Work in Progress - May 2009

TPD WIP - May 2009 from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.

May 2009 WIP video features a quick demo on how to use an existing mesh as a basis for a new character. The tools I use are nothing grand or advanced: simply enable your proportional fall-off tool, and grab (G-KEY), scale (S-KEY) and rotate (R-KEY) away.

From Public Album

The biggest thing you should get out of this tutorial is workflow. Sketching an outline based on an existing mesh is a great idea if you want to see where you're coming from and where you're going to. The new sketch will be accurate enough to model over. Secondly - you'll notice the time spent on the head is much greater than the time spent on the body.

There is much more detail in the head area, because ultimately, it will be the part most photographed, and the focus on about 90% of the animation.

The texturing and rigging will be the next task for these characters. They will probably share a similar skeleton structure, and because they share a similar topology, it should be pretty easy to rig one character based on the first skeleton created and tested... but that's a topic for another video! So stay tuned.

In other news - I've been doing some extra curricular stuff which you will be hearing about in the next couple of weeks. Some I can tell you about are a few up-coming podcast appearances. I'll be appearing on the following:

• Chris Oatley's Artcast

It was so cool having Chris on the process diary, he invited me onto his own podcast to continue our chat on new media and the working artist.

• 365 Days of Astronomy official podcast

As you are well aware, there is a fair amount of science in my fiction. I decided to join in on the fun for the official International Year of Astronomy podcast, and record a special episode (which the full version will be put on this feed) with Kynan Stephenson about terrestrial deep space astronomy and scientific accuracy in science fiction.

• Starship Sofa

I often lend my voice to stories on this podcast. For the past months, I have been reading several Cory Doctorow essays. This next one is especially pertinent to anyone who wishes to know about how to turn your geeky social media networking obsession into something tangible.

I will put up the relevant links to these shows when they become available on their respective feeds, but please google these now and find out all about them before hand!

Also - Marcello and I are working on a timeline, now. We're both collecting lots of ideas and tasks to get done, and while we've been getting through much, we're finding we want to do MORE. So next month, the discussion point and brainstorm is going to be dedicated to nailing forseeable dates for hitting milestones. End of this month - we're hoping to sign off on all models and sets.

Thanks for watching this month, and don't forget, iTunes listeners - keep those comments coming!


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Bonus Brainstorm 05-09

Bonus Brainstorm for May, 2009.

Cello and I are STILL writing! Today, you get to be a fly on the wall for a script re-drafting session. We discuss what we like, don't like, what we're happy with, and what is just failing to get there.

This writing session is a tad spoilery, but illustrated beautifully just what happens when you discuss ideas that have been tosses around for a little while, and how they finally collapse into an agreed-upon outline. I've beeped out the REALLY spoilery stuff, never fear. I left this session with a copy of the synopsis which I wrote as we went, and left Cello one. We're now both working on our own versions of the script, and will reconvene in a week to flesh it out.

On a technical note, I apologize for last week's episode. I've had several emails, iChat comments and voices from the Ether tell me that the episode is doing strange things. One is: it appears to be 2hours and 20 minutes. The other, is that on some players (only confirmed on gPodder for linux, so far) it repeats.

I am happy to say that I've fixed last week's episode. I've tried to keep the file size down, so 65Mb for an hour and ten minutes is pretty good (and the quality is damn fine, I must say). If you would like to re-download that episode, it might be friendlier to your iPod/Zune/mp3 playing device.

Please let me know of any anomalies like this. I really do appreciate it, and it helps me keep an eye on what goes out, as well as how you guys are digesting the show.

Finally, in other news, I am happy to say that the two lead characters have been modeled. The DVNR-1 is deep in design/modeling phase, but already, Cello is showing me some GREAT designs. Just a couple rudimentary sketches below:

From Public Album

From Public Album

From Public Album

Next week, I'll be putting up the usual May WIP video - this one is on re-modeling an existing mesh to create a new character. I hope you guys get some good knowledge out of this one.

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Discussion Point 05-09

Welcome to this month's discussion point for May, 2009.

Progress this week had been focused on modeling. Marcello has taken the initiative on redesigning the DVNR-1 vehicle. I have focused, instead, on the creation of the main characters. I have taken the template of Kynan's original models, and have extrapolated the topology of Winfield's mesh, and produced a "new" gestalt Marcus.

We have also been dissecting the script. It's mainly fine-tuning sections so that our environment speaks to the points we wish to hit. Marcus has got to seem as tho he knows the land, and give an accurate answer to the mission's objective. Winfield, on the other hand, needs to see some sense in what Marcus is saying, but also needs to show that he is in control. Ultimately, the environment must betray both of them, and cause our climax.

The major point of redraft at this stage is to create an environment upon which we can stage all our scenes and be consistent to all these concerns.

As a special bonus, this week, I present to you a candid talk with Illustrator, Chris Oatley. I think you'll agree that he's an inspiring guy. We talked about a great many things - both in this interview and then immediately after. Most interviews, once they get past the niceties and back-slapping, just... keep on going down more back-slapping. Chris got right into the meat-and-potatoes of the discussion. We managed to fit in such interesting topics as inspiration, the benefits (if any) of having an internet presence, and some really great stuff about other artists out there.

Images used with permission of Chris Oatley.

I couldn't believe I'd forgotten I was a Jim Henson fan, until Chris listed him as his main inspiration. I will be appearing on Chris' own podcast this month: Chris Oatley's Artcast. Don't forget to check me out there, as well as just check out his website in general. He also offers thoughts and feelings about being an illustrator, and about working in LA. As part of his "artcast" he offers videos on how he paints his artwork in photoshop. He dedicates alot of time not only creating the content, but also editing the audio to go with the video. I certainly have to give props to his dedication at producing such a quality piece of media - for FREE.

I hope you listeners get a lot of out of this. At about an hour, this is definitely one to have in the background while performing some mundane task, or on the iPod for that long commute to work.


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