Character project I'm working on

So to keep myself busy while job hunting, I built a simple character.

It took a few steps to get there, obviously, so where to start. I wanted to replicate the artist Christopher Zito's style of the kobold creature, so I did a style study to get a feel of how things should move and expressions I should try and hit.

Then I went about doing a character turnaround to try and keep some consistent form, as well as understand what things should look like.

From there it's down to some modeling,

A bit of ZBrush work,

A splash(whole heap) of rigging,

plus a lot of pose testing,

and we get the video at the top. I'm still doing a few tests here and there, but mostly as I go. For now, have this blocking test I'm slowly working on.

Bringing to light some things in the dark

A bit annoyed that I hadn't posted this here, but now is as good a time as any to post this. I was fortunate enough to work on this project, updating the various character rigs and a few props with new deformers and added control systems. It feels like the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to appear and gain in intensity. Soon we'll all get to see the wondrous horrors that this film contains.

La Noria Teaser from Carlos Baena on Vimeo.


La Noria Teaser from Carlos Baena on Vimeo.

While the main campaign is over, you cans still grab some of the rewards, which are pretty cool.

La Noria Indiegogo Page.

Thats all for now.

Cheers!

Test animation pieces

So while I await some reviews on other projects, I decided to do some animation work using my golem rig.

First is just a walk cycle to get a feel of how it would move. I focused on the major movements first, and will be moving to the secondary movements, like the stones shifting and the tree swaying, next.

The second one is just a more character driven sort of animation, with a medium close shot. This is only a portion of the dialogue, and I'm going to pull the camera back a bit more to better fit the golem into frame. I'm only using viewport 2.0 for now to get an idea of how it might look. I may do a full render later to show off the glow of the eyes and the horn.

Video drop

So I've realized that I don't have many of my rig videos archived here. I'm going to remedy this now.

First is the newest beast, the golem.

Second is an old cloth sim test I did for the golem

Last is a new facial rig I built

Sci Fi ship update

So I managed to get some more things working on the funky ufo, with the main thing being the leg extending from the bowls of the ship.




still much to work out though.

[Edit]

New controls set up.

First glimpses

Wanted to do some actual animation, so I started this piece. I intend to deal with the lips pointiness after the initial blocking, considering trying to fix the weights on the rig would be like removing a leg in order to massage it. Something or other happened when they ripped it from the game, in that all the weights are so wacked, that should I want to fix them, I'd literally have to start from scratch, which in this case, I really, really don't want to do. Far too many unknown factors in the file and the model. Its bad enough that any adjustment I make, some edges convert themselves to hard and makes everything all jagged. Nay, I say, Nay!

The song is from Batman: Arkham City's end credits, as part of one of Joker's many missed calls. Play the game or watch someone play it. Great story and splendid voice work and animation.

New generalist reel

Rendered hovel

Finally finished this thing.

Update 09-03-2011

Decided to go back to this project again and try to finish it up a bit more. Altered some textures and replaced 2 of them. Added some lights for the glow caps beneath the platform in order to show their own light, as well as increase the visibility of the plants and water. Also stopped using final gather in order to reduce render time. At this point I don't think I'll need it for the scene.

shoulda been posted sooner

Untitled from Marvimation on Vimeo.

Should've posted this sooner. One of the earlier projects I helped out on. I was responsible for cleaning up the rig for the character, followed by working on the animation from 1:38 to 1:49.

I figure I'll just leave this here

Worked on this while at Syndrome Studio. Modeled the tv shop, laid out the environment, adjusted some lighting, and animated the geo for the steps in the segment from 1:10 - 1:24.

more fluids testing

trying this out for a potential client.

blowing off the layer of dust

Going to post a bit of what I did here. or rather link to it.




Did the whole of the ships sequences, from modeling up to the final comps, as well as the vid showing a gun being modeled. I'm not particularly thrilled with the final pieces, since I short-cutted so much of the rendering to meet the deadline that had popped up within the week while my machine was handicapped, so I feel I could have done a better job rendering. If the project ever picks up again, I'll reconsider doing those particular sequences with the proper setup, but for now I'm not gonna touch them. Going to work on some personal stuff again, now that I have a new machine and some time. Mainly going to redo my website (make a flash and html version).

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.

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

The full compilation

I finally got the whole thing running relatively well, and somehow the muzzle flash looks better than it did before thanks to the recoil animation. All thats left for this thing is to do a few render tests and then a full on render.

Particle Cannon fly through

Just giving a quick camera move through the complex.




I'll do an occlusion pass of this event, if it doesn't turn out too dark, and then post a demonstration video on what portions of the scene do what.

Lock n' Load

A bit of camera work now on the loading sequence. I'm pretty ready to start rendering, though I need t separate a few things into their own layers, such as the fluid effects, but everything is primed. Might have to do a bit of texture work on the target as well.

loading sequence

Blah, I hate working with fluids. So finicky, but useful. I won't lose to you, FLUIDS!

Anyway, I at least got the gun animations itself pretty much set. There may be tweaks later on to add to the effect, possibly some braces failing and some upward recoil as a result of the momentum generated. I do have the fans going though, though at the rate their spinning, they'd hardly be noticeable, even with motion blur. As per the target the gun is aiming at, I may just create a destructible wall and duplicate it several dozen times in post to show the force of the shot. Maybe even have some other things destroyed on the outside of the building as well. Maybe even create a black hole event as a result of the speed through which the slug is traveling, (since in theory a rail gun is supposed to fire its projectile at the speed of light) where in the target object almost collapses in on the impact point, but explodes none the less.

Boot panels test

So the boot panels are rigged, as well as the securing talons on the base, so here's a quick vid of them working.