happy birthday Serena!

XD

Single frame with 2D art added

Ok so this should give you guy's a pretty good idea what the final is going to look like, this image has both 2D and 3D stuff in it and as you can see it works pretty well. though there are still small tweaks that need to be don't to the back and foreground of this scene it is pretty close to done.

Animating

Ok so the reason there hasn't been too many blog updates lately is just due to the fact that I started actually animating on Tuesday, this is also the reason way there will not be too many more over then next few weeks but I will try and post up some play blasts or something when i get the chance :D

Making ninjas cry since 1987

like these eyes a lot, probably the best ones yet :P

more eyes!

-_-

has a look!

Here is a close look at the new eyes for my character. They can be fully animated as if they where 3d however I still have a wee way to go before they can convey more emotions but that just requires me to finish the textures for those emotions, all the ground work and technical stuff is done :D.  As a side note the graph editor chain for them (the eyes) is rather on the large side :S

say what?

Ok so got my marks back for the interim presentation to day via email. Turns out what I though was a shaky presentation to begin with must have gotten my idea cross rather well because I received an A for it, Woot! This is good because it's just another sign that last year i made the right decision to come back and give it another go rather than settling for what would have been a narrow pass at best.

Whaaaaaat!!....

ok so this will give you an idea of what the renders are going to look like. comparing them to my 2D vector stuff there is not much difference between the too which is great. this means come post production time it is going to be a whole lot easier to make them look like they belong in the same scene.

Ok insert random pic of the day here done by no other than me of course :D

Rig Update :P

As you can kind of see the rig is getting there, just a few more tweaks and some set driven keys and it will be finished. Then the weight painting will begin :(

Fun with rigging :?

As if lol, had a go with Setup Machine but it appears as if my model is too short and stubby for SM to weight paint it properly and because SM uses so many joints for some reason it would really confuse me as when it comes to fixing the weight painting. So instead i'm just going to make my own rig, should have it done by tonight, controls by tomorrow and weights painted by the end of the week.

Textured Ninjaz :D

Here is just a few shots of the ninja model now with the textures applied, not sure how much more work needs to be done to them but for now they are pretty much done. WOOT!!! :D

Guardian Cave!

Just a panel showing the cave in which the guardian and the magical feather reside.

Nightmares are a Bitch...

Another panel piece depicting the daemons that hunt the ninja in his sleep. Enjoy :P

I Hates UV's... lol

Just as small update. Finished tweaking the ninja model for now and have gone on to uvs and texturing. First attempt at the ninja's UVs is complete and have started blocking in colour on the textures. so far so good :P

the Guardian

another character, this guy will be 2D :P

More Environment Stuff

Just a few more pieces I have been working on while story boarding, Enjoy :D

Story so far...

just a small written update, Currently working on getting my story and storyboards sorted out. Hope to have it done by the end of Thursday (3 days). So far I've got about half the story figgered out, only thing that is really missing is what goes on in the middle, I have a few ideas just not sure what order to place them in. And as far as storyboards go I have Drawn up a few panels (sample above) and will continue to work on those all the way up till Thursday night. Might be in for some late nights but that doesn't bother me too much :P

Just some environment design. This is the vector version of one of my pencil drawings.

Ok here is your first look at the ninja character model. not 100% finished but pretty close, just a few more details to go. I still have to decide on how i'm going to do the eyes for the ninja, I was think of just using image planes but i'm not sure how to animate that, I must think about it some more. Perhaps the model will be finished by tonight but some how I don't think so.

here is my latest piece of work fresh from the studio. it could be used as a possible backdrop or just another reference. Also an update on my models, the Ninja is very nearly finished, just got to model is hands and he will be done :P

ok scratch that shader i found, it's not going to work with the style i'm going for, i'll have to make my own but thats all good, it shouldn't be too hard. To give you all an idea of the type of shading effect that i am going after watch this youtube video, it is called Apres la pluie which is french for 'After the rain'

Found it!

Ok so I finally found the Maya cel shader I was looking for. I used it in another project a while back and then forgot what it was called, spent ages searching for this and now I finally have it again. Woot! another thing can now be marked off the list, though chances are i'm probably going to have to make my own shader down the line...

Leaves leaves and more leaves!

just another small update. while thinking about environment for my animation today I came up with a simple but effective way to create the texture for the leaves on trees. nothing to major but still at lest it one less thing to do.

Refind Ninja Concept

yet another refinement of the ninja character for my major project. I did this one today while starting on the actual modelling for him in maya, as you can probably see from the image his hands have change, this is something that I intended to do all along. the circles used as hands in the other images were just place holders until I could be bothered doing the real thing. And all though you can see it in this image his feet have change to. 

Hope you all enjoy :D

Sanity!

I am good at helping!

Sorries it's been a while...

sorry there are no storyboards up yet, I know they were meant to be up last week but 1). they are taking a lot longer than I expected, which is ok, I have the time. and 2). I've also started on some other illustration projects that might be bringing a little money my way, fingers crossed XD. Never fear though I am working on my storyboards every day.

Art Style

Here is a more refined version of the ninja character, though this is vector art it gives you a better idea of what the final 3D character will look like. I will most likely go for some kind of toon shader to get a similar look.

This week for me is all about the storyboarding so expect there to be some of that posted up here before/on Sunday if all goes as planed :D. And once that's all done I can hopefully fire up Maya and get back into some 3D modeling.

Concepts well under way

Above are a few of my quick concept sketches for my major project, these will give you a nice feel for where I'm heading style wise I think. As for the brief side of things I'll be aiming more for a technical approach rather than a contextual one (learnt that lesson last year).

Ok this is where I'm going to be posting the majority of my Major Project work as I finish stuff or have things to show.

Right now I'm currently working on story idea and character development. I know what style i' m going for so that's a good start :D. Will post up some images soon and Hopefully some story boarding as well but we will see...