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!