Not that I prefer April specifically. Every month of the year is awesome in its own way! There, that should prevent the rage from those that have birth dates on every other month.
Okay, it's time for an update! Unfortunately I've been a bit of a slacker the past month so I don't really have anything new to show you since last month's most recent post. Life, job-hunting, depression, and general laziness have gotten in the way. However, I've not given up! There is no room for failure or dwelling on negative thoughts that go nowhere except further down a path of even more pain. With that said, I do have some fun, new projects in mind for the not-too-distant future. How much of them I will actually do is another story, but isn't it better to be overly ambitious rather than have no ambition at all? Allow me to give you a preview of what's on my plate for the next several weeks, aside from busting my behind in my search for employment (HIRE ME, PLEASE).
MORE REEL WORK.
I'm going to focus more on animation - not only to create a new demo reel, but to also take advantage of Xaelander's capabilities and improve my skills as an animator. Animation and rigging go hand-in-hand, anyways! So, I figured why not kill multiple birds with one throw of a stone? Taking the advice of my good buddy and animator Zach Hansen, I'm going to start with a weight test animation and go down the traditional route an animator takes in putting together a demo reel. Of course, I'll be including bits of technical animation (cloth, fur, dynamics) to really apply what I've been able to learn on my own, as well as experimenting with both realistic and cartoon styles of animation to give the reel some variety. I already have some work I'd like to include in this reel: my camel walk cycle (which you can see in the previous blog post) and the wizard animation - both of which also include technical animation which I feel will really give them an edge.
Moom character by Ramtin Ahmadi.
Animation by me.
MORE RIGGING.
So, the Camel Warlord is just about done. His face rig is in place, and everything else is working; all he needs are a facial expression library and an animation GUI before I consider him complete. I *was* going to give him a muscle system, but it turns out his model and rig aren't exactly ideal for a muscle system to work well. So, I am just going to create some corrective blendshapes to get the desired type of deformations out of him, while applying a muscle system to another or future rig. If the latter, then I will make sure to build that rig with a muscle system in mind from the start.
Let me get it out there now: my next character rig will be Tort (name pending? I'm not sure) for a short film titled Parched which several friends and I are working on. Basically, he's a desert tortoise/turtle. Here he is in his current state (hint: he hasn't got any sort of rig attached yet).
Tort.
I've already begun the rigging process on this fella', and plan to give this guy stretchy limbs and neck along with a decent muscle system to really give those limbs some nice deformations in extreme poses. I also see some potential with that adam's apple - we'll see! It'll be a fun project, for sure. He's more of a side project, so expect progress on this one to be slow in comparison with my other work.
WEBSITE REDESIGN.
This isn't my highest priority, yet I'd still like to redesign my website. When I plan to do that is still up in the air, but I do have a vision for the redesign of my site. Thanks to Jonathan Woodburn, I am now aware of the css Zen Garden and would love to apply the "web 2.0 concept" to the layout of my site. As this site is centered around my work and hopefully leading to the official start of my career, I want to center the design around my business card. I know this is difficult to explain through text, so expect a mockup image to be added into this post or the next blog update. Also, I'd like to ideally create a mobile-friendly site; something simple, but still viewable.
GETTING HIRED.
This is the most important thing to me, obviously. Without a job and a source of income to live off of, it's hard for me to stay focused on these other projects. When this does happen, I can guarantee you that more updates will come along and productivity will be at an all-time high. In the mean-time, I'll do what I can. :)
Until next time!
-Mike
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