Glenn Winters-Blogging, Art, Inspiration, and more

Motion Capture Post Processing

2012-02-05T00:35:00.002-05:00

Below is my first go at the correct pipeline for post processing in motion capture. We filmed the sequence in our Vicon volume. I cleaned up the data in blade before bringing into mobu to be retargeted. Please ignore the standard mia character mesh! This was great to see early on. I was able to notice a few things to look into over the next few weeks. Slowly but surely, getting there.

Research Research Research

2012-02-02T23:13:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! It's hard to believe that 2012 has come and I'm almost half way through my first year as an official graduate student. This academic year has lead to a lot of new research opportunities. I have been actively busy in all my classes and it feels great to come in and learn something new every day. This is what I set myself out to do when I came to school and it feels good that it's all happening. I wanted to give you all an update on the busyness of winter term.

First and foremost I am fortunate enough to continue my teaching opportunities here at Drexel. I finished teaching Animation 1 last term and it was truly an awesome experience to see students grow throughout the term. I really look forward to seeing them all move forward in there studies. This term I am teaching a preproduction pipeline course and it's interesting to take a step back and really teach the basics of art/design/theory. My job is to prepare the students with the skills they need in order to hit the ground running in their CG classes ahead. Its great to always to revisit the basics and analyze new ways to achieve those principles. In fact, that has lead me to a new thesis concept that I'm very excited to pursue. More on that later.

This term has lead to a whole new variety of research that has opened many different avenues. I have been spending my time as a lead producer on a gaming project in our graduate gaming course. It has been a great to work with my fellow students and design a game that is not on a console but may live in a physical space. We are lucky enough to work with The Academy of Natural Sciences to produce a non-linear educational tablet experience. The game is focusing on educational messages of adaptations of dinosaurs . You can find out more about the game on our production blog here: http://glennwinters.com/gradgaming/. We are focusing on using tablet technology to create an experience that will engage children 8-12 in a fun learning experience.

I am also in a class focusing on the back end of shader’s and the code that builds them. I'm really enjoying getting "under the hood". I'm very fortunate to have a motion capture studio to work with here at Drexel. For my regular followers, you may remember that I worked with our motion capture system this past summer. I was able to work out a pipeline to capture pieces of data for our gladiator gaming project. This term I decided to research this process in more detail and it has been a fantastic experience. The pipeline is constantly presenting me with challenges.

The project is fairly simple on the outside. I am working with the Drexel Karate club to stage a knife-fighting scene that I hope to turn into a brief 15-30 second cinematic of data. In the end I will strictly just have clean skeletal structures and focus on retargeting a mesh in the future. It may look short and simple on the outside but there has been a lot of research involved. After the help from various sources I was able to get the system calibrated with all of our actors. I couldn't have done this with out the help of my fellow students Mike Dixon, Nate Lapinksi, Matt Haas, Ian Suen, and Tom Welker. We have been running tests and pushing our volume's limitations. I was able to then learn a lot about the postproduction process and cleaning up data. I'm experimenting with cleaning up marker swapping, cleaning up tails, gaps, spline interpolation, rigid fills, and just general observations about the point clouds. Currently, I’m trying to solve some issues regarding wrist markers and prop interaction between the two actors. This will ultimately lead up to filming the sequence on the 21st this month. My fingers are crossed to actually get our virtual camera rig up and running to actually film the data as well.

Overall, it has really been an exciting project that is leading to many opportunities on campus. I'm currently helping out with three other motion capture projects within the department and also prepping a presentation on motion capture for the medical school.

It really is an exciting time right now and the months ahead are really looking to be some interesting learning experiences. I’m looking forward to sharing the progress of these projects over the next few weeks. Until then, check out these amazing images of Naughty Dog's upcoming game, The Last of Us. Amazing Screen Shots .

Also, I will be attending SIGGRAPH this year in LA. Feel free to contact me if anyone out there would like to meet up!

Fall Term

2011-10-21T11:28:00.006-04:00

As always, it has been a busy few months for me here at Drexel and a lot has been going on. To start things off I have been teaching two animation classes and I can tell you that I have enjoyed every minute of it. I really like going back to the principles of animation and teaching to a new generation of artists. The best part is, I'm also reaffirming those principles in my daily thought process when approaching my projects. I feel that we can get lost sometimes in the crazy technical world we live in but we all need to remember to go back to the principles that make stories believable. It has been great to find weekly clips that relate to those principles and point them out to the students. Its best for the students to see these principles being practiced in the real world. There are many times that we hear "Sure, when will I ever use that?" There are reasons that these principles exist. They do work, they help create believable characters and stories we can relate with.

On top of that, I have been doing a lot of my own research and taking my scheduled graduate courses. I have been spending a great deal of time focusing on my research with motion capture and how it's pipeline works. For starters we were able to get a hand motion capture system working. That can be seen here:

This system is much different than the Vicon optical system I have been mainly working with. This is more of a mechanical based system since you need to wear this crazy glove system in order for it to track the motions. It was really accurate to our surprise. For now we just tested the equipment but I look forward to looking to setting it up along with the optical system. Also I was able to work with the virtual camera rig we have at Drexel. You can see the camera in the image below:

This was another great experience. Basically, the "camera" that you see in this picture is the camera in your virtual space. After calibrating the camera you are able to enter the virtual world you created and film it! We were able to walk around the Coliseum we built last term. It was pretty unreal! Along with that I have continued researching the post production timeline by getting my hands dirty with Motion Builder. The software is actually a pretty powerful piece for animators. I was able to learn the best approach to altering data and creating seamless cycles. I'm currently researching how to work with props and also the best way to combine motion. During the gladiator development I was able to come up with a solution but I feel there is a more efficient way to approach this process. I'm hoping that once I get a good feel of this process, I can create a piece for my reel. Should be fun!

On top of that I have been helping a lot with troubleshooting some computer issues, jumping into the basics of the VFX software package Houdini, and reading a lot for my classes. Needless to say it has been busy and things in the next few weeks are going to be quite crazy. I believe our gaming group has come up with a project that can turn into something exciting. I hope to share more details about that soon. On that note, I need to get some grading done! Look forward to sharing more info soon and Happy Fall! Go enjoy some honey crisp apples.

Just a few thoughts

2011-09-05T22:48:00.020-04:00

Believe it or not, the end of the term has come and gone. It's even harder to believe that it has been a full year since I started my graduate degree at Drexel.

Over three years ago I started my search looking to expand my education in the Digital Media field. I always have had an interest in the CG world but never really knew the specifics as to where I may fit in. It was crazy spending several months looking at schools all across the United States. This is also coming from a student who said, “I’ll never go back to school”. I’m glad that I changed my mind on that front.

Within a month of moving back up to New Jersey I toured Drexel University and took a look at their Master's Program. One of the biggest things they offered was an introductory year into the field. This was important since I didn’t have much experience with the technical aspects but have been exposed to some of the theory involved. Drexel was one of the few school's that offered this and also offered a program that was a mix of different digital areas. It really turned out to be the perfect fit.

I now sit here excited to see where the next few years are heading. I find my self saying this phrase a lot "We all reach the goal we want, but sometimes the path may have some side streets. Sometimes we may get lucky and hit that one way street but in my opinion, it’s those side streets that make you stronger". I found this to be the case for me over the past few years. I had worked at company that was a dream of mine and I’m still very fortunate for the opportunity it presented. Achieving this goal at a young age put a lot of perspective on what I wanted to do in life. I was able to focus on different aspects of the field and see what else also drove my passion to create new experiences. In the end, it’s passion that drives us to do what we want to do.

My first class at Drexel was entitled "Computer Animation 1". I was really excited but also really unsure as to how I can approach this class since I had no experience with CG at all! The morning of my first class I was walking to campus and received an email on my phone saying that class had been canceled and that the first weeks assignment was due the following week. I spent the week in a crash course in a program I never opened and only saw in behind the scene videos. In the end, I finished that assignment and my crazy journey involving computer graphics started. A year later, I'm now scheduled to teach this class and pass on the information I have learned from all the talented people in my program.

Teaching is something that I have really grown an interest in since my times working down in Orlando. There is so much that one can learn from working for a major corporation and also working as an independent contractor for them. I went through and learned a lot over those few years. It makes me wonder how entry-level artists would be if we all just "pay it forward". Therefore, I'm really looking forward to the challenge of teaching and hopefully passing along the information I have learned.

So what is the true meaning behind this post you ask? Well in the end, it really is about paths and how we choose direction in life. It's funny; I recently watched the film The Adjustment Bureau. This film threw me for a huge loop (I highly recommend it)! I thought it was going to be another Bourne Identity action thriller but it was something completely different. It's all about our paths and how we make them. This is the ending quote to that film (spoiler alert?):

"Most people live life on the path we set for them. Too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along and knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize free will is a gift, you'll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that's The Chairman's real plan. And maybe, one day, we won't write the plan. You will."

Exploring that other path and taking that step is one of the scariest things you can ever do in my opinion. Pulling yourself out of the norm and putting yourself on another path is crazy right?! I mean why would I leave my comfort zone? I have left my comfort zone quite a few times and sometimes it works and other times it hasn’t. Though, in the end, leaving that comfort zone has made me stronger. If I had any advice for anyone, it would be, give it a shot! Take that side street towards the end goal. That side street is filled with experience's that may be good or bad. In the end, you will become wiser and figure out what street to take in the future.

One last thing, (OH NOOO!), surround yourself with inspiration in whatever you do. For me, I can’t go a day without listening to music, watching an animated short or talking to family/friends. This past year was crazy for me traveling too or having family and friends visit. It made me realize how lucky I am to have such awesome people in my life. You know who you are, and I hope you are reading this; just want to say "Thanks". With that, we need more just general acts of gratitude in this world. On that note, I read an interesting chapter in a book recently entitled “Happiness Hacks” but more on that later.

Whew, that was a long post! This upcoming year is another big year in development and I look forward to sharing it with you all. See you in a week when things get back to the normal grind.

Give a listen to Nate Morgan – Notes on Progress / The Twilight Singers –There’s Been An Accident

The Summer Continues!

2011-08-04T09:17:00.003-04:00

It is hard to believe that the summer term is slowly coming to an end but we are in the final weeks of development. Over the past few months I have been challenged in many different ways between the two classes I am taking. My organic modeling class has challenged me to think about poly flow and edge flow in a whole new way. Its amazing to see what type of detail you can achieve with just spinning a few edges and making sure that all models avoid a dense mesh. I'm currently in production on my final creature project. This character is going to be mainly humanoid but it will be a mixture of a bull, snake, and human. I'm really looking forward to setting the mesh up in maya and then bringing it into ZBrush. I have always wanted to explore the possibilities of that software and this seems like the perfect project to start with.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I am currently working on a gladiator fighting game with some fellow students and it has been a great experience thus far. The biggest "hump" I am trying to overcome is motion capture data. I have been put in charge of the development process for this pipeline and it's quite a learning curve. A lot of people may think it's a simple process but it is far from that. There are a lot of different variables that need to be considered when setting up your models in Maya and also pulling the data in from Vicon Blade. I hope to do a video tutorial once I get a good workflow down.

Thats a small update for now! I hope to get some photo's of the project soon but until then, enjoy the rest of your summer!

Yeh Summer

2011-06-25T23:25:00.002-04:00

Hola all-

Look forward to hopefully sharing some updated projects for you soon. We just started summer term here at drexel and Im taking an organic modeling course and a game engine course. Should be a fun summer and hope to share more with you soon. For now, check out a work in progress of my hand!

Meet Benjamin!

2011-05-02T01:25:00.005-04:00

I apologize for not being around as much this term. Im actually not getting to spend as much time on the compositing work as I hoped and I have been pretty much doing a ton of presentations thus far this term. Also, in the depths of C++. Overall, Im enjoy the C++ class but I think it is something I would like to just learn at my own pace after this term. It actually worked out that way! Tomorrow I register for my last term in my pre - grad sequence. This summer I will be taking organic modeling and a game scripting course. Im really excited for the summer term since things seem to be a bit all over the place right now. For now, here is a sketch from a super talent group member, Yujie Zhu. His name is Benjamin Noc and he is our main character for our game we are developing. Really looking forward to diving in! Ill have some news about another gaming group that is going to be in a competition this weekend. Keep an eye on the blog and my twitter feed about that. Until next time!

Spring Term

2011-03-30T09:03:00.002-04:00

Well it has been a bit since I have posted and I apologize for this. The last few weeks of winter term were complete madness! Things went really well with my final project and after cleaning them up I hope to post them on here. I learned quite a bit in the final few days about trouble shooting. It was a little over whelming but I was about to finish everything and have things presentable. There were some minor things that happened in the animation which I didn't realize until the final renderings but Im currently in the process of fixing that now. Within the next two weeks I will have it posted.

Spring term has arrived and you would never think it. I left Philly to visit some friends in Florida for the break and returned to cold temperatures again. I think mother nature is playing a game because its suppose to snow again on friday! Hooray! (Sarcasm) Overall, things are looking great for this term. Im taking three courses again and they are Compositing, Computer Programming, and an intro to gaming course. Im looking forward to all of these and cant wait to dive in. As always, look forward to sharing my work with you, until then, have a great week!

Compositing Test

2011-03-29T22:57:00.002-04:00

This is a test for a label for compositing class.

Texturing and animating

2011-03-06T18:25:00.002-05:00

Still alive here. All went well with the critique this week. Currently in the final weeks! Below you can see the updates on the texturing. Im pretty much where I want to be and the basic lighting has been laid out. This week will be focusing on refining the animation and getting it ready for rendering next week!

Scene Developments

2011-02-28T23:24:00.003-05:00

So the past 48 hours has been an extreme scene development session. I didn't really get a chance to get a jump start on things as much as I would have hoped but I am feeling in a better position after getting most of the modeling done and the base colors and lighting laid out for the assignment. After getting some feedback tomorrow I plan on hopping back in and applying all the details to these items. There is still a ton to do but Im in the groove. Till next time.

Rigging Finalized

2011-02-25T01:20:00.001-05:00

Finalized all my rigging today and also modeled the aviator hat and goggles, which are key components to the story. The next 7 days I will be focusing on modeling and texturing the scene while producing a pop through animatic. T-Minus three weeks.

Rigging

2011-02-22T02:18:00.002-05:00

The Rigging continues. Quite a learning process but I think, I have the basics down. Lots of organizing and planning. He is coming along. Some design changes needed to occur. Slowly getting there!

Rendered

2011-02-18T01:09:00.002-05:00

Still some things to do..but he is getting there

Robot Turntable from Glenn Winters on Vimeo.

Rigging continues tomorrow.

Its all in the eyes

2011-02-16T10:42:00.001-05:00

Painting the bot

2011-02-14T21:49:00.000-05:00

And here...we...go!

2011-02-11T15:51:00.002-05:00

So we are moving right along here. Its officially crunch time. The production schedule has been mapped out and still tons to do. I figured Id share some more renders of Toby. He has been updated. The biggest update here was his hands. I ran into a lot of issues with clipping with my previous thoughts but Im much happier in this direction. I will get a bunch more mobility with this set up and I think it will work out the best. More to come!

New Plane Renders

2011-02-07T23:43:00.003-05:00

The plane has been updated slightly. This will be a key component in the story for the animation. I need to spend a little more time on the window. The glass came out nice but overall its getting there.

Hard at Work

2011-02-06T23:30:00.002-05:00

Im currently modeling Toby (robot) and I have learned quite a bit about character design and movement. The Animators Survival Kit was and still is a huge resource for how this character was built and the things I needed to consider when looking into his movements. Its things as a viewer we usually take for granted and dont think about. I thought I had figured them out through the concept designs but once I brought it into maya, things changed. The power of learning! There is still a ton to do to the model but I just wanted to share what I have so far. Feedback is always welcomed!

Meet TOBY

2011-02-02T16:43:00.002-05:00

Below is the final design of TOBY. Learned a lot by creating this robot and still much to learn about figure drawing and look forward to exploring it more over the next few years (even though, this is the basic of basics in character, LOL). Its amazing how the slightest tweak changes everything. Hope you enjoyed seeing him change on a sketch front. Next step is the critique tomorrow and then building him in maya.

Pre Production Continues

2011-01-31T23:05:00.003-05:00

Hi all. Its been quite busy on my front for the past few weeks. We have been focusing on particles and fluids for the past few weeks and recently touched on soft bodies. All different techniques I hope to explore in my final animation assignment. Below you can see the final result of my particle project. Overall I was happy with this but there are many things that I would change and be cautious of in the future. I really needed to focus more on the planes and their movements. At times they become a bit too jerky. I was really excited for the explosion collision, since it was a new territory with the collision event editor. Also gave me the opportunity to explore the hypershade more. Enjoyable stuff!

I have made some updates to the character design of my robot and I hope to share that with you this week. For now, this is one of the main items the main character will be holding.

Im really trying to push texturing on this one since I have some time to focus on it. Im not 100% thrilled on this right now but it is getting there. I still would like to get a more brushed texture look, which I got rid of my attempts for this render. Hope to discuss it, in modeling class tomorrow to see where I can go with this next.

Other than that, I have been hard at work gathering inspiration and sketch ideas for the setting of the animation project. My goal is to start modeling things tomorrow and to get the "set" done by the weekend/early next week. I would like to start texturing next week. We will see if I can hit those goals. Until then, lets have mother nature stop the snow!

Updated Robot Design

2011-01-18T23:27:00.002-05:00

After reviewing the last sketch I really didn't like the overall vibe and sense of feeling he was creating. Im trying to go for a serious tone with my story and I want to make sure I reflect that in the design. Therefore I made quite a few adjustments to the design. I also added some more elements that will hopefully help in the actual rigging of the character by putting essentially ball joints where the movement will be taking place. Also due to limited time in the process I wanted to make sure I felt like I could handle the animation load. Therefore the main emotional connection will be coming from the characters eyes and Im going to do a test to see if I can work with the flatness of the grin and the eyes to convey it. We will see how it goes. Hopefully everything will be approved thursday, so I can start modeling.

Dynamics Ahoy! Pre Production Ahoy!

2011-01-15T22:34:00.005-05:00

Already two weeks into the term and I feel like things are kicking into high gear! Im thoroughly enjoying all my classes and Im having a blast jumping into the subject matter. One of the first assignments was to approach dynamics in Maya. Let me tell you that it was quite an experience. I learned quite a bit about how certain things can effect the overall picture and trying to get things to act in the correct manner. The first video I have here was a "Little Big Planet" approach to the subject matter.

I ran into a few issues trying to convey that and overall really wanted to go back into the assignment. After the class critique I decided to head back and focus on cleaning up the actual cause and effect of some things. I apologize for the dead space thats in the project but after cleaning it up, I ended up with a decent amount of it. I needed to speed up certain aspects to help convey weight and speed. Overall I was happy with it but alas I needed to move onto the next project.
We are currently learning the basics of particles and how we can apply them throughout our animations. Looking forward to exploring them this next week.

Below I also have some rough sketches of my robotic character for my final animation 2 project. Im currently waiting for story approval but I wanted to get started on preproduction. I can adjust if alterations need to be made. This will at least get ideas down. As always, would love feedback. Have a great day everyone!

Crazy few weeks!

2010-12-28T22:48:00.007-05:00

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

2010-12-15T22:10:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-12T12:57:00.003-05:00

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

2010-11-18T20:05:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-13T23:23:00.003-05:00

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

2010-11-10T22:16:00.003-05:00

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

2010-11-10T01:21:00.002-05:00

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

Main Characters

2010-11-08T00:36:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-01T23:46:00.005-04:00

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!

2010-10-20T23:04:00.007-04:00

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

2010-10-10T00:27:00.004-04:00

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!

2010-10-02T00:52:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-29T16:59:00.001-04:00

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.