Wednesday, June 27, 2012

DONE!

I don't know why I didn't post this earlier, but here you go! I proudly present my senior thesis film. It was a tremendously long journey and I'm just glad that it's all finished. I'm really surprised that I was able to complete it just in time for the thesis screening. Feel free to email me for the password.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Monday, March 5, 2012

Animation and Sound Design Update

Totally forgot to post on my blog today, but here it goes. This week I did some more rough animation and cleaned up more on top of that. I'm also happy to say that I finally have a sound designer! My composer was kind enough to recommend me to him. It's a relief because I was getting very desperate.

Stay tuned for more animation. I'll post a shot later today or tomorrow. I can't believe picture lock is only 3 weeks away! I sure have a lot to do over Spring Break. Good luck everyone!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Animation Time!

         I apologize for posting a little late, but here you go! This week I've completed more animation for all of you guys to enjoy (and also critique). I spent the majority of my time figuring out how the scenes between the astronaut and the little alien will play out when they meet for the first time.


        This by far was the best scene to animate. The timing, reaction, and movement between the two characters will be key. I figured that animating in general is always fun because you can always try out different reactions and movements with the characters. The only downside is that it can take a long time before you decide on the final product. I'll post the link to that scene later tonight (once vimeo is done encoding) for all of you to enjoy! I'm still tweaking it, so I'd really appreciate the input.

Monday, February 20, 2012

1 Month to Picture Lock

Just trying to motivate everyone. Actually, more like 1 month and 10 days. Well for this week I animated some more shots and blocked everything out. I should be done with my rough animation before spring break, and then go ahead and refine everything by the time picture lock rolls around. It's coming down to the wire, but I should be able to have everything finished by then.

Here is a little sample:


And just though I'd throw in another sample of my planet surface. I fixed up the sky and the rocks a bit more, but I'm still having issues with the ground. Weird shadows seem to form when there's a bump map applied to it. I'll have faculty take a look this week.

Monday, February 13, 2012

It's All Animation From Here

It's pretty much all animation from here! So I've finished texturing my backgrounds. Now I just have to finish my characters. I met with Maks on Thursday to clean up some skinning issues and with Eric Hanson on Monday to go over the texturing. In the meantime, I'm wrapping up on my opening and most difficult shot, when the astronaut looks into the food can onboard the spaceship. Here's a sample!



I've fallen relatively behind in terms of my schedule, mostly due to fixing a few skinning and texturing problems. But I am planning to catch up with everything by this President's Day weekend.

Monday, February 6, 2012

So Long Texturing!

Hi guys!

So this week I wrapped up on all of my texturing. I'm just finishing up on the food can he tries shaking the leftovers out of when he's on the spaceship. What do you guys think?


In other news, I met with my composer last week and went more into detail on how the music will sound. He should have the first pass of music completed by Wednesday. Maks was also nice enough to meet with me more than a couple times this week to clean up some skinning issues.

I'm still on track with animation. Expect some goodies within the next week!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Some Texturing Here and There...

Hi guys,
I apologize for not posting earlier. It's been a very hectic day. Anyways, this week I just finished up on texturing my rocks and spaceship. Here are some pictures:





I've really tried concentrating on the different varieties of rocks that would exist on this alien planet. They are all oddly shaped and weirdly colored. It's always fun coming up with these wacky designs.

Some test renders of the planet surface. I've realized how inredibly long it took some of these images to render, mostly because of the texturing and bump/spec maps on the rocks. I'll tone these down during the final render of my scenes.




And I know I posted this in my previous post, but it turns out I finished texturing it entirely this week. Here is my textured spaceship.


And I'm just finishing up on completing my 7 shots of animation this week as well. I'll keep ya updated!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Music, Modeling, Texturing, and Blocking, Oh My!

Hi Guys,

So alot happened over this past week. So let's start off with music. I'm happy to say that I officially have a composer! I met with Josh Cumbee on Thursday to start off things and introduce him to the project. I chose him because he was my composer for a smaller project last year, titled The Factory, and I was awesomely impressed by his work. The original sounds and instrumentals he put together for my music video just blew my socks off. My video wouldn't have been as great as it was without his involvement.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up on all of my modeling. Here is the gun that the astronaut uses on the small alien. I'm still playing with the colors and the trigger still needs some work. But what do you guys think?



And here are the 'photon' cannisters on the side. I'm really impressed on how these turned out.




I've also been wrapping up on the blocking and should have a new animatic to show on Wednesday. Expect some animation! And it looks like I'm still on schedule.

As a bonus, I included a test render from my campfire scene. I wanted to try and make fire in Maya and introduce myself to some particle dynamics. Although it does need some more tweaking, I think it turned out pretty well. If you notice, the astronaut is just a floating head!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Skinning and Animatic Update

Hello Everyone!

So this week I'm finishing up on my skinning. The process been definitely longer than I wanted it to take and has taken up some valuable time out of my schedule. But through it all, it has been a tremendous learning experience. Just getting familiar with the process and realizing how tedious it is has been extremely helpful in developing my technical abilities as an animator. Although I don't know if I'll have much success as a professional skinner.

This weekend I'm working on my blocking and tweaking some of my models. I should be able to insert my blocking scenes into my updated animatic in time for class on Wednesday.

In the meantime, enjoy another shot of my planet surface (with the spaceship included).


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Planet Surace + Interior Spaceship + Animation

Planet Surface

Here are some test images of the alien planet surface. The final rocks will be wackier and more oddly shaped. The sky will be pinker and redder. Enjoy!




Interior Spaceship

And here are some pictures of my spaceship. I'm in the process of texturing and should be done by this week. Texturing will be done by next week. After that, I'll just focus on animation.







Small Alien Walk + Steering Wheel Animation

And here is a rough of my alien walk cycle. This is the slow walk. For the next cycle, I'll have him do a trot/running walk. He will jump a little higher as he walks, kind of like a horse or cat.



And a basic animation of my steering wheel:



My astronaut has color!



...And last but not least, the final model of my spaceship exterior.