2nd Place!!!

Hi all,
If you've been following my blog you'll see that I entered in an animation competition which ran over a three month period. I put in a lot of hard work and won second place which is much better than I expected. The prize was $300 which I spent way to quickly :P

The animations that were entered into the competition should have been put up on the stickpage.com frontpage by now but there seems to be some delay. I'll make sure to post when it does turn up.

Also, I was working on a parody of the predator movies when I started this blog in march this year but have had several interruptions and have lost interest, I plan to attach the unfinished cartoon with my next animation whatever that is so look out for that.

"Future Genesis" - RELEASED

Hi all,
I have finally released my animation "future genesis". Lol, because I had to cut so much out in order to finish it in time the title no longer makes any sense and doesn't relate the the animation at all. I do plan to add another minute of footage over the holidays in order to redeem my lack of story. For now though, enjoy the film :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q90a2InrL1Y

In two weeks I will be screening this in a cinema along with other student films which is cool.

Rent-A-Gamer Commercial

I shot a funny commercial a couple weeks ago for school. I just finished editing today so here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw5yAx3kK1g

Here are some cool pics of the shoot:

Animation Complete

I have now finished all the animation and rendering! I will now do the sound mix at school and I should have it up on youtube in a couple of weeks. I had to cut it drastically short though :( The ending is very abrupt and for lack of a better word...shit. But it will have to do for now. I might try and finish it in the break but it will be hard without the facilities I have at school.














POW!

Scene One Complete

One scene down, two to go. I don't know if I have enough time to finish the whole animation because rendering is taking so bloody long. I might have to cut it short :(

Gun Camera Effect

I just spent two hours putting together a cool effect for the camera on top of the ceiling turret.

3D Animation 35 Seconds Done

After almost 2 weeks of rendering I've got just over 30 seconds done. I have to finish in about 6 weeks and I got just under that left in rendering time. It's gonna be close.

3D Animation Begins

I've finally started to actually animate my project and its looking good. I've never done 3D character animation but its not to hard, or at least not as hard as I thought. I had to cut down on the quality heeps because its gonna take like 6 weeks of rendering :S
So it looks a bit bland sadly

3D Modelling - 90% Complete

With only days left until all my 3D models are due for assessment I am almost done. Here is a  look at the battery my main character will be chasing after, and also here is a look a a crappy city backdrop which I might improve.

Big 3D Update

I've been working hard on my 3D project, especially since all my models are due in two weeks :S

I have finished a basic version of my robot, which I will upgrade if I have time, and also a hallway where some action takes place.

And here is an animation test for my robot. I just added a motion capture animation so a few of the limbs pop out and stuff but I wont have that problem when I animate it myself.

EDIT: Also for those who want to watch my stickpage tournament entries will have to wait a bit. The organiser of the competition is very sick and it will take some time for him to release the animations. I will definitely be announcing it here when they are finally released so keep checking back.

3D Modelling - Arms + Hands

Here is my first attempt at modelling my robot characters arms and hands. He has a gun and power pack on his left arm and a laser cutter on his right.

3D Modelling - Robot Body

I haven't had much time to work on anything lately but today I knuckled down and made the body for my robot character. It's not final but its pretty close. I will probably add more detail to the back.

3D Modelling - Robot Head

It has taken almost 20 tries but I have finally made a decent robot head for my animation. Please note that the body is just a premade model that comes with 3DS MAX and I will be making my own body.

The story is: A robot breaks into a secure science lab type place to steal a battery as he is almost out of power... in a nutshell.

3D Modelling - Gatling Turret

Hi all.
It's been a while since I last posted so heres an update on what I've been doing:

I have been getting stuck into modelling all the things I need for my 3D short film (storyboard available for download in previous post). This is a gatling turret that will feature in the animation.

I have only been using 3DS Max (program to be used for all the 3D work) for about a month now. I'm learning fast and hope to have all my modelling done by the end of this term.

Stickpage Tournament Is Finished!!!

Finally the stickpage tournament is over. Now comes the gruelling wait for the results. You can watch the trailer for the round 1 compilation here: http://www.fluidanims.com/view.php?id=3486

Now I will resume work on learning fullbody animation and my "lolpredators" project.

Here are a couple more screenshots of my round 3 entry:

I am doing a short 3D animation course as an elective subject and I have to create a 20+ second 3D animation by the end of the year. Here is the first draft storyboard: http://filebox.me/download?filepath=files/ujtwbgxw0_StoryBoard.pdf&filename=StoryBoard.pdf


There will be more to come.

Crunch Time

With only days left until the stickpage.com tournament is over I am now in panic mode. I have only got 30 seconds of aniamtion out of 2 minutes+. My weekend must be dedicated to this animation or this would have all been a waste >.<

Random Update

Its been a while since I've updated my blog so I'll just fill you in on whats been doin. I haven't had much time to work on my comp entry and its due next week! If I don't get a massive amount of it done this weekend I'm screwed. Ive only done about 15% aswell :S

Also I'm doing a little 3D animation course as an elective subject for my film course which is exciting.

EDIT: Here's another pic I thought was cool:

Progress....

I havent been working on my round 3 animation much purely because of lazyness. I finally did some animation today and started to draw a bunch of backgrounds. So far the animation is 10 seconds and I estimate that the final thing will be about a minute and a half or more.

Round 3 - Final Round

I have begun my Round 3 entry for the stickpage tournament. This is the setting for the animation. This should be the most interesting round yet. I'll try to go all out on this one and make the best animation possible.

Ugh... Finally Done.

I've finally finished my round two entry and it only just scraped over the 30 second time requirement. I just havent had the time to work on it so its a bit dissapointing, ahwell. Its good enough and theres a decent ammount of action in it so hopefully it will win over the judges. I'm still waiting for the competition organiser to release the round 1 competition entries. I still dont even know my score for round 1. This is getting a bit agrivating >:(
The final frame of my animation:

5 hours work = 4.1 seconds of animation :S

I've spent 5 hours over two days doing only 4 seconds of animation. I have never animated movements as complex as this (well not successfuly anyways). This is only my seconds time ever trying to do a sword fight. The animation is only 24 seconds and the minimum is 30 for the stickpage tournament. Its due in two days aswell :(

I'll be cutting it close (lol pun). My round 1 entry is a hundred times better than this in cinematic (and length) quality but I'm still proud of having animated stuff I have never tried before.

Mmmm Samurai Gore

Now that all my film course work is done for this term I have had time to work on my round 2 entry. Its only 20 seconds long at the moment but its slowly getting there. The minimum time requirement for the comp is 30 seconds so that shouldnt be a problem. I have exactly one week from today to finish.

If your waiting to see my round 1 entry the organiser hasnt finished putting them all together but it should be out in a week or two, I hope :/
I'm not allowed to release it before he does otherwise I'll get disqualified.

Here are some screenies to tide you over till the round 1 entries are released:

Update - Round 2

I havent had much time to work on my second entry for the stickpage.com tournament but holidays are coming up so I should have it done before the end of next week. At the moment its only 20 seconds which is considerably shorter than my first entry. I'm not very inspired for this one :\
Heres a screenie of what I did today:
















Also, for some reason my film course makes me do a term of 3D animation. It should be fun and a nice change from flash, I'm pretty excited. I will be learning 3DS MAX if anyone was curious.

Samurai Anim Update

I havent been working on my animation so much because of other work I have to do but I got holidays at the end of this week and will be able to devote all my free time to the animation. Heres a screen of what I managed to get done today:
Samurais and Ninjas love to smash through those paper walls dont they :P

Round 2 Update

Just thought I'd post a screenshot of what Ive been doing. Its the first guard to get killed in my entry. This animation will probably be a lot shorter than my invasion one but it will make up for that in action, I hope :S
Edit: Added blood to the image now.

The Palace - Background 1

Here is my first background for my Round 2 entry in the SP tournament. I spent like an hour doing it only because bloody Japanese houses have so many lines :S
It's set in a palace but all Japanese interiors look basically the same.

So far I'm enjoying this more than the last one simply because I'm taking it easier and not trying to make a 3 minute epic in only 1 month.

Round 2 - Stickpage Tournament

So round 1 has ended of the stickpage.com tournament and round 2 has begun. I dont know my score yet because not all the judges have watched the animations but I should be getting the results soon. Round 2 is based around a Samurai/Ninja setting and the basic story is a servant steals his masters sword and goes of a rampage :P

I went all out last round and I think I'm going to slow down this time and make something a little simpler and shorter. Here is a look at my samurai sword. Ive storyboarded 10 seconds of animation already.

After this tournament I'll finish my lolpredators animation (which I havent had time to work on) and then I'm not going to animate stickfigures anymore.

Invasion Complete!

After a month of hard work I have completed my entry for round 1 of the stickpage.com tournament. Although I did about half of it in the past two days :P

Statistics:
3000 frames
125 seconds
392 library items

Here are some screenshots of the end :D

Time Is Running Out

Time is running out for my entry in the stickpage.com tournament stage 1. My animation is about 60-80% done and its due this tuesday :(. I have to knuckle down and get this done before the weekends out because I wont have any time on monday or tuesday.

Stickpage.com Tournament Update

I have been working hard to get my entry for the stickpage tournament done on time (by next monday) and its going well. I have just added a 15 second intro where the mothership blasts out of hyperspace or whatever, moves into orbit around earth and starts blasting. I compiled a bunch of sounds together and teaked them to make the awesome sound of the mothership, which I reckon sounds awesome :)

Here is the underbelly of the mothership:

















And here is an added shot of a laser blasting the city:

Fullbody Thief Test 2

The is my second attmept at drawing a Thief from skeleton to anatomy to clothes. I was going to put gear on the last pose but I got sick of this picture and wanted to move onto something else.

Fullbody Thief Tests

Ive been practicing fullbody drawing for a few days now and I think I'm finally getting somewhere. Here is my first attempt and drawing a thief from skeleton, to anatomy, to clothes, to shading. Its very basic at the moment but furher down the track I'll be adding hands, faces and more detail. This is just one of many tests to come. Please note that I have never done fullbody drawing and have only started trying this week.

First FB tests

After I received dozens of comments asking me to do fullbody animations instead of stick figures I decided to try it out. I've watched a few tutorials on youtube how to do it and Ive started making some skeletons of fullbody models. My clothes drawing is horible at the moment and my proportioning is off quite a bit but I'm getting there.