We'll first explore the planning phase of this project, and then dive right in and built the performance from start to finish, learning skills that can be applied to any character. We'll also create very simple but useful toolbar to select controls faster, discuss the benefit of choosing suitable rotation orders for control objects, learn ways to overcome gimbal lock interpolations, and take a look at Softimage's approach to file referencing. By the end of the tutorial, you will have attained the set of skills needed to animate fun and believable character interactions!

We'll start the tutorial by giving you the foundational skills and vocabulary you'll need in order to move around within Softimage, and then we'll jump right into the Modeling section of the tutorial. After completing the Modeling section, you'll get the chance try your hand at Texturing, Rigging, Animation, ICE Dynamics, and finally, Lighting and Rendering your own animation. Our goal is not to weigh you down with technical information, but rather to help you develop good workflow habits and allow you to reach a point where you can be very comfortable using Softimage.

This course will provide you with a foundation for camera animation in Softimage. We'll cover everything from creating turntables, to techniques we can use to add more entertainment to our shots by camera animation alone. We'll learn various ways we can rig cameras and even discuss shot composition to make sure the audience knows who the significant players and objects of interest are in our scene. By the end, you'll have the knowledge you need to animate the camera confidently, producing results that can captivate an audience.

This tutorial guides you through the process of creating a Walk Cycle in Softimage. One step at a time, we'll dissect the body mechanics of a walk. We'll learn how to create seamless cycles, we'll also explore ways we can add believable follow-through and weight, and even work with Animation Layers to, in the end, produce a walk that is natural, and that has a little personality.

Popular highlights include: In-depth Overview of XSI Interface; Navigation and Tools; Customizing User Experience; Polygon Modeling Workflows; Extruding Faces and Edges; Extracting Geometry; Assigning Materials and Textures; Material Manager; Creating Shader Networks with Render Tree; Texture Layer Editor; UV Projections and Sub-projections; Creating Custom Shelves and Toolbars; Rotoscope Preparation; Lights and Shadow Types; Creating ICE Tree Networks; Applying Dynamic Forces to ICE Particles; Building Particle Volume Shaders for Rendering; Deformers; Path Animation; Parenting Objects; Utilizing the Render Region; Automating Animation with Linked Parameters; Keying Panel to Create and Manipulate Keyframes; Understanding the Operator Stack.

Popular highlights include: Animation Mixer Overview; Modifying Function Curves in Animation Clips; Non-destructive Animation Workflow; Importing and Exporting Animation Clips; Clip Effect Statements; Compound Clips; Integrating Motion Capture Data; MOTOR Overview; Animation Layers; Warping Animation; Working with Poses; Equalizing Clips; Cycling Clips; Clip Transitions; Freezing Clips; Utilizing Static Poses; Understanding Non-linear Animation.

Popular highlights include: Mechanics of Quadruped Animation; Quadruped Anatomy for Animators; Reference Images; Ghosting; Captures; Copying and Pasting Keys; Working with Character Key Sets; Timing and Spacing; Follow-Through; Achieving Believable Weight; Translating Cycles Forward; Navigating Animation Editor; Modifying F-curves; Snapshot Curves; Cycling animation; Animating Arcs; In-betweening; Editing Slopes.

Popular highlights include: CDK Overview; Biped Guide Rigging; Quadruped Guide Rigging; Hierarchy from Guide; Roll Divisions and Skins; Shadow Rigs; Creating Synoptics; Quaternion and Skeleton Spines; Tail Controls; Arms, Hands, and Fingers; Legs and Feet; Torso and Head; Springs; Adding Stretch to Biped Arms; Adding Additional Controls; Biped Motion Tracks, Tags and Steps; Creating Custom CDK Commands; Pose Constraints; Symmetry Constraints; Creating a Multi-legged Guide Rig; Building Animation Expressions.

Popular highlights include: Overview of XSI Animation Tools; Understanding Non-linear Animation; Manipulating Keyframes from Timeline; Overview of Animation Editor; Using Animation Mixer; Animation Preferences; Frame Rate Preferences; Copying and Pasting Animation; Fine-tuning animation; Editing Keyframes; Dope Sheet; Region Tool; Utilizing Expressions; Using Edit Key Tool; Editing Slope Handles; Controlling Function Curves; Utilizing Snapshots; Automating with Cycle Tools; Animating Seamless Cycles; Plotting Function Curve Cycles; Ghosting Animation; Path Animation; Layering Animation; Plotting Parameters; Optimizing Keyframe Data; Transitioning Animation Clips; Animating with Constraints; Linking Parameters; Parameter-driven Relationships; Real-time Previews of Sequences.

Popular highlights include: Body Mechanics of a Walk Cycle; Disposition of the Feet for Balance; Reference Points for Convincing Poses; Weight Transfer Throughout the Steps; Follow-through and Overlapping for Realistic Fluidity; Procedures for Blocking Animation; Timing and Spacing for Believable Weight; Using Exaggeration to Accentuate Poses for Interest; Methods to Use to Accelerate WorkFlow; Using Simple Expressions to Shift Keys for Desired Timing; Creating Advanced Controls for Greater Functionality in Rig; Exploring XSI's High Level Editing System to Manipulate Poses; Utilizing the Animation Editor to Enhance Blocked Animation; Transform Parameters for Quick and Easy Key Modification; Translating Walk Cycle Forward; Helpful Diagrams for Motion Clarity; Techniques for Building Seamless Cycles.

Popular highlights include: Setting Up Rotoscopes; Working with Different Surface Meshes; Polygon Modeling Techniques; Extruding Faces & Edges; Extracting Geometry; Assigning Materials & Textures; Working with Texture Layer Editor; Creating & Modifying UVs with Texture Projections; Utilizing Deformers; Parenting Objects into Animation-friendly Hierarchy; Optimizing Workflow with Keying Panel; Automatic Movement with Path Animation; Setting and Modifying Keyframes with Animation Editor; Understanding the Material Manager; Efficiently UV Mapping; Exploring Various Light and Shadow Types; Applying Rendering Techniques; Developing Shader Networks in Render Tree; Creating Smoke Effects with Particles.

Popular highlights include: Normal Maps; Occlusion Maps; Depth Maps; UV Layout; Implementing Ultimapper; Painting Textures in Photoshop; Baking Indirect Lighting and Shadows into Texture Maps; Game-Friendly Animation Rigs; Adjusting Envelope Weights; Walk Cycle Animation; Exporting Game Assets to OGRE; C++ Programming; Real-time Normal Mapping; Real-time Parallax Mapping; Polygon Reduction Tool; * XSI Essentials and higher is recommended for several lessons.

Popular highlights include: Rigid Body Simulations; Active and Passive Rigid Bodies; Forces; Environments; ODE and physX Rigid Body Engines; Converting Simulations to Animations; Soft Body Simulations; Objects; Clusters; Animating Soft Bodies; Influencing Soft Body Dynamics; GATOR; Simulation-based Rigs.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Understanding the principles of squashing and stretching ; Using squash and stretch to show how heavy an object is and what it's made of; Giving life to our animation by adding squash and stretch. To learn more about XSI check out Animating Walk Cycles in XSI, a complete guide to creating believable walk cycles and learning effective animation techniques.

Follow through and overlapping movement is an animation principle that says the flow between two actions is important. In this example we examine the flow of movement a rope would take while swinging. By only offsetting a few keyframes we get a much better final result. Use the ideas of follow through and overlapping motion for more realistic animation. Topics covered in this tutorial: Using the Animation Editor; Cycling Curves; Changing the length of a keyframe; Creating overlapping movement; Shifting keyframes exact distances. For an in-depth guide to modeling in XSI check out Modeling Next-Gen Characters in XSI, a project-driven resource to creating clean topology, working within polygon restrictions, and building assets from reference art.

Easy In and Ease Out are a principle of animation. Ease In and Ease Out are necessary whenever an object starts to move or stops. The beginning of motion has to be slower then the constant speed, because the object has to build up, or Ease In, to the movement. Ease Out happens at the other end of a movement - when something stops. Halting movement takes just as much energy as starting the movement does, so it can?t be instantaneous. For more life-like motion, add some Ease In and Ease Out to your next animation! Topics included in this tutorial: Various applications of Ease In and Ease Out; Adding Ease In and Ease Out to an animation; Using the Animation Editor; Changing an animation curve's interpolation; Editing the slope of an animation curve.

Anticipation is one of the principles of animation. You can think of anticipation as a build-up to your main action. This build-up gives the audience a clue of what is going to happen next, making a more appealing final result. Remember to include anticipation in your next animation for more realistic movements. Topics covered in this tutorial: Using Auto-key for faster animation; Exaggerating poses; Layering anticipation; Learning how to use the Animation Editor; Fixing timing issues. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, an essential to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating the illusion of overlapping actions; Modifying the coupling behavior of a constrained object; Creating follow-through and overlapping action; Using the Position, Orientation, and Pose constraint. More information on XSI check out Introduction to XSI 7, a complete introductory guide to learning the fundamentals of modeling, texturing, lighting, animating, rigging, rendering, and a production-proven workflow to ICE.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Folding an object with the bend deformer; Getting interesting shapes for modeling and animation; Exploring the settings of the bend deformer; Setting keyframes. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, a detailed guide to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to animate on layers; Adding animation offsets onto of pre-existing animation; Creating and naming animation layers; Setting a Zero Key. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, a detailed guide to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Plotting an object's path; Extracting keyframes data; Creating a curve. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, a detailed guide to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Exploring Kinematic Chain properties; Utilizing the IK/FK Blending parameter; Animating a seamless blend between IK and FK modes. To learn more about XSI check out Animating Walk Cycles in XSI, a complete guide to creating believable walk cycles and learning effective animation techniques.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Working with the Expression Editor; Accessing the Expression Editor from the Animation Editor; Modifying expressions. To learn more about XSI check out Animating Walk Cycles in XSI, a complete guide to creating believable walk cycles and learning effective animation techniques.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Extracting a path from an animated object; Learning the difference between paths and trajectories in XSI; Querying stats on a selected object. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, a detailed guide to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating a path; Orienting an object to a path; Correcting orientation with an Up Vector. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, a detailed guide to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating Symmetry Maps; Working with the Symmetry Map's Point Tolerance parameter; Inserting Rules to define which enveloped object weights are mirrored. For a comprehensive overview of XSI check out the XSI Extreme Bundle, a complete library of project-driven training with interactive lessons, proven tips and tricks, and advanced techniques to learning XSI.

Shapes are very useful for facial animation, because an almost infinite number of facial expressions can be made quickly by blending together multiple shapes. Topics covered in this tutorial: Accessing the Shape Manager; Using the Shape Manager; Creating and animating different shapes; Overdriving shapes. For a complete guide to rigging and animation in XSI check out Quadruped Rigging and Animation in XSI Bundle, an essential resource for building solution-based rigs and creating more efficient animations.

The Parameter Connection Editor is an easy way of linking parameters. Imagine the motion of one object affecting the motion of another. You can create this interaction easily by linking parameters with the Parameter Connection Editor. Topics covered in this tutorial: Locking connections; Using the Parameter Connection Editor to drive one object with another; Setting Relative values; Creating Equals Expressions. For a project-based guide to learning XSI 6 check out Introduction to XSI 6, a complete resource to learning the entire creative process of modeling, texturing, lighting, animation, and rendering.

Editing animation directly in the Viewport is a fast way to preview any changes. Try experimenting with different keyframe movement options to adjust your own animations. Topics covered in this tutorial: Selecting and moving areas of keyframes; Selecting keyframes in the timeline; Moving or scaling the selection area and keyframes in the timeline; Hiding the Timeline Dopesheet. To learn more about XSI check out Animating Walk Cycles in XSI, a complete guide to creating believable walk cycles and learning effective animation techniques.

Shapes are useful for facial animation, because the blending system allows for an almost infinite variety of facial expressions. Try using Shapes in your next facial animation for more flexibility. Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating modified duplicates of the desired object; Making these duplicates the shape keys of the desired object; Using Shape Manager to implement and blend the deformations; Understanding the importance of modifying the duplicates in component mode. More information on XSI check out Introduction to XSI 7, a complete introductory guide to learning the fundamentals of modeling, texturing, lighting, animating, rigging, rendering, and a production-proven workflow to ICE.

Constraints let us do some interesting animation tricks. In this example the pose constraint allows us to reuse the crane animation to move the box for a set amount of time. Try using constraints in your next animation for more flexibility. Topics covered in this tutorial: Animating an object picking up and dropping another object; Adding a pose constraint to create an object controlled by another; Keyframing the pose constraint's blend weight to release the object. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, an essential to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

The use of devices enables us to utilize various peripherals to animate objects. This method of animation creates more natural movement because it is driven by actual human motion. Experiment with different devices for an interesting addition to your animation toolkit. Topics covered in this tutorial: Using the Device Manager to set the mouse as a device; Adding devices; Capturing the mouse movements as animations on an object. For a comprehensive overview of XSI check out the XSI Extreme Bundle, a complete library of project-driven training with interactive lessons, proven tips and tricks, and advanced techniques to learning XSI.

Squash and stretch are one of the principles of animation. Quick Stretch is a cool deformer that makes objects wobble and jiggle based on their movements, simulating squash and stretch. Try using the Quick Stretch deformer in your next animation for exaggerated movement. Topics covered in this tutorial: Applying the Quick Stretch deformer to objects; Using the Flex, Stretch, and Yield parameters; Increasing the Quick Stretch deformation by changing the Amplitude. To learn more about animation in XSI check outIntroduction to Animation in XSI, an essential to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Using operators and the different regions of an object's history stack; Adding operators to specific regions by using the Construction mode; Changing mesh shapes even after they've been enveloped; Understanding the importance of stacking operators properly. For an in-depth guide to modeling in XSI check out Modeling Next-Gen Characters in XSI, a project-driven resource to creating clean topology, working within polygon restrictions, and building assets from reference art.

In this lesson we will learn how to use Ghosting as an animation aid in XSI. Ghosting lets you see changes to an object's animation without replaying the timeline over and over. Enabling Ghosting will display the previous and upcoming frames of motion for the current frame. Experiment with using Ghosting for fast viewing of any animation tweaks or interpenetration issues. Topics covered in this tutorial: Turning on Ghosting of objects for use in animation; Making tweaks to the graph editor and seeing it update via Ghosting; Changing the Ghost Type to display different forms of animation Ghosting. To learn more about XSI check out Introduction to Character Development Kit in XSI, a complete guide to building customized character rigs with CDK.

Cycling animation curves is a great way to repeat a certain motion, without hand-keying every single motion. Instead, what cycling does is repeat a small piece of animation over and over again. Try using cycling to test if a walk cycle animation will repeat smoothly. Topics covered in this tutorial: Cycling curves to repeat animations; Removing animations from specific properties; Using the Animation Editor to cycle specific curves. Gain a complete understanding of XSI with HDRI Workflow with XSI and Photoshop, an in-depth guide to creating and using HDR Images for a multitude of scenarios and projects.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Keying positions along the timeline; Examining the Red, Green, and Yellow key cues; Using the Timeline Dopesheet. To learn more about animation in XSI check out Introduction to Animation in XSI, a detailed guide to learning the essentials of animation and creative approaches.