George Walk Cycle v6.1

Ok, well, after tweaking, tweaking, and more tweaking, George's clothes still need more tweaking. ;-) But, they're working. Too flimsy for final use, but he doesn't pop out of them (so far).

I also rebuilt the walk cycle animation. Since this is the first walk cycle that I made without scaling him afterwards (bad idea :-P), this is the first one I'm really happy with.

Since the new cloth system doesn't require the clothes to be rigged to the skeleton, I don't have them attached. This does create a problem for me, though. All animations have to start with George in the "T-Pose", as you can see at the start of this animation. I need to decide if I care greatly about that problem, or if not, how to strategize my animation sequences.

One more thing. See, I "borrowed" this rig (skeleton) from another Blender user, and I owe him a lot of thanks for it, but, I've also found areas that it's been lacking. While creating this walk cycle, I found that his chest did not rotate independently of his hips. BAD things happen when you can't move the chest the opposite direction of the hips. ;-) So, I've modified (again) the rig, so that the spine bones from the hips up copy the rotation of the chest controller, at varying increments (25%, 50%, 75%, etc.). Did the job perfectly. :-)

Alright folks, enjoy! :-D

George has some expression...

And they're mostly angry ones... ;-)



Alrighty, George is finally givin' me more faces than just that sloppy, silly grin. Now, he's givin' me angry looks! Oh well, when I get more mouth controls in, I should be able to make him happier then ever!



Hair looks REALLY cool! Gotta love the programmers behind Blender.



Still working some bugs out with the eye control, but I imagine those will fall into place in a little bit.



Enjoy!





-GG

George Walks!

Yep, George is taking his first steps! Well, they're still rather clumsy, but they're steps. His clothing is have a few malfunctions, we'll have to talk to wardrobe about that.



Enjoy!

Bouncing name?

Ok, so people have been wondering why there's bouncing "watermarks" on our artwork now. Simple answer: Our artwork has been wandering off in other people's hands. As much as we're flattered that others like our work enough to want to pass it on, we'd at least like the credit for it.



We do apologize for the annoyance. I think the latest watermark might be a little too distractive, so I'll tone it down. (Though, it's there to be annoying. :-P)



Anyway, that little bulletin brought to you be inquisitive minds. ;-)

On Orbit...

Ok, long time, no post, right? (Well, there aren't many 'dedicated' readers, so I don't worry too much. ;-) Well, a combo of school (which always comes first), programming (which ties in with school), working on HTUYC, and vacation, it's been busy.



Anyway, you probably want to see some new work, right? Alrighty, let's see what's on my drive.



The latest thing I've been working on is a rocket. "For a computer short?" Yep! Well, I can't give the whole thing away, so you'll just have to imagine what it could be about. ;-)




There ya go! 32 seconds of film! Breathtaking, right?

Expansion...

So... I wrote the script to call for George to crawl from his bed into his chair, in which he will zoom around in. Today, I worked on two things. First, I rigged the chair's wheels. "Bones in the wheels?!", you ask? Yes, bones in the wheels. :-P The beauty of my system is that I just move the chair around, and the wheels basically move like real wheels.



Well, that sounds easy, what else have I been doing all day? Hey, I have schoolwork! Not all my time is spent on 3D stuff! Just... Most of it. :-P Well, like I mentioned, the script calls for George zooming around in his chair, right? Even more, for a bed(room)? Well, originally, I started transforming the room into an apartment style room, with a bed off to one side. It was working alright, and didn't look too bad, but then I had a brilliant idea... To better tell the story of his crawling out of bed, ungagetized, and into his chair, into power, I wanted a "wall". Something he travels to get from one thing to another. So, I put the room back to the way it was, and I added a hallway, with a bedroom right across the way from the computer room. Now I have the stage set for George to crawl out of his bedroom on all fours, and into his chair. Once in power, he can travel back to his room much faster then he left it. Of course, that throws into the list of wardrobe PJs. Oh well, I always thought bunnies were in style. Or... is it duckies? Y'all are going to have to help me out here. ;-)



Thought I wasn't going to show you a picture? You were almost right, I almost forgot. Sorry. Enjoy!

Welcome!

Howdy! Welcome to the first journal entry for How-to Upgrade Your Computer! If you found this via a search engine and are looking for tips on upgrading your computer, this isn't the place. (You could drop us a line, though, we're good with computers. ;-) )



So what IS "How-to Upgrade Your Computer!"? (You want to know how many times I've typed that out, or it's acronym, in the last hour? :-P ) It is a short animation feature, under the production of Strong Oak Studios. It owes a lot of it's thought and design to the good old Walt Disney Goofy(2) cartoons on "How To" do whatever the subject was. I don't work for Disney, nor could I do Goofy justice, so this is my own spin on it. Besides the similar style, I have thrown the classic Disney Gloves on the main character to "pay my respects". Almost everything I've learned when it comes to movies comes from watching Disney films.



Alright, enough with the words, we wanna see some pictures, don't we? ;-) Ok, let's see what's lying on the modeler's desk...



First, let me introduce you to George.

He's gone through a little bit of changes since he was first designed (and he's still being worked on! Especially the hair...). Yes, he has a baby picture, want to see?



Scroll down.





Look Mom, no eyes! O_O No ears or nose either, but don't worry, he had those by the next day.





"Next slide."





What?! No eyes/ears still?! Yes, well, this was a small change. Ok, now... Spot the difference(s). ;-)





There we go! Eyes, ears and a nose!





















And here we have a more recent image. That hair's close to what his final version will probably have.









Ok, enough of George, what about the set? Ok, I guess I'm authorized to let you take a peek at that too... (Considering I posted it elsewhere, of which you may have already seen.)



Ok, technically, this isn't a set, it's a prop. But it looks cool, no? Watch, it goes into the set! Amazing, huh?






There we go! This was one of the first renders that I saw and went, "Whoa, this could be cool!" Let's hope it's not the last. ;-)



Actually... Now, looking at it? It looks pretty bad. Look at the next version and you'll see what I mean.





Texture! Better lighting! Curtains! But that's not daylight! That's... Daylight if you live on the moon! Every thing's too perfectly white, we'll fix that.





There... Much better! Don't ask me why the desk is held up by elephant tusks. Maybe he got a good deal on them. :-P





Hey look, George is sitting in his chair! Good job, George! His bones still need work, as it looks like his shoulder's dislocated. Ahh well, rigging work is never done, I guess.





Hoping for more, weren't you? Sorry, that's it for this post. Thanks for stopping by, even if you already knew what this project is, and/or are family/friends. Keep checking back, or even better? Subscribe to our RSS feed!





We'll see you around!