Recording Voices!

Hey guys,

Just a quick update.  I wanted to let you know that I've spent the last couple of days recording the dailogue for the short.  I have to admit, it has actually been fun.

Still, I'm not really sure how it's going to turn out. If you've paid attention to the blog, you'll know I'm not exactly a fan of my voice.  In fact, for Xam and Power Dog I will not be doing the voices for any of the main characters. I really don't want my voice in it at all, but I fear I may have to make a cameo or two.  But, for the short, I will be doing all the voices.  It's just easier for me to do them but be warned now, they're gonna suck.  :)

Right now, I've got all of Jimmy's lines recorded and I plan on doing Nathan's and Dr. Huffenagles lines today.

I'll keep you informed. 

Holidays Keeping Me Busy!

Hey guys,

Merry Christmas everyone!

The holidays have been keeping me busy but I wanted to drop you all a note.

I haven't been working on any animation.  I really haven't had that kind of time.  I have, however, re-written the short scene with Jimmy, Nathan and Dr. Huffenagle. 

Basically, I wasn't very happy with it and that was becoming more and more obvious to me as I was recording the dialogue for the film.  I had re-worked it a couple of times but even after several draft changes I decided it was better just to scrap the whole thing and start over.  I find that a useful tactic from time to time and since it is only 8 pages long it literally was nothing to start over again.

I don't know how it is for other writers, and I'm not even certain I can count myself in that category, but sometimes I get bound by what is written on the page.  Even if I remove entire sections of something I still feel limited by what comes before and after.  That is when I find it better to start with an empty sheet of paper and start over.

So, I did that, and I have to say I like this script better.  It's funny, because I was still working off the same outline, and a lot of what was there to begin with still exists but I still managed to get something that is way different from what I had originally.  That isn't going to change the animation all that much but there are some differences.

The biggest difference is that Dr. Huffenagle has far fewer lines than he had originally.  That really is OK. He has the same impact and now I think he comes off more mysterious.  Time will tell I guess.

So, that's all that's been happening these last couple of days. 

I'll keep you posted, probably after New Years!

Happy New Years everyone!

Starting to Aminate the Short!

Hey guys,

Man, I can't believe it's been a week since my last post.

I have quite literally been working non-stop on trying to animate my short movie.  I have run into so many problems.

First off, when I first tried animating a 10 second video the rendering of it was going to take over 2 hours!  That was because I was trying to render the characters as well as the entire set all at once.  I quickly learned that is not the way to go.  What I was having trouble with was figuring out the many different ways to work around this, such a rendering in separate layers and using backdrops.

Rendering in different layers proved to be way over my head at this point.  Although I believe I understand the concept I still can't quite figure out how it's done.

So, I decided to use backdrops but, I had spent so much time building the set for the shoot I didn't want to throw all of that away. The solution was to create the backdrops of the set from the camera's point of view.  That sounded easy enough but I had to enter the world of using Nodes and although I don't want to get into what that means I will say that it is something I have avoided pretty much since I started animating 3 years ago.

Finally, after a week of trying to figure all this out, I finally have a test video that is 10 seconds long.  Ugh...

Still, the video does have two camera angles as well as some sound.  It's not perfect, but I'm actually excited.  I actually feel as though I'm animating!

Again, that probably was too terribly exciting, but I have to admit that I am pretty happy so far.  Sure, it has some problems, but it is a start.  I'm finally starting to animate something!

I also loaded this video on a popular video sharing website (if you think only a little it's probably the one you immediately think of) as apposed to loading it directly on the blog. I'm hoping the video quality is better than what I've had in the past.  It at least will offer some HD quality this way. Believe it or not, the videos I make look far better on my computer than they do on the blog and I'm hoping this resolves that.  Still, this particular video is way dark, it's my first night scene, so you may not be able to notice.

I know this isn't Xam and Power Dog, but believe me, this little side project is only going to help when it comes time to animating them.

Stay tuned for more...

A Test Pic!

Hey guys,

So, I've been plugging away at my short film.  Basically, what I've spent the last week doing is putting the finishing touches on the characters, building a few extra props and bringing it all together into one scene.

For the short, there are two scenes with most of the filming occurring on the valley floor next to an old, watering well.  So, basically, I wanted to set up a test image that incorporates all aspects of filming in order to test the lighting.

Here is what I got...

As you can see, the action is taking place on the valley floor next to the well.  Dr. Huffenagle has a couple pieces of his equipment and Jimmy and Nathan have "sneaked" their way to the well where the good doctor has discovered them.

This image will not actually be in the short. It really was setup just to test the lighting, which by the way, is done just like a real movie set.  It took four separate lights to get this shot, a moon light, a spot on the characters, a spot on the house in the background and a spot in the well to produce the red light which comes out of the well itself and ties directly into the story (even though it's not really explained in this scene).

So, basically, I think I'm pretty much ready to go.  I'm sure I'll have some more tweaks that I need to do but I feel confident enough to say I'm ready to start animating.

Of course, I say that while knowing I need to record the dialogue for the film first and, to tell the truth, I have no idea how I'm going to do that just yet.  But, I can't animate without at least knowing the timing of the dialogue.

OK.  That's really only true during the parts where the characters speak.  There are parts of the film where there is action without dialogue.  I suppose if I run into trouble recording dialogue I could always animate the non speaking parts.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Got The Script Done For The Side Project!

Hey guys,

Well, I banged out the script for my little side project yesterday. I was originally shooting for a 10 minutes scene but as I sat down to write it I thought 10 minutes was probably a little excessive. 

This little project is meant to give me some experience animating less complicated characters than Xam and Power Dog.  I designed the characters easily enough but then got bogged down in rigging them for animation.  That was frustrating but it taught me techniques I hadn't considered for Xam and Power Dog and now I think I will be able to model them better!

Still, I originally thought I would only spend a couple of months on this side project and I'm probably at around four or five weeks working on it.  I really only consider myself 1/3 of the way through so that is going to push my time frame for this project back quite a ways.  I know, big shock.

So, in the interest of moving along, I decided that I needed to shorten my movie short and writing a 5 minute scene seemed to make more sense than writing a 10 minute scene.  Less script means less animation which means less time to complete this project.  :)

As is, however, and this is seemingly always the case with me, the things I have mapped out in my head turn out a little different on paper.  I think it's because, for me, writing it out helps me focus what I'm thinking. 

The trouble is, as it was with Xam and Power Dog, once it's on paper you realize all the other little things you need to do.  In the case of the side project, I have a few more props I need to build.

The good news is that props are static!  I don't have to rig them!  Well, in this case I don't have to rig them since they don't have any moving parts.  OK.  That's not entirely true.  One of the props has moving parts.  Shoot.  It's alright.  It shouldn't be complicated.  Ugh.  Famous last words.

Alright then.  I need to build a few new props and rig one just a little bit.

I'll let you know how that goes.

One Final Test For The Good Doctor!

Hey guys,

I know, it's been a while since my last post.  A post I pretty much thought meant I was at the end of my modeling for the short and marked the point at which I could begin animating the scene.

Well, I was putting some final touches on the Doctor Huffenagle model when I realized there was a problem.  Yes, his trench coat moved beautifully in the wind but when you turned him in a twisting motion at the waist his trench coat passed through is protruding legs!

Now, I know I'm trying to build simple models to in order to do a 10 minute scene to improve my animating "skills" but I guess I really screwed that up by designing a character with a TRENCH COAT!!!

Alright, oh well.  I decided to just remove his trench coat and move on.  There was a small problem with that approach though.  Simply put, I didn't like the way he looked without the trench coat.

So, the trench coat had to stay and I needed to figure this out.  Turns out, the problem wasn't the coat.  I just hadn't baked it right before I animated it. Yes, that wasn't a typo.  You have to bake it.  I really won't go into it, just trust me and look what happens when you do it...

And, as you can see, the coat moves around his legs.

So, now I really, truly, honestly believe I am finished with the good Doctor. 

Oh, also, I changed his trench coat colors.  It used to be dull gray with a red liner.  Now it's brown with a deep, blue liner.  I have to admit, my calling him the good Doctor all this time made me think of the great Doctor, Doctor Who, so I chose to honor the 10th Doctor by giving my doctor his coat.  :)

Now, what's next?  Funnily enough, I know the scene I want to do and I've built the setting and characters to animate it but I don't have a script.

That's right.  I need to write the script for the 10 minute scene.  The good news is that it should be relatively easy.  I already have it mapped out in my head and it doesn't matter if it makes any sense to the viewer since you, the good people who follow my blog, really won't have any context of the scene since you'll just be jumping right in.  All I have to do is type it.

So, I'm off to write it.

I'll let you know when I'm done...

Doctor Mortimer Huffenagle Test!

Hey guys,

My work on my side project continues and, as promised, I continued my character test of Dr. Huffenagle.  I know, there's nothing ground breaking in this test, but I wanted to have one more go at lip syncing and animating.

Also, as with the other test videos, the voice you hear in this clip isn't the voice you'll hear in the movie.  I just needed a sound file to do the lip sync.  If you recognized the sound clip used to test Jimmy then you'll have no trouble recognizing this sound clip as it came from the same movie.

 And, since my last test video had a background I felt I had to do the same with this test.  

The keying of the good doctor against the background isn't the best, but I don't think I'll be keying in the movie short, so just ignore the faint green outline around the character and don't worry about the fact he's rough around the edges.

And now I need to regroup and figure out what to do next.

I'll certainly let you know.

Later!

Character Test 3!

Hey guys,

I've spent the last couple of days working on the third and final character for the side project I'm working on.  His name is Dr. Huffenagle and he is the villian of the movie.

The reason it has taken a couple of days is because the first day I spent cleaning up the model, fixing they eyebrows (like I had to do with Jimmy and Nathan) as well as figuring out a way to make his trench coat work.

Besides the fact trench coats are cool, I wanted him to wear a coat because Thomas/T-Boom wears shorts that are constructed the same way as Dr. Huffenagles jacket and I was having trouble getting the shorts to move with the characters legs.

Well, it turns out the fix for the jacket (and by default T-Boom's shorts) was staring me right in the face.  I won't go into boring details but trust me, it was a simple fix.

Back to Dr. Huffenagle.  Once I got his trench coat figured out the problem became how to make it blow in the wind (very important for Power Dog's cape) as well as how flexible do I make it?

The flexibility comes from the material modifier I use.  The first one I decided to try was cotton.  I  know, an odd choice for a trench coat, but I wanted something that would really blow in the wind.

So, here is a test video with a cotton modifier...

As you can see, this clearly looks like a cotton trench coat and although it blows very easily in the wind it looks really light weight and more like a robe than a jacket.

So, I decided to try a leather modifier.  The problem with that was that the jacket hardly moved in the wind.  It turns out I really had to try several different setting with the leather modifier until I finally found one I like. 

Here's a test for the final settings I chose...

I know, that is very subtle movement.  The truth is, I really had to lighten the leather's mass and stiffness as well as seriously kick up the wind to get it to blow that much.  The truth is, leather jackets really don't have that much give and by default don't really blow around in the wind.  I found that anything more than what is seen in the test video just didn't look like leather.  So, these are the setting I plan on using in the scene.

Now that I got that out of the way, I will probably do one final character test with the doctor.  I won't be breaking any new ground, but it will give me one more opportunity to practice my lip sync technique before I move on to my next problem.

I'll share that next problem with you after this last character test.  Today is Thanksgiving (Happy Thanksgiving by the way), so I have no idea when that final test will be completed.

Check back in a week...

Another Character Test!

Hey guys,

So, when I last left you, I had done a little test video for a character named Jimmy, who is going to be in a little side project video meant to give me some practice animating less complicated characters than Xam and Power Dog in an attempt to help me learn animation.

I'm still at it, and I've been working on a test for a character for this side project.  His name is Nathan and he is a ghost.  The test is another 10 second video that allows me to practice giving Nathan movement and lip syncing his dialogue.

I know, didn't I already practice that with the last test?  Yes, but Nathan, being a ghost, gave me an opportunity to test how I was going to make him look ghostly (or transparent) and therefore makes this a good test.

So, here is the Nathan test video.  Like the Jimmy test, this test is not Nathan's voice.  I needed a sound clip to set up the lip syncing and, once again, this comes from a pretty famous source.  Funnily enough, I've used this source (kinda) once before.  A while back I was testing my animation and I created a TARDIS (see Doctor Who for more information on a TARDIS) and now I'm using the Doctor himself.  We'll, the 10th Doctor, and this is a line from my absolute favorite episode, Blink.

Check it out...

So, pretty fun I think, and next I will do a character test for the third and final character, and old, crotchety fellow named Dr. Huffenagle.  He wears a trench coat and that is why I want to test him.

Stay tuned...
 

Updated, Updated Jimmy Test...

Hey guys,

Long time no talk! 

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. Of course, if you've been following the blog for a while then you know that October is an extremely busy time for my family.  And, just in case you don't know about my other blog, feel free to head on over to Hollinger Hollow and check out what takes up most of my time during Halloween!

But, as you no doubt are aware, we're halfway through November now and that means it's time to start focusing on my main passion, Xam and Power Dog.

So, when I last left off, I had told you about my plan to work on a small scene with different characters in an attempt to get better at animating.  The reason for the different characters is I wanted to try my hand at animating less complicated characters than the ones I designed for Xam and Power Dog.

Well, I was able to do a test video with a character named Jimmy to include some movement of the character but mainly to focus on lip syncing.

The first video (which is in a post below) looked pretty good to me, until I posted the video and on playback realized his eyebrows moved across his forehead when he turned his head.  The reason this was happening was because I made his eyebrows out of a separate mesh that I just "placed" on his forehead without rigging them or attaching them.

To fix this, I simply deleted the separate mesh eyebrows and colored parts of the mesh over Jimmy's eyes brown, made another video, posted that one as an update and called it a day.

Wouldn't you know, although it stopped the eyebrows from floating across Jimmy's head the truth is I hated the look.  It was flat and sharp at the edges and just didn't look very good.  I tried telling myself that the point to this was to make the characters simple and it simply couldn't get any more simple than that.

Still, I hated the look, and in my "spare" time this last month I would check back on the video to see if maybe it started looking better to me and at the end of the day, no, it didn't look any better.

Sometimes I am amazed at what a small break can do to restore your creativity.  I say this because when I opened the file today to work on Jimmy I decided I couldn't stand the flat, square eyebrows and immediately set about to fix it.  Well, that took me all but 5 minutes.  Seriously!  The fix was staring at me in the face and the only thing I can figure is that I was so burned out I didn't see it.

So, without further ado, here is the update to the updated video I last posted.  For those that don't remember, or who don't care to scroll down a little and refresh their memory, this is Jimmy borrowing a line from a very famous movie in order for me to test my ability to make him talk.  Enjoy...

And there you.  I swear, this will be the last update to this particular test video.  I am finally, honestly, 100% completely happy with this test. 

So now what?  Well, I really am not sure.

As soon as I figure that out, I will let you know!

Later!

A Quick Update on Yesterday!

Hey guys,

So, I was looking at the video from yesterday when I realized that Jimmy's left eyebrow seems to shrink when his head moves at the end of the clip.  This got past me when I was editing but it jumped out at me when I watched it on the blog.  You can look at the clip below to see what I mean.

Obviously, this won't work so I went back into the model and tried several fixes, none of which seemed to work.  The problem I was having was that his eyebrows were a separate mesh from his face.  I did it this way because it was quick and easier to get the shape I wanted without changing the shape of Jimmy's head too much.

As it turns out, by doing it this way I seemed to have made this model more complicated then what I was originally looking for.  Again, my plan is to practice animating a simple model, so I went back to the model and did what I should have done in the first place.  I removed his floating eyebrows and added ones that are part of his mesh.

The upside is it works beautifully.  The downside is that I don't think it looks as good.  Still, it looks alright and that really is the point of this side project so I need to let this go and do what works.

So, here is the clip with the less detailed eyebrows that don't float away or unwantingly changing shapes...

I think that looks alright.  Can I make this any better?  I believe I can, but that isn't the point.  This is just a side project to get used to animation so I'm not going to hold it to my usual standards.

Besides, I still have a lot to fix on Jimmy's armature.  My next test video, I want him walking and talking.

I'll keep you posted.

A Xam and Power Dog Test Video! Well, Kinda...

Hey guys,

I know, I know.  It's October, and I'm usually working on the Hollinger Hollow display, but while I wasn't doing that I was thinking about the trouble I've been having animating the movie.

One of the problems I've been having with this movie is that my vision for it was bigger than my ability to make it.  Now, that doesn't mean I'm giving up.  Not at all.

What it does mean though is that I'm going to take a step back from the Xam and Power Dog movie and work on something else for a couple of months.

But not to worry.  I will keep updating this blog as this little "side" project will, in theory, help me animate this movie.

So, what is this side project?  Well, the idea behind it is that if the reason I'm having so much trouble animating Xam and Power Dog is the fact the models are more complicated than my ability to animate them then I will need to practice animating less complicated models.

I plan on doing a 10 minute scene from a different movie I've had in mind for a long time.  I'll go into the specifics as this new project moves along but for now I want to show you what progress I've made.

First off, this model actually looks like it could come from the world of Xam and Power Dog (I did build it after all) but there are differences.  The most noticeable difference is the hair.  The models hair is not separate particles like everyone from Xam and Power Dog.  Also, the eyes are less realistic and, out of fear this may fall under TMI, their clothing is not separate from the character mesh.  This clothing thing has already been a big improvement with the animataion because whenever I moved T-Boom's legs they went through his pants.  Not a problem on this character, who's name is Jimmy by the way.

So, below you will find a little 8 second clip of Jimmy.  Now, it's not perfect, but I actually got him moving an talking and that is a huge step forward!

Take a look...

In case you're wondering, no, that isn't going to be Jimmy's voice.  If you watched it then you probably have clue where the sound clip came from.

And there you are.  Like I said, I will have more updates on what this is and what this is for down the road.  It is, October after all, and I do have other projects I'm working on (Hollinger Hollow), but feel free to stop by in the next couple of weeks.  I'm sure I'll have more then.

More updates to follow...

Haven't Quit, Just Not Working Much on the Movie!

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  I know I sounded pretty upbeat in my last post and then nothing was posted for all of August.

If you've been coming to my blog for the last couple of years then you'll know that Halloween is a very big holiday at my house.  So big, in fact, that pretty much all my spare time, August through October, is dedicated to working on our annual display, Hollinger Hollow. (click on the link to check it out)

That said, I wouldn't be expecting a lot of movie updates for the next month.  Still, I might get some free time every now and then to work on the film and if I do I will definitely let you know.

I promise, I will be back in November!

And, just in case you want to learn about what is taking up so much of my time at the moment, hit the link above.

Later!

Still At It!

Hey guys!

Wow! I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog but I had no idea it has been this long!

I'm sure you all must have thought I died or something but the truth is that I just haven't had a lot to say. I mean, how many updates do you want where I'm saying that I'm still working on the Max rig and still not getting anywhere?

Truthfully, I must have created and deleted 25 rigs in the time since my last update. None of them seemed to have what I was looking for. Then, suddenly, it all started making sense to me and in the last week I have been working on what I believe will be my ultimate quadruped rig!

Now, I still have a lot of tweaking to do. I still need to add some bones and set up the controls, but my basic rig is allowing me to do things like this...

And in case you're wondering what the basic rig looks like, here it is...

So, as you can see, I'm not dead nor have I written off making this movie. I admit, I haven't been nearly as productive as I would like to have been but I have been working very hard and I feel as though I'm finally starting to get the hang of this rigging thing.

So, I will try to update the blog on a more regular basis but I also promise not to beat you down with useless updates. I guess we'll see exactly what that means in the coming weeks. :)

Later guys!

Been Working Hard But You Wouldn't Know It!

Hey Guys,

Man, I've really been working hard on the Max model but you wouldn't know it based on what I've managed to accomplish...



That's the Max model sitting. The sad part is, that this is the best I've been able to accomplish and I just don't feel like it's good enough. This rigging is really kicking my butt and I truthfully am starting to get discouraged.

What I don't like is how blocky his build looks when I start to pose him. I'm sure I'm missing something, and I have no doubt that in the hands of a better animator this would be a no brainer to fix, but after weeks of working on this I feel as though I'm really spinning my wheels.

I'm about to go on vacation for a couple of weeks and I won't be working on the movie during this time. I'm hoping this is a good thing as it will give me a break from modeling and from my frustration. I hope that when I return I will look upon this model with new, fresh eyes and possibly see what isn't working and how to fix it.

I'll let you know how that goes when I return from my vacation.

I'll talk to you guys after a much needed rest.

Later.

Haven't Been Able to Focus on the Movie as Much as I Would Like!

Hey Guys,

I'm sorry for the lack of updates. I was feeling really good about moving forward on the movie with my last post but this month has been tough on my free time and it has really halted the movie.

Don't worry. I'm still working on it. I'm just not able to work on it as much as I would like. I was hoping to have the Max model done weeks ago and instead I'm still working on cleaning up the rig.

Still, I'm having a lot of fun working on the model when I can. Despite my lack of updates these last few weeks I still feel as though I'm moving forward. My goal is to do another test animation with the Max model once I have completed cleaning him up.

I will try to do better keeping you in the loop.

Later!

Cleaning Up the Rig!

Hey guys,

I'm still working on cleaning up the Max rig.

So, what does that mean exactly? Basically, now that I have the rig finished I've applied the rig and created an armature, or system of controls that allow me to move and pose the model. In order to do this, I join the rig to the model and apply automatic weights that basically use the location of each bone to decide what part of the mesh will move when I adjust the controls.

The automatic weight feature really makes this process move along quickly, but the problem is the software doesn't always apply the weight where you want it applied. So, when I move one control, at least initially, some parts of the mesh will move when I don't want it to. In order to fix this, I have to clean up the weight painting to apply only to the parts of the rig I want.

This is what it looks like...

As you can see, when I move the selected bone in the model the colored area is what is affected. I took this pic shortly after cleaning up the area that makes up Max's left eye brow. Now, only his eyebrow will move. That wasn't the case before I took this pic. Initially, parts of the top of his head moved when adjusting the brow and that made it look like he had horns. A few minutes later, after I cleaned up the eyebrows, only the brows move.

As you can see in the picture above, there are a lot of bones in this model and I have to go through this process of cleaning up the weight influence for each bone.

This is going to take a little while.

I'll keep you posted.

Sad Kitty, Sleepy Kitty...

Hey guys,

Well, I was able to get some more done on the Max rig!

I've cleaned up the view of his eye controls and adjusted the influence of his ear controls so now I can shut his eyes and move his ears. Here's what I'm able to do...

That's right. We got sad kitty followed by sleepy kitty.

I'm having too much fun but I still have a lot of cleaning up to do so now it's back to work.

Talk to you later.

Making Tremendous Progress on Max Rig!

Hey guys!

Man, I took some time off the movie these last couple of weeks and the payoff was terrific! A small break must have been exactly what I needed because when I started working on the rigging this week suddenly everything made sense.

Here's a sample...

I know, this looks like some of the other pics I've done but the truth is I have made some major changes behind the scenes and this pose only took me seconds to make.

I still have some cleanup to do on the controls but I am very excited and I feel as though I'm back in business.

I'll keep you posted!

Still Having Trouble with Rigging...

Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a quick note so you know I haven't given up.

I am still having trouble rigging the Max model. I have literally deleted a dozen rigs over this last week. No matter what I do I just can't seem to get a handle on it.

Still, I haven't given up. Perseverance prevails and I will continue to work on this until I have it figured out.

Please be patient. I am bound to figure this out sooner or later.

Took A Small Step Back...

Hey guys,

Been working really hard on rigging Max's face. So hard, in fact, that I kind of screwed up his model!

I know, that sounds bad, but I've been doing so much tweaking in order to get him to blend with his rig that I somehow destroyed his symmetry and made him look a little uneven in the face.

In order to fix that, I cut him in half and mirrored him in order to regain his symmetry. I know, this sounds pretty extreme but the truth is that it isn't. Mirroring is the process used to build the model in the first place so it really wasn't all that difficult.

So, what's different? Really, not much...


Max 2.0 is on the left and 2.1 is on the right. As you can see, he looks the same. Well, OK, there are some differences. First, his eyes are shaped slightly different. Not a whole lot, but enough that you notice in the side by side comparison. He also has different whiskers. This is because I had to de-fur him in order to rebuild him and since his whiskers are basically long strands of hairs I had to rebuild them. This is perfectly fine with me since his previous whiskers hung a little funny and his new whiskers look more natural.

The other thing I've been thinking is that once I have Max Rigged I'm going to probably need to rebuild Xam. I really don't want to do this but I have made a lot of modifications to Max to get this rig to work (or almost kinda work) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to integrate this rig with the current Xam model. I'll just have to wait and see. The only reason I mention it is because I just happen to be thinking about it while I'm typing this.

So, I'm afraid I'm still not done working on the Max rig. I've still got quite a bit to do but I wanted to let you all know that there has been a bit of a delay and why.

Now, back to work on rigging. I'll talk to you later!

Making Some Progress On Max's Face Rig!

Hey guys,

Well, I promised I would work on Max's face rig this week and, as promised, I have.

I initially didn't want to post anything because I am so far off of where I need to be, but I felt like I needed to give an update despite how awful the rigging looks.

So, are a couple of pics that show what kind of control I have at the moment that also show how far I still have to go...



Pretty terrible, huh?

Now, If I wanted to make this look better, I certainly could have, but it would have taken a lot of time and that is what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want to have to spend 30 minutes to make a pose look good. I want to move a couple of controls and have the perfect pose as quickly as possible.

That means I still have much to do.

That said, I better get back at it. I have a feeling I still have 10 hours worth of work until I've tweaked this to the point I want.

Wish me luck!

An Inadvertent Break...

Hey guys,

I admit, I haven't done a whole lot on the movie this last week but I had no idea until I clicked on the blog that it had been 10 days since my last update!

Rigging is really kicking my butt and I decided to take a breather for a couple of days. I truthfully can't believe 10 days have passed since I last worked on Xam and Power Dog.

So, I promise to re-double my efforts this week and see if I can at least get something done on Max's face rig.

I'll let you know how that goes.

March Madness...

Hey guys,

Well, March hasn't been kind to Xam and Power Dog. More specifically, it hasn't been kind to me trying to animate Max.

As I've shown, getting his body rigged is a pretty easy process. The problem I am having, and have been having, is getting his face rigged. No matter, what I try, I just can't seem to make it work.

So, I decided to build a very easy and simple model, something with little features that would require a very basic rig and, being the Whovian that I am, I decided to build a quick model of Doctor Who's cute, little Adipose character.

Right now, like Max, I only have his body rigged but I wanted to do a quick test video and this is what I got...



Again, this character is from BBC's Doctor Who. I wish I had thought of this adorable, little guy.

So, as you can see, I'm still working on the movie. True, it may seem like I've gone off into the weeds but I really believe working with the Adipose I will get a better understanding of basic rigging.

Of course, I'll keep you posted.

I've Been Rigging on the Max Cat!

Hey guys,

Well, I've gone through literally half a dozen face rigs since I last posted.

It makes me sad, because I really liked what I was doing with the shape keys that allowed me to get the pics you see in my previous posting, but I could never get them to work right.

Since then, I've tried other ways of rigging the face but I just can't seem to make anything work. Rigging a face is considerably more complicated than rigging the body. Either that, or I'm just making it difficult.

Still, I will continue to work until I find something that works for me. Now that I'm looking at the earlier pics, I really like what I see. Perhaps I will revisit the shape keys. That truly is the best looking expressions I've been able to produce.

I'll keep you posted!

Working on Max's Face Rig!

Hey guys!

I've been working on the rig controls for Max's face and I thought I'd share a couple of pics...

Angry...

Happy...

Worried...

Now, this may look pretty good but I've only created the shape keys. I still have to setup the controls which is what will give me the freedom I need to make all kinds of expressions.

So, I've still got a little way to go. I'll keep you posted.

Later!

Hey everyone,

I know. I said I was going to work on the face rigging but I thought it might be a good idea to try and test what I have of the rig so far.

Now, this is just a test. I wasn't worried about how smooth it looked or how believable the running appeared. I just wanted to test the rig, so I did four stages of the run and copied them over and over again.

This is what I got...



Now, I have to admit, I'm pretty happy with this. The rig is bending in all the right ways and all in all, for a quick little run cycle, this looks pretty good!

So, now I'll move on to rigging his face. Once that is done, I'll do a face test and if I'm happy with that I'll actually attempt an animation test that uses the complete rig!

I'll keep you posted.

Rigging Max is a Slow Process!

Hey guys!

Well, I know it's been a week since my last update, and that pic in my last post must have looked like I was really coming along, but my how things have changed.

There was a ton of things wrong with that first rig. Some of it was the rigs fault, some was the models fault. How could the model be to blame? Easy. It wasn't modeled in a way that allowed for the bones to move in a believable way. Specifically, the back legs weren't right and that made his legs look strange when bent.

But, after a few quick modifications to the model I was able to correct that problem. The next problem was deleting the rig that went with the old model and creating a new rig.

Thanks to Blender's (the software I use to create the models) "rigify" feature, creating the new rig wasn't a problem. The problem I've been having is tweaking the rig for a quadruped and making everything work.

I won't go into all that is involved when setting up a character rig. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes and since this is the third time I've started over you can guess that it isn't the easiest thing for a beginner to learn.

But, after a week of working with the rig I think I've finally started learning how some of these things are done. Here is a couple of pics to demonstrate what I've been able to do...




Now, that may look done but there is still so much I have yet to do.

If you look closely, you'll see he's rather expressionless. That's what I have to do next, work on his face muscles. I figure it will be at least another week for me to figure that out.

Of course, I'll keep you posted!

Max Rig Coming Along!

Hey everyone,

I'm still working away on the Max rig. The good news is that I've got the first part of the rig set up and I can even put him in some basic poses.

Case in point...


So, at first glance, you'd think I'd be done. I'm afraid not. This is just the basic rigging. I still have to do the controls for his face and eyes but before I get started on that I have to work out the bugs in the basic rigging. You can't really tell from the picture above but the bones in his back legs just aren't meshing up right and I haven't even looked at the controls for which way the bones will bend. Right now, they bend in just about every way but that's not a good thing when it comes to animating knees and paws. Ouch!

So, I'm still a long way from being able to call the Max model fully rigged. As always, I'll keep you posted.

Later!

Still Plugging Away with Rigging!

Hey Guys,

Well, I'm still working on rigging the Max model. I'm trying a lot of new things and that is the reason for this delay when I've been rigging models in the past.

The things I'm trying to do are so much more complicated than previous models. How complicated? Well...


And that is just to get his limbs and head to move. I haven't even begun working on the controls for his face!

So, this is going to take a while. I will try to keep you updated as much as possible but I really have my work cut out for me. I'm hoping that if I get one model under my belt the others will be that much easier. If I ever finish this model and start working on another I'll let you know if that's true.

Talk to you later!

Falling Way Short on Figuring Out Rigging!

Well, time has come and gone on my hopes to get the Max rigging up and running by last week. I'm pretty disappointed in myself at the moment.

It isn't just rigging his bones that is holding me up. The truth is, that is pretty simple. What I'm trying to do is come up with a complete rig, one that moves his mouth, eyes, tongue, etc. It turns out this is much harder than I thought it would be.

So, for the time being, I'm not going to predict how long this will take. I get done when I get done.

I promise to keep you guys posted. Don't worry. I'm far from having given up on this movie. I fear, however, that I will be working on this for quite some time.

Perseverance will prevail!

Talk to you later.

Slowly Working My Way Back into Movie Mode!

Hey guys!

The holidays have come and gone and as you can tell by my lack of updates that I'm easing my way back into working on the movie.

Well, that is true. I haven't exactly been starting the new year running. The truth is that I'm pretty tired still and I am enjoying the time away from the movie for the time being. I really worked hard last year and it's been nice giving my brain a break for a while.

Still, I haven't exactly been doing nothing either. These last couple weeks I've been working on resolving the problem I've been having with rigging the Thomas model. I just can't seem to find the trick to making his shorts follow his bending legs and I must say it has been quite frustrating. Especially since I know the answer is staring me in the face and I just can't see it.

So, just as I did with T-Boom, I've decided to put Thomas on hold and try rigging a character that isn't wearing a costume...Max! I just started messing around with that this week so I'm really hoping to have a fully rigged Max by this time next week.

I'll let you know how that goes!