A stupid bus thing

So we made a terrible film

Convert deformer to skinCluster weights

Here is a crude demo of a tool I wrote in Python that copies deformer weights to a skinCluster.
Use lattices and clusters to skin complex geometry!

Also, thank you to Chris Emerson for the lovely arm he modeled. It's actually part of a character for his upcoming indie game. Check out airdashonline.com for those curious.

Old sketches

Waterhole Grunge

Welp, here's the fight scene from our (unfinished) short film from last semester. Cheers!


And here's the whole thing if you're interested!


Talented artists:

Chris Ybarra - ybarraart.blogspot.com

Christina Mijares - christinaisdrawing.blogspot.com

Tung Nguyen - tungsweblog.blogspot.com

Eric Lee - jongbom.blogspot.com

Garrett Eves - gceart.com

So Friday was ViaCommunity Day at Nickelodeon! Which basically means you have to earn some good samaritan points. I participated in creating uplifting cards that Nickelodeon sends out to children's hospitals!

And.... well.... I tired.

Here's a little visual overview-- Hopefully they'll lift some child's spirit.... or just creep them out a little. Either one is a moral victory in my book.

(how'd this character get here??)

Trying to take more sketching breaks

Hi!

Here are a couple of sculptures I made. It's fun to change it up from sculpting in maya all the time.

Thanks for looking!

Snail Man

NUHHHHHHGLGLGLGLGLHHHHH......

That is all.

Hi.

I'm still alive.

And the auto-rigging tool is coming along nicely.

Finals are over! On to the next project!

Here's my dialogue animation and my reel from the 487e character animation class. There's still a lot of polishing I'd like to do in the graph editor, as well as actually animating the second character. But hey! It works for now. The dialogue on my reel has a different camera angle than the original-- I had to change the over the shoulder camera angle for the sake of the assignment. But I still like the over the shoulder shot better :P

Also, I finally posted up an animation demo reel on my website!
http://www.gceart.com/AnimReel.html
Check it out!

Sketchbook Update

Here are some sketches from my tiny pocket sketchbook.

I tend to carry it everywhere in my back pocket as a backup sketchbook.

It's mostly filled with doodles of wild people in their natural habitats, rigging and MEL scripting notes, personal notes, grocery lists, and drawings inspired by other artists.

It recently fell out of my pocket and was ran over by a car. But nothing a little duct tape and string can't fix. Some say it adds character!

In other recent news, I'm one of them fancy dot com kids now! I got my website up and running thanks to the help of my friend, Kenneth Hung. I'm still working on adding finished reels to it. Check out the spankin' new links at the top of the page!

A strategy highly suggested for people (like myself) who are constantly caught without a pen.

It even survived the car!

And here are a couple drawings not from my tiny sketchbook.

They're actually quite large, and a pain in the butt to scan.

Skeletal and muscular structure studies done for a life drawing class, taught by Joe Forkan.

Sharks.... With Lasers...

So I've been getting serious about writing this auto-rigging tool and it's slowly taking over my life (or current lack thereof). It's turning out pretty sweet-- I've definitely learned a lot and have gotten way better at MEL and C++. My goal right now is to have something cool to show before CTNx next week. Stoked!

This weekend I had to change up the pace and focus on a video game that a few friends of mine and I are creating. It's being submitted for the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition... but really I just want to make a video game regardless.

Here's a rig I built and animated this weekend for the game. The model was a quick collaboration between Jonathan and I. He modelled the shark, and I added the mechanical stuff. But all the credit for the badass texturing goes to him.

Light Studies & Gestures

A few of the many drawings from the past few weeks--
First two: light and value studies from statues,
Last two: a few gestures from live models

Still gettin' there!
Thanks for lookin'

Nuts!

Reachin' for a can o' nuts




And here are some poses I sketched up last week for the new assignment-- the hammer strike



Cheers!

VGDC + PMC Game Jam animations

This weekend was the VGDC + PMC Game Jam! The Video Game Design Club and the Pencil Mileage Club collaborated, split up into groups, and worked on designing and creating their own video games in 48 hours.
In the game our team created, you play as a ninja-beaver who must fight off hordes of cockroaches to protect a nuclear reactor. We eloquently named it 'Nuclear Ninja Beavers'
I basically took my pre-existing cockroach rig, adapted it to be compatible with the Unity game engine, and animated it!

For your viewing pleasure


Le Breakdown:
1. Walk Cycle
2. Attack
3. Flinch Right
4. Flinch Left
5. Death

I'll post some in-game footage soon. Our programmer friendos are polishing up their code and working on maybe making it playable through the web browser.
Cheers!

Doodles - Stephen Silver style

Various sketches with a few Stephen Silver studies thrown in

Getting Back Into the Swing of Life Drawing Classes

It's been almost a full year since I've been in a formal life drawing class. So far, I've only had the PMC life drawing sessions and the LA Drawing Club to sustain me.

http://pencilmileageclub.com/2011/09/07/life-drawing-schedule/.

http://www.thedrawingclub.com/.

Still, it's not the same as having an instructor on your back to whip you into shape! And now, four weeks and a few hundred pieces of paper later, I found TWO descent drawings! Yes! Count em... TWO!

ONE!

 TWO!

Looks like I have a ways to go. Cheers!

487e assignment 1 - Keyframes

WOAH! Two updates in one day?? Strange, I know.
Vuala! I present my keys for the first animation assignment of the semester: Have your character try to get an item down from a high shelf




I had a bit of fun rigging the stool, too