They Might Be Giants together again with great animation (and a good message or two). Its like there is some kind of cosmic alignment of something.
Showing posts with label Three D. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Three D. Show all posts
Electric Car + Science is Real
They Might Be Giants together again with great animation (and a good message or two). Its like there is some kind of cosmic alignment of something.
Knight Games
2D and 3D blend in this clasic inspired film from Australian animator Christopher Minos. very nice.
Vice Versa
Wow, this is one of the most original pieces I've seen in a while. Love it. The animator Jacques Khori makes some really interesting films.
the ARC Beginners Rig Kit for Maya
Well its been a while between posts, Frank is off on an international research trip (I'm sure we will hear more about that later) and I have been working on this!
This is a selection of rigs for an animation student, they are set up to be as easy to use as possible. You can download them from Highend3D.
The idea for these rigs came up as a result of chance meeting with an old friend. I studied animation with Chris many years back, and to my surprise and delight he turned up at Krome as a new employee a few weeks back. His carear has taken him in a different direction, and these days he is charged with making our custom software easier to use and more productive. Its a field I find quite interesting, understanding the psycology behind someone using and learning a software tool overlaps quite a bit with my interest in education and teaching.
I also had some conversations with the teachers from my old job a week or two ago and was surprised to find that the number of students interested in 3D animtion has dropped away since I left. The course is targeted at young artists who have to submit a portfolio of drawings, it seems they are not finding 3D to be a very imidiate or intuative way of expressing themselves. I don't accept this, its different for sure, but while more technical in some ways it is also very empowing in others. The challenge is to find ways that a student can be productive, express themselves and learn about animation (as aposed to software) while using the 3D tools.
So I've been inspired to produce this set of rigs for students, if you can make key frames, move scale and rotate things in Maya then you are good to go. Just click things and manipulate them to see what happens, it should all be pretty obvious, there are no instructions. I hope you enjoy using them.
I excanged emails with some of the Friends of the ARC about this topic too, about ways to achive results without necisarily having to learn all of the animation tools in Maya from the outset. One particular tool that many artists new to 3D find baffling is the Graph Editor. Alonso sugested this plug in for Maya called TweenMachine, it allows you to control the spacing of your inbetweens in a way that is much easier to understand than the maths heavy Graph Editor. I think its a great alternative for those organic thinkers out there who are less inclined to use complicated graphs. A great find Alonso, thanks ;)
I also have another rig thats been up on Highend for some time now called Easy Man, he has just recently passes 20000 downloads.
This is a selection of rigs for an animation student, they are set up to be as easy to use as possible. You can download them from Highend3D.The idea for these rigs came up as a result of chance meeting with an old friend. I studied animation with Chris many years back, and to my surprise and delight he turned up at Krome as a new employee a few weeks back. His carear has taken him in a different direction, and these days he is charged with making our custom software easier to use and more productive. Its a field I find quite interesting, understanding the psycology behind someone using and learning a software tool overlaps quite a bit with my interest in education and teaching.
I also had some conversations with the teachers from my old job a week or two ago and was surprised to find that the number of students interested in 3D animtion has dropped away since I left. The course is targeted at young artists who have to submit a portfolio of drawings, it seems they are not finding 3D to be a very imidiate or intuative way of expressing themselves. I don't accept this, its different for sure, but while more technical in some ways it is also very empowing in others. The challenge is to find ways that a student can be productive, express themselves and learn about animation (as aposed to software) while using the 3D tools.
So I've been inspired to produce this set of rigs for students, if you can make key frames, move scale and rotate things in Maya then you are good to go. Just click things and manipulate them to see what happens, it should all be pretty obvious, there are no instructions. I hope you enjoy using them.
I excanged emails with some of the Friends of the ARC about this topic too, about ways to achive results without necisarily having to learn all of the animation tools in Maya from the outset. One particular tool that many artists new to 3D find baffling is the Graph Editor. Alonso sugested this plug in for Maya called TweenMachine, it allows you to control the spacing of your inbetweens in a way that is much easier to understand than the maths heavy Graph Editor. I think its a great alternative for those organic thinkers out there who are less inclined to use complicated graphs. A great find Alonso, thanks ;)
I also have another rig thats been up on Highend for some time now called Easy Man, he has just recently passes 20000 downloads.
The Beatles
Another amazing find Kristi sent my way..WOW. I've asked Kristi if she would like to post in the past and she has declined, but I think I'll put her on the side menu I'm making to list friends of the ARC anyway because she sends me great links and makes great comments. Thanks again Kristi
The Kinematograph
Regular ARC visitor and dear friend Kristi sent me a link to this preview for a film called The Kinematograph. Stunning detail, a gorgeous restricted colour pallet, stoic characters design (although perhaps not very expressive). Its well worth a look, thanks Kristi.
Reach - Luke Randall
Sarah and Cassie, two first year animators, drew my attention to this film in a research session in class today. It is an AnimationMentor student graduate film by Australian animator Luke Randall (showreel), who just got a job with Dreamworks Animation. Winner Judges Choice Grand Winner - Sydney Festival 09 IInet Get Animated; Winner 2nd Place Best Film - Stinkwater International Short Film Festival; Winner Award of Merit in Animation -The Accolade Film Awards 09 (USA); Winner 1st place Best Student Film - Southbeach International Animation Festival (USA); Winner Best Animation - DeReel Independent Film Festival; Winner Best Student Film - Newtown Flicks Film Festival; 2nd Place/Finalist - Cannes Short Film Corner Online Competition; more info...
Onwards
I don't post commercials very often, but this piece makes for such a beautiful study of timing and spacing. It seems more short film than ad, I especially like the simple opening, but its all good. Inspirational.
Newport Beach Film Festival
Check out the cheaky opening credits for the 10th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival.
Cool Script
I'm up to a bit of plotting and planning behind the scenes here, something that I'm hoping will ad to the value you get out of visiting the ARC blog. More on that later.
A byproduct of these shenanigans has been having a fresh look at some of the blog I respect out there and while doing that I stumbled across these sites linked to on the Monotreme Dreams Blog (heaps of good stuff there).
They are sites that have a whole bunch of free Maya scripts for animators that seem quite handy. Of particular note I think is the Key Wrangler on the Supercrumbly site, it has quickly become a constant companion when I'm animating, especially when I'm blocking out a scene and trying to find the right timing. If you are new to using scripts then Aaron Koressen has a document on his site here that clearly explains how to install and use them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)