Silhouette Animation

The challenge of this animation was to use a prop, and to do everything in silhouette.  It was a very clever way for us to learn to animate to the camera.

I decided to use a character as a prop, as well as another prop, becuase I knew someone would have to have experience with this to animate a scene in the upcoming Flower Story film.  This animation helped us solve a couple rig problems, and gave me a bit of insight into how to get it done.  Also, it ends with a double Simba, because we all like Disney that much.

Flint Environment Walk

This was a test of our Flower Story character rig for Flint, the larger of the two.  The challenge was a walk through an environment with a jump (and motivation to jump).  In hindsight now, there are several problems here or there, but it was a nice test.

Also, this project has taught me to appreciate FK a lot more.

Flower Story - Chip Character Design

Here is the redesign for our little character.  Exactly what we predicted, the two characters didn't work out due to the method we were using; the characters didn't resonate with each other, and neither of them really worked in the environment we had picked.  (This is what happens when you blue-sky the environment while also developing characters.)  As a group, we decided to completely scrap what we had done, and completely remodel the characters.

We formed a character design group to discuss what we liked and disliked about everyone's characters, and then split up to work on the redesigns.  I worked on our little guy with Ashley DeMattos, and this is what we ended up with.  A lot of elements were taken from my original designs (which the group had picked as a potential design) and we smoothed out a bit here and there.

What we were going for was a little more cliché.  We wanted something that the audience would immediately accept, so they can start sympathizing with the character.  I based the little guy off of an animal.  He's got a cute and expressive face, but his brows and nose should still read as a sort of carved statue (mixing in the hard edges with the organic shape.)  We decided to keep the hood, since it really resonated with the guardian-guarded feel of the big guy to little guy.  I described the dynamic as a medieval knight and a medieval archer.  One is slow, strong, and moves with intent, and the other is quick, perceptive, and energetic.

Flower Story Maquette - Finished

Here's the finished painted maquette.  I added foam core to the base so the armature wire isn't a problem.  My matte spray actually ended up making it a bit shinier and the outside tacky-feeling.  I don't care for that, but I don't want to sand it and repaint it again, lest I lose details.  I'm really happy with this final version, and we'll see if any of this gets into the movie.  The next step is for me to model them.

Secretly, their designs glow in the dark/night.  That is one of the main story points, so I snuck it into my model after the paint job.

Flower Story Maquette - WIP

Here is the near-completion version of my character maquettes.  I really tried to show some personality in this shot, between the characters' relationships together, and the dichotomy of the characters' personalities.  My groupmates seemed to like the dynamic, and we might end up adding this pose into the movie.

Flower Story - My Character Designs

Here are the final designs I made for the Flower Story characters.  Both of them have a lot of background motifs in them.  I will be sculpting them both in my maquette, since I think they really need play off of each other; the maquette needs to show personality as well as visual design.  However, I get a feeling that we are going to have to remodel them later, due to the convoluted process that we're using at school.

Flower Story - Character Brainstorming

Here are some of the initial character sketches I made for Flower Story.  This was the brainstorm period, where I was drawing inspiration from wherever I could find it.

ZBrush Practice

Been working with ZBrush digital sculpting. This is one of my early successful sculpts. Guess which famous hip-hop artist this is!

Sansa e200 rendering

Rendering of a Sansa e280 media player.  Modeled, textured, and lit from scratch.

Effects in Kazu Kibuishi Style

The assignment was to choose another artist and draw, paint, or render an original image in their style. I chose Kazu Kibuishi, a comic artist, particularly the style of his Copper stories.  I used several elements from his various works, and created the image digitally.

The second step involved adding in effects using Maya and a compositing program.  I used Maya to generate the spore particle's random movements, and I used Autodesk Composite to add in the spores, the balloon's movement, and distortion on the smoke.  Both are shown below.