maya | modeling | animation

2011-04-23T15:14:00.001-06:00

2011-04-23T15:11:00.001-06:00

2011-04-23T15:05:00.001-06:00

2011-04-23T15:02:00.002-06:00

other parts

2011-04-23T15:00:00.000-06:00

2011-04-23T14:27:00.002-06:00

Final project images

2011-04-19T15:10:00.000-06:00

Shading Dance of the Hours

2011-03-03T07:16:00.004-06:00

The shading for my scene is coming along. I am experimenting with a few different types of Toon Shaders which I hope will give this scene a more cartoon look. The clock frame is still being worked on as well. Once I have a better handle on the Maya Tool Shader, I may give the clock frame a Toon look as well.

2011-03-03T00:46:00.004-06:00

2011-03-02T22:39:00.001-06:00

coal mine shaft bog body

the coal mine is dark and damp water drips there are tracks leading in and support columns all rusting .some have fallen in and been repaired . as you go deeper the rock changes becoming more Crystal like a dark black crystal

the camera follows the tracks out side were every thing is covered in dust there is a train yard for unloading the coal for processing

we follow the tracks

there is a bog land beside the track and in the bog there is a body preserved

a woman

in the mine a change begins

the coal mine shaft starts to morph into wood

and finally everything changes in to a forest

growing branches

not the nice green kind

a sort of tar like dead fir tree

were every thing is in an in-between state

a frozen liquid state cracking and melting

the bog body starts to become glass

a mirror of what is happing in the coal mine

Final Project Concept: MOA for Methotrexate

2011-02-15T08:39:00.022-06:00

For my final project I will animate the mechanism of action (MOA) of Methotrexate, a first line drug prescribed in the aggressive management of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). In most simple terms, Methotrexate targets progenitor cells found in the bone matrix; as an analog to folic acid it may travel into the cell along the folate pathway. It undergoes modifications and inhibits the purine synthesis of adenine and guanine, essential in DNA synthesis. Without these purines, DNA replication is interrupted and cell proliferation is significantly decreased thereby reducing leukocyte cell activity, which in RA attack self-tissue leading to bone damage.

This animation will be incorporated into my final project: an app for doctors to communicate with patients the details of their condition. The aesthetic needs to be consistent and therefore I will refer a previous animation I created for the app. Using a handheld camera with continuous movement and zoom affects to show a shift in magnification level as necessary (ie David Fincher style) and a color scheme with saturated purples, pinks (both cool and warm), and neutral amber and yellow-browns will provide a consistent look and tone for my final animation.

The environment of molecular anatomy carries similar attributes as an underwater scene; increased air density with damping and turbulence will aid in the desired effect. Shaders used will be primarily sub surface scattering materials with low or little specularity, or instead of sss-materials a generic Lambert material can be used with increased transparency with a fall-off effect (can be simulated with a ramp shader) to soften the object edges, and which provides a similar quality as an SEM photograph. Lighting will consist of mostly spot lights and with sss-materials will require strong back lighting.

The textures of the molecular components and their environment include displacement attributes of noise or leather or can be directly created by painting geometry or by Zbrush effects. Most of the models will maintain an organic aesthetic and will not require mapping or image files. Specific protein models that are involved in the MOA can be created using mMaya, a plugin for Maya that allows the user to import models directly from the Protein Data Bank.

Post production: refering to the MOA on TNF antagonist, there will be a vignette-style appearance with blurred corners and in after effects a slight grain may also be applied to give the animation an aged film feel. There is no narration, however I may include labels and a soundtrack.

Facial Reconstruction of Early Human

2011-02-15T00:55:00.031-06:00

Scroll down for Updates

2/15
For my final project in 3D Space II, I would like to integrate my Master’s research project with material I have and will be learning from this class. My research project is to use a skull fossil to create a digital facial reconstruction of an early Holocene male. To complete this project, I need to use a digital program which will let me sculpt facial features, use a morphing tool to age the character, rig a character’s face to show different facial expressions and create an animation for presenting.
The fossil was discovered among the remains of two hundred human burials that occurred in the Gobero region of the Ténéré desert in Niger. These fossils date back to around 8000 B.C.E. and have given major insight into the occupants of the once fertile area, nicknamed the Green Sahara. Two distinct groups were found at the burial site, inhabitants from the early Holocene era (7700-6200 B.C.E) and mid Holocene era (5200-2500 B.C.E.), the Kiffians and Tenerians respectively. These groups were extremely different from one another, both culturally and physically (Gwin 2008). So far, only the face of the Tenerians has been reconstructed for study.

The Kiffians had a long and low skull, a wide nasal aperture, negligible alveolar prognathism and a distinct bump on the back of their heads. They were tall in stature, which complimented their hunter-fisher-gatherer lifestyle. Though the Kiffians were unique to the area, their facial features do correspond to the mid-Holocene "Mechtoids" from Mali and Mauritania, the Late Pleistoene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians from across the Maghreb. If I can find material on these groups, I will be using them as references for my reconstruction.

The face will be reconstructed using sculpting tools in Maya and ZBrush.

The two pictures to the left show the bony landmarks that will be used to follow the Manchester method of 3D facial reconstruction.

Using an .obj file of a male face, I will push and pull vertices to align the mesh to the yellow dots (which will be dowels) and further manipulate the mesh to match depth measurements at those points.

With my reconstruction, I have been asked to create an animation showing the face age and have different expressions. I believe that the best way to address this is to create five models (in increments of 5-8 years) in Maya and then morph them to the original (youngest) model. If there is a way to do this with displacement maps created in ZBrush, I would like to use that as well. Otherwise, I will be using texture maps from ZBrush. The mouth will be rigged but I may end up sculpting it in 3ds Max so I can use LipService from JoeAlter, Inc.

The face will be the focus of the animation. In the background, I plan to camera map a tropical jungle scene, but have it slightly blurred so that most of the attention is on the face.

The textures and colors used for the model and animation will be realistic, including some dirt and damage from the sun.

The lighting will reflect a sunny day- bright, vibrant and yellow-tinted. I particularly like the lighting that Viktor Deak uses in his reconstructions of early humanoids.

Currently, I am working on a 2D illustration of the Holocene era's face. It is a time-intensive task though because of measurements and confirming accuracy with my committee. I plan on posting that picture on the blog at a later date.

UPDATE 3/3

The technical phase of the facial reconstruction has been completed.

The first step in this process was to place tissue depth markers on specific bony landmarks.

These bony landmarks are a standard in forensic reconstruction and tissue depth tables are created from these locations. Tissue depth is determined by a needle being pressed into the soft tissue over these bony areas and mm measurements being recorded.

To create an accurate reconstruction, I pushed and pulled vertices of a pre-made bust to match the depth marker height. The choice of using a pre-made bust was for time concerns. The bust was downloaded from Ten24 Studios

Here is the final outcome from following the depth tissue measurements and advice from forensic reconstructionists.

The first, unsmoothed model will be imported into ZBrush to have fine details sculpted and textures painted.

While I don't have swabs of textures to show, I do have a plan for how I will create textures. I am consulting two tutorials for facial reconstruction:

Essence:The Face

Eat3D- Portrait Production: Creating a Realistic Portrait in Maya

My main areas of focus are creating skin texture, the affects of aging and the eyes.

UPDATE 4/25

Sadly, I have no been able to make as much progress with this piece as planned.

For this class, I am narrowing my goal to creating some simple facial movements and texture (skin, hair, colorize) for one age group (there will be no wrinkles/aging for this class anymore).

So far, I only have some simple facial movements. While I feel that the blink is good, I am still working on the shape of the opening and closing mouth.

I will continue working on the mouth movements, create eye movements and begin creating textures before presentations next week. Before presentations, I will continue to upload my progress, since I still have a lot of work to do and would like to post it on this blog.

Bacteria World

2011-02-14T22:21:00.011-06:00

Bacteria Video This link takes you to the video of my bacteria.

Research Video Also, just for fun this takes you to a video from my research project.

For my final assignment I would like to create a cellular environment as an extension of my final project from Maya 1. This time I would like to incorporate more advanced animation techniques to bring the scene to life.

Since it is a cellular environment I would like to create the feeling of being underwater, with the models floating more than being awkwardly suspended like they were in my first animation. I have models of two bacteria. One is a simple sphere like bacteria and the other is more complicated with flagella and cilia. I would like to have many of the spherical bacteria in the scene. A few of these will be dividing using the technique from the mitosis tutorial. I would also like to have at least one of the flagella bacteria floating through the cellular environment in a natural way where the flagella and cilia are moving as well as if it is in water. I think it would add to the realism of the scene if I used some sort of particle system to pass through the scene, like smaller particles moving around in the cellular environment through the watery density of the air.

In the previous class I could not figure out how to make a fall off type texture for my bacteria (to make it look like it is being viewed through a scanning electron microscope) but I would like to try to get that effect this time.

I would also like to include the other models that I used in the previous animation when you zoom in closer to the cell, but have them interact in a more natural way. I want to have penicillin binding to the enzyme so I will use the parent constraint technique.

I would like for the environment to feel a little dark/creepy/sinister. I think the scanning electron microscope texture effect (I included some images in the folder of what this would look like) would help achieve this effect as well as some moody lighting.

Semester Project "Dance of the Hours"

2011-02-14T20:43:00.012-06:00

Dance of the Hours!

Title: “Dance of the Hours”
Length: 1 minute 45 seconds
Music: Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli

Concept
The main concept for this project is a dance sequence, which will be choreographed in time to Poncheilli’s “Dance of the Hours”. The main characters will be clock roman numerals 1 – 12. Each individual numeral/character will be introduced to the scene and will dance in time to the music, except for poor number 5 (V) who is often left out. The character’s motions and mood will be driven by the beat/tone of the music.

Setting
Since my main goal is to create emotive characters that are full of life, the surrounding environment will be need to be kept minimal. A flat colored ground plane will extend backward in the z-axis and then curve upwards into the y-axis. The world of this animation will be purposefully kept simple.

Color and Style
I envision a bold warm-toned color pallet for this sequence. Reds, oranges and warm golds will be used to mirror the energy of the music. My inspiration for the style and color palate has been influenced by Lou Romano’s concept art for Disney Pixar’s “The Incredibles”.

In shading and lighting this scene, I want to create a clean and modern aesthetic. The numerals will be a sharp-edged font with serifs, and will be a bright color to contrast with the equally bright background.

Motion
Above all, I want these numerals to become characters that are full of life. By using n-Dynamics, I can give each character a lifelike bounce and jiggle. Since this is my first time attempt at character animation, I hope to invest some extra energy is a few of the scenes. In these key scenes I will rig a few of the characters, which will allow me to control their movement more finitely. In my concept sketches, I have come across specific postures that strongly suggest a particular emotion. I anticipate that these poses will be pretty time-expensive, which is why I am limiting this approach to a few keys scenes.

The sequence is a callback to Disney’s film Fantasia, which allowed music to drive the plot and character motions of a scene. The song Dance of the Hours is very energetic, and I hope that I can create character movements equal to the piece’s exciting tone. Since much of the song has heavy downbeats, my characters will not only need to dance but to forcefully convey they can keep in time with the beat. This will set a nice contrast for character V, which spends the entire sequence dancing to his own silly line of music, which ultimately, lands all 12 of the numerals spinning dynamically in the frame of a clock.

************

April Update:

Its time to update with a few final scene renders! The images are from different scenes in the sequence. I am please that these renders are looking very close to my original concept art. Although some of the scenes do not have the spot lights with Fog Effect, I really like the effect this has and would like to make it consistant throughout the entire animation. I think the lighting could even be pushed further (lights turning on and off in time with the music). This would increase the intensity and excitment of the music.

*******

One more rendered final image!

Pigeon Impossible

2010-02-24T13:21:00.001-06:00

this is a pretty good and amusing animation. definitely worth the 6 min length to watch.

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch_popup?v=jEjUAnPc2VA

Final project_concept images

2010-02-09T16:23:00.003-06:00

Ambrogio B

Search & Rescue robot

2010-02-09T08:17:00.005-06:00

The goal of my final project is to produce a CG animation illustrating a concept design for a mobile, robotic evacuation unit. The primary function of this unit is to aerially infiltrate emergency situations, and areas where deploying human rescue personal would pose a greater risk to human life, to evaluate the stability of the conditions and search for survivors and those killed. In order to effectively save and prevent further loss of life, the flight unit must be equipped with peripheral sensors to enhance vision and hearing, test atmospheric conditions and process information on the structural integrity of its environment.

Background:
Natural senses of both human and animal rescue personal are limited by range. Vision, auditory and olfactory senses heave served these teams well over the years, but as complex crisis’s, such as the earthquakes in Haiti, the Connecticut gas explosion and the constant fear of terrorist attack, become more labor intensive for search and rescue, human effort needs to be focused on concentrated areas where relief is critical. The elimination of ground teams is essential to expedite emergency response. Their replacements would be highly sensitive, aerial reconnaissance robots that quickly assess situations using AI perception to determine the most effective course of recovery.

I intend to concentrate on the sensory elements of the vehicle. Particularly I’ll focus on its perception of vision (and how it alternates through various spectrum views at different altitudes and environments); its atmospheric filter, for gauging oxygen versus dangerous vapor concentrations; its sonar and feedback for auditory and proprioception; and, lastly its power source and internal mechanics to charge functionality. Each of these characteristics will be demonstrated through the disaster situation presented in the animation. This will be a recovery exercise in which the robot (or perhaps several) coordinates an effort to establish contact with survivors and charts a rescue approach to save them.

Scene 1.1: Opens with aerial view of a remote chemical refinery at dawn. The camera first sees the sky scraping, cylindrical smoke stacks billow out think plumes of smoke over the surrounding tree line. Next it pans over workers strolling along catwalks to other ends of the station with trucks loading and unloading deliveries in the background. Everything feels like just another early morning.

Scene 1.2: We transition to a hallway where, from a worm’s eye view, employees are talking in the background near a vending machine. In our foreground is a pipe leading from ceiling to floor with a broken/leaky release valve. When we see a cigarette butt drop in front of our picture plane followed by a sudden flash of light.

Scene 2.0: Our refinery is not without hope. The explosion set off an emergency response signal triggering the release of the Emergency Assessment Reconnaissance Vehicle (EARV) from the fire station on base.

Scene 2.1: The protective hatches to EARVs shelter and repowering station lift back. The warm yellow sun piercing the timberline casts crisp shadows along its small, sleek body. We pan over its form from nose to tail while the whirl of its rotors can be heard. The pan stops overlooking the tail and the back of EARV, which is directly inline with explosion in the distance.

Scene 2.2: A below view of the EARV as it gradually takes over from its platform. Which then cuts to an ¾ aerial view of it as descends toward the explosion site that’s shrouded in black smoke.

Scene 2.3: A first person perspective of the EARV as it approaches the site. In order to visually cope with the new smoke in the atmosphere the EARV must change views. What starts as a clear picture of our scene, turns over to a thermal scan mode where hotspots are perceived in warm colors and white due to their degree of intensity, and everything else dark blue or black. We can see some distinguished shapes of bodies, which it counts and calculates position, and the core of fire inside the small hall-space where it detects no survivors.

Scene 2.4: EARV flies down for a closer view. We cut back-and-forth between a close-up of its superficial eye and its personal perspective while it assesses structural integrity of the plant’s damaged area. The camera follows it closer to survivors to assess the oxygen ratio in that area and filters audio to hear the survivors breath and moan.

Scene 3.0: While it’s assessing everything in view, a posterior sonar sensor picks up something from behind. A pipeline is collapsing directly over the aerial robot. As the pipeline begins to fall a wavy pattern appears around the EARV detecting peripheral movement and dives out of harms way.

Scene 3.1: Another shot of the personal view assessing structure.

Scene 3.2: As the EARV prepares to ascend from the site, it sends a remote signal to the approaching rescue vehicles to inform them of its findings. The EARV assessments will better prepare the emergency response crew about where to focus their attention by locating survivors, avoiding areas of structural weakness and knowing what kind of protective clothing and masks to wear.

Materials and Lighting:
Due to the complexity of the scene and all the elements involved I plan to use a variety of simple materials and lighting, and plenty of postproduction. Certain objects will receive more attention, such as the EARV, cigarette, and important elements of the chemical plant. There will be no bump maps; only color texture maps. Lighting will use the physical-sun shader with limited Final Gather and Global illumination. Character animations will remain simple since they’re either be obscured by depth or by the EARV’s vision.

In postproduction different effects will be used. Compositing different elements together; color hue shifts and illustrated elements will be brought into the scene, such as the assessment of structural integrity; and using alphas to make a rippling effect for the sonar. Plus, glows, depth blurs etc.

Resources:
I’ve looked into a number of difference sources for both realistic rescue vehicles and science fiction vehicles to use as a basis for my robot to make a reasonable, purposeful design. Additionally I’ve research chemical plant environments.

Attached are some images, video and links below.

Here are some links:

1. A chemical plant

2. Another chemical plant

3. Chemical plant at dusk

4. Chemical plant explosion

5. Generic chemical plant exterior

6. Terminator Hunter Killer

7. Example of thermal vision

8. Rescue robot

9. "Living with robots" (at 01:41)

10. CRASAR--Center for Robot Assisted Search & Rescue

11. Non-aerial designs

12.DOD: Darpa

Proposal: Below Knee Amputation - Surgical Animation for Final Project

2010-02-09T02:21:00.006-06:00

For my final project I would like to create a surgical animation of a below-knee amputation using a long posterior flap technique performed to prevent the spread of a wet gangrenous infection in diabetic patients. Such an animation could be used in a series to educate surgical interns or residents. I had the privilege of observing such a procedure first hand in my Surgical Illustration course last semester. While all of this proposed animation is not going to be included in its entirety for my research project due to the overtly graphic nature of its content, this subject does relate directly to it and portions of the animation can be used.

I wish to create this animation from the perspective of the surgeon, as though it is the viewer’s hands performing the procedure. The environment will be modern, sterile and bright as it is in an operating room. The materials will be metals (the OR table and all of the surgical instruments), rubber (the surgeon’s gloves) and cloth (drapery and surgeon’s scrubs) with subsurface scattering material for skin, dielectrics for the blood, and materials yet to be determined for bone and muscle (something glossy and wet looking).

I would very much like to create something with clean models; I do not want to create an incredibly bloody scene with spatter and shredded muscle, but rather a clean scene with minimal blood and text-book clean muscles in such a way that the anatomy being manipulated in the animation can easily be identified by the viewer. I am going for a realistic but clean look. In a perfect world I would like to focus not only on creating beautiful textures for this animation but also on the realism of the physics behind cutting and manipulating different tissues. With time constraints I have chosen to focus more heavily on creating realistic physics, and hope to have the time to infuse a bit of good texturing. I will stick with Maya to do all of my modeling, as I have found good tutorials for foot, leg and hand modeling. Obviously these models will need to be rigged, and Maya Muscle will be used to help create the realism behind the tissue manipulation. If necessary, motion capture may be used to help animate the fine motor movements of the hand during certain surgical manipulations. The surgical instruments will be modeled in Maya as well, and nCloth will be used to simulate the drapery and to clothe the surgeon’s hands in latex gloves.

As is appropriate for any kind of instructional video, narration will be necessary. Also, as the actual operation takes a total of thirty minutes to an hour, steps will be shortened and spliced together in After Effects in order to make this animation the appropriate length.

The following is exactly what would need to be animated in order to depict a below knee amputation: The procedure will start with a physical examination of the uncovered, affected leg to be operated on. A cloth will be placed around the gangrenous area. The surgeon will move on to drawing incision marks with a marker along the sides and circumference of the leg. Then, the actual incision is performed along these marks with a scalpel. An electrocautery device is used to cut through the anterior and lateral muscles. An anterior vascular bundle is ligated to prevent bleeding. Then scrapers and retractors are used to pull back tissue from the tibia and fibula. A reciprocating saw is used to separate the tibia and a bone cutter is used to section the fibula. The only remaining tissue attaching the leg to the body, at this point, are posterior muscles that are quickly sliced through with a scalpel in a downward, curved fashion. The gangrenous leg is at this point completely detached from the body and is quickly removed from the operating area. The sectioned arteries poking out of the freshly sliced posterior muscles are quickly clamped to prevent bleeding out, and then the posterior tibial nerve is divided via the Guilltine technique, causing the nerve stump to retract within the muscle mass. In the same manner, the sural nerve is divided. The surgeon bevels the end of the tibia with the reciprocating saw and then rounds the bone carefully with a fine rasp. The hanging posterior skin and muscle flap is tailored with a scalpel to remove excess muscle that would get in the way of closing the flap. The surgeon then lifts the flap up and around to meet the front of the leg. Holding the flap in this closed position, the surgeon staples the wound closed and then supplements this closure with stitches. The operation at this point is complete and this would be the end of the animation.

1. Reference from XVIVO Scientific Animation. I would love to accomplish this level of realism in the modeling of the foot and leg.

2. Reference from Argosy Medical Animation. I like the sterile environment and the subtle use of cloth folding, as well as the surgical basins in the background detail.

3. Reference from Radius Medical Animation. The use of extreme close-ups such as this is something I’d like to incorporate. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, it may be difficult to render out an entire animation with the use of depth of field, something I would really prefer to be able to do.

The following are my sketches/color drawings done after intensely researching, then viewing the surgery in person, and then intensely researching some more:

Le Fort I Osteotomy - Final Project Proposal

2010-02-08T21:54:00.005-06:00

For my final animation project I plan to construct an educational surgical video that focuses on an Orthognathic surgery known as Le Fort I osteotomy. This type of surgery involves manipulating the facial skeleton to restore normal anatomical and functional relationships in patients who have dentofacial anomalies. This animation will focus on a specific part of the surgery that involves sawing of the posterior wall of the maxilla.

Background:

Maxillary osteotomy is performed in an extremely vascular region where bleeding control is frequently not possible until completion of the procedure. To minimize damage, and understanding of the blood supply to the mobilized maxilla is crucial. In medical textbooks that illustrate this procedure, few have shown the structures that lie in the region where the cut is made. A surgeon’s knowledge of this area comes from reading through copious amounts of textbooks and research papers.

The overall aim will be to focus in on anatomical structures that are hidden to the surgeon’s eye whilst doing the operation. Therefore, as a result, surgical residents viewing this animation will have a better idea of the vessels, nerves, and tissue that are located around the areas that will be sawed.

There are many components to this animation that need to be addressed. First of all, the models will have to be anatomically correct in order to give the best visualization of the maxillary region of the skull. I already have a skull model that was taken from a patient’s MRI scan, however this will need to be cleaned up and refined as there are a few missing chunks of bone in the model – something that could be better done in zBrush. Anatomical features such as vessels, soft tissue, and nerves will have to be modeled by hand and reviewed by a content advisor. My main collaborator on this project will be a surgeon from the Craniofacial center. He will assist in making sure the content and movement of the surgical instruments, and procedure, are correct.

Below is a mockup of a possible color concept for the finished piece and some sketches from the storyboard:

As for the patient’s face I was thinking of a realistic model with simple texturing applied to it, similar to a glass person so that the underlying anatomy is emphasized.

Additional to the human model, surgical tools will be constructed and given a realistic texture. The movements and handling of the tools will be animated as an additional reference for viewers.

This animation requires a lot of post-production in addition to a spoken narration and possibly background music. I’ve already written out a script, which was taken mostly from papers I’ve found on the procedure. In post-production a lot of fading and overlaying to give it the effect I would like to work towards. This will be done in After Effects and Premier Pro.

Final Maya Project

2010-02-08T14:21:00.005-06:00

Chris Bohlen

What I have in mind for this project seems quite interesting in my head; precision will be key for a successful execution of this idea. I am going to create models in this project that will be inspired by Fritz Lang’s hit film “Metropolis” from the year 1927. This particular film is one of my all-time favorites and I would like to show my appreciation as well as my compliments by recreating a similar series of animated sequences in 3D. To make sure I am not stealing any ideas from Lang’s ideas I will recreate my models in a different and more modern style. Not to say that the film was not ahead of its time because it was way ahead of it‘s time back in nineteen twenty-seven. Over all I do not want my audience to view my project and immediately see Fritz Lang’s Metropolis; I more so would like it to represent as my own creation. Like I said this will be inspired not exact to “Metropolis.”

I am going to have to prepare many different models that will most likely present many difficult challenges to overcome. I think I will need to create at least four individual Maya scenes in order to get my point across to my audience. The opening scene will display an enormous machine that is created with many controls, reading dials, and gears in a variety of shapes and sizes that will all function (spin and turn). The second scene will be an animation of the motherboard or brain of the machine. The third scene will be an animation of robots produced in an assembly line (the purpose of this scene is to signify robots replacing humans for machine operation to keep the city running). Lastly, in the fourth scene will be a model of the “city” which will be fully textured and animated on the ground level. I will be inserting fly through cameras into each of my scenes to give them an interesting and dramatic effect. After completion of each of my scenes I am most likely going to import them all into Adobe After Effects where I will place them into a specific and well organized sequence. After Effects is most likely where I will add my sound as well.

Metropolis skyscrapers (Maya) by Chris Bohlen

Maya models and render by Drew Parks

My Sketches

Scorpion Attack - Final Project

2010-02-08T12:54:00.006-06:00

This animation will show the Arizona Bark Scorpion (Centruroides exilicauda) in its habitat and how it attacks/kills its prey. The scorpion in the animation will be a male, as it is the larger of the sexes.

Scene 1

Starting with a “technical” animation: the scorpion will be shown in a lateral view, and rotated to show all sides. The background will be a grid, to emphasize the technical concept. Data will be presented on the screen relating to the name, genus, species, location, poisonous, etc. It will be “typed” on the screen at a rate fast enough to not dwell on it, but slow enough to be read. The rotating scorpion will be done in Maya, while the rest of this scene will be done in After Effects.

Transition

Showing a globe of the Earth revolving and slowing on North America. Then, there will be a zoom in to southwest United States and Mexico, with a label at the top stating this is the region where these scorpions are found. A boundary will be overlaid to note the exact region. Then a “warp zoom” will be performed in to the next scene.

Scene 2

This scene will show the scorpion in its walking cycle. This particular scorpion is unique in that it is the only one that can climb on semi smooth to rough surfaces. The scorpion is found in riparian areas - moist, wet areas along rivers amid arid regions. It will be crawling out from underneath a piece of wood/bark, along the ground, then on top of the piece of wood/bark.

Transition

The camera will pan with the scorpion’s movement to bring the prey in to the view. Scenes 2 and 3 will basically be a continuous shot.

Scene 3

The scorpion will attack another insect, most likely a cricket, as they are a staple of this species’ diet. The scorpion will dance around the unsuspecting cricket, and then grab it with its pincers. The tail will then come forward and sting the prey multiple times.

Transition

Again, a warp zoom will be used to cut between the scenes. The zoom will begin zooming in on the tip of the tail, and then it will accelerate. The final destination will be a cross section of the stinger.

Scene 4

Showing the telson (stinger) will be shown injecting the venom from a cross section. If adequate information allows for me to create an accurate representation, I would like to show how the specific muscles involved with venom injection work. This species of scorpion can regulate how much venom is injected with each sting via muscle control, as opposed to other animals such as snakes, which cannot.

Materials and Lighting

The goal of this animation will be to create a realistic environment and subject matter. The exoskeleton of a scorpion is consistent with a blinn material, but I will have to do some more research and see if I need to take in to consideration some subsurface scattering. That will increase render times, but it will add to the realism. The environment will utilize image mapping, bump mapping and so on. To simulate an outdoor scene, a directional light will be used to simulate the sun. However, a riparian area is known to have a lot of tree coverage, so a silhouette of leaves and branches will be mapped in to simulate a tree-covered environment. Supplemental lights will be added in as necessary to illuminate dark areas, or enhance reflected lights.

Resources

Various images of Arizona Bark Spider have been collected. These will be used to aide modeling and texturing. Videos of scorpions in motion are being collected to ensure the walk motion is accurate. Along those lines, the attack sequence needs to be accurate, so videos of that action are also being collected. The scorpion will be rigged with a skeleton. This will be a challenge, as there are very few tutorials or guides on rigging octopeds. This will be accomplished by research and trail & error. To start, I will rig mock ups to test before putting a lot of effort in to the modeling and texturing. Environmental images are in the process of being collected to help model and texture the environment to enhance realism.

Some of the resources I have collected so far are as follows below:

Final Project Proposal

2010-02-08T00:39:00.008-06:00

Michael Morua
Final Project Proposal

I am not quite set yet on what I want to do for my final project. Ultimately, I feel like I’ll start to figure out what direction I want to go we build upon our lessons from each class. I am still relatively new to Maya so the more I learn and becoming comfortable with the different skill sets will help me narrow down my project. As of now I have two ideas for my final, one still pretty vague and the other a bit more detailed. My first idea is kind of like a continuation of our first assignment. I want to create a creature, or creatures, and have them interact with their environment, which will be set on a fairly alien world. I still need to work out a story for this but I would like to introduce these little, simple creatures who go about their day in a jungle like setting, and end the scene with the introduction of a larger creature who strikes fear in the other.
Another idea is to create a story about a ghost in a haunted house. I had the idea of using a ncloth to be a sheet draped over an invisible presence and have it interact with the house or possibly neighborhood. I have the image of doing a scene where the ghost goes through a wall but once the sheet hits it, the sheet collides and falls to the ground. I’ll have to develop a story for it but the character and setting are almost figured out.
My other idea is to incorporate a ancient stories and myths. I recently saw the movie The 4th Encounter or The 4th kind (I forgot what it was called), but it dealt with aliens and the ancient Sumerian belief in ancient astronauts. I kind or what to model out this story and depict aliens coming to earth and interacting with ancient man, or cave men. I’d model planets, spaceships and an area with caves. I think it might be a lot but it be cool to plan this all out.
I’ll need to do more research on what’s been done already or works in
similar vein cause I haven’t seen many example yet.

Update
After thinking about what I want to do for my final project, I’ve decided to go with my ancient alien idea. I plan to use the Sumerian story of ancient astronauts visiting earth and create an animation that helps introduce the story. Currently I have 3 scenes planned out to make my animation work.
The first scene will show the solar system with all the planets and an additional alien planet, Planet X, that will have a more elongated orbit. I want to animate the planets’ orbits around the sun and have a voice over explaining Planet X. This will then lead to a space ship coming from Planet X heading for Earth. This scene should be fairly easy as the only materials I’d have are spheres with different shaders to make them look likes their planet counter parts. I’d also probably use a dome filled with stars as a backdrop to help create the feeling of the vastness of space.
The second scene would be a more close up shot of the spaceship traveling from its planet to earth. This scene would focus more on the ship and I would need to create a very metallic looking craft.
The third scene would depict life on earth through the eyes of the men on earth, most likely cavemen. This scene would be the most difficult as I would try to create a prehistoric earth. I envision a desert or jungle or possibly a combination of both environments as my main set. There would also be a cave nearby which the cavemen would retreat to once the spaceship comes in to view and lands near it.

A very quick summary on the Sumerian gods theory

Planet X's orbit

Sketch of ship flight

Ship flight animation by unnamed artist

Image of earth with giant planet in the sky found with google

Caveman by Craig De Leenheer

When Hunger Strikes by Ilan Gabai

"Ancient Astronauts II" by Tuomo Antero Kakkonen

final project proposal

2010-02-04T11:57:00.002-06:00

My final project for this class it will be basically a video footage with CG-based elements that interact with the scene objects.

The main location is a science/chemistry laboratory that conducting research about new and unknown elements. They basically test the elements, and they put them into proper types of containers to keep them safe in case of dangerous behavior.

The story is divided in three main scenes:

First scene:

In the operative lab there is no human presence, only mechanical arms are allowed to interact with the materials. In the laboratory everything is clean, there are plastic and glass material and also metals, like aluminum and steel.

The visual reference about this chapter are the Bjork’s video music “All is full of love” directed by Chris Cunningham. For the color skin, materials, and slow movement of the mechanical parts.

For the reaction of materials the reference is the work of Vaclav Pajktr a Czech graphic designer, 3D “abstract artist” Some examples of his works are on his website: http://www.projekt0.net/index2.html

In this first scene, everithing is made in CG.

Second scene:

The materials are stored and classified in an archive, placed in the basement of the laboratory. This archive has also a plain texture, but not clean as well as the operative lab.

Into the room there is a big table, with a tiled surface and metal boundaries. On one side there is a door, a big security door, with mechanical visible (from the inside) parts and simple electronic security devices. On the other three sides of the room there are big solid shelves with some containers on. The containers has different shapes: they could be like a cage, or like a jar, but the most common is one made in glass with metal rough edges, closed with big nuts and screws. In this kind of container, the lab put the most dangerous and reactive material. The room is made by reinforced concrete walls, and has a high ceiling. From the ceiling comes down some electrical wires of for the neon lamps that enlighten the room.

Someone bring another cage into the archive and leave it on the big table, than exit and turn of the main light. The element into the cage starts to react, trying to break the glass cage. From the corridor, outside the room is possible to see some light leaks.

the corridor will be filmed from a real one, with visible and colored pipes and concrete walls.

Third scene:

outside of the building the “bad” material succeed in his escape and go outside of the building where it interact with parked cars. The material is basically a rubber element, changes his color and size, until it becomes a big rubber ball.
At this point the video has a “viral” style, like the video “apple” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V5fKX_U3qY) from The Mill creative studio. http://www.the-mill.com/

Final Project Proposal

2010-02-04T02:26:00.001-06:00

The goal for this final project is to create a non-representational work that explores various aspects of Maya that I am particularly interested in: particle and fluid dynamics, fields and effects, lighting and texture, and MEL scripting. The visual work in Maya will be accompanied by sound design of my own creation, though it is still to be determined which will be the greater directional force. Phenomena such as cymatics, self-organization, emergence, and synesthesia will be the focus of attention in the construction of the work or system.
The theme of visual music has been of much interest to me and is essentially what I aim to explore with this project, with the works of artists like Jordan Belson, James and John Whitney, Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, Richard Baily, and Joost Rekveld having been of much influence to me. I don't want to make a music video, nor do I want to make something easily pigeon-holed as psychedelic or new-age - but inevitably the correlation will be made.
This will certainly be a stretch for me considering at this point I know nothing about MEL scripting, if Maya's physics engine will even render cymatic forms, if I can devise algorithms in MEL or Python for systems of emergence/self-organization, or if I can even do any of this without it coming off as empty eye-candy... but these are aspects of Maya that I am truly interested in, so I'd like to spend the semester exploring them.

Artists of Influence

Richard Baily

Joost Rekveld

James Whitney

Norman McLaren

Autechre - Gantz Graf

Sketches/Current/Parallel Works

final project proposal

2010-02-03T15:22:00.006-06:00

Final Project Description

For my final project, I do not have an absolute clear idea of what I want to do, but I am sure of several aspects of the project. First off, the piece will focus on several topics- high-res modeling, advanced photorealistic texturing, and good character animation. I want to model at least one, if not more than one, complex character in zBrush, export that character to Maya and animate it. The modeling itself will most likely be stylized, perhaps in a caricature or juxtaposed (I hate that word) creature mash up. The textures, however, I want to be as photorealistic as possible. I always liked exploring the idea of a completely impossible creature in an impossible environment that is still convincing based on its realistic appearance.

As for the actual setting, story, environment etc, I could go one of two ways. One concept I could follow is, for lack of a better word, a metaphysical type of setting with elements that are beyond the scope of traditional physical understanding. I have been playing around with a Greek mythology creationist type piece, drawing on the myths of the Titans. I wanted to do an outer space type of scene with a being so large that it was interacting with the planets, creating and manipulating time and space itself… but without being really, really, really cliché. I feel like using motifs like time has become extremely stereotypical. But I would want to do something surreal, but still sticking to plausible and realistic things, like realistic anatomy and subtle skin tone shaders etc. The other approach would be to do something in the vein of a one liner joke, but in animation form somehow. I don’t often see this sort of thing, which is what compels me to do it.

Some ideas I have had lately-

Pool shark- a crowded pool bar where in one of the pool tables the felt starts rippling like water and a shark explodes out of the table and starts thrashing around destroying things, and the felt of the table would turn to the consistency of water.

Jurassic Park- a couple of close shots of some velociraptors swinging around and it zooms out to them innocently swinging on swing set with piles of remains all around them, possibly with torn up children’s clothes.

Fish n chips- a goldfish driving down the highway being pulled over by two highway cops

Captain Mexico- this one might be in bad taste… but instead of having captain America, I wanted to have captain Mexico’s story told, where instead of being all heroic and fighting crime he is working as a fry cook in some fast food joint. Or a janitor. But this one probably wouldn’t go over too well.

In the end I will probably end up trying to do a surrealistic scene that still tells a story. What that narrative is exactly, I haven’t figured out though. I will toss around the Greek mythology idea for a bit and see if I can come up with a solid narrative that would be plausible to accomplish within the given time frame. I am also considering using my character from last semester’s final and incorporating it as one element, perhaps a man vs. machine mythos, but again I am trying not to make something that has been so overly done before. Plus I would like to have something original for use in my portfolio. But I will consider it nonetheless.

Just Because

2009-07-09T00:27:00.001-06:00

"Fallen Art"

I said I would find this, and I finally did. Not that anyone will come back from class... but I thought it was a great short film. It deserves to be shared. Chaz's final project reminded me of this video.

- Sarah

Chaz Evans Final - Anthropometries for Quake 4

2009-05-22T16:33:00.001-06:00

Anthropometries for Quake 4 (After Yves Klein) from Chaz Evans on Vimeo.

I finally got this up. Enjoy.

David Mei - Final & wowinctokyo

2009-05-10T12:46:00.002-06:00

Here is the link to my short animation.

and the guys at wowinctokyo

http://www.youtube.com/user/wowinctokyo

Sarah Hegmann - Final

2009-05-07T01:18:00.006-06:00

Hello all,

I do plan on taking more time on this, and finishing it up. Keep an eye on my blog for further updates (because I'm sure everyone is waiting with bated breath for the end product).

"Pieces of Me"

Also, for your viewing pleasure, I have the next update of the sub animation that I worked on in the beginning of the semester. I consider this a "stage two" step, in a ongoing process. I have still have some more cutting, population of the underwater portion, and re-texturing (etc.). However, I did put some more time into it and I thought I would share.

Funness: "Atlantis"

Thank you for a wonderful class.

Scale Distortion

2009-05-05T09:37:00.002-06:00

_grau

2009-03-29T22:26:00.003-06:00

Holy crap! Has anyone seen this? Perhaps I just get excited when people start creating styles that haven't really ever met humans eyes before, but this is some really effective and emotional abstraction. Highly recommended. A must see even. Make sure to watch it in the right context though. Full screen, plenty of volume, little distraction.

_grau | 10:01 min | d 2004 from 2minds on Vimeo.

Final Proposal Ideas/References

2009-03-17T05:14:00.005-06:00

I'm working on continuing the city that I built for Maya I. Learning from what worked and what didn't last time I'm going to concentrate on a birds eye view of the city and reduce the number of close in shots.

I started the project with my fascination with 'fractals' and their philosophy. Then I ran into the wonderful work of Michael Hansmeyer.His work deals with emergent/algorithmic/computational architecture. Some of his renderings from his portfolio :-

So, my final proposal is my old city filled with these procedurally generated buildings animated with particle systems for different times of the day and in different climatic conditions. My initial idea of growing out the city procedurally as an animation would also be feasible.

I used this free software called 'nodebox' in which I wrote a simple L-System kind of like the one used here. Then the resulting 2D image was exported as a path from Illustrator into Maya and I created buildings out of that.

This time around I'm planning to use mel scripting within Maya to actually get the L-Systems, Parametric architecture algorithms done inside Maya so that its easier and faster to generate the buildings.

Final Proposal

2009-02-26T10:29:00.005-06:00

I have set out to create three different finals. No I'm not trying to over achieve or anything, I'm really just trying to take advantage of being able to use the render farm at school (something that I will sorely miss when I'm out of UIC).

The three projects will hopefully cover three areas that interest me. The first will be a vector render project from a videogame I created last year called Tomoe.

The second Project will hopefully be more of a gaming environment. Low Poly count models with simple texturing. It will carry a wrestling theme from a manga that I created this past winter break called "pinfall".

The Third project will be more ambitious, but also the shortest one of all. This will be more of a realistic and hi-polycount short. The more time I have the longer the clip will hopefully be. I will be using Zbrush to create the texturing for these models.

I have a lot to do, so I better get to it. Wish me luck!

~Roddy

Mudbox Tutorials

2009-02-26T00:50:00.006-06:00

Mudbox Tutorials:
Wayne Robson (i.e. DarthWayne)

Wayne has been working in both Zbrush and now Mudbox for a very long time. His tutorials are online and free, and utterly fantastic. I really cannot teach Mudbox nearly to the level that he can, so head over to these sites to check them out. The two 'series' are meant to work in conjunction with one another.

Mudbox "From the Ground Up" series:

Mudbox "Quickstart" series:

Example: "This is a real time viewport capture of my latest work inprogress 'Insectoid'. He only stands at 4 million polys so far."

Building Proto-type

2009-02-19T10:18:00.003-06:00

This is one of the main buildings that I am going to have in our scene.

Final Proposal

2009-02-17T09:55:00.005-06:00

This is my sketch for the soldier I will be modeling for my final project.

I am looking forward to making a futuristic short for my final and I will hopefully focus on a certain level of realisim that I have normally tried to avoid in previous classes.

I have already started working on texturing and modeling of this character and have used both Maya, Zbrush, and Photoshop to complete the model.

Although the soldier is not finished as of now, I do have some progress to show.

Hopefully I wont run into many issues when Rigging the character. As of now I am thinking about using Mo-Cap to animate, but have a plan B, in case it turns out to be too ambitious.

Wish me luck!

~Roddy

2009-02-10T21:01:00.003-06:00

This is the image for my dancer. Fit with a fine members only jacket and a walking stick.

This is a sketch of the face in zBrush with a shot of the environment.

Character - Sarah Hegmann

2009-02-10T07:49:00.003-06:00

Okay, my character sketch. The sideways bind pose was a bit confusing with the see-through portion of the bones, so I moved the arms and legs a bit.

A very, very basic idea of the room. Picture clutter everywhere, etc.

Scene and Character

2009-02-09T21:40:00.007-06:00

I'm currently working on two other characters as well, along with tweaking the scene file.

Here is what I have done so far.

Speaking of MoCap

2009-02-06T22:35:00.001-06:00

I find this really cool video, should check it out.

MoCap animation

Pigeon: Impossible

2009-01-30T15:32:00.003-06:00

Okay, a little bit of fun after project 1. This is a blog/podcast about the process behind this short film. It's done in a fairly humorous style, and has some great tips. The tips are more a generic 3D program, for the most part and have some really useful advice.

The Podcast:

2009-01-29T13:33:00.006-06:00

So I was hoping to do a short story about 4 minutes long. It is a little ambitious but I think its possible.

I am working on a story board but can give the narrative,
The setting is dusk on a suburban street, raining enough to allow a specular glimmer on the sidewalk from the street lamps. The first introduction to my only character is a close up as he drives up. He sits in his car listening to Tchaikovsky's Autumn song on an AM channel and drops his head in kind of a lonely manner before he gets out and goes inside. He is an older man and was a top dancer in his prime.

I plan to have him modeled similar to the chess player in Pixars earlier short. He enters the house and puts his coat away, in passing he looks at some hallway photos of his past dance career. He puts on his record of that same Tchaikovsky ballad and listens shortly with a grin of fond memories. He starts to sway in his haggard old man movement, there is a transition into a performance stage environment, but very much still his home. He dances better and better through the completion of the song. He then slowly bends and holds his back as he walks into study and the environment darkens to the previous lighting. He sits, short of breath, in his chair with the same grin as earlier and closes his eyes.

I am hoping to import most of the character animation from the moCap and motionBuilder export. My wife and I have choreographed my characters old and haggard movement and a dance piece to help show that it is his imagination that is wandering and not his old body becoming more able. I am going to use my Condo I created in Maya 1 and have a outside block also completed. I will be needing to model a car, character+rigging, and modifying my current environment from snow to rain.

This video inspired my idea:
Baginski - Fallen Art

This is my Condo from Maya 1 and will need some modifications.

Here is the song that will be playing in AM radio quality to Vinyl

Here are some images of the look and feel of the characters and modeling style.

Pic of old man for character

image on wall that old man reminisces to

another dancer photo

car possibility

initial final project idea - chaz evans

2009-01-29T10:56:00.002-06:00

I want to complete a short film; featuring avatars modeled after the performers of my group, parker. I want there to be multiple characters represented by original models and to have them deliver voice recorded dialogue/monologue. The artistic decisions of how to animate the virtual performers will be guided performers will be guided on how best to interpret an original text written by one of my co-artists in the group. That is to say, animation choices will be an exercise in finding out how the digital actor/performer moves best, what gestures are effective for a digital body, which are not etc. Similarly the way it is shot will entirely be determined by how to best serve the text, but the primary artistic goal is investigating gesture. That said, the aesthetic that I am for will be very specifically not shooting for any kind of realism. I want the aesthetic of the characters to be transparently polygonal, noticeable geometric edges, and probably the use of solid shaders to give it a somewhat toony feel. This is not to say the look will be at all sloppy, but keeping tightly with the style of video game sprites from the mid to late 90's. I want to explore the aesthetic of outdated technology and graphical style, which I believe will also work well with the text. Their vocabulary of movement will also be somewhat in accordance with an aesthetic of old game sprites, but hopefully much more interesting. Basically, what I'm shooting for is the look of early Machinima rather than the high gloss of Pixar or recent work of Robert Zemeckis. In early Machinima the characters have the physical connotations and vocabularies of simple puppets like marionettes or Jim Henson style. This kind of puppetry utilizes simple gesture for defined emotive purpose. I plan on having the environment that the characters perform in be very minimal, as the emphasis is on the characters and their language of gesture. The specific content will be more clear once the text is developed.

In a way I want to synthesize the movement aesthetic of machima:

with a high art short film:

Final

2009-01-29T09:13:00.003-06:00

My idea of now is to use my old scene as the environment for my final. The story behind my final project is an individual is out in the middle of nowhere is walking to a train station. In the train station he waits as he bids farewell to a loved one. Within the scene there will be a transition from day to night, indicating the duration of time. More importantly, the piece I hope to create is a bit melancholic and I hope to achieve this by using facial expressions on characters. There will not be any complex movements other than walking and normal movements in hand. Though, one complex thing that I might need to touch upon is crashing, though I am in the process of thinking through the scene it might not really be necessary. All in all in terms of animation is nothing too out of the way in terms of body movement, but I definitely want to achieve emotions through facial expressions.

The style I guess in which I'm trying to capture is one that is similar to Makoto Shinkai. He has away of rendering scenery and his narrative are always pretty melancholic, but good nonetheless. My final project is will probably follow pretty close to his style.

Here are some images of Shinkai's work.

My flythrough of my space.

A 2nd take

I'm open for collaboration.

-David M.

Sarah Hegmann - Final Project

2009-01-29T09:07:00.006-06:00

Final Project:

"Sticks and Stones"

Setup:
Opens on a darkened room, cluttered. Archaeological tools, books, boxes, maybe a few artifacts (vase, spear, etc.) lay on the shelves and desk. Overflowing books and papers (if they can be modeled convincingly) lay stacked in corners and on the chair. A few bones are on a slightly cleared area of the desk. The light flicks on, someone moves in front of the camera (just a dark blur, passing too close) carrying something. There is a thump, the person moves across again and leaves without turning off the light. (door noises, open and shut) Camera pans over to look at the boxes that were left behind. "Bones" is written across one.

Scene:
The lighting is a warm, indoor lighting (not florescent) provided mainly by the overhead light (for fill) and a desk lamp(s). While it is an office with windows, the blinds are drawn, so the outside environment cannot be seen. The materials have a worn look, with slightly dirty textures, indicating a well-used room. The desk is wooden, the lamp is an older brass/metal lamp, the shelves are cluttered with books, older calendars on the wall, etc. The style I will be trying out is the "non-photorealistic" rendering technique. So, still there will still be attention given to details, but the scene will not attempt to reach "photo-realism."

Plot:
So, at this point, the box begins to move and the real action begins. The bones come out of the box and come to life in order to try and reassemble. The hand will have to crawl up the desk leg to reach the bones on the desk. They need to determine if they belong on that skeleton or not. The spine twines up a coat-rack near the door to keep watch through the blinds. The skull is missing, and the mostly formed skeleton has to go stumbling around for it (in a drawer? closet? box?). Footsteps sound, the skeleton freezes, then drops to the ground, disassembled. The office is a wreck, as the skeleton may have broken things as it moved around, like the vase. Boxes are pulled out, books have fallen. "What in the world...?" A hand twitch, skull slowly grin, or something similar will end it.

Possible shots/ideas:
- moving in front of the camera
- box jumping, trying to dislodge the box on top of it
- bones peeking up from box
- hand crawling out of the box, across the floor, and then up the desk to check out the bones up there
- spine slithering across the floor to slide up a pole (?, coat rack?) and keep watch
- other hand beginning to assemble the bones
- mostly assembled skeleton stepping in the now empty box and having to shake it off the foot
- some of the bones on the desk don't fit, causing the skeleton to be lopsided
- broken artifacts, like a vase, statue, or paperweight
- searching for the missing skull
- skull could be on a high shelf, not found after all. At the end, zoom in on it, have it do an exaggerated grin (wink sounds too cheesy...)

And here are some images that I thought captured some of the look that I am trying for:

The well done "non-realistic" rendering style I will be trying for.

Another example.

Proof that tons of books can be achieved with only 8 different geometry sets, and 12 different textures. Very nice.

Books.

Examples of paper clutter.

- Sarah

Final Project

2008-12-11T15:40:00.011-06:00

Here are my screen shots of my Final Project

Final renders

2008-12-11T15:17:00.002-06:00

the rest can be seen at : http://adweb.aa.uic.edu/web/gallery/project_view.php?pid=489

SpiroptiCity - Arunan

2008-12-11T11:36:00.005-06:00

Baldwin final maya 10 images

2008-12-11T10:52:00.007-06:00

chaz evans - virtual parker performance space

2008-12-10T21:12:00.012-06:00

Sarah Cityscape

2008-12-10T21:06:00.002-06:00

Maria_kitchen

2008-12-09T16:01:00.012-06:00

Final Assignment

2008-12-09T15:58:00.012-06:00

bedroom final project

2008-12-09T15:56:00.014-06:00

Livia's Final Picture

2008-12-09T15:55:00.003-06:00

Alter-Ego: Avatars and Their Creators

2008-12-08T22:39:00.006-06:00

Here is a coffee table style photo book that I quite appreciate called Alter-Ego: Avatars and their creators by Robbie Cooper. It's seventy or so pages of real world people juxtaposed with their an image of their virtual selves. It has a nice range, from people living out fantasies, to others creating a similar self to people creating a persona for a specific agenda. The author also exhibits a wide selection of virtual worlds that the avatars inhabit including World of Warcraft, There.com, Star Wars Galaxies, Second Life and others. The photo pairings have toured in several cities so I have to assume its getting some attention. Its a pretty simple concept, but I'm glad someone has started this kind of virtual ethnography.

The End of Biters

2008-12-02T15:14:00.004-06:00

This is a short music video for a song by Prefuse 73. I just liked the whole blocky and glitchy-ness of the animation. most of us naturally try to strive for photo-realistic modeling and animation, but these kind of abstractions are also pretty cool. lots of camera movement in this video too.

Where Water can go in Modeling in Maya

2008-12-02T14:17:00.006-06:00

I wanted to show you guys this animation because of the way the water is modeled. It's made with Maya and I know most of us, (including me) have trouble making realistic looking water. This just shows all of the realistic possibilities when modeling water in Maya.

Cool Shaders for your Hypershade Window

2008-12-02T14:12:00.009-06:00

Here is the link to some cool shaders that I found online: http://www.puppet.tfdv.com/download/shaders_p_e.shtml

They are all mentalray shaders and will work only if the mental ray plugin is installed/loaded and working in your system.

The instructions to install the shaders are provided in the website.

There is a shader called "p_MegaTKShader".. once you define that as a material to your object you can add a lot of different attributes to the material through the properties window as shown in this screencap:

You can edit Diffuse, Specular, Indirect Illumination, Ambient, Occlusion, Reflection, Refraction, Incandescence, Normal(Bump), Z, custom render passes all in one shader.

Here are some renders that I managed to get out of these shaders:

It was kinda cool to play with... Just changing the fresnel value on the top image yielded the bottom image.

It is worth a try.

Machinima

2008-12-01T15:24:00.003-06:00

http://kotaku.com/5099931/quentin-tarantino-rewrites-team-fortress-2

Machinima is a group of users who takes in game engines, or game footages and completely cuts and re-edits them. In the posted link they use the game Team Fortress 2 to re-enact a scene of Pulp Fiction. There has been a lot of videos of lately that has been posted lately on the net where, users create narratives from just using the game mechanics, and the results are often hysterical.

-David M.

What makes Pixar Tick?

2008-11-28T13:48:00.003-06:00

I was watching some of the Pixar behind the scenes documentaries, and wondered what program they actually used. I knew they had their own team of computer engineers to write their own, but was fascinated to learn that they use a variety of programs (including Maya of course) as well as Marionettte. Marionettte is customized for each Pixar film and thus is almost useless for the average artist using 3D. While there is very little known about the program (if you were on top of the animation mountain, would you give away your secrets?) it is supposed to be more intuitive for 2D trained artists.

But what do the competitors do? According to Flushed Away's supervising animator, Jason Spencer-Galsworthy, "PDI works with EMO and DreamWorks works with Maya, though this will change after Flushed Away, with DreamWorks adopting EMO. This is a tech pipeline whereby your 3D software interacts with a database and other departments, such as lighting. And that was all put together by PDI. Over the Hedge was the first project done with EMO. It handles the way your work fits in with everyone else’s." (http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=3064<ype=cat)

While the two different systems are basically the same, some seem to think that Pixar would still be the leader without its upper hand because they take more time and effort into each movie instead of churning them out like other studios. Whatever the case, you can't argue with the phenomenal results.

Hotel 626

2008-11-11T14:28:00.004-06:00

http://hotel626.com/

This is just a simple point-and-click flash game i came across randomly, but the presentation was pretty impressive. The game seamlessly switches between actual video footage and 3D rendered scenes, and it's nothing like any other flash games I've seen before.
You are also asked to turn on your webcam and microphone (although this is optional), and also to enter your phone number at one point in the game (also optional). I thought it was a neat way to interact with users.

Meet Emily

2008-11-11T14:24:00.003-06:00

Meet Emily, what you think is a video of someone answering questions about the demo. She is the demo. The face is fully animated in 3D. Is amazing that we have gone this far in 3D graphics that, it is almost impossible to distinguish what is CG and what is real. Though, I found the lighting on her right cheek a bit off, but I wasn't sure until I read the description on the side. There has been a lot of break through in the last couple years of crossing the uncanny valley.

Where the Wild Things Are

2008-11-10T13:45:00.002-06:00

Next year the film version of Where the Wild Things Are will be released. It will incorporate live action, puppetry and 3d computer animation to make, what looks like, a very stunning picture. While clicking around I found that John Lasseter (director and producer for many of the Pixar Films) while working for Disney in 1983 did a test combining traditional hand drawn animated characters over a 3d background.

To see a test clip for the 2009 film go to: http://www.thebadandugly.com/2008/02/18/wild-things-clip
(I'm not able to embed it)

It's interesting how the two use 3d animation in completely different ways, one more subtly than the other. The one that is more subtle also is the most recent making it more high tech and realistic.

Redgrass

2008-11-06T18:35:00.002-06:00

I wanted to find some experimental maya work and found this on youtube:

baldwin storyboard

2008-11-06T18:32:00.002-06:00

Review - Second Life Herald

2008-11-06T18:24:00.007-06:00

The Second Life Herald (www.secondlifeherald.com) is the first virtual tabloid newspaper, or at least it claims to be. As an online publication it likes to claim many virtual firsts and some of them I'm sure are actually the case. At any rate, it is a source for news and trends in virtual culture, and also includes plenty of images offering examples of how the virtual community is modeling and representing themselves these days.

As a brief background, the SL Herald began reporting in The Sims Online as the alphaville herald. After thousands migrated to SL because of the lack of user created content in TSO the herald migrated along with them. Not to mention the fact that the head writer Urizenus Sklar got permanently banned from TSO servers for writing too many muck-raking stories that held Electronic Arts in a very critical eye. Its a long amusing story that they published as a book with the same title as the newspaper. Now in SL the writers roam around the different sims writing stories that give Linden Labs much of the same treatment that they used to give to Electronic Arts.

I find it to be a good sampling of trends in the virtual community if you're interested where that culture is going. It's especially useful if you're interested but find participating in SL yourself sometimes exhausting and time consuming. It does however have some flaws. They occasionally have a post where they feature an avatar is sexy spread similar to pin-ups in British tabloid magazines which I find doesn't contribute to their goal of creating serious discourse around virtual culture. Its also strange to have an "underground" journalistic voice without an established authoritarian journalistic voice to react against as you might in conventional press. As far as I know there isn't a virtual equivalent of USA Today, but the Herald here functions as a kind of virtual Chicago Reader. I have heard that Harper's has a base in SL but I didn't get the impression that is was that comprehensive, but more like a novelty for the real world. If there are any other SL publications out there that I'm not aware of please let me know.

Livia's Story Board

2008-11-04T18:03:00.003-06:00

This is my story board. I think I might be concentrating too much on the top level of my project so I think I'll concentrate on the other aspects of my environment for now I think it's too bare. Ideas anyone?

A piece of Turqoise

2008-11-04T18:00:00.001-06:00

I saw this image of a piece of turquoise and said "that looks something I could make in Maya". I'm attracted to it's organic shape and the light that bounces off it's sides uniformly. It looks like you could make it from a type of Phong Shader Material. I find the organic shape most appalling, but i guess that's my preference. The duplicability of something organic is much harder then symmetrical objects. So even when you're trying to remake it it still has a uniqueness!

Turquoise

2-D Cartoons in A 3-D World

2008-11-04T17:56:00.000-06:00

Hey I wanted to share with you guys this cartoon a saw a couple of years ago. What does this have to do with Maya and 3-D ? I want to show how even though a cartoon might be in 2-D, I still think it can be relevant in our Industry. Don't worry about the story line JUST LOOK AT THE GRAPHICS. Mind you this movie is pretty old, you can tell it's like a 2-D image mixed with like some kind of 3-d effect. I guess I just think it's sad how now a days People just don't seem to care about a cartoon unless it looks like its popping out of a screen. But I still believe cartoons can be more then as relevant to the technology. I just know if a cartoon done in CLAY ANIMATION (like Nightmare Before Christmas) came out know one would care to see it because the technology used to make it is outdated. It would be good if animation could combine with idea from the past, I think that make a more interesting piece. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w74ZmiznzFk

storyboard - c. evans

2008-10-30T15:57:00.003-06:00

Here is the storyboard for my virtual performance space. The basic narrative idea for the image sequence is the viewer starts at the center of the house, flies through distant and close-up perspectives of house right and house left, and then eventually ends up on stage from the performer's perspective. Ideally there would be avatars in the crowd and in the performance stations.

Storyboard - Arunan

2008-10-30T07:47:00.003-06:00

"Spiropticity" is a city set in the not so distant future. The part I'm working on now is laying out the city in a medium scale, making up fractal buildings, some transit networks and a bit of the terrain /environmental features.

Its about spirals, optics and an urban environment that has been created by beautiful disorganization.

Here are some storyboard images ..

STORYBOARD_Maria

2008-10-28T16:38:00.004-06:00

storyboard

2008-10-28T15:57:00.001-06:00

a Cubic Tragedy

2008-10-28T14:08:00.007-06:00

This short clip is sort of an inside joke for maya artists I guess. It's about this polygon woman who is trying to fix up her face by.. merging the vertexes it seems? Except it doesn't turn out quite well. I thought this was fun idea, especially if you're familiar with Maya, cause you know exactly what's going on.

--Story board--
I have a lot of catching up to do with my project, but here is what I have for now. For those who haven't seen it(most of you), I'm working on something different from the glass skyscraper I showed in class, which was my first idea.
To keep it simple, it's my idea for magnetic cubic modules designed to transform an existing space into something different. However, I may find a way to incorporate the tower into my final project as well.

Review: LORENZO OGGIANO

2008-10-28T12:27:00.007-06:00

LORENZO OGGIANO
Lorenzo Oggiano is an Italian artist with very interesting audiovisual work. His Quasi-Objects series (2003-2008) are my favorites, he has a very subtle way of dealing with body and materiality. He is also a good reference because his works extends beyond the screen like his Sample-Kit (2001-2003).

http://www.lorenzooggiano.net/index.php

Review: Semiconductor

2008-10-28T11:58:00.005-06:00

SEMICONDUCTOR
Semiconductor are two UK artists, Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. I find very interesting the mix between art, science and technology that this duo shows in his work. A great example of this is Magnetic Movie (2007), a desert laboratory where magnetic fields seems to come to life while a neutral woman voice tells us about the physical properties of these phenomena.

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/root/soundfilms.htm

They are presenting their work here in Chicago this week:

http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/

Filmmakers in person!
Semiconductor
1999-2007, Semiconductor, UK, ca. 60 min.

Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) have used digital technologies to create what The Wire calls "experimental meta-science fiction." Tonight's program surveys their career, including the giddily gorgeous glitch of A–Z OF NOISE (1999) and 200 NANOWEBBERS (2005), the elegant urbanscapes of THE SOUND OF MICROCLIMATES (2004), and an astonishing trip into the data archives of solar astronomy in BRILLIANT NOISE (2006), plus others. Various formats. (AB) Filmmakers Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt will be present for audience discussion.

Thursday, October 30, 6:00 pm

Storyboard

2008-10-28T11:33:00.005-06:00

Storyboard and XSI developers journal

2008-10-27T20:28:00.003-06:00

Here is my storyboard for the fly through of my scene.

The link I provided is a developer's journal on Metal Gear Solid 4 and the use of Softimage's xsi software. It gives good insight on work flow and also other techniques used in developing the game such as texture techniques.

Link

Chinese Painting in 3D

2008-10-26T19:18:00.002-06:00

This short animation blends the look of 2D Chinese painting, but achieves it with 3D modeling. At the very end it shows the wireframe, then model without texture, and then the textured view to show each layer and what an effect the 'cartoon' shader gives. Throughout you are aware that the animation is 3D, but it still keeps true to the style of Chinese painting. At first I thought it may have been a blend of 3D over 2D using After Effects, but as soon as the background objects begin to move, it is apparent that is not the case. Notice the texturing of the brush strokes! Absolutely beautiful!

2008-10-26T19:03:00.002-06:00

The Empty Regency House

Kim Dearnley

(P.S. The floor no longer glows.)

ncloth maya

2008-10-24T12:05:00.003-06:00

This video shows the possibilities we have to make cloth effects on maya. I personally think its cool, and how it can vary, i mean not just wind effects but also tearing, and just covering something with fabrics the wrinkles and the form it takes it is very interesting. check it out ....

new post - shameless self promotion

2008-10-23T17:27:00.002-06:00

Soft Snowy Bodies

2008-05-05T10:47:00.003-06:00

Here is the tutorial I've been using for Maya to help me with Dynamics. This particular one teaches how create "dents" in objects to create realistic effects on impressionable surfaces (I.E. something hitting snow.) Its really fun to play with and I'd recommend it to anyone who is just looking for a good time with Maya. Dynamics chug RAM like its nobody's business so I'd be careful before going crazy with it.

Check it here: http://www.digitaltutors.com/digital_tutors/video.php?v=534

chut.....

2008-04-06T20:16:00.002-06:00

another damien serban's early film.
actually, this is not a maya film, but, as long as it is beautiful
three dimensional work......i guess this is worth to watch.
this is somewhat looks like old film blended with three dimensional animation.

"A young girl stares at the view from the top of a sky-scraper.
Suddenly, she dives into emptiness... "

This film is fully kinescoped in 16mm for its broadcast at the cine-concert La Modernité with the Music National School of Blanc Mesnil, France.

short and neat.

heejoo

Sweet Video

2008-03-24T03:31:00.003-06:00

very touching video
I just wonder if they made it on a 3d animation program, looks like a really nice cartoonish 3d animation for me
BTW at the end of the video the spanish message said "see them together again"

Aniboom

2008-03-12T09:04:00.002-06:00

hey guys check this youtube Channel, is some kind of animation Community, they got a lot of super funny and well done 2d and 3d animation, here is some examples

free 3D textures

2008-03-10T14:23:00.003-06:00

I'm skeptical when anything is free but this website appears to offer free, high-res, 3D textures. There is a nice selection too.

great ID flythrough

2008-03-10T10:07:00.004-06:00

Designers often want to create a dynamic and eye-catching image rather than one that is 100% photorealistic. The scene here is cool because the camera guides the viewer through the cooler aspects of the product highlighting, not just the aesthetic from far away, but at different zoomed in angles. These products are designed in an AutoDesk Studeo PLE and the flythrough is done in a seperate AutoDesk program (I will find out which ones). Here is a great example of the integration of music and camera fly through to create a mood for an object.

A nightmare of meaninglessness without end

2008-03-08T13:47:00.004-06:00

installations based on 3d-animations from uk.
the most of his works are very clean + neat looking with short loops.
if you look at the installation view, the actual walls of gallery and
the walls of animation looks very similar.
it creates very interesting effects.

"it refers to our continued outward human quest to find life in space. In the context of this piece however it adds only to the claustrophobic and oppressive inwardness generated by the work."

heejoo

TEXTURE LIBRARY~!

2008-03-05T09:21:00.002-06:00

This is a website that has TONS of textures for you to browse through. Many different types of materials like woods and marbles and even things like clouds or fabric if you need them - its got a really clean design too and no annoying ads flashing all over.

chrysalide

2008-03-02T18:25:00.002-06:00

Chrysalide (eng. chrysalis)
this is mixed media work - 3d animation, drawing,sculpture, photo and video.
beautiful and powerful, based on the different states of the japanese dance, buto.
the contrast of organic and digital textures is somethign,,,,, eye catching.
check more in this site
http://www.damienserban.com/
his name is damien serban.

heejoo

Photographing for textures

2008-02-27T18:57:00.002-06:00

So, this tutorial seems to be in some disrepair, but if your going to be photographing any real-life textures for your work, then it will still come in handy. I hate it when I am making something and then when I get deep into the project I realize that some little detail about how i imported something is going to give me a lot of headaches trying to fix, so these are helpful tips about taking photos for texturing your objects and making sure they don't need a lot of extra work to get maya-ready.

Here is another one:
http://shutterbug.com/refreshercourse/outdoor_tips/104point/
This one is a little prettier to look at because its about photographing in general, but I thought it had good advice on how you want your textures to appear once you render them.

Create wood shader

2008-02-25T08:56:00.003-06:00

Hello all. For my AD 309 class project I will be creating some of my product designs in Maya then putting them in simple environments. I'd like the environments to give the objects context without taking away from the objects aesthetic. I will therefore need to give the objects in the room subtle detailing. I'm going to create a table and want to make it woodtextured and colored Here is a link to a site that tells how to create an excellent wood shader. The steps lend themselves to creating other textures as well.

freq2

2008-02-25T00:39:00.002-06:00

another work from the squidsoup project. Freq2 is very close to the concept of ‘Driftnet’, but, emphasizes the sound part more. In this experimentation, participants use their body as a tool through which to create and control sound. They literally draw the sound with their whole range of body movement. Lines are the essential part of the audio wave form. They use webcam technology to capture the forms of the user’s shadow outline. These waveforms are instantly visible as they change their movement. The playback of this piece is dynamic and real-time. What you see is what you hear. Freq 2 lets participants recognize their spatial and temporal moments through the relation to the wave graphics of sound. The visual part, an abstract three-dimensional landscape, extracts in real-time into the depth of space, leaving a touch of the interactions that happened. This is the memory of what has gone before. It is reflected motion through sound with a long journey of interplay. The sounds generated from live waveforms. This sound has been built into the compositional soundscape with a range of pitches and rhythm components. Freq2 reacts to the passing people as well as the direct participants interaction, manipulating an unreal reality soundscape for the space where it exists. This work was commissioned for Cybersonica 06.

by heejoo

3D Art

2008-02-24T15:38:00.003-06:00

Hi all, I stumbled upon this site and it made me think of how 3D Art relates to the world in different ways beyond moving images and special effects. It seems to me that most people would believe that 3D images are mostly focused on the ideas of aesthetics and eye candy for movies, I think this artists work is interesting in terms of intention. What does it mean to make 3D art in this day and age? And what is different about making an alternate universe in an electronic world? He uses 3D to make political, religious and social statements that are at least to me, detached from what we normally think of as 3D art.

http://www.danaaugustine.net/

when fruit goes bad

2008-02-18T12:42:00.003-06:00

here's a fun little animation from you tube. it utilizes a kitchen scene -- with wooden furniture and the like -- as a back drop for a tragic narrative about fruit. The camera angles are simple and effective while maintaining the hollywood 180 degree rule. Shadows and intersection shadows are worth a study as well - in that this is a night time piece.

A good life lesson

2008-02-18T09:42:00.002-06:00

I've become newly interested/fascinated with small squishy character animation since beginning this class. I'm noticing things i never did before. In this one, the ostrich tail movement is so natural and realistic. I haven't learned how to animate in Maya yet but i assume the realism of the movement takes alot of time. There is also a nice tortoise-hair lesson. As usual, enjoy.

driftnet

2008-02-18T08:57:00.004-06:00

it has a subtitle: "flying like a bird!"

The people, Squidsoup, are London based a group of artists, musicians and interactive designers create works within interactive environment. They originally started by Anthony Rowe and James Lane, after meeting at Middlesex University in 1996. And now, they separate squidsoup as three different area, squidsoup.com, squidsoup.org and game. They are from various ranges of fields: photography, educator, sound artists, illustrator and digital media artists. Squidsoup.com is commercial site. What they doing in .com is creating sound, film, video, animation, photography, typography, graphic and web design. They focus on user experiences in working atmosphere by innovative and immersive interface within design process throughout interactive multimedia. In squidsoup.org, they experiment with arts. Their work is intuitive but, unexpectedly interesting. The works are invented combining sound, interactivity, and joining physical and virtual space to generate immersive experience. The most fascinating thing in their works is viewers are not a passive role anymore. The work give participants full active control of their interactive experiences. It provides a fertile space which is beyond the edge of experiments technically and creatively.

heejoo

Robotica

2008-02-17T22:30:00.003-06:00

This tutorial teaches how to make robots obviously! The robot is created from top to bottom using nurbs, converting them to polygons and so forth. You'll build the robot and also animate it. A plucky user made this:

While the tutorial doesn't teach past basic animations, one thing is for sure, robots look great in any animated piece.

`Alberto