Caveman :)

more sketches

more drawings

hi guys

thought id post another recent work.



might touch up the drawing a little later, but all in all a good start i think. :)

Mike

more drawings

Got bored again and decided to try painting using the wacom, Let me know what you think.


Thanks

Mike

comic

Hi fowks.

Got bored, got an idea, made a quick sketch, here are the results.

Mike

Caveman Update

Hi fowks

It looks set to be another busy week, going to be working alot more on the game we have to produce. I have been focusing more on the level design and environmental art at this point but really need to draft up some concept sketches for buuildings and other assets.

I also spent some of my weekend modelling and rigging the caveman character for 3D Character animation.

Thanks

Mike

The caveman

Hello fowks

Some of you may know that i have recently taken up the M prof at abertay university. During this semester we students will focus on 5 modules each with specific criteria. We also have the option to choose 2 of these modules ourselves. I chose character animation, a module involving character rigging and animation and dramatic dynamics (environment design).

Being as i have only recently started this module i haven't had altogether too much time to gather my thoughts regarding modules. Working at college seems to be slowing the progress of my studies. However, only one more week left and then I'm free to dive head first into the university life once more, albeit at a higher level than before.

Anyway Ive posted a concept of the caveman character i want to model, rig and animate this semester below, Keep posted for more updates.

Mike

honours modelling and animation

Below is a link to a video that demonstrates some of the work i created for my honours project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3DzZu19264

I was in charge of rigging and texturing characters as well as developing, modelling and texturing environmental models and props, I also animated and composed these as well as some other shots.

The main characters where modelled by Vykintas Kaszdailis, however i had to do some polygonal cleanup (removing tris, ngons and topological problems).

Dare To Be Digital 2009.

The tasks I was in charge of in team butterflyers include;
modelling, rigging, and unwrapping the characters, unwrapping environmental objects, cleaning up the teams models to reduce polycounts, scripting textures (laser beam, box glows) and creating props and collectibles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSQiX_cTDm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pSAcGiqnyg&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfXe0Fc2vl0&feature=channel

The videos above demonstrate some of this work however there were a few other characters such as DR Shockalot, Professor Adams, the kleine scope etc that i have left out of this post.

Later on during the ten week development, i was put in charge of ordering badges and other promotional gear.

The link to our teams trailer can be found below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU_nhQpyaJE

Note:

The character entitled winston 2 and every character created for dare 2009 (apart from winston 1) was textured by Andrew Macdonald.

Wacom :D

Just got a new wacom and couldn't wait to start drawing. I came up with this concept to demonstrate to my students the necessity for reference when generating their own 3D models.

All in all its a start at sketching with photoshop but i shall keep at it. :)

Mike

Dare to be digital 2009

Hi all

Just a quick blog to mention we have our dare to be digital trailer online.
Use the link below to take you directly to the YouTube page


Dare to be Digital 2009

or alternatively search for

"dare to be digital 2009 shrunk"

Thanks

Mike

Fishy Science: Animation

Hi people.

Here is the latest animatic. Ill be rendering out the shots as of tonight :)

Still animating

Hello

Here's a few more playblasts from the animation.





Mike

:)

!!! ANIMATION !!!

Hi people.

Finally animating and its awesome fun. its nice to get away from the rigging and set up stage and finally make it to this point. Today me and Vykintas started a few shots and they are roughly finished, perhaps just a little polishing and all is well.

We decided to create play blasts for each shot created and then integrate them with the animatic to get a feeling of how the final animation would flow.

I'm now also at the stage when I'm beginning to pad out my dissertation. Just taking all the quotes Ive been gathering and placing them into a word doc according to the contents page. Hopefully this method will make the job of writing a little easier.

Anyways, here is one of the rough scenes so far.




Mike

:)

Rigging and dare

Hi people.

Currently just finished rigging properly, as there were a few minor issues i had to deal with regarding the rig. Other than that I have been focusing more on dare this week. Building, texturing and rigging a character to submit as possible artwork. I'm not allowed to show any pics at the moment but will as soon as i have the permission.

I'm going to do a bit more for my dissertation today and hopefully it'll help loosen of the tight schedule i have running now, 4th year is certainly a toughie.

That's all for today

Mike

:)

Update

Here is the model made for dare :D

Rigging

Hi.

Right I've been spending the last couple of day's rigging up the human character for the animation. this includes blend shapes painting weights and all the lovely bits and bobs associated with it. I sped up the process by using a Mel script called Rigomatic. This helped a lot with the back and legs. However I rigged the rest myself for better control.

I've found I have achieved a better understanding of Maya going through this process even though the program often insists on playing up.

Any way enough waffle here's an image of the human posed.


Mike

:)

Rigging

Hello.

Today I've been spending a bit of time rigging one of the characters. This also includes blend shapes and all the other bits and bobs associated with this part of the process. Id like to think ill be through this stage by the end of the week. I'm going to use a free Mel script called Rigomatic to aid in the rigging process. Hopefully this will speed up the workflow and soon ill be animating.



Mike

:)

Still modeling

Hello.

Today I have been focusing more on my dissertation. This involved going to the library and picking up a few books on the subject matter i will be dealing with. Some of the books included, The great cartoon directors (Jeff Lenburg), Timing for animation (Whittaker and harris), Of mice and magic (Leonard Maltin), Acting for animators (Ed Hooks), The animated movie guide (Jerry Beck), Chuck amuck (Chuck Jones), Animation the mechanics of motion (Chris Webster) and animation from script to screen (Shamus Culhane). I think these books will keep me pretty busy on the literature front for the time being and hopefully they will help me when writing up my dissertation.

The problem just now is figuring out how to phrase this dissertation? I can't seem to get my head around it even though I know I should be able to. Its almost as if I deter myself every time I reach a point where I could possibly start. Always having the urge to change the subject area into something a little more appropriate because I'm afraid of treading on someone's feet regarding the content. In fact the very nature of writing a dissertation just seems a little alien to me right now.

I feel I'm more akin to the project work, however I wont let this detail take my focus away from doing both to the best of my ability.

In terms of project material, I have rendered a few scenes with different back ground colours to try and add more depth and purpose to the environments. More work will follow later in the week, myself and Vykintas will hopefully have the majority of assets and characters completed and ready for animation within a week :).





Mike

:)

more modelling

Hello.

Today I spent the majority of my time modelling and texturing some of the props for the scene with Vykintas. some of these props included the laser device, notepad, severed arm, remote control and a few other bits and bobs. All in all the textures look ok for the objects but i feel that they could do with a bit more work.





That's all for today.

Mike

:)

Modeling

I have been working on the 3d models for the past month and only now have I had the opportunity to complete a few scenes, well produce some test renders anyway. Today I showed them to some of the Abertay lecturers as well as some fellow students. There was a mixed response regarding the test images.

For example some students have stated that perhaps I could change the background colours to make the environment more dingy and less cheer full. This sounded fair enough and I am currently in the process of applying these criticisms to achieve the desired effect.

Here are some of the images I was talking about.


The organic looking mountains in the back are supposed to be stacks of boxes piled in an irregular manner. This was achieved by creating a polygonal mountain and then applying a box texture complete with specular and normal maps to the object.

Individual boxes will also be added to the scene for added effect.

Mike

:)

Animatic

Hello all.

Here is the newest animatic and hopefully the final one.

Enjoy.

The quality of the video isn't great but it gets across the main points of the animation. I decided that some of the timing needed to be adjusted and Vykintas also pointed out a few errors in the initial animatc. Further to this, criticism from fellow students and lecturers helped us lock down any problematic areas within the animatic.

Mike

:)

Animation

For my final honours project I have decided to team up with a fellow student and create a short animation titled fishy science.


This short animation will detail the struggles of an amphibian scientist as he strives to create the perfect human. Although in the end the scientist will discover that there is more to life than the experiments he toils over.

That's the rough story so far however I will post an animatic when it becomes available.

Mike

:)