Strange Behavior (Animation) Entry: Vikram K. Mulligan

Hey Brother in arms where is an update? Come one deadline draws near!!

Hi, Nenad. Thanks for keeping me on my toes. I've been away for a few days, first in Montreal for a conference and then in my old hometown visiting my parents for the Canadian Thanksgiving. Today's the first time in a while that I've had a chance to sit down at my computer. But fear not; I plan to post an update later tonight.

As always, best of luck to you.

I've finished the textures and shaders for the Thin Man, now. Here he is, complete with the displacement map I'll use for the details. I still need to do his eyes, teeth, hair, and glasses. I also think I'll give him a fedora; that'll be easier to model and texture than a newspaper, and it can be the object under which he finds his biscuits at the end.

A little postscript for my previous post: as I've said before, I'm not going for strict photorealism, so please don't judge the image above too harshly .

I've created twenty-one blend shapes to drive the Thin Man's facial animation. Not bad for a piece with no dialogue, eh? The majority are to allow the character to emote in response to the Fat Man's actions, and the minority, to let the character chew.

I like thin man more than the fat one, ... like he has more of "personality"... blendshapes are good too, they are going well with the character. Only, you will need more dramatic ones if he has to express some dramatic reactions...

Here's the Thin Man's hat, modelled hastily in Wings while taking a break from work. Now back to my grant application!

The Fat Man was the first model I made after getting ZBrush. The Thin Man's better because I had a little more experience the second time around . (Oddly enough, I think he looks a tiny bit like James Cromwell). Fortunately, the Thin Man is the protagonist, so he'll be more prominently featured. If I had more time, I'd go back and tweak the Fat Man, but time's running out!

Yup, the expressions I'm showing aren't the most extreme ones. I think the blendshapes I've got are diverse enough to let me do the facial animation I'm planning on doing. I guess I'll find out by doing it, though. And if I need a shape I don't have, I can always add another one.

Here's the Thin Man with hair and eyes. He's nearly done; I just need to add his teeth and tongue, finish texturing his hat, and give him a skeleton. I'm starting to wonder if I'll get done in time, though. I've lost a lot of time to travel in the past few weeks, as well as a couple of nights to a failed computer power supply (which I've replaced now).

Here's the completed model of the Thin Man. He ended up looking a little Pixar-ish, unfortunately. Not that I dislike Pixar; on the contrary, I love their work. I just had hoped to produce something in a somewhat more unique style. Oh well. It's my first complete character.

I've finished rigging the Thin Man up for animation. I still need to do the same for the Fat Man, but I can get started on animating some of the Thin Man shots right away.

It looks like my reach exceeded my grasp on this project. I've got a heck of a lot to do this week with work and other commitments, and the only way I'll get this project done is if I either work night and day on it or if I do a sloppy job. I don't want to do either, so I'll pull out of this contest. I'm going to finish the animation, though -- it just won't be by Monday.

Thanks, as always, to the organizers for putting together a great challenge with very exciting prizes to motivate us. Thanks also to those who offered encouragement and constructive criticism as I went along. I certainly leared a great deal about character modelling and rigging, and I will be applying it later on, when I finish this animation.

Hey Vikram, pitty that you could not make it in time - and my experience is that entushiasam can be weaker after deadline passes... but I hope you will find strenght to finish your work after the contest...!

Thanks, Nenad. I'll probably do a final rendering of my models and submit that, plus an animation showing stages of the modelling, texturing, etc. I can throw that together on the weekend. I'm like you in that I tend to be less likely to get things done if I don't have a looming deadline. Still, I do intend to finish this animation in the weeks to come.

I've started working on the animation, now. Here's a frame from the opening sequence, with the Thin Man carrying the box of biscuits to the park bench. I still need to drop in a suitable background...