learning how to walk again

damn... this 3/4 walk is hard afterall! Still looks like he is moving too horizontal and not enough diagonal... and the head gets a little wonky on a couple frames... but really good design on Cherise's part, very animatable! I didn't go for too much expression, just trying to show the weight of the backpack in the steps... both in terms of actual weight and the metaphoric burden each of these guys are carrying.

Rise from the graaaaave

it lives... and so do I.... just barely. Need to hold poses longer, be less robotic... but I think this is a step in a right direction... although at this point those steps need to be leaps.

scene 13

so I started on scene 13 on Friday the 13th.... there's a lot going on in this scene as well as the very last scene... so I figured I would get them out of the way. I wanted caustics but I can't afford the mental ray rendering time... soooo I'm playing around with an area light with a procedural texture on it. Movements are still robotic, going to add in movement in the fish head to follow the fish tail... boat is going to move up and down... and avoid having too much movement in the characters that aren't currently speaking

refining the animation

So converted everything to step tangents, and started refining the movements... I want kind of slow and seductive but without looking too robotic. I'm also still tweaking the water... I want a kind of eerie color scheme so I'm experimenting with purples and reds. The water is moving too fast and choppy now though... at least I got rid of that weird clipping that was going on before though. I've also begun work on setting up the next scene with the fish under water because I really want to use caustics on that... which means mental ray and long render times... I had it set up pretty well last night, but now that file freezes at 98% when trying to open it... I might have to do it again from scratch. :(

getting my feet wet... errrr fish torso wet....

So first pass animation... just keys with no graph editor manipulation... lighting and ocean shader still need tweaking also... not animating the mouth until I have my final voice track. This screen capture is actually from my WIP second pass with a lot of adjustments... you should see the difference when watching this clip.

a weekend of frustration

After going through 2 blocks of sculpty and realizing I still need to make teeth, eyes, etc... I scrapped the fish and did a new character. Unfortunately she's not very stable and pretty fragile... I used the same holes from the fish so her legs were close together... the gun was supposed to work like a crutch... but it didn't... at this point I don't really care and I just want to start animating.

final character designs

So more adjustments... made Marv a little more user friendly and added hip control... the spline through his back was problematic so I just removed it and decided to animate his back through forward kinematics.

I decided to skip the animatic with the models and just go ahead and start prepping my first scene... the only change I was going to make involves an extra cut in the cow eating scene... everything else is still timed the same.

Now comes the fun part...

So everything is rigged and seems to be working alright... Lars was easy since he had no skin to bind so I just parented his geometry to a copy of Marv's skeleton. The fish lady had to go through a bit of a redesign because after I put jiggle deformers on her boobs... I realized the little skull pasties where not going to deform right... I'll do updated character design turn arounds and I'm probably going to make updated storyboards using the models... but really I just want to start into the animation... I know the clock on that is majorly ticking, especially with the added window of render time.

turnaround... sorta

So yeah when you try to animate a turn around in 3D in one day... the results aren't always that pretty. It was a good test of the rig though and I see what needs to be fixed... need to adjust the weights on the neck, I'll probably ditch that cluster in the chest that was causing all sorts of problems... and the knees were bending a little funny when the pole vectors weren't keyed right... but overall he works better than I had expected.

This was also a good chance to give myself a target render for the quality I want to produce... with raytrace shadows turned on this was about a 5 hour render. I like the look though so I'm going to aim to as close to this as possible... and maybe I can give myself about a week just for rendering....

rigging... DONE

3 whole days of blood sweat and tears... but Marv works! I faced a lot of issues... originally had a spline on the arms with a pole vector for the elbows... but it kept wigging out so I took a look at the pixar rig we used and set up the arms similar to that... about 16 blend shapes for the face... buckles on the feet will probably have to go since they go up into the boot in a reverse foot roll... had to shrink the belt a bit too to free up the hips a bit. So hopefully I can get the turn around done for Tuesday.... hopefully. Oh... and rig all the other models!

modeling is done

I'm also adding an outline shader to give things a little more cartoonish feel... I put some cloth attributes on the sail which oddly the outline shader doesn't mimick the movements... so I guess outlines don't work with any kind of simulation... so the sail is sans-outline. Not sure if I'm going to mount shields to the side of the boat... might detract attention from the characters in the shots looking up at the boat from the water.

On to rigging next!

I dunno Marv...

So I've cut the story down to 2 minutes... it certainly works at this length and it's possible for me to go longer if I'm ahead of the production schedule I'm setting for myself... I should be done with the modeling this weekend and hopefully rigging will go by relatively painlessly... or at least less painful than my voice acting. :P

I need a nap....

Time flies when you're having fun... and when you're infectuous

So it seems when you catch a cold and don't leave your room except for the intake and outtake of liquids... you get a lot done fast. I give you... On A Slow Boat to VALHALLA.

... and of course my poster for Poland-
As you've probably guessed by now (because you're just that smart... and good looking too!) This is a follow up to my How Much Ye' Bench? final animation of last semester. I knew I wanted to do the vikings in 3D, I have a friend with a super sexy voice, so this is pretty much a result of that.

Synopsis-
So our old friends Marv and Lars, along with their cow Helga, have since set out to set on adventure. There's only one problem... they're dead. Marv is a stubborn guy though, he thinks that they deserve to go to Valhalla, the afterlife where all great Viking warriors go. The thing is, a Valkyrie is supposed to pluck those brave souls and deliver them to the great hall. After floating through limbo for a while they see a distinct female figure in the mist who claims to be a Valkyrie. Looks can be deceiving though, because just concealed under the water is the true form of this "Valkyrie" looking to eat lost souls. Can you say DRAMATIC IRONY? :D This sexy lady lantern fish guides them back to her layer while Lars becomes more suspicious. Marv refuses to listen to his friend... charmed by the female form and his pride as a viking warrior. Only when Lars is half eaten by the fish does he realize his mistake... and after beating her with Lars' freshly severed arm, they make an escape.

So yeah basically a bros before hoes feel good buddy film. :P Heh... but yeah themes of don't be blinded by pride and lust, and to always listen to your friends... or else your cow might get eaten.

let's look at some character designs!
Marv has remained basically the same... working in 3D allows me some more detail, but I didn't want to over texturize or lose the charm of the original design.... simply geometry, keep him animateable (I just made a new word!)


Lars has lost quite a bit of weight since the last animation. Heh... well actually I was kind of worried about animating the beard and I've also read that fat characters are hard to animate in 3D. I decided to make him a skeleton, but keep the armor to indicate how large he used to be... plus it just looks funny to have this big round shape with skinny little limbs popping out. Not having to animate lips on him will also be a time saver.

Lantern Fish is just what I've been calling this character... because that's basically what it is, just the lure is a hot fish lady. She's really just designed to take advantage of my friend's voice, although I did notice when I started modeling the face I started making her look more like my friend as opposed to the sketch. The huge boobs are either going to be really fun or a pain in the ass... we'll just have to see.

I should be pretty far along in the modeling come Tuesday... now excuse me while I do some outtaking.

domo arigatou Mr. Roboto

reworked camera angles to focus on who you're supposed to focus on... and reworked acting on my guy to make him more of a jackass.

The power of three

three androids... one of which is malfunctioning and being repaired. :P

uncoupling

ahhhh the old movie theater line breakup... nothing like a public jilting

The vikings are coming!

Not super crazy about the color scheme... it'll likely be tweaked. 3 more characters plus a boat and I'll be on my way!