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HEPHAESTUS // short film ~ Fund Raising

October 21, 2011 0 comments

Hephaestus is a short film directed by Alexander Curtis. The short follows the story of Hephaestus, an aging robotic soldier who finds new purpose in the care and protection of a young girl, Kaylee. But when the duo find themselves trapped in a war-zone, Heph must venture on to the battlefield once more.

Currently the short is running a campaign to raise some funding for the volunteer project for resources such as music, software and food!

Being a part of the rigging team I assisted on creating Kaylee, the lead character’s hair and goggles setup as a volunteer support! Please feel free to support the movie and the talented artist by making a small donation 🙂

Facial Animation Basics

October 19, 2011 0 comments

A step by step tips on creating fast and quality facial animation by DJ Nicke! These tips and techniques are really good resource for not just animators but also riggers to create quality, interactive animation friendly facial rigs that delivers what the animators are looking for! More tips on animation…

Tracker system by Igor Stefanovic

October 17, 2011 0 comments

Technical study of a realistic hand. The setup is based on tracker system by Igor Stefanovic currently working as a Character TD at DreamWorks Animation. Below you can check out the demo on implementation of the tracker tool on a full body setup.

This setup seems to be different from the traditional corrective shape, pose-space deformation or muscle based deformation. It seems like the setup is a bit like an intelligent set driven key (kind of) or some history dependent math connection applied on individual joints or controller binded to individual mesh component for smooth fleshy and realistic articulation. This is simply a really big milestone on rigging tools for realistic deformation. A good share by Igor, awesome job and deserves two thumbs up!

Beyond Black Mesa

October 17, 2011 0 comments

A short Independent fan film Inspired by the Half-Life Video Game series directed by Brian Curtin. Simply Superb but again Acting could have been a little better!

I have always been a big fan of the Half-Life games, played every chapter, prequel and sequel! Watching this movie makes me feel like being a part of the game, short of flashback of the atmosphere, the look, the sound and the stuffs like the little health pack and so and so 🙂

More info and Behind the Scenes!

Squash and Stretch (Part 1)

October 13, 2011 0 comments

Useful post on Squash and Stretch by Mark Kennedy.

“One of the first concepts you hear about when you’re studying animation is “squash and stretch”, which is the idea that living forms (and certain types of inanimate objects) have a certain amount of flexibility and that they change shape as they move around under their own power, react to external forces or change expression.”