Xam Lip Sync and Major Character Update Revealed!

Hey guys,

So, I've been promising that a major character update will be revealed with the Xam lip sync test video and so this shall be the case.

And what is it? Well, let's have a look at the video first...



Alright, for those that have been frequenting the blog for the last many years, you may have picked up on the update.  For those still in the dark, the heroes will now be even more human-like as they will now be able to stand on two legs and use their front paws like hands.

This is a serious character update.  Up until now, the heroes have remained quadrupeds, but as I was working on the 3rd version of Max I decided to give them the ability to stand.  I think this will really help them seem special and help them stand out among the normal animals who never received super powers during the meteor shower. 

So, before the meteor shower they will still speak but they will only be able to talk to other animals. To humans, they will still bark or meow and walk on four legs.  After they get their powers, they will walk like humans and speak like humans. I'm not sure if they will lose their ability to speak to animals or not.  It seems like if something is gained then something should be lost but I'm still working that out and haven't completely decided.

And that is it for the moment. What's next?  I'm going to work on the Willow update and then move on to Gibson/Power Dog.

Of course, I will keep you updated.

Later!

Max Lip Sync Test!

Hey guys,

I did a quick Max lip sync test. Well, I say "quick", but it took a little over an hour and a half to render.

Still, it's finished and I think this is one of the best lip sync tests I've ever done.

***WARNING:  This has sound. No music, just a little movie quote, so adjust your speakers accordingly.***



And there you have it.  I think Max is officially done.

Now I'm off to create a Xam model and with his reveal I will show you a major character update.

I can't wait to show you.

Later!

Max 3 and Max 2 Comparison

Hey guys,

Alright, I'm finally done with the Max update!

Here is a quick look at Max 3 standing next to Max 2...

I hope it's obvious that Max 3 is the cat on the right. 

Max 3 isn't only a brighter orange, as you may be able to tell, he is completely rigged.  There is also a much bigger difference between Max 2 and Max 3 but I'm going to wait until I show you Xam 3 before exposing this major update.

Since Max is done it shouldn't take me too long to complete Xam. 

Hopefully, I'll see you soon!

Yep, I'm Gonna Do It!

Hey guys,

After much deliberation, I've decided I'm going to re-work all the other models.  After looking at the new Thomas/T-Boom models next to the others I decided Thomas looked just too different from everyone else.

So, I'm going to start with Max/Xam.  The animals are going to get a complete re-working. 

You'll see what I'm talking about after I post a pic of the new Max model sometime next week.

See you then!

Have Some Heavy Thinking To Do!

Hey guys,

Well, I started working on the Max model, rigging him up and getting him going when I decided I was running into to many problems with the model.

The truth of it is that I'm just not happy with the Max model any more.  There are too many things I want to change and I am seriously thinking about doing a Max 3.0.  This of course means I will have to do a Gibson and Willow 3.0 model and that is what is taking me so long to decide if I really want to do this or not.

See, this isn't like when I decided to update Thomas.  When I updated Thomas I worked on the existing model and made several updates.  Sure, the were major updates but I never left the existing model.  I just re-worked it. 

This time, I thinking about starting completely from scratch. 

So, I'll be kicking this idea around for the next couple of days. 

I'll let you know what I decide.

Later!

Thomas Animation Test!

Hey guys,

Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  What can I say?  The Thomas model through me for some loops.

So, what exactly was the problem.  Wow, where to start?  I don't want to go into too much detail, but his hair really gave me a lot of trouble. 

But, I have him all fixed up and ready to test. 

***WARNING: The video is a re-hashed version of the T-Boom animation test therefore it has some pretty loud music.  Make sure you're speakers are adjusted accordingly.***



And there you go. 

Now it's on to rig Xam.  Just so you know, this may take a while.  I hope it won't be too long.

Later!

Cloth Test!

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I ran into a little problem while trying to do an animation test for T-Boom.

Basically, after my last post, I wanted to add some cloth simulations to the model.  I didn't want to go too crazy and try to simulate cloth on every article of his clothing.  The t-shirt and shorts are close fitting enough I wasn't worried about how they moved as long as they moved with his body, but the hoodie, I felt, needed to sway when moving or when in the wind.

 Some of you may remember I ran into this problem when I was working on my movie short.  It was concerning Huffenagle's trench coat and I wanted it to simulate cloth.  I even did a quick test (seen somewhere in an earlier post) of him rotating at the waist and you can see his trench coat fan out.  So, I thought a hoodie wasn't going to be any trouble.

The difference between my movie short and this film is, as I have said countless times, that the characters for the short were as simple as I could get them and that the characters for this movie will be more complicated.  Well, that is what was giving me so much trouble.

See, the characters in the short did not have particle hair.  Their hair was part of their mesh and simply colored.  The characters for Xam and Power Dog have particle hair, or their hair is composed of individual vertex points (strands).  It turns out that the software I am using for my movies (which I absolutely love and I am not criticizing) has a problem setting up collisions between objects and particles.  Short story, when T-Boom's hoodie would bounce of his head his hair would show through his hoodie.

Finally, after days of searching for a solution I figured out a way to make it work.  I feel it's a bit of a cheat, I'm not going to even tell you what it is, but I got it working good enough for my little film.

So, here's the T-Boom cloth test.  I even tightened up his lip syncing which was something I wasn't happy about in the previous test.  Again, there is sound so make sure your speakers are adjusted accordingly...



And there it is.  Pretty cool I think.

Now, I was going to do a great big test of the character but I really don't see the point.  I've animated enough during my short and I really just want to get on to the next part, which is to update the Thomas model.

So, that is what I'm going to do. 

I hope to have a Thomas test for you shortly.

Later!

T-Boom Test!

Hey guys,

As promised, I am working on a test animation with the newly rigged and shaped keyed T-Boom model.

This isn't a very long test.  The detail in these characters are so much greater than what I did in my movie short.  Consequentially, this 8 second clip took an hour and a half to render!

!!!WARNING: THIS CLIP HAS LOUD MUSIC SO MIND YOUR SPEAKERS!!!

So here is the quick test.  This is only a test...



And there you have it.  The lip syncing isn't the best.  I will definitely need to work on that.  I've never lip synced to music before so there was bound to be a learning curve there. 

All in all, I'm very happy with this test.  I plan on working on this some more this next week.  I want to do a 30 second clip.

So, I'll keep you posted.

Later!

Comparison Between T-Boom 2 and T-Boom 3!

Hey guys,

I've been feeling bad about the lack of updates during March despite all the work I've been doing.  So, in I was thinking I'd put a quick post up showing in better detail the differences between T-Boom 2 and T-Boom 3.

As you can see, I've removed his sunglasses to give you a better look at his face. 

Where to start?  OK.  The only original mesh to survive the update is his shoes and his sunglasses (not shown in this picture of course).  Honestly, I don't think I could have done those any better than I did in the second update so I kept them.  So, he has a new body, new shorts, new shirt and new hoodie.  His face is the only real noticeable update.  His new face is softer, not quite as pointed and that was the whole point to this update when I started.  Despite him being the bad guy in the movie, I didn't want him looking so surprised or quiet as evil.  There is a reason for not wanting that but you'll have to see the movie to know it.  :)

I also made his head a little smaller.  I've always wanted the characters to have big heads but it occurred to me that Thomas/T-Boom's head was alwas a little too big.

You will also notice his clothes fit tighter.  Again, that was deliberate.  It's easier to animate characters that wear tighter clothes.  I might get away with not needing to bake the clothing.  Baking isn't a big deal, but it slows down the rendering process a little and since this is a long movie all the time rendering starts to add up.

I also changed the stripping on the hoodie.  The brown stripe now flows down from the hood, along the zipper region and across the bottom.  You really can't see the brown stripe along the zipper area so I lightened the brown color and you still couldn't really see in front of the his black shirt.  Still, this is the lightest I wanted to go with the stripe so I left it.  I'm sure you'll see the stripe in the move though.

And that's about it.  All in all, I like T-Boom's update.  I can't wait to see him in the movie.

Now, back to setting up his shape keys.

Later...

Back From Vacation!

Hey guys,

Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I took vacation last week and for once I honestly took a break from everything I've been working on and just decompressed.

Now I've been back for a couple of days and despite my lack of posts (March is going to look like I haven't been doing much but that is farthest from the truth) I've honestly been working hard on the movie this week.  

T-Boom has been taking up all of my time.  I started off by rigging him but that didn't go very well.  Unlike the rigs I used for my movie short, the rigs for this movie are very complex.  The complexity makes them difficult to work with.  Well, difficult for beginners I think. 

Anyway, after some research I discovered the reasons it wasn't working was because I still didn't have my model built properly.  I decided to do away with all clothing and start over again.  In the end, I ended up building all clothing separate from the main mesh and set up masks to hide the parts under the clothing (something I learned from Dr. Huffenagle and his trench coat in the movie short).

In the end, I now have tighter fitting clothes and a better hoodie, better from a construction point of view.

So, once again, here is the comparison with T-Boom mark II and T-Boom mark III...

Honestly, based on the render, the only way you could probably tell I re-worked him from a couple of weeks ago (see pic in post below) is that the pattern on his shorts is different and, as I mentioned before, his clothes fit tighter. 

But, that is not all.  I also have him completely rigged!  That's right, I can move him in any and all directions now.  All I have left to do is set up the shape keys for his facial expressions and speech. I hope to have that done in the next couple of days. After I get all that done I think I'll do a quick animation with the new T-Boom model.  Give him a test run and see how he works.  That probably won't be done until later next week.

So, if you don't hear from me for the next week or so don't worry.  I'm working very hard on the movie.

Later!