Sunday, April 12, 2009

Stewart's Big Day - The Sit Stand

Well here it is... the culmination of three months of modeling, rigging, and animating exercise after exercise: My Sit Stand Animation is finally complete.



It was quite an adventure and in the end I would say that I am satisfied with the final product. It's satisfying to see an idea, that was dreamed up a year ago in concept, finally come to life, take shape, and move right in front of your eyes. It has been a fun semester with Stewart, but like all good things in life they must come to an end. As this semester draws to a close I look forward to next semester, I look forward to the new projects that will bring along with them new characters with whom we will get to know and share our lives with. It's amazing as we step back to see how much work we managed to cram into such a short period of time, but after many sleepless nights, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.... I present you the fruit of my labor for you to enjoy - i hope in some small way it makes you smile or even makes you laugh, maybe even brings a chuckle. I have a long ways to go by any means before I'm even remotely good at this "animation" thing but i always strive to live by the words of the great Disney animator Glen Keane,

"In animation the focus isn't to move characters but to move audiences."

Our final two projects for the semester in CA pull us back from the animation aspect of our major, and focuses more on lighting, texturing, and compositing the area of our major that I am interested in pursuing. I'm excited to dive right in and learn everything I can.... To build and expand upon my knowledge of texturing. It should be a fun final three weeks. I will be sure to keep you posted - but till then take care and enjoy!

CLICK HERE for HiRes version

Friday, April 3, 2009

TEXTURE UPDATE - The Old Man And The Hair

With under a week to go before the final submission of our Sit Stand is due we find ourselves once again at that crazy time of life where there is still so much left to finish and what seems like not enough time to get it all done.



But amongst the struggle of trying to finish the animation, as well as wrap up lighting and dressing the set, I've tried to make it my own personal goal to find some time each day to begin the process of finishing up texturing Stewart himself. This week I decided to take the time and really dive in and learn more about MAYA Fur. I thought having a better understanding and knowledge of Hair and Fur in MAYA would be a useful tool in my bag of texturing tips and tricks. It was a lot of work but I finally feel I have learned how to use it properly. I would like to say thank you to all of the Seniors for taking the time to pass on their wealth of knowledge and tips - it is greatly appreciated. Next thing on my list of things to do... his second pass SKIN : )

CLICK HERE for HiRes version

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Meet Stewart - The Quadfecta

Well its a new semester and like all new semesters we find ourselves with new projects, new things to learn and with them come new troubles to troubleshoot, but most importantly new semesters bring new characters - this semester its Stewart. Stewart is a loveable old man with a big heart but not so keen eyesight.



Our first assignment this semester in CA has been to model/texture and begin practicing animating our characters in preparation for our Sit Stand animation. The "quadfecta" assignment was a series of four animation exercises meant to teach us how to bring our new found friends to life the correct way : )

I've finished the animation and Stewart's all rigged up and ready for the big show and the Sit Stand but I'm still in the process of finishing up his textures. Texturing and surfacing is the area that i hopefully want to get into after I graduate so for me the "pretty factor" on Stewart isn't quite there yet and isn't quite what I've envisioned it to be, but in time it will... just give me another few weeks - i'll be sure to post a turnaround later once I finish his final textures.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Out With The Old - In With The New



Well with time quickly winding down on break its now only one week to go before we all head back for second semester. I can't wait to get back to work and see everyone again and I'm sure we can expect to face the many new challenges together that will come with our new found projects. Here is my character for my next assignment our sit stand, meet Stewart Rigby.

2008 A Year In Review

So now that 2008 has drawn to a close and we've all rung in the new year I finally thought I'd take the initiative and make an art blog to join all you fellow bloggers. Hope you enjoy, here is a just brief selection of some of the work I created this past semester.