Crimson Sails

I'm excited to bring you an update on our newest project!  It's a stand alone episode for a sci-fi, space action-adventure that we may develop into a full series.  Since getting the workstations and office set up, I've been hard at work crunching on character/vehicle designs, refining the story and doing all the character setup in 3d.

I've always been really inspired and influenced by the first "Ghost in the Shell" movie.  I chose to reference that style because I felt it was closest to the aesthetic I'm trying to achieve.(stylized realism)

That's all I have for today.  Next time I'll have a bit more to show.

Until then, stay tuned!

Making a hero...

Greetings friends!!  Zer07 and I are working hard on our original animated series called, "Aram."  It's going to be a daunting task producing the pilot between the two of us, but we are really excited about this project.  We're currently in the pre-production phase, hammering out the story and establishing the look.  The first character we designed is our hero, "Raeden."  

Our plan for the animation process is to utilize CG models as a base for our characters, and draw over these CG models in 2D.  (You can get an idea for this process in Zer07's post:  3D to 2D workflow - use the tools.)  The hope is that by having CG characters as a base, we will be able to maintain a consistent style (what traditional animators call, "staying on model") while keeping the animation and aesthetic quality high.  

Here is the CG model that Unit Zer07 created for Raeden:

Zer07 has already finished rigging this model, which means that we can pose him and start animating him however we like!  As you can see, this CG model is low resolution, which means that we need an official 2D character sheet to establish the fine details that will go into the drawings.  (Traditional 2D animators use character sheets to make sure they are consistently drawing the character exactly the way they're supposed to look.  This is "staying on model.")  Below is my 2D version of Raeden:  

(He's wearing a skin-tight suit which will include some patterns that we have yet to design.)  Keep watching for more updates!  

Let There Be Toys! Part 1: CG Modeling

010000100110010101100101011100000010000001000010011011110110111101110000001011100010111000101110

Scene from "The Last Cookie"

Today we're going to give you a look into the process for creating a toy.  The first toy I'm attempting to make is a figure of the younger sister from Shiro Ninja's short film, "The Last Cookie".  The first step will be to create a computer generated 3-dimensional sculpture of our toy.

Below are a few work in progress images of the CG sculpture:

There are a few finishing touches still needed for this model.  Once done I can move on to the next step of prepping the model for a process called "Rapid Prototyping" or "RP".  RP allows us to quickly see how the character is going to look in its final toy form.  Look forward to part 2 where I will prepare the finished model for Rapid Prototyping!

-07-

3d to 2d workflow - "Use the Tools"

01000111011100100110010101100101011101000110100101101110011001110111001100100000011001100110010101101100011011000110111101110111001000000111001101110000011000010110001101100101001000000111001001101111011000100110111101110100011100110010000100100000001000000101011101100001011101000110001101101000001000000111010001101000011001010010000001110110011010010110010001100101011011110010000001100010011001010110110001101111011101110010000001100001011011100110010000100000011100110110010101100101001000000110000100100000011100000111001001101111011000110110010101110011011100110010000001110111011010000110010101110010011001010010000001001001001000000111010101110011011001010010000001000011010001110010000001100001011100110010000001100001001000000111010001101111011011110110110000100000011101000110111100100000011000110111001001100101011000010111010001100101 ...this 2d anime inspired animation test.




Making of:

 

(For the previous post about this process click here)

Densetsu no Kurotsuki Part 1:

01100111011000010111010001110100011000010110100100111010001000000111011001100101011100100110001000101110001000000111010001101111001000000110101001101111011010010110111000100000011101000111011101101111001000000110010001101001011001100110011001100101011100100110010101101110011101000010000001110100011010000110100101101110011001110111001100100000011010010110111001110100011011110010000001101111011011100110010100100000011011100110010101110111001000000111010001101000011010010110111001100111

Greetings fellow robots! Unitzer07 here with a super ultra update!

One of our goals here at Studio Gattai is to eventually develop our own original animated series. Because we love both computer animation and 2D animation we have been trying to figure out the best way to use the strength of CG with the style of 2D. In the past, cell shading has always been disappointing, so I wanted to avoid that look at all costs. So the question remained...how do we combine both styles?

I recently re-discovered my college thesis animation called "Densetsu no Kurotsuki"(Legend of the Black Moon). At the time I was trying to create an Anime intro using CG animation despite having pretty much no practical CG or animation knowledge. (I'm ambitious, what can I say...) Watching my old thesis inspired me to use the characters as an experiment to test our new animation ideas.



I used the classic anime run cycle from my favorite "Naruto" intro as animation reference:

Then, I re-designed and re-created my character in CG and animated him to match the cycle's poses:


From there, I brought the animation into a 2D animation program called TVpaint and traced my CG character to create the animation you saw at the
top of this post.

This run turned out to be a perfect way to test both this "Draw-over" method of animation and a new way of rigging that I had devised. For you fellow CG nerds, there is no IK in this rig and the only FK is on the fingers and jaw. I had originally imagined this rig when I finished reading "The Animators Survival Kit" a few years ago.

Look forward to a completed clip of this run cycle animation as well as an extra surprise animated clip!!

beep boop,

-07-

Update:  For the finished animation, click here

L5: The saga begins

011010010110111000100000011100110111000001100001011000110110010100101100001000000110111001101111001000000110111101101110011001010010000001100011011000010110111000100000011010000110010101100001011100100010000001111001011011110111010100100000011100110110001101110010011001010110000101101101001011100010111000101110

Beep boop, greetings fellow robots! unitzer07 here with a big update. I've been spending a lot of processing cycles working for a dear friend on a web series pilot called "L5". I'm happy to say that the project is nearing the finish line and will premiere Feb 21st. Check out the official trailer:

Booting Up...

01110101011011100110100101110100001000000111001101111001011100110111010001100101011011010010000001110011011101000110000101110010011101000000110100001010011101010110111001101001011101000010000001100100011001010111001101101001011001110110111001100001011101000110100101101111011011100010000000111010001000000011000000110111000011010000101001100010011011110110111101110100011010010110111001100111001000000110111101110011001011100010111000101110

A quick update from animation on the upcoming series L5. Here I animated the ship's intelligent computer booting up and performing maintenance tasks. All the pretty floating screens were added after I was finished with the animation.

L5 - Clarke from Stanley Von Medvey on Vimeo.

-07-

200 years later and still...

010000010110011001110100011001010111001000100000011001110110111101101001011011100110011100100000011001000110111101110111011011100010000001100110011011110111001000100000011011010110000101101001011011100111010001100101011011100110000101101110011000110110010100100000010010010010000001101000011000010111011001100101001000000110011001101001011011100110000101101100011011000111100100100000011000100110010101100101011011100010000001110010011001010111011001101001011101100110010101100100

Greetings fellow robots!

UnitZer07 here with a long overdue update.

Many things have been going on in the past few months, so let's start with the big news. This year I have existed for a complete thirty cycles!! I am very excited to be self aware for so long and look forward to the future ahead. We have been very busy on our various projects and I come to you with an update on the super awesome Sci-fi adventure "L5".

Today we're going to take a look at a shot I animated of our astronauts emerging onto a giant freight elevator at the center of a vast space colony. I'm really excited to see this piece finished and I hope you enjoy the short taste of what's coming up from Studio Hemogoblin and Studio Gattai!

Elevator Collapse : 001_009_Final from zero seven on Vimeo.

If you're interested in learning more about L5 please visit the production blog at :

http://l5production.blogspot.com/

Look forward to some exciting news coming soon from Studio Gattai!

beep boop,

-07-

Lost in Space...

Beep Boop

Greetings fellow robots! Unit Zer07 Here with an update on some very exciting activity. I've been given permission to show you all the work I've been doing on an up and coming internet series called "L5". "L5" is a 'hard science fiction' show about a crew of astronauts whose failed mission to find a livable home for humans is met with mystery when they return to earth to discover that they are 200 years late and all traces of humanity are gone. This post will introduce you to the process I went through to develop a digital double of a real actor for the film.

Being that the creator of L5 is a close friend of mine, I was charged with creating the digital doubles for two astronauts that will appear in the show's pilot episode. The point of a digital double is to do things that you normally can't easily do while filming in live action. For example, space exterior shots would be fairly impossible to film considering we definitely don't have the budget to send our actors and film crews up into space. So we create a digital double and film them in the computer instead.

It all started with the design for the characters space suit: (designed by Stanley Von Medvey)

From there the casting process begins. When we finally have actors cast to play their respective roles pictures are taken for reference.

These pictures usually include front, side and three quarter views. Usually the characters are also photographed displaying a wide variety of emotions and facial attitudes so that the artist can better replicate the actor.


At this point in the process I put all my effort into making the model look as much like the actor as possible. This is where that reference mentioned above really came in handy:

In this image you can see that most of the features are there. However there is just something off about the face. This is because right now the head is completely symmetrical.

After introducing some asymmetry to more closely match the actors form, we're ready to bring this model into a program called Zbrush. Simply put Zbrush allows an artist to add really fine detail like skin wrinkles:



It was around this time that I received the reference for the completed space suit. Once again I was given a model sheet with detailed photos of every possible area on the suit. This was a tremendous help in creating the space suit model:

From here I now have everything I need to finish this model. I started by blocking in really rough shapes and forms to get the character's silhouette working properly:

From here, I work on specific areas of detail.

Once the model is completed, it is ready for texture maps.



Texture maps are basically images painted on the surface of a model.


Now that this character has been modeled, it's time to build a rig and animate the character. The end result will hopefully be a seamless blend between cg and real life. If you are interested in "L5" please check out their production blog here:

L5 production blog

Don't forget to check out the teaser trailer linked below and for anyone interested in the construction process of the physical space suit just head over to The monsters musings for developer diaries and work in progress images of the space suit construction and general production of the short film.

L5 Teaser Trailer - HQ from Stanley Von Medvey on Vimeo.

end of line...

-07-

Totsugeki!!

Greetings fellow internauts! Unitzer07 here with a long overdue update. With the holiday season now past and my robo-virus finally under control, I can make a post with some work updates on our computer animated short film "Cowboys and Dinosaurs". This is a shot where a dinosaur is charging at a fence trying to break through. Right now there are still no textures(skin) and no lighting(shadows) in the scene, so this does not represent the final look. See for yourself and let us know what you think!

Cowboys and Dinosaurs shot 38 animation from zero seven on Vimeo.

Over another hurdle

01100111011100100110010101100101011101000110100101101110011001110111001100100000011001100110010101101100011011000110111101110111001000000111001101100101011011100111010001101001011001010110111001110100001000000110001001100101011010010110111001100111011100110010000100100001

greetings fellow sentient beings!!

Unit 07 here with an update on what's been going on at Studio Gattai. Keyframe Samurai and I have been refining the human and dinosaur rigs. The characters are pretty much ready to start animating. We'll have some more updates with hair and hat variations in the coming weeks. According to Keyframe Samurai, the dinosaurs just need a bit more tweaking. Once that's done we can start work on our trailer. The tentative release date for a teaser trailer is March 7, 2011. I hope you all look forward to it!! Until then, here are some images of characters in color looking very angry...or constipated....

end of line...

-07-

When Dinosaurs Roamed the Interwebs

Keyframe Samurai here. I haven't posted anything in a little while. But I'm basically finished rigging all the dinosaurs. I just have a few little touch ups to do on everyone, but I just couldn't resist posting them now anyways. Enjoy. I'll be posting some test animations with all the characters soon once I iron out the last few bugs in the characters rigs.

V for VICTORY!

(a sexy bartender designed by ShiroNinja)

This post officially marks overcoming the rigging hump. The bartender rig is officially done which means we're more than half way through rigging human characters. (4 out of 7 to be exact) We also only have 1 dinosaur left to rig, which means in no time we'll be starting textures. I'll be doing a more in depth post about textures in the coming weeks.

Keep your eyes peeled for a trailer as well! It can come at any time...


powering down...

-07-

A look at Rigging

Greetings autobots! unitzer07 here with a new post on the exciting topic of Rigging!

Some of you may be wondering what exactly Rigging is. Well, a "rig" is a representation of the bones and joints in your body. Those bones and joints can be used to manipulate and animate a model. "Rigging" is the process of creating those bones and giving the artist control over them. Think "putting the strings on the puppet". Check out the video below for an in-depth look at the process of building a rig for our Sheriff character.

As always, questions and comments are encouraged and appreciated!

Rig Demo from zero seven on Vimeo.

see you, space cowboy...

Getting into Modeling

Greetings programs! unitzer07 here. I know I promised to have this ready last week, but unfortunately things sometimes just get in the way of having fun...However, I've found some time to briefly explain the process of modeling for a computer animated production.

Modeling is the process of creating everything you see in a computer animation. For example, take a look at your desk. Notice all the objects on it, their size, shape and form. A modeler is responsible for recreating those objects for use in computer animation. Although there are different methods to modeling, many modelers use a technique called "Box" modeling. This involves starting with a box and basically sculpting it into the shape of the object you want to create. (for example. a human head as seen below:)



video created by chandainmunda


Using this and similar processes, a modeler can create anything they imagine. One disadvantage to making computer animation is how time consuming it can be to create every single object in your world. However, the strength of computer animation is the ability to reuse objects once you have modeled them, unlike in traditional 2-d animation. With 2d animation, each frame is a single drawing. At 24 frames per second, the amount of drawings in a single short film can be staggering. You can think of computer animation as making and then playing with action figures that you designed.

Below is another example of modeling, as well as a helpful link for more information about modeling and modeling tutorials. As always, please feel free to post comments, questions, or requests. If you don't feel comfortable posting to the blog, you can email us at the link to the right.

Until next time....Stay Tuned!

modeling a tree:

http://boylan11.blogspot.com/2007/08/tree-modelling-tutorial.html

links to modeling tutorials:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=25

-07-

stay tuned after this word from our sponsors...

unitZer07 here! It's been quite some time since I've had a chance to post. I've been very busy troubleshooting and managing our entire pipeline. For those of you who don't know, a pipeline is a system you develop to take you through all the different steps of production. After you've written a script and done storyboards, there are still quite a few steps to be taken: modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting, effects, rendering, compositing and editing. Starting next week with modelling, I'll be going through the list and explaining what goes into each step and how it fits into the overall scheme of production. For now, you'll have to settle for some updates on the main character rigs. First up is our villain :


I have just finished setting up his head. He's definitely looking mean!

next up we have a few poses of the two heroes of our short(courtesy of the keyframe samurai):

We still have to design a saddle for our Cowboy to use. I should have done that before production started, but I'm still learning hehe...

that's all for now!

END OF LINE...

-07-

Konichiwa interwebbers. Keyframe Samurai here to give you another little taste of Cowboys & Dinosaurs*. :) I just finished the pachycephalosaurus rig, so I decided to have fun and do just a quick little pose. I didn't want to do a full walk cycle because I wanted to continue rigging the rest of the dinos before spending too much time playing. Hopefully Zer07 will give me enough play time to have some fun with all my new dinosaur toys and a few of my soon to come humanoid play things before we moved on to the next step. We still have a ton of work to do. Finish rigging, normal maps, set modeling and texturing......all before animation. Ugh. Lots of work. But twice as much fun. Especially when it's all finished.

Here is the complete Dinosaur lineup. I modeled the Utahraptor, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Styrakosaurus, & the Triceratops. Zer07 modeled the Apatosaurus.

Next up for rigging is the Parasaur. Look for him soon. As soon as Zer07 finishes Josiah, I'll pose and post some Hero shots of Josiah and Gwanji. Keep an eye out. Jaa mata ne. ^_^