March 28, 2013 : Illustrator Work For New Short
Animation for the new short is moving along at a pretty nice clip. In between sequences, I have had to work on some of the ancillary tasks associated with the project. Below is an image recently made that will be used in the intro.
The pic was created in Illustrator, and it will be accompanied by several more images with the same look. Most of these would have given up a little too much of the plot, which I’m not ready to do…just yet.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:47 am
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March 14, 2013 : Happy Pi Day!
Happy Pi Day, everybody!
As always, be sure to enjoy this most momentous (and nerdy) of days. Feel free to use a calculator or spreadsheet to aid in the awesomeness.
The last few weeks have been devoted to animating the new short, which is progressing nicely. Hopefully more updates will follow. Plus, Illinois should be back in the Big Dance next week. Get ready for another year of not getting out of the first weekend.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:03 am
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March 7, 2013 : Robot Animation Fun!
The last few weeks have been pretty hectic. Animation is still the bulk of the work being done right now for the short, and it’s moving along. Below is a grab from the first scene, which was recently finished (the scenes are being done out of order).
The sequence for the still above was fun to animate – mostly due to the rig created for the robot. There are a few more scenes that I am looking forward to animating. However, there is still much left to do. By my count, animation is around the midway point – but this doesn’t take into account any edits that need to be made.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:48 am
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February 16, 2013 : Animation Moving Forward
Animation for the new short is underway. The good news: over two minutes is complete. The bad news: more than eight minutes still needs to get done. Still, things are coming along nicely. Below is a screen grab from one of the scenes.
The shadow effect was created in After Effects. It took a little testing to get the look I wanted, but I’m happy with the end product.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:42 pm
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February 7, 2013 : The Real Life Models For Archer’s Characters
With Archer’s new season underway, you expect one or two behind-the-scenes articles like this to come out. The one below was particularly fun to read. It details who specifically was used for each character design, and it was in Executive Producer Matt Thompson’s own words.
http://www.vulture.com/2013/02/archer-characters-real-life-models.html#
Now in it’s fourth season, Archer continues to deliver – in terms of quality, the new season has picked up where the last one left off. It’s nice to see a show not heading downhill after a few successful seasons (did somebody say Sunny?).
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:06 am
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January 25, 2013 : Work Flow For New Short
Animation began recently for the new short. Keeping up the theme of not revealing too much, I decided to just show a screen grab of the work flow in Lightwave for one of the sequences. Of course, I made sure only one character was in the shot:
In the past, I predominantly worked each stage of the process in blocks – I did all the modeling at once, then I animated everything, then rendered the files, then added post effects, then wrote the music, etc. This time around, I wanted to have better continuity between the steps so they are all progressing together. Some modeling still needs to happen, but I have also started writing and recording music. Ultimately, animation is the bulk of the work that needs to get done. So the goal is to ensure nothing slows down (or prevents) that part of production.
I think the end result will be a better short – not only because I think each step will be better in tune with one another, but it will prevent me from getting burned out doing one part of the process. Whenever that happens, there’s always the risk of the quality suffering.
posted by Pi Visuals at 4:59 pm
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January 9, 2013 : Animation Almost Ready To Begin
While animation hasn’t started just yet, things are moving along for the new short. All of the characters are nearly complete. Below is a test render of the first character seen by the audience.
The model in this render still had a couple of tweaks that needed to be make, but I like how he looks. A few more things need to get done before production is in full swing, but things are progressing nicely (albeit a little slowly at times).
Plenty more updates to come.
posted by Pi Visuals at 7:23 am
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December 27, 2012 : Must See Animated Short Films
I’m not one for internet lists. They’re basically somebody’s opinion, followed by countless dissenters whining about it in the comments section. The only times I tend to read these lists is when they offer interesting new info or links. This was the case with Listverse’s 10 Must See Animated Films.
A few of the entries I had previously seen, and I personally would have preferred less Pixar shorts (not because they were bad, but it seemed like the list should have veered away from the mainstream). However, overall the shorts were fun to watch. If you have about an hour to kill, you should check it out. Still, there was one short that I really enjoyed.
I loved the innovative concept, and the meshing of 2D and 3D animation was very well executed. The 2D animation reminded me of the old school Looney Toons, and the 3D work had a tremendous amount of detail devoted to it. And above everything else, the story was interesting. If you have five minutes, give it a look.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:38 am
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December 21, 2012 : Pre-Production Moving Along
The past few weeks have been spent modeling for the upcoming short – specifically, the main characters. There is still a little more to do, but it’s coming along nicely. Without divulging too much, below is a screen grab of one of the characters within Lightwave.
Who is this person? Is he the protagonist or someone else? Right now, I plan on keeping things close to the vest. However, I will say there are multiple characters, and the short is estimated to be ~9 minutes. I still need to adjust the color schemes for the various characters as well as create their rigs for animating. However, the modeling portion was much more time intensive than the remaining work. Plus, some of the audio has already been recorded. While animation might not begin before the New Year (my original goal), it should start soon afterward.
posted by Pi Visuals at 6:53 pm
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November 29, 2012 : A New Short In Development
The last month or two, I’ve spent some of my down time developing an idea for a new short. A script has been written and the design work is ongoing. Below is a compilation of some of these sketches, which is currently being used to create the necessary 3D models.
The goal is to start production (specifically, animation) sometime in December. As I always try to do with new projects, it’s going to be a little different from previous works. While I won’t divulge too much just yet, rest assured, I will periodically give updates on its progress.
posted by Pi Visuals at 1:19 pm
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