Pi Visuals

Check Out Ninja Tales Episode 3

Pi Visuals — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:08:24 +0000

The third Ninja Tales short is now up on the glorious Interwebs. It is called ‘Fleeing The Scene’. Be sure to check it out and tell everybody with whom you associate.

This short required building a model for a non-ninja character. Its design and skeletal rig had to fit within the Ninja Tales universe. I liked how it turned out. There was also some work needed to be done in After Effects. Anyway, enjoy…

Ninja Tales Episode 2 Is Now Out

Pi Visuals — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:16:39 +0000

The second episode of Ninja Tales is now out for everybody’s viewing pleasure. It’s called ‘The New Guy’.

This short is one of the ‘longer’ Ninja Tales episodes, clocking in at about 90 seconds of actual animation. Plus, with four people in the scene, it took longer to animate than most of the other shorts. The background contains several cool and funny props – can you spot them? It might take multiple viewings…

Ninja Tales Episode 1: Released!

Pi Visuals — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:31:25 +0000

As promised, the first episode of Ninja Tales has been released today. It’s titled ‘Taking Aim’. Check it out!

Exciting news indeed. I’m definitely happy with how it came out. Despite being finished several months ago, I made a few tweaks to the short earlier in the week – one or two very minor things were nagging me, and I knew it would continue to gnaw at me if I left it unchanged. In hindsight, I’m very glad I decided to make the changes – even if they will probably go unnoticed by most.

Disney XD’s Tron: Uprising Trailer

Pi Visuals — Wed, 02 May 2012 05:36:15 +0000

A full trailer for Disney XD’s new series, Tron: Uprising, has just been released. The series is set to premiere June 7th, and based on the video below, it looks promising.

Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of the two movies. I thought they were alright but always felt that the complex world created within the films were better suited for a TV series. It’s more open to multiple long-term storylines that can span for an entire season (or more). Of course I might just be nostalgic for Reboot, however I do like the look of this series; and if there is any show that lends itself to a mix of 2D and 3D animation, it’s this one.

Spilled My Drink’s New Website

Pi Visuals — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:27:36 +0000

After being ‘Under Construction’ for well over a year, Spilled My Drink’s website has finally had a long overdue makeover. Special thanks to Moridin for his help… and by his help, I mean he pretty much did all the work. There is still some fine tuning that needs to be done, but it’s coming along quite nicely.

It’s no coincidence that SMD’s site is getting updated right before the release of Ninja Tales. Speaking of which, everything is still on schedule for the May 3rd release. Work on the 9th short is moving along, and the 1st short will be available in less than a week.

Hang In There – Just A Little Longer

Pi Visuals — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:53:32 +0000

Production for the eighth short of Ninja Tales is moving along nicely… better than expected, in fact. Check out a preliminary screen shot:

For several reasons, I really like this shot – the staging, expressions, and perspective. I originally thought this short was going to be difficult to animate, but it has been a lot of fun.

In even better news, with this short’s completion on the horizon, a tentative release date for Ninja Tales has been set… and it is May 3rd. There is still plenty of work needed to be done, but I am optimistic everything will fall into place.

Ninja Tales Animation Work Flow

Pi Visuals — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:38:16 +0000

There hasn’t been much talk about Ninja Tales lately, but that isn’t because production has slowed. In fact, it is still in high gear. The seventh short (out of twelve) is now complete. Rather than show a finished still, below is a screen grab of animation in action for one of the early sequences in the short.

The plan is to begin releasing Ninja Tales a little after the eighth short is completed. A new video will be made viewable each week. The hope is that there won’t be any interruptions during this release period. Instead it will be twelve straight weeks of ninja goodness!

A Pi Sighting On The East Coast

Pi Visuals — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:11:48 +0000

Last week, I spent some time in Boston with Lady Pi, and this included a trip to MIT where I saw Jaume Plensa’s Alchemist. The sculpture is a thinking man comprised of numbers and math functions.

In addition to being an overall cool piece, I found the following symbol:

There were actually several Pi’s on the sculpture, which was pretty sweet to see. Overall, Boston was a fun time. Another fun thing I found was:

I did not eat here, although I was tempted. Rest assured, had it been Vegeta’s Vienna Hot Dogs, I would have been there faster than you could transform into a Level 2 Super Saiyan.

Toonami… On Adult Swim

Pi Visuals — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:27:27 +0000

I have no idea how I missed this, but last Saturday’s Adult Swim broadcast aired as if people were watching Toonami. Not only did they have old school Toonami shows like DBZ, Gundam, Yu Yu, and Outlaw Star; but they also created new bumps with Tom the robot. This was apparently their yearly April Fool’s prank (it aired March 31st – April 1st).

Adult Swim asked on Twitter how many people would like to have Toonami return by using #BringBackToonami. It created such a positive reaction among its fans. The result is below:

I’m not sure what a potential return could entail. Toonami was a great programming block… when it was on during the week. They had great shows that filled the desire of anime. I was sad to see it go; but after being relegated to Saturday evenings, it went downhill because the number of solid shows being aired were few and far between. If this means more anime on Cartoon Network, then I say use the Dragonballs to wish Toonami back to this dimension. If this means going back to Saturday evenings with sub-par programming, then maybe we should call off the search for the balls.

Say Goodbye To ThunderCats

Pi Visuals — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:13:20 +0000

Apparently it wasn’t that thunderous of a return. Cartoon Network’s recent upfront release showed that ThunderCats will not be one of the returning shows next year. This comes nearly a year after the cancellation of Sym-Bionic Titan. For the record, I will be more bummed about losing Titan, but ThunderCats was still a worthwhile show.

The new season just premiered last week, which implies this decision was made without TV ratings in mind (or at least the new season’s). Many speculated the demise of the show due to no new toys being released at the recent Toy Fair.

The question is – which action precipitated which? Were no new toys made because the show was about to be cancelled, or was the show cancelled because their weren’t marketable toys? If it was the former, then why would a second season even be green lit if the show was to be canned before the new season started? If it was the latter, then what the hell? Growing up, I couldn’t have enough ThunderCat toys. Then again, I couldn’t believe Sym-Bionic Titan couldn’t find a market for toys with a giant robot as its main character.