Jekyll is comming along a bit...

Well, not really much to report on recently... though today at work we have been joined by four new Junior CG Artists at work, and its really good to have some new chaps in the studio, and they are all really sorted lads aswell, so quite happy about that. Good to have them on board. However it's been a bit more of a hastle to get into work recently as some kind gentleman decided to nick my bike from outside church last Sunday.

But life goes on, and all is well, and I was able to have a good laugh at my housemate's expence considering his failed attempt to dye his hair blond. Idiot.

So to the animation.

Well this is what I have so far, and to my understanding, Jekyll is finished. The body components - torso, neck, upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs, hands and feet - are all seperate elements which have been wrapped to the body of another character not only to cheat on the rigging and weighting process, but also for stylistic purposes. Honest.

Check out the full sized image

It took a little while for my fo figure out what was goin on in Mudbox which meant that whenever I tried to export the torso's normal map, the entire thing crashed - even to the point when the version on my work computer failed to open, even failed to reinstall. I killed Mudbox, seemingly perminantly... but there are ways round that, and eventually I managed to sort out the problem. Turns out I had a major mistalke with the geometry, but with that sorted, i managed to export this pretty little normal map.


Though I am still a little unsure about the hands, I think I may have to dull that a bit. But other than that, Im quite happy.

Recently got a TV licence. I get easily destracted.

Oh, and by the way, check out my very tallented friends excellent creations, some really great looking sock monsters, check out Hotdog Creations - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hotdog-Creations/121633261227635

Right. TV is on. Good bye.

International Suit Up Day 2010

well today has been fun. Ive been in work and streight after to Felling Good Feeling Free - a youth event where I help lead a music workshop. And I did it all in a suit. It was good. It was smart. It was legend-wait for it-dary. Just a shame I was busy and couldn't enjoy a night out or a day trip to plymouth or devon or whatever my house mate did. Jealous.

Work is going nicely - almost locked down the previs for the Cairo Project, then could start on the actual production. Also we have just moved into a new, larger studio at the National Space Centre and are about the widen our workforce by adding four new Junior CG Artists. It was about this time last year that I joined. Can't believe I've been there a year already! Also have been playing with a new toy we are borrowing for a while. Check it out, it is beautiful.
http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?lang=en&pid=95

So yeah, this Feeling Good Feeling Free thing - the workshops are all aimed towards a show to be put on at The Y (Liecester's YMCA) in a couple of weeks time, and our kids are awesome. Infact this week was the first week to play through some tracks (Smoke on the Water done 12 bar blues improv and a nice jazz track called Sunny), and do you know what? Those kids absolutely rocked it! First session. Awesome. The show at The Y is going to be epic, I am really proud of those kids.

This and the writers course Im doing, also the motivation to go to the gym twice or three times a week, and other little things around and about have meant that I am very busy, and not finding time to continue with the HYDE project easily.

But I am enjoying sleep.

I get excited about sleep at the best of times, but now things are better. I have been living in this new house (unfernished) for a couple of months now, and it was only the other day that I was able to buy myself a propper mattress. Up untill now I have been on my mates inflatable... it has been ok, but not the best.

What I have now is the best. Now i have a king sized memory foam all to myself. True that I dont need a king sized, but screw that, I was being greedy and it was totally worth it. Only over a hundred as well - quite cheep. And so comfy. Was a bit of a pain to get it up the stairs though.

Anyway.
Well it's been a little while.
And my work on HYDE seems to be stuck for a little while... Im hopeing that by the end of this weekend I would have something to show. I have created the body parts (as I think I mentioned before, Jekyll is going to be quite disjointed, almost like a puppet with hinged joints) and have played around with them in Mudbox. My main problem is that Mudbox tends to crash when trying to export the Normal Map, and Im not too sure why - its not a particularly large object or dense mesh. Will have to work on that.

The only other thing I have been working on is the script for HYDE. Or more the literal description of the story. At the moment it is empty of naration or dialogue, and I think I would prefer to keep it that way. One thing is for sure though; this is going to be a long project. It is going to incorporate other aspects of animation, not just CG, but traditional hand-drawn, motion graphics and shadow puppet (which I cannot decide if I should do CG or filmed and comp it in). At the moment I am just over halfway through the story, but will chuck some sketches up when I have finished and moved on to storyboarding.

Anyway. Sorry it has been a bit boring and there is a significant lack of pictures, but I figured I needed to write something otherwise I would get out of the swing of things. Cheers for your patience.

Oz

Squirrels are awesome.

Fact.

My cycle to work is better than many others. It's three miles, usually takes me about 15-20 mins, but recently has been taking me closer to half an hour - my back wheel is bowed and so is quite stiff against the breaks at times. The greatest thing about the ride is the fact that I don't touch a road. In fact as soon as I get round the corner from my house, I ride through one park, get onto a footpath by the canal, through a second, much larger, much more beautiful park, onto a second, much smaller footpath by a river, and I'm there. Where as my housemate (check his artwork - http://cavemandesign.blogspot.com/ ) has to cycle for about 20 mins down one of the busiest roads in Leicester.

Abbey Park is a big, beautiful park, with nice areas, lakes, gardens and such, but one of the things I enjoy more than all those, even more than the random faces someone seems to have cut into the trees and bushes ...

(Photo from katieejohnsonphotography.blogspot.com)

... is the squirrels which seem to have no clue as to whats going on. At all. Ever. Almost ran two over the other day. One of them just ran out in front of my bike then, in a flash, spun and retreated. The other ran out in front, and instead of retreating, just ran forwards just in front of my bike for ages!
So I chased it.
Calling out 'I'm gonna get ya!'.

Damn those things are fast.

Still, they are awesome.

Fact.

I want this blog to be more than just animation based - I want it to be more like a personal diary. I don't want to seem self important as though you must give heed to my words (though I am, and you should), it's just a way of getting thoughts onto paper. Or... well you know... written.

But to the subject of animation - Here!

Jekyll and Hyde from my HYDE project

... and ...

Mudbox Jekyll, sculpted and painted!
Please view full size!

Now if only I knew an easy and effective way of getting normal maps to look non-crap in Maya... But I have done blendshapes for Jekyll and Hyde, so facially they are ready to animate with. I am planning on attaching each body member to a pre-built rig individually. Its partially for style, but also for ease of not having to build and weight a new rig.

Either way, the project is coming along nicely, and I have been given the thumbs up from my boss to get Maya on my computer at work (we use 3DS Max) so I can continue with it after hours. Hopefully this will give me more of a motivation to get on with it, rather than thinking I will work when I get home, then instead spend the entire night watching How I Met Your Mother which is what I will be doing for the last couple of hours of this day (by the way, International Suit Up Day - 13th Oct - http://www.facebook.com/internationalsuitupday - LEGEN - Wait for it - DARY).

Right. That's the end from me. Take care!

It's been a long time...

Hey all, this is my new blog. The last blogs I have done have been project specific (Self Help, RETARDO) where as this is one that I could just continue with, share some thoughts and maybe even some work in progress.

True to say I didn't really do much on previous blogs, and didn't really have many people following, however this time I hope to utilise this medium as much as I can.

So what have I been up to in the past ages since RETARDO?



Well, where I am at the moment, I am a Junior CG Artist working as part of the NSC Creative team based at the National Space Centre, Leicester - http://www.nsccreative.com/

I have worked there almost a year now, and have worked on a number of exciting projects with the team, including a sterioscopic 4D adventure for Edinbourgh's Our Dynamic Earth museum, and a television advert for the National Space Centre, as well as other projects mainly in pre-vis stages.



Other than work I have passed my motorbike licence, though I am still waiting for the licence to arive... I have been playing around with a cello and just the other night started a writers course. I have been getting into writing in my spare time, and have been reading much more, working my way through Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

As for personal works, I have been finding it hard to find the motivation. However, I have decided to kick myself into gear and start a short based on Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. I am pleased to say that I can show you a quick glimpse of the WIP...


Im not sure how fast this project will pass, so don't expect updates all the time... I have a number of other things on at the same time, so time to sit and play with this may be sparse.

Other than all that, at the moment I am mostly reading Edwin A. Abbot's Flatland, mainly listening to Joanna Newsom (who I recently watched at the Palace Theatre in Manchester), and verily enjoyed Scott Pilgrim in the movie world. In the comic world, I would advise people to check out Gerald Way's Umbrella Academy - very interesting story, and beautifully illustrated.

Anyway, I think that will be all for now!

Good Night