Hi There!
Here are some more images from the arctic environment. For the fog I used a large direct light with volume effect and a noise projection map. For the sea I used a blend material of foam and ocean lume, using an ambient occlusion map with a low sample rate, high spread and a blur as the mask so that objects in the sea would have foam around them, I think it really adds to the cold feel of the environment. Please feel free to comment.

Edit: The finished flythrough. The idea with this is that the camera would hold on each vehicle before flying to the next one, hence it slows down and accelerates between each them.

Here are some more stills from the Royal Navy Project I'm working on. Below are:

the Viking with boats in the background


An LCVP landing craft



A "Rigid Raider" Speedboat

HMS Bulwark being refuelled by RFA Largs Bay


I'm now working on a snowy environment and camouflage colours for the Viking. When I get chance I'll post some more cameos of these models, renders of models which I did not create, and go into more detail about the render settings I've used, and some of the techniques I've used to get the effects for the different environments. But for now, Adios!

Hey hey hey!
Been a while eh? Well I am busy and will be posting some animation just as soon as I get chance. I have a piece which is nearly there, but this week I have been getting into textures.
I'm currently doing a job which has afforded me the chance to make some realistic environments and build some militery vehicles, so I will post them as I render them. Above is a BVS 10 troop support vehicle modelled from scratch (apart from the gun which was modified) in about 2 days. The model was done in max and uses a series of nested blend materials, sub object materials, grunge maps and ambient occlusion to dirty up the surface. The environment is lit with a photometric daylight system. The project calls for lots of vehicles but due to time constraints we have had to buy some readymade, but I have had chance to make a ship too, and maybe a few more things before the job is done, but I'm happy I've had the cahnce to work on this. It makes a change from the usual shiny looking surfaces I have been doing for the past few months. The scene is rendered with Mental Ray with Final Gather but no global illumination although I have used a logarithmic exposure control to attenuate the brightness. As always let me know what you think and I'll post more renders and the final animation as soon as its completed.

Hi! I'm trying to find time to finish this animation at the moment, but in the meantime I thought I'd put it up for comment. I'm having a problem with video playback on my computer at the moment so getting the timing is quite difficult. But I'm happy with the keys and just need to finess the overshoots and add the lip synching.

As always, let me know what you think!

Hi Guys, Still no animations, but it has been a lean week at work, so inspired by looking at others' blog I decided to have a go sketching straight into photoshop. I've been reading a lot of Mighty Thor lately so I wanted to do this flying character. It was good to be able to move it round and distort it directly before going into the details. I did this with just a mouse, as my stylus is at home, so the lines are a little wobbly but I'm happy for a first attempt. Definitely going to do more of this in the future. Let me know what you think!
Laters

Hi everyone,
Lately I have been a bit busy to animate, although I have 3 pieces that are WIP at the moment and I may post them for comment soon. I have started using soundbites from www.11seconclub.com for inspiration although since I work full time, finishing a piece to actually enter seems a long way off at the minute, but anyway, it creates a good starting point, and it is also useful to see others' interpretations of the same piece. For now however, here are some models I had to make recently for work. Usually the modelling I get to do is very simple and dull, so it was fun to get to do some individual pieces for this project. Let me know what you think.
Be back soon!

Hey back again! This is a little animation I did initially as a long shot, but then I played around with the camera for the second render. I'm thinking the longshot works a lot better as the timing feels right which I guess shows how getting the camera right before animating is really important. I feel the second render needs more time,even though its the same move, so that the viewer can understand whats happening, as the emphasis is placed on so many individual elements and not on the action as a whole. This is a classic case of understanding by doing for me and really helps, because sometimes you need to question what you are told as a given rule.

Your Thoughts?

laters!

Hello y'all. Earning a living is keeping me kinda busy at the moment, but I have been doing this and that so I'm uploading some life studies, a sketch I did in town a while ago and a storyboard for a quick animation I want to do. I have actually made the character and modelled some of the set, but the rigging isn't so good so there are a few issues to iron out before I get started, though I may have a look around for a ready made rig that might suit. Anyway your comments and suggestions, as always, are welcome.

storyboard for a sorcerers apprentice style short

train sketches

hand studies

Chinatown - Chinese New Year.

laters!

Hello!!

I have been working recently for a company called M who produce trade exhibition stands for clients. A lot of the work has been re hashing old models but last week I started my first project from scratch and I thought I'd post this graphic which is of a spooky operating theatre for a new computer game, which I am quite happy with. The space is quite small so the camera FOV is wide to make up for it. The work was done in 3ds Max using mental ray and architectural materials, and the blood textures came from http://www.cgtextures.com/ which has been an amazing find for me, you can download 15 mb of jpgs a day from there, which is pretty fantastic. The scene was rendered with final gather for those impressive shadows and reflections and took6 hours to finish! Anyway let me know what you think.

laters

Here are some of my latest sketches. The first is a tattoo design for a friend based on a drawing she saw in a magazine, the second is of a friend who came round and got sketched whether he liked it or not, and the third is the train I take home from town. I sketched it then cleaned up using a blue pitt brush pen which is nice because you can vary the width of the stroke. Here I used it to define the depth in the image. I think the technique worked well and I can't wait to use it again, possibly with a more complicated subject (though having said that, the train environment has some great shapes and lines in it). Thats all for now,
Toodle Pip!

Finally got a scanner sorted out. Freecycle.org. Fantastic! So here are some 10 second sketches I did, some cleanups I did from the sketches, and some life drawing I did of our Ruth watching the telly. I really wanna get out and draw, but its so cold at the minute! I will though. I have a few places in mind to draw. anyway, enjoy.

This is a new storyboard I have worked up with two new characters which I am busy rigging in 3D Studio Max. Its basically just a bit of slapstick. I'll post the character rigs when they're done.

laters.

This is the finished acting piece. The clip is Jack Nicholson from As Good As It Gets. Loads of good qoutes in this movie. Let me know what you think.

Hi There,
I'm still working on my latest piece of animation because I have had a commercial project to do. The job was working alongside Tim Frost at BullnGate on a project called Hotel Hasbro. I worked on the opening and end shots, creating the 3d environment for Tims 2d artwork to sit in. There was an awful lot to do in the space of 6 days and getting the render time down was difficult. In doing so I managed to network my 2 laptops into a render farm, and managed to get the look I wanted by substituting processor heavy area shadows for a raytraced light coupled with the environmental light tracer. Simpler shadows solutions were impossible because of the 2d artwork being mapped onto planes instead of being actual geometry, meaning advanced lighting techniques were required to deal with the shadows. I'm happy with the result. There were a few animation challenges for me too, in the ribbon, which was animated by hand, and the tonka toy, which tim delivered to me in pieces, as well as all the environment popping up into place as the box unfolds. Working with Tim was a great experience, he had a strong directorial vision and was very approachable in terms of solving problems that arose and being able to describe to me exactly what he wanted. You can see an edited version of the opening shot here.

Thanks for your thoughts people, I have taken them on board in this next stage. It really helps to see what people think as you go through the different stages.In this vid I have added the inbetween keys. Next I will lip synch the face, before going on the tweak and offset the body for smoother action.

ACTING ANIMATION using the ED rig.

Hi There!

I thought I would document the entire process of making this animation, so here in the background you can see the keyframes I drew and timed to the soundclip, and in the foreground the ED rig moving from pose to pose. Next I'm adding the inbetween poses.

Hi There!

I just thought I'd post a piece of work I did. Its my first freelance job, and was done at Picasso Pictures. I did two days modelling, texturing and lighting on a pitch for a samsung commercial with directorial team FAQ. It was a bit of a challenge modelling all the components and getting the lighting right in the short space of time I had but I enjoyed working there and hopefully this could lead to more work in the future.

I wanted to try this exercise. Its my first attempt at a character lifting weight in 3D. Let me know what you think! The model is the Alfred rig and was animated in Maya 6.5.

This is my first walk cycle in Max. The Character was created by a friend of mine, and rigged by me.