Research Papers

Ive read numerous paper online about wing simulation and animation but the best so far is one by a 3^rd year student who studied at Bournemouth University named Annah Hutchings who looks throughout wing simulations which have already been done in the animation games and films industries already and studies the way that they were implemented and why they were implemented in that way and not another way and then eventually makes her own wing rig using the information she had collected. Im going to give a good read of this paper then post my findings once completed.

Software Competance and Tutorials

After looking through the net about wings I discovered that Digital Tutors offer a tutorial about rigging wings in Autodesk Softimage XSI, Autodesk Maya and Cinema4D. I feel as I’m a strong user of Maya I will use it to do my implementation and for when it comes to the scripting part of my project I will be able to use MEL or C++ which I know how to use more or less already. If I have further time in my project then I  may implement the same thing in XSI just to show I have competence in 2 software’s and still offer the same skills. 

When it comes to using Morph Targets I will most likely have to learn say Autodesk Mudbox or Zbrush or software on those lines to make the wing deformations and then revert them back to Maya to make the simulation.

Update Wing Anatomy and Joints

I could change my final year project instead of just implementing a rigged wing and then simulating it along a path to a comparison of the way it would work doing this and then comparing it to the morph target way and even implementing the morph target way so I can get direct comparisons rather than assumptions and having to find people who have do wing simulation in this way. I could also consider combining the 2 together having a wing rig and blend shapes having them work hand in hand to give a more hybrid simulation in whole.

As I know a very little on how the rigging process works I’m going to have to start my project on defining the wing bone structure, how it works, how it expands, how the wing is structured. Like a human bone structure some wings bones only rotate in certain direction causing constrains on how the wings movements are.

just a couple of reference pictures I took off www.google.com

Blend Shapes and Project Update

I do apologise for not using the blog till now i forgot i need it for expotees and i kept my blog in diary form so im just uploading my thoughts on my final year specification to date. 

In my specification I do state that I would rig a wing which I then would simulate. After talking about my project to some people and my supervisor I thought instead of rigging the wing for industry needs would it be easier/ more efficient to use morph targets/ blend shapes. So deforming the wing in certain positions conveying its flight in every scenario and writing a script which flips between each deformation depending on the flight trajectory. Which may add more fluidity to the animation as I understand a lot of facial rigs are made in this way.

Blend shape example on facail animation 

Just an example of Blend shapes in maya taken from http://cgterminal.com/2011/10/15/maya-blend-shape-tips-and-tricks-by-steven-roselle/