Parlo

Yep, it is melancholic.. partly by design and partly by accident I suppose. The colour scheme has been hard to work out because, in that shot, he's somewhere with no 'real' source of light whatsoever. Black frames would be accurate but slightly less interesting in my opinion! I did a lot of tests and found that creating a muted palette gave the impression of light that was bounced off of the walls - skycast was a great help in this. He's just woken up and is disorientated thus the muted tone fits his mood well, and the lighting situation is about to change dramatically a few shots from this so the current state helps to accent the transformation. I might add a tiny bit of rim light just to help strengthen his silhouette. It's not a candle... and he can't work out what it is in this shot either.... thanks for the comments.. I've been working on this in a vacuum for quite a while now, it's good to get some feedback.

I thought that it was time I posted something more substantial so here's a still from my new short "12". I can't say enough about Skycast and how much it has helped me so far with this project - the ambient light effect here is created entirely with that rig and it not only looks sweet, rendering it doesn't take an age either. Thanks to those who've helped out on the screw heads - I ended up using what I'd already built as skycast is very forgiving when it comes to minor flaws in patches. Did I say that it was rather good? There is still a bit of texturing work to do, but I've made good ground with the animation. I'm working to release the first episode of "12" by mid December - pay projects are starting to eat into my time again... Anyhow, looking forward to all your critical views.

I had this same scaling and positioning problem when I shifted over to 10.5 - I found that if you save the project in 10.5 (using a different name just in case) close it then reopen, everything returns to as was before. Strange but true. The data is still there, 10.5 just needs a bit of help finding it.

Awesome! Toot away! Looking forward to seeing the DV version.

Really nice piece of animation. I particularly like the circular nature of the whole thing, and that heart has a personality. Strong work.

Thanks for all the encouragement and such. I'm currently having fun(!?) rigging a spring - a spring model not a cloth system spring. In the meantime I've been doing more actual animation than I've done in a long time. I'm very very thankful for the discovery of coffee. Expect some more "12" images v. soon.

gudi3d - thanks, that's the kind of compliment that helps you through the hard stuff! zack - 'we', in terms of "Dark Dark", are myself, my composer and a handful of associates who are working on it in a part-producing-part-developing capacity. As far as modelling, rigging and animating I'm the only person on the project. The greater 'we' are Naughty Pictures, which is the company with which I do all my other work. The only permanent member of staff here is me... everyone else comes and goes on a freelance basis when projects need them. Naughty Pictures does a wide range of things from corporate work to theatre, from tv stuff to print design. My background is as a theatre director, which used to be my day job but has somewhat taken a backseat in recent years. The two biggest projects at the moment are a new tv series and a live-action short. It's all go I can tell you.

I'm hand modeling - well lathing and extruding mainly. Bit fiddly but gives me the control that I'm after. As for "Dark Dark" these are some of the more recent stills that can be found on our website. Many of you will be very familiar with them but again, I like to hold as much back as possible - life's bad enough with tell-it-all trailers for 'real movies'...

It's coming along pretty well thanks for asking. The innards are getting there - modeling the cogs is proving to be a bit of a chore but well worth it. The outside of the clock is finished, for the time being anyway, and I'm now enjoying animating the 'main character'. I want to keep him under wraps for the time being (excuse the pun) because alot of the fun of the piece will be based around him and I don't want to ruin that for anyone! I'm working towards producing a short 50 sec "proof of concept" piece to show by the middle of november. The final work will be around the 5 minute mark (the proof of concept being the first 50 seconds of it). I've finally given it a name too - the piece of work that has thus far been known merely as "that clock thing" shall now be called "12". It'll all make sense in the end. Oh, and anyone who has been around long enough to remember "Dark Dark", we finally have a completion date in our sights of august next year - the plan is to screen it at a horror film festival here in London. The project is still being worked at on an almost daily basis and since it was first started in the autumn of 2000, it's premiere will put it at almost 4 years in the making. Those who have seen the current "work-print" are as excited as I am tired and the score is likely to blow people away. "12" has occured as an a sort of antidote to "Dark Dark", as such a long term project can feel too much like the day-to-day grind of commercial work for it to inspire late nights. More info will emerge nearer the time. Anyhow, this won't get the work done. Thanks again for the interest.

You've probably already addressed the probelm - but I agree with Smudge about the legs on the adult. They look like they are made out of twiglets at the mo. Other than that nit-picking detail - really strong characters, though the kid scares me more than a little...

That's gorgeous William! I even hear the ET music in my head as I watch it - it's probably beyond the brief, but it would be particularly cute if at the very end the ship streaked from right to left across the screen... perhaps something to consider for the showreal. I especially like the work on the light "chases" - action or pose, light or surface?

I really like all three characters. I'd make the sunglasses more uniform though, more like each other and more 'traditional' in style if you know what I mean. At the moment the extreme difference in the 3 pairs somehow draws attention to the fact that the three models were altered from one original. If all three of them had similar glasses it would accent the different shapes of their heads more. Sounds contrary but give it a try.

I like him alot especially his white socks and stylised features - how did you get the detail at the bottom of the shirt, it's a great touch?

- repeat posting due to forum freak out - Oh.... and I'm not slightly nuts, I'm completely mental.

Thanks guys. The innards of the clock are coming along nicely, as is the clock itself. I'm trying for a more cartoony style than I'm used to doing and am enjoying wittling down the details. I should have some more pics to post by the end of the week.

Nice work - for some reason it makes me think of Dr Seuss. I'd make the hair thicker at the base, it's a little bit too wirey at the mo (IMHO).

For those of you who remember, I've been working on a personal project involving a clock - a clock which I'd ideally like to have fully animated inner workings. Following the honed wisdom of Vernon "I make paper clocks" Zehr I've bought a working cardboard kit clock and have begun constructing it with the intention of duplicating the mechanics in A:M. Now in the mean time, whilst waiting for glue to dry, I've build a very simple facade for the clock in A:M. This has also given me the opportunity to play with some of the new render features of 10.5 - namely mulitpass ray width shadows and multipass DOF. Here's a 32 pass test - There are no materials yet and just one decal for the clock face. Everything else is just standard surface settings, and a small amount of noise added in photoshop.

Yep it is - for some reason I got the title wrong, which is pretty hard to do seeing as my copy sits ontop of my monitor the whole time. You're walk is much improved - it'd be easier to see the movement if you take the animation out of the light. I still think that you could make more of his body movement and I can't see much side to side action yet. But as i say, it's getting real good.

Great work so far - the motion of the limbs is good and the feet have got a nice flop to them. You need to build up the movement of the body itself with backward/forward, side-to-side and up/down motion to show the shifts in weight as he goes from one foot to the other. Stand with both feet together then raise a foot without moving your pelvis. In order to start walking you're gonna have to fall forward, down and slightly to the side in the direction of your raised foot so that it makes contact with the ground and your pelvis/weight is positioned over it. You'll find that your knee wants to bend to cushion the weight shift, thus moving your entire body further down. Now raise the back foot and repeat.... These shifts are what are missing from your walk. (Obviously there are infinite variations on what I just described but these are the basics). The body looks like it should be quite heavy to me as does the head which perhaps needs to bob along with the body. If you haven't got it I can't recommend the 'Animator's Handbook' by Richard Williams enough. His disection of walks is truely awesome. Keep up the good work

Lance - My only suggestion would be to add more beveling, especially to the work surface and the cupboards above. This'll help give the scene more depth. Strong work so far though.

thanks for the comments, Yes the hair is a little on the dark side - I've been playing with that texture for a while now, but I'm getting there. As for seeing him animated - well I might publish a few tests but it'll be a while before you see him in his starring role (or should that be staring!)

Well you got your money's worth with that 8 hours! Great model, reminds me quite abit of Prince Harry (but perhaps that's just 'cause he's ginger). Great model.

I find the armless-floating-hands fascinating - they remain 'readable' almost all the time. Nice styling all round methinks.

I posted these to the list a while ago but I just love fiddling with forums so much that !WHAM! here they are again. I haven't done any work on him for a while so would be interested to hear some more opinions.

I think he's got a great profile - it has the feeling of a stop-motion puppet which I really like. A great piece of 'simple' design... I look forward to more. (you could use the new dynamic constraint to great effect on that hair!)