So its no big secret that I am always looking to improve my workflow and streamline my 3D work.

I have so much content wasting away on my hard drive, it seems almost a crime to not be using it for something.

I have been working on writing and building the characters for an animated short for sometime now, but it’s only recently that I feel I have been able to make any headway.

This is a quick render from 3DS Max 2010 using some Daz3d content.  I am using Finalrender for the main renderer, and I really like how things look.
I will be posting a character gallery soon, and I am already working on the first script.

I was working on doing a turnaround for the character (that’s why she is on the stand) when I thought, I need to put her in a cool environment.
One thing leads to another and suddenly it is LATE at night.
But everyday, I make a little more headway.

Here is a quick shot from Maya showing one of the sets for one of the music videos I am doing for 10 Million.

I wanted a very urban scene.
You can see alot of tri’s, but I was looking to get something done quickly, and since there won’t be any deforming it’s not really an issue.

downtown is trouble

I know all the horror related projects seem to have gotten the green light around here, but there are still plenty of other things waiting in the wings.

Good times ahead!

A quick FX test shot for the HorrorHouse Project.

I fired up Maya and rendered out a quick shot of the tentacles,
to see how well they would integrate with the test footage I shot of the bedroom.

The animals are Lewaines…really

Things are moving quickly, and I hope to have the trailer online this weekend (the first weekend in May).
The script is written, and about half the shots have at least a basic storyboard done.
I will post more of that workflow here this week.

will write up more later, but here is part of something fun I have been planning.

So when I am not writing (rewriting??) scripts, or hammering out fx shots, this has been keeping me busy.
A sneak peek at the character design for an animated project.

It’s a rough design, but it’s getting closer…

So I worked this weekend on compositing footage from the screentests with some FX footage.
This is a very rough cut, but I wanted to put this up as a before scene.

There are actually 4 separate shots combined into this quick clip. This was a quick study in camera matching. Next, I will redo the shots entirely in 3d space, and build up an environment around the scene, instead of it just being a black backdrop.

By next weekend, all the snazzy FX will be added, and the rough spots ironed out.

Click to play

This is from a story idea that has been in my head for about 20 years now.

Rough draft of something cool.  Thing very retro/mod/sci-fi fairytale.

ARRRGHHH!

I have not found a 3D program that just knocks my socks off yet.

So I have decided I am going to try out the last in the big 3, XSI.

I like what I see so far, and version 7 looks like it has some out of the world features, and the UI for ICE just looks so sweet.

So I am going to do my first 3D short in XSI. I hope to have it released around christmas.
I will post more here about it as I flesh out the concept art and model sheets.
I already have an outline of a story to build into the script.

here is what will be animated into the hotel short. Thousands of these will stream out the window and chase our hapless heros!