The 100th Post!!!

Hey guys,

Well, I've been putting off posting anything as this post marks the 100 post on the Xam and Power Blog and I really wanted to make is special, but it has been so long since I posted anything I was beginning to feel bad.

As I've mentioned, Halloween is a big holiday in my house and it pretty much took up all my free time on the movie (check out the Hollinger Hollow blog).

Now that Halloween is over I will once again be directing all my free time to making my little movie a reality so begin checking in on a regular basis as updates are going to start coming in on a more regular basis.

Talk to you soon!

Not Much... But It's a Start!

Hey guys,

Well, like I said, October is going to be a slow month for the movie and so far that has been the case.

Still, since I was feeling a little restless, I thought I'd start working on the updates to the T-Boom model.

Late last month I announced I would have to re-work the human models (Thomas, T-Boom and Rocky) in order to fix a rigging problem. If you look at previous posts you will see I'm referring to the rebuilding of the arms and putting them in a "T" shape in order to solve the "shoulder pad" problem as well as fix some other issues with how rigging affected the shape of the sleeves.

Well, since I finished with Thomas I thought I'd spend a couple of minutes and start on T-Boom. Since T-boom is an advanced model of Thomas it is a pretty easy start. I just need to add the vest, glasses and T-Boom logo to Thomas.

The vest will be a beast and adding the logo means I'll have to start over on the UV Texture (color mapping). All of those would require more of an effort on my part and since it's past midnight I'm a little tired.

So, I did the easiest thing and added T-Boom's glasses. That' is a simple matter of importing the glasses model I made months ago and fitting them to his face.

Walla...

I know. It's not much, but it's a start. When I finally get the Halloween decorations in the front yard set up, something I hope to do this weekend, I'll have more free time to work on the movie. Next step, build the vest and add the logo and then it will be on to the Rocky model.

Until then...

Our Love of Halloween!

Alright, I'm breaking my biggest rule with this blog.

The one thing I pledged when I started this blog was that this blog would only discuss the trials and joys of making a Xam and Power Dog movie.

That said, this blog, and the movie, is going to take a bit of a hit this month as my attention turns toward the greatest holiday of all time, Halloween! My family loves Halloween and every year we put up a display that people (people have personally told us this) come specifically down our block to see every year.

So, if you're checking in from time to time to see what's happening in the world of Xam and Power Dog and are disappointed by the lack of updates this month, head on over to www.hollingerhollow.blogspot.com and check out what is causing the hold-up.

Haven't Had Much Time To Work On Movie!

Hey guys,

What can I say? Halloween is taking up most of my free time these days.

That said, I haven't done much on the movie this last week. The only thing I can say I've done is I fixed the length of Thomas' arms.

Since I had to redo his model with his arms out in a "T" position I wasn't able to judge the length of his arms. Since I've rigged him I was able to put his arms down at his sides and I noticed his arms were a little short.

Case in point...



Since then, I've lengthened his arms and now they are right...



All in all, it's a small modification but one I think people would have noticed over time so it was a necessary correction.

I'm still working on Halloween stuff this next week and I am expecting it to take up a lot of my time. Still, I will try harder to work on the movie this week and as always, I will post something when there is something to report.

Until then...

Still Rigging Thomas...No Walk Cycle Yet!

Hey guys,

Well, it's been a pretty busy week, and with Halloween getting closer (a very important holiday in my family with a huge, elaborate front yard cemetery that requires considerable building every year) it is only going to get busier.

Still, I will not stop working on the movie but may slow down a bit, as was the case this week. I'm still not working on a walk cycle yet because I'm ironing out the rough spots in the Thomas model rigging. This is very time consuming but once I get it finished it will be easier to position and pose the models.

I mentioned last week that by doing this I was able to improve upon the models. One of the things I mentioned is that I will be able to get rid of the "shoulder pads" on the models and below is an example of what I was talking about...




As you can see in the second picture, Thomas' shoulders look much more relaxed and natural. I was also able to fix his hands, which is something I was never happy with and was able to fix with the Rocky model. The hands in the second pic come from a separate model I created for the Rocky model and imported them into the Thomas model, then beefed them up to look like a boy's hands. A huge improvement in my opinion.

All I have left to finish rigging is his legs and feet and once I complete that I will finally be able to work on the walk cycle.

As soon as I have that finished I will post it.

Later!

So Far... So Good!

Well, I had a pretty productive day today.

I was able to fix the Thomas model by rebuilding his arms so they stick out in a "T" shape. Check out the before and after...

(Before)


(After)


As you can see, I was even able to redo the UV Textures which gives him his color. If you look closely you will see the pattern on his pants is a little different.

The other thing you will notice is that he no longer looks like he's wearing shoulder pads. This will be more noticeable after I rig him and put his arms down by his sides (something I will show you after I rig him) but for now, if you use your imagination, you will see what I'm talking about.

So, not bad for a days work. It actually only took me a couple of hours. The big thing will be rigging him, which I will hopefully be able to spend some time on tomorrow. I say "hopefully" because this weekend is going to be very busy and I'm not entirely sure I will have the time until next week.

As always, I will keep you posted.

Back to the Drawing Board on the Human Characters!

Well, I mentioned last week that I was certain I would find problems with the models when I started to animate them and I did...at least as far as the human models go.

To make a long story short, when I was building the human models I didn't have their arms out to the side (so when you look at them from front or behind they look like a "T").

Why is this a problem? Well, because they are wearing shirts and when I move the arms the shirt sleeves become deformed.

It's all pretty complicated if you're not familiar with the rigging process so I won't beat you down with the details. The bottom line is I have to rebuild the human models with their arms out, which will completely wipe out the color maps I've done taking me back at least another week to fix all three human models (Thomas, T-Boom and Rocky).

And I was in such a good mood last week.

The good news is that I believe this will only be a problem with the human models. As you know, Max and Gibson are wearing costumes when they are Xam and Power Dog, but because I built them standing on all four limbs they should be alright. At least I'm crossing my fingers that will be the case.

So, what does this mean? Well, it means if my estimation of a one week delay is accurate then it will be a couple of weeks until we see T-Boom in a walk cycle.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Having Fun Rigging the T-Boom Model!

Hey guys!

Well, I still have a lot of work to do before I feel I'm done with rigging the T-Boom model, but I did have some fun working on posing him and thought I'd share.

First, Here is what it looks like to work with the rigging and then to render the image...



Second, I decided to have some fun with the rendered image and stick T-Boom on a statue of a Charging Bull that sits somewhere in NY City (where the movie is set)..



I plan on adding the rest of the characters to this pic as I finish them.

That said, I'm still not done with T-Boom. I'm going to try to animate him in a walk cycle to make sure I have everything right. I already can tell there are things still wrong with what I've done so far so I have no idea how long this will take. I suspect it will be another week until I have the walk cycle finished.

As always, I'll let you know how that goes!

Started Rigging T-Boom!

Hey guys!

Well, I said it would be a learning experience and I wasn't kidding.

I decided last week to scrap everything I've rigged on Power Dog and start over. That said, I didn't find a lot of rigging tutorials for dogs but I found a fantastic tutorial for rigging a person so, after a week of research, I've finally started rigging T-Boom today!

Rigging looks pretty funny when editing and positioning. Here is what it looks like (click on the image for a larger pic)...



As you can see, T-Boom has little yellow bones and the dots represent his joints. This took me about an hour to do and it has it's challenges but so far it is really moving along.

Next I have to assign what bones move what part of the body. I think that is going to go fairly quickly but I am completely exhausted and think I will stop here for the day. It's gonna be a pretty busy day tomorrow, but I'll try to work on it some more in the evening and hopefully I'll have something new to post then.

For now, I'm pretty excited and I can't wait to work on this some more.

As always, I'll post if there's anything new to report!

What's New?

What's new? To tell the truth, nothing.

I've been a little under the weather this last week and haven't touched the movie.

Not to worry, next week I'll start it up again. I've decided to start over with the character rigging. I'm going to scrap what I've done so far and begin researching the process anew.

I'm doing this because if there's one thing I've learned from all the work I've done on the movie is that I can always do it better and more efficiently.

So, next week I'll start my research and I'll update you on how it's going.

See you then!