Hello!

I'm Misa, I'm 19 and I'm from England. I'm currently studying Computer Animation at University. I came here because it seems like the best place to get up-to-date advice about the game industry.

Basically, a few weeks back, I created my first 3D Character and animation. I have no prior experience in 3D Design. So, I began to learn Maya, and recently we had to do an animation for an assessment.

I am fairly pleased considering it's my first model, but the animation itself is weak. I was having a ton of problems with the rig and had barely any time to spend on the actual animation at all.

Anyway, I'll show you what I've done so far and any comments or critique would be welcome.

Character:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43121380@N06/4481937924/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43121380@N06/4556921345/

Animation:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43121380@N06/4568474260/

As a result of my rigging problems, I wondered if anyone could give me some helpful hints or links to simple tutorials for rigging. Or any other tutorials a beginner 3D artist would need!

Thanks very much,

Misa.

Excellent start.

You have made charachter that has
clean mesh, working texturing and can be animated.

Some tips for improvement:

Audio track!
It`s much easyer to get good timing in animation if you have
some sounds / audio while animating in Maya.

Build audio track in some audio editing software.
(Common audio tracks: voice + sfx + music.)

Lights and materials can add lot to mood of animation.
Try using basic studio light rig. (main light + fill light + rim light)
In your charachter try adjusting skin color to light pinkish.

if you have problems with rigging and animation is bit stiff,
then good practice would be makeing of cartoon worm with face.
(Easy to rig, fast to animate and animation must be smooth)

Some Links:
the cgTalk
free hiQuality textures
tutorials and stuff
Autodesks user area

/Tyrian

Thank you for the tips!

I recently made my first flash animation, and that had audio. It was SO MUCH easier to get nice timing, plus it gives the animation a finished look.

As for the lighting, I don't know much about it, so thanks for the advice on that. I'll definitely look into it!

Adjusting the skin colour of the character would be really simple (the texture is done in photoshop, I'd just need to adjust it and replace it.)

The worm animation sounds like a really great idea! I'll do just that. Hopefully by doing something like that it'll help me get to grips with rigging so my animation is smoother (and less annoying to work with.)

Thank you for the links also.