Wildsided

Geico 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.....unless Gerry Deletes the Gecko.....then not so much

"Oh Fuchur, you are a Cad and a bounder old boy"

it's the famous Profumo Affair pose! Having just looked that up, yes indeed it is. I just like that whole concept. the whole 'yes boys I am naked and this is all you're gonna see'.

Hey guys (and possibly Gals), I've not posted in a while (Been busy getting the new review done. But I have been working on a couple of things. I've started the Epic Gamin Truck (The E.G.T) and also started taking the first tentative steps to overhauling the sets for the show. Anyone who has watched a few episodes of E.G will probs be familiar with this image. This is the backdrop for the room we affectionately refer to as 'Tech's basement' (See Episode 1 to understand why). As with all the current sets except the wall of the Games Lounge from the last episode, it's a static photograph. Albeit with some areas prepped for chroma keying like the big TV on the main set. I've wanted to update the sets into 3D for some time so today I sat down and started boxing out the basement. It's got no textures yet but I thought some of you might like to see.

Lookin' cool Spleen. Glad i'm not the only one getting stuff ready for Christmas in the middle of November

Ah I see the racks now, I dunno what else to say about the lighting. I like the idea that a cellar is a dark place, like attics should always be full of old but interesting things and cobwebs. have to admit that I'm always impressed by people that can do rooms. That's a skill that I've vastly under developed.

Nifty

Hi Holly, Don't know about more light, I think you've struck a nice ambiance with the lighting, I do think though that it might need a couple of wine racks on the walls. Just a thought. Dan

I mentioned before that Gwen didn't have a body...well not a proper one anyway, just a coat with arms sticking out of it and a t-shirt with nothing under it. So I've built her one and just for fun I've been playing around with reflections.

great start dude

Lol tell me about it. That's down to a cock up on my part. Tech was originally a life size stuffed model of a character called Shadow from a novel I was writing called Parallel Worlds: Elite Force. Then when I lost my job and decided to start making the show I cut up the original stuffed toy and modded it into a hand and rod puppet. This limited what I could do with him because (unless it was secured in his hand first) a rod puppet can't hold anything. So I modded the puppet again into a hand and glove puppet. However when I did so I put the sub arm, a sort of extra bit of material that's the same as the puppets arm to hide the operators arm, up near his elbow. When it should have been at the wrist. So now I have to have my arm in an awkward position to make it work and as such tech's arm has to 'float' in front of him. This is another of those 'need to fix that when I get a little extra time' situations. But since I've been doing the whole thing on my own since May getting some of this fabled extra time is easier said than done.

Thanks Rodney Now we have the run up to Christmas, which is gonna be a busy time, Things that I have planned include - A Body for Gwen because Due to the time frame I was working with I only modeled the parts of Gwen you could see. So underneath her clothes she's just thin air. This makes quick adjustments to her outfit a nightmare (hence the reason her Halloween costume was just an orange head band, cats ears and a color swapped + decal'd shirt. - A truck, I Don't wanna spoil the surprise but i'm excited for this one.) - A body for Tech, I want to test whether i could pull off a 3d body with a live action puppet head. This would enable me to make Tech much more expressive and dynamic without needing to make modifications to the puppet. I may even build him entirely in 3D and do a test with him that way. - A new set because currently we're on a 2D set image and other than dollying left and right (and zooming I suppose) there's not a lot you can do with it. What do you guys think? would Tech lose some of his charm if he was 3d? would doing so make it so i was over doing the 3D? Gimme your opinions.

Happy Halloween Guys! I just posted episode 16 of Epic Gamin'. It includes the completed Sonic Animation and of Course Gwen. Check it out at the link below http://blip.tv/EpicGamin/resident-evil-the...sode-16-5693813

Nice 'jiggle; physics on the lady in the red dress. Reminds me of Dead or Alive

Hehehe cute john. Very festive

That train is a thing of beauty dude.

Mine started doing that completely at random last night. Went from chor to model view and the textures went all screwy. Ah well they still look like they're sposed to when they render.

Very cool John, could be used to make a Dr. Who style time vortex

Been a couple of days since I checked in so I thought i'd post some more details and a sneak peak of the upcoming EG Episode. But first I'd like to talk about my set idea. It became apparent to me recently that my Laptop lacks the grunt to be able to do all the things I want to do with regards to A:M. Money however is way too tight to even consider upgrading it. So I've been doing my best to work around it. I'd originally gotten hold of a stage rip from Sonic Colors that I imported into A:M and started texturing. Originally I tried to make all the grassy areas out of Hair and the one time I managed to get it to render it looked pretty sweet. But any subsequent attempts (no doubt down to the fact that I'd added to the group size) resulted in a not responding message that didn't go away. So I tried to texture everything instead. That worked out a little better but when I tried making a test animation, again my laptop wept like a little girl and then passed out. So I needed a set for Sonic to run on that wouldn't need so many resources to render. After a little while of thinking I came up with the idea of a tube. With a large ring at one end. A backdrop would be placed on the back ring and BG and FG objects (along with Sonic) would be put onto the surface of the tube. To test the theory I built a palm tree and a platform and of course the tube. After some placing and rotating I ended up with this. here's a close up of the palm tree As you can no doubt tell the set isn't totally finished, the textures need re-doing and I need to make a backdrop. But here's a test render of Sonic running along while doing his dialogue. It's low quality to save space but it doesn't look too bad maximized. Sonic_Animation_test.mov

Awesome Mark, Love puppets (Hell i have a puppet on Epic Gamin'). I'll be keepin' my eye on this.

Here's a quick animation test I did for the skit. sonic_talky_test.mov I haven't CP weighted Sonic yet and there's no background

I'm sure there's probably a better way, but I do my phonemes by using muscle mode to make % poses for the major sounds like A-I, E, F, L. T. O and U. Then in the chor/Action import the sound and adjust the sliders depending on the sound on each frame. I do all the speech first, then go through and animate the bodies relative to the scene and then a 3rd pass for inserting random blinking (Again with a pose slider) But I have no doubt that the pros around here have much faster and more efficient ways of doing things.

I've never done any CP weighting before. I usually just go into muscle mode and smooth stuff out. But things like CP weighting are things I keep intending to experiment with. Just to clarify would I make the whole spline ring where the two bones meet 50/50?

Sorry to get off topic for a second here guys, but I just realized why I love 3D animation so much (Don't get me wrong I love 2D animation as well just for different reasons.) I remember as a kid I spent a lot of time playing with action figures, spaceship toys etc and making say he-man run and jump onto battlecat to race over and save the day. Most of the action took place in my head but it just occurred to me that 3D animation is the next logical step from that. When you make and rig a 3d model you're essentially making your own action figure and making them act out those scenes that were once reserved for inside your head. Anyway that's the end of that little outburst just thought i'd share.

Nancy, It was probably screen capture software like Cam Studio or ZD Screen Recorder