Saturday, November 14, 2009

Another update... some render'd

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Two Vid Updates

Two Vid Updates:
---The first is an update on my animation progress with a few scenes rendered...
---The second is the new HoloHUD test...





Sunday, October 25, 2009

The HUD



Here is a quick look at the HUD information screen from the film. :)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

MOAR DUN!!!



here is a bit more animation that is done... for now. ;) the music is just random music i threw in because i dont like watching clips without some sort of sound. ;)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Official Lighting Test 01

Saturday, October 10, 2009

some work



Been doing alot of animation... Its taken me sooo long because i couldnt get the motion down for about a week. But now its cookin along better. ENjoy!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Website Updated

I updated the REVIVAL Website... its more user friendly and browser friendly now!

CLICK TO VISIT THE NEW SITE!!!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Button of DOOM!!!




ok... so not really a "DOOM" button... but here is the button that ultimately wont work... in the film of course :) enjoy...

i start animation on hte first half of the film tomorrow! WOOT WOOT!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

LOCATION 01


Pretty much finished up location 01 for the film... heres a bit to look at... For those who saw the animatic, this is the area at the beginning.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

EMO walkcycle

This is old but ive gotten tons of people asking if the big guy will walk or just slide like in the animatic... HE WILL WALK!

and to give you an idea... here is a really old test!



As you can see, the design has changed... but the walk will be similar. So there you go... a walking BIG GUY!

Animatic DONE!

The animatic is done and online. But where? I send it to 13 folks as part of a focus group to get a bit of feedback.

I didnt send it to people involved with the production still because if things need to be tweaked, id like to do that before i send it to you folks.

but yeah... its pretty much done! I got this thing on lock!

Monday, August 24, 2009

75% Animatic

Thursday, August 20, 2009

50% Shown

Here is 50% of the animatic.

Comments Welcome...

50%

Today i got the first 50% of my Animatic signed off on by my chair! im really happy! now to finish the other 50%

i will post some of that tomorrow probably...

its not quite ready for mass consumption... but quite a bit is different from the versions below... quite a bit better!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

is it too fast to you?

if anyone can look at the video and shoot me an email, facebook, or twitter message. Does everything seem too fast? do you think im gonna need more setup at the beginning or...

do you want to wait until i finish the animatic and then see?

i dunno... i just get a feeling that some of the thinking times are too quick. and i hate that last shot. hmmm...

Friday, August 14, 2009

final title image

NOTE the top of the blog. That is my thesis title image.

snazzy huh? ;)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

A Bit Of Animatic Action

Sunday, July 19, 2009

UPDATED

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Revival - Test Shot 02



Work in Progress

but this will be more or less the opening shot of the film... kinda... but fully textured and stuff...

yep... thats all!

Friday, July 17, 2009

30 Shots and counting

So i narrowed my film down to 30 shots. 30!!!

its sounds like alot but when i worked on "Shade" we had 23 shots so i suppose its not too bad.

i also have finalized the whole story shot by shot so i will be doing an animatic probably soon so i can ship it to my composer and he can get started while im doing the film. That way he will have the rough version completed for him.

thats all! quick updates! dont you love them

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Test Comp



Here is a test of a digital display device (D3) that will be featured in my thesis.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Cinema Dolce

So... my brother Kevin and I were kicking around some names i could release my personal animation stuff under... while "zxephin" has been my online handle for years now... ive always wished i could keep my personal online handle separate from my animation production handle...

below is what we came up with... thanks shev!

Friday, June 19, 2009

concept development... late?

not happy with my own concept work (other than my characters) im having a few people throw their views into the pot... with my rough direction... it will all be solidified by July for sure... because i cant wait longer than that! ;)

Truckin Along...

My friend Rodgers Dameron is doin me a HUGE favor and is doing some storyboarding for me... this is a major weight off my shoulders as i dont have the proper time nor talent to devote to giving them the attention they need... SO THANKS RODGERS!!! and thank you everyone who is helping me bring this film together... i cant thank you enough!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Bip Emotions



Aside from these being done... i have also finished the emotion blendshapes for the other character and as soon as that is hooked up... rigging will be complete!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Ustream vid

so... i from time to time do some ustream video-ing... and its somethign i will be using more during production hopefully... but that link is here now for when thos times come... --> http://www.ustream.tv/channel/zxephin-animation

Rigging & story update...

The rigging is completed on the smaller character "Bip"... and 90% - 95% finished on the larger character, "Emo". So as soon as i find the time to make the blendshapes for him... Ashwin can hook em up and it shall be done. :)

as for story... the beginning of the film is still being tweaked, as well as the end. Im having an inner struggle on how to start the whole thing off... Visually... not story wise... Its a matter of what to show and how much. The more i show, the more detail i need and the more time it will take... vs the other option of jumping them in with the minimal it takes for the story to be understandable and pumping this out and getting it done.

ahhh DECISIONS....

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Composer locked in

got a composer... im very stoked about this one...

His name is Or Kribos... check him out @ http://www.myspace.com/orkribos

also he wrote some music for Shade... for funzies ;)... you can check that out below...

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

concept image

Friday, April 10, 2009

Bip Animation Test 01



First Animation Test of one of my characters! WOOT WOOT!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Possible Composer

So, as many know... i have a small ambitious streak. I like to try things that others might consider a bit bigger than i need.

One of these things is having original music for my Thesis Film. I really want it!

So i took a leap and contacted a composer that i think has great work, Chris Haigh. I didnt really expect a response but i figured it couldnt hurt. Well, i was pleasantly surprised when he got back to me.

Long Story, short... He is interested in working with me but we need to iron out some details before we figure out if i can even afford to have him score original music for REVIVAL (yes, im still sticking with that title) so i guess this is just another reason to get an animatic together and a mood set for the film...

but im very excited! just thought you should know!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

1st pass of Bip Animation Test



please feel free to critique and offer suggestions but understand this is a first early pass... i still need details in it :)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

still rolling

everything is still rolling on my thesis... albeit a bit slow.

Ashwin took my models for rigging... i should get them back by the end of the quarter.

and im gonna start doing some more environment modeling

also, im signing up for my Thesis class and trying to toss a bone to Rhythm & Hues. Heres hoping they like what they see.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thesis: The Story of Life

So... in a moment of brilliance or boredom... i sat down and wrote out a 4 page blurb explaining where my thesis idea came from and why it is important to me... and here it is for all of you to read. Enjoi!

---------------------------

The story of my thesis, is the story of my life. It is the story of all of our lives to an extent. It is the story of choice; The choice to make your own destiny and find your own opportunities. It’s the story of choosing to build your own dreams vs. sitting idly by in the hopes that life will build them for you.

As cheesy, lame and artsy as it may sound, the revelations of this story came out of a dream I had. Sure, it is based on the observation of life, but it was in my dreams that it was revealed with a clarity that I might never easily achieve in my waking state.

In this dream, there was a character with no legs who walked on his hands. He was a lonely sort of character who lived in a lonely sort of world. He decides one day to go out and try to find something new to cheer him up and happens upon a small cave. Upon entering the cave he sees a soft blue light that eventually leads him to an underground lake full of a glowing, “magical” liquid. The liquid transforms him into a brilliant and colorful version of himself. It also grants him the ability to pass this beauty into the world around him, transforming it as well.

Of course the deep underlying meaning that I pulled out of this dream was that it was my subconscious reminding me that it is up to us as individuals to go out and seek positive opportunities for ourselves. Then, upon finding those opportunities, allow them to affect us in a positive manner and teach us to grow from those experiences. We then can, in turn, pass that newly found knowledge on to others.

On the flip side it also warned of the dangers of complacency. It warned that all too often we run the risk of just sitting around and waiting for good fortune to fall into our laps. While that may occasionally happen to some, the majority of us must find the motivation to go seek our own opportunities and create our own good fortune.

The dream was very much a mental retelling of my own life story. For a long time I had played the, “Good things come to those who are patient” card. I played my life choices very safe. My choice in undergraduate college was a safe one. It was far enough from home to feel slightly independent but close enough to still have a security blanket to fall upon. And while not a totally wasted experience, it was a potentially dangerous one in regards to lulling me into complacency with life. However, when my back was against the wall, and I had to make a choice of whether to settle with the education I received and wait for something good to come of it or make the bold decision to go to graduate school and create bigger and better opportunities, I thankfully chose the latter. The result being that I found my own shining lake in the people I met, the places I went, and ultimately, within myself.

Of course, my actual thesis story has changed a bit since then. It is now the story of two characters, whose world has gone awry and effectively shut down. These characters must decide whether to accept their fate, or go out and change it. They, of course, decide to strike out across their world in search of the “control room” in the hope of finding a way to reboot their planet. Using a map they find, they succeed and finding the room they seek as well as the control to reset everything. They reset the planet, thus saving themselves and the world around them from certain “doom”.

It may seem like a radical upgrade to the story, but its “heart” is still intact. It’s still about choosing to change your destiny rather than becoming complacent and accepting what is handed to you. The only difference now is that when you find those opportunities that you were seeking, you can still choose to walk away and cut your losses, or you can choose to go that last step and “push the button”.

The changes in the story reflect what I’ve seen happen in the lives around me. I’ve seen person after person; take the same journey that I have, only to get scared to take that last step for fear of the unknown. People that for one reason or another decides to cut their losses and go fall into complacency. My story and its meaning urge those people to go that extra mile and push the reset button on their lives and see where it takes them.

It is all too often that we choose the familiar and safe route. We wake up many years down the road wondering why it didn’t go as planned. We make excuses to justify our lack of action. We tell ourselves, “that route… too expensive”, “that place… too far away”, “that idea… too risky.”

Instead we need to be bold. We need to refuse to settle for the mediocre and instead reach for the unreachable. And when we do that… when we seek out those things that we want most in the world, we find that we are not alone on that journey. Opportunity is right there with us. It finds us and rewards us for taking that risky, expensive, and far away route. All we have to do is be willing to do is reach for it.

My dream is coming true, but only because I made a choice to make it come true. I made the choice to forge my own destiny and build my own opportunities. I chose to take on my dreams instead of sitting idly by in the hopes that life will build them for me.

It is only because I acted like the character from my dream that I found my shining lake. I went out and searched for something better. And upon finding my reset button, I pushed it, and allowed the experience to change me for the positive.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

minor setbacks...

my computer crashed... for lack of a better term...

but i have a new computer now and im slowly getting all my files back up and running...

thats the news