Who needs art when you got a horse

Wednesday excercise

2011-12-06T23:02:00.001-08:00

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

What i've been up to lately

2011-12-06T21:58:00.001-08:00

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Dog Tag

2011-11-02T17:52:00.001-07:00

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Coffee Break Tutorial: NURBS in Maya Part 3

2011-10-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

This is a re-done version of this tutorial guess i think i've ran a bit too far ahead on the plans. I'm just gonna cover stitching your NURBS meshes. I think you all will be clever enough to make proper topology instead of randomly putting pieces together and hoping it'll "stick like that for the crit". You're probably right,you might as well just put things up in to a pose to create the object and just fillet the damn thing so that nobody would notice the horrible set up on this model.

Sure. Cool story,bro.

But we all have to start learning as soon as possible that other people won't take this sh*t seriously in a production house. They want to pay you the big stacks of green paper of addiction for your quality services. Some might end up a stripper after graduating,so the same concept might go here. But remember your 3D library is also part of your portfolio and they way you sell your work. You might create a slick looking character to impress an employer,but remember that what you make will stay at your disposal,it's a 3D library. Every tree,mountain,rock and other props and models you made can be used in production again and again. So in case your boss tells you "Hey you! Slave! Remember that hooker model in my next 3D porno feature film! Use it!". If you make that model like sh*t and it'll take you more time to clean it up and fix the problems than actually re-making the thing properly. YOU'RE F*CKED. YOU WILL BE FIRED. AND YOU WILL END UP AS A HOOKER.

So in simple terms,do sh*t properly. Like a pro! Eh,ladies?~

So if you want to connect a mesh to another mesh,it has to have the same end to be connected. It has to be bridged properly. Not to make any useless polies flying around. Fix your Texture Maps properly. No spaces should be hidden under lines and make empty spaces on your model. Just simple extra few minutes of work on some function will save you and your co-workers a lot of time and will make you less enemies that will want to murder you with a pair of scissors. Ok?~ Tee hee~

In this tutorial i'm cover a short tutorial on Stitching your models together. It's similar to Poly bridging. But y'know,NURBS are a b*tch.

Make two planes. Through the channel box,make one plane 5 U patches and make the other 4 U patches.

What do you do now? Oh,nothing. Go have some tea,make a pie and HEADBUTT A BULLET. As i mentioned before,make proper sh*t. The stitching/bridging principle will work to your favor only when you'll have the same amount of vertecies/edges on the end. Make sh*t properly. 5 and 5.

Lovely!~ Now select them both and go in to Control Vertex Selection mode. Select two vertecies on both planes that you want to stitch together.

Make you feel incredible already,eh? Good. You are incredible. Now go to Edit NURBS>Stitch>Stitch Surface Points.

Shapow!

You can see the results for yourself. And the rest is pretty much self-explanatory.

I'm sorry about gettin' mad at you before. C'mere. Don't cry. Give me a hug. It's ok. Don't cry.
As an apology i will explain Nurbs stitching is different from Polygon bridging.

Nurbs stitching is more annoying cause there are more points to connect since the model is dependent on the control vertecies,not the simple vertecies that you can find in Poly models. And you really can't make mistakes in the count since it'd make weird shapes and weird openings. And you have to do all of them one by one,so that too many points would connect in to one awkward vertex. The useful part about this is that even when stitched,the objects stay separate. If you select only one object and move it's control vertex,both object's mesh moves. So if one of your objects has some history that you might want to change later,that is a good option to look over.

Now Poly Bridging is a totally different thing here. First thing you have to do is Combine the objects you want to bridge. Polygon Editing Mode>Mesh>Combine. You;re welcome.

Now the funky part is,you're probably throwing dead babies at the screen screaming at me for making different amount of polies in the planes. Behave,mortals,i have it under control. The thing about bridge is that this problem is fixable later on. If i would select the one with more vertecies on the end and just select two vertecies.

And now using the scale tool i would make them in to "one" vertex.

Now while those two vertecies are still selected go to Edit Mesh>Merge and merge those two in to one.
I'm not doing any picture menus here cause poly modeling is off topic,i'm just explaining the difference.
Now as you can see both sides have 4 vertecies on their ends and can be bridged.

Another thought that you might want to scream at me is "What a douche,now there's a triangle poly over there. This will fuck up the whole production and my life.".

.....

How rude of you.

Anyways,that's easy to fix. Just use the Interactive Split Tool to make those few polies over there in to a "double polies". Edit Mesh>Interactive Split Tool. And if you make something like this.

This way you won't have a single poly with less than four vertecies. Maya can a b*tch about triangulated polies,unless it's for a game engine. But if it has more than 4 and is not bent over in weird ways,it's fine.

That concludes the NURBS lesson.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Coffee Break Tutorial: NURBS in Maya Part 2

2011-10-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome back,person! For whatever your reason might be to actually come back here i might as well continue the NURBS tutorial. Cause,y'know,NURBS are a b*tch you probably need some help with it.

Listen to me,human! You take these basics and knowledge to the extent of beginning a project... LISTEN I SAY! IGNORE THE TV!!! You might take these lessons here and put them to use for a modeling project or something. But remember, whati'm telling here only the basics,thanks to what you might be able to think your way through to a nice screeshot model. Not more. It won't be possible to animate a character made with these functions or techniques. Well,maybe it is possible if your character is a cube. Or a sphere. But otherwise,what i'm bestowing upon your brain meats is just basic modeling functions and maybe i'll later you show you a simple modeling session if i feel like it. That is all. Before you decide to run ahead of yourself like an imbecile on acid and try to rig the monstrosity you made, keep in mind that in 3D there's a thing called TOPOLOGY,which means there should be a proper way to adjust and create mesh and geometry so that the models would have a decent state for production. As in,there's a proper way of doing things that you'll need to keep in mind if you want to make it a big high-quality project. You can plan the topology in advance and then fix it later. You can also make horrible topology and try fixing it. But what you should know is that i won't teach you to be a planned out tool or a lazy f*ck. My way of making things is that you think while you work and you fix while it doesn't annoy the f*ck out of you. So,in a sense, making,thinking and fixing is one process. There's always a clean up session that will make up for any minor mistakes. But what i'm trying to tell you,mortal,is that you need to think really hard during work and understand what you need to make. For example: You have make a character. In production houses there are always specific deadlines that won't be avoided even if you're too deep in it after making a minor mistake in the basic production. If you were hired as a modeler to make a character for a game. And let's say you either were to lazy to model proper topology for a model or you were hired as a rigger/animator and you were too lazy to skin the damn thing properly cause you were too busy waychin' Dr. Who on Youtube. The next guy that has to animate this monstrosity or put it in a game engine has to put up with this sh*t. They won't stop. If you have a few extra hours you might be asked to fix this. But if it's a huge production,no one will stop. Everybody will get payed for their work. But you will be fired. Here's an example of suck bullsh*t.

Yes,i was talking about you,2k Games. Your creepy ass elbows,the way people walk,how they are animated and don't get me f*ckin' started on the face expressions. You made a legendary game in to a big pile of human-worm babies.

Alright,that's enough of my rants. I'm pretty sure you get my point.

Now on to the tutorial.

In the last tutorial we went through how to edit the surface of the NURBS. Now we're gonna go through the process of how to edit the NURBS using the other NURBS geometry.

Let us continue,mortals.

Part 3

We will start with something funky called Booleans. You will find in the Edit Nurbs menu. It will have a drop down menu with other functions: Union tool, Difference tool, Intersection tool.

Part3.1 - Union tool

Let us start with a simple NURBS primitive box.

Now make another NURBS cube and position it inside the first one.

Now we will work with scene alone. You might as well save it cause you'll want to return to this state to test out other Boolean functions.

Now the thing is with NURBS Boolean function is that it works differently from the Polygon one. Deselect all objects. Choose any Boolean option. Choose an object that you to work as the main object,press ENTER,choose the second object,press ENTER again. This even allows you to work with several objects at the same time.

Let's start with the Union tool. That is pretty much self explanatory. By using this tool you combine two objects in to a single mesh. It makes dominant geometry depending on which cube you chose first and deletes all the inner geometry that was intersecting.

Next is the Difference tool. Again,by the domination of the first selected object or objects it deletes a part of the object that was the intersection with the other. In this situation the part where the cube was intersecting was destroyed together with the intersecting mesh.

And lastly the Intersection tool is basically i think you've guessed with your brain cell nerve connections. It generates the intersecting mesh between the selected objects and deletes the rest.

But do know that the objects you used are not deleted,they became invisible. Something like a control mesh for your new object.

Now the fact that you should keep in mind about Booleans is that as long as you do not delete the history,you can move the invisible the objects. That will affect the geometry created with Booleans.

By this point you might have guessed it for yourself. All that NURBS are are lines that make a simple,for say,a piece of "paper" mesh which is folded in to a form or consists of several "papers" to make an object. All that we made so far are just separate splines and planes. Too many objects and too many random objects on the scene. I'm not gonna go in to the system of how it works but you can attach the open splines together with Upper Menu>Edit Curves>Attach Curves. Or vice verse Detach Curves. Just remember to have selected the curves and remember to check where is the beginning and the end of a curve. Same with NURBS mesh. Select two trim edges and go Edit NURBS>Attach Surfaces or Detach Surfaces for the opposite.

I think you can understand how that works on your own,so i won't get too deep in to that.

Next,let us learn to blend several NURBS objects together with something called a Fillet. Edit NURBS > Surface Fillet.

This mostly is part of Advanced NURBS modeling. But we'll stay as easy as we can,ok?~<3

So hurry your butt up and make a NURBS plane primitive and a NURBS cone primitive.

Now push the Cone inside the Plane. Eh,ladies? Push the Cone inside?~ Eh? Eh?

Anyhow.

Select both of those objects and do the Circular Fillet option.

"Nothing happened" you say! "Well,who cares! Let us go have unprotected sex with prostitues!" says I. But then you all just beat me up and make me sit at the computer all day training my muscular tentacle arms by typing these lessons.

So anyways,the function is working if you are following every one of my commands in order to become victorious. But you need to pull up a bit more buttons than you might have thought. Open up the channel box.

What you're looking for is the Output Menu in the Shapes category.

Now change the secondary radius and THEN change primary radius both to about 0.2-0.1.

This what you should find on your screen boxes.

I think you understand where i was going with this.

I think should be enough for this part. Tommorow i will finish the whole tutorial with stitching your NURBS surfaces in to one single mesh and texturing whatever you have made.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Coffee Break Tutorial: NURBS in Maya Part 1

2011-10-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

I am Dmitrij,i am a 3D designer,animator,coffee maniac and i got four dicks. And this is a tutorial about the difficult world of NURBS in Maya.

I decided to make tutorials every now and then just to keep my filthy hands busy and help anyone who's havin' trouble with Maya's constant bitchin',though in return people will have to read through my philosophical bullsh*t about 3D,since i'm just that passionate.

First thoughts. (this can be skipped)
Often CG and 3D animators and designers usually think that our job is to make something using the tools at hand,to make models out of virtual mesh and then add motion to that mesh in order to create animation. But THAT is NOT our job. Our job is creating and solving problems. In simple terms here's a fictional example: A director approaches to me with an idea for the film "Exploding Vaginas from Space". Here's how the workflow will go. There are two groups of artists: Those who think everything in advance to avoid problems in the work flow and make stuff just to make production easier,these people usually stay in production houses at the lowest chain making leaves or just flowers for the scenes or bringin' coffee to their co-workers. And the other group are those who create everything properly and even more by solving problems given,working hard and drinking more coffee than seeing actual real people,these people show amazing results and get to higher places to poop on people like pigeons. So just keep that in mind.

Thoughts about NURBS.
Nurbs are a b*tch to handle. But they do make amazing results. The simple thing about NURBS that should be understood is that it's different from Poly modeling. Imagine a big blob of mesh or a clay ball made by whipping clay at a ball made out of metal wires. The ball form is created out of clay thanks to the inner metal wires. So to change the form would changing the the path and position of the wires,not the clay. In real life that would be impossible. But in the virtual world of 3D, these wires are the splines. And splines are controlled by the vertices or vector anchor tanget points if we're talking about Bezier splines or 3 point splines. So what you need to concentrate on working with isn't the polies or the mesh,it's the splines that create the form.

Main aim.
"Make a 3D Model using NURBS" is a funny project cause what people tend to do at first is open menus from Polygon tab and make a sphere from the Create NURBS menu.

That is the usual mistake. When the right option would be turning on the Surfaces menu tabs. And concentrating on the Curves and Surface tabs on the lower menu.

And don't f*ckin' judge my blue highlighting,this is my tutorial,i'll do whatever the f*ck i want.

Anywhore,let us get on to the actual practical tutorialism. Though do keep in mind,the amount of information of working with Nurbs here will be limited to allow you to work your big fat hands to a simple project. I won't get in to super extreme details of working Nurbs out in to one of your new virtual girlfriends.

Part 1.
You can simply make a model with polies and then convert them to NURBS

It should be easier to do that,but you it won't be. Simply enough the developers didn't plan on making a function on coverting polygon models in to NURBS cause there's no real reason for that,cause if you made a model out of polies,why would you want it to be a NURB. I don't actually mean you can't do that. You can. But it'll just make problems for you and all of that sh*t i wrote and you had to read till now became a waste of your life. Huzzah!

REAL Part 1.
This is real but useless.

Make a NURB primitive and try editing its' control vertices or isoparm. Also,a bonus to this method is that you will burn in hell.

Part 2.
Make your own NURB object with the following functions:
1. Revolve
2. Extrude along a spline
3. Create geometry between curves by lofting

Part 2.1 - Revolve

Thing about Revolve is that it uses a shape of a spline and revolves it around a particular axis to create a shape. It's useful if you want to make a lamp,vase or a dildo. Simple enough.

First thing needed for this is a spline. In the example i made a bezier spline in a shape of a.....sock.

I know,my art is beautiful. Next thing to is to select the Revolve function in the Surface Tab in the upper menu.

Sexier than life itself. I know. So as you can see i made this mushroom like object with my spline revolving around the Y axis. But i want to make a lamp out of this instead. Right Click on Object > Control Vertex.
As you can see,i am now in control of the vertecies of my spline and i can move them about. And since the spline created an object by revolving,the changes will occure around the model,just like global warming.

Move some there and move some here. And as you can see,by editing the spline i edited my object and i have something similar to a lamp.

Part 2.2 - Extruding along a spline

There are two ways you work by extruding along the spline. First one is similar to Revolve.

Firstly i'll make a spline.

Pssssst! I wanted to make an elephant,but it didn't work,so don't tell anyone! Anyway,i made this open spline,again,with bezier spline creation tool. After that i would make a circle spline.

Back to the Surface menu>Extrude.

Sexy buttons of Maya! Ah yeeeeah!

As depressed as Maya can seem right now,this is what you might get. I actually don't advise using this method cause it can often screw up on you and you can get a better result in Loft,but heck.

The useful part about this technique is that you make a linear change to the model by editing the control vertecies on the circle spline.

That was one way to use extrude. Which you should burn out of your brains and never remember again until it's time to bury your own family. Now let us move on to the proper way of using Extrude. I made a spline. Again.

Made a circle at the beginning of that spline. And then adjusted the vertecies on that circle to a custom form cause i'm too lazy to make my own shape.

Now extruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude~

I did that randomly to be honest,but heck,that looks like a children's slide,so might as well do it properly now. Make more splines,says i,and extrude them the same way!

Now here's a little problem for the extruded object. When you extrude something,the pivot is always in the center of the world axis. Press Insert and you'll be in Pivot orientation mode. Move the pivot closer to your extruded object. It's always usefull to do this cause,y'know,we're supposed to be proffesional and organised.

Press Insert again to get out of the Pivot orientation mode. Now select the extruded object,together with the circle spline and the bezier spline, and duplicate them all together with CTRL + D and move them to a proper position for our slide. Continue the spline explotation.

Huzzah! We finally got this lovely slide! It is monstrous and horribly lookin',but the f*ck do i care! I'll love the way it is!

Part 3 - Creating geometry between curves by using Loft

Observe as i create this wiggly spline and duplicate it!

Now by selecting the Loft option i can create geometry between these splines.

Now the funky part about this is that you don't need to really touch that extruded object,it can be deformed just by customizing the splines. Now loft is the most popular function for Nurbs simply enough that it can already do what other functions can do. Also,you can shoot the loft through several splines to get ahold of more control over the generated mesh.

It looks like a curtain.
Simple tools and useful in a lot of ways.

Now this is as simple as drinking cyanide. But how do we edit these created meshes in to something sexy like a virtual girlfriend,which,i shall add,you will NOT do,for if i find out that you use 3D for being a pervert,i will go to jail for murder. Enough talk about weather and politics,let's move on!

Part 3

Now editing your Nurb mesh will excite you till you throw up dead babies. Fun!

But let's take a quick coffee break here!

How have you guys been? How's the course? Fun?

Hey,i got a 3D joke for you! Ask me what i did last night?

....

I boned some models! Zing! It's funny cause perverts bone prostitutes by having sex with them and in 3D that's what they call putting bones in to a 3D model! Funny,eh?

Here's another one!

If you're not in to the whole "boning model" thing,you get to skin them! Zing! Get it? Perverts skin prostitutes by tearing off their skin while in 3D that's what the call putting weight connection between bones and the mesh!

People find that weird when i tell those jokes to 3D buddies in a cafe,i might get arrested for that some day hahaha!

Alright,that's enough of that! Let's continue the mental NURBS rape.

For all the examples i will use just a NURB primitive cylinder cause i'm just gonna show you how you can edit the NURB objects.

Here's my sexy cylinder.

I made him myself! Be proud,mom and dad! Let us go through basic "rape" techniques you can use to defoul this little weak creature of 3D.

Make a circle spline and shape it in to a heart.

Why a heart you might ask? Cause that is what keeps our girlfriends in the kitchen,boys! Zing! Now select both the heart and the cylinder and in the upper menu in the Edit Nurbs menu find Project Curve on Surface.

You should get something like this.

This function generated some new geometry on the surface of our cylinder. BUT do keep in my that sometimes you might want to change the viewport in the way you want it to be projected,for example here i went to FRONT view. Do keep in mind it goes through the whole model. Otherwise the shape can just be projected on the side of your model in weird shapes. Now select the Cylinder and open Edit Nurbs menu and select the trim tool.

You should see something like this.

Press once on the cylinder,BUT any place EXCEPT the heart ones. That way you selected the mesh that belongs to the cylinder. The heart shapes are separate NURBS geometry. Though the trim tool can work by just selecting the heart shapes only,instead of the cylinder,just so that you would know. Now press Enter,you should get something like this.

Just so that you would know,you can always undo that trim with the Untrim Surfaces in the same Edit Nurbs menu.

Sweet! You can also move around the basic heart shape and the projection will move around the model the same way. Now let us continue experimentation. Right click on the model > Trim Edges. Select the hearts counter.

Now go the Edit Curves menu and select Duplicate Surface Curves.

Now you've created a Spline on top of that curve,move it a bit to the front.

Now select this Trim Edge on the Cylinder and then also select the new spline with jest made. After that Loft them. and you get some new geometry now.

That is the magic of how useful can the trim tool can be useful.

That is all for today,i will finish the rast of the editing options for the NURBS tommorow and do a demo video of me modeling in NURBS.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Summer Work

2011-07-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Some summer work i did as a freelancer during the last month.

Can't upload the video here since i need permission from the client first. Maybe i'll put it up later.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Aaaaaaand we're back online!

2011-06-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Resolved account problems. Got some good rest in the last few weeks of the holidays but it is "Go Time" again.
Not sure if i'm gettin' in to second year even if i do finish these projects but heck,i got nothing else to do.

Work plan:
1. Re-submission Essay for the Time Machine Unit. (27th of June)
2. Re-submission of everything for Unit 6: Commission. (1st of July)
3. Jon Stewart's Design Contest. (29th of July)
4. 1>2 Contest. Sound file: The Sabre Dance song. I have the proper name of the track but i can't find the notebook i've written it in. (Mid October) Not sure if i'm gonna be allowed to participate though if i'm gonna get kicked out of uni or re-doin' the 1st Year.

Sub-Plan fo all the points of the plan:

1. Re-Submission Essay for the Time Machine Unit. (27th of June)

I plan to re-write the whole thing. My topic is goin' to be about the relationship of people towards those who are not like them. The Films i will use are The Hulk,The X-Men,Fantastic Four (this one's under question mark cause it's not fully on topic) and Man-Thing. All the films are rightfully creations of Marvel and are all based on comic books. The reason is why i chose these films is that they hold the topic of how people want to go around those who are different than they are. In all these films the characters are held as both something incredible or a menace and monsters. This topic can go down with some Freud's philosophy. The cultural context is that these scenarios of such people,creatures or even races fighting for their rights and defending their own ground from bein' held as circus acts. As a back up for this topic i will use older films like the King Kong and The Elephant Man. King Kong has that unique feature about the gigantic monkey which later serves as a factor to use him as a display item for people to watch. The Elephant is the closest to the topic. The Elephant Man is a horribly disfigured person who later on is shown as someone special and unique,but some people still want to hold him as a property for entertainment and money making. And some of Freud's philosophy can be used,in connection to one of his patients,Ernst Lanzer,who later on got nicknamed by Freud as The Rat Man.

That should sum it all up for now.

2.Re-submission for Unit 6: Commision

I was unable to see how exactly did i fail it cause i can't see the letter with Phil's summary about it due to country distance. But i think i have the gist of it.

Lack of research.
Lack of tutorials about how i made it.
Lack of Maya tutorials.
Lack of concept art.
The final animation looked more like a skeleton with an elvis wig that was dancin' on strings. The idea was too plain and had an un-finished stylised.

I've got work to do.

3. Jon Stewart's Design Concept:

Didn't have much thought about what to make for this.

I have three ideas for this though:

1. A robotic engineering robot. Either a heavy work one or a minor work one. Thinkin' an original design for this one is gonna be hard.

2. A female futuristic cosmic-style engineer. With maybe a partial robotic parts. Something to give her the ability to do her job. In a presentation she would hold up a heavy lookin' hammer or something to show that's she's confident in what she's doing.

3. A male engineer-blacksmith mix. I'm not fond of medi-evil type of designs,but some parts of the design can be used to emphasize the feeling of character's emotional build and design character. But not Steam-punk type of style. Something more medi-evil and still really high tech.

That's pretty much all i got for this project for now.

4.1>2 Contest.

For the contest i got the sound file number 5. Which has a long name for the original track,which i can't find where i wrote it down yet. But it's the music from the Sabre Dance ballet. I've decided not to do any animation for this one. I'm gonna patch it up with my 2D work and try drawing, modeling and sculpting for this. Maybe 3 renders of the male dancer in motion and 3 renders of the female dancers. I've still got to do a bit more study on this one to know exactly the dance and the way they dressed. More to come i guess.

Aaaaaaand i think that pretty much covers up everything i need to do through out this summer,if not more.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Life drawing

2011-05-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

"Fantasia"

2011-05-26T23:15:00.000-07:00

Extraordinary, previously unheard unity of music and animation.Disney and famed conductor Leopold Stokowski decided to play on-screen fantasies that arise in people's minds when listening to musical masterpieces. Pattern consists of 8 classic songs, live performances and a storyline illustrated rhythmic abstractions, pre-empting the wonders of computer graphics.

Walt Disney created a masterpiece ahead of its time idea. You can say it belongs to him the authorship of "klipovoy aesthetics. " This breakthrough in technology and art,alas, does not understand either the audience or critics, and the painting, which includedsketches of the music of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchelli,Mussorgsky and Schubert, has lain on the shelf for almost 50 years.

Overture to the music of Bach: indescribable riot of colors in the form of abstract images and rhythmically varying shapes. Dance Suite from "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky: bewitching dance fluttering fairies, mushrooms, fish, swirling leaves and snowflakes. Symphony excerpt from the "Apprentice Magician" Duke: starring Mickey Mouse, became a victim of magical powers that came out of control. From the ballet "The Rite of Spring" Stravinsky: the origin of life on Earth, from amoebas to the first amphibians, domination and the death of the dinosaurs. "Pastorale" (sixth), Beethoven's Symphony: get up to mischief in the bosom of the ancient nature of centaurs and nymphs raised the ire of Zeus, sending them to the storm."Dance of the Hours" from the opera Ponkielli "Mona Lisa": comic dancers - ostrich corps de ballet, hippos, elephants and crocodiles, entered into a rage are falling apart, "the curtain" all the scenery. "Night on Bald Mountain" Mussorgsky: coven of witches and other evil spirits, which was interrupted at sunrise. Conclusion: Under the sublime "Ave Maria" by Schubert procession with candles meets dawn.

The slogan of the movie was "Fantasia Will Amazia!" (1942 re-release)

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Unit 5: Cycles and balls

2011-05-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

I've got no excuse here,i've lost several cycles but i'm puttin' up what i have.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Unit 6 - Commission - Creative Project - Immune System

2011-05-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

A whole post about my creative project,which i also intend to use as my presentation for the crit.

Aim of the project:

Creation of a medical presentation aimed at teenagers who are aiming to START learning medicine. This project must contain simplified version of the chosen process in order for the to-be Doctors to have a base of knowledge in order to proceed in to a more advanced and detailed version of the process. The presentation must include a version of the process which will help them understand how things WORK and a version to understand how things LOOK.

The VISION version is still simplified in order to not over-tempt the information to the viewer and not give them any unnecessary questions about the process.

Influence maps:

Concept Art:

3D Concept Art:

The Animatic:

The Pre-viz:

The Final Animation:

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

WIP Pitch presentation Demo

2011-05-09T08:13:00.001-07:00

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Concept art and some finished models

2011-05-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

I have forgotten about blogger for quite a while haven't i. This is my concept for the inner set.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Further study of the subject Part 1

2011-04-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

Did a quick study of the whole subject and the process of the immunity system defending itself from alien subjects and factors. Everything that will need closer attention for further study will be underlined.

The process of the immune system is to produce specific anti bodies that bind to antigens on the surface of pathogens. In overall,the first layer of defence for our organism is the skin, which is reinforced with oil and sweat. As an addition there is also a unique bacteria inside of the skin that releases acid against unwanted organisms. Next is also the substance that is released inside of our saliva and tears - Lysozyne. It can penetrate walls of the bacteria. After that the basic process of processing the food does the rest of the work with acids.

That is the first layer of defense.

The second layer of our body's defense is more organic and is inside the inner body "high-way". Inner cells like Macrophages and Neutrophils that come out of the group of the monocytes.

Now the main process is really clearly explained in this article here:

"Damage to tissue by physical injury will trigger an inflammatory response. Small blood vessels in the area will dilate and become leakier. This causes the redness and heat of the infected area. This enhances the migration of phagocytes into the area. Neutrophils arrive first, followed by monocytes that develop into macrophages. Clotting proteins seal off the infected area. Injured cells release histimine which induces the dilation of the capillaries. Sometimes white blood cells release chemicals called pyrogens. They act on the bodies thermostat and raise the temperature in an effort to kill the microorganism."

Th article can be found here: http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/What_is_the_process_of_immunity

I'll leave it at that and post more when i'll find more interesting information on the subject.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

3D Work Day

2011-04-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately i could only render out one walk cycle today cause my video card started to bust up for some reason. I'll understand if this will be counted as non-submission. I'll re-take everything properly when my video card problem will get fixed.

I had quite the few problems with this walk cycle. I tried to go in to it more and did all the needed speed keying in the graph editor. But that didn't go well enough for me. So i just went and done some manual work on Felix Jr. himself. Moving and keying. Then i re-mastered the animation in the graph editor again. It look a bit chunky to me though but in overall i'm just glad he's not sliding any steps.

Also before the combustion inside the sacred inkonomicon i made a few quick tests and concepts on bacteria.

Here i concentrated on the simplest imagination of stuff flowing through blood streams. All models done with custom displacement maps i did for the sake of this experiment. The organic feeling is a win in these models. But the detail and the walls in particular really bother me.

I changed the lightning again and the environment when i thought that not everything just goes where the blood goes. As gross as it is to imagine,not all human fluids are brightly lid or have red-bloody liquid. So trying out other scenes and places in the body would also do me a favour of not looking boring and stereotypical.

This is just a test of lightning and the test of renders on how much can i handle of these things and how well will the light tint inside of these bacteria under specific angles. Simply enough i copied a sh*t load of them,created rigid bodies out of them and dropped them on the floor. So far they looked weird and kind of surreal.

Just having the bacteria green without any bothersome tints that distract the attention looks better to me so i think i'll stick to this concept for a while.

More tests. In this shot i experimented with organic movement. Couldn't mentally handle the rendering yet i just left it as a concept.

I'm not really proud of these though. They're simple to make and don't really stick to the image of a bacteria. Renders sure took a cr*p loads of time though.

Now off to sleep and then back to work! Shapow!

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Unit 5 - Final Animation

2011-04-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

Influence came from Don Hertzfeldt. An animator who became famous for his legendary animation "Rejected". By simply avoiding difficult set ups such as horizonts or difficult objects. All characters are simple and even express the idea without emotions in some scenes. Since i tried to over do with some ideas i decided to try this and try making something simple and not difficult to understand.

The animatic. The animatic was done with attention to certain points that are supposed to be in the final animation. Since some of the scenes are changed or replaced for something that i saw more fit for the a certain shot.

I fixed a few moments in the final aniamtion during the extension i was given. Worked a bit contrast correction and re-did the timing on some shots. Some shots still look chunky due to me rushing it. In overall this work is better than the one i did 2 years ago. I left the same un-mastered music,cause it already fit nicely and working on it might just bring me unnecessary time waste. The only thing that's bothering me now is that it looks too chunky after post-production.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Unit 6 Study Stage 1

2011-04-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

Renders are slow,what else is left but working some Unit study. What i've chosen for my Unit 6 theme is Theme #3. Fighting against an infection. At first i thought about making this unit's style a children's commercial style. But instead of that decided to make this as a medical presentation instead. So most of my study will go on the process and the detail of all cells and processes of the whole topic. Also i've already grabbed some books on graphic design to study proper styles of presentation. There won't be any narrating. It will be a visualised commercialised video clip of the process with stops only at those moments and points where the information is crucial to know and understand.

Points to pay attention to:

First point:

The most important is to not overuse artistic license and show the process as as strictly as it is true. My artistic skills are only to be used for this process to be presented properly and with the ability to appeal to the viewer. The process will be studied further when i'll get more in to it in the next posts about the topic.

Second point:

The style and limit to CG creativity. As far from experience of doctors studying my gut during my recent hospitalisation and showing some of that to me,i understood that not everything is as beautiful as they show in tooth paste commercials. Some parts of the human body shouldn't be allowed to be shown during a presentation of a topic such as this unit. The most practical job will be re-creating the environment and subjects in enough detail to be shown with their crucial points and still be appealing to the audience.

The visualisation shouldn't be too difficult to understand so that is also another reason for simplifying the appearance of the subjects.

Third point:

The ability of artistic license. I will need to visualise the whole process in a clear way with nobody having a thought that something isn't in its' place. So lightning shouldn't be too complex,only enough to shown what is needed. Under no circumstances should i set anything on fire or explode something. The style of the visualisation will be simple: lights,x-ray shots,slowing down the process for the naked eye to see,adding some visual directions and information that wouldn't get in the way and appeal for the viewer at the same time.

The music will also need some attention. Since i'm against using someone else's work i usually make my own work to fit the work i also do. In some way it's more comfortable for me to work that way. Again,this is a medical presentation,not a music video. So the music should be simple. In no way should it interfere with the viewing of the presentation and take away the attention. It can be electronic since it's more flexible in terms of adjusting for the visual and doing any needed sound effects. It should be something slow-medium temped. Easy to listen through out the duration of the presentation. Cause the work of the audio is to create the atmosphere for the viewer to relax and be more able to receive the information on the screen.

Limitations:

No epic camera movement or slowing down with an explosion on the background. No explosions. No super transitions. The limits are as simple as they can get. Appear,disappear,show what's need to be shown to the audience,add a little taste with some information and pointing at critical points. This is a formal presentation for people who don't really care about creativity. They will care only about the ability to present and express the needed information and thoughts about the process.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Another self relfection post....

2011-04-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is a horrible year for me. I'm starting to do this every unit now.

Setting up some rules for the next 7 weeks which are my final 1st year and i'm already in a risky situation. These rules are all going to be set up based on my performance in the last two units.

First: Time management.

It is only my own fault that i have depths from the last two units. I've realised that i can't really blame anyone like i did with my crappy problems that don't concern my work and in the future won't amount to jack for the clients who will expect maximum performance and maturity from my side. I had in total of 10 weeks to make the required job. I might say some nonsense in the future again and i might again be reminded of my own words,but it'll only be my own fault for being unprofessional.

So to fix time management problems,i'll work out all my depths through out 4-5 hours a day,while spending 4-5 on the main project at hand. I have almost all the units done,all that's left is to put it all in proper order,blog it,"stack that paper in to a folder" and submit.

The next thing to fix is my insomnia and health problems. Me desperately trying to finish everything on time won't mean anything if i pass out again on a critical day. So that's also will need some attention to put in check.

Second: Health

I won't be any good if i'm worn out,sweaty and dying while sitting in front of a computer. I'll will need to make a diet,do some regular movement to lower the blood pressure. This isn't a diet blog so i won't get in to detail there.

In overall,health is really important. I had a conversation with Jack not long ago. "This is my future bread,so i have to work,but resting is also important" were his words.

Third: Socialism

Again,it's my own fault for just locking myself in and not interacting with anyone and just being a stubborn donkey to finish all work. Since my job won't be just sitting by a computer with a cup of tea,but also interacting with clients while having coffee,i'll need to be more social to my course mates and tutors. Closing myself in was my biggest mistake.

Forth: Do more than just the project.

I've found it amazing when i got my camera out in to town. I've realised that i'll,for sure,will need more than just knowing the software. I'll need to broaden my view in different mediums and study different techniques. I just understood that if i didn't know what a "gobo" is from my film studies i wouldn't be able to make the needed effect in unit 3. Any personal project will need to be put on hold till summer. Hobbies are allowed since they only support my life view.

Conclusion: Be professional.

This won't sound professional though. But i need to get my sh*t together or i'm scr*wed.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Unit 5 - Re-edited animatic with sound

2011-04-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Fixed a shot by the advice of Meg. The final project won't have any "!" or "?",just pure flower movement.

Also took a break and decided to remember music grammar so the soundtrack is by yours truly. It's still in a demo version,for the final project it's gonna be mastered.

"Think you got what it takes to be "creative"? Then welcome to the other side of sanity."

Unit 5 - Animatic

2011-04-01T00:48:00.001-07:00

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

@Phil Unit 5 - Quick story overview

2011-03-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

I thought of this story which was kind of was inspired after watching "I married a strange person". I planned to stylise this story similar to that of Don Hertzfeldt's "rejected".

I simple day with the pot plant enjoying the sun,when suddenly a strange creature appears and brings up alot of questions for the flower. The pot plant becomes nervous at the sight of the unknown creature.

- Is he some kind of animal? So strange...

The cat continues it’s activity of watching the plant.

- Is he some kind of alien? So strange...

The cat continues to watch.

- Is he some kind of robot? So strange...

The cat suddenly appeared closer and startled the plant. After a few seconds it’s starts to play with the plant by trying to touch it. The plant tries to avoid the paws of the unknown beast.

- Sooooo strange! So strange! So strange!

When the cat becomes a bit more desperate it makes a more ready to attack position which scares the plant. The plant takes out his roots out of the pot,jumps out and runs away. When the plant took out its’ roots they had little boots on them. As the flower runs off the cats stares at him and says:

- So strange....

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 5 - New pot plant concept

2011-03-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

Tried a new look for the pot plant to make it a bit cute. Don't know if it'll work well.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

unit 5 - Cat concept

2011-03-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Keeping it simple and easy.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

unit 5 - Pot-plant Concept

2011-03-27T14:14:00.001-07:00

Simple enough and works for the story.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Bouncing Ball 2

2011-03-27T11:19:00.001-07:00

Stage 1

Stage 2

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Paper Clip

2011-03-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5 - Final

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Bouncing Ball - Set Pivot

2011-03-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

Stage 1

Stage 2

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Bouncing Ball - Offset Pivot

2011-03-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

Stage 1

Stage 2

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Robin Konieczny

2011-03-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Today we had a presentation from an inspirational artist Robin Konieczny.

Had a wonderful thought about what he told us about his whole work flow in a team and having an important role for projects.

His sculptures of the Madonna and the vulture really created an inspiration for me.
And the presentation of Double Negative really made a huge impression on me.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Essay ideas:

2011-03-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

First person who'd i like to write about would be Mike Belmont. Also known as MDotStrange on the internet. He's an independent film maker who makes full feature films and short animations alone. He has already released a full feature film "We Are The Strange" and was called around the world to do presentations about it. He's almost finished with his next film "Hand String Marionette".

Introduction:

Mike Belmont,also known as MDotStrange on the internet. He is an independent film maker who has already made it big when he released his first 95-minute full feature film "We Are The Strange" and is on the verge of finishing his second one. He was called to do numerous presentations about his film philosophy and style of animation and style. With a philosophy of self dedication and samurai spirit towards an animators work he has made himself a number of followers on the internet and that number is still growing.

The next person who i'm thinking of writing about isn't actually an animator,but he's a huge inspiration for a lot of people. Jhonen Vasquez,an american comic artist,who was director of the legendary cartoon "Invader Zim" which is shown for 10 years due to audience's demand. His genius and style made him a demanded director of music videos and other work.

Introduction:

Jhonen Vasquez also known as his pen name Chancre Scrolex,an american comic artist and director. He is most famous for his genius drawing style and creation of the popular cartoon series "Invader Zim" which is aired on television even until this day for the last 10 years. Jhonen has been known for his style of creating characters whose characteristics are emphasized on a large scale and for the most part are all insane.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

@Phil/Greenlight? Attempt #2

2011-03-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Plot lines:

A plant is a geek type of plant and is nervous about his date with a sexy plant. They're at a movie theatre watching a movie. The nervous plant is asking his date constantly if she wants anything and he starts running around getting her the stuff she asks.

The pot plant is just standing in one place under the sun. When a cat starts crouching towards it to chew it. And the plant takes out its' roots out of the ground and starts to run away nervously.

The pot plant is actually a cat in disguise. Disguised as a plant he waits for the mouse. But the lady of the house grabs the plant and plants the cat in disguise in the garden. The "plant" becomes nervous under the sun. And become even more nervous when a dog approaches him. As he sweats from the thought that the dog is going to attack him. The dog does a scary look at the plant while it's trying it's best to stay silent and to pretend to be a plant. In the end the dog just takes a piss on the cat and runs off.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Animatic (unfinished)

2011-03-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

It's unfinished due to my horrible time management abilities. If i am allowed to re-submit this work later,i'd like to finish it properly.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

@Phil/Greenlight?

2011-03-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

A new story!

The pot plant is some kind tulp or any other kind of a pretty pot flower. He is nervous before the crit at the University for the Creative Plants (UCP). He decides to smoke some pot or a cig,which ever is allowed by censorship, to relax. Yet he relaxes a bit and becomes even more nervous. After the crit he is shown really sad to show that he has failed. And a PSA in the end. "Winners don't use drugs".

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Storyboard (unfinished)

2011-03-17T21:49:00.001-07:00

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Concept Art

2011-03-17T18:18:00.001-07:00

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Brothers Quay,short review.

2011-03-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

I've known these two great animators before they were shown to us at uni. Brothers Quay are really famous not only because of their phenomenal stop-motion animation films. They have influenced many of modern great animators and artists such as Mike Belmont,David Firth and a whole DVD set of Tool music videos.

Both brothers are stop motion animators who also work as illustrators. They have a style of a combination of stop motion animation and opera or classical music with a dark tone.

(under work)

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - Character design

2011-03-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Simple and wacky.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4 - script and story

2011-03-15T12:08:00.001-07:00

Unit 4 - Script

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 5 - Story thoughts

2011-03-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful chat with my writing partner Kolade about our stories.

My objects is a Pot Plant and his emotion is Nervous.

What we thought with Kolade that it would be an amazingly comical idea if the pot plant was actually a "pot" plant. As in a drug plant.

At first i thought of making a cactus nervously walking around the hospital waiting for his wife to give birth. But the idea is too simple and not really creative since i just replaced a person with a cactus.

So we thought of this story.

The nervous pot plant is talking to his buddy about his situation. He nervously talks,which can be shown with comic bubbles in the animation itself. He talks about how he was smoking marijuana. But after that,he's chased by the police for murder (smoking weed,get it?). And then he is also chased by a local mafia,cause he smoked the Don's daughter. In the end the buddy feels sorry for him. And then the nervous "pot" plant says that the sex offenders register is also after him cause that what he smoked was only 2 years old.

Not sure about the sex offender's register. But i think this idea is really flexible and funny. Filled with irony like those flying whales we saw. But it still need some work to polish it in to a proper story that can be presented visualy.

I'm open to suggestions.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Let's get to work for Unit 5 and start ending Unit 4. Story Laws set!

2011-03-15T05:20:00.000-07:00

Let's set up some laws for the next few weeks of production! I've had enough time on my hands and it's time to start finishing work.

Story laws for the next few weeks:

Emotion - the viewer should be able to feel the visualisation he's watching. Colour,music,the set up. Everything plays a role to create emotion.

Story - A story should be solid,with no loopholes to create unneeded questions for the viewer. Editing can make anything pretty,but pasta will only look like pasta if you don't actually cook it properly.

Rhythm - Monday's animation viewing taught me a few things. That music and the picture can't go about randomly from each other. The story needs to have the connection with the sound and the music. Everything has a role,and these roles need to work in team work. Artist's job is to be the leader of these teams and not let them die in the war of artistic license.

The viewer - my job is not as much as self expression as consideration of the viewer. If you feel good about some cut in the editing,doesn't mean the audience will understand it or even like it. You need understand that the viewer will see things differently from you and you need different people to see your work to able to tell for sure if your "self-expression" is actually any good.

Space - as much as we study 3D,we need to remember that the screen is still 2D. As much as we look in to our 3D world,it might look a lot different on the actual screen. So knowledge and experience is needed to properly make use of the dimensions,space and the "actors" your using for the viewer to enjoy your work better.

Laws now have been set up. Let's get to work,again.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Checkpoint,starting from the beginning.

2011-03-05T03:54:00.000-08:00

This is all i had up to this point,but i will try to make most of my next two weeks and create something more fresh and with more energy. Phil suggested for me to think up something with more energy and to emphasize the meaning to my given objects.

This is the script i had so far:

EXT. Main room - Introduction Scene - Set 1

Cam 1 shows the main room. The camera slowly introduces the interior of the room in an overall format. In one shot you can see the closet,carpet,a medium size cupboard,book shelf,a chair near a fire place.The fire place is is burning giving the room a glow. As Cam 1 goes slowly through the room,Cam 2 shows some details of the room as if the viewer is trying to guess who the apartment/house belongs to. Cam 2 slowly goes through the objects on the cupboard. It goes through several picture frames in which a boy (Marcel) and a kitten (Nicker)are shown together with close shots. A particular picture frame in which the boy shown standing on his knees under the rain and holding an umbrella over the kitten is shown in a closer shots than the other details on the cupboard.

During the shot of the cupboard a shadow walks through the shot stopping mid-way and doing an unpleasant expression/sound of disappointment. The shadows continues it path out of the shot.

Cam 2 transitions in to Cam 1 and tries to follow the shadow in to the next room. Cam 1 goes in to the studio.

EXT. Studio - Introduction of the old man (Marcel (older)) - Set 2

Cam 1 goes through a door way in to a studio filled with statues of animal figures. With the help of low and moving light the figures seem to be moving due to their shadows. The studio is small. A lot of after work trash on the ground. Two small boxes are filled with equipment,a few shelves on the wall have boxes and glass jars filled with samples,feathers,nails and other details needed for the work of a taxidermist. In the middle of the studio the shadow is sitting and working. Cam 1 slowly goes around the dark figure in to the side where there is more light and the viewer can see face of the old man (Marcel (older)). Cam 1 transitions in to Cam 2 and does a close shot of the old man's face showing more details. The old man is working and seemingly finishes his work. He looks around his studio and notices that it doesn't have any more space for another statue,he notices the door in to the small greenhouse in his apartment/house.

EXT. Green house - The reminiscent rain scene - set 3

Cam 1 follows Marcel as he carries the newly finished work in to the greenhouse and puts the statue where there is more light. As he walks towards the exit of the room he hears dripping noise. Looks back,notices that there is some water dripping from the glass windows in the ceiling due to rain,he looks with disappointment at the new cat statue the water drips on and leaves. Cam 1 transitions in to Cam 3 which shows the cat statue from the side and slowly backs away. Shortly after,Marcel comes back with an umbrella,stands on his knees right before the cat and holds the umbrella over it,protecting it from the falling rain drops. Cam 3 transitions in to Cam 2 showing the picture frame of Marcel and his kitten under the rain.

The end

The logline for that story was:

When we become 50 years old,we become something we didn't want to become when we were 20. Yet we still have dreams.

I still think that this idea is something that i would like try out some day so i'll just leave it in the drafts for now.

Here are some sketches i did of the old men:

These were the environment concept art sketches.

These are the sketches for Marcel,the old man. The one below i stayed at,cause the visual language wasn't hard to read for a 1-minute sad story.

Now off to work on my next idea.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

@Phil

2011-03-02T09:43:00.000-08:00

Phil,i'm finally able to reach my computer now. I have sent my extension application today in the morning. Can you let me know if it came through cause i'm going back to UK tommorow,which is 3rd of March,and it's a whole day of travelling. If anything else that would be needed so that i would have time to prepare it till the crit.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

...

2011-02-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Phil,

Frankly speaking i don't care if you'll take it as an excuse again cause i'm being lazy or anything of that sort. I am explaining the lack of material on my blog. If you remember i e-mailed you about my health problems during the last unit. Thank God everything went okay and i was able to survive and present my work at that time. Yet my health is having a come back and tomorrow i will get my answer if i'm getting hospitalized to be fed anti-biotics or to get an operation. either way i will probably have to extend my absence from university activity. Yet i have no clear answers myself about the need for extension or not cause i don't have official papers about it yet. But i have papers that show the fact i am ill and i need medical attention. Through out the last several days i have been to busy starting writing yet just saving drafts and unfinishing posts on my blog cause my mind was mostly taken by my health.

If you take this as an excuse to avoid work,honestly,i won't care. Cause with the pain in my lower body i have more things on my mind than just work. I will bring all the notes when i can with the official translation if needed.

Since i didn't get any of your attention at all about my ideas i didn't expect much from the online review either. Yet as punishment and as a check point,when i finish the full presentation of my idea,fully prepared with concept art and all the requirements you posted on the group blog,i want you to view it,and without a long feedback just tell me "Green light,continue work","Red light,change idea" and "Yellow light,needs change".

I will make a short review of the whole idea and scenario right now,as far as i can. Just to show you that i'm not a lazy quack that takes this as a joke. Cause believe me,i do not.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

New Plot

2011-02-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

   I kind of tried out the dialogue with some friends from my last idea and it took way too much time. If any less time,then the ideas is useless. So i thought really hard and decided to not just concentrate my attention on trying new things which are opposite to the usual stuff,but try bringing it down a few notches. Also decided no to try working with talk or in words with overall on the level of a complete conversation. Cause after a full examination of the scenario,i thought that the whole "women's talk" thing just wasn't there and the conversation is just silly and empty,i'd have to depend more on the technical part of the cameras and character movement to hide my mistakes. Which is something i don't want to waste my time with.

Self-reflection and self-analysis: Done

   Next topic. The new scenario. What i'm gonna try and work around is the dependence of the motion picture from the story and vice versa. In fact. I've decided to work with words,but without talking. I've decided to try and concentrate to add the needed message to the scenery and the way the camera works and what is in front of the camera. And i've decided to use emotions more than just put a silly conversation.

The plot goes like this:

   The protagonist is doing his job in his small studio. That work is influenced by events that happened in his childhood. Some details in his studio indicate those events. Yet he looks so different from the person he used to be. But that is not really the case.

Out of all my short plot ideas,this idea really sounded with a feeling with it. It can have a great part where the protagonist's thoughts and ideas are revealed in the end and the audience can understand,all though they got a different expression at first. Yet that would finally make sense with the ending where the connection is revealed about his anti-childhood-character.

My thoughts might have gotten a bit more simple here. Since he is a taxidermist and his work is influenced by his childhood,it means simply he might have had a pet or an animal he was fond of. I am not yet sure if the taxidermist himself is a male or female,which would conclude more if the pet will be a puppy or a kitten. That is usually a stereotypical thing about boys being with dogs and girls with cats. But i want to look at something that would have more emotions to it than the stereotypical effect. So if i'll see that a cat fits better with a male in this picture,i'll do it.

After thinking it over and even re-explaining it to me i think i have a decent image in my head. I'm gonna re-read the script writing guide line now just to make sure i'm thinking things right,cause they usually look worse in reality than in my head. And then i'll write the detailed script.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Story plot and script draft

2011-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

After a few hours of work with Naomi on skype we worked around our stories really well.

My plot goes like this:

There is a taxidermist named Mr.Jacobs. He has a daughter named Marry,who works as a stylist. Mr.Jacobs tries to push his business on his daughter cause he wants her to follow his foot steps. He even thinks that their jobs are similar in some sense. During one job he decides to send his daughter to do his job,but he didn't realize what kind of result that could make. There is a grand Greenhouse museum in their city which is decorated with Jacobs' work,so he comes there time to time to fix up his creations because the ventilation and heat system is concentrated on the plants there,not preserving the statues. So decides to leave for a few days and ask his daughter to this job for him.

As Marry came to the Greenhouse she found a good subject to talk about with the owner of the Greenhouse while she works. Due to that subject the owner doesn't really pay attention to what the young taxidermist substitute was doing. As a stylist Marry was one of the people that worked on the fashion show that took place in that greenhouse not long ago.

As Marry leaves,the owner just smiles as she leaves. But when she takes notice of her '"fix up" job she notices that not only did she fix the statue,she also added her stylist instinct to it.

The script draft looks like this:

Ext. Outside of Greenhouse - Mid day

The main female character walks through the entrance arc,escaping from the rain and folding her umbrella. She is met by a female owner of the greenhouse who is surprised why is the taxidermist different this time.

OWNER: You're a new face. Where's Mr.Jacobs?

GIRL: I'm Marry,Mr.Jacobs' daughter. My father is away for a few days for business work so he asked me to substitute for him.

OWNER: Oh,nice to meet you Marry. I'm Ms.Winston,the owner of the Henry Clark's Greenhouse.

MARRY: Nice to meet you,mam. So what is it that you require our services with?

Ms.Winston leads Marry in to the main hall of the Greenhouse. She leads the girl towards the destination.

MS.WINSTON: Well,your father's work is decorating our greenhouse and from time to time those animal decorations are starting to lose fur or deform in some way due to the oxygen and heat system that we use here. So your father usually come around to fix them up when needed.

EXT. INSIDE OF THE GREENHOUSE - ABOUT 2-3 ROOMS AWAY FROM THE MAIN HALL

MARRY: I understand, Ms.Winston. With what sculptures you need my help today?

MS.WINSTON: Luckily, we only need you to fix the monkey sculpture in the Tropical Plants section. The one over there. It's fur has been getting a but too puffed up.
MARRY: Alright. Then i'll get right to work.

Marry opens the equipment bag and starts working on the monkey sculpture.

Ms.Winston takes out a pack of cigarettes and lights up up while watching the young girl work.

MS.WINSTON: So how did you end up a taxidermist,Marry? Are following your father's foot steps?

MARRY: Not really. I'm a stylist.

MS.WINSTON: Oh,really?

MARRY: Yes. Yet father tends to try pushing his business unto me cause he thinks that our jobs are in some way similar.

MS.WINSTON: Interesting. I remember we had a fashion show not long ago here. If i recall it was called "Roar of Nature".

MARRY: Oh yes,i was actually one of the stylists for that show.

MS.WINSTON: Really? Which ones did you do?

MARRY: I did the hair for the Peacock girl,the one with the intensively colored hair,the puffy hair for the lion girl and i colored the hair for the giraffe.

MS.WINSTON: Oh,i really enjoyed the giraffe fellow. He looked fabulous! I dare say,you did a marvelous job with the colors!

MARRY:Thank you,i appreciate your kind words. I'm also finished with the monkey.

MS.WINSTON: Thank you,Marry. Come again for some tea. I'd love to talk about your work some more.

MARRY: I'd be delighted. Then i shall be leaving. Have a nice evening,Ms.Winston.

MS.WINSTON: You too,Marry.....what a nice daughter Jacobs has rised.

As the last ash from her cigarette fell,Ms.Winston opened up her eyes really wide in slight shock as she sees that the "fixing up" that Marry did turned the monkey in to an Elvis style rock star.

The story looks good so far but it still needs some polishing and some details of shots and other preparations for a proper script so it's just a draft for now.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Word and plot study

2011-02-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

The words we were given are the factors that are supposed to be in our story and animation.

My character word is: Taxidermist

My prop word is: Umbrella

My set word is: Greenhouse

I'm in quite the trouble with the ideas due to the fact that these words are all very different from each other.
Taxidermist makes statues out of dead animals yet the greenhouse is all about nature. I need to justify why a taxidermist can have a relationship to a greenhouse,where there are no animals, and why would there be an umbrella in the scene.

I'm trying to think of a plot that could connect all of these things.

1.The protagonist hates his job due to the fear of it's factors. So he escapes to an anti environment of his job. Yet he finds the factor that he fears in that supposedly safe from it environment. And due to circumstances he defends himself with the object he already had in his hands.

The idea sounds a bit too dark but fits the quite nicely. If the taxidermist works with dead animals cause he is afraid of real ones. And from time to time he escapes to the greenhouse for a walk to relieve his mind off of the animals. Yet from some reason on a particular day a tiger escapes from the zoo near by and runs in to the greenhouse. The greenhouse can be an open-roof one,which can justify the use of umbrellas due to rain. When the taxidermist finds himself in the situation face to face with his fear,the tiger,he is stoned with fear. Yet when a mother with a child run pass him screaming for help,he grabs his umbrella and starts defending against the tiger. A minute would be too short for a continuation of the fight. So a transition can go back to his work,showing him covered in bruises and maybe a broken arm. And the camera shows how he is working on the same tiger he fought the other day.

The idea sounds nice cause it reminded me of Repulsion,where the viewer only at the end of the film got a clue about why might the heroine can have the trauma. Same here. Nobody knows why he is afraid of animals. Maybe cause he lost his family to a tiger or he has a childhood trauma. At the end there is more tension about how the fight ended. Was he saved by the police force of did he lose or did he win. A simple story with a lot of clues.

2.The protagonist meets an old friend who has similar job and they take a walk in a set that is not related to their job. While they walk they talk about things that are in some way related to their work but always go off the topic and get a confusing conversation which confuses not only them but the people around them.

The idea comes from an old film called Coffee and Cigarettes. The scene where the two confused gentlemen talk about uter nonsense and get even more confused at the end.

Yet comedy in art isn't one of my strong points i would like to try this as a new technique. Cause basically the whole story here holds upon the conversations of different people of different backgrounds that get more and more confused. This is a simple idea yet it would require quite the careful approach towards the duologue.

3. The protagonist does not like his job cause he wanted to become some different. At that moment he had an order to make some decorative statues for a public greenhouse. While grumping to himself during the job he did not notice how he actually made the statue that was supposedly to be an animal became in to an animal with a stylish haircut. All of this because the protagonist wanted to actually become a stylist.

The idea is a comedic one. As i said previously,i am not strong at comedy stories. Yet this story puts a smile on my face when i imagine the taxidermist sitting under an umbrella because of the rain which seemingly made his day worse. And the fact that he is grumping utter nonsense about his job while not noticing that he is turning a statue of a,for example,bear in to a something more.... fabulous.

That's all for today.

"I had a dream in which i was amazing,yet i woke up to find myself to be merely incredible."

Unit 4: Story-telling

2011-02-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

In this unit we are given three random words which describe our character,the set and a prop that will be use in the scene. The main goal is to create a 1-minute animation with a showcase of a strong study set of skills.

My writing partner is Naomi. I'm looking forward to this partnership since both of us use different styles in our work.

The first aim for now is to study a set of films beside those presented at university to study the setup of a story,the technique used in camera motion and transitions and the key movements of characters that appeal to the audience. That includes both animated films and realistic.

The second aim is to think up short ideas for the main plot of the story.

Let us not go ahead of ourselves and start with the first set.

Freelance work

2011-01-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

This isn't really CG,but out some of my clients there is a team called RS Club. It's street racing team and the also do some of their events with toy car drifting. I've just finished the video and got permission to show this and the previous job here.

And the previous:

New Semester Resolution

2011-01-24T13:56:00.000-08:00

   As far as i've seen myself in the last 3 units i've come to conclusions and thought about how i want to improve my own creative self in the next projects. I've came to overcome somethings and i've said good bye to some things and i said....hi....to new things. So little by little my work is improving itself on its' own through out the progress i do. So this is my resolution for the next few stages of university and self improvement.

1. Writing.

   I came from a school where i was basically pushed through all the years thanks to my speaking skills and where our essays were of 180-250 words. So the newly introduced standards were quite the surprise for me. Little by little i had stick off my informal habit,thought it's still partially present,i'm learning and improving my academic writing. So i've decided to write a review for every film i'm gonna watch to improve writing and get in to the habit of writing. And i'm writing more g's. :)

2. Time management.

   I used to plan quite a lot of things to do in one day,so without measuring how much i can actually do,i just messed up my own plans and time tables. Some times i think due to this is that i like Batman,working at night,sleeping during day. I'm going to improve my time management. Slowly i'm starting to understand my own abilities concerning Maya and other work. And slowly i'm improving it. During the last project,i planned out every hour of work so that i could make it till the crit. I messed up a few times and the scene isn't as perfect as i would want it to be. So now,if i pass everything and won't have to waste time on re-doing some work. I'm going to dedicate most of my time to the project at hand and improving it with time management.

3. Work Flow

   During the last project,if it wasn't for my previous 3D experience i would be in deep trouble. Only thanks to my skills i have achieved in the last 4 years have i been able to finish the scene. Through hell have i gone to learn some functions in Maya and to be able to use them at full caliber i was expecting. I have prepared tome Maya DVD's and tutorials to be able to use them more fluently and with less lags about not knowing something. Since Maya is my new weapon of choice now.

For now that will be all.

Influence map: Graveyard

2011-01-20T21:22:00.001-08:00

Graveyard: Done

2011-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

Done!

Matte painting

2011-01-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

I know my strong point isn't drawing,so i did more work on the actual 3D scene so that the matte painting would have it's role,but would create the atmosphere instead of showing some king physical objective. Also since i don't have time to waste to make "the perfect" one,i did the one i saw more fitting for my scene.

Simple and does the job. I'm not proud of this level,to be honest,but i don't have a choice right now.

Red Phone. Don't judge me.Almost done.

2011-01-19T17:31:00.000-08:00

Final render. All that's left are the beauty pass all the other post-production details. Almost there!

Graves lookin' pretty nice

2011-01-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

Graveyard update 3

2011-01-18T17:10:00.000-08:00

UV'd scene with all the needed props so far. Might need some flowers and a candle later,though i'm having second thoughts about that.

Added some effects and some grass to hide some flaws in the scene.

More details adjusted and made a better light rig.

The atmosphere is great,not i'm ready to added the model details for the graves,trees and the wall.

Graveyard trees and UV

2011-01-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

Put some trees,added UV maps to them. So far so good.

Graveyard update 2

2011-01-18T07:20:00.000-08:00

For the graveyard i'm using a different work flow so it goes a bit more speedy than the kitchen.

Basic modeling to set up where the objects will be as orientation.

Added a few mroe objects,added some mist,did some more details on the graves.

Added some light.

Added the UV mapping,lousy at start.

Fixed all the UV mapping . Modeled some trees out of curves.

So far so good i guess.

Graveyard basic modeling

2011-01-17T19:43:00.001-08:00

So far so good

Graveyard update

2011-01-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

I don't think i have time to continue this. I used an expressionistic style to cheat the time and create a visual that would show somewhat what i want to make.

New idea...

2011-01-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

Scratch the kitchen! I'm doing a graveyard now! Since i have only 2-3 days for this,God can only help me now!

This is a cheap 5 minute concept of an idea. I'm gonna re-draw this now to show as proper concept art. If i'm gonna be able to finish this till friday 100%,i'm for sure going to be amazing.

Review: Repulsion (1965)

2011-01-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

Directed by Roman Polanski
Reviewed by Dmitrij Polukarov

Topic of review: Uncanny

Polanski,as a genius director,in this movie doesn't show any killer's nature,he is bringing the audience towards the mind of a young girl named Carol. Carol lives and works in London and lives together with her sister Helena. Through out the movie Carol is suffering from a mental illness of fearing the male sex. And as the movie goes,the viewer goes deeper in to her world and understand how paranoid she feels when her sister leaves her alone to go on a holiday to Italy. "Polanski's film, rather than presenting a portrait of a psychotic killer from outside, pulls the audience into the crazed individual's mind." - TVGUIDE.COM

Through out the whole movie,we did not learn anything about Carol. We just watch as she slowly crumbles under the pressure of her own fear. Hallucinations of walls cracking apart,turning in to clay,hands coming out of walls and attack her,imaginary rapists appear. As the movie goes,the viewer can notice that these hallucinations become more aggressive and more intense. By the food around her flat rotting away,we can see the level of her mentality getting worse and worse. The viewer isn't shown her personality,only her fear and degredation. "We learned nothing about her, only a little about our taste for suffering." - The Village Voice.com .A Simple shot of her walking down the street and not noticing of a traffic accident not far from her,shows just how deep she went in to herself.

Through out the whole film,a boy is trying to get closer to Carol. He calls her and in the end just shows up at her door. As he breaks down the door,he tries reasoning with Carol about her situation. But as soon as he looks away,she smashes his head with a candle holder. She starts to panic, barricades the door with a wooden plank and pides the body in the overflown bathtub. At this point the viewer can see how fear has got to her,as he is shown a shot of the left over rabbit dinner rotted away to the point that the audience can even feel the smell of it. But that isn't the main point of the movie. What is important is to see how Carol goes even deeper in to her fear and the hallucination of the hands of the wall becomes a usual thing for her. "Young, beautiful Deneuve plays the sexually repressed outsider in a foreign land whose precarious mental state is the film's subject" - Film Vault.com

I know this is goin' to look stupid

2011-01-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

I started makin' some 3D preparations for the scene cause i'm really runnin' out of time here.

Worked around the effects i'll need for the scene to not bother with them until i'll need the details from them. I've set up the scene really basiclly in about 30 minutes. Tommorow i'm goin' to start modelin' things and UV mappin' them.

Let's start the artistic render!

2011-01-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

Finished my photoshop "model" of the kitchen,now since i started to live like batman again,i'll "render" it

Kitchen goin' smoothly

2011-01-15T04:24:00.000-08:00

The kitchen is goin' pretty smothly,i'm plannin' to finish this painting today so that i could do some reviews and 3D work today and tommorow.

Stage 1 of Matte drawing.

2011-01-14T14:09:00.001-08:00

Now that all bases are layed out,i can start putting everythin' in.

Maya: Blood

2011-01-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

The simple render of the blood vessel

The render with a little glow

Final render,used Metal Ray with some Depth of Field for a nice effect

Maya: Book

2011-01-14T08:42:00.001-08:00

The Left side of the page

Right side of the page

Maya: Water droplets

2011-01-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

Final simple water

WAter with some additional glow

Maya: Teeth

2011-01-14T07:42:00.000-08:00

First teeth

Second teeth after a few adjustments

Third teeth. Replaced the Surface shader with a lambert,did a few adjustments and added some glow.

Few more adjustments,final

Planned out the territory and worked around the lights

2011-01-14T04:08:00.001-08:00

I've planned out the objects how and why i want to work with. Specific areas. First would be the kitchen objects,the machines and tables,cause they create the main design. Second would be the floor,cause the floor isn't as glamorous as in a 5 start hotel and it should fit the kitchen design in terms of colouring and tile pattern. And lastly the lights,which includes the light coming from the opened rooms in the back of the room. Then i repeat the pattern by adjusting the lights,reflection and colour correction.

And worked a bit more with the lights. Want them to have that unnatural effect with the reflection and the colour mixing.

Kind of lacks some work and looks like it's under water. But it's on it's way steady.

@Phil /Primitive idea of the lights

2011-01-14T02:56:00.000-08:00

This is a basic look how i want my scene to look. This is a quick sketch on both the design and the physical nature of the kitchen.

Set up some lightning in the scene,how i'd like it to look. Wanted to go for that mix of nightish feeling mixed with the lights to turn in to something green like and creepy. Most of the effect in this scene will be made thanks to the lightning,due to the light colour mixing and the reflective surfaces in the kitchen itself. So far i like where this is goin'. I have yet to add any additional objects cause i want to be careful with that,cause they might ruin the balance in the scene and might look stupid,but that's still in progress. Any tips further improvement of the scene? Anything to fix?

Kitchen sketch

2011-01-14T01:19:00.000-08:00

This is a quick sketch of the space i plan to make in the kitchen. Simple kitchen,the effect of uncanny i'm plannin' to add with the help of light and the symmetrical sense of the picture.

Two doors in the back also releasin' some light and maybe ice-vapor-mist stuff....

Preparations for work

2011-01-13T12:22:00.000-08:00

My scene is goin' to be a spooky kitchen. Goin' through some reference and found some nice pictures of kitchens around the world.

@Phil

2011-01-13T04:36:00.000-08:00

Phil,my idea for an essay is to write films that have virtual reality type of scenes. Right now on my list are Inception and The Matrix. I want to talk about simple scenes where things seem normal but there are things that don't add up. For example the scene in the first Matrix,where they are walking in the halls,and there was this cat that passed by twice. Or the scene in Inception where everyone is looking at the "intruder" during the dream-jack. I thought that my idea might sound like "Uncanny of the artificial reality in motion pictures" Though i want to change that name cause it's not specific enough. Any advice or tips on this one?

Daily Routine 1.5

2010-12-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

Experimented with cloth in Maya. Checked out some tutorials and made the traditional test of the flag.

I'm not headin' ahead of myself. Should start makin' stuff related to uni work tommorow.

Daily Routine 1

2010-12-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

Thought of a great way to work out my insomnia problems. Before sleep,till 12 i'm gonna make something in an hour or two. As daily routine to get my brain to work a bit and then fall asleep with more ease. Decided to make at least one or two piece of work per day to get my body runnin' properly again. Today i ended with this.

The Sweatshop is something not really sane to laugh about. It's a place where people in the older days used to work for pennies with enormous physical labor. All day doin' simple works,but to the point of havin' bloody hands,splinters,wounds and such. And people were paid the most humane minimum of pennies they could get. It's like slave labor,only for people who actually want to work in any way possible to feed their families. For this piece i decided to make the word Sweatshop a bit more grand. Something like a mixed night club-casino style sign. With all those lights that glow in the dark so vividly.

Done completely in photoshop.

Some inspirational work

2010-12-13T17:15:00.000-08:00

Went on a little walk around the Internet street and found some nice inspirational pieces.

Insomnia Sessions: Choosin' the favorites

2010-12-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

As much as i made ideas these are those that appealed the most to me. But i need to be also realistic,they don't grow on trees so i'll try to closely think how much time and work will it take me to make these scenes.

Please keep in mind that the time i'll say would include a normal routine of atleast 5 hours a day for work,not all nighters,so the time could change in many ways. And the time won't include the research time i'll need to spend.

An alien that was seen on the road by this particular passin' car. I'd have to make it seem like it was at night,cause that's when the creepiest accidents usually happen.

Makin' the exterior of the car would take about 3 days.

The alien doesn't need too many details since it's seen in the dark and should be unclear,so it'd take me about 1-2 days.

Texturing all the models would take about 5 days for a proper texture and bump maps.

Drawin' the background,road,hills,time of day and etc would take about 7 days since i'd have to experiment on how it'd look better.

UV mappin' of the models would take me about 2-3 days since there'd be more than just a mirror and a steering wheel in the car.

Lightning and proper detail visualization would take about 1-2 days for 3D part and 1-2 days for the drawn part. It'd take days cause i'd need to balance them about to fit each other.

Final post-production and final touches would take about 3 hours.

Overall: a maximum of 24 days.

Now this one is in particular is sort of cute to me. The cat would be reachin' out,maybe tryin' to catch a fly or somethin' and on the background it's shadow would be seen. The shadow could be like a monster's claw or even a human hand.
Modeling the cat would take about 2 days.
Making additional objects for the scene so that it wouldn't look so empty would take about also 2 days.
UV mapping would take 3-4 days for all models.
Basic skinnin' and riggin' of the model to properly pose in front of the wall for the shadow. I'd just need to move and arm or a leg just for a more realistic pose so it'd take 1 day.
Drawin' the shadow and the textures for the surroundings would take about 2-3 days.
If i'll see that i still have some additional time i'd play around with the fur a bit so that it's be more realistic and had more colours like usually cats have. That's take me a proper 6-7 days for a good job.
Lightning would take 1-2 days.
Post production and final touches would take about 3 hours.
Overall: 21 days.

Grandpa here just wants a hug,but his young grand child sees the world a bit differently the wrinkles and the creepy smile of his grandpa would make a scary vision in his young imagination.
The model would take about 4 days to make.
Then about 1-2 weeks days of proper work in Mudbox on the details like wrinkles and muscle deformin' and his clothes.
About 4-5 days for a proper paint job in Mudbox,since workin' all those UVs for such a HQ model would be meaningless,painting directly would be the best time saving choice.
The background would take about a week to experiment with and about 4-5 days for a proper paint job of that composition.
About 2-3 days for compositioning everything and setting up proper lightning.
3-4 hours of final touches.
Overall: 31 days

A dinin' table in the evening. At first nothing weird about it until you notice that the knife and forks are facing the wrong way. The candle holder has cigarettes instead of candles. And the shadow comin' from the chairs unto the walls make shadows in shape of crosses.
Modeling all objects would take a good 1.5 a week of intense work. There'd be more objects on the table.
UV mapping,about 5-6 days.
Drawing the background,about 4-5 days. The walls shouldn't be empty too.
Lightning,2 days.
Final touches 3-4 hours.
Overall: 23 days

A girl in a lonely house in the evening. I won't go for the full story. The girl would have a more concerned expression on her face,suspecting that something isn't right. While there's a dark figure watchin' her on the background. I'd make this a more twisted-like-dream world with a bit twisted lens type.

Modeling the girl would take a good 2-3 days since i'd only make her upper body.
Adding' more details in Mudbox would take also about 4-5 days.
Makin' her hair to look the way i want it would take about 5 days.
Painting her in Mudbox would take about 3 days.
Drawing the background would take about 1.5 weeks,i'd add more objects and windows with curtains and stuff.
Lightning and compositioning would take up 3-4 days.
Final touches would take 2-4 hours.
Overall: 30 days

It's just one of those times times when you're workin' at night,you fall asleep for a quick moment,you wake up and the light from the screen makes you think that there's a scary arm is reachin' for you and you fall from your chair in fright. Atleast that's how i got this idea.
Modeling the computer,the arm and other minor objects on the table would take about 1.5 a week,including the detailing through Mudbox for the arm.
UV mappin' for possible objects would take about 3-4 days.
Texturing and painting would take about 5-7 days.
Drawin' the background of the room would take a good week.
Lightning and compositionin' would take a good 2-3 days.
Post-production and final touches 4 hours.
Overall: 31 days

A devil watchin' "Britains got Talent" with his mortal pal,Steven. Nothing abnormal about this scene but what the heck.
Designin' the room should take its' time. About 2 days should do it.
Modeling the upper part of these figures should take about 2-3 days since not much details are scene from the behind so i should be ok with that much time. Maybe an additional day for the hair on the mortal.
Additional object would take about 2-3 days and about the same time for the UV mappin'.
Texturing and painting would take a good 3-4 days.
Drawing the background and details for the scene will take about 6-7 days for a practical quality.
Lightning and compositioning will take about 2-3 days.
Final touches,3-5 hours.
Overall: 21 days

A horse that's in the middle of a street. And a part of it isn't scene because of the light stand. Surrealistic,but uncanny.
The horse would take about 3-4 days of proper modeling. Modeling additional objects on the street,4 more days.
UV mapping,6 days.
Texturing and painting,inlucluding the background drawing,5-8 days.
Compositioning and lightning,4 days.
Final touches,2-3 hours.
Overall: 22 days

A portrait in the corridor. The portrait would have a creepy figure in it lookin' at the viewer. Looks simple but the corridor would surely would have more details,statues,plants and such. So this even might be one of the most difficult of the ideas.

Modeling the portrait 1.5 week.

Painting 3-4 days.

Additional objects 1.5 week.

UV mapping,4-5 days.

Painting the background wall and details,2-3 days.

Lightning and compositioning,3-4 days.

Final touches,5-6 hours.

Overall: 36 days

A dinner. And what is on a plate is pretty absurd. A pig with wings and gag ball in its' mouth. "A pig without wings is just another pig","But if it's useful,it's abused".

Modeling the pig,3-4 days.
Additional objects on the table,3-5 days.
UV mapping,4-5 days.
Texturing and painting,5-6 days.
Lightning and compositioning,3 days.
Final touches,3 hours.
Overall: 23 days

A normal evening for a straight-jacket'ed psychopath from an asylum to watch a tv in a normal room of a warm and cozy house.
Modeling the psychopatch,6-7 days.
Workin' it out in Mudbox for details,4-7 days.
Additional objects for the room,3-4 days.
UV mappin' the objects,3-4 days.
Texturing and painting EVERYTHING,including the background,1-1.5 weeks.
Lightning and compositioning,2-3 days.
Final touches,3-4 hours.
Overall: 35 days

Another variation of a disturbed dinner. This time it's an uncooked rabbit. Gagged with a cloth and blind-folded. Similiar meaning then the piggy.
Modeling,3-4 days.
Additional objects for the table,3-5 days.
UV mapping,3-4 days.
Texturing and painting,including workin' the fur on the rabbit,a week.
Drawing the background,6 days.
Lightning and compostitioning,4-5 days.
Final touches 2-3 hours,with a warm cup of coffee.
Overall: 31 days

Alot of people are freaked our by the styles of self expression that some people choose. This guy here. He chose to be a pervert and wears his self-expressionistic outfit quite casually and right is waiting for a bus to pick him up on his way to work.
Modeling the pervert,4-5 days.
Detailing in Mudbox,5-6 days,cause i'm not sure if he should be reading that news paper.
The bus stop,3-4 days.
UV mapping,2-3 days.
Texturing and painting,4-9 days,depending on how much details will look good in the scene.
Drawing the background on the street,4-6 days.
Lightning and compositioning,3-4 days.
Final touches,4-5 hours,i'd like to spend some time on this,just in case.
Overall: 38 days

Three english gentlemen standin' in the street,for no reason identical to each other and have their backs turned you in a quite same way. Could be? True. Looks unusual? Yes.

Modeling the gentlemen,5-6 days,i'll duplicate.

Addin' some details in mudbox,1-2 days,they have their backs turned,not much to show.

Additional objects for the street,4-6 days.

UV mapping,3-4 days.

Drawing the background,4-6 days.

Texturing and painting,4-5 days.

Lightning and compositioning,3-4 days.

Final touches,4-5 hours.

Overall: 31 days

Kind of a Perception thing would be goin' on here. A viewer could think that this man would have super-human ability and had thrown another man in to the air. OR he could be a normal person that saw someone fallin' and is expressin' his concern and reachin' out.

Designing and modeling the man,6-8 days.
Adding details and painting him in mudbox,a good,proper week.
Adding' extra stuff for the scene,atleast 1.5 week. Gotta think of a good place for this to happen at.
UV mappin+riggin',if needed,4-5 days.
Drawing the background with the man fallin',4-6 days.
Lightning and compositioning,3-4 days.
Final touches,4 hours.
Overall: 40 days

The scary tree of the mountain. The wrinkled body of the tree would resemble a face. I'd even add a window frame. Again with the amplified imagination of a child that looks in the evening through the windows to see if the big bad scary tree is gone.
Modeling the scene,6-7 days.
Workin' the wrinkles in Mudbox,7-8 days.
Painting the scene,5-6 days.
Painting the background,5-6 days.
Lightning and compositioning,3-4 days.
Final touches,3 hours.
Overall: 31 hours

Now a quick note. About the time management. The time i wrote for every project is that i included the thought that i might be lazy and play video games most of the time and not workin' some days. That is why the numbers are so big. But i'm sure i'm motivated enough to keep up the work and shorten those time numbers maybe even in half.

*Edit

This is a quick last minute idea. Had a dream tonight where i was talkin' to a serial killer and asked him. Where do you hide all those bodies? He stood up,went and killed a person,brought him back in to the kitchen and put him up under the table like gum. When i looked under the table,it was somethin' i wouldn't able to express visualy with my current level. But if I'd take the side view of the table and just have some limbs hangin' and some blood drippin' from under the thin table i think that would my best idea yet.

Modeling the limbs with the table and a few objects on the table itself,4-6 days.

UV mappin',3-4 days.

Drawing the kitchen,4-5 days.

Texturing and painting,5-6 days.

Lightning and compositioning 2-3 days.

Final touches,4-5 hours.

Insomnia Sessions: Idea Thumbin' 3

2010-12-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

Throwin' in the last ideas i had on the list.

Doesn't look weird much when someone's smokin',but if he smokes two cigarettes at the same time would seem weird.

I wanted this to look confused. It would either like the person either threw that person or on the other hand it could like like the person is concerned for the one who is flyin'.

A person in a S&M outfit at the bus stop.

A lighter with mechanics a bit different than a person could imagine.

I'm pretty sure every single one of us had this idea of a scary hand reachin' out of a monitor. The foot down there is a person fallin' away.

The nutcracker idea came back. Only this time he's in the attic.

I remembered a russian novel called "The master and the Margaret". It's about how casually a person made a pact with the devil. So i put the devil himself next to person to casually watch TV.

Insomnia Sessions: Idea Thumbin' 2

2010-12-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

More ideas thrown out there

The idea of a person havin' two pupils in one eye always excited me.

No idea where i got influence for this one. The idea came as in,there's a tv in a normal house and all that. But the one watchin' the TV is a person in a restrainment jacket and wheelie that carries the uniquely insane.

A person sittin' in the dark but under the light. A simple idea but has a good smell to it.

I think i had a dream a few months back of my house bein' on these little small wheels and that it rolled bit by bit.

A classical idea of a burnin' letter.

Remembered this one from perception. How humans react to things that look like a face.

A portrait of someone in the hallway. And the portrait would be lookin' at you.

A head with a watch. Nothing special except that the hand doesn't have skin and you can see the meat.

The main scene is inside of a car and there's a dark figure of an alien humanoid thing. Got the idea from one of NIN's album covers.

A jail room. With a newspaper on one of the beds.

Also had this one in a dream. Three gentlemen standin' with their back to me. In some sort funny in a chappy way,but in some way creepy that they seem identical and have turned their backs on the viewer.

Figures in the dark. Don't really want to bother with such stereotypical ideas,but an idea is an idea.

A stop motion frame of a glass of wine/whiskey fallin' at a weird angle and the liquid is spilled.

People wearin' glasses would understand this one. Like how you look through the glasses,you can understand what you see,while the rest can seem blurry and creepy sometimes.

A twisted design of a library. I'd want to give this one a feel of gettin' lost.

A cave/metro like place with lightbulbs hangin' instead of proper lamps.

Phil gave me a good idea of the childish fears of the elderly in my earlier posts. The childish speculations of makin' your sweet grandpa look like somethin' monstrous.

This is an idea i got when a friend showed me his hand-made camera out of a little bag of juice. Why not make that half primitive mechanism in to a half advanced. A packet of juice if a real photo camera engine in it.

Ice cubes with blood. Cold and creepy.

A scene filled with lightbulbs and wires. If added some depth blur it'd look good.

Monkey on a cross. Came as an inspiration from NIN - Closer music video. In some way i find this idea really good,but on the other hand it'd be too offensive. but it's still an idea.

A normal house kitchen with a ball gag and money on the table. A bit of abnormality to the normal scene. Also to show the sexual weird nature of a man.

A hand holdin' an egg on finger. Not impossible,but still not somethin' we see everyday.

Insomnia Sessions: Furry Experiments

2010-12-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

Insomnia Sessions: Fuuuuuuuur

2010-12-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

PC didn't handle the amount of polygons i did on this model for detailed selection so i just selected everything and made it furry.

And a short experiment for a carpet.

Insomnia Sessions: Drunk Sculptures

2010-12-10T20:09:00.001-08:00

It’s 4 AM. I’m beginnin’ to sober up after the Santa Jingle Meet at the bar. Didn’t feel like workin’ on uni project tonight so I decided to stretch a bit my sculpting skills that I haven’t used in a while.

Still havin’ fun. Thinkin’ if I should add fur to the rabbit.

Insomnia Sessions: Idea Thumbin'

2010-12-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

This is a really quick thumbin' session. Done 20 of these in about half an hour. Made sure to spend only 20 seconds of quick/horrible drawin' on every idea that came to mind as soon as i opened a new document.

This idea came to me quite quickly,remembering Gestalt theory. Where one of the examples was a smiley face on the face of Mars. Same here,it's an ashtray,but in the ash you could resemble a smiley face.

This is one of those "unnatural" ideas. Basically a carton of milk which starts to crack as if it was made of glass.

Now i enjoy animals. Especially the ones with claws. Here i tried to show an idea of a cute kitty havin' a shadow of either a human or either some kind of monster.

This idea needs explainin',cause drawin' everything i had in mind in 20 seconds in detail wasn't possible. It's dinin' table. Basically the weird things that are here are: The forks and knives are put in a reversed position of how they're supposed to be,instead of candles there'd be cigarettes in their place and the shadows comin' from the chairs on the wall would display shapes of a cross. This is on of those ideas i'm fond of.

Now if it's possible,i'd like to do this one. This came up when i remembered an idea for a short film i had 2 years ago. Shortly,it's a story about a car accident in which the parents die,but their daughter lives,thanks to the brain surgery done on her after the tragedy. The brain surgery consisted of part of her brain bein' replaced with someone else's. So after that time she lived in two worlds. The reality one,where everything like it was. But when she falls asleep,her mind can walk around in a world basically drawn around her as a childhood dream. In means of everything around her,to be exact the house,becomes more colourful and happy. Well,until she wakes up. But with time that "dream" becomes a nightmare as it slowly turns in to something dark and scary,and she starts to understand that she's on alone in this world now and that someone's watchin' her. The idea was to call this "Coma" as in two meanings of "Comatose" and "Coma" in optical physics as in distorted vision of light rays due to twisted sides of the lens.

This idea came from a point of view of a child,where a grandchild's fear are the detached teeth of his grandpa.

A severed head on a table. Maybe i'd add some flowers and fruit. Not quite a finished idea.

This idea here came when a pen fell down from my table. I was watchin' only the pen fall,while everything around didn't matter for that split second. So in this idea a light bulb for no apperant reason falls and everything on the background is blurred out.

The idea of people expressin' themselves with gestures but not really noticin' them. Why is the an ashtray there,no idea.

A horse whose part dissapears after passin' throug an object. Surrealistic but not really.

A man with a barcode on his face. Can't really recall where that came from.

Here i wanted to draw the Nutcracker from our childhood. The doll would sit in the darkness,watchin' us. And it'd look as if we caught it at a bad moment,while it tried to put out a question which we don't understand.

An organ on a plate that has some tubes in it. Half-organic half-robot. Not really fond of this one.

A pig on a plate. A popular dish nowadays. But here i gave the pig some wings and ball-gag as representation of humanity's sexual nature over things that shouldn't be sexually messed around with. And i think i heard a sayin' in a film "A pig without wings,is just another pig".

Same idea as the pig. Only the rabbit here isn't cooked has a cloth in his mouth as if he was shut up and blind fold.

I really didn't take my time with this one. Remembered a program on TV where they made knots in a mathematical matter. Yes,that's supposed to be a knot...

We all had moments in our childhood when we thought that our toys are watchin' us with an evil grine on their face at night. Or that's just me.

Now this is silly but still fun. A car on tank wheel-rolls.

A tunnel. Tried to show a distorted light reflection on the surface of the materials. But understood this doesn't fit the brief so stopped.

A flash light goin' over a wall and findin' a question written in blood. I think i got this idea from The haunted,when they found a wall with writings. Only there was chalk,i used blood.

Insomnia Sessions: Research 4

2010-12-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Break time's up!

We see things as they are,and when they pop we see only the result. The explosion it self is always weird to see.

Resource: http://pentagram.com/en/new/2010/12/new-work-clock-for-an-architec.php

Resource: http://gizmodo.com/5705454/12-retro-video-phone-concepts

If you'd ever meet a guy who likes glowin' stair designes or designs that are created too look like an infinite demension,i'm the guy.

Pictures made by: James newton

Resource: http://gizmodo.com/5698373/a-staircase-and-a-chandelier

At first the viwer wouldn't notice that this happy family is a family of tech geeks holdin' iphones and ipads.

Resource: Unknown

This picture here is one of those popular picture light hold types. What i like in this picture isn't the glowin' lines. What interests me is the way the light is reflected on the walls and gives that cold feelin' of the night.

The uncanny feelin' to this crows break-neck like pose is astonishing.

Resource: http://yourfaithlost.tumblr.com/post/1693311811

Author: Alianari Brothers
Title: The woman with a horse and a dog

I think that's enough of style inspiration research for tonight.

Insomnia Sessions: Research 3

2010-12-08T18:19:00.000-08:00

Forgot that it's 1 AM and the library won't be happy for me at the moment.

First wanted to start searchin' humanoid robots,cause they'd show a good expression,un-human type of expression,which we all noticed in video games for example in means of AI. But decided that i shouldn't put habits in this project and i want to search for somethin' more natural lookin' and still have that feelin' of "weird" and "unnatural" around it. So i opened my old little notebook with names i studied for art exam. Strangely enough i found interesting pieces for inspiration.

This isn't an art piece,i found it a while back and the idea in whole is interesting. These USB ports are around New York city. They can somewhat symbolise the technology that has evolved to the point of us depending on it practically everywhere.

Resource: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/dead_drops_preview.html

These are plaster-made hands symbolisin' the Appolo astronauts. They were designed to fit exactly like their gloves.

Resource: http://itsfullofstars.tumblr.com/post/1517028563/freshphotons-plaster-casts-of-the-hands-of-nasa

Now these two pieces out of the whole series of such work defentilly describe the word "Uncanny".

Made by: Lauren Craste

Resource: http://www.whokilledbambi.co.uk/2010/12/lauren-crastes-murdered-ceramics/

Created by Iori Timota,a japanese artist who combined art and science to create this piece.

Resource: http://www.shinsekai-th.com/

Now this piece is called Tableu. It's made to re-create data in to both physical and digital format. How? No idea. But the idea of mixin' old type of furniture with modern technology is a great idea.

Made by John Kestner

Resource: http://johnkestner.com/tableau/

The idea of a mechanism to be stripped down to the core parts that make it work is also something interesting to make.

Made by Daniel Weil

Resource: http://pentagram.com/en/new/2010/12/new-work-clock-for-an-architec.php

Break time!

Insomnia Sessions: Research 2

2010-12-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

Break time over!

Movin' on to the next research subject.

David Bowie - I'm afraid of Americans

What is fantastic about this idea is the way they've shown how many gestures can be viewed as something else then just a simple hand movement. The context about America bein' a country full history related to wars. And how the fear of that context follows the man. That much hate and war is also shown as the reason why Jesus carried our sins.

David Bowie - I'm Afraid of Americans

Next!

DC Talk - Jesus Freak

This video has a lot of religious text i dare not to touch for a review. But the director of this video is Mark Romanek,the one that directed the Closer video for Nine Inch Nails. The design of the video was made splendid.

DC Talk - Jesus Freak

I think that'll be enough of music video research. Time to hit back to the books. BOOK POWER!

Insomnia Sessions: Research

2010-12-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

I'll admit it,i haven't posted in the last week due to my lazyness. But since my insomnia came back and my fail on unit 2 have fired me up for improvement in my workflow,i shall,while dippin' my tortilla chips in this delicious salsa sauce,will post my so far reached research. Since the style of my art is called Insanity Shock i decided to turn lemons in to lemonade and start my research from the beginnin' of what inspired me to do art in the first place.

Mainly i've began my research from music. This idea came after watchin' The Haunted and remembering the influence that sound and music can create upon people.

My childhood band is Nine Inch Nails,so i started my research with them.

The first thing that caught my eye is lightning. There was some artificial lights but main source was this day light comin' down in to the studio through dusty windows,which gives an idea of using some kind of frame in front of the light for the shadow effect,and maybe adding some kind of dusty texture to it for an effect.

This scene is somethin' that really gets the eye. I know that modeling a full human body with clothes will be too much for me,but maybe an object hangin' in space,would make a good effect.

This is scene is interesting because of the blowing the dust off the hat effect. The uncanny type of scenes have alot of dust-type effects.

This is scene is interesting because of the unnatural look and feeling that comes from the 7 men in the shot. One of them was shown in a close-up manner,showin' a bit of weird air around him. What i like the most about him is the look that he makes at the camera.

These objects aren't seen too well in the video at first glance,but if takin' a better look at them,they have that amazing design of "uncanny" which i need for this project.

I haven't seen a single movie,music video or animation that's supposed to have a weird atmosphere without bugs. That is somethin' that should be checked.

Now the pig reminds of the research we've done on Unit 1. That the pig is somethin' that is resembled and hated in the human nature. Here it's also added to some kind of steam punk torture device which creates a great effect.

Now this scene gave me a few ideas about doin' a reversed tableu scene. Where the drawn forms and shapes could be in the front,and the 3D objects on the background. But i won't touch such ideas which are too risky. The idea of a dark shape in some kind of motion is enough.

Now this scene was designed as to show,again,the theme of the pigs,but here the meat/rib sides are shown as if the look like wings.

The heart in the very beginnin' of the video is also somethin' that is worth payin' a closer attention,at how the heart made half-organic - half-steam punk.

Now this scene made me realize that i'll have to have the +18 warnin' for my blog. The sex toys put up on the wall and used on the musician Trent Reznor symbolise the sexuall nature of the humans. Such type of scenes are often used in obnoxious movies.

The scene with a severed head,which was played around with in the name of science. The head is put on a table and decorated with fruits and flowers as if it's normal to have a head on the table. A full human body might be too much,but a severed part i can try to make.

Now this scene is shown for a really short amount of time,but it's also i've noticed to be "uncanny". The amount of candle wax creates an amazing effect.

Resources:
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
Directed by Mark Romanek

Making of the Closer

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Next!

Another NIN video that inspired me in alot of ways. Survivalism.

The video basically speaks for itself. A combination of shots which are viewed as camera shots. The video starts which somewhat simple shots that each have a simple story and the evolve through out the cameras. After a while a team of soldiers run in silently,while the shots maintain a level of simplicity.

Resources:

Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism

Break time!

Maya Unit 2

2010-11-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

Ambient O.

Final. :]

Life Drawing Unit 2

2010-11-26T00:16:00.000-08:00