tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51265535288398135842024-03-13T11:10:44.032+00:00A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.comBlogger298125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-21632152630304206582014-11-03T21:48:00.001+00:002014-11-03T21:48:28.418+00:002000 years later...<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hzYWzNTB8m0?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
OK, it may not be 2000 years later, but it has been 1 whole year since I last posted anything!<br />
<br />
Rather than write about everything that's happened in one mega post, I will instead try to post a little something every so often to keep the blog fresh. For now I will keep it really short and say that I have worked on several projects recently. You can read about one of the projects I was involved with <a href="http://actcgaa.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>. I've also continued learning the Maya API / c++ and have been working on something, which no doubt I will show you sometime soon!<br />
<br />
Ethan ShillingAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-53046420403042042662013-11-03T17:34:00.000+00:002013-11-03T17:34:01.452+00:00C++ - Maya API - Deformers and Worms?<br />
It's been far too long since my last post. Far far too long!<br />
<br />
It makes writing this post all the more difficult as it is impossible to cover everything that I have done these past few months.<br />
<br />
For those of you that can remember reading about my custom displacement deformer plugin for Maya (it was my last post actually - <a href="http://www.aflockofpixels.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/maya-python-api-and-my-custom-deformer.html">here</a>), you may recall that it was written in Python, and I said that one day I would have a go at writing it in C++.<br />
Well, I did just that!<br />
<br />
Just to fill everyone in on what I'm talking about, I created a custom deformer for Maya, which displaces geometry based on textures. It works like an ordinary displacement map, only instead of applying the effect at render time, it instead applies the effect directly to the mesh as a deformation. <br />
<br />
The Python version ran too slow to be of any real use (certainly for detailed animation), whereas the c++ version can handle very dense meshes and still gives near real-time performance.<br />
<br />
As an added extra, I also implemented a colour per vertex feature, which gives colour feedback on the displacement effect. Blue represents negative displacement, while red is positive.<br />
<br />
Take a look at this video.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9ZSARgNXHF4?rel=0" width="640"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Texturing has never been my strongest suit, which is why I am pleased with the next thing I have to show.<br />
I'm sure some of you will have heard of the <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/" target="_blank">Steam Workshop</a>, so when a new <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=233840&browsesort=trend" target="_blank">Worms game</a> was released with Steam Workshop support, I couldn't resist creating some custom items for the game.<br />
You can create hats/masks, gravestones and random items for your worms to hold onto.<br />
<br />
They're all Doctor Who themed... what a surprise!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
The TARDIS gravestone </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BWKpJYXB7JA/UmfcsM86RCI/AAAAAAAADT0/pRYeS-QjH44/s1600/DoctorWhoTardis_Icon_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BWKpJYXB7JA/UmfcsM86RCI/AAAAAAAADT0/pRYeS-QjH44/s1600/DoctorWhoTardis_Icon_01.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
It's just made up of a few cubes and extrusions. The challenge with this asset is that the TARDIS is a very detailed object, and the texture map size is limited to 256 by 256! Somehow the UV space had to accommodate for all this detail at such a small resolution.<br />
<br />
Simple things like overlapping the UVs and prioritising certain details (like the 'police public call box' text), I was able to pack all that detail in.<br />
<br />
In the end, the texturing probably has greater influence over the quality of a model than the model itself.<br />
<br />
Here's the rest of them.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
The Sonic Screwdriver</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nYWqucu8fR0/Umfcr3NketI/AAAAAAAADTo/X_-CLVdi8lA/s1600/DoctorWhoSonicScrewdriver_Icon_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nYWqucu8fR0/Umfcr3NketI/AAAAAAAADTo/X_-CLVdi8lA/s1600/DoctorWhoSonicScrewdriver_Icon_01.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Gas Mask Zombie</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DCXy_I0ecPM/UmfcrX3qqFI/AAAAAAAADT8/kFdAkM-St8o/s1600/DoctorWhoGasMask_Icon_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DCXy_I0ecPM/UmfcrX3qqFI/AAAAAAAADT8/kFdAkM-St8o/s1600/DoctorWhoGasMask_Icon_01.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
A Fez</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3p9Wara2c2w/UmfcraiJW3I/AAAAAAAADTk/TNyjdJrCcfU/s1600/DoctorWhoFez_Icon_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3p9Wara2c2w/UmfcraiJW3I/AAAAAAAADTk/TNyjdJrCcfU/s1600/DoctorWhoFez_Icon_01.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
The 4th Doctor's Hat (Tom Baker)</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j7704aJO5BE/UmfcrehNTuI/AAAAAAAADTg/FmdYfBuMQYQ/s1600/DoctorWho4thDoctorsHat_Icon_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j7704aJO5BE/UmfcrehNTuI/AAAAAAAADTg/FmdYfBuMQYQ/s1600/DoctorWho4thDoctorsHat_Icon_01.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Go check out my Steam Workshop page - <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198030210812/myworkshopfiles?appid=233840" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I could go on talking about the many other Python / rigging related things I've been doing, but I think that is enough for one post.<br />
<br />
Ethan ShillingAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-41026594049419608642013-03-14T10:18:00.000+00:002013-03-14T10:21:16.818+00:00Maya Python API and my Custom Deformer Node
Its been an interesting couple of weeks.<br />
For some time now I've been reading up on the Maya API (this is how plug-ins are made for Maya), but never delving right in because it looked so daunting. Why? Well, learning the API and yet another language (C++) at the same time seemed just too much to take in.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, it turns out that there are two Maya APIs, one in C++ (the original), and the other in Python (not to be confused with Python scripting in Maya, which is what I have been doing up until this point).<br />
<br />
The main differences between the two is that C++ plugins run much faster than python plugins. However Python plugins don't need to be re-compiled for the many different versions of Maya on different operating systems; and as I'm more fammilliar with Python code is also much easier to read.<br />
<br />
So what I have been working on is a custom deformer node with the Python API. I've called it ecs_Displace (prefixed with my initials), and what it does is it displaces geometry based off of a texture. In much the same way as using a displacement map at render time, this will deform the geometry directly, with visible results in the Maya viewport.<br />
It can take any kind of image, including animated procedural textures, both 2D and 3D.<br />
It can even be used to create simple bulging effects without a texture plugged in, using weight painting to isolate the effect.<br />
Here is a demo.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WdwyHNMMr-g?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
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ecs_Displace Main Features ↓
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<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Supports 2D and 3D Textures</b></span> - Including projected 2D textures. Textures can be layered and animated to build up different effects.
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Supports Vector Displacement Maps</b></span> - Works in both Object Space and Tangent Space to create deformations that can overlap.
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Smart Sampling Feature</b></span> - To increase the performance, rather than re-sampling the textures every time the deformer needs to re-evaluate, it can optionally store and remember that sampled data; only re-sampling when the texture is changed. It can be switched off entirely, and forced to always sample.
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Capping Options</b></span> - Provides a simple way to limit the amount that the geometry can be displaced, by capping the values at the desired threshold.
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Supports Multiple Objects</b></span> - One deformer can be applied to multiple meshes.
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Supports Deformer Membership</b></span> - Limits the number of vertices to run the calculations on.
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Supports Weight Painting</b></span> - Smoothly paint the influence of displacement over the mesh.
<br />
<br />
</div>
</div>
</span>
<br />
Of course, I'm not the first person to do this though, as there are a couple of other plug-ins that do the same basic thing; <a href="http://www.braverabbit.de/playground/?p=837">iDisplace</a>, <a href="http://www.soup-dev.com/">SOuP</a> (specificity the peak node, although not quite a simple to setup) and <a href="http://www.lightstorm3d.com/tools/?page_id=59">L3Deformer</a>(which isn't free). In all these cases, they are C++ plug-ins, so they are much faster, but the code is inaccessible as they are compiled, and they do not provide the source code. Which of course means that if you need a specific compiled version and they don't have it, then your're a bit stuck.<br />
<br />
Anyway, after spending the time to recreate this kind of deformer, I am very happy with what I have learnt, and maybe eventually, when I've had more experience with the API, I will attempt to convert my deformer to C++... and then multi-thread it! OK, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself!<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, on the Scripting side of things, I am in the process of creating a base template UI for all my custom tools. Kind of like how all of the tools in Maya follow the same basic template, which is basicaly just a box with widgets in that is not dock-able, can be scaled to sizes that don't even fit the widgets, and can only have one tool open at a time! Mine will be better ;)<br />
But more on that another day.<br />
<br />
A Flock of Pixels
AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-38633108369889097332013-02-05T21:53:00.000+00:002013-03-14T10:21:16.816+00:00Python in Maya<link href="http://google-code-prettify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src/prettify.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"></link>
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<br />
So this is the first post for 2013 and it's been around 4 months since the last post. So what have I been up to in that time? Learning Python! ...and how to use it in Maya.<br />
Here is a very short demo of a python script that I was working on this morning.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DQ7eZGC2GOI?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
So what you have just seen are a bunch of hair follicles being made all over the mesh, based on the positions of the locators around it. The locators don't have to be sitting on the mesh as it works out the nearest point. We can then use the follicles to stick things to a deforming mesh.<br />
<br />
One thing to be aware of is that the mesh should be UV mapped first as changing the UVs later on will shift all the follicles around, but apart from that, it's a fairly decent alternative to the Rivet script by Michael Bazhutkin.<br />
<br />
So apart from allowing you to stick objects to meshes, this is also handy if you are rigging a ribbon spine. No more second guessing the UV parameters in the follicle settings!<br />
<br />
The script also works in a very clean way by not making any unnecessary nodes; So rather than making an entire hair system, which would then be deleted; the follicles are created with the following command.<br />
<br />
<pre class="prettyprint linenums">// Mel
createNode "follicle" ;
# Python
createNode("follcile")
</pre>
<br />
It is also worth noting that you can also create the node with this command too.<br />
<br />
<pre class="prettyprint linenums">// Mel
shadingNode -asUtility "follicle" ;
# Python
shadingNode("follicle", asUtility=True)
</pre>
<br />
The only difference is that specifying it as a shading node utility, makes the node visible in the hypershade utilities section. In fact, you can do either of these for any node in Maya, as long as you get the name right.<br />
<br />
Now at this point you still then need to connect several attributes from the mesh to the follicles, and then work out the UV coordinates for the position you want, as hair follicles are positioned based on UVs.<br />
<br />
The closest point can be calculated with some other nodes. There is the 'closestPointOnMesh' node (for polygons) or the 'closestPointOnSurface' node (for nurbs surfaces). The cool thing about using these nodes are that once you make the connections and keep it there, what you will get is a follicle that can slide around the surface, following the locator.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oZsiL9s3VBM?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
I'm sure there are plenty of interesting effects that could be made with this technique. You could combine this with a dynamic spring and maybe create a car with suspension driving along a bumpy road, or a boat on the ocean.<br />
<br />
I've made several other little helpful scripts as I've been learning Python, which I might be showing over the next few weeks.<br />
<br />
Although writing it in Python was fun to do, I wont be making this script downloadable as there is already a Mel equivalent on Creative Crash, which works in almost exactly the same way, but by the looks of things goes another step further and constrains the objects to the follicles too. You can find that <a href="http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/polygon/c/djrivet-mel--3" target="">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
I think that is enough for today. Until next time!<br />
Oh, maybe just one more thing. I made this spine rig entirely in Mel. This was before I started using Python.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xDHuBspRFLk?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-37646944705045625832012-09-30T18:59:00.000+01:002013-03-14T10:21:16.813+00:00Maya - outMesh inMesh<br />
So I'm back again with the second part to my previous post, which you can see <a href="http://www.aflockofpixels.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/maya-modelling-with-symmetry.html">here</a>. I will point out now that while all this stuff may already be findable on the internet, you kind of need to know what you are looking for. It is also worth noting that this is probably only going to be relevant to the intermediate/advanced Maya user.<br />
<br />
So, this post is a compilation of examples, tips and techniques on how to use two very powerful attributes in Maya - outMesh and inMesh.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>outMesh and inMesh</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>- What is outMesh and inMesh</b></span><br />
<br />
So lets start with something simple. Whenever you create a polygon primitive with history, you are actually creating three nodes; the shape node, the transform node and also the creation node. The creation node is the node that contains all the initial settings for that primitive, such as radius and subdivision width etc, and its output is plugged into the inMesh attribute of the shape node.<br />
<br />
All polygon shape nodes have an inMesh attribute, but also an outMesh attribute. It is possible to take the outMesh of one polygon shape and plug it into the inMesh of another shape.<br />
This connection simply allows for one shape to use the mesh of another shape as its source, creating an exact duplicate. Because they are connected, any changes made to the source mesh, will cause the destination mesh to update. Now this might sound like it is doing a similar job to what 'duplicate instancing' does in Maya, however there is one very important difference.<br />
Take a look at this short video.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/z8SlIKwm4Z0?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>- What about instances</b></span><br />
<br />
Now 'duplicate instancing' is a nice idea in Maya but is almost completely useless in a production environment. Essentially it works by duplicating the transform node only, and making them all share the same shape node. So they all share the same mesh, the same UVs, and unfortunately the same shader and the same render stats, making it a pain to work with when rendering. The only other real benefit of Maya's duplicate instance is that it keeps the file size down. Here's an example to show what I mean.<br />
<br />
You might have, lets say, a model of a crate (or maybe a couple), and you want to duplicate them a hundred times to create a space filled with crates. To randomise the look, you would want to create separate textures for each (or as many variations as you can come up with), and when it comes to rendering, you have, lets say, some foreground crates, a character, and some background crates. Like in the following scene from one of my most recent projects.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nyFUOzFxO6o/UGh-xQsNSDI/AAAAAAAADHw/o7gCHi-xB1E/s1600/creates.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nyFUOzFxO6o/UGh-xQsNSDI/AAAAAAAADHw/o7gCHi-xB1E/s400/creates.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Still - The Place Where Lost Things Go</div>
<br />
It makes sense to separate these into three layers, but you can't because the crates are all sharing the same render stats as they are all sharing the same shape node! How is one supposed to set 'primary visibility' 'off', or 'cast shadows' 'on' on certain crates etc... It's impossible. The only way around this is to have more ACTUAL duplicates, which isn't exactly keeping the scene optimised because it increases the file size unnecessarily. This of course is bad news for me because I increment my saves like mad!<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>- The benefits of inMesh and outMesh</b></span><br />
<br />
Now going back to outMesh and inMesh; in this technique you're instead connecting one shape to another shape. The cool thing is that, unlike instancing, you now have a duplicate that has it's own shape node and will update with any changes you make to the source mesh, including topological changes to the mesh, UVs, and even deleting history, AND like instancing, does still keeps the file size down.<br />
<br />
Of course, anyone who is using scene referencing in their pipeline can do a similar thing, except that it does require having separate files for each object. That would seem completely over the top if all you want to do is duplicate a screw to be used on a model 100's of times!<br />
<br />
In this example, the hemispheres on this Dalek are all based off of one master hemisphere. Apart from allowing me to making slight tweaks to the existing mesh, it also demonstrates how quickly I am able to replace masses of geometry with a completely different mesh, by temporarily connecting in another object.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/akhf0Ld1MKg?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
OK, so there is a better alternative to duplicate instance, so what?<br />
<br />
Well, that car example I showed in the previous post is an example of what can be done with outMesh and inMesh. The key is in the construction history!<br />
<br />
The rest of this post is going to go over some other examples of how you can use these attributes.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further Examples</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>- Rigging</b></span><br />
<br />
Before skinning any character, if you were to first make a connected duplicate (with outMesh to inMesh) and skin that duplicate, you can now work on that characters rig, without worrying about whether the UVs or the model are perfect. Using the source mesh you can, at any time change your characters UV layout, or even tweak the model (assuming you don't mess with the topology in this case), and then delete the history. All the changes will be carried through to the rigged version of the character.<br />
<br />
It is worth noting that the UV editor sometimes fails to update, but saving, closing and re-opening the scene fixes this. While it is actually possible to change the UV's of any skinned object without this method, it's not exactly straight forward. This method simplifies it.<br />
<br />
Another technique is to daisy chain a series of duplicates, and applying various deformers on each version. Effectively giving you a lot more control than if you just rely on applying a series of deformers to one object and messing with the history list. For example, you could start with your base model, then a duplicate for adding blendshapes to, then another duplicate which you then skin to joints.<br />
<br />
Technically you can also make a connected duplicate, and re-model or re-sculpt it, without deformers, using traditional modelling techniques, without affecting the source mesh (as demonstrated in the very first video). Why would we do this? Maybe you want to apply corrective blendshapes to a character.<br />
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While working with blendshapes you can delete blendshape target meshes without removing the blendshape target itself to reduce file size, but you can't easily make a change to a blendshape once you've deleted the mesh.<br />
The problems with keeping the blendshape meshes is that it obviously make the file bigger, and if you do make any changes to the source mesh, you would want all the blendshapes to have the same tweaks, on top of the tweaks that the blendshapes were made for!<br />
So why not create a bunch of connected duplicates at almost no extra cost in file size, and re-sculpt them instead. And any slight changes to the base mesh will cause all the blendshape meshes will update too!<br />
This video shows a better example of how you can connect meshes together.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qj6rg5_tzgE?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> - Dynamics</b></span><br />
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It turns out that nDynamics and Maya Fluids both have outMesh attributes. If anyone has ever attempted a liquid sim with nParticles, one of the things you will end up doing is converting your particle sim to a mesh. The one little annoyance with using the official convert "nParticles to Polygons" operation is that it hides the original particles. The node is still there, but the display of the particles is gone. There may be a way to bring them back, although I gave up after hours of searching. So you guessed it; you can do the same thing by creating a shape node, and connecting the outMesh in the nParticle node to the inMesh of the shape node. Now we can see both the particles and the mesh at the same time to really fine tune the sim, and at any time hide the display of the mesh or particles, without anything permanently disappearing.<br />
So this video demonstrates the same basic process applied to nParticles.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RleyB8eB9m8?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>- Smoothing</b></span><br />
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OK, this is the last set of examples! Every polygon shape node has an outMesh, but it also has an outSmoothMesh attribute! This outputs the smooth mesh preview version of the shape.<br />
Why is this one worth mentioning?<br />
So you've rigged a character, and you want to render it smoothed. Smooth mesh preview calculates so much faster than the smooth operation in the modelling section. It also means that your higher res character can have its own separate mesh, allowing you to have different shaders for it. ie - you can have simple colour shaders for better, and faster viewing in the 3D viewport on the low res mesh, and more complex shaders ( which may not look correct in the 3D viewport ) designed for rendering on the high res mesh.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/e77eszILl30?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
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As an extra, it also means that you can now render smooth mesh previews in Maya software renderer! Which is cool because this then gives us access to Maya's cool raytracing and direct illumination!<br />
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Seriously though, if we daisy chained a series of smooth mesh preview duplicates, we can then sculpt in a similar fashion to Mudbox with layers of subdivisions. Now all Maya needs is a faster viewport, some decent brushes, better Transfer Maps and you wouldn't need Mudbox!<br />
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OK, that was probably quite an exhausting read, and I'm guessing that only a few people will find this interesting, but if there is anyone who genuinely finds this useful, please leave a comment, and I may eventually create some Mel scripts to simplify some of these techniques.<br />
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So that is it for now. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else comes up with some interesting uses for this, and if anyone else knows of more information on outMesh and inMesh then feel free to share it.<br />
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Here is a list of websites that I've found for further reading.<br />
<a href="http://lesterbanks.com/2012/09/driving-a-shape-by-inmesh-outmesh-connections-in-maya/">http://lesterbanks.com/2012/09/driving-a-shape-by-inmesh-outmesh-connections-in-maya/</a><br />
<a href="http://petershipkov.com/tutorials/blendShapes/blendShapes.htm">http://petershipkov.com/tutorials/blendShapes/blendShapes.htm</a><br />
<a href="http://misterdi.cgpot.com/tutorial/instance/instance.html">http://misterdi.cgpot.com/tutorial/instance/instance.html</a><br />
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A Flock of Pixels<br />
<br />
<br />AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-13611657782056823102012-09-15T17:43:00.006+01:002013-03-14T10:21:16.810+00:00Maya - Modelling With SymmetryIn my last post I said that I had come across something incredibly simple, but brilliantly powerful in Maya. Although I did say I would reveal all in my next post, there is quite a lot to write about so I shall tease you all for a bit longer.<br /><br />What I'm showing today is just one of my videos of examples of how a few very simple node connections can be used to do so many different things.<br /><br />So, what I've come up with here is an interesting way to model in Maya with true live mirroring. There are a few techniques to model symmetrically. The simplest is to turn reflection on in the tool settings, but that doesn't help very much when drawing new edge loops etc,. Another is to use duplicate instance, to create a live flipped copy of one half of the mesh. That will work fine in a lot of cases, that is however until you smooth preview the mesh, and a seem appears down the centre where the join is!<br />So is there another, better way? Take a look at this.<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZzWsosFEojw" allowfullscreen="" width="560" frameborder="0" height="315"></iframe><br /></div><br />What I have here is a cage mesh wireframe of one half of the object. I can make any changes I like to it (even clearing the history), and the smooth mesh preview underneath updates, and there is no line down the middle because the smooth version is one complete mesh.<br />It still works without smooth mesh preview on, and it's also possible to just have the mesh underneath smoothed, with an un-smoothed wireframe.<br /><br />Admittedly, this takes some effort to set up, and would first need to be automated by a script for it to be totally useful. However you can see how this could be particularly useful for modelling cars or any other symmetrical, smooth surfaces for that matter.<br /><br />Some of you keen eyed viewers may be able to spot half of the solution of how I achieved this in the video. The trick is how to be able to create a second mesh that is based off of another mesh. 'Duplicate instance' isn't the answer!<br /><br />I think that is enough info for this post! More to come!<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels<br /><br />Edit - It appears I'm not the first to come up with this! I've only just gone and found someone on Creative Crash with a script that appears to do the exact same thing!<br /><br />http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/modeling/poly-tools/c/maya-real-symmetry-modeling--2/comments#tabs<br /><br />Well, it was still an exciting discovery at the time, even if someone did beat me to it!<br />I still plan on sharing all my other findings.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels<br /><br />AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-91542353172740789502012-09-11T18:43:00.003+01:002012-09-11T18:46:56.971+01:00Three Months Later - and just one Dalek?<br />I think it's about time I posted something!<br /><br />OK, so this is a model of a Dalek I've been working on. It's not finished yet, but it's at a fairly complete stage. The design is an exact replica of the original 1963 Dalek, as seen in the first Dalek story, "The Daleks". Of course, those episodes were only in black and white back then, so this colour scheme was only ever seen in a few production photos.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RGNngAkZ33c/UE9424vU3pI/AAAAAAAADDQ/4HxqeF0Bayw/s1600/DalekWIP_01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RGNngAkZ33c/UE9424vU3pI/AAAAAAAADDQ/4HxqeF0Bayw/s400/DalekWIP_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5786976930533531282" border="0" /></a><br />I want to try to create more detailed, and accurate textures so that I can show a higher quality, ungraded render, and still look good before I class it as finished. Also there are a few bits of modelling that need tweaking.<br /><br />So that was just one sneak peak of what I've been working on, but that is not everything. As some of you may be aware, Atom Pancakes has moved forwards since its inception. We have gained new team members, a new blog, and very soon, an updated logo, which I am currently working on. I have also kept on scripting in MEL, not just for rigging purposes, but also for other aspects of Maya. Of course it's all for nothing if I can't apply it to something creative, so really, working on the logo and its ident has been a breath of fresh air.<br /><br />Although most recently, I've been doing a lot of testing in Maya as I seem to have come across something incredibly simple, but brilliantly powerful. I was surprised to find little has been written about it so in my next post I shall reveal all!<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels<br /><br />AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-28942965072228152112012-05-27T19:59:00.018+01:002012-09-12T14:35:41.887+01:00The Major Project - FinishedIt's Finished!<br /><br />So enjoy!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oDSZuzNsnsw?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />Now you may have noticed that there are further additions to the pages panel.<br />Firstly is the Demo Reel page, and I've created a rigging demo reel, which you can view there. It's a trimmed version of the Monk Demonstration video which I posted earlier, with a few extra filmed bits, and, well… go take a look!<br />Lastly there is the Downloads page. I have put my making of and technical Document there. I have other plans for this page too.<br /><br />Of course you can also get to all these things in this post too!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/94982373?secret_password=5ltvv7w3q7s9gd5on91">The 'Making of' The Place Where Lost Things Go</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/94981834?secret_password=ru0mkef480d5k23dnsj">The Technical Document</a><br /><br />The Rigging Demo Reel<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EKs6xtQBbK0?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />And here are my DVD cases and covers.<br /><br />These are for the film itself.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8-TZSDRnKkc/T8KCP8SqOgI/AAAAAAAADBc/5z6hV13DZI8/s1600/DVDCaseLostThings2012Small.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8-TZSDRnKkc/T8KCP8SqOgI/AAAAAAAADBc/5z6hV13DZI8/s320/DVDCaseLostThings2012Small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5747299284872215042" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rejBiuBYMjU/T8KCPbvMwTI/AAAAAAAADBQ/qBjuBP83DK0/s1600/DVDLabelLostThings2012Small.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rejBiuBYMjU/T8KCPbvMwTI/AAAAAAAADBQ/qBjuBP83DK0/s320/DVDLabelLostThings2012Small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5747299276133548338" border="0" /></a><br />And these template designs are for anything just related to A Flock of Pixels.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mzJl_o5SpCI/T8KCwjtBDeI/AAAAAAAADB8/gOjSjRN2QAA/s1600/DVDCase2012Small.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mzJl_o5SpCI/T8KCwjtBDeI/AAAAAAAADB8/gOjSjRN2QAA/s320/DVDCase2012Small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5747299845207559650" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UJxeorrmbTI/T8KCwLHJmTI/AAAAAAAADBo/afsqbo1F_eU/s1600/DVDLabel2012Small.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UJxeorrmbTI/T8KCwLHJmTI/AAAAAAAADBo/afsqbo1F_eU/s320/DVDLabel2012Small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5747299838606285106" border="0" /></a><br />I'll re blog the business card here too.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJGYlHeZ1F4/T8KCwSi0xoI/AAAAAAAADBw/FFte8FDz8q4/s1600/BusinessCard2012Small.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJGYlHeZ1F4/T8KCwSi0xoI/AAAAAAAADBw/FFte8FDz8q4/s320/BusinessCard2012Small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5747299840601409154" border="0" /></a><br />And here is the ident by itself.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Nmt4laJ4znc?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />This has been a very enjoyable and most satisfying project to work on. Most importantly though I've felt very much in control of the whole thing and although there were a few moments when I thought I was falling behind schedule, these last few weeks have been the least stressful of any 'last few weeks' of other projects.<br /><br />And finally, I leave you with an extra 'feature', the animation progression reel; a collection of my animation play-blasts, showing my progression from blocking to final animation.<br />Just to clarify, it's not a 'demo reel'.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/f_LqCTnZFpw?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-44195453403482512472012-05-21T20:46:00.006+01:002012-09-12T14:35:41.888+01:00The Major Project - One week to goThe blog has had a bit of a re-design, including a new page (more to be added in the coming months) and I've given myself a bit more width for posting in.<br /><br />I shall start by posting the accompanying business card.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cRP5n7viDNs/T7qbzElV7SI/AAAAAAAAC_g/B4MAvrGe4I8/s1600/NewBussinessCard.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cRP5n7viDNs/T7qbzElV7SI/AAAAAAAAC_g/B4MAvrGe4I8/s320/NewBussinessCard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5745075576370490658" border="0" /></a><br />Rendering is practically finished and most of it is already composited. While that has been happening I have also been working on the intro sequence for the animation.<br />Almost all the graphics have been painted and added into the sequence. Here is a selection of them.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qdb75iB5U_0/T7qbzXOSJ0I/AAAAAAAAC_s/ljIajb1ozOU/s1600/2D_Graphics.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qdb75iB5U_0/T7qbzXOSJ0I/AAAAAAAAC_s/ljIajb1ozOU/s320/2D_Graphics.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5745075581374048066" border="0" /></a><br />And here are a selection of stills from the animation.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kwn_KUje-ig/T7qbz07NR1I/AAAAAAAADAE/KznNTN0np6o/s1600/shot1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 179px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kwn_KUje-ig/T7qbz07NR1I/AAAAAAAADAE/KznNTN0np6o/s320/shot1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5745075589347100498" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/---m3rtzmFB8/T7qbzr9o3OI/AAAAAAAAC_4/oH2Vki-_2dY/s1600/shot2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/---m3rtzmFB8/T7qbzr9o3OI/AAAAAAAAC_4/oH2Vki-_2dY/s320/shot2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5745075586941377762" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ynMDN89J-wI/T7qb0NX4osI/AAAAAAAADAQ/dp2sfLj09i0/s1600/shot3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 179px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ynMDN89J-wI/T7qb0NX4osI/AAAAAAAADAQ/dp2sfLj09i0/s320/shot3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5745075595909833410" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dmqFJgcxwaw/T7qb35MtvaI/AAAAAAAADAc/PNJOGgTcam8/s1600/shot4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 179px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dmqFJgcxwaw/T7qb35MtvaI/AAAAAAAADAc/PNJOGgTcam8/s320/shot4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5745075659213749666" border="0" /></a><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-80422222118196812672012-05-14T21:39:00.006+01:002012-09-12T14:35:41.888+01:00The Major Project - Other EffectsAnimation is practically over. While for the last week I have been finishing off all the animation, I have also had to tackle some other interesting challenges too.<br /><br />There's no doubt that you have seen in my pre-vis some cones, which were supposed to be representing either piles of socks or coins. Piles of something anyway. So one of the challenges this week was to actually make those props, and I can tell you that the pile of socks particularly, was a pain to make. More on that in a bit, but first the pile of coins.<br /><br />The first and most obvious way to make a pile of coins would be to use dynamics to drop coins into a pile, although I knew straight away that it should be a hollow pile so I would need some sort of mesh shaped like a pile to drop coins onto.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wxcjl3voY-8/T7FtydpRirI/AAAAAAAAC80/LGnRucjm1WE/s1600/fig1.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wxcjl3voY-8/T7FtydpRirI/AAAAAAAAC80/LGnRucjm1WE/s320/fig1.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491713592724146" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />It didn't work very well. It was slow and no matter how much stickiness and friction I added, I couldn't get a decent pile made efficiently. That's when I turned to Maya's Hair System!<br /><br />The hair system generates (what Maya calls) hair follicles all over a mesh from which hairs are placed. I don't need the hairs, just the follicles as they gave me random positions over the pile mesh that I can parent geometry to.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GmB7ax-XBqk/T7FtyzSdNQI/AAAAAAAAC88/k6MBl8kjsSA/s1600/fig2.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GmB7ax-XBqk/T7FtyzSdNQI/AAAAAAAAC88/k6MBl8kjsSA/s320/fig2.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491719402599682" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I created a simple script to automate the duplicating and parenting of the coin mesh so that I had hundreds of coins stuck all over the mesh, creating my basic pile.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2WXsIoWP9iQ/T7FtzPf-UAI/AAAAAAAAC9M/RlJenvdGoCE/s1600/fig3.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 171px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2WXsIoWP9iQ/T7FtzPf-UAI/AAAAAAAAC9M/RlJenvdGoCE/s320/fig3.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491726975488002" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I had a small and large coin so it also made sure that both sizes were randomly placed over the pile.<br /><br />I then had another similar script to randomly assign three variations of a coin shader to all the coins in the pile.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3BB00qCrvG0/T7FtzYByFuI/AAAAAAAAC9Y/xWWeu0bWZUw/s1600/fig4.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 166px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3BB00qCrvG0/T7FtzYByFuI/AAAAAAAAC9Y/xWWeu0bWZUw/s320/fig4.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491729264776930" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The last step was to check for the intersecting coins where they were too close to each other and manually move them to create the final pile of coins.<br /><br />A similar technique was used to create the sock pile, but with one slight difference.<br /><br />It was necessary to have the socks lay over the pile rather than be rigidly stuck to the pile. So the main difference was that I generated the socks (with Maya Hair) onto a flat plane, which I then used a wrap deformer to make the plane control the socks, and the plane was dropped onto the pile with cloth dynamics.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--J1iEKgDksE/T7Ft0NNbhXI/AAAAAAAAC9k/qwrx82K_RNc/s1600/fig5.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 176px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--J1iEKgDksE/T7Ft0NNbhXI/AAAAAAAAC9k/qwrx82K_RNc/s320/fig5.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491743540708722" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was a pain because applying the wrap deformer to 900 socks not only took a very long time (half an hour at least), but after that was done, calculating those socks was extremely slow. Once it was done though, I could remove all wrap deformers and cloth sim stuff and all was fine.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9x_9gn-woR8/T7FuAcc_2cI/AAAAAAAAC9w/JrXscJFUG28/s1600/fig6.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 161px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9x_9gn-woR8/T7FuAcc_2cI/AAAAAAAAC9w/JrXscJFUG28/s320/fig6.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491953790966210" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />In one of the last scenes the Monk crash lands into the pile of socks. This again was tricky, as I had to animate the pile mesh, and again used wrap deformers to control the socks around it. In this case I did end up caching the socks, so that it was just reading a file rather than calculating stuff, which improved performance a bit.<br /><br />The good news is that it is all done now.<br /><br />There were a few other effects I have needed to create for the animation. The kitten running through a puddle of ink, and the candle flame.<br /><br />The ink splashing was achieved with Maya's nParticle System...<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZkwEhd9B5w/T7FuAom3XRI/AAAAAAAAC98/sgvxN9mZPDU/s1600/fig7.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 183px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZkwEhd9B5w/T7FuAom3XRI/AAAAAAAAC98/sgvxN9mZPDU/s320/fig7.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491957053578514" border="0" /></a><br /><br />…and the candle flame was done with soft-body dynamics.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gq6fGYqnmPg/T7FuAwc88aI/AAAAAAAAC-I/VCc_vXjqX5I/s1600/fig8.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gq6fGYqnmPg/T7FuAwc88aI/AAAAAAAAC-I/VCc_vXjqX5I/s320/fig8.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491959159484834" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FGAovUuFNtA/T7FuBXbj9nI/AAAAAAAAC-U/vK3UbgPlIL4/s1600/fig9.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 291px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FGAovUuFNtA/T7FuBXbj9nI/AAAAAAAAC-U/vK3UbgPlIL4/s320/fig9.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5742491969622636146" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />In the case of the candle flame I was following a tutorial from The Gnomon Workshop.<br /><br />http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/candle.html<br /><br /><br />So currently I am at the texturing, lighting and rendering stage. Two scenes have been rendered, but there is still a long way to go as there are 28 more shots to left to finish.<br /><br />Then there's the intro sequence, the making of, technical documents, show reel, and an updated blog design all to be done in the next two weeks. No pressure then!<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-79169910186865910282012-05-02T21:41:00.017+01:002012-09-12T14:35:41.889+01:00The Major Project - A bit of EverythingYep, I'm posting a bit of everything today.<br />I have been animating all week and as it is requiring 100% of my time and dedication, other areas (like texturing) have come to a halt.<br /><br />I did however find an opportunity to render one frame from my animation (with temporary textures) and with a lighting setup that I experimented with a week or so ago. No passes or anything fancy like that yet, but I did take it into After Effects to mess around with the colours and even adding some focal blur, although it's completely faked as I didn't have a depth pass to work with, but you get a rough idea of what I'm going for.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YD9iDO0xp9U/T6GdMPnodmI/AAAAAAAAC7o/5tDQ4CrR2Xw/s1600/TestRender_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YD9iDO0xp9U/T6GdMPnodmI/AAAAAAAAC7o/5tDQ4CrR2Xw/s320/TestRender_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5738040233923475042" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I will be lighting the character with separate lights to make sure he is shaded clearly in the final render and splitting foreground and background elements to achieve better focal blur in post. Also might make a backdrop other than just pure white.<br /><br />Here were some of my earlier lighting tests of the same set that I did a few weeks back.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RJsADLQIPsU/T6GdMtdX84I/AAAAAAAAC70/gQtfbkwquC4/s1600/TestRender_02.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RJsADLQIPsU/T6GdMtdX84I/AAAAAAAAC70/gQtfbkwquC4/s320/TestRender_02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5738040241933513602" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vs0u0yzUQuo/T6GdNH-gLyI/AAAAAAAAC8A/7VareZDaiWc/s1600/TestRender_03.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vs0u0yzUQuo/T6GdNH-gLyI/AAAAAAAAC8A/7VareZDaiWc/s320/TestRender_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5738040249051787042" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KiifFXlwfdo/T6GdNd8De2I/AAAAAAAAC8M/8yRdGUZvma8/s1600/TestRender_04.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KiifFXlwfdo/T6GdNd8De2I/AAAAAAAAC8M/8yRdGUZvma8/s320/TestRender_04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5738040254947097442" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cAtIVZAqv8Y/T6GdNw0L27I/AAAAAAAAC8Y/Mv45ATXxIX4/s1600/TestRender_05.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cAtIVZAqv8Y/T6GdNw0L27I/AAAAAAAAC8Y/Mv45ATXxIX4/s320/TestRender_05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5738040260014365618" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K4mLKzpFQzU/T6GdiBku5PI/AAAAAAAAC8k/XDJeN3ViTeQ/s1600/TestRender_06.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K4mLKzpFQzU/T6GdiBku5PI/AAAAAAAAC8k/XDJeN3ViTeQ/s320/TestRender_06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5738040608110339314" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Now for some animation. I'm well over half way through animating the entire animation. I'm now at a stage where I am tackling some of the toughest scenes, but I have given myself extra time to get these right. That's not to say that what I've done so far was easy… it wasn't. For now though, here is a <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> small snippet of the animation so far.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aVQo2vpNlHM?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="260" width="440"></iframe><br /><br />The last thing I'm posting is the presentation of the interim crit. Not so much for having new content, but instead just so that the blog isn't missing anything.<br /><br /><a title="View IterimCritPresentation_01 on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/aflockofpixels/d/92141735-IterimCritPresentation-01?secret_password=1d6xepy9l5zmizvfsy8" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;">IterimCritPresentation_01</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/92141735/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-2b6rb0i7mq4etuhgmc0l&secret_password=1d6xepy9l5zmizvfsy8" ratio="1.41666666666667" id="doc_28853" frameborder="0" height="true" scrolling="no" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-6305140473974120562012-04-24T11:52:00.009+01:002012-09-12T14:35:41.889+01:00The Major Project - Pre-visLast time, I posted the animatic. This time, I'm posting the pre-vis.<br />The whole animation has been blocked out (very roughly), which means now I'm officially going to start animating the final film using the pre-vis as a starting point; refining the animation until I can refine it no longer, over the next three weeks.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lfLrAqic06Y?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" width="460"></iframe><br /></div><br /><br />Doing the pre-vis has had it's benefits. So for example, I can see what scenes are going to need the most attention, having already experienced certain difficulties in pre-vis, while some of the smaller shots are looking 80% finished already, so I know better where to spend my time over the coming weeks.<br /><br />There is just one scene which I will probably re-animate from scratch though. I call it the 'recovery' scene, and it is the scene straight after the monk falls into the sock pile (represented by a cone.)<br /><br />The reason for this is because the monk is sitting on the floor, and he just happens to find next to him a collar with a label (of which you don't really notice or see properly until the close up shot showing it in his hand).<br /><br />Go back a few months and a certain character named Arthur Winters fell on the floor and in the exact same place he finds his pencil next to him.<br /><br />Go back another year, and a certain bear character with no name, is sitting on a mattress, and just happens to find a chocolate flake next to him… in the same place!<br /><br />So basically, I want to slightly alter the way the monk finds the collar with the label!<br /><br />So the next set of tasks are animating (and any dynamics that go with it), a bit of textureing, and refining the intro sequence.<br /><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-49178739019889958112012-04-09T18:07:00.010+01:002012-09-12T14:35:41.889+01:00The Major Project - Special Holiday PostLots to show today! It may be the holidays, but the project is still moving forwards.<br /><br />So first of all, both characters are completely rigged, and shaded. The Monk even has his interface, fully working.<br /><br />I've done a final posed turnaround of the Monk, and there will be one for the kitten coming later.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kVOltyByuoY?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="220" width="360"></iframe><br /><br />Here are just a frame render of what it should look like.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v_p8Thqy5jc/T4MZZxyet4I/AAAAAAAAC7c/Eu1pOI0UPtk/s1600/kittenTurnaroundTest_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v_p8Thqy5jc/T4MZZxyet4I/AAAAAAAAC7c/Eu1pOI0UPtk/s320/kittenTurnaroundTest_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729451081597892482" border="0" /></a><br />I have started to model a few props too. The crate is the most finished, and all it needs is a final texture. (The current one is noticeably tiled!)<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1I8YaLJv1-E/T4MX3OVS2cI/AAAAAAAAC64/o2FNM3dso1s/s1600/Crates_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1I8YaLJv1-E/T4MX3OVS2cI/AAAAAAAAC64/o2FNM3dso1s/s320/Crates_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729449388453059010" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I've experimented with squashing and stretching the crates to an extreme (maybe just a tad too much), but is probably how I would like to have them in the final animation.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZhE3S3YoF5o/T4MX3qPjxgI/AAAAAAAAC7A/LJfgkW7xALU/s1600/Crates_02.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 304px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZhE3S3YoF5o/T4MX3qPjxgI/AAAAAAAAC7A/LJfgkW7xALU/s320/Crates_02.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729449395945195010" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Ok, so going back to the rigging, I've made a video showing how the rig and it's interface works. It's similar but different. For starters, the whole interface was re written from scratch… but differently of course… and for the better.<br /><br />So the interface improvements are:<br />- scalable interface (meaning it is not stuck at one size, like the last one was)<br />- takes namespaces into account (This is vital as the rig has a very large file size, and I will have no choice but to reference the rig into the scenes to animate)<br />- more organised tick boxes, and less of them<br />- generally, things have been moved about a bit to make it more accessible<br /><br />I've split the interface into two sections; a lower and upper section.<br />The lower has the switches and the mesh visibility.<br />The upper has the main control buttons and sliders for the monk and his clothes, split over two tabs.<br /><br />Now what you would have seen in the last post was that there were a lot of control dots around the clothes. Put simply, they allow you to re sculpt the overall shape of the clothes over time. It's not a replacement for a cloth sim of course, and there is nothing to stop me from cloth simming, but it does mean that I can animate the clothes, and even make a simmed version follow the animated version, to get a stylised simulation.<br /><br />I don't have to worry about the ropes as they follow the clothes, but then again, they also have a few controls so I could animate them swinging.<br /><br />Check out the extra controls on the hands and fingers too.<br /><br />So here is the video.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bPjVaNB2FiM?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="220" width="360"></iframe><br /><br />The last thing to show is the introduction of the animation (as a previs) with a re-edited animatic of the whole animation.<br />My original intention was to use After Effects for the intro as it's meant to be good a motion graphic stuff, although, only if you know what you're doing. So I gave up on that and went to Maya… and used nurbs curves!<br />A valid alternative to the pen tool in AE, only I also know how to animate stuff quickly and am not dealing with lots of layers.<br /><br />It is not very colourful and isn't perhaps as easy to look at as there are no fill colours, but you get an idea for the pace and feel of it.<br /><br />Now I did find some music to animate to as it really needed it, and found that at AudioNetwork, which is where the music came from for the last project.<br />I have actually re-edited the animatic to include this music track throughout as I liked the style and tone of the piece.<br /><br />So here's the new animatic with intro.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ums9hArHTCQ?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="220" width="360"></iframe><br /><br />Now imagine that introduction, but with 2D graphics that could look something like this.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PQBe0BI0bxo/T4MX4Bq9bcI/AAAAAAAAC7Q/2nuKwZ33mIc/s1600/ExampleGraphic.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 177px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PQBe0BI0bxo/T4MX4Bq9bcI/AAAAAAAAC7Q/2nuKwZ33mIc/s320/ExampleGraphic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729449402234138050" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The only thing that will be different when I previs the main animation, will be the mood of the monk so those places where he currently appears sad or confused, will be happier and more determined; this will better fit the mood of the music without affecting the story and outcome.<br /><br />More to come in the next few days.<br /><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-60739902497651264732012-03-29T21:32:00.005+01:002012-09-12T14:35:41.890+01:00The Major Project - Rigging Sneak PeekIt's another short post today. I've been rigging the Monk character and he is almost finished, so I've got a few screenshots of what it is looking like.<br /><br />Controls and skeleton (Ik arms / legs)<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M_2lIUaadP4/T3THRqIMbjI/AAAAAAAAC54/bdpgHgfJVng/s1600/rig_04.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 294px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M_2lIUaadP4/T3THRqIMbjI/AAAAAAAAC54/bdpgHgfJVng/s320/rig_04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725420132475104818" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Controls and skeleton (Fk arms / legs)<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zivKaUCUkLg/T3THSirO6rI/AAAAAAAAC6Q/3rmndznGAPg/s1600/rig_06.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 292px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zivKaUCUkLg/T3THSirO6rI/AAAAAAAAC6Q/3rmndznGAPg/s320/rig_06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725420147654453938" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Controls and skeleton (Both!)<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bqy-5q346O0/T3THSDXyBjI/AAAAAAAAC6E/fTJj4dDnl2I/s1600/rig_05.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 312px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bqy-5q346O0/T3THSDXyBjI/AAAAAAAAC6E/fTJj4dDnl2I/s320/rig_05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725420139251369522" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BLnm26qO7hg/T3THHfsfwPI/AAAAAAAAC5U/ltJZjmUmiyM/s1600/rig_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BLnm26qO7hg/T3THHfsfwPI/AAAAAAAAC5U/ltJZjmUmiyM/s320/rig_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725419957875884274" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YbAQWnfxnvw/T3THH0YhNAI/AAAAAAAAC5g/wbp4EhEPRQU/s1600/rig_02.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YbAQWnfxnvw/T3THH0YhNAI/AAAAAAAAC5g/wbp4EhEPRQU/s320/rig_02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725419963429237762" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uC8GMumi24M/T3THIdzAg9I/AAAAAAAAC5s/-R9QgU1--RU/s1600/rig_03.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uC8GMumi24M/T3THIdzAg9I/AAAAAAAAC5s/-R9QgU1--RU/s320/rig_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725419974546195410" border="0" /></a><br /><br />So there are a ridiculous amount of controls, but I can assure you that they will never all be active at any one time.<br /><br />The rig has many layers of controls; the standard body rig in Ik and Fk, then there are the control dots scattered around the clothes. Most of these will be hidden while the body is animated.<br /><br />I will upload a full demo video of the rig once it is finished, which should with any luck, be within the next few days.<br /><br />The main things left to do are to clean up the rig and make some kind of interface.<br />Oh, and I still need to rig the kitten, however I will keep that rig simple. The kitten has already been properly bound to the joints at least.<br /><br />As soon as rigging is over its back to the animatic / intro, and then animation!<br /><br />Lastly, I leave you with two shading experiments for the kitten.<br /><br />This was achieved with a velvet shader.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M8ZrAP7iEiw/T3THGTNM1QI/AAAAAAAAC5I/ybjysABI0lg/s1600/kittenVelvetTest_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 292px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M8ZrAP7iEiw/T3THGTNM1QI/AAAAAAAAC5I/ybjysABI0lg/s320/kittenVelvetTest_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725419937343526146" border="0" /></a><br /><br />And this was with fur. (no fur direction maps or anything else fancy)<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6453NGVsZcY/T3THF0ncIGI/AAAAAAAAC48/FLxe_hJg6dw/s1600/kittenFurTest_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 228px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6453NGVsZcY/T3THF0ncIGI/AAAAAAAAC48/FLxe_hJg6dw/s320/kittenFurTest_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725419929132081250" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-60751772829272862582012-03-19T21:20:00.003+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.890+01:00The Major Project - Modelling and Rigging ProgressJust a quick update today. This is the model of the kitten so far. There are a few slight tweaks to be made around the face (like the rather squashed nose) , but it is mostly done.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-no6Oyrz01hU/T2ejcsge--I/AAAAAAAAC4Y/OcPPtC1vcdQ/s1600/KittenProgress_01.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-no6Oyrz01hU/T2ejcsge--I/AAAAAAAAC4Y/OcPPtC1vcdQ/s320/KittenProgress_01.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721721564976577506" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oEoIpuKXDCk/T2ejc3KPkII/AAAAAAAAC4k/l956GdVx954/s1600/KittenProgress_02.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 287px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oEoIpuKXDCk/T2ejc3KPkII/AAAAAAAAC4k/l956GdVx954/s320/KittenProgress_02.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721721567836082306" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I've also started binding the monk to his skeleton, and here was a quick pose test to see how well it was working.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-91ukgmxHc8k/T2ejdMBf3II/AAAAAAAAC4w/cAwje-ZARaw/s1600/MonkTestPose.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-91ukgmxHc8k/T2ejdMBf3II/AAAAAAAAC4w/cAwje-ZARaw/s320/MonkTestPose.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721721573436546178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I will be continuing with the rigging all throughout this week.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-28641131179549359192012-03-10T17:59:00.009+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.890+01:00The Major Project - Preparing for ProductionTwo things to show today. Firstly is the monk, this time in full 3D. I've put some preliminary textures / shaders on him to get a better idea of what he will actually look like in the final animation, however I will be refining those and also adding a bit of sculpting to the monk too. Nothing too drastic, but enough to make close up shots look just as interesting.<br /><br />So I've rendered a quick turnaround of him, both with the full costume on, and his body. Don't worry, he is still wearing pants! This also doubles as a lighting test.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7sXhnG9W79c?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="240" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />I've just noticed that there seems to be some flickering, which is strange as there is no glow or final gather. I have a sneaky suspicion that it could be the depth map shadows!<br />Anyway, a final turnaround will be made once the final textures and lighting is sorted, and that will be posed and include wireframes and clay etc.<br /><br /><br />The second thing to show is the design of the kitten. I went to the tutorial meeting yesterday, and we were mostly talking about the kitten; what aspects work, and don't work etc. The latest design I took to show was this.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hn-8hy7C1hg/T1uW29ZeFqI/AAAAAAAAC3o/5dN49LhDNmw/s1600/1.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 152px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hn-8hy7C1hg/T1uW29ZeFqI/AAAAAAAAC3o/5dN49LhDNmw/s320/1.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5718330022815471266" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />While I thought it was one of the better ones, I feared that in doing so many variations in front and sides, I had probably lost something from the really early sketches. However I was still happy with the overall shape and pose.<br />But basically, most people seemed to agree that the blue shaded kitten here was also a most successful shape. In some areas more than others.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AIQ0XhFTPb8/T1uW3MPh3DI/AAAAAAAAC3w/n-bBWmV6qDA/s1600/2.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 291px; height: 255px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AIQ0XhFTPb8/T1uW3MPh3DI/AAAAAAAAC3w/n-bBWmV6qDA/s320/2.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5718330026800307250" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The only problems being that it is clearly posed (not a default pose) and didn't have a face.<br />My attempt at neutralising the pose (by tilting the head back down) and adding a face went a bit wrong as you can see below.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a2YteEg6NTM/T1uW3aBC5VI/AAAAAAAAC4A/5CDs7H2zHro/s1600/3.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 276px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a2YteEg6NTM/T1uW3aBC5VI/AAAAAAAAC4A/5CDs7H2zHro/s320/3.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5718330030497654098" border="0" /></a><br /><br />In the end we came to the conclusion that I have all the right features of the kitten, spread across several versions, so my main task was to merge the best bits into one design.<br /><br />I've gone with the black and white cat design as a base to make the tweaks and this is what the kitten has finally turned into.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-adXKrx3PDL0/T1uW3mbLBpI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/bFTJNRsnCWM/s1600/4.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 199px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-adXKrx3PDL0/T1uW3mbLBpI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/bFTJNRsnCWM/s320/4.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5718330033828464274" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />If you compare the two side views, I've made tweaks to the tail, the eyes, the nose area of the face and defined the front legs better.<br />The head in the front view changed quite a bit, but really all I've done is realigned the features with the side view better, which has forced the shape of the head and ears to be a bit bigger, which I think has helped in improving the proportions from the front.<br /><br />The last few tweaks while minor, have seemed to show how really tiny mistakes can have a big impact on the shape. I am about a week behind behind schedule (nothing unusual there!), but I am confident that the kitten is now ready to be modeled in 3D. While the monk translated perfectly, since this is my first attempt at a quadruped I expect I may find other oddities in the shape that will only reveal themselves when seen in 3D and will just fix them there and then. So for now I will start blocking out the kitten, and if I do make any little changes to the design I think they will be easy to re - tweak in 3D.<br /><br />So you know where I'm at in my schedule, I planned to start animating in 2 weeks time, but I may have to postpone that by (hopefully no more than) 1 week to catch up with everything else. That's modelling, texturing, rigging, adding sound to animatic, and storyboarding the intro sequence.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-4201069164841514312012-02-29T20:51:00.004+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.891+01:00The Major Project - Tiny AdjustmentsBased on some feedback at the last tutorial I had, I have tweaked the face of the monk from the side view to better show the form of the face.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pjjomLvBc04/T06QJ-12ffI/AAAAAAAAC2U/POfz1AVc9qA/s1600/FinalFrontSideComp_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pjjomLvBc04/T06QJ-12ffI/AAAAAAAAC2U/POfz1AVc9qA/s320/FinalFrontSideComp_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714663478341828082" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The eyes are slightly further back and the brow is now more pronounced, the cheeks are now present and the mouth is shaded better, with the chin curving into the mouth area. Definitely an improvement on the original if I say so myself!<br /><br />I want to make sure I've got enough details of my character sorted before modelling. One of the things I want to get right are the hands. I've actually photographed my own hands and then roughly painted these.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PxTNC8mqKzY/T06SDrUdNyI/AAAAAAAAC3E/GHQlvYssmeU/s1600/Hand_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 191px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PxTNC8mqKzY/T06SDrUdNyI/AAAAAAAAC3E/GHQlvYssmeU/s320/Hand_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714665569045526306" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fD21V_8CO-g/T06SDyOTxfI/AAAAAAAAC3M/ZUEAov1ACDs/s1600/Hand_02.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 191px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fD21V_8CO-g/T06SDyOTxfI/AAAAAAAAC3M/ZUEAov1ACDs/s320/Hand_02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714665570898789874" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It is my intension to then make the hands chunky, since he is a pretty chunky character.<br /><br />So far I've created a silhouette of the hand from above.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hHkjVWb8n6g/T06SEC8OVZI/AAAAAAAAC3Y/S-6PiShwg9s/s1600/Hand_03.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 191px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hHkjVWb8n6g/T06SEC8OVZI/AAAAAAAAC3Y/S-6PiShwg9s/s320/Hand_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714665575386338706" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I will then be properly painting the details from top and bottom, and maybe even the sides, but in all honesty the thinner hands above are probably going to be good enough reference.<br /><br />And now we come to the kittens. I can safely say that kittens are more difficult to draw than hands!<br /><br />I've been trying desperately to draw the kitten from the front and side. Because this is a CG kitten, I don't really want it to be too styalised in terms of proportion, which is why I've looked at a lot of images of cats and kittens, both real and cartoon; Studying diagrams of the bone structure, only to keep finding ways of how to not draw kittens.<br /><br />Its all to do with the shape. Here are the first wave of drawings.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qRQ9gSumx48/T06QKSvIfpI/AAAAAAAAC2o/YaJgUL1KFB8/s1600/wave1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 185px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qRQ9gSumx48/T06QKSvIfpI/AAAAAAAAC2o/YaJgUL1KFB8/s320/wave1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714663483682356882" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I never should have put the ears forward. They look more like puppies!<br />The legs slowly improved as I compared the shapes of kittens to the diagrams of the skeleton, although at this stage there is still something not quite right with them. I did do a front view, but I have a feeling that by the time I've got the side view right, the front view wont line up.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C3f4faFRbU4/T06QKLDiedI/AAAAAAAAC2c/UrSifrXWdtc/s1600/frontKitten.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C3f4faFRbU4/T06QKLDiedI/AAAAAAAAC2c/UrSifrXWdtc/s320/frontKitten.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714663481620462034" border="0" /></a><br /><br />So here is the second wave of kittens. I pretty much started from scratch, and you can see that the pose of the kitten has changed a bit.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ap1XtM1GPaE/T06QKlQ3hxI/AAAAAAAAC20/3a767VdbsZk/s1600/wave2.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ap1XtM1GPaE/T06QKlQ3hxI/AAAAAAAAC20/3a767VdbsZk/s320/wave2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714663488655689490" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After I painted the kitten that is blue I thought that was the nearest shape I had ever got to a kitten, so as you will see, I cleaned up the lines to get a better silhouette. Two problems. The head is posed looking up and isn't really a good default pose. The second is that when I tried to draw the details of the face, it just looked wrong. I slowly shifted the head to looking forward, but I'm still not happy with the final shape as it stands.<br />In case anyone is wondering, the first kitten in the second row down is what I think has the best shape.<br /><br />Hopefully it will all come together If I look at this again another day.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-76450922595126416392012-02-26T18:42:00.009+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.891+01:00The Major Project - The MonkThe monk character is almost fully resolved now. Literally all that is left to do is draw the sandals, the detailed hands, possibly a separate head, and any other 3D view drawings to aid in modelling.<br />You can see the process backwards!<br /><br />Fully painted.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-froaO6m38BQ/T0p-BUBZ9kI/AAAAAAAAC2I/0-mIGZcSQcc/s1600/FinalPainting_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-froaO6m38BQ/T0p-BUBZ9kI/AAAAAAAAC2I/0-mIGZcSQcc/s320/FinalPainting_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713517638292469314" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Blocked out the shading.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-02XibzfKs4Q/T0p-BHLYPFI/AAAAAAAAC18/Bd_dQejil9Q/s1600/RoughPainting_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-02XibzfKs4Q/T0p-BHLYPFI/AAAAAAAAC18/Bd_dQejil9Q/s320/RoughPainting_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713517634844638290" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Pencil sketch based on line drawings.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3dmw9Xg8XLc/T0p-AioqQsI/AAAAAAAAC1k/eMWkyZOOLfw/s1600/Pencil_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3dmw9Xg8XLc/T0p-AioqQsI/AAAAAAAAC1k/eMWkyZOOLfw/s320/Pencil_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713517625035342530" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Line drawings as a guide.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5eXC3aO1LHM/T0p-A3xwsvI/AAAAAAAAC1w/yxrrxr8Dvrs/s1600/SketchGuide_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5eXC3aO1LHM/T0p-A3xwsvI/AAAAAAAAC1w/yxrrxr8Dvrs/s320/SketchGuide_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713517630710657778" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I'm pleased that I have even painted him and am happy with the result.<br />Next to do is the kitten.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-45457380232899957152012-02-25T15:36:00.014+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.891+01:00The Major Project - Progress on CharacterI've been getting the final monk character designs ready for production.<br /><br />Here were my first two attempts in front and side views.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VydARRBtdH0/T0kBQ1mTelI/AAAAAAAAC0Y/EXx-Msk0oJ8/s1600/FirstFrontSideWeb_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VydARRBtdH0/T0kBQ1mTelI/AAAAAAAAC0Y/EXx-Msk0oJ8/s320/FirstFrontSideWeb_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098991073458770" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HrdT3JhIowc/T0kBQqVSFvI/AAAAAAAAC0Q/pvor8Dkyn5k/s1600/SecondFrontSideWeb_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 154px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HrdT3JhIowc/T0kBQqVSFvI/AAAAAAAAC0Q/pvor8Dkyn5k/s320/SecondFrontSideWeb_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098988049274610" border="0" /></a><br /><br />While I quite liked the second one, I couldn't quite work out where the shoulders were and whether the arms were too long.<br /><br />I also practiced at drawing cloth.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-08AGWIqdVPc/T0kBOz8FjCI/AAAAAAAACz0/Y_-0CSnE5pI/s1600/ClothTestsWeb_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 79px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-08AGWIqdVPc/T0kBOz8FjCI/AAAAAAAACz0/Y_-0CSnE5pI/s320/ClothTestsWeb_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098956268211234" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />While you don't see much of his body, I did realise that I needed to know what his body shape was to correctly understand his proportions with the clothes on over the top.<br /><br />I started with some rough front and side view drawings of his body, gradually retracing and refining until I got something I was happy with. I then traced the clothes on too.<br /><br />Here was my progress on that.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TdIZk9ei7mE/T0kBPeTVbhI/AAAAAAAAC0E/kkOfPGz7Fdo/s1600/progressWeb_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 77px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TdIZk9ei7mE/T0kBPeTVbhI/AAAAAAAAC0E/kkOfPGz7Fdo/s320/progressWeb_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098967640010258" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The final body.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pn2qIEkhRuc/T0kBOAMUAJI/AAAAAAAACzs/Ghy5qFmXeEE/s1600/Finalbody_01.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pn2qIEkhRuc/T0kBOAMUAJI/AAAAAAAACzs/Ghy5qFmXeEE/s320/Finalbody_01.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098942377623698" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The final clothes.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1D3wWP_dHc/T0kAoWXKELI/AAAAAAAACzc/abF6nm4ow9U/s1600/FinalClothesWeb_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 102px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1D3wWP_dHc/T0kAoWXKELI/AAAAAAAACzc/abF6nm4ow9U/s320/FinalClothesWeb_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098295493660850" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The final Monk.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aYcVJQO-SrA/T0kAnEU9PUI/AAAAAAAACzU/iR68OVY3LDI/s1600/finalMonk_01.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aYcVJQO-SrA/T0kAnEU9PUI/AAAAAAAACzU/iR68OVY3LDI/s320/finalMonk_01.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098273472724290" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />But then after looking at the final picture, I didn't like him at all. Partly because of the way i'd drawn his face, but mainly because his overall body shape looked wrong. I decided that the overhanging belly was too much, and the bit which looks like a skirt was too short and skirt like. The sleeves had lost their size somehow, and his head looked sunk into his body.<br /><br />Even after changing the head and a few other things, he still didn't look right.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qIS44OeGwoM/T0kAmPdxLxI/AAAAAAAACzI/pQxZu4f-770/s1600/TweakedMonk_01.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 202px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qIS44OeGwoM/T0kAmPdxLxI/AAAAAAAACzI/pQxZu4f-770/s320/TweakedMonk_01.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098259282603794" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Well after all that careful drawing I decided to start again.<br /><br />I did a quick test where I outlined where I thought the body shape of the monk was over the top of this painting with his clothes on. I much preferred that, even though it was a rough painting with a rough sketch.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kQpUryS3_K8/T0kBpmhZCeI/AAAAAAAAC0o/bxA6gYoN6_M/s1600/TestReshape_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 314px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kQpUryS3_K8/T0kBpmhZCeI/AAAAAAAAC0o/bxA6gYoN6_M/s320/TestReshape_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713099416523049442" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Anyway from there I quickly re drew another body shape, less fat, and with longer legs, with looser clothes. I stuck the painting of the head I did on top too, just to get a better idea of his character, and I have to say that I am liking him more than I have in any of my other drawings.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7DS_MstBgY0/T0kAlVidDPI/AAAAAAAACy8/QQEFIz90tgw/s1600/NewMonk_01.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 313px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7DS_MstBgY0/T0kAlVidDPI/AAAAAAAACy8/QQEFIz90tgw/s320/NewMonk_01.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098243732999410" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />So from there, I started to refine this, by retracing a bit neater. What I've done is separated the body from the different elements of the clothes into different layers with different colours, and this is where I'm at now.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XiXXcn4E7rA/T0kAkxYLbLI/AAAAAAAACyw/coTXP5B6jnc/s1600/NewMonk_02.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 313px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XiXXcn4E7rA/T0kAkxYLbLI/AAAAAAAACyw/coTXP5B6jnc/s320/NewMonk_02.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713098234026224818" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />I want to get the side view at this stage, followed by a proper pencil sketch and a coloured painting. I then want to do separate orthographic views for the head hands and possibly the sandals, as they lack detail in the main body drawings.<br /><br />And then I have to do the same for the kitten!<br />In the meantime I have experimented with the brushes in Photoshop, and had a go at painting a kitten. My final kitten could look something like this. Although not necessarily grey.<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K-ErmlAJgso/T0kBp3NFjYI/AAAAAAAAC00/-fyud97Bink/s1600/KittenTestWeb_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K-ErmlAJgso/T0kBp3NFjYI/AAAAAAAAC00/-fyud97Bink/s320/KittenTestWeb_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713099421001289090" border="0" /></a><br /><br />More to come.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-91310739701384659302012-02-23T21:34:00.002+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.892+01:00The Major Project - The IntroductionI've had another idea about the introduction to the animation. I don't have anything new to show yet, but I am in the process of doing some slight re editing. However I'm always concerned of not only the animation itself getting too long, but probably more importantly, act 1 being proportionally longer than the main part of the film, which would, to me, seem odd. On the other hand I do agree that maybe it is important that the audience better understands the premiss before the main film. It is a problem.<br /><br />However, I think considering the nature of the concept, and how I can see it as a series, the opportunity has opened to have a short intro title sequence.<br />Like many cartoon series, particularly older ones, they use the intro sequence as a way of setting up the concept, introducing characters by name and what they do etc.<br /><br />I'm thinking that it could be done with either rendered still or paintings, cut out in layers to add depth, in a sort of 2.5D style. So I could setup the premiss with a selection of stills and a bit of text. eg - the title, created by, then 'starring Saint Anthony the Patron Saint of Lost Things'. That way I can introduce the audience to the basic premiss through coloured storyboards, without detracting from the main story of this episode, the day the monk finds a kitten, and still be able to focus on getting quality animation in the main part of the episode.<br /><br />The intro sequence would still need as much care and attention as the main animation, but with Maya out of its pipeline it means that I can spend more time storyboarding it and getting it right, while along side that, getting the technical maya stuff done for the main animation. if I was to do something like this I think it could work really well and sell the project.<br /><br />What are peoples thoughts on this?<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-50028225043818259232012-02-22T20:23:00.006+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.892+01:00The Major Project - Animatic 0.1This is the very first edit of the animatic, but I haven't yet committed to any sound, or rather the sound effects. The music has me stumped at the moment, but I will endeavour to find something that will fit. In the meantime you can view the animatic without sound. Hopefully the next item in the post more than makes up for that!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OkuzeJP8xyg?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="215" width="320"></iframe><br /></div><br /><br /><br />Yes, I've done some digital painting. Most of my own projects have lacked a colourful preproduction stage, however after learning a few simple painting techniques I've had a go at colouring my monk character.<br /><br />I did the large face first, then the other. Somehow or other the second one came out really tanned! These were both done straight in Photoshop.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5y5ybhE37ks/T0VQDm_c8WI/AAAAAAAACyo/Rl_2SDcil8A/s1600/FirstTestPainting_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5y5ybhE37ks/T0VQDm_c8WI/AAAAAAAACyo/Rl_2SDcil8A/s320/FirstTestPainting_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712059725325857122" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br />I then took the very first sketch of the monk I did and had a go at colouring him properly. The background is kind of how I imagine the world to look like. Its not simply a white space as it has some colour and atmosphere.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kiWIPiYrOoQ/T0VQDY45PHI/AAAAAAAACyY/FOZv5-VDRTA/s1600/ColourTest_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kiWIPiYrOoQ/T0VQDY45PHI/AAAAAAAACyY/FOZv5-VDRTA/s320/ColourTest_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712059721540254834" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br />Well there you go. Expect to see a few more drawings and paintings soon as I finish refining my characters.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-49368089957651966372012-02-20T20:01:00.021+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.892+01:00The Major Project - The Story So FarI haven't posted much on the story yet, but already many ideas have been considered. After I've shown the first completed draft storyboards, I just want to go over the rational behind the current story. Feedback most welcome too.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">___________________________<br /></div><br />_______ Act 1<br /><br />Exactly how it starts is still in a state of flux but for now, the title is made out of letter fridge magnets and they fall down amongst other lost objects, swirling around into a bright white light. Likely to change though as I want to add in some floating lanterns at this point.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bByMN-WGHHI/T0Km2P0yDnI/AAAAAAAACto/y6Mm_FkDkFs/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bByMN-WGHHI/T0Km2P0yDnI/AAAAAAAACto/y6Mm_FkDkFs/s320/SB_draft1_Web_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711310728350273138" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The camera pans down onto the monk, just releasing one last lantern.<br />The camera cuts close up to the basket as it drifts up, focusing on the label. The label twists around as labels generally do. First showing lost keys belonging to someone, with an address on the other side. (the actual name and address are irrelevant other than that they are a name and address!)<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_hUtMdYKd-8/T0Km2lxLrkI/AAAAAAAACt0/5RXvPkkH1Mo/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_02.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 208px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_hUtMdYKd-8/T0Km2lxLrkI/AAAAAAAACt0/5RXvPkkH1Mo/s320/SB_draft1_Web_02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711310734240755266" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The monk takes a look at his sundial watch! He decides it is time to tidy up.<br />He picks up (in this case) a broom. (but actually what he picks up first depends on what shot I cut to next)<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X5nJ5HQAsp4/T0Km3Os2T5I/AAAAAAAACuA/3FcOYSYbM_I/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_03.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X5nJ5HQAsp4/T0Km3Os2T5I/AAAAAAAACuA/3FcOYSYbM_I/s320/SB_draft1_Web_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711310745228431250" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />He is busy raking up pen lids. Shovelling coins in a crate. Hoisting heavy crates up. Then lastly, but most importantly, he is sweeping up the socks.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lFsAWkOEI60/T0Km3RpEXLI/AAAAAAAACuM/5WWRxNlstDQ/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_04.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lFsAWkOEI60/T0Km3RpEXLI/AAAAAAAACuM/5WWRxNlstDQ/s320/SB_draft1_Web_04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711310746017881266" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />_______ Act 2 Part 1<br /><br />While sweeping he is surprised by a noise. A kitten pops out of the sock pile.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fRqJaMl0cYU/T0Km36-IsxI/AAAAAAAACuY/Peqn2SLqYas/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_05.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fRqJaMl0cYU/T0Km36-IsxI/AAAAAAAACuY/Peqn2SLqYas/s320/SB_draft1_Web_05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711310757112099602" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />He picks up the kitten and strokes it. He picks up the attached string, but there is a missing label. At this point the kitten hops in his sleeve.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lv7FcB1zuNg/T0KnGEthgkI/AAAAAAAACuo/mi23zzJS50E/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_06.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 230px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lv7FcB1zuNg/T0KnGEthgkI/AAAAAAAACuo/mi23zzJS50E/s320/SB_draft1_Web_06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311000244945474" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The kitten travels down the monks clothes and pops out the other end and runs away. This scene may be cut short due to the practicalities of a kitten being able to run around inside his clothes.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qcicDt6t_O0/T0KnGGizxbI/AAAAAAAACuw/0JeKGNPCr4w/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_07.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 215px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qcicDt6t_O0/T0KnGGizxbI/AAAAAAAACuw/0JeKGNPCr4w/s320/SB_draft1_Web_07.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311000736875954" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />_______ Act 2 Part 2<br /><br />The kitten runs past a large ink bottle, running over a puddle of ink. The monk sees the messy trail left by the kitten. A sound of piled up baskets toppling over is heard.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7VMkxPEV9Yc/T0KnGVgYJsI/AAAAAAAACvE/cCb_qxIzN34/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_08.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 219px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7VMkxPEV9Yc/T0KnGVgYJsI/AAAAAAAACvE/cCb_qxIzN34/s320/SB_draft1_Web_08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311004753209026" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />He follows the trail to the fallen baskets. He has a mop! When he sees that the trail leads to one particular basket he drops his mop and lifts the basket.<br />Nothing is under there. Meanwhile another basket moves in the background and goes off screen.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VV0-adY4koQ/T0KnHFyhr8I/AAAAAAAACvM/0K789h74Mjo/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_09.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 208px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VV0-adY4koQ/T0KnHFyhr8I/AAAAAAAACvM/0K789h74Mjo/s320/SB_draft1_Web_09.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311017714233282" border="0" /></a><br /><br />(Room for any extra or alternate scenes)<br /><br /><br />_______ Act 2 Part 3<br /><br />After hearing the kitten meow, the monk comes back to the area with the crates and socks to find that the kitten is stuck at the top of a pile of crates. The monk starts to climb up. The creates are piled precariously and are wobbling.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CCCEvHyxiRw/T0KnHYbuYBI/AAAAAAAACvY/pgd8JVoXiDE/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_10.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 208px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CCCEvHyxiRw/T0KnHYbuYBI/AAAAAAAACvY/pgd8JVoXiDE/s320/SB_draft1_Web_10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311022718869522" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />He tries to reach for the kitten. He goes onto tip toes. He's practically reached the kitten when his foot slips.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lmYWz7dWweU/T0KnQ2-1AoI/AAAAAAAACvk/1EDqxoXE-I8/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_11.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lmYWz7dWweU/T0KnQ2-1AoI/AAAAAAAACvk/1EDqxoXE-I8/s320/SB_draft1_Web_11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311185537991298" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />As he falls the kitten jumps into his arms, pushing the crates over, and they both fall into the pile of socks. A sock flies in front of the camera.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PCfwvgDiZP0/T0KnRFui66I/AAAAAAAACvw/C6B9ktEkdoc/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_12.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PCfwvgDiZP0/T0KnRFui66I/AAAAAAAACvw/C6B9ktEkdoc/s320/SB_draft1_Web_12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311189496228770" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />When we come back to the scene, he is sitting up with the kitten in his arms and another hand on the ground. He sees that his hand is on something. It is a label. The missing label of the kitten. He realises that the kitten must now be returned. He's sad.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zqKX_mG8peE/T0KnRT4s7JI/AAAAAAAACv8/o3_muPK2trA/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_13.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zqKX_mG8peE/T0KnRT4s7JI/AAAAAAAACv8/o3_muPK2trA/s320/SB_draft1_Web_13.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311193296923794" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />_______ Act 3<br /><br />He opens his address book. Scans down the page for the right address. The camera cuts to a shot revealing the ridiculous size of the book.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IL9OCmkr5Zk/T0KnRxLE2CI/AAAAAAAACwM/7OwocXdnV7Q/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_14.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 204px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IL9OCmkr5Zk/T0KnRxLE2CI/AAAAAAAACwM/7OwocXdnV7Q/s320/SB_draft1_Web_14.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311201158617122" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />He puts the kitten in a basket then lights a candle. The basket slowly lifts. The monk is sad and happy at the same time.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DbvFbFLKHoM/T0KnSGFpCAI/AAAAAAAACwU/SJoWl0YotO0/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_15.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DbvFbFLKHoM/T0KnSGFpCAI/AAAAAAAACwU/SJoWl0YotO0/s320/SB_draft1_Web_15.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311206772967426" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The camera pans up to the sky as the basket floats away. As the monk turns around to walk off screen, the kitten pops up in his hood!<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dUwfnsHZyqg/T0KnVRRFdII/AAAAAAAACwg/oqbGio2_fjI/s1600/SB_draft1_Web_16.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dUwfnsHZyqg/T0KnVRRFdII/AAAAAAAACwg/oqbGio2_fjI/s320/SB_draft1_Web_16.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711311261313365122" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">___________________________<br /></div><br /><br />One of the earliest decisions was how to distinguish between the lost items, and the props of his world. Being a monk character I made the decision to keep his stuff old fashioned. He sends lost items back with floating lanterns, has a sundial watch, and an address book with so many addresses it would have to be huge. All the unlabelled lost items get stored in large crates which he has to manoeuvre himself with lots of rope and tackles. Generally, the things that are lost are small and the things in his world tend to be larger.<br /><br />Of course thats an awful lot to introduce in one short animation. When starting to figure out how the story was going to work, I thought it was probably going to be necessary to show the cycle of one random lost object being lost and going through the system until it is floated away.<br />One option to save myself from having to waste valuable running time on explanations and not on the actual story, was to not properly introduce the kitten until the end. So rather than the monk chasing this kitten, he is just doing his usual job, while finding this trail of destruction that the kitten has left.<br />Here are some of the boards that I drew to test the idea. (mixed with storyboards from the main edit)<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b_nJY9BZcts/T0KoJTIRLLI/AAAAAAAACxE/sk02y4W4UBE/s1600/SB_OtherA_Web_03.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 113px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b_nJY9BZcts/T0KoJTIRLLI/AAAAAAAACxE/sk02y4W4UBE/s320/SB_OtherA_Web_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711312155166452914" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LOg_V-WTPCg/T0KoJj_mfTI/AAAAAAAACxU/upiYIeP-8y8/s1600/SB_OtherA_Web_04.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LOg_V-WTPCg/T0KoJj_mfTI/AAAAAAAACxU/upiYIeP-8y8/s320/SB_OtherA_Web_04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711312159693503794" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_BPvIVkgB1E/T0KoKHPsusI/AAAAAAAACxc/CBrPt0zB5Gs/s1600/SB_OtherA_Web_05.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 114px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_BPvIVkgB1E/T0KoKHPsusI/AAAAAAAACxc/CBrPt0zB5Gs/s320/SB_OtherA_Web_05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711312169156262594" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It might have worked, but it seemed a bit bland and the ending wouldn't have worked well.<br /><br />The problem was that whenever I tried to find the quickest and most efficient way to introduce the whole world it seemed to feel disjointed, slow or rushed.<br />In the end I came to the conclusion that it was only necessary to introduce some things, but not everything straight away. I could get to the main story (the kitten) much quicker and still show the complete process at the end, with hints in the middle.<br />In other words, the whole mechanics of the world didn't need to be spelt out before the main story.<br /><br />I have considered the practicalities of animating a kitten in 5-ish weeks along with the monk. I'm not a cat expert and don't have any pets so while reference videos from youtube will help, I've got to be economical about how much the kitten is 'alive' on screen for.<br /><br />This is why I've tried to maintain the focus of the story with the monk, and limit the kittens presence on screen. So one good run cycle is needed and there are a couple of scenes where the kitten and monk interact, but the majority of animation is still with the monk.<br /><br />I suppose the only things left to decide is whether it is necessary to show the kitten flying down with the other props, or something that might look like a kitten but fall down too quickly to properly notice, and whether it is necessary to introduce the kitten as being lost in the real world. This is one of the things that to me might make it feel disjointed, when the rest of the animation is in his world.<br /><br />Here are a few other segments of story boards that I've cut from the main edit. That's not to say some can't be put back in.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1EX8glOCrsY/T0KoItx3mkI/AAAAAAAACws/znT1qTGozLw/s1600/SB_OtherA_Web_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1EX8glOCrsY/T0KoItx3mkI/AAAAAAAACws/znT1qTGozLw/s320/SB_OtherA_Web_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711312145140390466" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UVS5Tpvvefs/T0KoI3uxQeI/AAAAAAAACw8/-VcNfNgh0Bk/s1600/SB_OtherA_Web_02.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UVS5Tpvvefs/T0KoI3uxQeI/AAAAAAAACw8/-VcNfNgh0Bk/s320/SB_OtherA_Web_02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711312147811746274" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b7RtRbhjMlI/T0KoOh8unLI/AAAAAAAACxo/gBCZGt59cUM/s1600/SB_OtherA_Web_06.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 209px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b7RtRbhjMlI/T0KoOh8unLI/AAAAAAAACxo/gBCZGt59cUM/s320/SB_OtherA_Web_06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711312245043928242" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-67Vd60CuYRQ/T0KoO4AoGRI/AAAAAAAACx4/hTawWmNmsXI/s1600/SB_OtherA_Web_07.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-67Vd60CuYRQ/T0KoO4AoGRI/AAAAAAAACx4/hTawWmNmsXI/s320/SB_OtherA_Web_07.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711312250965858578" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I have had plenty of feedback from home already, but I am interested to know what other people think.<br /><br />For now though, I'm going to take a short break from the story, and go back to the design side of things.<br /><br />A Flock of Pixels.AFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-89547161950976991682012-02-18T14:38:00.003+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.893+01:00The Major Project - Who's the Real Saint ?I've continued to develop the shape of my character, understanding what he looks like from all angles… or at least the face anyway.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ziRy2U1OZeo/Tz-4QbSzqTI/AAAAAAAACtQ/DYCBwbH3kLY/s1600/AnthonyFaces_01_Web.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 225px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ziRy2U1OZeo/Tz-4QbSzqTI/AAAAAAAACtQ/DYCBwbH3kLY/s320/AnthonyFaces_01_Web.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710485444873136434" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Out of the two fully clothed drawings I prefer the face on the left and the clothes on the right.<br /><br />What I want to do is figure out the right body shape under the clothes so that he looks correct, and the clothes over the top look correct and maintain a good silhouette throughout, so here are my first sketches on that.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RHY5C7jYUpY/Tz-4QjDXisI/AAAAAAAACtg/Jv1ls0xpYFI/s1600/Anthony_01_Web.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RHY5C7jYUpY/Tz-4QjDXisI/AAAAAAAACtg/Jv1ls0xpYFI/s320/Anthony_01_Web.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710485446955862722" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The main thing I wanted to decide upon was whether his legs should be chunky or thin with knobbly knees! I'm thinking the latter suits the rest of his shape better.<br />I'm also liking how his body shape is similar to his head, and then with the clothes on how the cone shape created makes his bald head prominent.<br /><br />The search still continues as I keep refining the design.<br /><br />Meanwhile I have actually spent more time this week figuring out how the story is going to work, but more on that in the next post once I've finished storyboarding the latest idea.<br /><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-44713698284503464442012-02-13T18:10:00.017+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.893+01:00The Major Project - More ProgressHere is my progress so far.<br /><br />These were some of my initial monk sketches...<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bSDQgVEQ07I/TzlShZbMyDI/AAAAAAAACnA/zhmsIjj76zA/s1600/Monk_01_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 269px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bSDQgVEQ07I/TzlShZbMyDI/AAAAAAAACnA/zhmsIjj76zA/s320/Monk_01_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684736382945330" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2WTWx55meh0/TzlShq5pcVI/AAAAAAAACnM/P1moQZBS4qU/s1600/Monk_02_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 308px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2WTWx55meh0/TzlShq5pcVI/AAAAAAAACnM/P1moQZBS4qU/s320/Monk_02_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684741074055506" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />… and these were my last few attempts of the monk design shown in the last post, although I still prefer the original. Since then, as you will see further down this post, I have drawn him many more times in the story boards.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pj1xJ023srs/TzlSiMnGTLI/AAAAAAAACnY/p8CApVd88N0/s1600/Monk_03_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pj1xJ023srs/TzlSiMnGTLI/AAAAAAAACnY/p8CApVd88N0/s320/Monk_03_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684750123060402" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YpjGh0T9svg/TzlSj97lmtI/AAAAAAAACnk/fp_CIKsYIKw/s1600/Monk_04_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 262px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YpjGh0T9svg/TzlSj97lmtI/AAAAAAAACnk/fp_CIKsYIKw/s320/Monk_04_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684780542204626" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br />I've never drawn kittens before, and finding out what makes a kitten look cute is difficult. I'm sure I'll get something that works well eventually!<br /><br />To find out how to draw kittens I started by looking at the book - Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair, which served as a starting point. These were the first three drawings I copied from the book.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yHUac0n1Ukk/TzlS13UgprI/AAAAAAAACn0/7euF0J53W-o/s1600/Kittens_01_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yHUac0n1Ukk/TzlS13UgprI/AAAAAAAACn0/7euF0J53W-o/s320/Kittens_01_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685088005334706" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7BXTs1GDwf0/TzlS2EtUwzI/AAAAAAAACoA/j3YV6H9li4g/s1600/Kittens_02_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 215px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7BXTs1GDwf0/TzlS2EtUwzI/AAAAAAAACoA/j3YV6H9li4g/s320/Kittens_02_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685091599074098" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />I tried slightly altering the pose above in this drawing.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mgvptFQc8Gc/TzlS2uJDfDI/AAAAAAAACoM/I_GxD5X6jfg/s1600/Kittens_03_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 228px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mgvptFQc8Gc/TzlS2uJDfDI/AAAAAAAACoM/I_GxD5X6jfg/s320/Kittens_03_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685102721236018" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br /><br />From that, in no particular order, I drew these. Some are quite bad and lack detail, but it seems that whenever I draw more lines they look more like cats rather than kittens. There's a few there I like the look of though.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gNkVs0MpTI8/TzlS20r-8BI/AAAAAAAACoU/Ed3iiyE8aJY/s1600/Kittens_04_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gNkVs0MpTI8/TzlS20r-8BI/AAAAAAAACoU/Ed3iiyE8aJY/s320/Kittens_04_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685104478351378" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BXCoMAJEqv8/TzlS3O3lLwI/AAAAAAAACok/FoTAXfEmPyo/s1600/Kittens_05_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BXCoMAJEqv8/TzlS3O3lLwI/AAAAAAAACok/FoTAXfEmPyo/s320/Kittens_05_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685111506317058" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br /><br />I really like this drawing in the bottom left corner, only he looks more like a cat than a kitten… Maybe save for another adventure.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaFxIe9sb3M/TzlS_lSTvII/AAAAAAAACow/c2Ffc-xR3ak/s1600/Kittens_06_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaFxIe9sb3M/TzlS_lSTvII/AAAAAAAACow/c2Ffc-xR3ak/s320/Kittens_06_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685254962953346" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RuqHkdSLAlo/TzlS_zami1I/AAAAAAAACo8/CeUl8aj9HSw/s1600/Kittens_07_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 272px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RuqHkdSLAlo/TzlS_zami1I/AAAAAAAACo8/CeUl8aj9HSw/s320/Kittens_07_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685258755836754" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n-7aHRRxyE8/TzlTAK-R5jI/AAAAAAAACpI/umC2_f-65JE/s1600/Kittens_08_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 260px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n-7aHRRxyE8/TzlTAK-R5jI/AAAAAAAACpI/umC2_f-65JE/s320/Kittens_08_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685265079494194" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1NYqboUxPuQ/TzlTAsEQedI/AAAAAAAACpU/dJ17XB-Io-E/s1600/Kittens_09_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 225px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1NYqboUxPuQ/TzlTAsEQedI/AAAAAAAACpU/dJ17XB-Io-E/s320/Kittens_09_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685273962936786" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uAd1zCVrLOM/TzlTA0zr1LI/AAAAAAAACpk/DFu6DDObTqg/s1600/Kittens_10_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 262px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uAd1zCVrLOM/TzlTA0zr1LI/AAAAAAAACpk/DFu6DDObTqg/s320/Kittens_10_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685276309345458" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRmDZxW2GVQ/TzlTLOvxiZI/AAAAAAAACps/cbW0UYCsf64/s1600/Kittens_11_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 138px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRmDZxW2GVQ/TzlTLOvxiZI/AAAAAAAACps/cbW0UYCsf64/s320/Kittens_11_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685455070955922" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X5v9qTO5Ivw/TzlTLHxCwRI/AAAAAAAACp0/zkPnTSbyY9c/s1600/Kittens_12_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 306px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X5v9qTO5Ivw/TzlTLHxCwRI/AAAAAAAACp0/zkPnTSbyY9c/s320/Kittens_12_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685453197230354" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Saj5gO3hug/TzlTLUjZNEI/AAAAAAAACqE/S2MMlvY954Y/s1600/Kittens_13_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 308px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Saj5gO3hug/TzlTLUjZNEI/AAAAAAAACqE/S2MMlvY954Y/s320/Kittens_13_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685456629642306" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dAZVVx-AAnI/TzlTMZmIJ0I/AAAAAAAACqQ/VEHwj1db7aE/s1600/Kittens_14_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 306px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dAZVVx-AAnI/TzlTMZmIJ0I/AAAAAAAACqQ/VEHwj1db7aE/s320/Kittens_14_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685475163154242" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6VGmX9niMtw/TzlTM4S2pOI/AAAAAAAACqc/FC884IfCfdo/s1600/Kittens_15_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 305px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6VGmX9niMtw/TzlTM4S2pOI/AAAAAAAACqc/FC884IfCfdo/s320/Kittens_15_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685483403814114" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DGbZ1YID4lc/TzlTSOhpKqI/AAAAAAAACqo/ZB5KgDav6jc/s1600/Kittens_16_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 253px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DGbZ1YID4lc/TzlTSOhpKqI/AAAAAAAACqo/ZB5KgDav6jc/s320/Kittens_16_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685575270771362" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OgF1BtQ3aVM/TzlTSUTztfI/AAAAAAAACqw/LSEhDPGRPEc/s1600/kittens_17_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OgF1BtQ3aVM/TzlTSUTztfI/AAAAAAAACqw/LSEhDPGRPEc/s320/kittens_17_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685576823354866" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Y-tOPrsqx4/TzlTSgsoqgI/AAAAAAAACrE/GuiuOZNB67E/s1600/Kittens_18_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 287px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Y-tOPrsqx4/TzlTSgsoqgI/AAAAAAAACrE/GuiuOZNB67E/s320/Kittens_18_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708685580148713986" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />I have also gathered some photos of kittens for further reference (which some of the above were based on) and even a few videos from Youtube, which will probably be of more use later on.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UNgWKoWB1zg/TzltYv91hoI/AAAAAAAACsw/bx0b49zzAFw/s1600/KittenPhoto_09.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UNgWKoWB1zg/TzltYv91hoI/AAAAAAAACsw/bx0b49zzAFw/s320/KittenPhoto_09.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714274628929154" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N77BuoC1vyM/TzltYbNuiqI/AAAAAAAACsg/BShNNgWpZzw/s1600/KittenPhoto_08.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 255px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N77BuoC1vyM/TzltYbNuiqI/AAAAAAAACsg/BShNNgWpZzw/s320/KittenPhoto_08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714269058435746" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qs44FCfVa2g/TzltX7RrbcI/AAAAAAAACsY/7IY-9lMZGfw/s1600/KittenPhoto_07.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 270px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qs44FCfVa2g/TzltX7RrbcI/AAAAAAAACsY/7IY-9lMZGfw/s320/KittenPhoto_07.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714260485074370" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TFhhv4FvBpg/TzltXu2040I/AAAAAAAACsI/zYX1J3oDVVU/s1600/KittenPhoto_06.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TFhhv4FvBpg/TzltXu2040I/AAAAAAAACsI/zYX1J3oDVVU/s320/KittenPhoto_06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714257151222594" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sz1ZVp9qp6E/TzltZZNFHAI/AAAAAAAACs4/cI8uonyux9E/s1600/KittenPhoto_10.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sz1ZVp9qp6E/TzltZZNFHAI/AAAAAAAACs4/cI8uonyux9E/s320/KittenPhoto_10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714285698718722" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HV2ILqDCvPY/TzltKV6GxkI/AAAAAAAACrw/N3jlztaSGPM/s1600/KittenPhoto_04.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 278px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HV2ILqDCvPY/TzltKV6GxkI/AAAAAAAACrw/N3jlztaSGPM/s320/KittenPhoto_04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714027115791938" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S6MRIaIONKA/TzltJs2vg3I/AAAAAAAACrk/jGFfRMZMk0E/s1600/KittenPhoto_03.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S6MRIaIONKA/TzltJs2vg3I/AAAAAAAACrk/jGFfRMZMk0E/s320/KittenPhoto_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714016095830898" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3420xAQWuUk/TzltJRvy27I/AAAAAAAACrU/jsYeI6nzC_o/s1600/KittenPhoto_02.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3420xAQWuUk/TzltJRvy27I/AAAAAAAACrU/jsYeI6nzC_o/s320/KittenPhoto_02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714008818932658" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qhpsi3DFz7g/TzltJHCkVWI/AAAAAAAACrM/ndNEyd46sJI/s1600/KittenPhoto_01.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qhpsi3DFz7g/TzltJHCkVWI/AAAAAAAACrM/ndNEyd46sJI/s320/KittenPhoto_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714005944882530" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DJREu55scnk/TzltKprae0I/AAAAAAAACsA/TEuCKzewe18/s1600/KittenPhoto_05.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DJREu55scnk/TzltKprae0I/AAAAAAAACsA/TEuCKzewe18/s320/KittenPhoto_05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708714032422878018" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><br />Lastly, I have started doing some story boards. They probably won't make much sense at the moment though because they are not complete. I'm just testing ideas currently.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rA65v19v5-k/TzlSXCkrgVI/AAAAAAAACmE/7cAGW0eW8ro/s1600/MonkKittenBoard_01_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 211px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rA65v19v5-k/TzlSXCkrgVI/AAAAAAAACmE/7cAGW0eW8ro/s320/MonkKittenBoard_01_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684558450000210" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--D4pyXy71-0/TzlSXWFbCrI/AAAAAAAACmU/XoyGGQIlQyo/s1600/MonkKittenBoard_02_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--D4pyXy71-0/TzlSXWFbCrI/AAAAAAAACmU/XoyGGQIlQyo/s320/MonkKittenBoard_02_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684563687606962" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sjJHeIvYr0k/TzlSX4o9SfI/AAAAAAAACmc/_FfQriRk9V8/s1600/MonkKittenBoard_03_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sjJHeIvYr0k/TzlSX4o9SfI/AAAAAAAACmc/_FfQriRk9V8/s320/MonkKittenBoard_03_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684572963457522" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EGEhN7hd84o/TzlSYEXg6bI/AAAAAAAACmo/z35ZXbq0MXM/s1600/MonkKittenBoard_04_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EGEhN7hd84o/TzlSYEXg6bI/AAAAAAAACmo/z35ZXbq0MXM/s320/MonkKittenBoard_04_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684576111520178" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lDm9wUvY658/TzlSYoL_pYI/AAAAAAAACm0/R-KlWOx3Gn4/s1600/MonkKittenBoard_05_Web.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lDm9wUvY658/TzlSYoL_pYI/AAAAAAAACm0/R-KlWOx3Gn4/s320/MonkKittenBoard_05_Web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708684585726879106" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />I will continue to refine my designs and get more boards done.<br /><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5126553528839813584.post-34650513863889397782012-02-09T20:37:00.008+00:002012-09-12T14:35:41.894+01:00The Major Project - So FarTuesday was the first official tutorial meeting, where I was able to discuss with the tutors my ideas for the project.<br /><br />Having spent the previous week doing a lot of brainstorming, I was able to go to the meeting with lots of ideas, although we ended up only discussed one of them. The rest didn't get much of a mention, but that didn't matter as I seem to have come up with something that we all liked the sound of.<br /><br />The idea - The place where lost things go.<br />That's it in a nutshell!<br /><br />I want the focus of this project to be on animation, so what I've come up with is the idea of a world in which all the lost things of the real world appear.<br /><br />They will fall from the 'sky' of this made up world and float to the ground.<br /><br />It is then the job of 'the finder of lost things' to identify who the lost item belongs to and return it back up through the 'sky'.<br /><br />The story is going to come from the things that could fall from the sky.<br /><br />Because the core idea has the potential to generate many scenarios / adventures, I would quite like to treat this as making an animated 'pilot' for a series rather than a one off animated short.<br /><br />So, firstly the character, I almost had no idea what the character should be, and initially though of constructing a character out of free floating random lost items.<br />As one of my tutors pointed out, there is a saint called Saint Anthony, who when prayed to, returns things that are lost.<br />A Google search reveals him to be depicted as a monk. I must admit I was sceptical about casting a monk as the main character, but after a few sketches I came up with this...<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KLUy_97jKdM/TzQ254Jdo1I/AAAAAAAACl4/59fRYaraWis/s1600/Scan.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 265px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KLUy_97jKdM/TzQ254Jdo1I/AAAAAAAACl4/59fRYaraWis/s320/Scan.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707246995737781074" border="0" /></a><br /><br />...which makes me think it should work, and so I've already made some decisions about how the world works, having now discarded plenty of ideas which didn't seem to suit the monk character.<br /><br />Working Concept -<br />Lost items fall out of the sky.<br />They have name tags.<br />He has a huge address book, with everyone's names.<br />He looks them up, and sends them back in a basket, lifted up by a candle powered flying lantern.<br /><br />His way of returning lost items is kind of old fashioned, but then that's his character.<br /><br />However that's not the story... This is the story... The day a kitten falls out of the sky!<br /><br />For now that is where I am leaving it until I can better understand how the story is going to work... but I'm still coming up with more ideas.<br /><br /><br />A Flock of PixelsAFlockOfPixelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05669296239837694573noreply@blogger.com2