Intergalactic planetary

Just a quick update so I can feel like I'm making progress on some of these projects. First off, here is a walk cycle for a project that will be on UK televisions this summer. More on that later. Here is the first pass to start getting the weight down.

Secondly, my game is coming along great. Unity is an amazing tool and I'm very satisfied with the progress I'm making. It took only about a week to get the basic gameplay together. Of course the devil is in the details and there is a ton of work yet to do, but I was very surprised how easy it was to get so much done so fast. Refining the gameplay is one thing, but game assets are going to be the bulk of the work. I'll get some gameplay videos together and offically open my game company website once I have something decent to show, but for now here is a mockup for one of the vehicles in the game.



The colors are throwaway, I just wanted to get this little guy to look cool with the functionality I was going for. I call this one the bullfrog. It is mostly done and in-game now, and I have a cool toon shader that is looking great. I can't get enough of this stuff...

Egg Salad Sandwich

Here is the "finished" product. I would spend a few more weekends on this, but I need to simply take it as a learning experience and move on.

Unfortunately my short film is going on the back burner as I'm gearing up to start making some games for the web and eventually iPhone using Unity. I'm extremely ADD lately with all my different projects, but I think this is the best next step for me and definitely what I'm most excited about.

It's all in the eyes

I work best around the house when something triggers an OCD episode. Some days I just want cereal. Realizing that none of the cereal bowls are clean and there are a sink full of dishes I go into a cleaning frenzy. After cleaning all the dishes, vacuuming the floor and taking out the trash I pour myself a bowlful of tasty empty calories. Why didn't I clean the house earlier? I didn't want cereal.

I'm finding that I work the same in all aspects of my life. I've been storyboarding my short film and fleshing out timing in the animatic, but I really got an itch to animate something. I started to animate a short 40 second acting sequence as an exercise. Now that I'm to the point of animating the face I realized I need a face rig proper to get more facial expression. Another week later and I've learned the ins and outs of building a face rig UI.

Having worked as a programmer for over 5 years now I've realized that I need to script in 3D more because that would be the next evolutionary step for me. Now that I understand Maxscript a whole new world has opened up. I told my wife it's as if I understand the Matrix.

Eye Rig Test

It's simple really, here's the expression to control the upper left eyelid:

brow_factor = brow * .16
angle = (-(top_lid*1.9)+70) +
((-(eye_ctrl_x - eye_ctrl_home_x)) * .03)

if (brow < 0) then angle -= brow_factor

degToRad(
amin#(
if top_lid < -28 then
124
else
amax#(angle,40 - brow_factor),
124)
)

The take away lesson is that Float Script controllers are the way to go. Forget Reaction Manager (if you know how write Maxscript), forget Wire Parameters and forget Float Expressions.

Small update

Some sketches of the robot.

The next big thing

I've had a short film idea boiling in my mind for the past few years. I've thought long enough about it that I can watch it forward and backward in my mind. It's about time that I get it out of my mind and into everyone else's. I call it "Safe".

The premise is this. A neurotic robot that has been struggling to survive a slightly futuristic post-apocalyptic war torn world finally finds a reason to keep going. I know the setting may be a bit cliché but the story, I hope, isn't.

The robot is slowly losing his mind in his solitude while avoiding the "heartless", a mindless breed of violent robots. In the film's opening the robot stumbles upon a soggy old teddy bear lying on the road. The robot takes the bear in as it's own and the story continues as we see the robot facing all odds to protect it. The robot's struggle is analogous to a parent trying to protect their own child from the world.

Here is a concept from one of the early scenes as the robot is discovering his new friend in temporary safety.


More to come on this in the coming months!

Showreel

I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Here is my showreel that I put together this summer.

Last year

This past year was probably my life's busiest. I worked on putting together the first episode in a new animated DVD series called Scripture Bugs. Working by day as a web software engineer, I had to dig deep to find the energy to come home and work into the night on Scripture Bugs. It was an awesome opportunity and I'm glad that I was given the chance to work on it!

In the end I created all the characters and put all the visuals and animation together in about 10 months. It's 38 minutes long and it nearly killed me, literally. In the final stretch I pulled an all-nighter, working for nearly 24 hours straight. I finished and delivered the last scene with Moses parting the red sea and had hardly a minute to spare. I almost ran off the road from lack of sleep when driving to deliver the final renders.

It was hard, and I learned a lot. I'm very excited to start on the next one. I learned how to be a better animator and I've overcome all of the technical obstacles so I can spend less time on problems and more time on being creative.

Here are some screenshots and video.