The Ramblings of Michael Navarro

An Extremely Late 2011 Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Hello!

It's been a while, and there's a darn good reason for that (not that anybody reads this blog, or anything)!

This has been one heck of a year, and to be honest, I'm not sure where to begin writing about it. First things first, I am no longer a Stereo Compositor at Legend3D; I actually left the company back in May with the conclusion of my work on The Smurfs (check it out in 3D if you get the chance :) ). Working at Legend was certainly a blast, the best part of it all being surrounded by an astounding number of talented people I also call friends. It was quite wonderful to be given the opportunity to pick up software new to me at the time (Nuke) and hastily learn it in the rush of production to a very comfortable level. Now, I just can't imagine doing comp work without it. I love Nuke, and you should too! There's a reason it's the industry standard for compositing (please correct me if I'm wrong, person-who-somehow-stumbled-into-this-blog).

What I spent the first half of 2011 on. In eye-blistering 3D!

What am I up to these days? Since June, I've been living in Glendale, CA and happily employed as a Character TD at Nickelodeon Animation on Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness! It's been an absolute dream come true, and I naively hope it'll never end (alas, all good things must come to an end eventually and life will have to go on). The dream mentioned was to be a part of a cartoon (something that was once very important to me as a child) and have the chance to be a positive influence on future generations with my work. It sounds cheesy, I know, but much like the way Po loves Kung Fu; I love animation! If what I've worked on has brought a smile to at least one child's face, then all the work I've put in has been worth it. It's been difficult to get over the fact that I'm now at a company whose name immediately comes to mind when I think of my own childhood, sitting in front of the TV for hours watching Ren and Stimply, Doug, Hey Arnold, Rugrats, Ahh! Real Monsters, Rocko, Invader Zim, and Spongebob (those last two actually came later in life). Now to continue rigging my bum off and (hopefully) entertaining the world's children!

What I spent the second half of 2011 and hopefully most of 2012 on.

In eye-dazzling 2D! Kind of. I mean, it is CG 3D... just not Stereo 3D.

With that said, I will end on saying that this blog will continue to remain consistent with the rarity of its postings. I won't lie to my two readers by promising to write more frequently. I'm busy! You'll likely see me on here again when the fickle finger of fate has decided change is in order, and I'm either working on a new project or I'm toiling away in search of one (aka unemployed). Hopefully the former. :)

Until next time!

So, a lot has happened...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:55:00 +0000

The Return of the Geek

Hello again! I've returned to break the silence and toss in an update. Looking back, it's amusing to see the many goals I laid out for the site and tossed aside nearly a year ago. Fortunately, it was for a good reason, and what a year it has been! Where do I even begin? Allow me to collect myself, here....

Since my last update, I'm quite happy to say that I am now employed. Even better, I have been since about June of last year, and I'm now located in gorgeous southern California! To say this past year has been absolutely phenomenal would be an understatement. I'm currently a stereoscopic compositor at Legend 3D in Del Mar, working on the conversion of feature films to stereoscopic 3D and learning a vast number of things with each passing day. Having my only experience in compositing being slapping render passes together in Shake for Atlas' Revenge when I started at Legend, it's always fantastic to look back on the amount of invaluable knowledge I've gained as a professional compositor thus far and am continuing to absorb. I'm grateful to now be in this industry, being trained from an entry-level skillset, and connecting with such a wonderful group of people. Life is good!

In this relatively short amount of time, I've already worked on 4 films and have plenty more on the way.

Check out my IMDB!

Reflecting

With the life/career update out of the way, I'd now like to tie up some loose ends that were left out as a result of the sudden change.

The site redesign? Yeah, that's not happening. At least not until I have new content to put up here for you all to see, which is honestly going to take a while. I do plan to have more content to show off, however. It's just a matter of what I'd like to create now that my skillset has expanded in the past year or so. Expect to see some compositing / vfx tests and exercises in the coming months to show off everything I've been learning out here, as well as the continued use of Xaelander (which has admittedly fallen by the wayside). I haven't quite made a lot of progress in animating with Xaelander, but that is going to change as of now. It is now a goal of mine to pump out some personal projects in my spare time, and you can bet your reading bum that I will deliver. Just you wait, my one reader!

Atlas' Revenge, Now Available For All to See Online!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:55:00 +0000

YES! Finally, Atlas' Revenge can be found online. I've been waiting for this moment since we wrapped production on it in May of last year. You see, it's a big deal to me because now I can simply link anyone to it rather than having to send out DVDs or having them come over; and because of where I'm currently living, it was rather difficult getting Atlas in the hands of those I really wanted to.

So, why did it take this long to get Atlas' Revenge publicly available? Simple. The powers that be at UCF insisted we keep Atlas offline and out of the public's eye, as the plan was to submit the short to several festivals. Apparently it's a general rule that festivals aren't very fond of having publicly available entries in their festivals, and generally reject those that try to enter. I'm not entirely sure how much truth there is to this, as I've seen plenty of festival entries online before actually seeing them at the festival ( most of them being Ringling students' thesis films :) ). Whatever the case may be, it turns out that in the past year, for whatever reason, there were very few and rather weak attempts to get Atlas into the festival circuit. Weeks, months, and now a year has passed, and it seems the only submission attempt since completion was to SIGGRAPH 2009 (which didn't happen, by the way).

As a result of this, someone in my class boldly took it upon themself to upload Atlas' Revenge to Youtube (Vimeo to come soon) for all to see. Thanks, Nick! I'm glad someone finally did it! Without further rambling, here it is. Atlas' Revenge, in all its embedded glory:

And In Other News...

The links section has been updated with new links to more comrades' online portfolios and to Atlas' Revenge on Youtube.
A new section will be going up featuring Atlas' Revenge as the centerpiece, surrounded by sections showing off my character rigs, animations, compositing work, and more. There's only so much a demo reel can show you. Why not give you the option to see everything with as much detail as possible? Coming soon!
I'm tossing around the idea for a mobile-friendly version of this site. While mobile browsers only make up about 2% of my visitors, I figure it'd be a good learning experience and not too difficult, hopefully.
A redesign is coming fairly soon. While I may not change the layout of the site, I do plan on straying away from a semi-monochromatic look to something more colorful and appealing. This site is just shy of a year old now, and a new look is in order.

That's it for now. Mike Navarro, signing off.

April's Awesome!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:25:00 +0000

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 Wizard Animation and Cloth Test from Michael Navarro on Vimeo.

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.

Model and textures by Ricky Carlton.

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

New reel, ahoy!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:33:00 +0000

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Xaelander programming for some breaking news! Okay, so these news aren't *that* big a deal.

After weeks of tweaking, animating, rendering, compositing, and editing, my latest demo reel has been uploaded for all to see! Feel free to mosey on over to the Reels section to see it, or keep reading and you'll find the video embedded below. As per my previous posting, I went ahead and altered the reel to match my vision: shorter, more efficient demonstration videos of the rigs, more animation to show off the rigs, and adjust the timing of it overall. The order in which the characters are presented has also been changed from: Lloyd - Robofish - Camel Warlord to Lloyd - Camel Warlord - Robofish. I feel the new order is more interesting and should keep the viewer interested for longer - and hopefully through to the end!

Without further ado, I present you the updated rigging reel.

Mike Navarro Rigging Reel from Michael Navarro on Vimeo.

Eh, eh? Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, I know, not very exciting and not too different from the previous version - but I'm happy with it! I already have plans of what I'd like to see in the next revision of the reel, but that's to remain a secret until that day comes (if it does). Hopefully the next update will be quite a long way off because I'll have found employment somewhere and will be too occupied to make a new reel. Hey, a man can dream, can't he?

With all that said, it's time to shift the focus back towards Xaelander (I'm sure the M4U guys are happy to read that). As I've gotten a few requests, my first order of business is to demonstrate the method that I used to animate the camel's walk cycle using Xaelander. I know my description in the previous post was probably hard to visualize, so why not be up front and show it off?

First, the rendered animation for your enjoyment (and what went into my demo reel for that segment).

Camel Warlord Walk Cycle (Xaelander2) from Michael Navarro on Vimeo.

Now, a simple demonstration of how I used Xaelander to lay down the foundation of my animation.

Xaelander - My Animation Method from Michael Navarro on Vimeo.

Hope it makes sense! More to come, stay tuned.

-Mike

Mommy, Why is That Man Walking So Funny?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:05:00 +0000

I come to you with another blog update! Two in one month? That has to be a record!

Xaelander2 test/demo: Atlas' Kitchen from Michael Navarro on Vimeo.

So, my adventure with Xaelander continues! I have to admit that so far, I'm quite impressed with Xaelander's capabilities as an animation tool; it's just fantastic for laying down the foundation of the animation you're hoping to create. You want the character's arm to whip around in 20 frames while his body goes the opposite direction? How would it look if it moved another way...? What about if his arm just flopped around? No problem! You can visualize it in realtime using your hands, without wasting more time by following the traditional methods.

However, I do admit that at first, I was having my doubts about Xaelander's efficiency in animating a character. Sure, it worked well with animating a simple object or a camera, but how would moving the different parts of a character work out? My first few tests were discouraging, to say the least. With the varying ways in which character rigs are built, the controller curves for numerous characters weren't behaving consistently due to a conflict between the local rotation axis of the objects and the world axis.

Indeed, it was seeming hopeless.... until I had to remind myself that being open-minded is probably a good thing, and I'm glad I did. Using my rigging knowledge, I was able to create a system to effectively move the controller curves of any character rig around without any concern to their local rotation axis. The solution is rather simple, and yet it made a world of difference. Before I go on, I just wanted to express how exciting this is. Did I forget to mention that Xaelander rocks?

The solution is easy: create two "representative" objects (preferably locators), color-code them, and name them appropriately to match their real-world counterparts. Attach your two physical points to these virtual ones, and you'll know exactly where your hands are in the Maya world space without moving your desired object around quite yet. This way, you'll get a great feel for the scene's layout in relation to your physical workspace and be able to tweak the scale of the movement, as well as offset the position of the object from your actual location in the workspace if need be. Once you've set this up to your liking, constrain the character rig controller of your choosing to one of your virtual points (aim constraint for FK controller, parent constraint for IK controller). I recommend when doing the constraint that you leave the "maintain offset" option enabled - the reason for this being that no matter what the LRA (local rotation axis) of the controller is, it'll follow your hand the way you perceive it, not stray away. Now, with this set up, you have two options: go the mocap route or the traditional animator route.

If taking the mocap route, what you do is capture your movement of the locator, and the character's rig controller will follow if constrained correctly. You'll find it actually feels like a puppet string! Once you've achieved a peformance you're in love with and have recorded it via the Device Editor, select the rig controller and simply key every few frames (1's, 2's, 3's, etc) to your liking; this way, you'll have much cleaner curves to work with. Now, at this point you can either delete the constraint, or detach the physical point from the locator and leave it untouched to maintain your original motion capture data to have something to fall back on. Repeat this method for as many parts of the character you'd like to animate and you'll have your character animated in no time!

If taking the traditional route, just pose the body part to your liking and keyframe either the "representative" or the rig controller itself without recording your movement (obviously). Move the timeline forward to the next desired time and repeat. I'm not a big fan of this method, but I know there are those out there that prefer to work in the old school and maybe want to have better control over the exact positioning/timing in their animation. Whatever your desired method, I'm sure you will find animating and posing the character with your actual hands is much more comfortable and effective.

My next step is to write a script to automate this process and speed things up, but that's for another day. When that day comes, you all will be the first to see it!

I've come to the realization that my rigging reel isn't quite up to par and could use an overhaul. There, I said it. It's going to be almost a year since I graduated, and I'm still out in the world hunting for a job! It's time for a new approach, because it's obvious what I'm doing now isn't working.

The point of a character rig is not only to allow the animator to manipulate an otherwise stiff character, but also to allow for desirable deformations - with emphasis on good deformations! I know, all you see in my rigging reel are some clips of controllers jerked around (one by one) in Maya at lightning speed, followed by some clips of the character being animated. The only decent examples of character deformations are demonstrated in these animation clips, and they make up a relatively small percentage of the reel! This is due to the fact that my focus was primarily on trying to show off the "cool" features of my rigs - what creative solutions I came up with to rigging issues. Character deformations took a backseat, and that will no longer be the case!

The most common critique my reel has received is, "you need to show the characters deforming more, and they need to be good." I hear you guys, and it's about time I actually go through with your suggestions! Not only will you see more animation, but you will also see better demonstration clips.

So, with that said, I've chosen to start off by developing an animation for the Camel Warlord. Right now, the character is not animated anywhere in the reel, and you only see him standing on a turntable in a static pose before it cuts to a clip of him being posed in Maya. It's time to replace that turntable animation with something better: a walk cycle. Yes, a walk cycle. He's a rather low poly character that would most likely appear in a video game, so why not show off a short, cycling animation that would most likely suit him?

Camel Warlord Walk Cycle WIP (Xaelander2) from Michael Navarro on Vimeo.

Of course, for this animation, I'm taking advantage of Xaelander2 to get my motion down. It's made life much easier! It's not the greatest animation in the world by any means, but it certainly shows off the character deforming.x5

Look, Ma, Two Hands! (and a New Blog System)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:44:00 +0000

It's a lovely Friday afternoon in Miami and I'm sitting here waving my hands like a madman in front of me while sitting at my computer, holding two shiny spheres - each screwed onto a plastic pedestal of their own. You'd think I was a madman, a lunatic, or maybe in attempt to justify my erratic movements, you'd convince yourself I was trying to visualize an idea using these little plastic toys. If you're of the reasonable crowd that falls in the latter portion of my previous statement, then I admit you are quite close in your assumption. Indeed, I am attempting to visualize a concept for an animation using what looks like two toys - but I'm doing it in real-time, interacting directly with the objects and characters I'd like to be animating in Maya!

Is this a dream, you ask? Well it was for someone like me, at least, since coming across Johnny Chung Lee's head-tracking using the Wii remote video a few years ago; he demonstrated how (with some software magic) the Wii remote's infrared camera can be used to track the movement of two LED lights (placed above your head) to give the viewer an even greater sense of perspective in a 3D scene - and it works beautifully as you can see in the link! Having a vague understanding of the way the Wii remote functions since then, I always wondered if it were possible to create a "poor man's mocap" system using several Wii remotes and the appropriate software to interpret the cameras' data to affect the translation and rotation channels of an objects in Maya. Of course, due to my limited knowledge in such matters, I never actively pursued this concept past it being a dream of something "neat if it existed." I mean, how neat would it be to have the ability to do some motion capture animation at your desk and not break your bank? Sounds awesome, right?

It is awesome and it's a reality. No, it doesn't involve Wii remotes, thankfully. In fact, it's a much more elegant solution than my dream explained above. Allow me to introduce you to Motion4U™'s Xaelander™ 2, the company's semi-professional desktop mocap solution (assuming you've never heard of this before or I've been living under one heck of a rock).

With the Xaelander™ 2, the user is able to interact with 3D objects in real-time using a set of individual points (for full 3D movement - the translation channels of an object), or a set of "paddles" with five points each (for full 6D movement - translation and rotation of an object).

The two paddles shown. With these, you can get full 6D motion in your 3D software package using Motion4U's software and the infrared camera setup overseeing your movement over your physical desktop.

Let me get this out in the open before we move on with further explanation of Xaelander™: I am beta testing this product. I was sought out by Motion4U, and through a series of events, was essentially asked to be a beta tester and explore its uses within Maya. With that said, let's move on!

I believe the only fully functional and supported 3D package at the moment is Maya (32-bit Windows), with support for other 3D software and operating systems, coming down the pipeline in the not too distant future - correct me if I am wrong, please. The integration between the software and Maya is seamless, and setting up Xaelander™ 2 is not as painful as one may expect at first glance. In fact, I was up and running within 5-10 minutes of placing the mic stand and cameras. Granted I already had the software installed from the day before, but doing that only takes a couple of minutes at worst.

The cameras mounted on a mic stand with a customized M4U bar. I assure you the Florida Marlins are not involved!

I can't imagine many people will struggle with the initial setup aside from the bumpy learning curve with actually figuring out how to move the points and understand how the software is interpreting it. That, however, can most likely be attributed to never having actually interacted with a computer like this before. You see, when you've used a mouse and keyboard for so many years, having to learn how to manipulate objects on the computer by actually moving around in a 3D physical space certainly takes some getting used to. Think of it as having to learn how to ride a bike for the first time, or finally learning how to swim -- well, maybe it's not as extreme as those examples but it does feel like having to learn a new skill. The point is that it will take the user/animator some time and practice to properly learn how to use Xaelander™ as a tool in their trade - but the result will be worth it, I'm sure.

Why, yes, that is a bed sheet on my table. The glass table's reflections give the cameras trouble. No biggie!

How worth it? The answer to that question is a journey I am inviting you to experience with me these next few weeks/months as I animate and experiment with the limitless ways this intriguing setup allows one to visualize and animate their ideas. Each week I will try my best to post an update on my experiences, including videos and images to give you a better idea of what's going on. You'll see ways a biped character can be animated like a real puppet, how a camera in a Maya scene can be manipulated by the movement of your hands, and much more. I'm also going to explore ways a rigger can approach the method in which they build their rig that may be used by an animator using Xaelander™. Whatever the outcome of this experiment, it'll be fun! So, join me, will you? :)

-Mike Navarro

EDIT: Here's a clip of something I created using Xaelander™ 2:

This is a recreation of a shot from the intro of Atlas' Revenge.

A New Blog System

This sub-post isn't very important, and frankly, if you're even reading this I'm very impressed. I just wanted to alert you all (all 2 of you) that this blog has been moved to another system and is actually now being hosted off-site. It's still Blogger, but is no longer hosted off my own website due to the company dropping FTP publishing in the very near future. After that point, all Blogger users are required to have their blog hosted on Blogger's servers - but you can still maintain a custom domain name, which is fortunate. It's a tad annoying for me, but there should be no effect to you, the reader. I tried as best as I could to keep the page hosted on their server to blend in with mine, and so far I think it's pretty seamless.

However, I may have missed something in the switch. It's possible you may be directed the wrong way when navigating through my website or run into a broken link. It's very possible as I now have this site hosted on two separate servers (blog on Blogger, the rest on my own). If you do run into any issues when viewing my website or blog, please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated, and I am also open to any critiques or ideas you may have. Thanks so much!

-Mike Navarro

Rigging Update, Frustration, and a Possible Surprise

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:41:00 +0000

RIGGING UPDATE

I wanted to post an update on the rigging situation since my previous post in September. As I'm juggling multiple projects, I had to set the Camel Warlord rig aside in early November but was able to make considerable progress with him in the months between then and the previous update. To put the level of progress I made with the rig into perspective, here's a visual example:

Note the dates and file size.

I wouldn't consider the rig finished by any stretch of the imagination (then again, when is a piece ever completed?), but it's at a point where I feel comfortable showing it off. There are already areas I want to polish some more and tweak before it's "ready," as well as features I'd still like to include. Below is the current list of features in the rig:

Skinned mesh

Functional IK/FK arms with traditional transitioning via attribute (-10 to 10)

Space switching on IK arms

IK legs with space switching

IK/FK visual indicators

Hair dynamics-driven tail w/ customizable attributes

Cloth dynamics on loin cloth pieces

Scaleable rig

Eye controls with space switching

Full body controls

Stretchy spine + neck

Elbow and knee attribute controls

Right-click popup marking menus on controllers

Basic facial rig to control expressions

If you would like to see some of these features in action, feel free to mosey on over to the reels section of my site and look at the third character on my rigging demo reel. I'm really quite proud of the features in this rig, and am excited at its final potential!

Of course, there are still some things I'd like to change and/or add to make the rig even better. For example, I'd still like to polish the deformations as it's still buggy in some areas. Also, the armor pieces on his upper body still behave rather quirky when placing Mr. Warlord into more extreme poses. Aside from that, I still have some features on my wish list:

1) Animatable pivot points

2) A facial rig that allows for customizable expressions, as well as a library of pre-made expressions for speedier animation

3) A manual tail rig for those that prefer not to rely on hair dynamics

4) "Perfect" transitions when switching between IK and FK mode, where either mode places the opposite mode's controllers in the correct positions, to make animating between IK and FK limbs quite easy.

5) A complete character GUI

6) A muscle system throughout the thicker parts of the body

With that wish list in mind, I'd like to point out that my #1 priority is to have fantastic deformations because no matter how many bells and whistles a rig may have, it's only as good as the deformations it creates in the character. Also, as stated before, I've currently got this project set aside in favor of other projects I am working on - but I will be returning to it shortly! Some of these "other projects" will be mentioned in another posting, and you'll understand why I focused more attention on them.

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FRUSTRATION

These "other projects" are not only other rigging assignments, but play in the realm of animation and graphic design. You see, I have to work on my other computer art skills not only to continue improving my skills as an artist but it seems that I have graduated in one of the worst times possible for someone my age. That, or I'm not quite up there yet to be seriously considered for an internship or entry-level position in rigging. The only other reason I can come up with is these positions just don't exist. Most likely, it's a combination of everything.

I've been quite fortunate enough to have loving parents that continue to support me in my worst of times and keep me going while being unemployed all this time. If it weren't for them, I would have had to swallow my pride and seek multiple jobs that are completely unrelated to what I've spent years of schooling for. Of course, that isn't so bad an option in itself, but it would have meant there would be much less time to continue polishing my artistic skills.

Whatever the reason for my inability to find employment since my graduation of May of 2009, I just wanted to publicly express my frustration and disappointment both with the job hunt and the lack of preparation my schooling provided its students. While I tend to avoid pointing the finger and throwing the blame on someone, I can't help but feel like my school let me out the door unprepared with a simple, "Good luck!". The work environment we were provided with and the skill set we were able to develop is fantastic and competitive with even the more expensive art schools for sure, but I feel as if it does not matter since nobody knows who we are.

The Visual Language program at UCF is still going through growing pains and its alumni suffer for it - which is a damn shame because the education and training its students get as animation studio artists is unprecedented. How many undergrad programs out there train their students to work in a simulated studio environment for over a year and focus on working as a big team within a studio? Better yet, how many undergrad programs like this exist in a public university that's actually affordable? There's just so much wasted potential there!

In fact, my only complaint with the program is its inability to train students on how to find work, after doing a fantastic job of teaching them HOW to work. The Visual Language program is a gem that the industry and general public are unaware of, and it's because of this that companies are overlooking the talent that comes out of it in favor of the talent from the current juggernauts such as Ringling, SCAD, etc. because that's what they're familiar with. I simply wish the faculty in charge of the program would take better advantage of their connections to put the program on the map and provide assistance/support to those they've trained. Where's the love, guys?

All that aside, I continue to remain positive that things will turn around soon enough. You should never give up on pursuing your dream because nothing is impossible with enough hard work and persistence. It's gonna happen - you just need the patience of a monk while you're busting your ass!

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POSSIBLE SURPRISE

So, there's a possible surprise I may have for you all in the near future, and it'll definitely involve this blog and some updates that'll hit it. I'd rather not go into details about it as nothing is set in stone, but you will be the first to know about it if it does happen! Stay tuned. :)

Oh, Those Crazy Camel Warlords

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:44:00 +0000

So, I'm working on a new character rig. He's a biped, humanoid (cameloid?) character - and so far he's the most developed and advanced rig I've put together. As you may or may not know, I've rigged several characters, but not one of them has been a completed biped character.

Thanks to Man Louk Chin (excellent modeler, btw), I now have a great character model to work with, and I have to admit this is probably my best rig yet. The only catch is, he's not finished!

I started working on this guy about a month ago, after Man Louk graciously offered to let me rig a character he designed and modeled himself. The thing that I love about this character is that it thrusts new challenges in my face, forcing me to think outside the box and experiment with techniques foreign to me. These challenges are brought forth by trying to figure out ways to make several parts of the character work together - and it's been a blast. In the pursuit of answers to these problems, I've been able to come into contact with other character riggers, as well as finding new resources of knowledge to tap into. For this, I say, "Thanks, Man Louk"!

First, this character is big and muscular - allowing the opportunity to incorporate a complete muscle system, which is something I've been quite eager to learn. Second, he's a camel-humanoid character, meaning he has these interesting humps above his neck, also providing a challenge when it comes to properly setting up the deformations around the neck area. Third, he's wearing an armored glove over one hand, which requires a little extra thought in not only the joint placement, but polygon penetrations and deformations along the forearm reaching into the glove. Lastly, he has a bouncy little tail that's absolutely perfect for setting up a dynamic joint chain that works with the camel's movement. While there are several more features I'm excited about learning and implementing, the previously mentioned features are my personal favorite.

So, enough with the chatter, already! Here's a pic to tease you with. :)

So, there he is! As you can see, he's pretty far along. Unfortunately (and fortunately), there's still quite a bit left to do and learn from working on this! Here's a full list of features:

Current features:

Functional IK/FK arms

IK/FK visual indicators

IK legs

Hair dynamics-driven tail

Master controller

Scaleable rig

Eye controls

Full body controls, including both hands

Stretchy spine + neck

Elbow and knee attribute controls

World space switching/dynamic parenting: arms, legs (using right-click menus)

Features to add:

Fully skinned mesh

Facial rig that is actually on the model

Jaw movement (either joint or blend shape driven)

Teeth connected to jaw joint(s)

Manual tail controllers

World space switching for: eyes (experiment with current method, using constraints instead of grouping)

IK/FK scripted transitions

Character GUI in its own window

More to come as the rig reaches completion!

More Atlas stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:35:00 +0000

So as I "promised" in the previous posting, I've decided to post some more tutorials I made during the production of Atlas. The two I'll feature are: a set of instructions I provided with two MEL scripts I wrote for selecting Atlas and Robofish's control curves, and a tutorial on rendering occlusion passes a particular way for a reason I'll describe in a caption below the image. Enjoy!

Character MEL GUI

So, this was one of my first times working with MEL scripting.
Looking back, I realize how primitive that character "GUI" was.
Still, it was a life saver (at least for me) during animation!

Rendering an Occlusion Pass
Before this film, none of us had experience with rendering passes.
I made this tutorial because nobody had been able to leave their
machine batch rendering all their passes due to the fact that the
occlusion pass would create an undesirable result due to a bug
with the visibility of objects in Maya 8.5. With this "ghetto"
technique, one was able to leave all their render layers to
batch render overnight, making things move much more
efficiently. I was quite proud of discovering how to do this
until I later learned a way to do it with half the work,
and within the Maya terminal so you didn't even need to
have Maya open. Oh well, it's all about learning, right?

It's pretty amusing to look back at these images and see the thought process going through my head only a few months ago, and how much I learned from those experiences. Growth is always a good sign (with the exception of tumors...)!

Some Atlas stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:48:00 +0000

As you may or may not know, I worked on a short film with a class of 24 other people called Atlas' Revenge. As you also may or may not know, we were students at the University of Central Florida, which means we were even lucky a program like this even existed for undergraduates. Knowing that, I want to make it clear that I'm very proud of the piece we created.

Frankly, I'm amazed Atlas' Revenge came out the way it did with what we had to work with: 2006 Apple iMacs, Maya 8.5 Complete, and a non-functioning server to work off of. If that doesn't make sense for you, I'll put it simply: mediocre machines, Maya without all the fancy cloth, hair, water, etc effects, and a lacking of a common medium in which to store our work files and work off of.

Due to the fact we didn't have a server to work with, we found ourselves running into a major problem: the inability to use file referencing in Maya. Without file referencing, each shot had a copy of the environment and characters in it, leading to much more work when it came to having to fix something with the environment or characters. Not only that, but the file size of each shot was unreasonably large. We also had to store each shot locally on everyones' computers, making it an absolute mess when it came to compiling the entire film, as well as leading to countless other headaches.

Even faced with these problems, we managed to work with them (that's what a good team does, no?) and created a film we are proud of. In this group, I was one of three technical artists selected for production of Atlas' Revenge.

As a technical artist I created character and environment rigs, and provided help to the rest of the team when called upon. I created the Robofish and Lloyd character rigs, some plant rigs for the "gripping with teeth" shot, and helped a bit on the Atlas and window blind rigs. As with any project of this type, just about every rig in the film had an unanticipated issue come up during animation that had to be addressed with a rather low-tech solution. Since each shot had its own copy of the character and environment rigs in it, fixing a bug in a rig was not as easy as sending out an updated copy of the rig and having everyone import it into their shot - instead, the easiest solution was creating an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to fix the bug and emailing it out to everyone. I tried to make them amusing - keyword: tried. So, without further ado, I present you two tutorials!

A fix for Atlas' dorsal fin

A brief fix to a kink in Robofish's hose

I have some other Atlas-related things to post, but I'll include them in a later posting.

Blog now integrated into my site!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:20:00 +0000

Hello there! I've finally got my blog integrated into my site, which means I'm finally going to give this blog the love it deserves! Up first is a post featuring some email fixes I sent out during the production of Atlas' Revenge; these fixes typically involved rig updates or how to resolve a common issue. I'm not sure how interesting they would be to you, but I figured they'd be something amusing to start with. They'll be up in the next post. Catch you later!

Hello, Hello, Hello!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Navarro) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:25:00 +0000

This is mostly a test post so I can understand how this thing works. It seems pretty straightforward, but a test is in order nonetheless! So I hope you don't mind when I sit here and grind, and test and test and test some more. I'm sorry to disappoint you if you were seeking something useful, but I do hope you'll come back when I pick up the slack and show you something beautiful. And by something, I mean many things.

Rhythm not intended.