Working Title Capstone Blog

Favorites,

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the project blog that will become the bane of my existence. This is a team endeavor for which this 1st semester only houses 4 extremely talented individuals.

We are to accomplish what many find impossible. All pre-production, modeling, and research for the entire project is to be done by April's end.

I myself am responsible for the 2 hero character's of the story.

Stay tuned on the Working Title: Capstone Blog for updates like concept art, model screen grabs and endless complaining about the self punishment we 3D artists put ourselves through in the continual goal of excellence.

Working Title: Capstone

"Project Capstone" Blog is now Running!

FYI: My newest endeavor into insanity has begun: Working Title: Capstone has began.

This project is a 3 semester long, CG short animation. Yes, there will be stereoscopic, yes there will be HD, yes there will be surround sound, and yes it will be legendary.

In the following weeks we will bring you updates, and welcome feedback from those of you inclined to offer thought outside of the normal rhetoric.

Stay tuned shortly for the story synopsis and Concept art. We will keep this blog primarily for production updates and spare everyone the details of the extensive research we are doing into current CG technologies!

So hold on to your knickers, kick back grab a beer, this is going to be one hell of an experience!

Finished in the Glory of Defeat.

Well,

The competition for the official SIGGRAPH IUPUI Student Exhibition is over. The final vote me 14, Marcelo Meijome 17 votes.

I hope he posts his animation soon. If not, it will be all over IUPUI in the next week or so. He had a fantastic Flash animation that fits very well with the theme of our event. I think it is much more timely and to the point than my final 40 seconds of animation (which is a bit lengthy.) Our other competitor Justin Hannah had a great 3D turn in also, but I don't have his blog if he has one...

I will try to get my friend Tyler to come up with audio for this because I am just not that great at it and will post the final soon.



Hope you like. Stay tuned for the beginnings of my facial muscle project and short story project!!! On to the next glorious headache as always.

Yashimo Playblast

So, I have been animating now for 3 days on and off and then completely scrapped the feet and started over yesterday. The feet were just slowing me down, and they really didn't help the mood of the character, or the short at all. So I deleted them. Now Yashimo hovers/ flys. (Much easier) ;)

Below is a playblast of the animation. I am pretty happy with it all things considered and am rendering as we speak. If the sound comes together nicely, I should be successful.

Stay posted for the final render!

Yashimo Update

So I am nearly ready to animate the story. It shouldn't be a big problem. He will be very lighthearted and comedic throughout the entire Animation.

Here is the basic rig I set up for Yashimo. He has two bones driving his torso, so I can get some subtle animation and center of gravity changes. He has 4 fingers rigged for both hands. The fingers are driven by IK solvers. His antennae are linked to the head bone tip and have Flex modifiers on them so I don't need to animate the subtle antenna wiggles (hopefully) His eyes may be tricky because I have enabled squash and stretch for his torso bones; so when he squashes the eyes don't stay stationary in their location on his head. I did not want them to be affected by the skin, bu may need them to be after some tests....



I am very proud of the easel because it should be a very easy part of the animation. I created a Master control in the mid section of the easel and then a sub control at the top of the Easel that way I can control its center of rotation from the middle (where Yashimo will be holding it) or from the top when I need to make corrections. Each leg of the Easel can rotate independently from the top at any angle, and the lower legs can telescope in and out with only one axis. I have restricted everything in the scale, rotation and translation axis that shouldn't be moved.



I can't wait to knock this one out of the park!

Yashimo Update

I now have Yashimo modeled and textured. I am still concerned about the eyes and how I can get them to show more movement and animation while keeping it simple. The set is coming together nicely. I have a few more things to model and texture; things like props, papers, laptop, etc.

I hope to have a good dent in the animation over the weekend. He is nearly rigged. I am spending some unanticipated extra time on the flex modifier for his antennas and may add some more geometry for them to see differences in looks. I used a simple lattice modifier on his lower jaw-line with a soft selected group of vertices so the effect would soften during the animation of his facial expressions towards the back of his jaw.

Hope you like!

Panoramic Settings in CS4

Photoshop versions have long had the ability to make Panoramic photos out of several image layers. It became a REALLY good tool in CS3 but now has Anti-Dithering (the dark rings at the edges and corners of your beautiful photos) and awesome Image Blending capabilities as well.

My first subject: The Great Tetons in Jackson Hole Wyoming! 12 photos all together with a little Sony Snapshot 8megapixel camera. Pretty happy with the results!