Like an electric eel

So... I guess we saw how it went over the past few weeks. Not very many posts, I have to admit. That does not mean I have not been working at all, however. I have animated 94 frames of both characters in The Battle for Axis Mundi since my last post on the 11th. Slow progress, unfortunately. I don't have much homework this weekend, though, so I'm hoping to use it for Axis Mundi. I was able to work on it today, so the weekend is off to a good start.

Oh, and sorry if the title shocked you....

Like an electric eel.

Finished the Demo Reel

Hhhhmmm.... I think that I MIGHT be getting just a little bit tired. I stayed up all last night working on my demo reel. Still haven't gotten any rest, though, because I sent the reel in an e-mail to an marketing firm where I would like to intern this summer. Then they replied back (with positive comments about my lighting, I might add!) and so then I replied back again, and... ugh. It's been a long day. Anyways, enough chit chat! Check out my first ever demo reel:

So yeah. Cool ain't it? Yes, I broke down and used someone else's music. It just wasn't worth making my own for this. I think it is funny how both of my December renders are in the front of the reel. You are supposed to put your best work first, and I just felt like the December renders are the most eye catching. I left out animations from The Battle for Axis Mundi, because I don't want to release footage from that until I release the entire film. Hopefully I'll really make progress on that front soon.

Rendering

Today I have been rendering the 360 degree turnaround animation that I mentioned yesterday. I had to go to the dentist, and do some other stuff too, so it worked out pretty well. But it still isn't done. It looks like it will be done early tomorrow morning, like at 4:00am or so. So I'll continue working on stuff tomorrow when it's done, and my processor isn't being maxed out.

Demo Reel

So, I've been fairly productive today, but it has not been animating Axis Mundi. I've decided that I'm going to need a demo reel of the best video work I can muster. I need a demo reel for two reasons. One is because I am going to try to get a digital media job for the summer. The other reason is a similar opportunity. Technically it conflicts with the aforementioned job that I'm looking to do. It's an animation internship at a company where I might want to work someday. It could be a bit of a long-shot, but I'm still going to apply and so I'll need a demo reel for that. So that's what I've been doing today. Getting together some of my past creations and putting some extra shine on them to stick them in my demo reel. Mainly I've been working on getting a pristine 360 degree rendered animation of the Pagani Zonda model that I made... more than a year ago? Hard to believe that it has been that long. Anyways, yeah. That's what I've been doing.

The Corresponding Frames

So today I unfortunately only ended up animating the corresponding 77 frames of animation for the other character. I was hoping to do more. Tomorrow I hope that I will use my time more wisely. I decided that I was simply not going to go to bed tonight until I at least did those frames, and so I stayed up late to finish them. It's not that they took that long to do, it's just that I had not worked all day and it was already late, and so I just stayed up for a little while and made an even later night out of it so that I would not have gone the whole day without animating a single frame. This is how we roll in March Madness. We don't stop till we get the job done!

March Madness 2012

It's March again. I think this has been one of the fastest years in living memory. Of course, my memory of past years becomes more and more vague all the time, so I probably said the exact same thing last year. But anyways, since it is March again, it's time to make a bunch of posts and a bunch of progress. Today I am doing just that! I'm glad to say that I was able to work on animating The Battle for Axis Mundi today, and I got 77 frames of animation done, for one character. Still have to animate the other character during those 77 frames.

Also today I remembered how many hoops I have had to jump through to finagle this workflow to the point where it is possible. By that I mean that there are a lot of extra steps to go through in order to animate characters and render them in RCT3. It's making me look forward to being able to do a project where I use tools that were designed to do what I will use them do. So, happy March Madness, and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow!

What's new?

So, January was a horribly slow month. What's new? That's what it is like every single year. I have worked some this February, though. A few frames here, a few frames there. I guess it is coming along.

Don't you like them super-short posts?

It's goin'

When people ask me how it's going, I like to reply with: It's goin'

Just thought I'd throw that out there. When I come up with an equally witty response to the query: "What's up," then I will let you know.

In Axis Mundi news, It's time for an update on the total length. The film so far is 5 minutes and 20 seconds long. A nice update to go along with this is that every scene in that 5:20 mins has music to go along with it. Music that I actually like and I think fits it pretty well. A couple days ago I had a really nice spurt of musical inspiration, and got that done.

So like I said, the film is 5:20 right now. At this very frame, serious stuff is going down. Blows are being thrown, and blocked, and parried. Awesome stuff like that. The RCT3 engine is taking it all in it's stride. I have not had any problems with the animation functionality of the game. Since the film is building up to it's zenith, soon the final length of the will be determined. I'm going to try and make the craziest, most awesome action scene that I can, until my creative strength gives out and I have to say enough is enough. When that happens I'll wrap the film up.

Oh, and I recently showed what I have so far to another Digital Media professor here at my college. He's a pretty frank guy. I've seen him critique a lot of other people's work, and he doesn't hesitate to tell you if he doesn't like something. He was silent as he skipped through my video. (If he watches an entire 5 minute film, then it's either a huge compliment, or he's just being uncharacteristically patient) and right after it ended he said: "So, I take it you like Dragonball Z." He was right. I do like Dragonball Z. He also told me that the animation was good and smooth, which made me very happy. So yeah. Being a Digital Media student and having access to professionals who can give you critiques is amazing.

First post of 2012

I made some pretty good progress on Axis Mundi today. A little animation, a little filming, and a little compositing. I realize that this is a pretty tame start of the month (even though the month is pretty much halfway over already), but as always, I'd like to remember that a productive streak could be just around the corner.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Filming by the book

Today I have been animating and filming according to my animatic. Here's me comparing my shot in RCT3 to my animatic, in order to make adjustments:

So yeah, that pretty much explains what I've been doing and will be doing until I get to the end of my animatic. Then I'll just make it up from my head as I animate and film.

In other news, I've received grades for the art and digital media assignments that I posted earlier. The art project (The December Render) got a 97.5%, and the animatic got a 113%. Although, I didn't really get credit for the extra 13%, because that's not the way that the school's grading system works. The professor just happened to have a grading scheme that can go over 100%, because extra credit is built into it. Obviously I didn't really need extra credit, though.

A scene from The Battle for Axis Mundi

So... I decided that I would upload something kind of out of the ordinary for me. It is a preview of a scene from The Battle for Axis Mundi. I don't generally like to upload "previews" of my stuff before it is done, but I felt like I should make an exception in this case. Firstly, because this preview is not using footage from the actual film. Secondly, because it has been so darn long since I started this thing, I feel like people should get to see some indication of what is in the works. The animatic takes place about 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the film. That's how long it is right now. So basically over the next few weeks I will be working on making the very scene that you see in this video. But in RCT3 with fully animated 3D characters. So go ahead and take a look at what I am talking about, and then I'll give you some more tidbits:

So yeah. Kinda basic, but you get the idea of stuff happening. You also may recognize my slightly Derpy drawings as the Warrior of Light. You also may see a creepy spiky dude that you have never seen or heard of before. I guess I am kind of revealing him here. Oh well. I don't think that it matters that much that it stay a secret. Since I have shown you a 3D model of the Warrior of Light, I might as well show you a picture of what this bad guy, who's name happens to be "Evil," looks like in the game:

Now you are officially kinda-half spoiled. But not really. Because the point of this film is the animation. And I haven't made anything close to these animations before. So hopefully you don't feel too spoiled. Given that this is the biggest update for Axis Mundi so far, I kind of feel a little let down. I was expecting to be like OOHHHH YEAAAHHHH CHECK IT OUT ITS AN ACTUAL VIDEO ABOUT THE BATTLE FOR AXIS MUNDI WOOP WOOP!!!1!!1!!

Maybe I'll feel a little more excited once you guys start talking about it. Wink wink nudge nudge.