First actual update.
So now that I've gotten through my first wave of applications and things have settled down a bit, I've been able to get back to my various personal projects....many of which will either replace or be added to bits in my two demo reels.
I have a large list of planned ideas. For the sake of organization, I'll list them here:
1) More walk cycles....ALL THE WALK CYCLES. My original plan for my reel was to use the Morpheus rig and literally have the thing morph between different body types, and thus, different walking postures. I already have the different cycles planned out....but morphing between them in a single shot has been interesting (and rather complicated) to figure out. So...stay tuned on that.
An example of the different body types I'm trying to work with.
1) Hipstery, laid-back college kid.
2) Snobby librarian.
3) Overweight fellow.
4) Sad/depressed kid.
2) My friggin' Halloween image from last year (2014). Every year I *try* to get a Halloween image or mini-movie out....just for fun. Depending on the year, I just don't always have time. Here are a few such samples (and a couple of behind-the-scenes videos) for the sake of example:
Last year (2014), my idea was to make a steampunk-esque clockwork robot. I naturally started late into the month and just didn't have time to finish before I had to move on to more pressing projects. *sighs* Perhaps this year...
3) Finishing this whole animation. The original concept was inspired by an occasion where during the winter, I opened my front door, only to be received by a blast of cold air and snow. So for this, my plan is/was to have a man walking down a hallway with his dog. The dog, being as annoying as they can be, is playing with a ball and drops it in the middle of the hallway. The man puts on his scarf and accidentally trips on the ball. This part was added for the sake of practicing comedic actions as well as constraint animation with the coat hanger. He then proceeds to grab his keys and open the door...only to be met with an exaggerated blast of wind/snow...sending him flying into the air, before he slams the door shut. I admit, this was an ambitious idea for someone at my level of experience...but it's definitely been a good learning opportunity. For my current reel (as of October 2015) I had to cut out a large chunk of the idea so I'd have something to submit for a few tight application deadlines.....so I'll post the initial layout, the submitted version and then a blocked-out version of what happens next (minus the dog). This is all still a huge work in progress....the biggest challenge being making a convincing cloth simulation for the scarf, which is not something I have a lot of experience with. So we'll see how that goes.
My initial layout...lots of things were re-timed after.
Reference!
The submitted chunk...minus the dog and preliminary ball animation.
The rest of the animation...still very much in progress.
4) This will be the last part of this specific post...as it's getting pretty huge. Anyways....my friend and I have been working on a Doctor Who medley. We're both BIG fans of the show and Murray Gold's score. So I put together a medley of the actual music, and my friend is currently transposing everything so he can play it solely on his cello. Once he's done, the plan is to record it...and then create a video, similarly to many other instrumental videos one can find online nowadays, For the video, I've been deep in an experimental stage, playing with custom models of the Tardis, the Earth, the Sonic Screwdriver, and the Time Vortex...all of which I've made rendered samples of. There's still much work to be done (like re-modeling the Tardis, for example)...but seeing some of these come to life has been very exciting.
TARDIS
SONIC SCREWDRIVER
My Sonic Screwdriver model in it's current incarnation.
A fully functional rig.
Rendered turntable. Had a bit of a size issue with my bump map on the white part of the handle. It'll be fixed later on.
TIME VORTEX
A breakdown video showing many of the render layers I created, starting with textures in Adobe After Effects, projected onto a tube in Maya, and then comped in Nuke. There's a TON more work to be done...but this was a fun experiment.
EARTH
Created for both this project and for general use in space sequences...I wanted to see if I could get a decent-looking, realistic Earth. It doesn't hold up perfectly at *every* angle...but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
A demonstrative video displaying how my Earth model reacts to changing lighting..with fully editable shadows and night-lights.
That's all for THIS blog post. Until the next one!