Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Rags Texture



Street Lamp Model / Lighting Experiment


Props Update

A fire hydrant.

1930s Car Progress

Car Number One:


Here is a work in progress.  At this point, the only thing left to be modeled is the grill.  Originally, I was going to leave it as is, but the grill of the car will be an important detail in the plot, so it will need to be more detailed in the model.  Kevin will be continuing the final work on this model

Reference Images:



Rather than trying to follow these reference images exactly, I'm just taking inspiration from them and making my own more cartoony design.  The cars pictured are from the 1930s.

I plan on making another version of this car as well, just to ensure that the environment looks less uniform or copy and pasted together.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Generic Crowd Character Models

Long title...
So first came the generic feel of the characters models. Sketches. The idea of the characters is that they were designed to be textured in multiple fashions as to create the illusion that they are many different people, while in truth they are all two models, a male and a female.







When working with the woman model it came to my attention that a shawl and a scarf would look odd together. After searching diligently for something a woman can wear on her neck that isn't a necklace or a scarf I decided to work with both ideas, replacing a sweater for the shawl on the right model.




In the end we have decided to not use the shawl model, unanimously favoring the scarfed model.

Character Rigs

I have done three rigs for three of the characters. The other characters will be completed soon.

I rigged these characters using the same method I have learned since Animation 2. I first selected the character and switch the model to view only the lines that make it up. I then selected vertices at distinct locations and placed a cluster at each. These cluster are the way-points for which I placed the skeletal joints. By hiding the model and then pressing down "V" I am able to place the joints exactly at the place I had the clusters. I then added the constraint handles (the circles around the character) that allow users to move the character. Depending on where the handles were placed, I used either a Point, Orient, or Parent constraint.
  • Point constraints are used with joints moving with the move control.
  • Orient constraints are used with joints moving with the rotate control.
  • Parent constraints are used with joints moving with both the move and rotate controls.
The next step is to bind the skin to the body. Finally, I had to weight the skin to the skeleton so that certain points on the body won't move when they are not suppose to.

Lil Girl:

Lady Red:

Squirrel Side:

Squirrel Front:

Monday, October 3, 2011

Project Proposal

The ultimate goal of 'team rags' is to create a portfolio piece worthy short animation. The animation will last sometime between 2-3 minutes and is planned to include music and sound.
Rough Schedule:
10/3: all characters rigged and textures ready
10/10: all characters painted and textured, and setting completed
10/17: X
10/24: short animated up to the second petals descent
10/31: lighting finished and set completed (including textured)
11/7: short animated up to falling into the fountain
11/14: short fully animated and camera's in place
11/21-12/6: rendering
Following this schedule we, team rags, plan to have our portfolio short ready and finished. The music will be composed parallel to our schedule by members of the music department. Further details on their evolvement will be posted on the blog as they transgress.