Vital source for a 3d animator

When I look at all of those books and tutorials and ... which have affected significantly on me and some great Artist whom I know , there is an enough  reason to share them with you and also asking everybody to share something like this.

1- http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/477054.Constructive_Anatomy 

Just one word about this book , no one goes in details of human anatomy like a job he did , and all of it is compatible for Artists perspective without having boring explanation of medical anatomy books.

The only advise is reading all text part , don't be satisfied with just looking the drawings.

2-http://www.amazon.com/The-Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707

Most of us have a sweet memory of Disney Classic Cartoons , no matter how old are you. Those glorious days of  Disney Studio should be studied deeply.

3-http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284
Richard Williams is a great Animator, Producer , and Director of Animation and also he has a great and unrepeatable experiences with Masters of Disney Animation Studio for 40 years! Without knowing those rules there is no animation , He has been held some workshops around this topic in DVD format .

4-http://www.amazon.com/Acting-Animators-Revised-Edition-Performance/dp/032500580X
Ed Hooks is Master of acting for animation . His efforts in this topic has been opened a landscape view of vital principles which every animator should know before starting to animate , even before start thumbnailing . Sometimes his point of view on Animation movies of Pixar or Disney , Dreamworks and ... can affects on your job as an animator , avoidance of wasting time.

5-http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Eye-Revised-2nd-Edition/dp/1879505622
Walter Murch is a genius editor who has been worked with Francis Ford Coppola for years and also He had effective rule on altering from analog ages of editing to digital days. In this book he is studying cut point of a film depend on eyes blink and the rule of thinking process on blinking and it's more than this... and also a pool of information in the Cinema field.

6-http://www.muybridge.org/
Eadweard Muybridge is undoubtedly the first and the only movement's source of Humans and Animals , perfectly , exactly , deeply. It's not logical thinking of animate without watching his pictures. More than this they are exiting and enjoyable.

Marvelous Designer tips and tricks

At the first I should admit that Marvelous Designer is one of the most affective software on CG world. It presents a lot of feature and ability to model and animate clothes as highest level as possible in virtual world whereas there is a long way to go. Marvelous Designer users still suffered a lot of bugs after 4 version passed. In my last experience of working with it and struggling to animate a very complex Kurdish cloth (for one of my character) some useful result are reached, I wish be helpful for you.
1- After days and nights test all of [Property Editor] I found that the most important parameter is your avatar , nothing else! ... Those parameter work great , you should avoid Avatar Pinching specially between Forearm and Arm , Thigh and Shin , Arm and Chest and ... and also your avatar shouldn't include jump in vertices and jaggedness outlines... and always try to export 30 frames animation instead of 24 frames from your based software ( for me it's 3ds Max).
2- Simulating an animation cloth is somehow tricky , Despite of our imaginations of those words [choosing complete or normal mode for simulate] Complete doesn't mean the most suitable for your animation , it's not as flexible as tolerating several layers on each other vise versa it's better reducing accuracy in [Number of Simulation], I use 1 instead of 5 and [Self Collision Iteration Count] 1 not more, It works for this model.
3- Activating [Vertex-Triangle] can affect on accuracy of simulate in some critical point like , Tips of avatar fingers and a small gap between Arm and Forearm and ... for this model I turn it on.
4- Another vital point is Thickness-Simulation(mm) , avoid putting it less than 3 mm , because it can not realize of very small bump (differences between vertices position) , and also I recommend that put it a little more than 3 if there is intersection between garments .
5-It's routine that starting modeling a cloth with particle distance (mm) 20 and for better appearance changing at the end to 5 or 7 , it's not a point for simple model but if you have a lot of tied part like the end part of my model , it's better to reduce it slightly , 20 , 15 , 10 , 7 or 5 by this way your ties will remain in it's original figure .
6- You are trying hard to design and sewing garment part just fit with your avatar . but it's not enough for animation , sometimes in some extreme poses avatar pull garments until make it force to intersect or explode , and you try and try again to change Property Editor parameters but I recommend to resize your garments a little then simulate it again.
7- If you face with a long time animation in my case 3000 frame to simulate , I recommend to divide it in some small part for example 0 - 1000 , 1001 - 2000 , 2001 - 3000 and even smaller part , by this way you have a chance and opportunity to simulate that part again instead all of it if some craps happened , because simulate is a random process and twice simulate a part will terminate difference result.
8- In some part where is an interaction between two different garment like seat area may be better to use Strengthen (new feature in version 4) . It causes to calculate stiffness automatically and very smooth result that can be great for those part.
9- At the end for long time animation when you export it in a format like Point Cache 2 for import animation in 3ds Max , it may cause crap while its value is something near 4 GB . The only way I could find was dividing animation in some smaller part to export in Point Cache and it worked for me.
Wish it can be helpful
Azad Jannati 2014