450 progress: Alice and Frog

Having trouble with rendering at the moment

450 progress: rigs and walk cycles

A short clip of a tango walk cycle with one of the potential rigs to use for my project

Art 450: Tango walk in progress

I'm experimenting with various rigs to find the right set of controls to get the feel of a tango walk cycle for my characters.  Here's one of them

Here's an image of the rock star rig I'm currently working with

3D Animation: Lt. Dan walk cycle

Here's my first walk cycle with Lt. Dan

Art 450 week 3 progress

I renamed the project TangoMania

So I worked on some rough models in Mudbox, but don't currently have any images rendered to post here.

I also explored some reference material online, as well as consideration of kinesthetics of the basic tango walk movement during my tango classes these past couple of weeks.  The tango classes that I am co-teaching will be considered part of my reference material.


I have realized that it may be beyond the scope of my abilities to create an adequate working rig for this process, so I might use a borrowed rig for my animation.  There are dozens of free rigs available online, I got some from Creative Crash web site, and am experimenting with the movement of which ones might be best suited for dance movement.  The M2 Miranda rig demo dancing here...this one might work.



Here's a nice video of one of the tango festivals that I went to in Portland a few months ago.  I'll use videos as such to reference to try and get a better understanding of how to create realistic movements of my character for the dance.

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And here's something to inspire...and something to aspire for....

Art 450 Project Proposal

Tango(logy)Aesthesia

Tango(logy)Aesthesia is a 3D visual exploration and study of the kinesthetic dynamics of Tango.

Tango becomes obsession, and obsession can lead one to become consumed by an incessantly thorough study of the subject matter.  This project will reflect such an obsession with Tango.  Definition: "kinaethesia"= (noun) awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs (proprioceptors) in the muscles and joints.  For a definition of tango go here: http://tangobsession.com/history/.   And so, this project will be a 3 dimensional visual study of the kinaethetics of the tango through the animation of characters using the computer aid of Autodesk Mudbox and Maya.  Initial characters will be sculpted in Mudbox, then exported into Maya where they will be fitted with rigging, skinned, and animated for pseudo-realistic representation of tango kinaesthetics.  Above is a rough visualization put together last term in 3D modeling.

mudwoman

First Mudbox figure:

I had a nice model of a woman, but Mudbox made her disappear...??????????

Second attempt at lighting, with UV mapping

Damn, this was harder than I thought it would be!

The All Seeing Eye

Project 3: Blockville texturing

Check out the sweet brick work!

closeup

Blockville 1 textured

Notice the texture on the right sidewall!

A Little light added!

lighting added

Project 3: Texture reflection

This is the Cheshire Cat from the recent animation of Alice in Wonderland.  I love the fir, but really have no idea what type of texture it is, or even if it’s considered a texture.  The eyes and teeth however, do seem to be textured somehow, and they work wonderfully in this particular composition.  The reflectivity and sheen of the eyes is very impressive (to me). 

This image is from Coraline.  Honestly, I don’t really know what is and is not modeled and textured in the “stop animation”, but if the colors and textures of the objects – plants, stairs, wall and the building in the background are really amazing.  I love this shot of her!

Again, I don't know what or is not textured via 3D animation in this case, but I love the intricacy and detail of Coraline's clothing.  The colors of her garments are beautifully complimentary, and there is also a very provocative contrast between the softness of the fabrics and the shiny, smooth, plastic feel of her hair, face and eyes.  I'm definitely in love with this girl in some twisted sense.

Reflective essay on landscapes

I love this image.  Its general composition feels very balanced in so many ways and leaves me with a sense of enlightenment and power.  There is a strong use of foreground, mid-ground and background, and perhaps even another dimension with the details and aspects of the large building left of center.  This same building helps create a dramatic affect of scale against all the smaller structures in the image, as well as creating a balance with the birds and main character opposite it.  Intense contrast with shadows and lights are used, drawing focus to our hero, the birds and the magnificent building as well.  Use of warmer reds, mostly in the lower left region in contrast with the cooler blues in upper right create a nice dynamic.  The richness of reds however, do overpower the blues a bit, adding to the heat and drama of the image. Details are widespread through the image, but it would seem that it is a bit more pronounced on our main character with the structure he is standing upon and the apposing building towering over the city, especially the clarity of the tower of the building itself.

Steampunk landscape (Unknown artist)

http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/fantasy/pages/steampunk-landscape.shtml

            This photograph has a delightfully balanced  and “picture perfect” composition.  I cannot identify any clear background, foreground, or mid-ground to the image, but rather a continuum as the eye moves back through the scene.  Contrast is strong with the shadows closer to the front against the bright lights further back in the scene behind the bridge.  The subtleness of the aquamarine color on the boats helps them stand out against the larger buildings and elements.  The predominance of reds and browns in the image create a sense of warmth through the stillness of the water.  A building to the left and right of the image make good use of reoussoir.  The detail and focus seems to be held mostly to what would seem the mid-ground, if it had one.

dark city (art unknown)

http://www.bergoiata.org/fe/landscapes2/Landscape%20-%20Dark%20City.jpg

             The general composition of Cloister’s “Cemetery in the Snow” seems to be well balanced in terms of scale, contrast, light and color.  There appears to be a distinct transition and relationship with the foreground, mid-ground and, background; with the emphasis being placed on the mid-ground through the use of a bit of framing coming from the trees (repoussoir?)   A nice use of scale contrast between the clergy in the image and the massiveness of the building in the background creates a sense of dramatic intensity in the scene.  Contrast between the bright lighting in the background and dark colors and shadows in the foreground supports this scenic intensity.   A nice balance of the limited colors used, blue-greens against browns and reds and whites against blacks makes this image pleasing to the eye, as well as the soul.

Casper David Friedrich Cloister – Cemetary in the Snow 1817-19

http://www.shafe.co.uk/art/19thC_Landscape_and_Nationalism.asp

Details details details....

New and improved columns!

Check out the new columns!

Added a few windows, some textures and began working on stonework at top.

Reflective essay

Overall, my creative process was stifled by my inexperience with Maya.  I found myself becoming frustrated by the technicalities of learning the application, and I quickly realized how limited I was in terms of what shapes I could work with.  I have a better understanding now, why this assignment was termed “Blockville”.

One discovery that I made working through this project was the importance of acknowledging symmetry in the composition.  For example, if parts of a building need to be identical, it is a good idea to first complete the desired part (perhaps a pillar, or wall), prior to duplicating it one hundred times.  I found this to be particularly important when I started working on Blockville 2, where the entire building was made up of just a few identical shapes. 

I think that Blockville 2 is my best image.  I really like the perspectives.  I had keep going back and rework the size and proportions of things relative to the camera angle, and so it became clear to me how important it was to set up the camera at the start if I wanted the image outcome to truly be representative of the original piece of art.  I knew the scene was finished when this actually happened, and it did in fact look and feel somewhat like the original.   

Blockville!

Blockville 3-Remains of the tomb of Metelli

Blockville 2-St. Paolo fuori le Mura 

Blockville 1-Tower of Babel

Project 1: Reference Material

Medieval-castles-3 (unknown artist, date)

http://karenswhimsy.com/medieval-castles.shtm

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, about 1700

http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/58814-large.jpg

Giovanni Battista Piranesiglobalgallery.com

Tower of Babel (Escher, 1928)

www.worldofescher.com/gallery/A60.html

Remains of the tomb of Metelli

http://unurthed.com/2007/03/03/the-etchings-of-piranesi/

Medieval-castles-2 (unknown artist, date)

http://karenswhimsy.com/medieval-castles.shtm