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I made a free PDF of the 'Unofficial XSI Character ' book

I made a free PDF of the 'Unofficial XSI Character ' book

2004-06-02       - By Anthony Rossano

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Reply:     1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     >>  

Hi All!
So, I have decided to make my 'Unofficial XSI Character' available to
everyone, free!
I went through it and made a few corrections to the command names to be
current with Version 4.0, and made a PDF of the book IN ITS ENTIRETY
and have now put it up for you all to do with as you please.
There are no restrictions on the PDF - you can use it, chop it up, copy
paste, print, spindle, etc.
There are nice tutorials, exercises, and even a few interviews with XSI
Gurus like Ludo, Ed Harriss, Matt Lind and Bob Bonniol.  It's file size
is about 23 MB.
A few pictures are missing - some problem with the Distiller process,
but it's free, so what the heck.

Here it is via ftp:
ftp://ftp.mesmer.com/books/xsicharacter/XSI_Character_2004_Mesmer.pdf
And here it is Via http:
ftp://ftp.mesmer.com/books/xsicharacter/XSI_Character_2004_Mesmer.pdf
And it's in the Mesmer Filebank at:
http://www.mesmer.com/public/pubdownload.php?in06

And the files for it too:
http://www.mesmer.com/public/pubdownload.php?in�

Then, just in case you want a hard copy, we dropped the price to
$13.60, which comes out to  3.5 cents a page, cheaper than you can
photocopy or print it.  You can order those here:
http://www.mesmer.com/public/readpublicarticle.php?in18


Just in case you don't know what's in there, I included a table of
contents here.
Have fun!



<br><strong>Chapter : Planning for Animation </strong>
<br>    How to Read This Book
<br>     What This Book covers
<br>     What This Book Does Not Cover
<br>     Specialization
<br>     Storyboarding and Animatic
<br>     Character Design
<br>     Planning for Large Productions
<br>     The Pipeline
<br>     Project Tracking
<br>     Getting ready to start a big project?
<br><strong>Chapter : Non-Linear Animation with the Mixer  </strong>
<br>     Setting Up XSI
<br>     Setting and Editing Keyframes
<br>     Marking Properties
<br>     Checking what property is marked
<br>     Adding to the Marked Property List
<br>     Locking and clearing the marked property list
<br>     Being a productive keyframer
<br>     The Animation Divot and the Animation Menu
<br>     Removing Animation
<br>     Open up the Animation_Spring scene
<br>     Copying and Pasting animation
<br>     Animation Curves and the Animation Editor
<br>     Showing the Animation Editor
<br>     Animation Editor tools and tips
<br>     Keys in the Animation Editor
<br>     What the Slope of the Curve Means
<br>     Changing one key value at a time
<br>     Selecting Many Keys at Once
<br>     Locking to frames
<br>     Adding and Deleting Keys
<br>     Changing Slope
<br>     Swap and Snap
<br>     The Region Tool
<br>     Multiple items at once in the Animation Editor
<br>     Cycles and the Animation Editor
<br>     Creeping Cycles
<br>     Relative Cycles
<br>     Freezing and Removing Cycles
<br>     Timing Changes with the Dopesheet
<br>     Decoding the Dopesheet
<br>     Adjusting timing in the Dopesheet
<br>     All About the Mixer
<br>     Models have a special icon
<br>     Adding tracks to the Mixer
<br>     What Time Is It?
<br>     Storing Pose Actions
<br>     Store Current Values
<br>     Sequencing in the Mixer
<br>     Loading Actions into the Mixer
<br>     The Duration of a Clip
<br>     Feedback on Duration
<br>     Bounce and Cycle
<br>     Drag and Drop Actions
<br>     The Transition Tool
<br>     Storing Animation Actions
<br>     TimeWarp and Actions
<br>     Audio Tracks in the Mixer
<br>     Blending Different Actions
<br>     The Blend slider in the Mixer
<br>     Weight Curves
<br>     Additive versus Average Weights
<br>     Tutorial: The Subwoofer
<br>     Deleting and Renaming Actions
<br>     Mute, Solo and Size Tracks
<br><strong>Chapter : Design and Modeling with Polygons </strong>
<br>     Polygon Modeling History and Uses
<br>     Polygons in Game Engines
<br>     Polygons in the Renderer
<br>     Polygons in Subdivision Surface Modeling
<br>     Scanned Models and Point Clouds
<br>     Polygon Terminology
<br>     Edges
<br>     Vertex, vertices
<br>     Normals
<br>     The Polygon Components Filter
<br>     Setting Selection Preferences
<br>     Selecting Components
<br>     Transforming Edges, Vertices, and Polygons
<br>     Drawing polygons from scratch and Aligning edges
<br>     Conforming Normals
<br>     Serious Poly Modeling
<br>     The Operator stack, Immediate mode, and Freeze
<br>     Polygon Duplicate means Extrude
<br>     Extrude along curve
<br>     Duplicating a Vertex
<br>     Duplicating an Edge
<br>     Add Edge
<br>     Split Edge and Split Polygon
<br>     Exercise: Manta Ray
<br>     Deleting Polygons, Vertices, and Edges
<br>     Collapsing Polygons, Edges, and Vertices
<br>     iv XSI Illuminated: Character
<br>     Dissolving Edges, Vertices and Polygons
<br>     Exercise: Modeling Diamonds
<br>     Keeping Models Symmetrical
<br>     Merge and Blend Polygon Meshes
<br>     Booleans and Polygons
<br>     Polygon Bridge
<br>     From NURBS to Polygons
<br>     Going from NURBS to Polygons
<br>     Polygon reduction tools in Softimage|D x
<br>     Subdivision Surfaces
<br>     The Subdivision operator
<br>     The Geometry Approximation Method
<br>     Working with Sub-D surfaces
<br>     Local Subdivision
<br>     Exercise: Angler Fish
<br>     Setting harder edges and boundaries
<br><strong>Chapter : Shape Shifting  </strong>
<br>     Deformations in XSI
<br>     Deformations are stored on Clusters
<br>     Making Clusters on your Character
<br>     WeightMaps Modify Deformations
<br>     Connecting WeightMaps to other operators
<br>     Bulge and Twist Deformations
<br>     Spline Deformation and Constrain Cluster to Object
<br>     Exercise: Sea Creatures swimming with Spline Deformation
<br>     Deformation by Spine: Quetzal Neck
<br>     Deform�Cluster Center
<br>     Deformation by Cage
<br>     Exercise: Small sea monster eats larger one
<br>     Deformation by Volume
<br>     Shrinkwrap Deformation
<br>     Exercise: Smaller Monster wraps around larger one
<br>     QuickStretch Deformation
<br>     Example: The Flying Egg
<br>     The Push Tool
<br>     All About Shape Animation
<br>     Shape Tracks in the Mixer
<br>     Save Key Shape
<br>     Store Key Shape
<br>     Exercise: Shape Animation for Musculature
<br>     Select Key Shape
<br>     Exercise: Practice with Shape Mixing
<br>     Shape Animation for Expressions and Lip Sync
<br>     Using Proportional Modeling
<br>     Proportional Setup
<br>     Hierarchies of Shape animation
<br>     Tutorial: A Shape Tree for Facial Animation
<br>     Order of Operators
<br>     v Table of Contents
<br><strong>Chapter : Inverse Kinematics </strong>
<br>     Inverse Kinematic Concepts
<br>     Forward Kinematics vs Inverse Kinematics
<br>     What�s a Solver?
<br>     More IK Terminology
<br>     The Cones of Doom
<br>     Exercise: Drawing Your First Chain
<br>     Selecting IK Bits
<br>     Types of Chains
<br>     D Chains
<br>     D Chains
<br>     The Resolution Plane
<br>     Preferred Axis Constraint
<br>     Up Vector Constraints
<br>     Changing the IK Solver Type
<br>     Bone Length and Shadow Radius
<br>     Setting Joint Rotation Limits
<br>     Using Joint Roll
<br>     Joint Friction
<br>     Forward Kinematics with IK Chains
<br>     FK/IK Blending
<br>     Pseudo Roots
<br>     Parenting IK Chains Together
<br>     Skeleton Symmetry
<br>     Get Back
<br>     Methods of Attaching Geometry to IK
<br>     Rigid Enveloping
<br>     Tutorial: Egg Factory IK Setup
<br>     Interview: Matt Lind
<br><strong>Chapter : Skins: Enveloping and Weighting  </strong>
<br>     Binding Skins to IK and Weighting theory
<br>     Flexible Enveloping to Inverse Kinematic Chains
<br>     How Envelope Assignment Works
<br>     Local Joint Assignment
<br>     Assignment to the whole Chain
<br>     Keep controls and constraints out of the hierarchy
<br>     Tutorial: Cartoon Hand
<br>     Envelope Assignment Depth
<br>     Envelope Assignment Method
<br>     Adding in new Deformers
<br>     Removing Envelopes
<br>     Enveloping to Objects other than IK
<br>     Weighting Your Skin
<br>     Viewing the Weight Map
<br>     Hurry Up and Weight
<br>     Manual IK weighting
<br>     Mixing weights Manually with Edit Weights
<br>     Envelope Weighting with Paint
<br>     Shaded Mode, Constant Mode
<br>     vi XSI Illuminated: Character
<br>     Mixed Mode and X-ray Mode
<br>     Viewing Names on IK
<br>     Adjusting Paint Brush properties
<br>     Softness, opacity, size, coverage
<br>     Adding Weight to one bone
<br>     Isolating one bone
<br>     Posing models in bad positions
<br>     Smoothing Envelope Weights
<br>     Painting Smoothing On
<br>     Looking at Each Sample Weight
<br>     Tutorial: Weighting Lorphea
<br>     Interview: Bob Bonniol
<br><strong>Chapter : Custom Properties & Linked Parameters </strong>
<br>     Custom Parameter Sets
<br>     Adding Custom properties
<br>     Editing Custom Properties
<br>     Example: Monstrous Properties
<br>     Collecting Proxy Properties
<br>     Links and Relative Values
<br>     Links
<br>     Tutorial: Linked Spring
<br>     Linking IK to Custom Sliders
<br>     Tutorial: The Monkey�s Paw
<br>     Linking Muscles to Bones
<br>     Pose-Based Shape Animation
<br>     Tutorial: The Stretch
<br><strong>Chapter : Human Character Modeling  </strong>
<br>     Building a Good Pose for Weighting
<br>     Using Reference Material with Rotoscope
<br>     Keeping Proportions with Rotoscope
<br>     Modeling Technique
<br>     Keep it simple
<br>     Edge Loops, Contours, and Poles
<br>     Modeling for Expressions and Lip Sync
<br>     Building musculature
<br>     Building detail around Joints
<br>     Body Parts
<br>     Arms
<br>     Legs
<br>     Torso
<br>     Feet and Toes
<br>     Hands and Fingers
<br>     Head and Face
<br>     It's Alive!
<br>     Proportional Template
<br>     Stitching
<br>     Smoothing Characters
<br>     vii Table of Contents
<br><strong>Chapter : Complex Human IK Rigs </strong>
<br>     Control Rigs
<br>     Making a Model
<br>     Making a Model shareable
<br>     Hierarchy Versus Constraints
<br>     The Strategy of the Hierarchy
<br>     Reusability
<br>     Easier Enveloping
<br>     Easy Selection
<br>     Automatic Animation and Levels of Control
<br>     Easier Animation
<br>     Animation Re-use
<br>     Building a Simple control rig
<br>     Using Clusters with IK
<br>     The COG and GPS
<br>     Controlling the Resolution Plane
<br>     Organizing with Layers
<br>     Where to put Custom Controls
<br>     Limiting Range of Motion
<br>     IK Controls for Feet
<br>     Controlling Leg IK with Two Constraints
<br>     IK Controls for Arms and Hands
<br>     IK and Controls for Hands
<br>     IK and rotation for forearms
<br>     IK and controls for Spinal Column
<br>     Building in Rigidity
<br>     Building Soft Tissues
<br>     Linking in Muscle Behaviors
<br>     Using Higher Assignment Depth
<br>     Setting Keyframes and Saving Actions
<br><strong>Chapter : Saving Time with Expressions </strong>
<br>     What is an Expression?
<br>     Why are they so useful?
<br>     What kind of people use expressions?
<br>     Property Names
<br>     Adding expressions onto objects
<br>     Simple expressions
<br>     The process of gradual refinement
<br>     Expression Syntax
<br>     Objects, properties, and animation curves
<br>     Where�s position in X and what�s a Euler?
<br>     Which object does the expression go on?
<br>     Naming conventions
<br>     Mathematics, order of operations, and parenthesis
<br>     Using another object in the expression
<br>     Functions, Constants and Variables
<br>     Constants
<br>     Variables
<br>     Functions
<br>     The Random Seed
<br>     viii XSI Illuminated: Character
<br>     Decisions and Logic
<br>     Tutorial: Swishing the Tail
<br>     Tutorial: Pulsing Lasers and Other Repetitive Stuff
<br>     Tutorial: Hot Wheels
<br>     Tutorial: Expressions Mixing Shapes
<br>     Interview: Ludovick William Michaud
<br><strong>Chapter : Advanced Character Setup  </strong>
<br>     Becoming a Technical Director
<br>     Innovative controls for animators
<br>     Tutorial: Custom PPGs and the Heads-Up Display
<br>     The Amount slider and the Degree slider
<br>     D controllers vs D sliders
<br>     Tutorial: Building D body controllers
<br>     Facial Animation Controllers
<br>     Tutorial: Facial Animation Controller
<br>     Exercise: Saving a Library of Actions
<br>     Creating and Using the Synoptic View
<br>     Tutorial: Simple Synoptic
<br>     Expressions for Human Movement
<br>     Automatic Hip Placement between feet
<br>     Pelvis Lean (Hipskinelocalposz)
<br>     Pelvis Sway (Hipskinelocalposx)
<br>     Pelvis Crouch (Hipskinelocalposy)
<br>     Weight Transfer for Balance (Hipskinelocalposx)
<br>     Automatic Pelvis Rotation
<br>     Hips Rotate with Feet (Hipskinelocalroty)
<br>     Follow forward foot (Hipskinelocalroty)
<br>     Bear Weight (Hipskinelocalrotz)
<br>     Bowing and Backflips (Hipslocalkinerotx)
<br>     Foot collision detection with the floor
<br>     Collarbone Expressions
<br>     Collarbone Lean
<br>     Collarbone Sway
<br>     Collarbone Dip
<br>     Collarbone Rotations
<br>     Spinal Column Expressions
<br><strong>Chapter : Emotion and Facial Musculature  </strong>
<br>     Setting up a face for emotion, not lip sync
<br>     Transportability
<br>     Using Envelope Deformers as Muscles
<br>     Multi-point Constraints
<br>     Shapes and Constrain to Cluster
<br>     Thinking about Muscles
<br>     Opposing action with three shapes
<br>     Tutorial: Facial Expression Rig
<br>     Interview: Ed Harriss
<br><br>


[ Anthony Rossano ]
- CEO, Mesmer Inc -
-tel: 206.782.8004-
-fax: 206.782.8101-
http://www.mesmer.com

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