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.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012
New Animatic
Hey guys, a new animatic. Animation should be completed by next week!
Animatic 3-31-12 from Sean Newton on Vimeo.
Animatic 3-31-12 from Sean Newton on Vimeo.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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).
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Winter Break Update
Hello Everyone,
I thought I might go ahead and keep everyone up to date with what I've been doing this winter break. At this point, I'm still working on skinning my astronaut. Maks Naporowski was nice enough to stop by today and help out with the character. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the process.
The reason why skinning is taking so long is that the rig itself is pretty complicated. This is because it is composed of 'stretchy' joints. Unlike a normal joint structure, stretchy joints mean that there are extra joints in between the normal ones (for example instead of just two joints, there would be an extra 5 joints added in between the elbow and wrist joints).
The advantage of this is that I can accomplish greater movement and 'stretchiness' with my character. The downside is that I have to go in and connect the skin to almost every one of these joints.
Anyways, I should be able to finish that before Christmas. I'll also be able to replace my character stand-ins with my actual characters and achieve some basic blocking by the end of this week. I'll then begin my animation after Christmas and have everything done by late January.
Here is a picture of what my large alien will look like. He will be the primary antagonist who will try to eat my small alien. I'll model him tomorrow and he should be good to go after that. The advantage is that he will only be on screen for a short while (15 seconds) and I won't require him to move much. Because of this, I won't have to spend time rigging him. I'll update my progress on him next week and upload some more pre-vis while I'm away for Christmas.
I thought I might go ahead and keep everyone up to date with what I've been doing this winter break. At this point, I'm still working on skinning my astronaut. Maks Naporowski was nice enough to stop by today and help out with the character. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the process.
The reason why skinning is taking so long is that the rig itself is pretty complicated. This is because it is composed of 'stretchy' joints. Unlike a normal joint structure, stretchy joints mean that there are extra joints in between the normal ones (for example instead of just two joints, there would be an extra 5 joints added in between the elbow and wrist joints).
The advantage of this is that I can accomplish greater movement and 'stretchiness' with my character. The downside is that I have to go in and connect the skin to almost every one of these joints.
Anyways, I should be able to finish that before Christmas. I'll also be able to replace my character stand-ins with my actual characters and achieve some basic blocking by the end of this week. I'll then begin my animation after Christmas and have everything done by late January.
Here is a picture of what my large alien will look like. He will be the primary antagonist who will try to eat my small alien. I'll model him tomorrow and he should be good to go after that. The advantage is that he will only be on screen for a short while (15 seconds) and I won't require him to move much. Because of this, I won't have to spend time rigging him. I'll update my progress on him next week and upload some more pre-vis while I'm away for Christmas.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Finals Thoughts + Faculty Review
Woohoo! Can you believe that an entire semester has passed? One down, one more to go....our semester here at USC. I want to congratulate all of my classmates on their hard work so far. Everybody's films look incredble. Fireworks for everyone!
Celebration is short because I still need to do a ton of work. I've composed a list of what I have achieved so far and need to complete for winter break. In terms of my schedule, I am a little behind, but will be able to catch up and even more during the holidays.
MODELING:
Here's what I have for modeling. For my characters, I completed my astronaut and alien. I've finished the exterior and interior models for the spaceships. I still need to model my large alien and my space landscape.
For winter break, I will need to model my large alien and space landscape. My large alien will only take half a week to complete and rigging won't be an issue. This is because he will be in the film for only a short while (30 seconds) and will not be needed to move around a whole lot. I can achieve the desired amount of animation if I create a few simple blendshapes and physically twist his body when he bounces on the small alien.
The space landscape will take the least amount of time to complete. I've already created the ground layer and will just need to model a few more rocks to dot the surface. I will model the rocks in ZBrush and import them into Maya.
RIGGING:
Overall, rigging is 80% completed. I want to thank Lisa Anderson for the body rig and Ryan Chen for the the facial rigging/skinning. They did awesome, incredible work. Everything is working perfectly and I am so glad that I turned to them for help. I am really impressed with what I have and greatly appreciate all the time and effort they put into it. Thank you guys! Here is an lip sync test with the astronaut made by Ryan Chen:
The rigging is done, but I still need to complete the skinning. For those who don't know, skinning involves conforming the skin of the character to their skeleton. I was hoping to finish skinning him before the faculty review but due to the complexity of the skeleton itself and time conflict, I will finish it up by next week. Maks Naporowski is helping me along the way. Here is work in progress:
For my small alien, Sean Manning is planning on finishing him up this week. It is looking amazing so far and I'm am extremely confident in achieving the desired animation I need. I especially love his expressions. Take a look!
TEXTURING:
I realized that texturing won't be as important or as time consuming as I thought. The only real texturing I will need will be for my space landscape. The environment will be very rich in red and pinks. I will use a rock texture for the surface and the rocks. A matte painting will be used for the backdrop. A sample matte painting:
Some examples of the colors I will be using:
In contrast, the colors and texturing of the spaceship will be very sterile. Very little colors and more white throughout. These would help emphasize the hunger and lonliness of the astronaut onboard. It will be sort of reminiscent of the coloring used in this fantastic, yet very similar short:
RENDERING:
I've determined that all of the rendering will be done through mental ray. Using this software will take a bit longer to output out, but it will look much better compared to using the normal Maya software. Plus, the rendering will take less than expected time due to the render farm being made available to us starting next semester.
IN SUMMARY:
So a list of what I need to accomplish this winter break:
To my classmates: Happy Holidays and good luck next semester!
Celebration is short because I still need to do a ton of work. I've composed a list of what I have achieved so far and need to complete for winter break. In terms of my schedule, I am a little behind, but will be able to catch up and even more during the holidays.
MODELING:
Here's what I have for modeling. For my characters, I completed my astronaut and alien. I've finished the exterior and interior models for the spaceships. I still need to model my large alien and my space landscape.
For winter break, I will need to model my large alien and space landscape. My large alien will only take half a week to complete and rigging won't be an issue. This is because he will be in the film for only a short while (30 seconds) and will not be needed to move around a whole lot. I can achieve the desired amount of animation if I create a few simple blendshapes and physically twist his body when he bounces on the small alien.
The space landscape will take the least amount of time to complete. I've already created the ground layer and will just need to model a few more rocks to dot the surface. I will model the rocks in ZBrush and import them into Maya.
RIGGING:
Overall, rigging is 80% completed. I want to thank Lisa Anderson for the body rig and Ryan Chen for the the facial rigging/skinning. They did awesome, incredible work. Everything is working perfectly and I am so glad that I turned to them for help. I am really impressed with what I have and greatly appreciate all the time and effort they put into it. Thank you guys! Here is an lip sync test with the astronaut made by Ryan Chen:
The rigging is done, but I still need to complete the skinning. For those who don't know, skinning involves conforming the skin of the character to their skeleton. I was hoping to finish skinning him before the faculty review but due to the complexity of the skeleton itself and time conflict, I will finish it up by next week. Maks Naporowski is helping me along the way. Here is work in progress:
For my small alien, Sean Manning is planning on finishing him up this week. It is looking amazing so far and I'm am extremely confident in achieving the desired animation I need. I especially love his expressions. Take a look!
I realized that texturing won't be as important or as time consuming as I thought. The only real texturing I will need will be for my space landscape. The environment will be very rich in red and pinks. I will use a rock texture for the surface and the rocks. A matte painting will be used for the backdrop. A sample matte painting:
Some examples of the colors I will be using:
In contrast, the colors and texturing of the spaceship will be very sterile. Very little colors and more white throughout. These would help emphasize the hunger and lonliness of the astronaut onboard. It will be sort of reminiscent of the coloring used in this fantastic, yet very similar short:
RENDERING:
I've determined that all of the rendering will be done through mental ray. Using this software will take a bit longer to output out, but it will look much better compared to using the normal Maya software. Plus, the rendering will take less than expected time due to the render farm being made available to us starting next semester.
IN SUMMARY:
So a list of what I need to accomplish this winter break:
- Finish skinning for astronaut
- Model large alien
- Model and texture space landscape
- Texture spaceship, astronaut, and small alien
- Render test footage
- Begin animation
To my classmates: Happy Holidays and good luck next semester!
Spaceship Update
Hi guys,
It's been a while since I updated the blog with some pictures of my work in progress, but here we go. Here are a few pictures of the updated interior shot from my spaceship. Compared to my last update, I included more mechanical objects inside and updated the desk. A new steering wheel, keyboard, gearshift, and other features on the desk to help spruce it up a bit more.
Now if you remember, here is what the outside looks like. I haven't really changed it but I might tweak the engines a bit to make them more realistic. But this will be what the final model will pretty much look like.
It's been a while since I updated the blog with some pictures of my work in progress, but here we go. Here are a few pictures of the updated interior shot from my spaceship. Compared to my last update, I included more mechanical objects inside and updated the desk. A new steering wheel, keyboard, gearshift, and other features on the desk to help spruce it up a bit more.
Now if you remember, here is what the outside looks like. I haven't really changed it but I might tweak the engines a bit to make them more realistic. But this will be what the final model will pretty much look like.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thanksgiving Blues
Hi guys!
Wow, Thanksgiving was great and as usual, went by pretty quickly. I was up in San Francisco with family and it was nice to see all of the relatives again.
Fun as it was, I can unfortunately say that I accomplished nothing major in terms of my senior thesis. I was instead spending the majority of my vacation time writing papers for other classes. Thankfully, I just got finished turning in my final entrepreneurship paper for class today and spent an all-nighter trying to finish it. I have WRIT 340 to take care of as well this week and papers to revise...But after next week, it should be open roads for me. And I'll then begin to start finally animating my characters!
I got a little work done. I started some basic skinning of my astronaut character and also finalized payment issues with my riggers. My alien character should be finished by this week as well. That's pretty much it.
Wow, Thanksgiving was great and as usual, went by pretty quickly. I was up in San Francisco with family and it was nice to see all of the relatives again.
Fun as it was, I can unfortunately say that I accomplished nothing major in terms of my senior thesis. I was instead spending the majority of my vacation time writing papers for other classes. Thankfully, I just got finished turning in my final entrepreneurship paper for class today and spent an all-nighter trying to finish it. I have WRIT 340 to take care of as well this week and papers to revise...But after next week, it should be open roads for me. And I'll then begin to start finally animating my characters!
I got a little work done. I started some basic skinning of my astronaut character and also finalized payment issues with my riggers. My alien character should be finished by this week as well. That's pretty much it.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Rigging Update
The facial rig for my astronaut is now completed! Ryan Chen was nice enough to complete the rig and do so in a timely and efficient manner. Overall, he did a fantastic job. I am completely satisfied with the expressions and emotions I'm an able to convey with it. As of now, the entire body rig is now being tweaked by one of my other riggers and it should be good to go by tonight.
At this point, I've ultimately decided to go ahead and perform the skinning on him. For those who don't know, skinning is when you connect the skeleton to the geometry of a character. I will be doing this by 'painting' influences on the geometry. Influence on a vertex is the amount the vertex is controlled by a specific bone.
Maks Naporowski was kind enough to provide me a tutorial and the tools involved to get the deformation looking right. Although I am not familiar with the process, I'll try my best to learn and get it done as soon as I can. Once the skinning is completed, I can finally begin animating him!
At this point, I've ultimately decided to go ahead and perform the skinning on him. For those who don't know, skinning is when you connect the skeleton to the geometry of a character. I will be doing this by 'painting' influences on the geometry. Influence on a vertex is the amount the vertex is controlled by a specific bone.
Maks Naporowski was kind enough to provide me a tutorial and the tools involved to get the deformation looking right. Although I am not familiar with the process, I'll try my best to learn and get it done as soon as I can. Once the skinning is completed, I can finally begin animating him!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
New Animatic for Grad Critique
Here is the newest animatic that I'll be presenting to the grad-level students on Wednesday. Overall, I changed a few scenes and added one at the very end. I also added a few more sound effects and made several scenes a little clearer. At 5:20, it is longer compared to my previous animatic but will most likely be shorter after the critique. Let me know what you guys think!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Spaceship Interior Pictures
Hello!
Here are some pictures of my spaceship interior progress. Still deciding what to put inside.
Although I already uploaded an animatic earlier this week, I'm preparing a newer one for the grad presentation on Wednesday. I'll upload that when I'm done.
Here are some pictures of my spaceship interior progress. Still deciding what to put inside.
Although I already uploaded an animatic earlier this week, I'm preparing a newer one for the grad presentation on Wednesday. I'll upload that when I'm done.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
New Animatic!
David Fain was kind enough to look at my previous animatic and provide copious notes on ways to improve it. Based off of his suggestions, I cleaned up a lot of issues with regards to timing and shot placement. Overall, it's a vast improvement over my previous version and it's now 45 seconds shorter. Enjoy!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Spaceship Update
Hey guys,
So my alien is finished and was sent off for rigging this week. I had to tweak some edge loops and added some where the joints will bend. I also made some proportional changes where needed.
I'm still debating whether to use The Face Machine for the rigging of my astronaut face. The software itself would cost around $60 and it would be a very easy learning curve. Unlike Face Robot for Softimage, this would integrate more easily with Maya. Either I do the rig myself or possibly turn to someone to do it for me. A link to the website:
Homepage
Anyways, here is a modeling update of my spaceship. I'm currently working on the hull and should be finished with that this week.
So my alien is finished and was sent off for rigging this week. I had to tweak some edge loops and added some where the joints will bend. I also made some proportional changes where needed.
I'm still debating whether to use The Face Machine for the rigging of my astronaut face. The software itself would cost around $60 and it would be a very easy learning curve. Unlike Face Robot for Softimage, this would integrate more easily with Maya. Either I do the rig myself or possibly turn to someone to do it for me. A link to the website:
Homepage
Anyways, here is a modeling update of my spaceship. I'm currently working on the hull and should be finished with that this week.
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