Month three project blockouts

Here are my Month three projects I will be working on.

The first one is a box vault,

The second is an explosive device throw using a mixture of references as well as some subtle changes and follow through with motion.

Month 2 blockouts

Here are some more Animation projects I have been working on. This first one is a dual bladed, cross strike attack sequence.

Here is the female walk cycle I am working on at the moment.

Month 1 Refinement

Here are some playblasts of my animations and their reference videos I found on Referencereference.com

This first Playblast is a reload sequence with an M4 rifle model I acquired from Tf3dm.com

Here is that Soldier bursting through a doorway, I had a great deal of trouble in the running portion of this segment, however I feel this is turning out alright.

Month 1 Blockouts

Here is my first block out animation for Finals! not done, just started creating key poses that make up the movements you see.

Finals Reference

Hello everyone, I'm finally starting finals here at school. For this post I'll be showcasing the reference for what Projects I will be working on for my portfolio as an Animator. 

Visual effects

Hello Everyone, these are my finals for Visual Effects. I am very proud of these two projects as I have fixed the render settings that were prohibiting me from making any real post effects in the end. These two projects are utilizing Particle Effects as well as Soft Bodies. Please let me know if you have any questions.

VFX 1

Hello everyone! I have been extremely busy with classes and have not had time to upload anything on here. Any who, here is a video of my first Visual Effects project

For This video, I used Something called Rigid bodies to make the objects in the scene move and collide with each other. There are two types of these rigid bodies, Active and Passive. Active rigid bodies are objects that freely move on their own based on the computer's memory and can have an automated gravity field applied to them. Passive on the other hand are merely object types that do not move whatsoever, as they only deflect and stop active rigid bodies from moving.  The objects in my scene that only stay stationary yet rotate and pivot, are constrained by a function called rigid constraints. The constraints I used are Hinges, which allow only one axis of rotation, Nail constraints, which allow a free range of motion around a single point. Pin constraints are the last one I used in my scene. That, similar to the nail constraint, allows a free range of motion except that it requires two objects to be attached together. I used this constraint on the dominoes in my scene. I had great deal of issues when trying to render the footage on this project, so I just ended up creating a basic playblast to show the motion, Although I turned on Ambient Occlusion and Normal maps to make the scene look really nice even as a mere playblast. Stay tuned for more Visual Effects Videos. 

Animation update

I have been quite busy here at schoolwork and getting things done at home. So I would like to update all of you with a couple of animations I created this month.
































I hope you enjoyed watching. Please continue following my blog and seeing my progress in the months ahead.

Personal Character Rig Critique 1

In this blog post, I am going to critique a rabbit rig that put together for my character rigging class project at Fullsail University.

T-pose

Shoulders Shrugging

This rig was a bit of a challenge as this was my first professionally built rig in Autodesk Maya. I built the base joint structure to fit the rabbit model by snapping each joint hinge to vertice points on the model so when I cut the model into pieces, I would be able to attach the corresponding joints to those cut pieces.

Once I finished that, I created an RFL (Reverse Foot Lock) system which followed the foot joint backwards so that I could make the foot's heel tilt up, roll left and right, and lift at the ball of the foot.

I then moved onto the hand leg joints where I created IK handles which allow three joints to bend just as an elbow or knee joint would allow. Before I created the arm IK handles, I created a different type of IK handle called a single-chain-solver which uses two or more joints and causes the chain to follow the handle's orientation. The other type of IK handle is called Rotate-plane-solver which is constrained to the orientation closest to the base joint. For the back I created an IK-spline-handle which uses a control curve as a spinal chord in the sense that it does not break unevenly. The spine also has a bend and stretch deformer that allows the rig to stretch and squash like a cartoon character.

Fighting Stance

Anticipation

Walking Pose

Once I was finished with the joints, I created a vast assortment of control curves to act as what some might call "puppet-strings". These control curves were then parented to their corresponding joints on the rig using the IK handles to move the rabbit model as an animation asset for movies or video-games. 

Toe-Touch

I Think I did a decent job for a very basic character rig, however I would like to point out the problems I had and the issues that this rig has. The first thing I would like to point out is that I was not able to paint weights onto the character model which would allow the rig's geometry (body) seams to split or break. I have very minimal finger control attributes as I only made a control that allows all three fingers to bend, a thumb drop, thumb pivot, thumb curl, as well as an attribute that causes the three fingers to sway back and forth, however I made the mistake of only adding this function to the right hand's control. Another Issue I knew of was that I had used a very simple constraint to the eye controls. The eye controls operate fine, however there are more complex and efficient ways of accomplishing this task than what I have performed. The biggest issue I had was that I neglected to hide certain controls that I had no use for anymore.

Thank you for reading, and please follow my blog for more critiques.

Rig Critique 2

For this rig critique, I am looking at some gaming assets that people made and posted on the internet. These two I got from CreativeCrash.com.

This next rig I would like to critique was the TF2 Scout rig I downloaded from CreativeCrash.com by user Enkidu13. I feel that this rig was very well done. I did not find very many issues within this rig mainly because certain useful attributes that appear out of nowhere when selecting various control curves on the rig. The few issues I could find were that the auto-stretch system in this character wound up breaking the rig's geometry by inflating instead of  stretching. Perhaps I was using the slider incorrectly, however I could not find another way how I might have operated those functions. 

The second rig I am critiquing is this Megatron rig also from Creative Crash made by the user gary wee. This rig was very simple yet complex in that it reminds me of a transformers action figure that is supposed to turn into a handgun. The whole rig is just fun to mess with, and could definitely have plenty of use in an animation or game of some kind. I personally found no flaws at all with how simple it actually is, although I feel that this character could have more abilities added to it. The only thing I did not like about it at all was that certain control icons disappear into the model when transforming into the gun. The icons disappearing was the only inconvenience I could find that slowed down any maneuvering of the rig.

Rig Critique 1

Today I would like to take a few minutes and mess with some character rigs made by people on the internet. I got these from CreativeCrash.com.

The first rig I critiqued was this dinoRig 2.0.0 rig from CreativeCrash.com, made by user Harry Gladwin other known as Geoghegan. This rig I think is beautifully made in that it's features are very effective for it's function as a rig, although I did find a few minor errors mostly within the back system. The biggest problem I found in the back was in the main hip joint. When pulling on the hip curve it created a hole and I remembered from lecture, when we were shown an FK spline, where the back fell through the control curves when pulled away from the rest. When the hip control is pulled too far away, the whole proxy falls through the hip and outside the rig. Another issue I found was in the shoulder controls. There seemed to be trouble when translating the shoulder as it is very sensitive and can almost break the geometry of the shoulder when pulled slightly. I really enjoyed the head controls on this rig's head, it has a great deal of set driven keys, which are all very useful in creating emotion and different actions on this character. 

Overall I had a ton of fun just fooling around with this rig and using the controls to make different poses that looked really interesting and life like for someone interested in dinosaurs. This rig with the exception of a few issues was very nicely done.

The second Rig I critiqued was this Daxter rig 1.0.0 from CreativeCrash.com by Davmawey. This rig is much more advanced than I originally thought it was going to be. The rig is very complex and a new or inexperienced animator at NaughtyDog studios in the time of Jak and Daxter would have had to spend a great deal of time getting used to all the variables, set driven keys, and IK controls. The facial control curves with constraints are extremely intriguing as they are extremely effective in creating a wide range of emotion. The only down side with these neat controls was in the forehead control having too much freedom when pulled down the animator can pull the down to his chin thus allowing geometry from the face to ghost through the forehead. The other features I enjoyed about this rig are that it's hand has an IK toggle switch so that the animator can choose to use the set driven keys or the IK curve toggled from the SDK. A major flaw that bothered me was that unfortunately, this rig only has one hand. Although the right hand was very intricate and well rigged, the left arm does not have a hand. I feel that overall looking at this rig reminds me of the rig we have been working on in class because of the simple mechanics of the rig's body. I was astounded with how well done this rig was despite the few flaws I could find. I just wish there were more controls on this rig that could complete this small character's huge  personality.

Sequel to Introductions

After my introduction to video games, I moved from NHL to games such as Marsupialami. Marsupialami was one of the hardest video games I have ever played. Still is… Despite its difficulty, This game was very funny as well as fun to play.

 StarGate was the next video game I had moved onto. 

StarGate was one of my favorite games as I had never played any kind of military based video games. StarGates objective was to find all of the captured soldiers and equipment and then finally slaying the Main antagonist based on the Egyptian god Ra.

Eventually my father came home from work and bought me this wonderful game. 

It took me a long time to beat, but I enjoyed every bit of it. Odly enough, this game made me want to watch the movie while I had been eight years old. 

First Post: Introductions

In the beginning…

It began innocently enough with SEGA Genesis games

My mentor and father introduced me to gaming via NHL 95

Until I transitioned into my own ability to find friends with my beloved Barney 

Bwahahaha!.. Power…

And so begins the evolution of a gamer.

Follow the transition from these humble beginnings to a serious Video Game Animation Artist.