The animation with a .... je ne sais quoi!
I just finished modeling a nice set of vampire ears for Bishop. Cartoony 3d ears are usually simplified to the Helix (ie Pixar “Up”) but I felt the need to model the Antihelix and Antihelical fold.
Vampire ears
As an alternative to the clean and polished presentation on the concept of “Distraction in the work place” by David Allen, here is a great example of how micro-interruptions can get in the way of getting any work done featuring street photographer Estevan Oriol. Estevan established himself as a photographer using Los Angeles harsh light and gang culture as an inspiration. What I like the most about him is his motto: “gaining experience through practice”. Watch till the very end, distractions can be really … invasive 😉 (via Lowrider Supreme)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLoRrF1BF2k[/youtube]
Following Mike Stern’s tip on the latest Animation Mentor newsletter, I have decided to bring all my shots to the same level of progress, then focus on the polish. That one was one of the most advanced ones but I have tweaked the camera slightly and might end up cutting it in two for the last part.
Anyway, I am posting this as it is right now and will do the editing once I have all the other shots.
shot_08_opens_the_doorswip
My friend “Vincil from ummo” just released his new album “Betty Drums” and a really really cool video in collaboration with Motion graphic designer Dittongraph and graphic designer Supakitch for his track “Saint Louis”, a really nice mix of hip hop and jazz supported by gorgeous graphics.
Double-click on the video to get the full version
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/5996932[/vimeo]
You can purchase his album through Itunes:
Itunes
or directly from the artist using the links at the bottom (Paypal, Sterling and euros cheques)
http://www.vincil-from-ummo.net/listenBettyDrums.html
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shot01_01
here is the first shot from my shortfilm. The elbow is very jittery as I can’t remember where to find the IK elbow. Hope you like it though
shot12_v02
Well that’s it for now. Here is the final pass for that shot. The long chair will still be tweaked later (the design is still WIP) but I am now moving to the next shot. Hope you like it. Shoot any comments
I just finished modeling the props needed for the first shots of my short film. The sink was originally modeled in Maya 8.5 but I have had to do some heavy cleanup on the mesh when I imported it into Maya 2009.
For some reason some faces were duplicated and normal inverted. Anyway it is done I am very pleased with the freshly modeled Victorian tap. I might add a bit of texturing but most of the work will be with the rendering. I was tempted to make the props a bit more cartoony but will keep them like this for the time being.
No fancy GI and no wireframe for the moment, just a quick turnaround with Maya’s hardware render buffer (thanks Tobias!)
Victorian tap and sink
shot12_003
This is one of the shots from my short film. Our little guy is a vampire who fell asleep and wakens up realising that he is burning. The shot is still in step (well most of it is blocked on ones anyway)
I have reframed the shot compared to the original version I did during Animation Mentor but something is bothering me. I am gonna keep it this way for the time being and we will see how it works in continuity with the previous and next shots.
I haven’t yet worked on the legs/steps once he lands as I am still unsure about how long he will stay in the air. Do you think this is too long or just enough?
Also the combination of legs/arms flalling makes it a really busy silhouette, should I just animate the legs and keep his arms frozen forward? I will check some old Warner Brother cartoons and try to find some answers tomorrow.
I will also do a proper rig for the long chair tomorrow just so I can give it a more organic feel to it (think Gobelins short films)
[update] looking at it with fresh eyes, I think I will start the shot a bit later and keep the take for the previous shot. The framing will look better.
If you are wondering what was the idea behind my latest Bishop mod, here it is 😉
It is a quick lip sync animation, just to try some lip sync, facial animation and rendering with Mental ray/SSS/displacement map.
Don’t worry I don’t have the pretension to compete with Marlon Brando. For some reason I just thought it was funny to have Shrek saying that line.
The contender
