Friday, December 29, 2006

What I Got For X-mas and Boxing Day

Wow, I've been a good boy this year. *smirk* This is what I got for X-mas which is relevant to my animation and art work:

Film - I needed some more film for my cameras. I now have 8 rolls of film ready to go... except I have no black and white film. I also got 2 photo albums.

Excite Truck (Wii) - Oh man... this game is insane! It's much like "Burnout" on 4x4 with lots of insane jumps. I mean, I took one jump and didn't land for 1.8 miles! Very fast and very fun, like a good racer should be, good inspiration.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (DVD) - A wonderfully animated movie (despite a lot of it being motion captured). The movie features some very beautiful rendering effects and is very inspirational for me to watch. When ever I watch the movie I get inspired to do some animation.

Happy Tree Friends (TV DVD) - The Happy Tree Friends TV show on DVD. To be fair, I've never seen the show on TV, but have been a fan of the internet version since I saw it in IGI... Anyway, it's cute cuddly animals being slaughter often with great timing and anticipation. Remember, you can’t spell Slaughter without Laughter!

Princess Mononoke (DVD) - From Studio Ghibli and director and animation god Hayao Miyazaki (more about him in later posts). This mature fairy tale is a beautiful feat of animation is often spell binding, much like any other Miyazaki film.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - A call back to the early years of Sci-fi with great big robots, lasers, planes and action and adventure. Very muchly inspired by old shows like the 1950's cartoon Superman and makes a ton of references. The movie was shot like Frank Miller's "Sin City" and upcoming "300", Sky Captain was shot in front of a green (or was it a blue) screen. The behind the scenes special shows that the idea was done mainly by a guy and a couple of friends and it got picked up by the big boys.

THX-1138 (DVD) - 1138, like it or not, you've heard or seen this number in a ton of movies and TV shows. The number 1138 is the street address of one of the scientist's lab in "Sky Captain". The movie has a futuristic society where everything is controlled, much like "1984" or "Equilibrium". It's a must see for sure.

The Tick VS Season 1 (TV DVD) - Spooooon! Couldn't resist! I'm a big fan of super heroes, especially dark ones like Batman, or the zany and funny ones like The Tick or Freakzoid.

An Astronomy calendar - Can't stress the ability to plan ahead in this industry, with a nice wall calendar I can mark down birthdays, anniversaries and important dates and be inspired by pictures of stars. It's amazing to think that out of all the planets and stars out there, us humans are able to view the sky with powerful tools and see the beauty of space from light years away. So many worlds to explore..

Squarepusher "Hello Everything" (CD) - I've been meaning to pick up this CD for a few months now, but finally did. Squarepusher, for those who don't know, is one guy drum n' bass band. This CD seems to be a bit more "danceable" then his last. Very cool stuff.


Well, that's it, unless you want me to talk about soap, socks and the 4 tubes of toothpaste me and my room mate got collectively...

Friday, December 22, 2006

30 Seconds: Final

Oooo, all pretty and such. I'll probaboly rerender it later down the line, but until then, view!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

30 Secs: 10 Hours in

A big thanks to everyone who gave me some suggestions, as you can see it's running a lot smoother and no more footslip (how did I miss that one!) Next post will contain the finalized version, all pretty and rendered as well. Stay tuned! (or tooned, hahahahahha)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

30 Secs: 8 Hours in

Feedback would be nice, look at the face!

Monday, December 18, 2006

30 Secs: 6 Hours in

Half way point now! Woot! It's taking shape, a lot more smoother with the ending I wanted. Perfect run cycle! Comments are welcomed. Up next are facial and finger animation among others.... that first jump is going to drive me cRaZy!! Waahahahahahahahahahaha....

30 Secs: 4 Hours in

Well, I played around with the timing, got rid of a jump that felt weak and smoothed a few things out. Comments are always welcomed.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

30 Sec - Part 1

Ok, I got 12 hours to do a 30 second short. This is progress part 1, after 2 hours. As you can see, I just finished blocking it out, few strong poses, a few weak ones that need to be pushed. I also gotta add facial expressions... Also gotta work on the timing a bit, but I got 10 hours left! Advice is welcomed :D


Saturday, December 16, 2006

More Rig Practice

I was playing around with the new Eric rig again and I sliced off his hand... again. I was practicing with his.... I guess... brother.... Stewie and animated Stewie playing with a sword and sliced his arm off... Hmmm.. so that makes:
Slicing arms off: 2
Falling: 5







Prepare... I beat the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on Thursday night and will be presenting my theory of the Zelda timeline soon. IT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! Like this one: Super Mario Brothers 2 is really a dream!!!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

A little rig practice

Our class got a new rig from our 3D Instructor and were told to test it out and find some problems. I did some lipsync with him. Did this one pretty quickly, I'd say 3 hours + render time.


Saturday, December 02, 2006

Soundtrack of my Life Shuffle!

Another Shuffle Quiz Open your music library, put it on shuffle, and press play!
Its the soundtrack for your life!

Opening Credits: "The Legend of Zelda Theme Song" by Fantomos (whoot!)

Waking Up: "Kennedy Killed the Hat" by Buck 65
selective lyrics: "Baby/ We're not the beautiful people/ Runnin' down the street on fire/ They want us to see me jump that fence/ Sometimes I'd rather be dead/ These are the wages of sin / And we're surrounded by assassins, phantomas, mutantes and serpents/ Werewolves and sex fiends.."

Going To Work: "Zelda 2: Battle of the Hyrulian Hero OC Remix" by Random Hero (instromental) (wow, pretty epic for going to work...)

Checking The Mail: " Cheating on You" by Franz Ferdinand (oh boy....)

Falling In Love: "The Becoming (Treason, Sam I Am Remix)" by Nine Inch Nails (oh boy...)
select lyrics: "Annie, hold on a little closer, I might just slip away!"

Fight Scene: "Ziggy Stardust" by Bauhaus (not a bad cover)

Breaking Up: "Creep" by Radiohead (perfect fit)

Make-up: "Right Where It Belongs(Live)" by Nine Inch Nails (simply beautiful and chilling live)
selective lyrics: "What if all the world's inside of your head/ Just creations of your own?/ Your devils and your gods/ all the living and the dead/ And you're really all alone?"

Secret Love: "Star Power!" from Super Mario Brothers (1)

Life's Okay: "Feeling So Real (Live in London" by Moby

Heartbreak: "Drowing Emotionless" by Digital Syn featuring Sickmessiah (instromental)

Stressful Day at Work: "Show Me How To Live" by Audioslave (interesting...)

Mental Breakdown: "Sin" by Akanoid
Lyrics: "It comes down to this/Your kiss /Your fist / And your strain/ It gets under my skin/ Within/ Take in/ the extent of my sin

Driving: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" by Monty Python

Flashbacks: "Fearless" by the Bravery
slective lyrics: "Too many fingers/ too many thumbs/ something wicked this way comes/ the best time I've had/ waiting around for something bad"

Troubles with the Law: "Visions" by Razed in Black
selective lyrics: "I need a reason to be wrong/ I need a reason to believe/ Compassion for the choices made has dithered/ It’s time to let the senseless pass/ Time to prick this psychopath/ End this hang-man game of resolution..."

Happy Dance: "Burn It Down" by Fate (an obsure German band, can't find the proper lyrics...)

Regretting: "Shin Triad" by Squarepusher (instromental)

Nervous: "Overrated" by Pilot Speed , formerly Pilate
selective lyrics: "Look into my eyes /see my heart and see my crimes/ I don’t know why it’s hard now"

Long Night Alone: "Pretty Life" by Jakalope
selective lyrics: "I’m about to change your pretty mind/ I’m about to change your pretty life/ Are you ready /there’s no stopping time" (sounds like I won't be alone for long..)

Final Battle: "Burn the Witch" by Queens of the Stoneage

Death Scene: "Some of you Boys (and Most of You Girls)" by Robin Black (ok, ok, it's a guilty pleasure!)

Ending Credits: "La Mer" by Nine Inch Nails
lyrics: "Et quand le jour arrive/ Je deviendrais le ciel/Et je deviendrais la mer/ Et la mer va venir m'embrasser/ Pour que j'aille Ă  la maison/ Rien ne pourra plus m'arrĂȘter maintenant"


Now it's your turn! Have some fun :D

Friday, December 01, 2006

Drill 4: Part 4 (Final)

This is the final installment of this animation. We had to post all the parts because my 3D Instructor wants to see our progress. So here's part 4, 6 hours of work. I hid the control object so you can see what's happening more clearer. Hope you enjoy it.

Update: Now with a new model

Drill 3

Drill 3 was a fun one. We, as a class, demostrated that our animation was at a point where we could take creative control. Sure we still had the 3 hour time frame, but this is what I came up with. Our assignment was to take Stewie and animate him with a jetpack.

Update: New Model