August 5, 2011 : A Need To Tighten My Shading Skills
I had some more time to kill with Maya, so I modeled a new object and rendered it with Mental Ray. I even topped it off by rendering with an HDR Image (Final Gather was also used in the final image).
I really liked how the handle of the screwdriver came out – particularly with the Final Gather. It was a basic Dielectric material with a few tweaks here and there. Sadly, the metal portion of the model looks really boring. It’s no mystery that my node based surfacing skills could use some attention, and this render reminded me of that. If I had more time, my intent would have been to have a brushed metal surface look. I hope to spend more time improving these skills in the future.
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:40 am
Tags: Maya , Mental Ray1 Comment | Post a comment
July 28, 2011 : David Wolter’s “Eyrie”
I came across David Wolter’s short film, Eyrie, and I think it’s pretty impressive. Check it out below.
The animation and overall design isn’t all that refined, but the short still works… and quite well I must say. I think the obvious lesson here is the importance of story and how it should be the driving force for any project. You don’t need a sexy look and perfect animation to resonate with an audience – the first thing should always be the actual content (I always go back to South Park as a perfect example of this).
A secondary lesson here is the importance of music, particularly in animation. There isn’t a word of dialogue in the film; and while the emotions are well conveyed visually, the score does a great job of solidifying the tone throughout. I don’t think the film would have come off as well without it. It not only complements the short but enhances it, and that should be the goal when considering music in a project.
posted by Pi Visuals at 9:39 pm
Tags: Animation , South Park0 Comments | Post a comment
July 21, 2011 : Lava Lamp Goodness With Maya
I had some free time in the last week, so I killed some of it toying around in Maya – a program I’ve neglected lately. My main goal was to reacquaint myself with its shortcuts, interface, and modeling tools. So I created something pretty basic, but I didn’t want it to be too boring. The end result? A lava lamp, and below is the final render:
The render isn’t all that impressive – the lighting and surfacing could definitely be spruced up. However, I am pleased with the modeling, and that was the main goal for this little exercise. I ended up using Maya’s standard renderer. I might come back to it and re-render it with Mental Ray, but smart money says I will just make an entirely new (and different) model that will utilize Mental Ray’s awesomeness.
posted by Pi Visuals at 10:37 pm
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July 19, 2011 : John Celestri’s New Blog
I guess experienced animators starting a blog has become a trendy thing as of late. Animation veteran, John Celestri, joined the club. The blog, John The Animator Guy, has a lot of insight on the production side of animation… ranging from X-Sheets to Script Writing specifically for animation.
The above is just one of many cool drawing that is sprinkled throughout the website. I even saw a few cool Batman images… sweet!
posted by Pi Visuals at 11:46 pm
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July 7, 2011 : A New ThunderCats Series? Oh. I Mean Hooooo.
While I’d prefer to see Sym-bionic Titan back, Cartoon Network premieres the new ThunderCats series in a few weeks. The reboot kicks off with an hour long episode on July 29th.
I’m really digging the anime feel; and with Studio 4°C in charge of the animation, it’s a good bet that it will done well. To make things even cooler, Will Friedle (of Batman Beyond fame) voices Lion-O.
Another interesting tidbit… the original voice of Lion-O (Larry Kenney) will also be in the series – as the voice of Lion-O’s father. Throw in the voice talents of Claus from American Dad (Dee Bradley Baker), and this is a series I plan on giving a shot. Besides, based off my childhood, I believe I’m obligated.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:11 am
Tags: American Dad , Studio 4°C , Sym-Bionic Titan , ThunderCats0 Comments | Post a comment
June 27, 2011 : Working In 2.5 Dimensions
One of the things I liked about the Back Alley drawing, is… well the Back Alley background. It was made in what I like to call 2.5-D. This means creating a pseudo 3-dimensional look without the 3D software. Specifically, I used After Effects to accomplish this. The first thing I did was create 2-D images for the walls and floor. This was done with in Photoshop.
The one above is the floor image. I wanted to make sure it didn’t look too uniform and give it a dirty feeling. The walls were done in a similar fashion. Below is an image of one of the walls (the right one).
I have never actually graffitied in real life; but if I were, I would make sure it said ‘Ninjas’. Anyway, I then took these images and put them into After Effects, and they were converted into 3D layers – this allowed me to rotate them to create the desired perspective look. After a few tweaks and a little color correction (darkening the alley and adding in a little dark blue), you have the image.
I have also spent some time sketching out a few ideas for another drawing. I haven’t decided on a new colored image to create, but I like these poses. Of course these were very quick sketches so they definitely need a lot of touch up work if I plan to move forward with them.
posted by Pi Visuals at 10:34 pm
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June 23, 2011 : Cel-Shading… Old School
So I was able to devote some time to complete a drawing I was working on last week. It’s been a while since I’ve gone past a rough sketch – including inking (digitally), coloring, and dropping in a background. I’m pretty happy with the end result:
The posing is simplistic – the drawing was conceived with the setting in mind (a dark alley). I intend future drawings to possess more action. While I like how everything turned out, much of the character’s detail goes unnoticed. This was required to get the right perspective and framing for the alley.
The size of the original drawing with just the character was actually very large (2500 x 3500 pixels). I ended up having to shrink it down to a tenth of the size. Here is a larger version of the character all shaded and everything – note that this is still less than half of the original drawing’s size.
posted by Pi Visuals at 7:50 pm
Tags: Drawing , Nephilim1 Comment | Post a comment
June 16, 2011 : Back To The Drawing Board
Over the last month, I’ve been revisiting a storyline that I worked on many years ago (along with Moridin). It was conceived back in 2003, which was also the same time I started getting into animation (the two actually went hand in hand). I was also drawing a lot more back then. I’ve been sketching less and less over the years – however, I’ve made a concerted effort to spend more time drawing recently. Below is an example (relax, it’s nothing special):
The storyline never got fully formed. However, I am hoping to move forward with it because I always liked the premise. To help get things going, I plan on drawing more since that has always inspired ideas. In fact, I hope to create a few finished drawings on the side (and the idea for the first one is in the sketch above). Getting a better handle on the story, will hopefully lead to a few upcoming shorts… at the very least.
posted by Pi Visuals at 10:44 pm
Tags: Drawing , Nephilim0 Comments | Post a comment
June 14, 2011 : Andreas Deja Reflects On Disney’s Nine Old Men
Disney animation veteran Andreas Deja has entered the world of blogs. Deja has worked at Disney for over 30 years and possesses a great deal of knowledge and skill. Even cooler, he also has had countless encounters with Disney’s Nine Old Men.
The blog, which is just over a week old, is filled with stories about these various legends of animation. He shares many lessons learned from them along with drawings they did over the years. He has even included pencil tests of theirs. Truly amazing work.
posted by Pi Visuals at 9:57 pm
Tags: Blogs , Disney2 Comments | Post a comment
June 11, 2011 : Cartoon Brew Stands Up For MoCap… Sorta
I recently read an interesting article from Cartoon Brew, which actually took a relatively pro-MoCap stance. It was in response to Space Jam’s Animation Producer, Steven Paul Leiva, who claimed Motion Capture isn’t animation. While the article shows a general dislike for the aesthetics of the technique, it still makes a solid argument that it should be considered animation… particularly when it comes Oscar time.
The article makes a lot of good points, and I think is worth a read. Most animator’s don’t like MoCap (they feel it’s a huge shortcut that demeans the industry), so that’s why it’s odd to see an animation site take it’s side. Still, it’s tough to argue with the article’s reasoning.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:27 am
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