Update 8/20/2013

Howdy all, been meaning to update this blog for awhile. 

I've been up to a lot lately. Attended SIIGRAPH this year, saw all manner of strange and wonderful things. Went to Seattle gave my sister the below:

Graduate Dinosaur

I'm doing some paper craft designs for download off Etsy. There's more than just the dino we got: rocket ships, fantasy card cases, and more. I'll post a link when it comes time to open.

Pixel Exploration

Sometime after CTN I started doing pixel art. I also felt a need to draw more. What I did at the time sat around for some reason - so I'm sharing it now. 

Sketch Dump #1

I solemnly swear to draw and post more. Or do and post more often.  I guess that's the moral of the story.

4 / 14 / 2013 Update Big Project Little Project

Today I look back at two projects that have been done in the last two weeks.

How to make a shooting star?

City of Absent Giants met its first deadline. What this deadline entailed was how the heck am I gonna approach this project? How is it going to be visually presented? The myriad of technical problems had to be answerable. I know more now than I did two months ago.

This is true of all projects, but it is the big ones that make you really think. Even though I'm currently happy with the results I have reservations. With answers instead of assumptions it is now my task to reapply what I now know. 

Recently I completed a short 3-day project for The University of Washington's Japanese Student Association. A quick ad for their upcoming Matsuri held later this week.

The project began through my sister. I was busy with City of Absent Giants at the time, so I asked her to draw me a storyboard and characters. The flustered Journalism Major did her best, which as it turned out supplied me with more than enough information to get started.

However the finished work is heavily abridged from what she boarded out (which could have easily been 3-minutes). Mind you she had no concept of the 180 degree rule and the general theme was a Husky discovering the Matsuri. I changed the theme to "Husky Yojimbo brinin' teh partay" while the chain of characters we meet remains the same.

Husky Yojimbo brings the party.

It was an interesting experiment to play on my unsuspecting sister. My initial motive was to get a feel for girly drawings - you know cute drawings. To see what someone else would come up with besides myself. I undoubtedly changed things when it came to make the actual art -however Madame Bun-Bun is the only character I actually made up. Years of Asian cuisine ads where women with paper fans laughing for no discernible reason had finally taken their toll.

 

Cast o' characters.

The uncool thing about this project was the deadline. The cool thing is that I'm now crazy fast. The cool thing about this project was rediscovering funny animal characters. The uncool aspect was my realization that I need to draw more. The cool thing is I'll probably be drawing more animals.

Yep, the continual act of juggling skill sets continue.

Update 3 / 28 / 2013 : City of Absent Giants

It has been far to looooooooooong since my last update. I've been up to a lot recently tackling my new film The City of Absent Giants. Most of the work below is subject to change.

Oknitide an inhospitable desert of shifting sands.

My motivation for making this film is simple. I want to tell stories in my films, but I have yet to actually tell one. I'm tired of animating one-dimensional mimes - I want characters that are fully fleshed out! So I wrote a script and concept in mid January and began production in February. The idea for the story occurred some 6 months prior.

I'm still making assets, but hopefully we'll get to some meaty animation.... eventually. >_<

The benefit is I'm doing things I don't ordinarily do.

The humans take shelter from the world in a structure built by giants.

Talitha discovers that the city is not really absent of giants.

The story is more conventional than stories I've done in the past. There is no random references to the I-Ching trigrams, neural networks, or anything convoluted and horrible.  It is oddly focused which is something that pleases me greatly.

Our giantess. Things happen.

In the weeks ahead I might post some concept art among other paraphernalia . If you have any questions or comments I'd like to hear from you.

Back from a Winter Break

4 - day simple short made during a cold front. Nothing fantastic, but it served its purpose as a quick fun project. Back to the big projects at hand!

Updates!

After CTN I've been gone for a while, but now I'm back and better than ever!

The story is about a balloon finding its way in the world.

I give you the below entitled "Helium Head"

In other news my friend Thomas McNiece has posted the first trailer of his film "Nem Gate." I've had a loose association with the project for three years. It is interesting from my perspective how this film progressed. Just check it out:

For more information you can check out their respective Facebook pages:
facebook.com/NemGate
facebook.com/RadianHelix

Saturday Morning Tips: Animation Setup in After Effects

At the time of this post (or at least what I intended) I am currently attending CTN, so I'm keeping it simple this post. I was asked a week ago how I animated straight ahead in After Effects.

In this post we'll cover how to block in After Effects - quick and easy:

There is a number of ways to approach animation in after effects - most of these ways are effective in their own right. However when you start making an ultra convoluted character and expect to animate it in After Effects like you would in Maya, Blender, Modo, etc - you hit a wall.

 Most techniques out there are fine for motion media types ,which is what After Effects does well. It's when you have 21 controls with about 3-10 attributes each, that is when you realize that you're not moving a square, but an army.

Also I'm not suggesting that you should have 21 controls on your character rig. If there is anything I've learned less IS more.

The setup is simple: for every attribute you need, the stopwatch must be toggled. You could use the auto key-frame, but I find it to be messy working with also I can't get to a default pose quicker.

When your done toggling: select these new keys, right click, and go down to toggle hold keyframe.

 

This will turn the linear keys into easy-in holds. Note: If there was a linear key before the easy-in 

hold it would tween to a slow stop. Anything after the easy-in hold will be a true hold, however this isn't anything to stress over.

After creating all these holds I usually tuck these keys one frame left of zero. This way I can quickly reference the default pose if I need to call it up.

After I have done this I block, and I make sure to alter everything on each pose - insuring order. You want to know that everything is keyed on frame x, frame y, and frame etc.

However it is wise to adjust the resolution before you start:

You'll need to manage both the work space's resolution and the preview's resolution.

Go to the resolution tab and go down to custom:

Here you can adjust for every x pixel horizontally and vertically, that pixel will be rendered as opposed to all of them. This will save on render and playback time as you fine tune your animation. When you feel like it is ready for the final cut be sure to boost it back to full res.

Those were a few quick tips to get started - I hope they were helpful.

Saturday Morning Tutorials: 360 Head Part 3

A little belated, but it is still Saturday:

This is more or less the last part of my Tutorial on how to make an expressive rotatable head.

I'll go more in-depth on controls and animation process in the weeks ahead. Please refer to previous tuts concerning track mattes and hooking up expressions to controllers - In the interest of keeping these short I'm not repeating myself.

The parts are a face plate, nose, bangs, hair, and a buckle - some bit of hair that connects with the bangs in front and the hair at the back of the head. It is not necessary to color or texture the hair, maybe tint them differently to know which is which when adjusting, but the only thing that is important is their shape.

The pieces are simple, but must be designed with some care. However the process is not at all mysterious just expect to go in and out of After Effects until you achieve the desired effect. This is also true when it comes to displacement maps (we'll get to those later).

First be sure to duplicate your eye comps from the last tutorial.  Be sure to flip and rewire it, so it works like the original, but separate from it. You will then have both the left and right eye. 

Make a composition for the head and place all your parts inside. Select the parts pertaining to the face and pre-compose them. Example: (face, nose, eye_lt, eye_rt, and mouth) 

Simply arrange your face how you'd like it to be. After that it is time to go back to the head layer to apply FreeForm to the parts of the head.  Be sure to have your displacement maps in the same composition with its visibility turned off.  If you made your displacement map in the same comp within After Effects be sure to pre-compose it (explained further below).

Here's a short run down of FreeForm's attributes:

You can make domes, half-domes, and saddles easily enough with displacement maps. Don't try making a sphere with FreeForm. Now what in tarnation is a displacement map? You may be wondering - well they look generally like this:

There is only one rule: white advances, black recedes.

If you get tired of going back and forth from Photoshop like me you can make a map within after effects. Just be sure to pre-comp it so FreeForm can read it as a flat image. With this knowledge you can also make waving flags and turbulent surfaces.

Once you think you understand the above you get this:

Our last problem is how to overcome FreeForm layer stacking issue. FreeForm still obeys the layer stack of your composition. Unlike After Effects' default 3D layers that can obscure other layers no matter the layer order. Freeform does not recognize other layers with FreeForm on it. Now how do we solve this pesky layering problem within FreeForm?

Simply upload a small PNG file with nothing on it save for 100% glorious transparency.

Place it in the head composition and reference it in FreeForm's backside controls. There the ugly unwanted backside is gone!

If you happen to want a bit of the backside wrapping around the face just duplicate - the bangs for instance and put it behind the face.

The last step is inserting a few flat gradient layers. Make them into alpha mattes and the hair should blend seamlessly together. Doing this will also reduce how flat the character looks.

There isn't a real cut and dry step by step theory of getting this right - only through patience and perseverance can you get this working. These tips should guide you in the right direction.

Till next time!

Head Tutorial:
Nimbus Link: First Post
360 Head Tutorial Part 1: Design
360 Head Tutorial Part 2: Eyes and Mouth
360 Head Tutorial Part 3: The Head