October 28, 2014 : Raining Platform Animation Complete

The Raining Platform animation I spent the last few weeks on is finished… and it’s on Vimeo! If you have 15 seconds to spare, check it out.

This project came about because I wanted to create an animated rain and lightning effect. Sadly, the desire first came to me back in the summer. However, my priority at that point was building a new computer. As such, I had to put it on the back burner. On the plus side, this whole project was done on said new computer.

Raining Platform wasn’t for anything in particular. Instead, I felt it would be a nice exercise. I easily could have noodled around in After Effects for a few days and be done with it, but I wanted to go the extra mile and make a video that was entertaining. I felt like I did just that. Also, I am pleased with how this project required me to do work in a lot of different programs:  Lightwave, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Audition, and Vegas.

I hope to go into more detail about the process of creating the video at a later time; but for the time being, just enjoy the final product.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:45 pm

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October 27, 2014 : After Effects Work Complete

Work in After Effects has just wrapped up (save for any last minute tweaks). I have rendered the images, and they are ready to be put into Vegas for the final steps. Below is the render of the first frame.

There are a lot of elements in the After Effects file – this includes altering existing images as well as creating entirely new components. Covering all of these can be a separate post, which is something I might do down the road. For right now, I am focused on wrapping up this this mini-project… which should be in the next couple days.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:45 pm

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October 24, 2014 : Background Buildings Erected

First, let me snicker at the post’s title…. okay, I’m done. The last few days were spent working on the background for the platform – specifically, a bunch of buildings. I thought about using Lightwave or possibly After Effects, but I decided to use Photoshop. Below is the result after being throw into AFter Effects along with the platform 3D render and finished Line Art.

The sky background was quickly made in After Effects, and I will adjust that along with some of the general lighting for the shot. I also plan on simulating a Depth-Of-Field effect for the buildings. Still, I like how things are coming together.

My next big step is figuring out how to create a few effects in After Effects that I have never done before (which was the reason for all of this work the past few weeks).

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:49 am

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October 21, 2014 : Say Goodbye To Beware The Batman

It what seems to be a yearly tradition, another animated show I enjoy has had its run prematurely ended. This year, the tragedy belongs to Beware the Batman. While it’s fate was sealed nearly a year ago when Cartoon Network pulled it from the airwaves, the first run of episodes didn’t finally conclude until late September (with a seven episode marathon on Adult Swim to finish out its first and only season).

Batman

I don’t know exactly where to rank this in terms of my disappointment, but it is up there – probably not as high as a Genndy series, but definitely above ThunderCats. It’s not much of a secret, but I am a huge Batman fan. I am not sure how critics or other fans felt; but I enjoyed this series.

In addition to being 3D, I felt it did a good job of putting a new spin on the franchise. This was the first time I was introduced to Katana (a character who made sparring appearances in other DC properties), and I liked how Alfred was more than just a wise, old man. He was more than willing to bitch slap you to next Tuesday. Plus, the villains were a nice mix of popular and lesser known.

I am at least glad the overarching story for the season was wrapped up; but as is the case with most of these shows, another story line was set up that I would have wanted to see. Sadly, Anarchy’s antics will have to wait for another time.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:01 am

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October 20, 2014 : Line Art – Finalized And Shaded

After spending some time on it, the line art is finished. Below is the final image – feel free to click on it to see a larger version:

This took a little longer than anticipated. The contrast and pixelation of the scanned drawing was not too my liking. As such, I went into Illustrator and recreated all of the lines – using the scan as a reference. After that, I used Photoshop to do all the shading.

I imported this image into Lightwave and slightly adjusted the camera angle of the platform render. I wanted to make sure the drawing fit well with the 3D render. Now that this is all set, I can begin to pull things into After Effects.

posted by Pi Visuals at 8:42 pm

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October 16, 2014 : (Mostly) Surfaced Platform

After spending some time, and using UrbanExile3d’s numerous tutorials as a reference, I surfaced the train platform. At the moment, I was able to get the look I wanted.

I could have spent a little more time perfecting some of the details of the surfaces; however, when everything is said and done, I doubt any of it would be noticeable. This should make more sense with more updates. There is still no background (not to mention the train I previously modeled). So obviously there is still plenty to do, but rest assured, I have plan.

The next step is to back away from Lightwave and focus a little time on the Line Art I posted a week and a half ago.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:15 am

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October 10, 2014 : Can’t Have A Train Platform Without A Train

I haven’t started surfacing the train platform, but I did get a chance to model a railcar that will briefly be in the shot. It also needs to be surfaced, and I plan on making a few tweaks; but a screen grab is below:

Railcar

Just as with the platform, the train is based off Chicago’s mass transit system. Of course, I took some liberties with the model and made some simplifications. I could have increase the level of detail, but it wouldn’t have been noticed – for reasons that will become evident later.

posted by Pi Visuals at 9:43 pm

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October 9, 2014 : Train Platform Modeling

With the line art of a man sitting complete, the next step is to create something for him to sit on. I considered drawing this as well, but it has been a while since I’ve had a chance to crack open Lightwave so I went with that. Most of the modeling is done, and a screen grab is below:

It should become more apparent when I get to the background, but this is a platform for an elevated train. Obviously I still need to surface everything. Usually when I model things, I will assign at least a temporary color to the objects; but this time around I decided to keep everything default-gray until I get going with the real surfacing. This wasn’t really done for any particular reason so don’t expect one.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:18 pm

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October 7, 2014 : New Line Art – First Draft

Having been distracted with many other things these past few months, I haven’t really had much of a chance to work on anything of note lately. As such, I’ve started working on a very small scale project, which is more of a way to work on a few techniques I’ve been thinking about recently. The first step is the line art drawing below:

Without revealing too much, the character will be sitting on a bench and will only be a few seconds long. The background still needs to be created (among other things), but I hope to move forward with this in the next week; and the plan is to provide several more updates.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:36 pm

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September 26, 2014 : Genndy’s Popeye Animation Test

Sony Pictures has released an animation test on its YouTube channel for the Genndy Tartakovsky lead Popeye movie. The video not only has the test, but it also has an introduction commentary from Genndy.

I’ve never really been a fan of Popeye, but I am definitely a fan of Genndy. His passion for the project is evident from the video, and his love for the material should result in a solid movie. I think the animation test is impressive and would make me interested in seeing it when/ if it comes out. For the record, the Popeye feature still has not been announced as being in production – but after the release of this video, there’s a good chance of it.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:15 pm

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