We have taken a fairly crude approach to developing the elements of our scenes. We model everything. Eric, who seeks a future in game graphics is paving the way for mixing in some image texturing as a less resource intensive way of giving the visual feel of an object without actually modeling it.

For example we modeled three planes and positioned them at various depths to create a Mediavision. Instead of modeling a view screen and drapery around the screen as designed by Christy Sotta, we simply used your original drawings as a texture to fake the modeling for the scene.

Eric is also looking at the UV mapping function in Blender which allows us to unwrap a 3D model into 2D space so we can then draw or paste an image onto it. Its specifically useful for creating some of our puppets where we only plan on one wardrobe and don’t need variation in facial expressions.

At some point soon we will be able show everyone a modeled character versus a “half” modeled character with UV mapping to see the difference.

Check out the new short from the Blender Foundation.

http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/

A couple of weeks ago Jill was working on the first scene located in the Brothus Nightclub. We had a few characters in the scene with partical hair that went crazy when we upgraded to the latest version of Blender. Version 2.46 just came out as a post “Big Buck Bunny,” version of Blender and it has some great advanced features that we are struggling to keep up with and incorporate into the project as appropriate. A complete re-write of the partical system with hair specific features was one of the upgrades, so our character files didn’t know what to do and when we opened them. The entire characters had become giant fuzz balls!

So we promptly made our characters bald to continue with blocking/animating the scene until we have time to get up to speed with the new hair features in Blender.

Jill also had been aching to explore an idea she has been developing for a while for an “signature” opening sequence for Imaginarium Foundation, similar to the “Boy fishing off the moon,” seen in SKG films. So setting the fuzz balls aside, Jill proceeded to sketch out a storyboard for the entire sequence so we could discuss the shots we projected would be needed to realize her vision. The next step Jill completed was creating models for the basic elements in the first few shots. Now she is entrenched in the process of setting up the animation for the first couple of shots. We’ll give you a preview of the sequence once we have shots nailed down.

When Tony was learning to sketch storyboards, he had a particular drawing style for Tigras’s hair that we fondly referred to as the “Helmet.”

So when Wally began creating the 3D puppet model for Tigras last week and asked, “How do I create his hair?” The answer seemed obvious. Make a helmet!

In the spirit of Tony’s stylized character portrayal, Wally modeled blond helmet hair, using a helmet shaped mesh with an image texture of blond hair strands.

As a comparison, here is sample of what we have done when we wanted to get a little more serious about hair.

These are just for fun of course. Since we plan on shooting live action and are only modeling basic characters as place holders, it doesn’t really matter whether we use Helmet Hair or more complex partical system hair strands, for the purposes of our 3D previs animatic.

  Dining table by Tony B.
VG is the acronym the characters in our story use for a popular drug called the Venus Gas.

Tony has been modeling set elements for Michael’s VG lair. Its a large set with various unique props and set dressing. Tony started with created Michael’s rocket propelled hovering Mediavision unit. Last week we created the dining table and chairs. Coming soon is Michael’s VG Tub!