Some before and afters with the hand and the body. These are pretty much finalized although there are some other modeling shapes for the character which aren't created yet. (He's got a couple belts / straps which will be fixed dynamically so they're not necessary for this stage of the rigging which is what my class is all about. :) )
Well, hiya fello animators! It's my first post here and I'm going to force myself to be active on this one. Perhaps it'll make me polish more of my material than I usually do.
I'm currently living just outside of San Francisco and attending the Academy of Art for a master's degree in Computer Animation. I have a great interest in CG films and also video games. Although I haven't written out the possibility of doing special FX, it's lower on my list of interests.
I'm working on the final parts of preproduction on my thesis, so I'll post material as I get it finished, but the animation itself should be starting this coming fall after all the models / environments / characters are built and textured.
I remember when Maya used to cost $15,000, and the SGI workstation necessary to run it cost even more. In terms of rendering quality, the stuff produced in those days is vastly inferior to what we can do today with a copy of Maya 2008 Complete and a modest workstation. Total cost maybe $3500. It's easier and much faster to work with as well. Of course Maya Unlimited will set you back another $3000, but it's still a lot better than 10 years ago.
But top-shelf animation software is still not free, and wouldn't it great if it were? Enter stage right: Blender. It may be finally getting to the point that it can be a real alternative for professionals:
Not bad. The renders are certainly up to today's standards, and the animators were able to get decent results as well -- though there's not a whole lot of action in the trailer. Anyways, it's a heck of a lot better than the hideous Elephant's Dream, the first film attempted with Blender. It probably indicates that the software has come a long way. The interface is still a Byzantium train wreck, but I suppose if one uses it enough, he might get used to its quirks.
Here's a toast to the continuing progress of Blender (another one pulled from my archives):
This blog is for Catholic animators, and Catholics interested in the art, to share ideas, thoughts, clips, news, doodles -- anything that we might find interesting. That means it's going to get pretty goofy sometimes! That's almost guaranteed with a group of adults that have more toys on their desks than their children have at home. In fact, some of us have been known to steal our kids' toys when they aren't looking. But I digress...
I hope that by networking together like this we'll affirm each other in our Holy Faith and our vocations as artists, both of which can seem overwhelming at times.
Enough of that...here's something I pulled out of my archives from 9 years ago. My how time fwies! (as Elmer would say)
