Animation

If you ever wonder what soldiers do on a drill weekend.

Um, we do lot's of stuff. Hooah training exercises, high speed power point presentatons, and Robot Chicken.

Yes, when there is a lull in training, there is nothing we like to do more in our unit then quote Star Wars Spoofs.

EDIT - Eh, it was only a matter of time before that video was ganked from Youtube

I wanted to do a little stop motion animation for a while now, just to see if I could do it (hah, hahah!) and when I was telling people what I was doing, everyone immediately brought up Robot Chicken. If I am able to do anything with it (I got them sort of molded out, now I have to write a fifteen to thirty second script so I can time it just right when I'm taking the Photogs, then I have to find the right software to put it together) I'll post the finished product here for all to see. Expect it in about five months.

Put a Banana In Your Ear

Those of you who watch stupid internet movies a lot are probably familiar with Charlie the Unicorn. And how completely insane and stupid it is.

I love the damn thing. I get in a mood and I'll start quoting it. "We're going on an adventure, charlie! An Adventuuuuure. . ."

Well, they came out with a new one. And I've had the Banana song stuck in my head for a few days now.



So much that I actually did it. You know, it works. You have to be in a completely goofy mood to put a banana in your ear, you can't help but be happy, in a completly stupid sort of way.

School's out for the rest of the Year

So I'm done with school, for now.

This is a relief. However when I get done with my Drill Sergeant School, I'm not sure what is going to happen in regards to regular school. Whatever the case, I don't think I can come back until January term. And I might be cutting my workload to only one class a term, depending on where I am at during that time.

Anyway, my final project for 3D animation was creating an architectural structure. I admit, I completely shammed this piece, but I like how it turned out in the long run. I was doing something a lot more complex originally and that thing went to complete shambles. So although I would like this to look better then this, I'm ok with it.



There are some flaws, like the fire having a shadow, but I don't know how to do fire yet so I was compromising. And the exterior looks like it belongs on a model trainset or something. Still, I like this part of modeling better then character modeling, which will take me a long time to get the hang of. Meanwhile, I think I'm getting a better grasp of things so when I do come back to school, I don't think I'm going to be entirely in over my head.

3D Animations To Share

So, I uploaded my animations onto YouTube to share. No, they are nothing fancy. At all.

I don't know why they uploaded weird like they did, but the first moment is kind of weird looking.

They are all really quick, only a couple of seconds. And yes, the meshes aren't right, hes not skinned properly, and he has no eyes. But the character works for me.
The first one is a walk run excercise, where I had to do my character walking or running. He's running. I've only got one cycle though, I can't figure out how to loop it yet.


Here he is pulling on a box. This one may have come out most successfully.


And here he is pushing on a box. More fun.


His arms look like puddy at times and the mesh isn't exactly perfect, but I'm very excited to be able to understand how to do this now, I just have to iron out the details. Now that i know what I'm doing *sort of* I feel better about the software. THere is a lot of it I understand, like lighting *sort of* and cameras and now animation and all of that. Now I got to figure out the modelign and skinning better.

3ds Max is driving me insane, but I am getting it finally

I forgot to mention how I learned how to drive a boat last weekend. Good fun was had by all.

I'm starting to pick up on 3DS max, and I can tell you that after playing with this software, I have a lot of respect for people who can do this. It's tough! You have to get the timing just right and well, the meshes are more then enough to try to figure out without having your animation just blow up on you when everything is tweaked completely out of proportions. Eegh.

But besides the Mesh, I'm figuring this out and it's making me happy now. If I can play around with it some more maybe I will actually want to do this. And knowledge of the software will get me into the career field I want to get into I think.

Although I'm not sure I want to be a character animator anymore. It appealed to me once upon a time but holy hell it's tedious! I could probably do it if somebody else wants to model and skin the character for me. There is just so much to know.

My teacher mentioned that 3DS Max is capable of about 80,000,000 functions, or something insane like that. Meaning that I will never entirely understand this software. But good news, I'm in a better spot TODAY then I was yesterday.

Now, if only I can get those meshes to look right.

Aesop's Fables

So I mentioned that I'm learning Flash, and I had to do a 'fairy tale', with it being animated and everything. Well, my drawing tablet is on the glitch at the moment and I hate my voice, but I chose to do an Aesop's fable, the man, the boy and the donkey, and this is what came out.

No, the art is not that great, but seeing as I had a lot to do and only a short time to do it, I got it done and my teacher liked it anyway.



Some people should honestly take note. Let's just say that I'm sick of it now and will now just share it amidst my readers for them to decide.

The donkey is my favorite character in the whole thing.

More then Meets the Eye

I had an issue with trying to think of what to get my nephew Cody for his fifth birthday, when it kind of jumped at me while I was at work. I mean, I liked playing with them when I was a kid and now that there is a new movie out, they're making a come back.

Yeah, I got him a couple of transformers. I don't think he really knew what they were when he opened them up, as he was to caught up with his nerf toys, but hopefully when he gets them out of their packaging and realizes that they turn into robots he'll have a better appreciation for them.

But anyway, I might jump onto the bandwagon and get into a Transformers kick myself, because I'm a geek at heart and I'm all for things that bring on a nastalgic feeling in me. And holy crap, that movie is friggen awesome!

I think Transformers will be making a comeback this summer becuase I can predict that this movie is going to do well. I went and caught the first showing at 8 pm (strange time for a first showing) and was amazed at the level of animation. I'm an animation major, I can now appreciate the detail and tweaking that goes into modeling all those little parts and for them to shift and transform from a Chevy Camaro to a giant robot. I was amazed at this alone.

It was also amusing to sit in a theater with a bunch of twenty to thirty somethings who grew up on these things and were hooting and howling when Optimus Prime made his debut. They even had a couple people dressed up as Transformers in cardboard boxes running around at the front of the theater before the show started. Lot's of fandom and hollering going on, I shouldn't have expected anything less from a first showing.

The story is a little fast paced, but I didn't mind because it is VERY action oriented. And violent. There is lot's of stuff blowing up. I do recommend it however, to anybody who likes heavy action that features giant robots that turn into different kinds of vehicles and proceed to blow each other up.

Good old fashioned fun. I'll have to see if I can pick up some of the older cartoons just to see the difference, kind of like doing a comparison between old and new ninja turtles. That's always fun.

I Hate My Voice

I don't know what it is about it, but I think everyone hates the sound of their own voice.

I'm certainly no exception to this. I've gotten used to it, but I feel like I sound different then how I hear myself. Why do you suppose your voice does this? Its like you hear somebody else when you speak then what everyone else hears.

Aside from that paragraph making absolutely no sense, I just wanted to reiterate that I can't stand the sound of my voice.

And though I'm getting a grip on Flash, my animations aren't that great as of yet. Heck, their a blooming mess.

I should have my next animation up here soon, I like the story, but it is really painful to watch and quite frankly, I'm getting sick of watching and listening to it, as I'm narrating.

More Fun with Flash

It can be educational too!

This is a slideshow persentation of Spots on Horses. Although Paint markings aren't generally thought of as spots so to speak, but I don't care, I'll call it whatever I want. So, Paint and Appaloosa Marking, for those who don't know what they are.

I got the images all over the net, so if you are perusing my website and recognize one of the horses as your own and are upset with me, I apologize but do take note that I make no money off this website.

I felt like I had to go back again and again to make sure my Tovero example was in fact a Tovero. I might be wrong and it is actually an Overo, so if you know spots and horses and you see something on my presentation as incorrect, please enlighten me.

I can definitely see using this program more in the future.

My First Flash Animation

Yes, I am currently learning how to use Flash, however there are still quite a few things that I still need to learn about it. Like how to embed files so that they look exactly how I want them to look.

This file is VERY rough, as I ignored artistic talent in favor of actually making something that was animated. If you use Netscape, I'm sorry but I'm still trying to figure out how to embed objects for Netscape browsers and I can't test it to make sure it works, so you might not be able to see it. Also, you will need a Flash Player.



I call it Running Ferret. I can foresee using Flash a lot more in the future. It is lot's of fun!