- 上層分類: 動畫製作
- 分類: 動畫與 Rigging
- 作者 Yoyo 師堯
Interview with Josh Carey -職涯篇-
Today we have Rigger Josh Carey! Can you tell us a little bit about your career and how you got started?
今天我們很榮幸能專訪Rigger Josh Carey!可以跟我們談一下你的職涯經歷嗎？你是怎麼開始這一切的？
If I go way back, I could probably say that my interest in CG started around the time that Jurassic Park came out. I taught myself AutoCAD and TruSpace, and even had a few AutoCAD classes in high school. I started out going to college for a Computer Science degree, with the intent of somehow branching into graphics from programming. Someone showed me Lightwave in college, and I was hooked. I eventually transferred over to the Art Institute of Ft Lauderdale, and focused on graduating with a good modeling reel, though I didn’t necessarily stop at just making good models. I wanted to animate them too, which of course required rigs. I kind of got absorbed into the rigging process, and I think because I had a good background with programming courses, “tech” stuff came easy to me. I love to solve problems, and pretty soon I was helping a lot of people out with rigs and tech stuff. That continued after school as well, where contacts and friends I had were tossing me freelance jobs to help them out.
回想一下，我開始對CG有興趣是在電影侏儸紀公園上映後，我自學了AutoCAD和TruSpace，然後在中學裡上了幾堂AutoCAD的課。接著我進大學選修了資工學位，試圖要更瞭解在電腦圖學裡關於程式方面的知識，有一天有人介紹給我Lightwave這套軟體，從此我就被它迷住了，我甚至因此轉學去福特勞德達爾藝術學院(Art Institute of Ft Lauderdale)並且集中精神在準備Modeling的作品，但是我沒有侷限在只做Model，我也想要讓角色動起來，當然這就需要rig了，因為這樣的機會就被rig的過程吸引住了。我想大概是因為我有寫程式的背景，所以「科技」方面的東西對我來說得心應手。我喜歡解決問題，而且很快的我替大家解決了很多關於rig跟技術方面的問題，即使我離開學校後，還是會一直接到朋友或是熟人丟案子給我做。
After doing a bit of freelance work, I ended up at The Animation Farm in Austin, TX. It was a small start-up company looking to do game cinematics for its first large gig. I made some great friends there, and we really turned that start-up into something great with such a small team. I was able to do a ton of different things there, while mainly the tech artist/rigger, I also animated, modeled, setup some pipeline stuff, and even did a bunch of After Effects work. After the farm, I went to Kingsisle where I was the tech artist on an unreleased MMO, and shortly after, I made my way up here to ReelFX.
做了一陣子freelancer之後，我去到德州奧斯丁的The Animation Farm上班(編按：網路上連個網站都沒有，看來過了許多年還是個小公司)，那時候公司剛創立不久，第一次接到一個遊戲片頭的大案子，我在那裡交了不少朋友，而且我們真的以一個小團隊做好了一件大案子。在那裡我做了一堆雜事，大部分是關於技術跟rig，但同時也要做animation、做model、改善流程(pipeline)，還要碰很多After Effect的工作。離開Animation Farm後我去了KingsIsle Entertainment擔任一個開發中的大型線上遊戲(MMO)的tech artist，但沒多久，我就到現在的公司ReelFX。
What are some of the things that recruiters from big studio look for in student reels? (Riggers and Character TDS)
請問大型Studio在招募Rigger和Character TD時會怎麼看Demo reel呢？
This answer will probably vary based on the studio or the position, but I’ll tell you what I look for. An ideal candidate out of school for me would show that they can model, animate, and rig. Sure, that’s asking a lot out of a student, but I’m not saying they have to be awesome at all of those. A rigger needs to understand models, good design and edge flow, and they also need to know how an animator works and what an animator needs. If you’re a student and you haven’t taken a character from modeling to rigging to animation, you need to do so. It will only help your knowledge of a CG production, at least at the asset-to-animation level. As riggers, we are clients to the animators. We’re here for them. A rigging student should understand that they’re going into a service oriented position.
這問題也許對招募人員來說是很基本的問題，但是我能告訴你我是怎麼看的。對我來說，一個理想的新鮮人應該要能展現他的各項能力，包括：model、animation和rigging。當然，也許這對一個學生來講要求太高了，但我要求的不是他要所有項目都很厲害，而是因為一個rigger必須要懂模型，懂得辨別佈線設計與走向的好壞，同時他也必須要知道animator是怎麼工作的，還有他們的實際需要。假如你是個學生，但你還沒按著modeling、rigging、animation的流程走過一遍，我建議你務必親手做一次看看，至少這會幫助你瞭解CG從素材到動畫這一段的生產流程。做為一個rigger，我們的客戶就是animator，我們因為他們而存在，一個學習rigging的學生要知道：這是一個服務為本的工作。
So, back to things I like to see in a reel: Good deformations- Focused areas of a rig that show wireframe deformations of a character. Complex rigging- Vehicles, complex props, crazy character with something difficult to deal with. I want to see how you’ve approached and solved a problem.On the opposite side of that, I don’t want to see a generic human rig showing off a standard IK/FK arm, a foot roll, or anything that is just FK (unless you’re just showing deformations). Set your reel apart- I’ve seen a LOT of reels lately that seemingly have the same exact ‘template’. If everyone has the same human, followed by a dragon, followed by a fairy, how are you making yourself stand out from the crowd. Scripting/tools- Auto-rig stuff is cool. Show a problem, then show how you solved it.
所以，回歸正題，我希望能在reel裡看到：
漂亮變形(Good deformations)
尤其要能顯示角色變形時的佈線變化。
複雜設定(Complex rigging)
車輛載具、複雜的道具、很多技術問題需要克服的瘋狂角色。反過來說，我不想看到普通的IK/FK手臂、普通的腳踝設定、或者全部都是FK，除非你是想讓我看到一點不一樣的變形。
與眾不同(Set your reel apart)
我看過太多太多看起來如出一轍的reel，假如大家都會設定一個人、一隻龍、一個小精靈，那你要怎麼讓自己從茫茫人海中被看見呢？
開發工具(Scripting&tools)
像是Auto-rig這樣的東西就很酷。告訴我一個問題，然後再跟我說你如何解決它。
Did you have a programming background before you started learning CG? Or did you learn it whilst attending The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale?
你在學習CG前有編寫程式的背景嗎？還是說你是在弗特勞德達爾藝術學院時才開始學習？
Mentioned this a little above, but when I was going to the University of Texas, I had a couple C++ courses, some general programming and logic courses, and for some reason, found myself in an Assembly course. It was about that time that I had the notion to switch to an animation school. Of course, as soon as I hit Maya at AiFL and started to learn MEL scripting, all my previous programming knowledge put me ahead of the curve. I definitely do not regret starting out as a CS major.
前面有稍微提到，我其實在德州念大學時修過C++的課程，還有一些關於編寫程式和邏輯方面的課程，然後因為某些原因，我發現自己很喜歡綜合的課程，也是在那時候我產生了轉學到動畫學校的想法。當然，後來我在藝術學院接觸到了Maya並且開始學習Mel語言，之前所學的知識很快的就讓我進入狀況。所以我絕不後悔在大學時從主修資工開始。
Can you tell us a little bit about your workflow?
能向我們透漏一點你的工作流程嗎？
My workflow, and the workflow that I try to teach others, is to keep things simple, fast, and do it all efficiently. I'm a big fan of making Maya adhere to your own workflow by hacking up the UI and making your own proc overrides. It can be a pain to redo those kinds of hacks when moving versions, but really, you don't do that often. I like to do things as iteratively as possible - don't over-complicate a rig and don't just try to hash out something new and *complete* the first time. If I'm approaching something new, I like to chat with several animators about what they would want and need, and I'll sketch an idea out. In fact, the other day I sketched something out on a whiteboard with an animator, then took a picture of it on my phone and sent it to my email. The more I can plan out before even starting on the computer, the better.
我的工作流程或是我想傳授的工作流程就是：讓所有事情變得簡單、快速，並且很有效率。我是一個堅持要把Maya個人化的超級粉絲，不管是改善能加快效率的UI(hack up)或是用一些專屬的小工具。當然這在Maya版本更新時會有點麻煩，可是說實在的，你又不是天天都會換版本。我希望儘可能地把事情做到好，不要太過複雜，不要急著解決新的東西，然後儘量第一次就把東西做好。假如我在研究新玩意兒時，我會先跟幾個animator聊聊去瞭解他們想要和需要什麼，然後我會為那個點子畫張草圖。事實上，隔天我會和一個animator把草圖畫在白板上，再用手機照下來並且寄email給自己，我希望在進到電腦前能做愈多計畫愈好。
Once I'm actually in the computer, I tend to follow the standard of building something quick and easy first, then refine multiple times while keeping animators in the loop. Most of the time when I'm building something, I'll be scripting it out at the same time. Usually my scripts at that point are full of pseudo-code and lots of comments. I'm not worried about clean code at that point until I'm sure that I'm on the right track with a clean and useful rig.
一但開始使用電腦，我就會按照標準流程快速簡單的建立rig，並且讓animator參與其中做來回數次的修改。幾乎每一次我在建立rig時，我同時也在編寫程式，這時候的程式碼往往充斥錯誤與無效的內容，但我並不擔心，因為當我確定自己在正確方向後，我就能馬上開始整理程式碼，最後結果一樣是乾淨而且很好用的rig。
What are some of the things that help motivate and inspiring your work?
有什麼事可以讓你在工作上獲得動力跟啟發呢？
Anything art related! Animated shorts, cool game art, sculptures, new technology. Nothing gets me going better than seeing some cool techniques, technology, or an end result where I want to reverse engineer how it was done.
所有藝術相關的事都可以！動畫短片、很酷的遊戲美術、最新科技。再也沒有比看一些新技術、新科技或是去推想那些工程師到底怎麼辦到的更好的學習了。
Rigging can be a lot of trail and error. What do you do to work faster?
Rigging需要一直不斷地嘗試，你如何加快你的工作效率呢？
Scripting. If you're going to do something more than once (and yes, you will be doing more than once), script it out. I do not remember hearing this advice when I first started, but once I started to actually do that, my efficiency increased. Once you feel comfortable doing "scripting" to automate things, then you start to tinker with actually developing tools and workflows around your efficiencies. It's all about taking tasks that you can automate and repeat, and turn them into a button click, or a mouse swipe. Once you do that, you'll have more time to concentrate on aesthetics or just making things *better*. You're always going to have trial and error. It's usually called R&D, and everyone at some point will have something they must throw away. As long as you can learn from a failed attempt, it isn't really a fail at all.
寫程式。假如你要做同一件事超過一次，那就把它用程式寫出來！我忘記這是不是我第一次嘗試這麼做時聽到的建議，而且當我這麼做之後，我的效率馬上就提升了。一旦當你因為這樣的過程感到愉快時，那麼你就真的開始在改善你的工具與工作流程上的效率哩。這工作說穿了就是要你把自動重複的事轉換成一個按鈕或是敲一下滑鼠，當你可以做到這樣時，你就會發現你有更多時間可以專注在「美學」上，或是讓東西變得「更好」。你總是要不斷的嘗試，一般來說這就叫R&D，然後所有人都一樣，你必須到某些時間點時要有所取捨。只要你能從失敗中學到點東西，那就不叫失敗。
In your career, was there one challenge in rigging that particular was hard for you?
在職業生涯裡，有沒有哪個rig對你來說是特別大的挑戰？
Good question. I can't pinpoint one single instance, but I can certainly list a bunch of items that stick out in my mind
好問題！我沒辦法指出單一的例子，但是我能告訴你一些令我印象深刻的難題。
1. Creating a really nice, animator friendly, deer leg rig. It took awhile to get the internal mechanics of this right, but it was definitely a challenge to figure something out that treaded the line between ease of usability vs automation for a 3-joint leg that you would find in a dog, cat, deer, etc.
1. 製作一付好用又對animator友善的鹿腿rig。我花了一段時間才把這個rig的內部機構給搞對，這絕對是一個挑戰，面對3節骨頭的腿部設定時(比如：狗、貓、鹿、etc.)，在簡單好用與全自動的設計之間，你必須做出正確取捨。
2. We had an odd character to rig once that was a bit of a challenge - he was basically a snake-like body, but he had 4 arms, 4 feet, and a tail. the tricky part was figuring out a nice ik + fk solution that allowed the "tail" portion to stick to the ground like an inch-worm might crawl.
2. 我們面對了一個有著蛇身、四隻手、四條腿、和一隻尾巴的古怪角色。最困難的部分就是那條尾巴，不但要有好的ik + fk控制，而且還要能夠黏在地板上像尺蠖一樣爬行。
3. The road runner's leg/wheel. There's actually a lot of cool things going on in that rig even though it gets little screen time. There are some utility node networks that I setup that allow volume scaling of the joints based on position along the circle, so as the circle was spinning, the joints could scale as they reach the front of the circle. All animator controlled, of course.
3. Roadrunnner的腿和圈圈的切換。這個rig裡面有很多很酷的東西，儘管它只出現在動畫裡一眨眼的時間而已。我設計了一些Utility的網絡(network)，讓骨頭能夠針對圈圈位置做體積上的縮放變化，所以當圈圈開始轉動時，我就能用骨頭來做變化。這部分理所當然的還是要交由animator來控制。
4. Rigging and skinning Boog from Open Season (for Open Season 2 and 3) - we knew how much control Sony had originally put into the silhouette controls for boog, and we knew how much that slowed down his rig. We obviously had to be able to match that amount of control, but because of our tighter deadline/quotas, we couldn't necessarily have that slow of a rig.
4. 打獵季節2和3裡的主角棕熊Boog的rigging和skinning。我們知道Sony用了很巨量的控制器來控制Boog的剪影，但同時我們也知道這些控制器讓rig變得非常笨重，所以我們不但要做到和原本rig同樣的控制器數量，而且因為緊迫的時程，我們也絕不能讓笨重的rig拖累到進度。
There are plenty more challenges over the years, but that's just a few off the top of my head!
當然這些年來我遇過更多挑戰，不過以上是最讓我印象深刻的幾個例子。
If somebody out there is thinking about becoming a rigger, what would be your best advice to them?
假如有人現在想成為一個rigger，你對他們有什麼好建議？
In order to be the best rigger, you don't have to be the best programmer. The 'tech' side of it can sometimes be lost on people - they will either absorb themselves into it too much, or be afraid of it. To be a great rigger, you need to find the happy medium. You should have a love for animation and should hopefully have animated yourself at some point - successful or not. You should also know how to model, but you don't necessarily have to be the best modeler. You should know your software package inside and out, always experimenting and challenging yourself to make a better rig. When you make a rig, you shouldn't ask yourself if it's a cool rig - you should ask yourself if it is easy for an animator to use while still giving them the control they want and need. Avoid over-thinking the mechanics of a rig. If a rig needs a manual on how to use it, you've gone too far. Collaborate with your team; animators are your client.
想要成為最好的Rigger並不表示一定要是最好的程式設計師。「科技」有時候反而會成為你的弱點，不管是過度著迷或是恐懼逃避。要成為一個好的Rigger你必須找到一個適當的平衡點，你必須熱愛動畫而且動手去做動畫，不管做得好不好，還有你也必須瞭解如何建模，當然你不必要成為一個最好的建模師，最後你還需要瞭解你到底會什麼，裡裡外外的融會貫通你所熟悉的所有軟體，並且總是自我挑戰與實驗，做出更好的rig。還有當你在做一個rig時，你千萬不要去想這個rig到底酷不酷，你應該要專注在這對animator來說到底好不好用，合不合他們的需求。要記得，animator是你的客戶，要和你的團隊合作，避免過度追求rig的功能性，假如有一個rig還需要手冊才能操作，那就太超過了！
Can you tell us a bit about Rigging Dojo?
能告訴我們一點關於網站Rigging Dojo的事嗎？
Rigging Dojo is an online school setup to train people in the art of rigging. We've set this school up a little differently than other schools, in that we aren't just giving a templated curriculum that gets generalized for all students. We try to cater towards the students skill level and adjust the instruction from there. There's a lot of focus on 'concepts' and a little less focus on tutorials. We want to make sure people are understanding the "why" and not just the "how".
Rigging Dojo是一個線上教學機構，成立來教大家rigging的技藝。我們這間學校跟其他學校有點不同，就是我們不用制式化的課程讓每個學生最後變得普通。我們試著因材施教，並且隨時調整指導方針。我們專注在教導「觀念」然後才是技術教學，我希望我們的學生都知道「為什麼」而不是只知道「怎麼做」。
Our intent from the beginning has always been to find and teach students that we would want to hire, and so far we have been successful at this. We've had students break into the industry, take their careers to the next level, and have even hired some students ourselves. We should have some new offerings coming up in 2012 for those that are looking for other options instead of just a 1-on-1 mentor course. More information can be found on our FAQ page at http://www.riggingDojo.com/faq/
我們最初的目的就是希望能夠教出我們自己都想雇用的學生，到目前為止可以說是非常成功。我們學生很多都成功的進入產業，並且讓自己提升到更高的層次，甚至我自己也真的雇用了一些我們的學生。我們在2012年會開一些新的課程，針對那些不想1對1教學的學生。更多的訊息都公佈在我們的FAQ頁面。
Matt asks: It seems that you've worked on a lot of projects that involved hair/fur. How does this affect your workflow in rigging, and what kinds of obstacles does it create?
你似乎常常要處理毛髮(hair/fur)的案子，這對你的rigging工作流程有何影響？會製造什麼樣的困難？
It varies on the quality, the character, budget, but most importantly - the fur system that you have to work with. Typically we're given curves or nurbs objects that drive hair/feathers/fur, so we just need to rig those as we would rig anything else. We do have dynamics setup in those types of rigs, which animators can choose to use or not. The biggest problem when dealing with furred characters is usually the penetration of the fur itself. when an arm bends, you need to be aware of how long the fur is around the elbow and how it reacts to your skinned mesh. As long as you have a way to control the fur, you'll be able to prevent some nasty looking fur penetration.
這要看案子的品質、面對什麼樣的角色、預算、還有最重要的是用何種毛髮系統而定。一般來說，我們是讓curve或nurbs物件被毛髮控制，所以我們只要會rig這種類型，我們就能做出其他所有東西。我們確實會用到動態模擬(dynamics)在這種類型的rig裡，但animator可以選擇要用或不用。面對毛茸茸的角色，最大的問題往往是他們身上毛髮的穿刺，當角色彎曲手臂時，你需要注意手肘的毛髮長度還有它與皮膚表面的碰撞程度，一旦你有方法控制這部分，你就能避免很多令人討厭的穿刺問題。
Have you an opinion about the playable characters in games? If you were into that line of work, what would you do / do different?
你對於遊戲中的角色rig有什麼建議？假如你要進行這樣的工作，你會如何因應？
I worked briefly in games years ago, so technology has certainly evolved since then. If you look at games like Uncharted 3 (just came out!), they are doing some really cool stuff with character deformations/rendering. I think technology is definitely bringing the film and game worlds closer, but rendered/film characters will always have the advantage of being able to layer on as many 'special' deformers as you want, where games are mostly limited to blendshapes and joints (that i'm aware of). You can really do the same stuff in the rigs though, you just need to approach it slightly differently. Take a look at what the animators achieved with Epic Mickey - that rig was pretty much open for any squash/stretch cartoony-ness that they needed. Perhaps not at the facial deformation level of Wile E Coyote, but they could push it pretty far.
我幾年前曾短暫地在遊戲業待過，所以我知道比起當年科技現在已經進步許多。假如你有玩過最近出的遊戲，像是：秘境探險3(Uncharted3)，你會發現很多很酷的角色變形和算圖技術。我想科技已經讓影片與遊戲這兩個世界愈靠愈近，不過影片應該仍然略勝一籌，擁有各種類型的特殊變形器和更多層次(layer)的變形優勢。據我所知，目前遊戲大多仍受限於只靠joint與blendshape來變形。儘管如此，你還是用同樣的rig思維在做事，只是用不同方法來達成目標。看看遊戲傳奇米老鼠(Epic Mickey)中animator能做到的事，那表示它的rig一定也擁有很大的彈性來完成各種伸展擠壓卡通化的需求。程度也許還不如Coyote臉部變形的水準，但已經做得非常好了。
Are there any other outside activities you do that you think help your day job?
工作之餘你還有做什麼事情，對你來說是對工作有幫助的？
Other than mentoring to teach students but also learn from them (keeps us both fresh!), I try to fit in some time for other activities. I used to do sculpting in my free time, but that is hard to come across lately. One thing that I make sure I get in is cycling time. It keeps my mind fresh and burns off the stress that can come up during crazy production schedules. I’ve had a lot of ideas pop into my head while I’m on the bike.
當然是教書啦！教學相長，讓我們彼此對rigging都保有新鮮感。我也有試著嘗試其他活動。我曾經在空閒時間做過雕刻，但是最近愈來愈少碰。其他就是我絕對會空下時間去騎腳踏車，騎車讓我的腦袋保持清晰，並且讓我在很緊張的專案壓力底下紓解壓力。過去我有很多點子都是在單車上不經意冒出來的！
Lastly, where do you see the direction of CG heading?
最後的問題，你認為電腦動畫(CG)之後會怎麼發展？
Tough question :)
好~難回答的問題: )
It's apparent that companies are definitely moving into a realm of 'more for their money', which can be attributed to the advances in technology. You can get things done faster, with better detail and better quality, so productions are demanding more. No doubt there are still hurdles to over come, but I don't see this trend stopping anytime soon. The biggest challenge for us as artists is to stay efficient at what we do while "upping" our game a bit on each project. We hit this a lot. We want to get our current tasks done quicker and quicker, which doesn't mean we're trying to replace anyone; it just means that the less time we have to spend on the 'normal' tasks, the more time we'll have to spend on developing new technology, processes, etc. I'm sure every company is facing the same thing.
CG很明顯地一定會讓動畫公司踏進「燒更多錢」的領域，這一切都得歸因於科技進步。因為科技進步，所以我們可以做得更快、更好、更多細節、品質更高，但同時也需要更多資金投入。不用懷疑，當然還有很多障礙有待克服，但目前我還看不到這個現象有減緩的趨勢。對於身為藝術家的我們來講，最大挑戰就是要在工作上保持效率，並且在每一個專案間逐漸提升層次。很多人做到了。我希望自己能做得愈來愈快，但這不是說我想要取代誰，這只是表示假如我可以花更少時間在例行公事上，那我就能花更多時間在開發新技術、新流程…etc。我保證所有公司都正面對同樣的問題。
As far as the style of where CG is headed, that I do not know. I do hope that we can start to see more original ideas and more studios pushing the boundaries of a normal CG feature. The biggest issue that I've seen over the years is when the "Art of" books come out for a film, they have such awesome art and concepts, but then that great art isn't translated into what we end up seeing in the movie. I think that's why I enjoy seeing a lot of student films that come out that push the style of CG into something that we normally wouldn't see.
至於CG的風格會朝什麼方向，其實我並不清楚。我只希望能看到更多原創點子，更多公司願意挑戰一般CG影片的疆界。我看到最大的問題是，看了好多年美術設定的書("Art of" books)，裡面總是有很多很棒的設定跟美術，但是最後卻沒有成功地轉換為很棒的影片。我想這就是為什麼我很喜歡看學生作品的原因，因為他們總可以把CG風格推到比較不尋常的位置去。
Thanks for the opportunity for this interview!
謝謝給我們這個採訪的機會！
受訪者簡介：
Josh Carey
目前擔任美國ReelFX的Rigging部門總監，同時也是線上Rigging教學網站Rigging Dojo的創辦人之一。曾經做過許多電影和短片的案子，像是：打獵季節3、功夫熊貓-蓋世五俠的秘密、冰原歷險記-長毛象歡度聖誕、兔巴哥系列…etc.
原文出處：
綜合兩篇專訪
AnimSchool Interview: Rigger Josh Carey
Interview with Josh Carey - Rigging Supervisor
