesn't look or sound like any of the trapcode experiments I had done in order to make an effect react to audio, which I am happy with.

Translation - final piece development

After the previous experiment, I began making my final piece using the particle system in 3dsmax.  Below are screen shots of the particle view in 3dsmax along with the particle flow source in the viewport. As I wanted more than one ball to fall at each part, I realised I had to copy the pf source and all its attributes every time for how ever many I wanted to fall at each part.  I could change the amount I wanted to fall in the particle view, however, they fell and hit the ground in a cluster rather than spread out, which I didn't want. So, the only way to achieve the desired outcome was to copy a pf source for ever single ball. This became very tedious. As you can see from the screen shots below, I had over 30 particle flow sources which slowed the whole process down considerably, to the point where I couldn't even scrub the timeline.  When I did my previous experiment, everything seemed to work fine, but this was probably because it was only an experiment and therefore not as long as a final piece.  So, after my computer died on me many times, I decided it would be much simpler to just have one ball fall at each stage to speed the process up and limit the amount of pf sources.  It would also be easier in terms of putting sound effects of falling marbles in, as I would only have to concentrate on one ball at each stage.  I also decided to make my final piece in 2 files to help limit the chance of it crashing again.

Translation Experiments - final piece development - 3dsmax particle system test

This is the first test using the particle system in 3dsmax.  It is exactly the kind of look I wish to achieve, with random amounts of balls falling and rolling away at each stage, using the sound I imported as a reference so that I know which frames they need to fall on.  I found the process in creating this very complicated at first but having repeated certain steps numerous times, it soon became quite simple.  After this test I am happy to use the particle system in 3dsmax to create my final piece.

In The Blink Of An Eye - National Media Museum

On Monday 30th April I visited the National Media Museum. I found the piece below particularly inspiring as the idea behind it is similar to my thaughts in relation to my current studio project 'translation'. Forms, by Quayola and Memo Akten is a digital artwork that responds to the human body in motion. It focuses exclusively on the mechanics of movement, using footage of world-class athletes to illustrate human movement at the extremes of perfection. Videos of athletes were processed through custom software to create evolving abstract forms that explore the relationships between the human body and its movements through time and space. This artwork was especially commissioned for In the Blink of an Eye by the National Media Museum, with the support of imove.

Translation Experiments - final piece development - MassFX test

Here is my first test in 3DS Max using massfx. I found this quite complicated at first, as I am not used to using 3DS Max for anything other than animating. After understanding how to make the balls fall and bounce how I wanted, I couldn't then make them roll away or animate them at the parts I needed to. So, the only practical way to create my final piece will probably be through using the particle system in 3DS Max.

Translation Experiments - Lux lights bounce test

So with Lux being the plugin I was going to use to create my final piece, I decided to experiment with how I wanted the lights to fall and bounce. Making them bounce was the difficult part, I was struggling to make it look realistic and with animating the bounce for each light being the only way to achieve the look I am going for, this proved to be a tedious and difficult task. I am now considering using 3ds max to create a more realistic look.

Translation Experiments

An experiment using expressions, originally generated from one circle. I found this quite difficult to create, but really like it !

Translation Experiments

Experiment using Trapcode Form. This was really simple to create, I also added a camera to look like you are traveling through the effect as it turns.

Translation Experiments

For this experiment I used Plexus. At first I found Plexus quite difficult, however, I really like what can be created using this plugin, so it is something I will continue to learn and understand. My next experiment using Plexus will be to make it react to sound.

Translation Experiments

Here is an experiment using Trapcode Lux. I found this very difficult to create as I was using expressions to control the movement. Expressions are something that I am not confident with, as I am studying animation and haven't had much experience writing code.

Translation Experiments

Another experiment using Particular. I found this quite difficult as I was partly using expressions to create this effect, which I found quite complicated. Overall, I am happy with result.

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Translation Experiments

To create this purple sphere was a lot more complicated to achieve.  I used Trapcode Form to create this, as well as using a mask and playing around with curves/levels etc.

Music by Daft Punk

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Translation Experiments

This video was created using Trapcode Form and Shine.  This has been the easiest to create so far.  I just used Form to create the overall effect and Shine to enhance the colour/brightness and giving it a night sky background.

Music by The Art Department

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Translation Experiments

Another experiment using Soundkeys.  This is one of the more easier tutorials I have looked at to create this.  However, I wasn't able to finish this at the time, so it's a working progress.

Music by Volta Bureau

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Translation Experiments

So here is my first experiment for my current studio project 'Translation'.  I am interested in making effects react to audio using Trapcode, a plug-in for After Effects, so began experimenting.  I have used Trapcode Form to create this effect and make the particles react to the audio.  This was fairly easy to create but I had problems with the positioning of the camera, so the look is not exactly how I would have liked it to have been.

Music by Pendulum

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Any Which Way 2012

This year the first Any Which Way live art show was held in Byram Arcade, Huddersfield.  Once again it turned out to be a great day with up and coming designers and illustrators exhibiting pieces of work.

Live music also came from BALL-ZEE and other dj's/artists.

Many thanks to Calder Graphics who donated lots of free stationary for this event.


                                          

Tracking

These two videos are about experimenting with motion tracking in After Effects.  The first video was a little more complicated as I had to track the moving hinge/butterfly to a dot, so that it followed a path.  I then replaced the background.

For the second video I used track to aim at a certain point in the video, so that the camera was much more steady and focused on one point.

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Light and Time - Final Piece

So here is my final piece for light and time.  Following on from the previous driving video experiments, I made this video on Premiere Pro.  I really enjoyed making the previous videos and knew this is where I wanted to go for a final piece.  It has both original videos speeded up, with the last video in reverse speed.  I knew I wanted it to be quite dark and I wanted to make most of the environment disappear along with the black road.    I therefore changed the hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, put a glow effect on and a lens distortion effect.  As you can also still see the road markings in most of the video, with some of them now distorted, it feels to me like you are travelling down something at high speed, almost like you are on a track.

Even though I put a music soundtrack on, I also put a rollercoaster sound effect with the sound of the tracks to emphasise this in the appropriate parts of the video.  I also added a wind sound effect to create atmosphere by making it seem like you are travelling in the open air.  Adding sound effects is something that I really enjoyed doing.

How is it related to light and time?  If there was no light there would be no video and it is related to time through speeded up film.  Originally I had around 15 minutes of film but after editing parts and speeding it up, I was left with just over under 6 minutes.

I am so happy with this video.  When I originally got given the brief for 'light and time', I was struggling to think creatively and couldn't think of an idea that didn't show light and time in a subtle way, apart from with the slit scan.  It was only when I stopped thinking about what the brief meant and experimented more, when my final piece came about.  It usually always happens towards the end of the project, where I get and idea that I am happy with and end up going with that.  I very rarely have a solid idea at the beginning of a project.

Music by Netsky

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Light and Time - Experimenting with Effects

For the following two videos I placed a video recorder on the dashboard in my car and recorded two different journeys I made in my area.

For the first video I wanted to know how to do a split screen with two videos.  I put both videos into After effects and rescaled them so that they played side by side.  I then changed the hue/saturation, vibrance, levels and put a glow effect on the video next to it.  The video on the right is also in reverse speed which I did on Premiere Pro.

Personally I think split screen looks good and I enjoyed editing both videos.

Music for the split screen video by Daft Punk


For the video below the split screen, I just put an extract effect onto one of the original videos.  I wanted to put more of an emphasis on the places travelling by and the environment rather than the road itself, which I think the extract effect does quite well.

This video was made in Premiere Pro.

Music for the extract video by AdamF

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.

Untitled from Rachel J Milner on Vimeo.