Wednesday, October 24, 2012

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...


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