Thursday, May 31, 2007

RR: Machine Go!

Ok, in this scene Roy's giant machine is ready to go and he is powering it up in his basement and according to his plans, the machine turns on, then the house divides in two then the machine raises up. But by now you should know that Roy doesn't have the best luck. Remember to check the other animations and comment on them as well.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

RR: The Big Machine

I know you've all been drooling in anticipation to see it, the giant machine Roy will use to get his revenge on Princess. I did the base model of the device and Nolan "Number One" Wiebe spiced it up.

Can you spice up machines??

Here's the results, textures are coming soon.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

RR: Screwing in the Lightbulb

With the light bulb in hand, Roy quickly races over and screws it in it's rightful place. Sure enough, it's rightful place is on a giant laser! With the last piece of the puzzle in place, Roy is ready for his revenge!



Yeah, still no sound...

Friday, May 25, 2007

RR: Second Light Bulb Scene

Another scene from my upcoming short. I'm getting a little nervous with the deadline less then a month away!


Power Outage

Ok, prepare yourself for this one.

Today I was writing up a post for Digimill.net's NewsRoom and was about to submit what's new in theatres. I was pretty happy with the post because it contains Pirates 1 and 2 in 5 seconds. I was just setting up some tags when the power went out. Because of the battery backup, I quickly saved my work and shut down my computer and thought," Oh great, we blew a fuse." I had the washing machine going, the computer and AC(on fan) going. I checked the fuse box and sure enough nothing was switched. My room mate came inside then and we noticed that all the power was off. We headed outside to see if the entire trailer is out of power. Sure enough everyone else had power, so we checked the trailer park fuses, they were fine. Our search lead us to the power line to our house.
Our power line is lining on the ground and the construction company working on the buildings next door have commanded us to move it. But needless to say, civilians should not handle something that could kill them. We investigated the power line and it was cut. Sure enough the construction company was right there and they said, "It got in their way."
So now there's a cut electric wire lying on the ground that could potentially kill a person. We want to get it repaired, but only the landlord can do that and the office was out for the afternoon.
So when I go home, there will be no power.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

RR: Hammering

Ok, this one took a bit longer then expected, but I think it's turning out very nicely. It's amazing how much blinking at the right moment makes the impact of the hammer so much stronger.
In this scene Roy is working away in his basement, hitting a nail when the next door dog, Princess barks and distrupts him. He turns and curses the dog, He returns to nailing and Princess barks again and Roy hits his thumb with the hammer (which will be the best sound in the world).



I really need to do the voices this weekend... gotta see Pirates 3 as well


Update: Apparently the hammer hit is good enough to get on >BestAccidentsVideos.blogspot.com
Glad to know that people are feeling the pain!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Google Analytics says I've conquered the world

Back on April 17th, my instructor showed my class a handy little tool called Google Analytics that collect a few pieces of information about the user browsing your site. Google gives you a little bit of code to put into your site and then you can collect a little bit of information about the viewer, such as what operating system they're using, what Internet program they're using, screen colours, language, referring sources, and location. According to Google Analytics, this little blog of mine has been seen on all 6 major continents! YEAH! I've got viewers from the following 34 countries:

1. Canada
2. United States
3. United Kingdom
4. Spain
5. Germany
6. France
7. China
8. Argentina
9. Mexico
10. Brazil
11. Portugal
12. Venezuela
13. Italy
14. Malaysia
15. India
16. Taiwan
17. Belgium
18. Netherlands
19. Turkey
20. Russia
21. Israel
22. Singapore
23. Iceland
24. Tunisia
25. Peru
26. Hong Kong
27. Denmark
28. Japan
29. Egypt
30. Ghana
31. Sweden
32. Slovakia
33. Philippines
34. Australia

An amazing feat to get so many viewers in such a short time. I'd like to thank everyone who's stopped by this blog. Please make a comment! Say hi! In the above picture of the green map of Earth, it shows where all my views are coming from. Most of them are coming from North American, mostly BC, Canada, my home province. Then comes American, my blog has been viewed in 19 states so far. Then comes the UK. I'm a little surprised that China is in the top 10.

Anyway, look foreward to more animation soon!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

RR: Light Bulb Scare

This is a continueation from the new Lightbulb box open. In this scene Roy checks his chalk board and sees that the light bulb is his final piece that he needs. Then as he's admiring the light bulb, Princess, the dog next door, barks and scares him.

By the way, I'm looking for a modeller to make the big machine look cooler, any takers? Just e-mail me or Privite message me on the digimill.net forum.




I'd also like also point out my friend Ian, he directed a very well done short film about drug addiction and can be seen here at his Youtube Channel. Needless to say, it contains adult material.



Update: This post was posted on Best3DVideos.blogspot.com/
Nice to know that people enjoy my animation. Please do comment.

What Side Is Up?

Well, I meant to post this over a month ago, but got busy with my new project. Looking back at What Side Is Up? I could have done much better. But give it a look and have a little laugh and look foreword to Roy's Revenge.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

RR: LightBulb Box Open 1

Another scene from Roy's Revenge. It may look like a similar scene, but there are several differences. After this scene he holds on to the light bulb and discovers that it's the last piece of his giant laser and then Princess, the dog next door scares him. I'm animating that scene right now. Enjoy the new box open:

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Special Thanks To...

If you've been reading Digimill.net and it's sister site, the Digimill.net Newsroom, you'll know that I'm a frequent contributor to the blogs. I'm also apart of the Digimill Forum where I've been posting my Roy's Revenge animation tests. The Executive Editor, and my 3D animation teacher, Graeme Morris rewarded me for my help with Digimill with a bag o' swag from Vancouver International Games Summit.
The Bag o' Swag included:

-a BioWare Pin
-a BioWare Pen and Notebook.
-a Propaganda Games sticker
-a Relic Entertainment patch
-a Ralic Entertainment pin
-a Relic Entertainment postcard
-Shadow Magic manga from Arcana
-Kade: Sun of Perdition issue #1 (second printing version) from Arcana
Jova's Harvest issue #2 from Arcana
-2 Rockstar stickers (yellow logo and Bullworth Academy [school from the game Bully] logo)

Yes, a very cool bag of cool things. I'd like to thank Graeme again for the gift and also like to thank him for my help with my demo reel and short. I'd also like to thank all the cool companies for talking to Graeme at the Vancouver International Games Summit.


Now I gotta decided where to put my stickers and pins and patch...

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Darkinati concept

Today in Z-Brush, the class was divided in two, there was Team You Guys and Team Wikipedia, I was in Team Wikipedia with Justin, Maria and Mike. Our assignment was to create a race of hybrid humans with animals. Together as a team we created a backstory of human dragonfly/mantis creatures called the Darinati, the dark ones. Justin modeled the creature, Mike modeled accessories, Maria did texturing and I set up the scene background and wrote up this back story (with input from the other team members), enjoy:

For years the tropical regions of Earth have hid many secrets, the missing temples of the Mayans, never before seen plants, and legends of gods living deep in the jungles. The Chupacabra is the most well known of these legends, but because of the climate change and man’s ever approaching grasp on the forest, another legend has been seen more and more often. Once thought to be a ghost and called the living shadow, the Darkinati are a race of humanoid bugs descendant from a cross species of dragonfly and praying mantis. Scientist have now classified them as part of the Odanata-Bipedious. The first hand sightings say that the Darkinati stand approximately 5’6” crouched and 6’2” fully extended. They range in color from light green to dark brown depending on their surroundings and age.

Once only seen in shadow and blamed for mysterious disappearances of lost villagers and missing farm animals. Now they are breaking into buildings close to the jungle and using the technology in their own world. A curious race, the Darkinati will venture closer to human buildings to obverse and learn from humans, there are several cases of Darkinati have locked people in their homes while the Darkinati pillage their yard.

The Darkinati are considered to be elite scouters for the Hive. They usually hunt and scout alone, but when the hive is threaten then they will attack under the darkness of night. The Darkinati only think of the safety of the hive and will protect the hive with its life. If a Darkinati falls the others will retrieve the body and dispose of it. There are rumors of Darkinati graveyards, or that the bodies are eaten by the larva of the hive when they pass away. Not much is known of the hive, scientists speculate if there is one major hive with branches across the world or if each one of the Odanata-Bipedious hives are independent and if hives fight against each other for land and resources. The Darkinati are one of 3 roles of the Odanata-Bipedious group, while they may be weaker then the Hive Soldiers, they are considered to be faster and smarter. The Hive Soldiers rarely leave the Hive; it is not known how exactly how the hierarchy of the hive works, it is known that Queens rules the Hive, there has been sightings of Darkinati and Hive Soldiers fighting, it is not known which one is higher up on the hierarchy. The fighting also fuels the idea of different hives. The Darkinati communicate to each other and other members of the hive through pheromones, which are detected through it’s antennas, it’s nose is just for respiratory reasons. It’s wings are not used for long flight, but merely to use to extend their jumping abilities and communicate long distances, some consider the song of the Darkinati to be a sign of good luck.



Together, we as a team earned an extra mark, good for us.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

RR: Heavy Object Walk vid

Ok, I've been busy animating this piece and I'm still not feeling it 100%. I like the bottom half, but the upper half with the machine part, yeah, it's a machine part not a chess piece, gave me the biggest problem. I'll have to animate more cycles holding objects in the future...





Saw 28 Weeks Later, it was very well done.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

RR: Heavy Object Walk

Here's a quick screen from the latest scene I'm animating. It's a tricky scene where Roy is bringing a massive machine part downstairs. A pretty tricky scene, but I'm having lots of fun animating it.



I'll upload a vid later.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

RR: Button Press

Roy's Revenge has got a story remix, but is still has the same goal. I'm nearly done the Roy model, few more tweaks to do. I also have the giant laser modelled. Infact you can see both Roy and the machine in this animation! Well.... part of the machine.

Enjoy:


Monday, May 07, 2007

And Now The Star Of Our Show...

Behold..... Roy



(textures and weighting subject to change)

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Z-Brush Work

This semester I'm in Z-Brush (Zed Brush) class. Z-Brush is a 3D texturing program where you can import 3D objects from other 3D software and do things in minutes which would take hour to do in the other program. I'm also beginning to use a tablet to do my drawings. Now I'm getting used to the tablet and Z-Brush, here's some of my work:


My Eye Monster, inspired by the spyders from Minority Report, except mine are a bit more organic.


Backside details:


Take That Cold Virus!

Ok, if you read my last post you know that I caught a cold on Wednesday and started to get better by Thursday. Good for me! Anyway, I was still feeling it by Friday. It's a bit of a set back for my short "Roy's Revenge", but I still got stuff done despite having to blow my nose every 5-15 minutes. Yuck. I blame my roommate for my sudden cold.
Anyway, I've been working on my blog tonight and if you look to your right you'll see a little Twitter box (under the long list of links), it's mini updates from me! I'll post little things, like what songs are stuck in my head, what I'm currently working on, links of interest and other silly things.

I've been working on organizing my link section, so there might be some new and interesting ones being added, so keep an eye on those.

I've submitted this blog of mine to several blog sites and you can see a list of them at the bottom of the page.

I've joined FaceBook.com last Sunday and by the end of the day had 23 friends. FaceBook.com makes me feel a bit old because I found a couple of my old classmates on there and some of them have a kid or two! Meanwhile I'm going to an art school with green hair and wearing a Batman t-shirt. Wait... I like being an art student, I'm not ready for kids! If we've met or chatted online and you want to be my friend, then visit My Profile at Facebook

Ok, time for a picture. Remember how in March, while I was teaching LET at the Centre For Arts and Technology's Bootcamp and then went to the Okanagan Film Festival, well, I got a picture finally developed. Here it is:

From Left to Right: Mara (director/animator of "Paint Within the Lines"), Erin (Director/Animator of "Upon A Star"), Chris (Director/Animator of "Beyond the Desolate"), Nathan (Director/Animator of "Unfolded"), Nolan (Director/Animator of "Coffeeee"), Cassandra (Modeller/Animator of "The Nieghbour Below"), Chris W (Director/Animator of "The Nieghbour Below"). I've had at least 1 class with all of them! They're all very creative and nice guys and gals! I wish them all the best of luck!

Back to flogging my own stuff. I'll be adding more to this blog very soon, including that long, long, long over due banner on top. Which will link to my various labels, such as Roy's Revenge, Animation, Articles, Digimill, Life/General and whatever else I decided to add. I want to get my picture taken next to the Digimill.net SUV, that would be cool.

Anyway, I gotta go to sleep, more work to do including:

-Finishing touches on Roy's Revenge Lieca Reel
-Touch up animation on some animation tests
-Get final designs done for the the giant laser in Roy's Revenge
-Remix more NIN songs (one down...)
-Find the right Mommy Day card! May 13th Everyone! Next Sunday!!
-Turn JenEric into Roy
-Animate Nolan's Rouge Mage
-Among other things!

Friday, May 04, 2007

RR: Animation Test 5

Wow, the cold virus got me on Wednesday. It was rough, but I'm feeling much better now. Still have a runny nose and a sinus headache, but I'll live.
Back to the animation at hand. This is a continuation of Test 5. In this scene Roy is still waiting for his parcel to arrive and is frightened by the next door neighbour's yippee little dog barking. So imagine that sound byte until I get the an audio guy, which should be soon.



Leave comments! I'm getting lots of them over at the digimill.net forum, thanks to everyone over there!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

RR: Animation Test 4

The 4th animation test/rough animation for my upcoming short. I think I'm well on track, but there's still a lot to do. I may be on time right now, but I want to get ahead of schedule then you can attend to any render issues and such.
Here's the latest, comments welcomed!