“The Music Scene” from Anthony Francisco Schepperd on Vimeo.
Thanks to Rachit for this killer link!
Categoryart & animation
“Playing”? Did I really just say “PLAYING”? It must have been due to the time I had off today. Working on legal stuff (wee), therefore I was away from the PC for most of the day. After completing my errands, I sat down at my desktop machine, booted up Linux and started playing around with 3D Coat. It’s similar to ZBrush, in that you can use a drawing tablet to sculpt 3D geometry. BUT, there’s a key difference. This uses voxels. That means that you can literally scupt like clay. There are non usual polygon limitations. When you’re done, it’s got plenty of simple retopologizing tools. Seriously, this has been heaven.
I was curious to see what others have done with the tool. Like myself, people don’t taste it and just walk away, they dive in! This has created a full on 3D sculpting addict out of us. For example, while looking at this thread, I thought, “Yeah, this is neat and that’s ok.” But then I saw the image below and had to take a step back. It doesn’t feel like your classic ZBrush results. The results from 3D Coat seem to have a more dynamic feel.
Then there’s Ondrej Svadlena, who is praising 3D Coat with, “the voxel sculpting and quadrangulation saved me a lot of time and made things possible that I would probably have never achieved with any other software!” Looking at the images from his short, “Mrdrchain”, I can see what he means. I hope I remember to check back in to see the completed short. In the meantime, you can watch his bizarre short, “Sanitkasan“.
3D Coat doesn’t just sculpt. This voxel stuff is actually relatively new to the package. Apparently it’s primarily used for texturing. Brett Simms has some stunning results in the forums.
While tooling around, I discovered some people using Silo to model, then bringing the resulting models into 3D Coat. Silo? Whassat? That will probably end up in it’s own entry one day. So many products out there that I’ve not been aware of.
A classically animated short created by Michael Dudok De Wit. Simple yet beautiful. Powerful use of the music to tell the story. If you like this short and can handle seeing something a little more simple, Father & Daughter is also worth checking out.
Thanks to Des Duggan for getting me to check this out.
Eric Goldberg directed 2 shorts in Fantasia 2000. He animated the Genie in Aladdin. He’s currently animating on the upcoming “The Princess and the Frog“. He is also author of the Animation Crash Course. What else? His credit list is huge, look it up.
Although it came out last year, I just listened to Part 2 of Goldberg’s podcast interview. Many animators would say that this stuff is common knowledge, but as a technical 3D guy who doesn’t deal with this kinda stuff on a daily basis, it helps to hear it from someone with such experience. What are some of the bits I’ve learned?
- About how, in 2D, you can capture the feeling before you have to worry about the anatomy. The importance of gestures, again, rears it’s head. Capturing this in 3D is a bit tricky sometimes. Another reason to pick up pencil once in awhile and/or work on a 3D solution to simulate this. 😉
- In regards to FX or secondary animation, in 3D, with everything we get for free, we loose control over key story telling elements. He gives the example of the fur in Monsters Inc. It’s all controlled dynamically, but if it’s dynamic, we cannot use the fur as a tool for enhancing the movement, or even the emotion.
- He notices how rigs are usually animated via the torso first, and how this makes CG walk-cycles feel very floaty and difficult to feel the energy.
- He sometimes approaches his animations from the eyes outwards, drawing the eyes first, then the nose, then the cranium around the eyes. The expression builds the shape.
If you want to hear about Goldberg’s recollection of animating Robin Williams as the Genie, or directing Pocahontas, check out the podcast over at AnimationPodcast.com. I’ll have to go back and listen to Part 1, as I’m sure there’s great stuff there also.
Finally, I have to include a link to a clip from the Magic Lamp Theater @ Disney Sea in Japan. I had the pleasure of working with Teunis de Raat, who worked with Goldberg in order to make this 3D version of the Genie come to life. That must have been one hell of an experience. Maybe I can convince him to divulge some details.
The producers & creators over at Bowes Productions & NWFX have made the first two episodes of Jibber Jabber available online and in their entirety! Not only was it a fun project to work on, the episodes still give me the fuzzies.
Jibber Jabber: “Race to the Red Planet”
Jibber Jabber: “Pride of Frankenstein”
Jay would probably call him a “brilliant” Norwegian, and I would have to agree. Music, video and additional points for personality. Granted, he is speaking Norwegian, but that’s similar enough to Swedish… which I don’t know much either… but I’ve been there… finally. :\
Music
Trippin Video:(tell me this doesn’t feel familiar)
Skit w/ FX: My roommate asked, “Did he really do that?”
Amateur: More music
Guess what I picked up today? Another trade paperback of the colorized version of Jeff Smith’s Bone.
I read all of them in their original black n white format, but these colored re-releases are heaven. Cecilia picked the first one up for me as a Christmas present a few years back. Shortly after that, I gifted my black n white version to my cousin. I haven’t started reading the colored ones yet. I figure that, by the time they’re all out, I’ll be ready to go through them again.
Best part is it’s the thickest volume yet!
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