Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Summer

Well, I finally remembered my blogspot password and have a sudden ounce of inspiration to make a post. Since last time I have finished the work on Alley Dog (as our movie is now titled), graduated with a BFA and some nice awards, and married a tall, dark, handsome man named Matt Zimmerman. Now I am deep into summer, working on my portfolio, working to get Alley Dog its own website and original music, and playing WoW.

Just to demonstrate how far the WoW playing has gone I have included the following screenshot:
























This is my lvl 80 human paladin fishing in Ogrimmar for the achievement of catching "Old Crafty". He is wearing the "crochet set" to make it clear that he is there for fishing only, lessening the number of times he got killed by other players. I should have known it would come to this.

P.S. he got "Old Crafty"


Monday, March 16, 2009

Post-term Autopsy

Well, we got far. We  have a long ways to go, but we got some really good stuff done. 

We got our other two characters textured and rigged:



We got all of our major sets built:






And we're starting to get to the shiny stuff:





Don't change horses in the middle of a river.

I probably shouldn't have agreed to this whole testing-of-the-new-computers thing.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Capstone Party

So Casey and Andrew and I had a work party in the graphics lab tonight. We brought snacks, music, and heavy coats for the cold. I started off by modeling the cockpit for the giant crane, then started my attempt at an animation for one of the scenes. Later I fixed the texture on the triop shell then worked on the rig for the trilobite. Now it's 11:15, 5 and some hours later, and I'm going to bed. 

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Time for movie time


So as I've been struggling with the scenery, Casey Pyke has been doing some awesome animation work. Check it. 

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Hooray for RGB

So the central matte painting is coming along as well. I'm done with all the little lines, now it's time for color

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The set for the first scene so far. It needs a lot of work, but at least I've started on it

Rigging Fail

So Casey was having some trouble animating Murder's head during the run cycles, and he wanted me to put an IK-FK switch into the neck. I thought it wouldn't be too hard, but hours and hours later, all I have is a mess. It would have been much easier to put the switch in early in the rigging process, but as it is now, it would take more time than its worth. Sorry Casey!


His face is not supposed to do that. 

Moving along

So yeah, the project is coming along bit by bit. I spent most of tuesday being picky about the triop's shell. I'm pretty happy with the results though:





Thursday, January 15, 2009



This is the base model for our main character, Murder.
I don't know why he's called Murder because he's really
a very nice skeletal robot dog, but the name's stuck now. 

More Hyenas. Just because I like them.




















































Here are some concept paintings and matte a matte painting in progress for the big, climactic scene.
Ok, so this is required for the Capstone class, otherwise I would never get around to doing it.

Description of the project, in stages:

One page description: 

            My capstone project is a collaborative animation that I will be making with Casey Pyke. The animation will feature a robot dog character who discovers and chases three flying robotic triops through an abandoned, futuristic city.  The chase will end when the dog character runs into the triops’ protector- a giant, hovering trilobite- and must then himself flee. The animation will run from three to four minutes long and will utilize both 3-D and 2-D techniques. So far it is projected to have ten scenes and 52 shots. It will feature three character models: the robot dog “Murder”, the tiny robot triops, and the large robot trilobite. The city itself will also be emphasized as a vast urban wasteland in which the ownerless robots roam wild.

            Casey and I will split the work fairly evenly between animation and set building. Casey will do most of the animating, dynamics, and particle effects while I will produce most of the sets, lighting, and 2-D painting work. Murder is already modeled, textured, and rigged which will allow us both to start working right away. We also already have a triop model, a trilobite model, a complete animatic  of the entire piece, story boards, and other concept work. We want the piece to have original music, and we want to recruit a composer to write us a cinematic score.  Casey and I are also both musicians, so we will probably be doing a lot of score work as well.

            This piece will be shown in the Meese Auditorium on May 28. We will also submit it to several film festivals, and no doubt we will become rich and famous. 

One paragraph description:

My capstone project is a collaborative animation that I will be making with Casey Pyke. The animation will feature a robot dog character who discovers and chases three flying robotic triops through an abandoned, futuristic city.  The chase will end when the dog character runs into the triops’ protector- a giant, hovering trilobite- and must then himself flee. The animation will run from three to four minutes long and will utilize both 3-D and 2-D techniques. No doubt we will become rich and famous.

One sentence description:

My capstone project is a collaborative animation utilizing 2-D and 3-D techniques that will feature a chase scene through an abandoned, futuristic city that will make Casey Pyke and I rich and famous. 

Working title

Scissordog? Flight? A Dog Who Can Run Up Buildings Because He Has Blades for Feet?
I don't know, this part of the assignment is too hard. 

Specific Products of Study:

3 fully textured, rigged, animateable characters
All necessary sets for the animation
All necessary matte paintings and texture paintings for the animation
A 3-4 minute original score
A 3-4 minute super shiny 3-D animation


Technical and Research Issues:

Need to learn:
  • How to make dramatic, convincing lighting in Maya
  • Effective compositing techniques for 2-D and 3-D
  • How to make dramatic, efficient sets
  • How to make certain sound effects
Timeline:

This animation is slotted to show on May 28 in the Meese Auditorium. So hopefully it will be done by then. Most of the steps along the way will be worked on simultaneously.


Thursday, January 8, 2009



Testing out the photo feature with one of my favorite animals: Crocuta Crocuta


Tuesday, January 6, 2009

And to practice putting in youtube videos:

One of my favorite animations ever.

Initiating project blog:

So we're supposed to do a blog for our capstone projects. I've never done a blog before, but it seems like a good idea. Here we go.