Friday 28 August 2015

The Snazzies: Saggy Hitch & Rocko BG Poses

Hey Catherine,

I thought I would finish this thought with a little post just so you can show any passers by with ease the poses in action. I thought I would keep this just for the textured versions only mainly this is to show what I can do beyond the initial pose concept. Anyway I created these textured versions with a simple background and in some places added some sheen or drop shadow. Its essentially making renders into concept art.

The first pose is a Spanky Elvis jump pose. In the Saggies case I had to elevate the legs a little more to get the knee bend I wanted. This makes it similar to the original reference. I created the closed fist in the right hand by coiling his belt arm. The closest leg is at the end of its foot roll capacity as is Elvis's in the reference. Elvis's eyes are also looking down/closed closest I could get was closing his eyes.

The second pose is based on the Olympic athlete "Usain Bolt". The difficulty here was finding the correct orientation for the waist and trying to simulate that within the constraints of the Saggies belt arms. I also wanted the arms to line up in the shot which meant moving the composition of the shot to fit the correct pose angle. The arms as always are a difficult thing to navigate due to their gradual default rotation.

The third pose is based on the internet sensation "Gangnam Style". This pose pretty much fell into place until I got to the length of the belt arms. It might be recommended in the future that we come back to give the arms additional functionality. The pose required close examination of the arm rotations. I adjusted lighting and texture detail of this pose within Photoshop to make it punch out beyond the basic Maya mental ray render.

The fourth pose is... you guessed it "James Bond". This pose was relatively simple to create with the main issue being the arms eclipsing the Saggies face. In order to angle the gun exactly like the reference the arms would cut the face from the shot. Instead I opted for a lighter touch to keep the face a pivotal part. The background was dropped in from a google image search. The tux underwear was added as a gimmick after the bolt image.

The fifth pose is Michael Jackson's thriller zombie pose. My only concern with this pose is it might be a bit more zombie then an iconic Michael Jackson pose, that being said its still a valid idea. The difficulty here was once again with the arms which I had to temporarily lengthen to achieve the desired result. I moved one of the eye controls out of sight so it would look like he was missing an eye. I also utilized his tongue.

Last but not least is the Iron Man Pose. My only concern with this one is I believe I turned the belt arm the wrong was so it doesn't look like a fist impacting the pavement. There was a lot of retouching done in Photoshop particularly the smoke effects and eye auras. I did my best in a brief time to imitate the details in the iron man reference. There was a difficulty moving the back leg into the correct position while keeping the knee bent.

I hope that you like these Catherine, I did have a bit of fun making them I have to say. Lets hope the group shot we do when we meet will come together just as well. I think the boxer costumes could work from time to time, just food for thought.

Ill talk to you later!
xXStItChXx

Saturday 22 August 2015

The Snazzies: "Rocko" Saggy Model Complete

Hey Catherine,

Well we are at the very last Saggy "Rocko" and I have to say it feels like forever ago we started this its been quite a journey ha-ha. The characters are all very appealing and seem to have their own quirks which is great. We will continue to communicate this on the animations but even and a very basic level they are their own characters which is great. Its not easy to make the same kind of mesh unique so its good to feel that.

The mouth shapes above again communicate the vocal phonemes the character will be using to talk. I have tried to separate them slightly but there were some which have to remain very basic to communicate accurately. Again I won't know for certain if these work without testing them with audio. I plan to do that before we get stuck into the animation. Its best we find out before we are knee deep in an animation so I will get that going next.

The video above are Rocko's expressions. There was a slight issue with his default mouth being so close to a smile already. This is why its always best to use a standard bored expression as default so then you can turn on happy. You may wish for us to create a "standard" mouth shape so you have that option. I know Ross did it so the character would be different but everything starts with boredom you can create a range of expression after.

Last but not least is the Rocko motion test. I worked a little harder on this one trying to finesse the movement a little more within my 100 frame boundary. I couldn't though (I went 10 frames over). This is why the motion is fast, I was trying to do more with less. Still its pretty fun to see him moving a little more realistically. I worked harder on this one then the basic initial "Tim/Hitch" and a more then "Stitch" too. I hope you like it!

Well that brings the Saggies to a close for now.
3 down!! We are nearly there!!

xXStItChXx

The Snazzies: "Stitch" Saggy Model Complete

Hey Catherine,

Okay the Stitch Saggy is complete from my end I hope it is acceptable and I would like your confirmation via email that all is good with it. I have essentially duplicated the same videos and image for each Saggy so you can give an accurate approval of the work carried out. We like to know that you are happy with the results so we can move forward with the next steps. Apologies for the crude animation its just test movement.

The image above are Stitch's phoneme shapes which may slightly vary across each Saggy as to individualise them. This was one of the reasons me and Ross were hoping to divide them so each would be unique so instead I had to simulate it on my own. Again I hope these are all acceptable. They were not a quick job as I'm sure I told you Stitch has a little problem but we can navigate around it so don't concern yourself, we know what we are doing.

The next video is some expression roughs as before. There is a slight issue with the Sad expression and the eye blink. You can get this on occasion with face shapes sometimes you exaggerate the expression and it eclipses the boundary of another control. I'm hoping it wont be an issue but if for whatever reason it does we will be ready to create an alternative sad brow/eye shape. Other then that everything has gone smoothly so onwards!

Last but not least is my run of the mill 100 frame movement test. Apologies for having to make the frame counts so brief but it takes literally an entire evening just to get 100 frames. I just want these videos to demonstrate the potential of the character. You will see that more as we get stuck in to the animation going forward but this is just for your confirmation of the characters as they are. Confirmation is how I gauge our success.

I hope you like these posts (1 more Saggy to go!!)
2 down!! Woop Woop!!

xXStItChXx