Bull in a China Shop

So, it's the weekend, and I've got a lot of stuff going on. I'm really close to finishing Mechanics Vs. Aliens, and I'm also working on a 3d Animation for my internship. The company I'm working for is Bullhorn Creative, and the animation that I am working on for them has to do with a bull in a china shop. Here's the animatic that I used to pitch the idea to them:

Short and sweet. So anyways, today I've been working on the lighting and materials for this animation. Check it out:

Frustrated with Indirect Lighting result

Aha! I had to subdivide my walls

Added my own seamless texture

Adding a displacement map... Whoa nelly!!

Set the displacement amount to a sane level, also changed the floor and ceiling to white.

So, the set for my animation is coming along nicely, and it's going to be an awesome portfolio piece when the whole thing is finished. And fact that I am doing this work for a real-world branding firm will strengthen my portfolio even more.

Now that I've worked on that, I'm going to try and finish MVA this weekend.

So close man....

So I've been hacking away at getting the last scene of Mechanics Vs. Aliens edited whenever I have the chance. Other than that I've been doing stuff for my internship (including making a 3D animation). I really wish I could finish MVA tonight, but I have to get up early to get to a video shoot that will last all day tomorrow. So, like I said, I'm just hacking away whenever I get the chance. I'm really, really, close, though.

Super excited

So, I'm super excited. And I have the right to be. I just spent the last 5 hours filming the final battle in Mechanics Vs. Aliens. I just need to edit it together and probably get a few more shots to help tie everything together. Take a look at how the editing panned out:

There's about 50 nested sequences in there, by the way, so it's even more complicated than what you see there. Also, notice the runtime? Like it? ;)

So yeah. It's happening soon. After 4 years, Mechanics Vs. Aliens is finally coming to an end.

Crazy June

I've had a pretty crazy month. I started working at Bullhorn on the 1st, and I haven't gotten around to posting until now. I have been working on RCT3 stuff, though. I am working on both The Battle for Axis Mundi and MVA Episode 6. The reason for this is that I do not want to finish Axis Mundi and then still feel really burdened by MVA Episode 6. I just want to be done with RCT3 Machinima, so I'm looking to get all of it off of my chest at once. It's not that it hasn't been a fantastic adventure making movies in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, but it is really not helpful to my professional career to be stuck making films using such limited technology.

Unfortunately I completely whiffed on making a post when I released A FREAKING TRAILER FOR AXIS MUNDI! You'd think that I would have taken the time to do a blog post for such a momentous occasion, BUT NOOOO........ Anyways, if you haven't seen it, CHECK IT OUT:

Right now I am also making an animation for Bullhorn. So keep an eye out for that, as it will probably be pretty sweet. Also, I have been having a really great time at Bullhorn. I am very grateful to be getting so much experience in an actual creative workplace. I don't have to be at work every day, but I almost always go in anyways. Because of this, there is sometimes a little down time where I don't have anything to do for Bullhorn. However, they encourage me to be creative and come up with wacky-awesome-off-the-wall stuff for their Facebook page. For example, here's a picture that I made the other day. In it you can see the glass intern table where I work most of the time, and also get an idea of the sort of creative stuff I get to do.

And yes, that's me in the picture. And me. And me. And that one's me too. Oop. There I am again.

So far this month

So I got back from school last weekend. It was an incredible year, and I can't believe it is gone already. A couple points of good news.

First: I got the internship at the marketing firm! Huzzah! So, I will be paid, and get to work alongside professional creatives all summer long! Well, all summer starting in June. Pretty awesome.

Second: I've been hacking away at Axis Mundi pretty much every day since I got back. I've been doing camera animation in RCT3 and editing in Premiere. Today I've also been creating new animation in Blender to import into RCT3 so I can film and edit more.

I think the RCT3 camera shots are really cool, and the Flying Camera paths for them look absolutely crazy. Screenshots for ya:

Cameras. Cameras everywhere.

Keyframe ALL OF THE CAMERAS!

And here's an interesting look into the animation process in Blender. Gotta love them curves.

Bezier curves, to use the proper jargon.

So yeah. I really hope I can steam ahead without losing momentum and knock this thing out. Compared to a few weeks ago I've got all the time in the world, so I ought to be able to do it.