Procedura... what?

Yep. In texturing class we have moved beyond the photos for textures and are now only using procedural textures that we convert into .psd files and add a little more stuff in PS and then bring back into Maya. We had to make 5 different textures. I made peanut butter, a shirt fabric, banana, sand paper, and marble. The marble one I don't really like because the conversion process made it look weird but here they are.

Kingdom Dance... YAY!!!

So I'm pretty much just having a blast now that I have Tangled. It certainly has to be my fave Disney movie since Beauty and the Beast and I love this scene.

Here comes the smolder...

Yeah, I'm excited cause tomorrow Tangled hit's blu ray. Nuff said!!

I may even forgo homework just so I can watch it several times and I don't forgo homework for anything. 

Crazy dreams

Yeah, this will be short. I had two very strange an different dreams last night. In the first dream, I was swimming nude in a calm sea. The second dream was that I got a job at Pixar.

The first one was just weird so I checked out dream meanings on the web and according to the meanings that swimming in a body of water is a representation of the womb and a source of creation. Makes sense. Also, if it's a calm sea, it means prosperous things are about to happen. I actually do buy into the meaning of dreams as I do believe that they are our subconscious telling us what will happen. Don't laugh!!


Then I had the second dream about getting a job at Pixar. A sign perhaps? I would like to think so, especially considering that I am going to have a kick ass demo reel in the coming months to start sending to potential employers.

Am I really expecting to get a job at a Pixar based on a weird dream and one demo reel? No.

Am I going down the road that will get me there? yes

Madness is like gravity... all it takes is a little push

Yeah. I feel like I'm totally cracking. So I've posted before about a little issue I have known as BPD (borderline personality disorder) and it's really rearing it's ugly little head this week. I'm currently in state where I don't want to do a damn thing. I'm pretty much not interested in going to work, going outside, or going anywhere for that matter. I just want to stay in this little shell and avoid everything and everyone. Which is sort of the problem. People with BPD are by their very nature lonely creatures because they shut themselves off from the outside world, and in my case all attempts to make friends are failing and all the friends I thought I had have not contacted me in months. I literally have not received a single phone call or text message from anyone in those many months. No phone calls or texts to say what's up? or hey, how you doing? I'm going mad from an absolute lack of human interaction. And the only thing that can really keep my mind off of anything is not possible with my computer being serviced at not being able to do any animation. In BDP terms, these moments that set off the episodes are referred to triggers. Well this week, it's really been one trigger right after the other and I'm just about to break and I can feel it getting worse. It's difficult also because anyone I have interacted with such family is starting to distance themselves because they all start getting that, 'uh oh, the ticking time bomb is about to go off' look and that just triggers me even further. If they had half a clue about anyone with BPD is that they don't really hurt others so much as they hurt themselves. That just sort of sets me off more than anything else. I don't think people will ever really get it. They are too busy passing judgment or pretending to think they know what is going on, but they know nothing. I'm at the point where I really just want to give up and throw in the towel.

A little hope found in tragedy

A dog protects another dog that was injured in the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

System failure!!!

Yeah, it's pretty much exactly as the title says. The beast of a machine that I purchased for better rendering and animation just had his mobo completely fucking go to shit. There was an issue when I purchased it but that went away and was not a problem until last night when it just dead. I'm pretty pissed because I'm in the middle of working on the layout for my animation and it could not have happened at a worse time. I now have Maya running on my laptop which is not working very well and I'm just hoping I can get this done before the deadline. Since it has been less than year since I bought the computer, HP is going to repair it for free and they say it will only be a week. It fucking better be because I was very clear that I needed this computer. Really, if a company is going to install shitty mobo's in their PC's, they need to have every square inch of their ass kicked. I don't exactly use the damn thing to browse the internet. I use it to pursue my passion for fuck's sake. Make a good machine people!!

On a side note, it's St Patty's Day. No one is allowed to pinch me since I am actually Irish and don't have to wear green.

 Oh and I found this and it's funny. Cause really, does anyone take Eminem seriously anymore or did they ever?

Next half of the semester

Artwork upload more than anything else. First up. 1 point perspective drawing.













Next up the ghost character for class my animation project set against my alley to determine what I will have to do to her in post to give her glow and transparency.

It's done at last!!!!

So So in my Fundamentals of Texturing and Lighting class, we had to texture an alley with photos we took ourselves. This project was the entire first half of the semester. We were literally working on the midterm from day one. It is now finished. I did two. One with the imported sunlight asset that was provided and my own creative version done with moonlight. So here they are, 7 weeks of work, sleepless nights and alot of painting and reworking.

Furtastic!!!

So I downloaded a puppy rig and thought I would have a little fun so I gave it fur. Not the greatest, but I also did it quickly so I still consider it a work in progress.

Character rigs

So I found this site that has a list of 22 of the most fun rigs for Maya, and they are fun!!! I'm going to take a lot (if not all) of them through their paces. I especially like the horse quadruped rig. So should any animators stumble across this and haven't seen this before, download and have fun!!! :-)


http://lesterbanks.com/2010/03/22-of-the-most-fun-rigs-for-maya/

Demo reels soon... very soon

Since I currently have a render running and don't like to sit around while Maya hogs my PC power, I have a short but important post.  I'm planning on getting demo reels together soon. I say reels because through research, I learned that demo reels that cram everything an artist does on one reel is frowned upon and a potential employer doesn't like to sit through texturing work if they are looking for an animator. The research I found said make a reel for each one. So that is my plan. I'm going to make one for texturing that I will send to not only smaller studios, but some big names like ILM or Weta Digital. I'm going to make one for modeling that I will send to game companies, and another for animation that will be sent to various animation studios. I plan to have them all compiled and put together in a few months. All of which will be heading with me to SIGGRAPH 2011. I'm kinda excited. :-)

One more blog post for the evening

 So yeah, for my texturing class we have to texture an alley using only real photos that we took ourselves. A great deal of fun but totally different from what I'm used to because I usually paint my own textures. So here is my alley model after doing the color and bump maps. Spec maps will be done very soon. I also threw in a little throwback to something from the 80's and yeah, I'm really aging myself with it. lol

So, yeah this is a little animation I did. The assignment really only called for her to walk along a path but I wanted to do something funny. Cause really most any guy or girl can relate to this. Either a guy has been the one to stop the car to look at girl or a girl has been the one being looked at. I just it took it a step further. I also got major kudos from my instructor for being one of the only two students in class to animate a female and for using a rig far more complex than what the class requires.

Negative people suck!!!

So I have to get this off my chest. I went to the barbershop today to get haircut because it's been months and I was started to look to have some crazy Einstein hair happening.  I've been going to this barbershop since I was a kid, and only one of the barbers I like and the other one... not so much.  Well today, the one I don't like is the one cutting my hair. He asked me what I was going to school for and I told him. Unlike the other more encouraging barber, he asked if I actually planned on making a career out of being an animator and I said, well yeah! This douche bag actually started laughing at me. He then basically went on to say how tough it was, and it's never going to happen, blah blah blah. He then asked where I went to school and I told him. I also told him they were online courses because I can't afford to attend the school on campus. He then started berating me for taking online courses because it's not "real school". The fucking hell it isn't. It is damned real school and it's probably 10 times harder because there is no direct or real time interaction with an instructor.  Also, it was the school that intrigued me the most and many if not all of their instructors are either working or have worked in the industry.

Case in point.

Advanced Animation Instructor: Steve Segal- Character Animator for Pixar. Worked on Toy Story and A Bug's Life. Continued working for Pixar doing game animations. Created his own studio. This guy freaking knows his stuff, let me tell you. I've learned more from him in 5 weeks than I have in the past 2 years.


Fundamentals of Texturing and Lighting Instructor: Howard Gersh- Texture Artist for ILM and worked on all 3 of the Star Wars prequels.

Perspective Instructor: Leonard Ng - I can't even begin to remember all the video games this guy has done concept art for. He's been around.

So anyway, back to the point. This stupid barber then goes on to talk about the film "Secondhand Lions" and how it was based on a book. This I know because it was written by Cormac McCarthy. One of my favorite authors. He then talks about how the author was at one point an animator and became  an author. WRONG!!!!!!!!  Cormac McCarthy has no point ever been an animator and always been an author. Geez, if people are going to try and insult me, at least do your homework. Secondly, this guy certainly doesn't have the right to be like this towards me. He does not know me personally, he is not a close friend, a relative or anything of the like. He cuts my hair for god's sake.

Now where I start getting really pissed is when he starts saying I'll never make it because there is no animation in Indiana. WRONG AGAIN!! There is actually a very large animation community in Indiana. It's actually a pretty big damn deal in this state. Also, I have no intention of any kind of staying in this state. Los Angeles is most likely where I'm going to be living in the future. Which brings up another thing that bothers me. I live in a very small town. The kind of town that people don't escape from. This is a town where you walk around and see a bunch of older folks talking about how they would have liked to have done this and that but never did. This creates resentment towards those who actually have the potential and ability to escape this town. The people who live here never succeeded at anything or even tried and as such, they don't want anyone else who lives here to succeed either.  I swore to myself when I was a kid that I would not live in this town my whole life and would move on to better things and I won't hesitate to leave everything behind in an instant. I know this because a couple of months ago, I came very close to getting involved in a relationship with a girl in a nearby town and when she said she was content to live here forever, I simply told her, "well I'm not so you don't fit with my plans". That is how serious I am.

But I'm also actually glad this guy did what he did, because all he really did was add fuel to my fire to become a great character animator.

A small representation of what I love to do

This is where I make it all happen. Where all the things in my imagination, my child like qualities, my nature, and my love occur. This is where all my animation, 3D modeling, and texturing is done. Take note of Belle sitting on the printer and Buzz Lightyear hanging out in front of the monitor. :-)