Thesis Full Playblast!

So here's the rough cut of my thesis film! It's taken forever, but I finally feel like I'm nearing the end!

First Rendered Scene!

This is just a render test, I still have some animation to tweek, but it'll give everyone an idea of what the finished film will look like and I have to say I'm pretty darn pleased!

HUGE Update!!

Well all the time I've spent pushing the darn rock up the hill has now Paid off as I find myself Sprinting after it on the downhill side!!

I got my rig in an ready to animate (Thank you Cheryl!!)
And the awesome Jeremy Vickery Gave me some Wonderful Lighting tips!
And then I Threw a texture on our boy model and Voila!

We're ready to roll!

ooOOOoooo Aaaaaahhhh

Here's the Textured version of my tricycle! :D

Zombie Character

Here's some of the blendshapes I worked on for my character
(Blenshapes are basically the expressions the character will use in the film and can be turned on and off)

Here's a preview of things I've modeled for the thesis so far! Some are colored, some not. Basically these are some of the 'additions' that the boys are going to be loading up their bikes!

Animatic!

I finally have my animatic for the film finished and I'm pretty happy with it!

PLEASE NOTE:
~An Animatic is like a rough draft. Being such, it's very limited animation, the colors/textures are not correct, and the model isn't quite finished.

~The boys heads will not be different colors, the 'blond' one will actually have different hair and a different outfit.

~Obviously since the Character/rig is not finished there are no real facial expressions, that will change.

~Hopefully even though it's rough, the idea of the story will show through.

Enjoy!

We have Rig!

Everyone say hi! We officially have a rig for my little guy! It's still not completely skinned and the face still needs to be finished (though Jason is working on it) but other than that. . . WE HAVE MOVEMENT! :)

Tricycle Progress

So I'm working on Modeling the tricycle and figured I'd put a WIP image up for whomever wants to see it ;) It'll probably go through a bunch more changes and of course it's unfinished, but it's coming together pretty well so far :)

More small updates

I figured I'd upload a nicer version of my Thesis setting, with houses on both sides and everything!

I'm currently working on finding a rigger, and I have to say I'm very stressed out because of the horrible length of time the character has taken to get modeled. Don't get me wrong I really love how it turned out and appreciate all the help I got from Tim and am still getting from Jason but geez! It's been what, 6-9 months? o.o so I have some major time to catch up on.

Another Small Update

First and foremost I believe I have found a working title for my film: Life Cycle. Seeing as it's about tricycles I thought it was clever ;)

Secondly after many jittery months on my part I'm looking at the soon finish of my model! My Friend and Professor Jason Maurer (Co Director and Co Writer of the recent movie Delgo as well as one of the heads of Fathom Studios) Will be tweeking and finishing my model (Mostly adding eyes) so it will finally be ready for rigging!

On my side of the work, I'm going to be (finally) putting together an animatic for the film, as well as modeling the tricycle with it's many additions.

Model Update

We have a new version of the model and I must say, TIM IS AWESOME! I'm SO excited how he's turning out and he's looking exactly as I envisioned him :D (man I love those little shoes!)

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.

Thesis

Hello!

This is a place where I will place my thesis progress, both film and paper (though mostly film) complete with photos. I am open to critique (negative and positive) and suggestion so if you have something to say please feel free!

More to come soon!

Kat Allen