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!