Update circa 12-12-2010

Not much to report personal project wise today. Been focused on finding more work outside of Marvimation. What I have done can be found on their Facebook page. All of the character animation for Arthur so far is my handy work, though some of it is still rough. This is also the rig I helped clean up and streamline back when I first started. Curiously, in the short time I've been a part of this particular project, I've seen several people appear and disappear from the list of animators. I've yet to determine if this is good or bad.

Update Time

Okay, so I haven't shown to many new projects I can claim as mine (the last one being the prowler). So this time around, I'm displaying a club I'm modeling out. And no, its not one of those rave clubs full of flashing neon lights and techno, but more of a small comedy/ performance club. Think of the Ink and Paints club from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".


Where the spotlight would sit.



From the stage



From the bar area



From the Entrance doors

Another project I did for a friend

Something I decided to do on a whim. My friend showed me a model he was working on, and I offered to rig it up for him. Being a hexapod, I figured it would be something a bit different, and how right I was.

The third one in the set. This time, a rear view darting down a tunnel.

Under the Bridge

The next plate shot for the prowler, this time with more structures involved.



[Update 10/12/2010]

Did some adjustments and changed the scale of the car, since it was too big in comparison to the truck you see in the background. Still needs some fine tuning though

quick test

A test render with just a beauty pass on it and radial blur on the wheels. I'll put up a complete version later.

[Edit]
Final version


Contains a beauty, diffuse, occlusion, spec, and reflection passes. Compiled in photoshop

08032010

This took a little over 4 hours to render out. Need to make some adjustments and fix the lights a bit more.

Back to prowling and a bot on the loose

So the TMR rig is revised, for the most part, and is currently being used by my friend Jessica. I've no idea what shes up to with it, but it aught to be interesting.

Meanwhile, I finally got back to working on the car, mainly fixing the tail lights so that they don't look like bricks.



Looks a bit nice now, and since the cover is twisted, it should make for an interesting caustic effect when its actually rendered. I also adjusted the turn signal so light can be reflected sidways now, since before it was pretty much another chunk of metal. I just need to re UV the accent, since its new geo, and the mr light texture would look all wonky when it turns on.

TMR Update

Well, I couldn't help myself. I decided to just rebuild the rig it had. Not entirely from scratch, as the joints I left from the first rig were still useful. A lot of the old controls will probably be broken though, since the deformers they used to control aren't there anymore. It's looking good so far though, now that there are a few more extra movement directions for the clamps, and the hierarchy chain doesn't look like a tornado struck. I did leave the aperture in the eye alone though, since it would take way to many joints in that small region to recreate what was already there. Kind of a nice break from the Prowler. I'll either work on that or switch over to the lightsaber again next week.

07272010

Decided to change things up and retexture the TMR using mental ray and trying out the mr lights. So far I've only used a portal light for overhead. Gonna add the remaining 5 for the display boards, and probably make a new environment for it.

The Hunt

After some time, the car spot is finally done. Most would be happy, but me being me, I know there is always room to improve. What little animation I had done for this project essentially got cut since there was quite the laundry list of issues with the scene. Oh well, such is life. Anyway, I posted it at my site for now, so go ahead and take a looksy. The original drive off animation can be found here.

Darkness Flows

Built this a while ago, but decided to finish it a bit, including a working blade adjust, power adjust, and power switch.





It also has color adjustment controls for both the glow and blade colors for added variation.
ex.







I intend to make this a full on dual phase saber, adding another control point so the blade can snap forward at least another foot.

Prowler update 02062010

Another update to this handsome beast. The headlights got rounded out and a large amount of geo got cleaned again from the wire frame turn around I posted. It still needs a bit of work, and I'm debating on whether or not I should put turn signal lights on the sides and those extra lights some cars have on the lower front bumper.




[Update]
Added close-ups of the head lights and tail end.





[UPDATE #2]

A bit more cleaning and usage of sub-d to ease the rendering a bit. Render layers are just about set, and now the car has rear view mirrors. Unfortunately, for some reason, when rendering a reflection pass of diffuse pass, it reads glass as a negative space and masks it out or leaves it completely black. Pulled out a separate layer to do these, but still wondering about it.

Hey, you guys remember, right?

I'm sure you do. If you don't, here's a refresher. 2 months ago, I was asked to model a car. The first one was good, but it looked too much like a hatchback, so it was rejected. The second one was too much like a muscle car, so that was rejected. Well, The coop survived, and is up on my site now as the PSX Coop. But what happened to the second car, you ask? Well, I've been tuning it up and doing a bit of body work. Its just about ready, so now I'm going to start posting some better shots off it, starting with a wire frame turn around.

Here's the PSX Prowler

Facial Rig

Finally got my face rig out. I could have done a lot more, yes, but its mainly showing proof that I can once I know how. A learning experience is definitely what this turned out to be, since now I know how to properly use blend shapes to create facial expressions. I'll probably try the all joint facial rig next once I get the chance.

The facial rig, as well as the cat rig, can be found on my main site now.

07-05-2010

New shots from PSX commercial.




What I'm going to call the final shot. At least as far as targas go. EXR will be next

06-05-2010

A test that lead to a confirmation: Use my tower over my laptop for this sort of thing.


What it looked like on the laptop


What it looked like on the tower.

Maser render #?

Adjusted light, color, and spec.

25-4-2010

Another update on the render for the car. This time its multiple layers(plate, beauty, occlusion, diffuse, and reflection). I modded the shadow in PS so that its now blue instead of the tan color originally.

[UPDATE]

Now to full res of the project.

Maser Panther render

basically where the final scene stands for the render

Maserati Panther

Quick render of the new car. I only fixed a few textures and am in the process of rigging it starting this afternoon when I get on site.

Updated Panther PSX2

So the car has been modded since last week, mainly consisting of vert tweeks and adding edge loops to key points. These images aren't particularly pretty, but its mainly to show how it compares to the old variant from last week. However, this time I have multiple parts for one area that I'm going to show to the client for approval, or rather my group representatives will.



First are two different grill types. regardless of which one is picked, I'm going to connect the opening to the underside of the car to make it more like it aught to be.




New-ish body shape



a lot has changed profile wise. The car now has a definite flow and a lot of the tension points have been removed, giving us a sleeker looking machine



The three different trunk hoods (this car will have a rear engine in my mind, so these are trunk doors) with slightly altered styles



3 different engine hoods, 2 with vents, and one flat.



and a new headlight system

New car model

The new car at its current standing

Top


Side


front


3 quarter

The failings of a piece

So alas, the car is a flop. She won't be used in the project after all, as our client did not like the design. Its a shame really, since the car is pretty much ready to go. Oh well, not much I can do about it now than to bite the bullet and start anew.



and with the headlights on



and the rig.

trying to figure this out

without the windows



with the windows

Update 2-20-2010

new glass shader for windows. rough interior pieces set in place. Hood lowered by a good chunk.