WE HAVE MODEL!

Well the start of one at least ;)

Tim came through and has gotten a great start on my boy model! Yay Tim!

I am Loving how close to the original design he's able to stay and aren't those shoes and the sleeves/pants adorable? Oh I'm so very excited about it! :)

Rigger

I have found myself a rigger! I should have my model soon and then I'll cement plans with my rigger. Thank goodness. . . Wasn't much looking forward to doing it myself ;)

Small Update

So school will be starting back up, and I'll be working to finish my scene and hopefully get some lighting in as well. I should have a model near the middle of January (Thanks to the awesome Tim Dawson) and then I'll have to spend most of my time looking for help with the rigging and weight painting and then get the tricycle up and modeled. . . then it's on to the animating!

More Development

Other than working on my paper, here are some more images of the neighborhood I'm working on! More houses and as promised, Mailboxes! ;)

Coming soon: Pools, cars, and more houses

Neighborhood

Quick Update, here's the beginning of the neighborhood:



Now I've had two feelings about the fact that the roofs are blue. Some think it's too unrealistic, others love it and say to keep it. Any thoughts?

Thesis Characters

Here are my sketches of my Thesis characters:



If all goes well, the wonderful artist and a long time, long distance friend Tim Dawson may be helping me by modeling these characters. Some examples of his work (both illustrative and animation) can be found here: Sycle.deviantart.com


Here's a preliminary model for the neighborhood house I'll be using in the animation:

I'm doing all the environment modeling, and currently working on variations of this house as well as color tweeking.

Here is a quick rundown of how the thesis film's story will run:

To demonstrate conspicuous and competitive consumption, an environment will be created in which a boy gets new tricycle, plain, simple, yet functional, and the boy is happy. A second boy rides by on bike with shiny reflector. The first boy feels discontent with his plain Tricycle. After adding a reflector to his bike, second boy rides by with reflector and a flag. Again, first boy is discontent until he adds a flag. The two boys go back and forth adding more items to the bikes, until both bikes are so overloaded that neither boy can move them. Third boy rides by on a plain but functional bike, happy as can be. Original two watch the third boy with jealousy, wishing their bikes would work once more. Scene ends with first boy’s wheel falling off. Animation is to be completed in 3D, with a cartoon simplistic style.

And here is my paper proposal ti give an idea of what I'll be writing about

Conspicuous and Competitive consumption are characteristics of human society. Instead of buying necessary items, purchasing decisions are influenced on what is bigger, brighter, and more expensive. These items function to superficially elevate the owner’s status of wealth, social standing, and ego. As Richard G. Lipsey, and Colin Harbury point out in their book First Principals of Economics, “Some consumers may, for example, buy diamonds not because they really like diamonds, but because they wish to display their wealth in an ostentatious, but socially acceptable, way.” This thesis will provide an animated visual equivalent of this observation.

I also plan to add a section to my paper dealing with the interaction, cooperation, and collaboration between artists/animators around the world via the internet.