Crazy few weeks!

Well the past few weeks have been slightly interesting to say the least. I have been working on a reviewing a couple different concepts and trying to experiment with a few projects. I wish I could say I got the skeleton to work on the model from below but I ran into some issues. I also ran into some issues with my project that I was trying to experiment with in Houdini. Failures can only lead to success right! So I ended up spending a good amount of time reading up on subjects. I enjoyed some video tutorials on an introduction to particles, read up on animation movements, and reviewed an introduction to renderman. I really look forward to exploring renderman a bit further this term with my modeling class and animation 2.

About two weeks ago I ran into a few issues that set me back a bit. First and foremost I was held back by 36" of snow that decided to hit the east coast. That was a blast! We spent a few days shoveling and also just trying to get out. Lets just say a lovely public works contract dispute held us from getting out for several days. It was a blast. After an enjoyable New Years Eve I ended up getting sick when I returned to school this past week. I'm still trying to kick the cold but I'm hoping it's on its way out in the next day or two!



As stated above, I started my second semester at Drexel this past week and I can not wait to dive back in! This term I will be taking Animation 2, CG Modeling, and a Flash Vector Development course focusing on Action Script 3. All these courses are going to be a great opportunity to explore things that I have learned in the past a bit further. I'm also looking forward to have my feet on the ground this time with the programs. I plan on taking some challenges and risks to really push my animation and modeling experience a bit further.

On that note, I'm off to take a shot of Robitussin and get some sleep to hopefully kick this cold and share some new stuff over the next two weeks!

Some Winter Break Fun

Hello everyone!
Winter break has been treating me well. I have been spending time enjoying sleeping in and also catching up on a lot of freelance work. I have also been spending time focusing on catching up on some subject matter that we learned briefly at the end of our first term. I reviewed a basic particle tutorial and an introduction to renderman thus far. Also, I wanted to spend some time focusing on the basics of rigging a character. So I figure what a better model to use than an artist wooden mannequin. I did a quick model this evening. It was actually refreshing to do a quick model and see how things turn out. So after this Im going to play around with rigging the character and doing some basic animation movements. Should be fun!

Final Animation Project

Sorry I have been gone for the past five weeks. Things have been a little crazy with my final project and pulling things together. I learned quite a bit of information over the past few weeks and I can truly say that I really love learning this medium. There is so much that can be done to add to several storytelling factors. First off, I created a rough cut and pulled some of the motions and timing together. That can be seen below.



After the rough cut I decided to work on a couple camera angles and the timing of some of the actions of the main characters. There are several things I need to work on over the break before I begin Animation 2. One of the main things that I need to focus on is lighting. It is such a crazy art form in itself. I look forward to my CG modeling class this winter to explore those facets. Also, I would like to focus on procedural textures. I believe this will help with my render times big time.

So with that. Below is my final animation project. I look forward to sharing with you some of the project over break and also getting ready for animation 2 in January. Have a great holiday and a happy new year!

Environment/Lighting Update

Hola all. Lack of sleep here! And loving it! :) Below are updated environments and lighting. Still some slight tweeks I want to do with the light but need to get moving towards the animation. Hope you enjoy and as always would love feedback!

This should be fun

I learned a lot approaching this coo coo clock. Certain things to extract from a shape and others to just have as a separate object. Also stumbled upon the bridge tool. It was one of those oh my god this is going to save me tons of time moments. Im sure there is more of that in the program. The design is overall final. Still thinking of working on the pendulum a little more. Now onto the fun part of separating the UVs tomorrow. OOOiiii! LOL

More Photos

Not much text today because I would probably type worse than I normally do. (I dont think thats possible) Enjoy and let me know if you have any feedback. This week I will be busy working on the environments! (Please note the textures are for placement only.

UV and Texturing Madness

All textured and UVed for class tomorrow. Its coming along.

Main Characters

Below are the base models for the main characters in my final animation project. More photos to come once I apply textures and UVs. What could it be?!

Something Different

As some of you may know, I worked with Disney Theme Park Merchandise down in Orlando for over four years and currently still do work for them on a contract basis. It was one of the best experiences I could have ever asked for and I am thankful everyday for being able to have been part of such a fantastic group of people. These were some of the most talented people I have ever met and was able to learn and enormous amount from the group. I hope to have more information up here soon with some of the work that I have done but I thought I would share with you one of my latest projects that was finally released.

The current craze in the toy market are these "urban" style of toys that an artist could have free reign to do whatever they want on the form that is provided. Of course, the "Disneyize" version of this needs to have ears! As artists we were given the freedom to create whatever type of representation we wanted to. In this case, it was asked it to be Park Specific. If anyone knows anything about me, I am big fan of the history of the company.

Also, if you know something about me, I'm a fan of the Carousel of Progress. Yes that old ride that sits in the back corner of tomorrowland, in which most people go in and use it to get out of the heat. For me its different. It all starts off with my Dad. He loves to tell us the story about his trip to the Worlds Fair in 1964 with my grandfather. You can't get into the Magic Kingdom without him going straight to the attraction. (He was not a happy camper one year when it was closed) He recalls all the details and also visiting the various other attractions. To me, there is just something simple and intriguing about the attraction. There are no special "in your face" effects, nothing fancy. It is just simple story telling. A story that captures many different generations of family and how things (wait for it) progress! I tried to capture that in this piece by focusing on the main character, John. I decided that they best way to represent his transformation on this small canvas was through his clothing. This is something that is a huge focal point for the attraction. Anyone who is a fan of the attraction will recognize that lovely green sport coat!

Technology is always going to be advancing and making our daily lives, whether work or play, move faster. When you look at this attraction you can see how things have changed and yet those basic principles lie throughout all the advancements.

So enough rambling! Here are a few photos. Unfortunately, I do not have my own yet (they are only sold in the parks but thanks to a few friends he is on his way). So I must thank the person from ebay for these photos. I just wanted to share it with you asap. I hope you enjoy!

Two for the price of one!

Im going to do my best to keep this going over the next few weeks but believe it or not, next week is already mid term! (Mouth drops) I will keep you up to date as many projects are coming together as well as the new website. Should have that set to go soon! Anyway I wanted to share two pieces that I worked on recently and really had a blast working on.

First is movement along a path. Here I had some fun figuring out how to work the camera within a first person point of view. I did use some inspiration from a game style I was a fan of called Mirrors Edge. The trailer for that can be viewed here:



Now obviously, there was no way I was going to pull off too much in 20+ seconds but I wanted to try on focusing on the basics. How a person rocks back and forth slightly but also keeping thing in sight. How a person may land and stutter close to the edge of something and look down before turning to the next location.

Final product can be found here:


The following is my most recent work that I have to say was the most frustrating yet the most fun. This was the beginning, I mean just a taste of character animation. The challenge here as to just create a scene of a jump. I pulled inspiration from all the famous adventure seeker type scenes from film. The difficult part was getting the walk down. If we just focused on the arms and legs swaying back and forth, it would look too robotic. Also its important to focus in on the ease in and ease out of motion to make it look natural. Had some fun with this one and I hope you enjoy!

Motion through Bouncing Balls

This past weeks assignment was a lot of fun exploring a pretty basic subject matter, three bouncing balls. The concept was to take three balls of different weights and sizes and apply them to a scene. Now for some reason I immediately thought of this video I saw awhile back:

First off, that guy is extremely talented! Along with several other people on you tube. Check out amazing soccer kicks sometime, it's crazy! So I immediately thought of focusing on this event and two other sports with balls that have varying weights. Those being bocce and a game called cornhole, which apparently isn't as widely known as I thought. So I started doing some research on slow mo capture videos of balls being hit or thrown against the wall. I have to say its pretty wild! Check out a few that I came across:

The golf ball still blows my mind! Now obviously, to the human eye, we can't see that movement until it slowed down with a camera. This does not mean that it doesn't make a difference in animation. In order to get the correct feel of a ball rolling or bouncing, we need to think about the minor details in its movement. How does the ball move when its coming in? How does it react when it hits the ground? Is their a slight bump to objects? Also, how do those objects react? Its amazing the questions that just go into three bouncing balls but it helps make the most convincing arguments. Therefore, I have always felt it necessary to analyze what your working on and break it down into segments. In this case, focus your segment on the timeline editor and then analyze the graph sequences. This will then allow you to manipulate the curves and its effects on the ball within the environment. I spent a lot of time focusing on the bocce balls and how they would slow down at different moments and also how movement would lead into another event.

It is important to keep the viewer intrigued as to what is going on in the scene. Originally I had a stationary camera without a slight change at the end. The main comment I received in critique was "Whats going on in the background?" Therefore, I decided to move the camera and give it a nice subtle zoomed in shot to help focus on what was exactly going on in the back. I tried to have something bleed into the next portion of the animation. Meaning, the plank of wood falls around the timing of the ball entering the scene and the bocce ball slows down as the hackie sack enters. Then a quick movement of the camera. Its amazing what a camera set up can do to a scene but that is another topic I can spend hours discussing!

The following was the result after a class critique:

I do apologize for the darkness. It normally is a bit lighter before being compressed. I hope to figure out some new techniques in lighting after catching up on some of the lighting effects. Overall I was happy after adjusting the animation after the critique. There are still some minor things I would like to have finessed such as the garbage can movement after the soccer ball hits and the angle of the bocce ball.

It was interesting to explore textures with this project. Though, I have learned to approach texturing in a different way. Hopefully I will be able to pull that together for this weeks assignment.

Happy 10-10-10! CRAZY HUH!

Punt!

I swear this will have more relevance by tuesday. Who knew a garbage can could have so many vertex points, edges, and more! A lot of clean up to do this still along with the rest of the scene. Its gonna be a busy weekend!

Back in Philadelphia

Hello new and (maybe) returning vistors! As some of you know this past December I decided to leave Orlando, FL and head back to the good old north. It was a hard decision to leave the roots that I start there but it has lead me to new opportunities. A few weeks ago I started classes at Drexel University for a graduate degree in Digital Media. What is that you ask? Well the degree focuses on several different aspects of the 3D industry such as visual effects, motion graphics, video game design, human computer interaction and web. It is an exciting area to be part of and Im very excited to spend the next few years researching the best direction I should head post graduation.

My goal is to keep this blog chronicling my projects and research that I take part in while here. So hop on the RSS feed or subscribe if you'd like! I will try my best at keeping up to date on everything.

This semester Im taking courses in computer animation, web authoring, and timeline design. I recently completed my first computer animation assignment and that can be seen below. The objective was to create movement with 3D objects and have it loop seamlessly. There were some things that I would like to have improved upon but too be honest, this is the first time opening the Maya software. Unfortunately computer modeling is not offered until Spring, so Im learning the software and the animation at the same time! So it was a lot of fun crash coursing basic modeling tools and getting it to animate. Alot of the clips I may be posting for the first half of the semester will vary between 10-15 seconds.

When I was a kid I use to play with tin toys at my grandfathers house that were essentially piggy banks. Each toy had an object to spring the penny into the bank or shoot it using a mechanism. Essentially, that was my idea for my loop. If I do have time later on I hope to go back and retexture and adjust lighting the object since Im hoping to tackle that option this week.

Anyway, just starting with the basics right now and looking forward to keep pushing the medium and learning. Hope to keep everyone up to date! Take care and talk to you soon.