... And here's the wing where I smoothed out the way the wing fits into the body. I think it's a lot cleaner and smoother.
My question - too many loops? and how much cleaner should this be? I know there are some triangles in there.

Any recommendations?

Modeling help needed.

Please let me know what you think of the geometry, particularly the edge loops.
This is the "good side". I went back and forth from poly to SubD and back again and had a lot of clean up to do, especially around the eyes and mouth. I plan on mirroring this side once it's cleaned up.

I added a partial crease around the open beak area and along the edge where the beak meets the face, though you can't see it in this shot. Very subtle.



I'll add a shot of the wings, too. I'd like to get feed back so I can throw in a simple rig. ... which I'll do anyway, but it would be good to catch any obvious glitches first.

Industry Review ... Great Job Steve Mann!!!

Color me impressed on the feedback all the students received during the review. I was particularly pleased with mine as the good news is that I'm on the right track! or rather I don't have to change the direction I'm going. So, yeah! I was pretty sure the length/timing would come up, but I was pleased that it wasn't a question of "cutting" anything, rather, I can still do everything I want to do it will just take less time then my animatic shows. Fair enough. I completely agree. Off to buy a stop watch.

The "next steps" was to act out and time my scenes with a stop watch.

Find images or footage that best represent the action/mood/expression of the scene and edit them together in a new animatic to better understand the action/reaction I want to achieve without having to worry if my drawings are good enough or conveying the right message.

When my models and set done, even in rough form, "act" out the scenes by moving the characters and cameras around to better understand the timing and angles.

Modeling - mouth open and wings need to fit into the body better. [working on it!] opened the mouth last night, added the inside of the mouth and a "mouth bag" or whatever they call it in "Stop Staring". It was pretty cool because a lot of the modeling took place inside the head - like being inside the Statue of Liberty.

I'll play around with some rigging and torture tests to see how they deform.

Not sure if I'll start Dee yet, or keep going with Rosa.

I think I need to start Dee ...

Anyway, hope to show Steve an updated model and see if the wing is working as it should.

A Moment of Silence, Please ...

"The pink plastic flamingo, a Florida-inspired icon that has been reviled as kitschy bad taste and revered as retro cool, is dead at age 49."

[Full Story, Sun Sentinel]

"The pop culture symbol met its demise after its manufacturer, Union Products, of Leominster, Mass., was socked with a triple economic threat -- increases in costs of electricity and plastic resin combined with loss of financing. Production ended in June, and the plant is scheduled to close Nov. 1, according to president and CEO Dennis Plante. Union Products made 250,000 of its patented plastic pink flamingos a year in addition to other garden products.

Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, paid tribute to the infamous bird that has been immortalized everywhere -- from the John Waters' movie Pink Flamingos, to bachelor parties and lawns across America.

"Let's face it," he said. "As iconic emblems of kitsch, there are two pillars of cheesy, campiness in the American pantheon. One is the velvet Elvis. The other is the pink flamingo."

I had no idea. I guess I'm now officially paying homage to the pink plastic icons.
Lucky I got my AUTHENTIC Don Featherstone off eBay when they were only $10 for a set of 2.

Midterm deliverables ...

Midterm Paper

Latest Animatic

Inspiration for patience, attention to detail and achieving the seemingly impossible.


http://www.oncotton.co.uk/peter/index.html


I am in awe that anyone could achieve something so beautiful yet so simple.

RIGGING!!!!

I just received my AutoDesk DVD from Siggraph that has parts I and II of Jason Schleiffer's "Animator Friendly Rigging" (AFR). Even though I'm using a simple rig for my characters and props I hope to use his method of clean, easy rigging with the animator (that would be me) in mind.

I particularly like his 7 point check list for making good, animator-friendly rigs:

1. Consistent/Predictable behavior
2. Simplified control structure
3. Easy to use
4. Fast interaction
5. Minimal counter-animation
6. Solve the problem
7. Allows the animator to do their job without compromising their ideas

He outlines his system for "solving the problems" in 5 not necessarily easy steps:

1. Analyze the problem
2. Create a test of the solution
3. Analyze the solution
4. Recreate the solution cleanly
5. Recreate again (using code/mel)

Creating simple, effective controls is one of my goals and I think my two very different characters will let me experiment with 2 very different rigs.

Goals for this weekend, finish up my midterm deliverables, rosa's face, work on ball rig from AFR that I think will be the basis of Dee. That's partially why I waited to even start her, I knew this was coming and I wanted to use this squash and stretch set up. Her wings I'm pretty certain will just be simple FK for easy rotation in flight and some small gestures (shoulders, wing tips)

I may have found the answer to my neck rigging. I found this link on jonhandhisdog.com (Jason Schlieffer) and folks there seem to be pretty excited about it. (so it must be good!) I haven't tried it yet, but I love the stretch, bend and smoothness - no snapping!!

I'm so glad, I was trying straight FK, spline IK and nothing seemed just right.

ElastIK

I just hope there are no glitches with Macs. I've run into mel issues.

[follow-up] Major glitch, the plug-in seems to be for windows only. I've emailed Michael Hutchinson the author/developer and hopefuly I'll get an answer. I also plan on following up on JS forum on how to recreate the smooth IK with native Maya nodes.

If not, I'm pretty sure a stretchy splineIK will be just fine.

Corpse Bride + Bob the Builder + Nightmare Xmas + W&G = The Look

I really like the bulky look of claymation, I find them very inviting and you just want to touch them, pick them up.
I like the textures and lighting, not overly realistic, but not too simple or abstract. There's a complete look to all of these productions that I hope to achieve with my characters and environment.

Style Sheet (Sketch)

Production Design - Characters, environment, props, material.
Will work on style, color, light and mood this week.

This PDF has a check list for all the assets in the piece and has check marks for modeling and texturing drafts.

http://64.17.142.111/downloads/ASSET_LIST.pdf

(sorry, the link function doesn't seem to want to work right now... copy paste)

Mixed feelings about class yesterday.

I was hoping to see a few more animatics and some prep work for the Industry Review next week. But after reviewing the schedule, all that's needed is the visual script which were done. I'm hoping the "last minute" and some crunch time will yield more work. I see this as such a great opportunity to get input EARLY to avoid timely/costly changes later on in production. On the other hand, no one seems overly concerned regarding deliverables, so I won't be either. Not a criticism, just my own deadline driven mania.

My goals for the Industry review - continue working on improving the animatic and updating the storyboard, [modeling] work on Rosa's head, beak and eyes, block out the environment with simple models in Maya, and put together a style sheet.

Not quite ready for a shot list, but I do have Word table that lists props, assets, deliverables and status that I'll post as a PDF.

For the following week I'll have a rough draft of my paper. I have it somewhat mapped out in my head and it needs to be put in an outline and fleshed out. Part of my research will be the current trend of "Too Much CG". I simply love the short format and apart from some shining examples like "Toy Story" and "Shrek", I don't see feature length CG films delivering the magic. Same for Children's TV. This will cover the "how would I do things differently" part of my paper.

Here's my HELP LIST and folks I hope will be available to give it:

Modeling - Halbstein 10/24
Textures and Painting - Hosenfield 10/31
Lighting and Rendering - Pomeroy (early November if possible)
Animation - ??? any suggestions? (on-going through Spring semester)

I think this order works well, too. I'd like to get my model as finished as it can be before going for shading and texture help which I think should be in place for lighting and rendering. - David, comments on this workflow?

David, I liked your idea of Dee sitting on the flamingo and mistakingly thinking Rosa was excited to see her. I'm working that into the animatic and it fits well after the first overlooked/stepped over scene. Hopefully will post that for tomorrow.

Modeling Continued - Still need to work on the face, but I like the proportions of this smaller body, smaller wings, thinner neck and smaller head. Next up eyes and facial detail. I'd like to have her mostly finished for the industry review.