New Rubik's Cube tutorial added in the TUTORIALS section under Misc. What does this have to do with 3D Character Animation? For character animation, nothing really. For 3D, however, the Rubik's cube is an excellent puzzle to train your mind to conceptualize in 3 dimentional space. I solved the rubiks cube nearly 10 years ago without reading any book or any outside help. I have encountered 3 other people of whom are able to solve the cube and all three of them solved it in the same manner, by completing one side first. The reason they all shared the same method for solving it is because they bought a book on how to solve it.

What does this have to do with 3D Character Animation? For character animation, nothing really. For 3D, however, the Rubik's cube is an excellent puzzle to train your mind to conceptualize in 3 dimentional space. I solved the rubiks cube nearly 10 years ago without reading any book or any outside help. I have encountered 3 other people of whom are able to solve the cube and all three of them solved it in the same manner, by completing one side first. The reason they all shared the same method for solving it is because they bought a book on how to solve it.

I spent a few days on the puzzle and wrote notes on my observations and algorithms I discovered. The reason I am making video tutorials on my site is because I am teaching someone my method for solving the cube and nobody but me can understand my notes and diagrams (that plus I misplaced the book.) This also helps me because it is not like I solve the Rubik's cube everyday, I forget some steps and algorithms.

The first video I am posting is an overview. I filmed myself solving the cube with my webcam. The cube is old and the stickers were coming off, it also jammed a lot. It was quite annoying to try and film (that's why I will be doing the other videos with 3D renders instead.)

I start off by explaining that there are 3 types of pieces: corner, middle, center. I then demonstrate the 6 major steps for solving the Rubik's Cube using the Cilsya Method:

Step 1: 2 by 2 by 2 cube
Step 2: 3 by 2 by 2 box
Step 3: Correct by crosses
Step 4: Bottom complete
Step 5: Position cross
Step 6: Position corners

The subsequent videos will list the algorithms needed to complete each step.

Posted in cilsya's blog