January 19, 2020 : After Effects In All Its Glory

The first half minute of the new short is moving along, and several sequences required a good deal of After Effects work. One particular shot that just wrapped up was particularly heavy, and I liked how it came out. As such, I decided to create a quick gif (note you might need to click on it to animate):

Lightwave and After Effects work is done for the first 35 seconds. Before animating new scenes, the plan is to add sound effects and review the overall pacing. I really want to make sure the flow works, particularly since the initial shots set up the rest of the story.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:37 am

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November 27, 2019 : Animation In Full Swing!

It’s not breakneck speed, but things are moving along with the new short. So much so, that my time has been devoted solely to animating – and any time in Lightwave is a welcome sight.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve made a concerted effort to spend an hour every day or two on the project. This has resulted in just over 17 seconds of material done. For a short expected to be just over two minutes, this is a decent chunk.

Now, it’s worth pointing out, the finished sequences have been pretty easy – mostly establishing shots, with only one person. Plus, they still need a fair amount of work in After Effects. However, I am pleased with the progress as I don’t have a hard deadline for the project.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:23 pm

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November 9, 2019 : My Struggles With Establishing Shots

I had a little time to work on the new short recently. Things are moving slowly, but that’s mostly due to other obligations (versus the difficulties of the project itself). Animation is about to kick-off – I am just tying some loose ends with Pre-Production.

The recent work has reminded me of my difficulties associated with Establishing Shots – in particular, what goes after them. If there is an exterior shot, which leads to an indoor scene, I struggle determining what shot to use after the establishing shot.

In many ways, this is a second establishing shot since it needs to set the table specific to the immediate upcoming actions. However, this should be quicker than the previous shot since you’re on the clock trying to grab/ keep the viewer’s attention.

Right now, I am finalizing some storyboards and running into that fine line between descriptive and excessive. It’s a fun exercise but can be stressful because of the importance in setting the table for the scene, which is the main focus for the story.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:50 am

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July 13, 2019 : UV Mapping

Slowly but surely, things are moving forward with the second character’s model. The modeling itself is almost done; but before I can take care of the rigging, I need to do some surfacing. This includes UV Mapping, something I am admittedly rusty at.

In the past, most of my projects reused a basic UV map for the face – needed to draw in the nostrils, ear marks, or chin shadows. My more recent models have moved away from this to image projections. Instead, this model will need some UV Mapping for the clothes. It isn’t all that complicated, but I still needed to look up a few things in order to refresh my memory on how to go about taking care of it.

That said, I am almost done with the the UV portion of the surfacing. After that, I need model the face components and tweak some colors… then I can take care of the rig.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:17 am

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June 14, 2019 : Reacquainted With The Node Editor

After a short (and planned) hiatus, things are moving forward again with the new short. Except for a few last minute tweaks, the rig for the first character is complete. This one took a little longer than the second will because I had re-familiarize myself with some of my ‘more recent’ updates to my master rig (‘more recent’ means only two years old).

This included work in the Node Editor, something I have always wanted to get better at but never seem to follow up. For the rig, the Node Editor was used to better handle the Edges of the facial features (Eyes, Brows, Nose, Mouth, etc.). Below was the node structure I had to duplicate:

To prevent future slowdowns, I spent extra time documenting the steps needed to set this part of the rig up – as well as detail the logic behind the methodology. As for the second character, the rigging should go more smoothly. However, I will have some additional modeling – something that will take more time but will be fun.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:11 pm

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May 24, 2019 : Some Good Old Fashioned Rigging

Production is moving along for the new short. In addition to some preliminary storyboarding, I have also finished modeling the first character. The next step is rigging the model in Layout, which I have begun:

The rig I will use for the short is very robust. Unfortunately, this means it’ll take some time to set up. Throw in the fact that I haven’t created a new rig in about two years, and I will need a little extra time to get things just right.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:30 pm

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May 3, 2019 : Character Modeling: Back To Lightwave!

Now that the characters’ heads are designed, the next step is creating their bodies; and that means spending some time in Lightwave. Before I did any modeling, I decided to review rigs of the most recent projects. They have become more and more complicated (and versatile) over the years so it was a much needed refresher.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to really dive into Lightwave (it’ll be that much more fun when animation gets going!), but that’s part of the fun. To make sure the characters can do everything I want of them, a good amount of time will be spent setting things up.

To save some time, I will be re-using some parts of previously created characters; but I will also be able to make some new elements, and that is where the fun in the Lightwave is really at.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:36 pm

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April 19, 2019 : Other Character’s Head Design

After putting in some time the last two weeks, I finished the character design of the head for the other character in my upcoming short. Below is a compilation of the angles:

The hair for this character will require a slight variation in the Lightwave with respect to the rig. To ensure there won’t be problems, I need to do some beta testing. This is probably a good thing because it’s been a while since I’ve delved into the program for character animation, and this will give me a refresher on how to create the rig that will be used for the project.

posted by Pi Visuals at 9:46 pm

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March 30, 2019 : New Short Character Designs

The last week or two, I’ve been able to spend small amounts of time here and there working on the design for one of the characters in a new short. I’m using the technique I used in Ad Wizards for the Head/ Face. Below is a compilation of the angles I will be using:

I considered having a larger range of motion for the head turns but decided it was not necessary for this project. Next, I need to work on the other character. After that, it’ll be time for some body modeling in Lightwave.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:38 pm

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July 25, 2018 : Walking Through A Portal – Animation Testing

Building off an earlier post, I spent some time having a character walk through my cartoon portal. Below is the end result (with sound effects):

You might recognize the character from a previous animated short, which was actually the inspiration for the portal idea. That earlier project is nearly 5 years old (?!). Since then, I have made numerous improvements to my rigs. However, I didn’t feel it prudent spending time creating a new or updated character at this juncture of testing.

Overall, I like how things came out. I might tweak a few things when I actually create the portal for realsies, but I like the After Effects portions used. Plus, I feel the audio really pulls everything together.

posted by Pi Visuals at 3:35 pm

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