Aksakof - Collaboration between N Santos and Paul Rigby.
:)



You have to give credit where credit is due.

Ok not the end of the project but I mean closer to defining the visual style of the piece, cant say much, busy doing work...but here have some piccies, aksakof is coming toghether now.







Bump mapping and uvmapping shud be done by the end of this week as well as the rest of the environment, I am starting to rig tonight and then comes animating and rendering, fingers crossed peeps




thats about it.



c ya!



PS: Malcolm didnt hate my work!!!!!!! .... also I havent slept in like.....3 days now.

...3 centuries later this kid decided to break them.














And this is what his home looks like

concept



final idea




And this is Aksakof in his environment





This is very close to the final design, the only changes would be textures and lighting, other than that I think I have hit upon the visual style I was aiming for.

Still not satisfied with the lighting in the last shot, but I am sooooo gonna get there, next step....RIGGING!!!

Crunch time has begun,
I know its a bit silly to say that when its only the start of the month, but i am currently treating every night like an all nighter, like the next day that comes brings about a deadline, best way to work i am sure you will all agree. i wish i could show you things that will leave you amazed and in awe, specially since i am now in the university with all their computers that have all their technologies and their microchips and whathaveya....BUT NO!!!!
You want to know why?! Cos in a sad twist of faith my home computer is currently better equipped for my project than these POS's. 3d studio max works in mine aswell as mental ray in maya... does the pc I am currently on in uni have these abilities...NO!
To be fair it seems to be simply an issue with my account, nothing more, since i logged into other peoples accounts and when they start maya mental ray is available, so I am sure it can be sorted out, still its annoying, and i was hoping to stay till as late as i could doing work here in the labs, so i could hopefully have something to show thats pretty and nice. Due to the lack of that, you will only see my current sub standard work and lighting tests, enjoy... I guess.









this is a lighting test I did on maya, the previous renders have been done in 3d studio max, even though its still rendered using mental ray I wanted to get a feel for what its like using maya as the final rendering program, I am toying with using a sunset, hence the difference in the lighting.



BLOOM!!!!!!!!!!

Cos if its good enough for Bay then its good enough for me. :D

Hi, I havent used livejournal in a while so I hope its ok if I just post like this with almost like, no introduction, I am doing an Honors project for university...I wont bore you too much with the details, but suffice to say the end result should be a nice 2 min 30 second animation (approx) in 3d.
I would like my animation to be appealing to as many people as possible so with that in mind I am hoping to find people who can offer me any feedback they can.
A quick word on why I am making it and what I am trying to achieve, something fun, entertaining, short and easy for anyone to understand, I want to give the same funnies that you would get when you watch a good Tom and Jerry or Bugs Bunny Cartoon, thats what I had in mind when I made this first test animatic (visual style is still to be determined but you can see some test renders at my LJ)
So with that in mind I leave you with the animatic for "Little Aksakof" ...by the way he can use telekinesis....ENJOY!






PS: Be kind (lulz)

Hey everyone,
Back in London for the holidays, havent updated in a while, so if you look back here for updates on my Hons project (lulz as if any1 does :P) I know it has been pretty thin on the ground and for that I am sorry.
Things on the "Little Aksakof" design and animation have stalled for a while, but I will get cracking once I get back to Dundee, things at home are....liveable, and thats about it.
I sincerely hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, especially if you are in computer arts year 4.
Anyways, this is my way of wishing people a Merry Christmas, take care and enjoy what the future brings my friends...cos it only gets harder from here it seems :P (computer arts, 4th year, second semester...I am allowed to be cynical just now).


Nick


PS: Did i spell "Cynical" right?

The work was handed in, I kicked ass, proposal has been made, i doubt that it will be A standard, but its certainly not bad, and with 2 hours to spare i fucked about and made another 3d image from scratch, just for fun i decided to do it in hi def beauty, so i wont put it on just yet, but it looks pretty and anti aliased.

Peace



PS: ROCK LOBSTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I have had two comments (both of which have not been put as responses to posts...but I will get to that later) that I wish to respond to
First thing's first

THESE ARE NOT MEANT TO BE BOOBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Second of all, if you have other similar comments that might help me correct oversights such as boob growing trees please tell me by typing your thoughts on a nice comment, I read all comments and welcome any feedback, so please let me know. I will look at any and every piece of feedback I receive, It is truly appreciated.

Thats all for now


PS: again I would like to stress further.....THEY ARE NOT BOOBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a wuss, I will admit that, I get scared very easily at the slightest thing.
My ego gets easily bruised. Why am I bringing this up? Because its crunch time, and for the first time in university I really want to do well, the best way to do that is to be open to criticism, heck thats the reason I am openning up my heart in this Blog (even tho very few people will perhaps see it) to get people's opinions.
Recently I have been chasing up tutors, making sure I get all my sh*t together before the big deadlines, I dont know if I am good at writing essays, proposals and the like...actually I doubt I am...I am not actually good at all... anyways point is this chasing around has really made me take notice of the amount of work that this project will really require.
I got good feedback, Some very good, some average....nothing too bad, still...bruised egos and artists go hand in hand (I know its pretentious calling myself an artist) But at least I know what I am supposed to do now and have a clearer idea just how (incredibly) hard its going to be.
Not discouraged though after all, I am not making a "Rock Lobster" for Hons Project so thats gotta give me some credibility (that one is for you Paul!)

So on the subject of criticism I give you this my first animatic, allow me to say, its terrible, I have problems with pacing, and synchronization, and the fact that in my head I failed to really take into account just how time, music and actions all have to gel together in this wee animation, I hope u find some coherency. At least I take solace in the fact that its a work in progress, its my first draft, better things will come,...I promise.

At least let me set the scene for you....little farmer...name is Aksakof...in a farm....bored as hell...bee annoys him...little farmer tries to annoy the bee back.

Enjoy!!!!!



PS: The little farmer can use Telekenesis!

I have spent close to an hour speaking to Brian, Lovely gentleman, who despite my shortcomings and lack of ability at keeping deadlines still finds time to help me and further guide me so i dont mess up my Honors project.
I could bore you with the many details of how I can make my work better, I wont though because something has happenned that has chilled me to the very depth of my soul.
I had a plan to do this project in Max and Maya (Max models, Maya animates) The reason I decided to use Maya was because, I was informed that we had a render farm set up for maya......we dont.
So I have already wasted my time learning how to use a program that will not save me as much time as i thought, The time its taking me to learn Maya would have been a benefit had there been a render farm to save time in the rendering priocess.
Lovely things like global illumination might fly out the window, I am scared now....very very scared, should have made a 2d animation.
here is some pictures and dont fall in love with these, these are definitely subject to change.








And finally...Bumble Ward.....untextured:





PS: Has anyone else realized yet why Gordon Ramsay is the coolest man in the planet?!....if so tell me

Does anyone know what cinematic (or is it cinematographic?) conventions are? me neither, however my project relies on the fact that I can identify and replicate such crazy things, and why? because during a pitch I presented a test Render that I did with a Depth of Field effect. I wont lie, I did it to be flashy, now its part of the project.
Anyways enough whining, here are some initial test renders for my environment, nothing flashy, just really simple stuff rendered in Mental Ray.
Making these brought up a whole set of new problems with character interaction, I will go into that another time, suffice to say that what you are seeing is definitely going to change for the final piece. enjoy:















And Here is the killer one.... 



THARS DEPZ O' FEELD LULZ!!!!!!!!!!!!! EXTREME!!!!!!!!!

Also just was reminded that coursework hand in is on the 7th of Dec...guess how I feel?

PS: Do you realize that once bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again?

 

Hi,
First post, just now uploaded my first user pic, the bumble bee for my animation, just a small concept sketch but I guess its something.
So far I think only Kirsty will be reading this (Hi Kirsty) but hopefully more people will come soon and hopefully I will get a lot of valuable input on what I am working on.
I appreciate any comments you might have, good or bad, please don't be afraid to comment on this LJ regarding the Honors Project, If you like it please tell me and even if you don't like it please feel free to tell me.
I remember a tutorial I was researching into the art and design of creating an anatomically correct human model in Maya, one of the things that stuck with me is when he said you should show your work to as many people as possible, even if someone is not an artist, its important to pick out any flaws in your work and for that you need people's honest opinion, people who are honest enough to tell you if something is not right, they might not be able to tell you how to fix it, but at least it will make sure that you are on top of any inconsistencies in your work.
Any ways, thats too long for a short post, thank you for reading this (If you bothered).



Nick


PS:I looked at that Maya Tutorial 1 year ago....I should probably finish it at some point.