End of film?

So usually I joke about the end of the world according to the Mayans. Anyone who actually looks into it will know that the Mayans did not predict anything of the sort, and yet there is one thing that may be ending sooner than expected for many, and I honestly am surprised it took this long before we started hearing about it in the news.

The end of film as we know it.

Or at least the physical medium of film. According to an article I read recently (http://m.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/paramount-exec-announces-end-of-film-could-be-tomorrow/), the future of the physical medium of film, you know, the stuff they make movies with, and which camera used to use, is about to come to an end. I have already been personally effected by this years ago when I was working at the National Geographic Society HQ imaging department. We used to have 2 black rooms, one of which was dedicated to developing film, and the other for a special kind of printer (called a Lambda printer, which uses light sensitive paper). While I was the, the film development machine was turned off, the chemicals drained, and the room emptied and opened up. No longer sporting a dark room, film at Nat Geo had officially gone digital. And so has everyone else. Professional photographers all use DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, and everyday people rely on cell phones and snap-shot digital camera for their pictures. Film died in the world of Photography a long time ago. The biggest worry for Photographers was where to develop their old images and how to transition to the new digital world. All but one or two major development labs in the country shut down back then, and I would be surprised if there are any left at all now.

The problem with this wasn't that it was hard or expensive to develop, or even that film didn't produce amazing results (because it still rivals and often exceeds digital photographs), but just that the companies that made the film you put into the camera, aka Kodak and Fuji to make a few, had started to shut down their film making process. There was just no way to buy film anymore. Film was dead.

And yet now, movie companies are finally becoming painfully aware of the impending doom of film for the industry, Almost all movies made in the past decade have had some sort of digital processing done to them, and all haven been converted to a digital medium at some point, even if they were shot with film. And there is a very different visual look to film versus a digitally captured image. Film grain is a topic I could go on and on about, and how many people have strived to eliminate or reduce it but that it is actually the film grain that gives film it's unique high quality images and details. Digital images don't have a traditional film grain, but they do have a sort of dither or digitally introduced noise. The result is very different from grain.

But I digress.

It appears that the last of the film producing companies are finally facing the end of their production. Kodak has been under bankrupt protection for years and is under the control of the government now, and could pull the plug on film production at any time,. Other companies are starting to wind down their processes, and have stopped taking orders. We really are facing the end folks. The Mayans were right.

Digital "film" has now taken over, and has a promising start. While not everyone likes the look of digital over film, it is something we are all going to have to get used to. The end of an era has come, and most people aren't even going to realize it.

But this isn't a bad thing, really. The film industry has always been a leading industry, creating new technologies and adapting. When photography was first invented by Nicéphore Niépce in 1825, it didn't take long before Eadweard Muybridge started to take successive pictures of a running horse to make a form of motion picture in 1877. Ever since then, film has been making strides and leaps in technology, with better quality images, motion, sound, color, aspect ratios, animation, acting, broadcasting, and so much more. This is just the next step in the evolution of what is the Great Image Experiment. An experiment in capturing what it is to be human, what it is to be an artist.

Film may be dead, but movies and pictures will continue to evolve and define the human experience in a way no other art form can. Just remember that changes like this are a part of the innovation of such industries.

Film is dead. Long live the (digital) film!

Almost an update

Hi everyone! I know it's been MONTHS since I last updated. Well I've been really busy, but that's no excuse for failing to update my blog. So I am going to give you a hint as to what has happened and what I will be posting when I find the time to get everything together.
As of the last post, I have made several more animations, one of which was a contestant in the monthly "11 Second Club" contest (I think it was May 2012). I will post a link to that video, as well as any others I can get together. It isn't perfect, but I got the highest rank out of everyone in my class, so I am proud to have made it.
I also worked on a project that was designed to give an idea of the work flow required to make a 3D animation. There are unfinished scenes, a completely finished one, and lots of art. I have since revised the story and if I ever continue the project, I will have a much better result.
I have also been working on a portfolio website, which is still under construction but online and running. I will be updating it with more content soon.
I have also begun a whole new quarter in which I am taking 3 studio classes, a story and concept development class, a character setup and rigging class, and a MEL scripting class. I will be posting a few of the projects I've done soon, including 2 character animations from the rigging class, some art and storyboard and thumbnails from my story (which will be my senior projects), and some stills from my MEL class. It is kind of hard to show anything from MEL without just showing a recording of the interface, so I'll give screenshots with instructions as to what I was doing.
So look forward to these updates, and many more.

Ta Ta!

Long time coming

So I have been neglecting my blog, I know.  But I've always been wanting to post.  I've just been too busy.  even now, I should really keep working on my projects but I figured I had too many animations done and not posted that I really should do a massive update this week.  And next week... FINALS!  So you will see the final products of all the things I've been working on.
Also, someone gave me the idea to put tutorials online for various techniques.  I might just do that, once I figure out what to post.
Regardless, let's start with my walk cycles.  Yes, 2 of them.  The first is just a basic study with a tail, which is designed to help us figure out secondary motion.  If anyone out there things the tail or whatnot is automatically scripted to move, think again.  While big production houses might be able to set that up, often these things are going to be hand done.  Especially with students.
So... first the tail walk cycle:

Next up is a walk cycle that uses attitude.  It can portray anything at all, be it excited or sad or whatever.  I decided  to do an animation for a tough cowboy.  But I'm not really into cowboys... unless their robot cowboys.  So... here's a robot cowboy:

Now I bring to you a full character animation.  Sure the last animation was a full body robot rig, but I bound his hands to his hips.  This next animation focuses on controlling a character more, and acting.  Here, we have to show a change of emotion, and a shift of weight.

Speaking of weight... the next animation is all about lifting them.  Honestly, this animation isn't finished, I want to add a joke at the end, however it did satisfy the requirements of the assignment, which is to show a sense of weight and balance in a character, and use acting to make something look heavy. More importantly, we learned how to make a character look like they are holding something. We do this with Ik handles and locators, which can "attach" an object to another when used properly.

[Right now there is an error on Youtube, so I will upload this in due time.]

More?!  Well yes, there is lots and lots more!!  I have a project I will be uploaded parts of soon that involves a robot, a girl, and a junkyard.  Right now I'm calling it Junk, and it is only 3 shots.  In fact, it isn't even that.  it is really only 1 fully animated shot and 2 shots still "in production".  This is on purpose as it is to help students figure out how long it takes to make an animation in preparation for the senior project.  I will be posting some of the work on this later, so please look forward to it.

Finally, I have a dialogue animation.  It is not done yet, so what you see now is merely a Work In Progress (WIP) which is only on the second animation pass.  This animation is going to be an entry in the 11 Second Club. This will be done and entered into the contest by the end of the month, which is coincidentally at the end of the quarter as well.  In other words, this is my final project in this class.  Here is my current WIP.

One last thing, I have been working on a new portfolio website, as well as a new portfolio, resume, demo reel, business cards, etc. for my other class, professional development.  You can find my new site at DHixon.com, and I will be posting some things on here as well.

Well that's all for now, I have tons more work to do!  I should have work from my finals up by next week.  Don't forget to follow me on the 11 Second Club (look for my entry in the forums, under the name WeaklyAnimated).

Ta ta!

More animations coming soon

I actually finished a few new animation this quarter to show you, an I'm really excited about the last two coming up. I'll explain more about that later. For now, I just want you to know I should have some new content up real soon. Also, this quarter has been a challenge for me, but I am finally figuring out how the rest of my BFA at SCAD is going to play out... Unless I do a minor which I am seriously considering. Then there is always doing an MFA... Decisions decisions.

Sleep Comes After Death

So for anyone who is familiar with SCAD, you should know that students there are often so busy with work, they don't have the time in a day to do what needs to be done for their classes.  That is why God invented night.  It is normal - nay - required that SCAD students work overnight at least once a quarter, if not once a week... or more.  Last quarter freaked me out a little because, while I did work all night once, I never went without sleep in a 24 hour period.  However, this quarter I am paying for it.  Already I have had to stay up working overnight 3 times in one week... twice in a row even.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  I enjoy the work (for the most part).  But sleep is something every SCAD student craves and rarely gets.  For me to have to lose so much sleep so soon is a little crazy, and I can only think about what the next few weeks will bring.  I suppose better time management is one option, but the reality of it is that I never should have taken 3 studio courses at the same time.  Unfortunately, I have to in order to graduate in a timely manner.  There is a reason students joke that SCAD stands for Sleep Comes After Death.
But for me it is more like a rite of passage.  If I can get through this, I can handle anything anyone can throw at me.  So far I've done well, and I will continue to do my best.  I am thinking of declaring a minor even, so that I have more classes to help me fill out the ones I have left.  Who knows, maybe I'll go for the MFA program too (which I am seriously considering), but we'll have to see what happens a year from now first.  I will, however, keep that goal in mind in case I decide I want to do it.
That being said, I wanted to let everyone know that they blog will not only be about my art and animation, as well as my development in the art world and my take on all thinks animated, but will also involve shorter posts similar to this one to help me illustrate problem solving.  This is actually a recommendation from one of my professors who urged us to use our blogs for showing how we can think and evaluate and solve the problems we run into in our art.
I should also have a walk cycle up soon, but it is a boring plain one that everyone in the world has on their demo reel already.  Just wait till you see the one I do with "attitude".

Stay tuned!

Basic 3D Animation tests

Yesterday I got to go to a talk from a Disney Interactive Director, and it was really inspiring.   He knew most of my teachers, and couldn't say enough good things about SCAD and the advantages we have here.  The day before I went to "AtlantAmation", a local film festival sponsored by SCAD, with many student films from SCAD.  While some were better than others, I was also inspired to make my own short film.  I may talk more about that later, but for now, I have several large projects looming over me.
Today, since I am knee deep in another quarter and already losing sleep over it, I will share with you 2 assignments I just completed.  These are both very simple animations using Maya, and are standard animation training exercises which you will see lots of.  The Bouncing Ball, and the Flour Sack.  The purpose of the bouncing ball is to understand some of the most basic principles of animation, those being timing, squash, and stretch.  If you look carefully, you'll see lots of bouncing ball animations online in every type of animation media out there, be it 2D or 3D.  The Flour Sack animation is designed to help develop your ability to emote through a character with no face and limited motion.  You are suppose to show a change in behavior or a reaction to an event or object through body language or pantomime.  Again, there are lots of animations out there of flour sacks.  I have a bouncing ball and a flour sack animation hand-drawn, which is posted on this site.  Just look for them.  Other than that, here are 2 new animations, this time in 3D!

Final Results

Well with the Winter quarter over, I have the final results of my classes.  At least, that is, I have final projects.  In all honesty I don't have as many this year as previous years, but I will be posting a little more in the near future from my Action Analysis class.  It was all drawing, and a really great and fun class, but I have to get together from images first before I am willing to show them.
The biggest project I did was actually the scenes I did in Autodesk Maya 2012, which I posted earlier.  However, I do have something else to show from that class which got me an even higher grade, and an A for the class (YAY!).  That would be a character modeled in Maya using "edgelooping" to follow the flow of the muscles of the character to allow for better animation and rigging.

Originally my design was a lot more... conservative than this... and it was boring as a result (boring as in my teacher said it looked like a men's room sign and required I change it).  So with some help from teachers and colleagues, I *ahem* enhanced it.  This was supposed to be a modernization of Annie Oakley... and I did quite a bit of research on her.  In the end, she should have an another layer of clothes at least.  That and I didn't model a gun.  So for now... screenshots of "Annie".

Oh... and if you are averse to nudity... 1) grow up... 2) avert your eyes.  But really... no details or anything, but the clothes are removable (which means I should be able to make better clothes later) but some of these might be NSFW.  Also, all of these are using the smooth preview so they are not renders, just screenshots.

Overview Front Shot

Upper Torso Shot

Face with Edgeloops turned on

Face without Edgloops

Upper torso Dynamic Angle Shot

Closeup of buckles around boots

Closeup of medals on coat

Closeup of gloved hand

Closeup of ear

Money Shot :P

Back with Edgeloops (without coat)

Back without Edgeloops (without coat)

Front with Edgloops (without coat)

Front comparison to character design sketch

Side comparison to character design sketch

So I made her body first, then duplicated the faces of her body to make the jacket in pieces and merged them together.  I actually used a cloth dynamic in Maya to let the coat and skirt rest on her body better, but the coat is so tight it didn't move much.  The gloves and boots are part of her body and don't come off.  Her hair was made one "strand" at a time, with about 2 dozen modeled individually.  The hat was modeled separately, as well as the buckles around her boots and the epaulettes and the medals. She was a LOT of fun to build, and I am working on fixing up her modeling a little, especially in her coat.  Maybe I'll add an undershirt option as well.  Her face isn't perfect either, so I will go back and tweak it some more till I have a better shape.  But all said and done, I made this model in about a week, and it is my first character model ever!  Pretty impressive for a first I think.

I will post more pictures later with better lighting and so forth, but I am having an issue where the coat is under "stress" (apparently a few vertices are poking through unnoticed...) which results in a funky artifact where the clothes are full of "banding"...  Check it out...

So I'll be fixing that at some point and posting more images later.  I'm pretty happy with it.  And yes... I've noticed she has a large chest.  Everyone keeps reminding me.

So next time I'll post some more on my Action Analysis class, as well as a review of Arriety.  I also got a request from someone to compare GMU and SCAD, so I will be writing up a comparison, although I think it will end up being more about the differences between my experience, a typical public college, and a specialty school like SCAD.

Aloha!

Final rendered scene

Well I have finally been forced to stay up overnight this quarter.  I was getting scared there and thought it wasn't going to happen.  Of course it had to be the night before a big presentation.  But I'll get through it, that's what Think Geek caffeine gum is for.  :)

Well today I will share with you the final rendered scenes of my project for Digital Form, Space, and Lighting.  All those objects I showed earlier, well now they are all put together, with lighting, camera effects, and even environment fog.  Enjoy!

More 3D goodies

Hello again!

I'd like to start off apologizing to anyone who has listened to 7th Row Center and figured out I had some bad information about The Secret World of Arrietty, and Studio Ghibli, and Hayao Miyazaki himself.  I realized that Patrick Stewart was in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, not Tales of Earthsea.  I was thinking about another fine British actor, Timothy Dalton, who played Ged/Sparrowhawk in the English language version.  Also, Miyazaki did not direct Arrietty; it was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who was a key animator for several other Ghibli (and non-Ghibli) films, such as Spirited Away and Ponyo.  Miyazaki has been credited as a writer and executive producer, so he was involved, just not as the director.

I'm sure I got more wrong, but if you have any questions, complaints, or comments, feel free to drop us a line at 7throwcenter.com, or on facebook, or reach me directly on this site or my facebook page, or find me on twitter at @WeaklyAnimated.  I know I haven't been that active on any of these lately, but I want to make sure I get good grades first, everything else comes after that.

Now that THAT is out of the way, I have some more images for people to view.  I have been working on modeling and texturing these models for a few weeks, in preparation for a scene focusing around the life and world of Harry Dresden, one of my favorite characters of literature.  If you are unfamiliar with Harry Dresden, I HIGHLY recommend you check out the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher, or the audio books narrated by James Marsters.  So while I work on the lighting, take a look at the objects themselves.

For those with keen eyes, yes that is Discord from My Little Ponies.  Don't ask.  I still have more tweaking to do, but these are pretty much finished.  The rest of the scene is all about lighting and camera work.  Soon, I should have fully lit scenes using 3-point lighting for you to enjoy.  Comments and feedback are welcome as always.

Cheerio!

Meet Bob

Bob is just your average guy.  He's a a little short, bald, and a little nerdy, okay a lot nerdy.  He lives in his friend's basement, and he absolutely LOVES the ladies.  He has also amassed a library of knowledge about the supernatural and arcane.  Did I mention he's a possessed skull?  More accurately he's a spirit of intellect which resides in a skull in Harry Dresden's subbasement lab.  Yes, Harry Dresden, the wizard.  Doesn't sound familiar, look up the Dresden Files books, you will not regret it!
So why did I bring this up?  Simple, I'm modeling Bob in 3D software (Maya) for one of my projects in class.  We are to design a scene focused around a character or person, and I chose Harry Dresden.
So people who are real fans of the books (or audio books) will realize I did NOT get everything right (yes I know about the metal shelves, the table should be metal too, and the room is probably too small... and I am sure there are more things I missed), what I do have does give me the impression of Harry Dresden's lab.
So without further ado, I allow me to present a still of Bob, still in modeling (it is not finished, he needs teeth and texturing), but I spent a lot of time, and really pushed myself to make a skull in class.
Enjoy!

Bob says 'Hi'

So I will be posting more from this class soon, but first I have a busy weekend ahead of me of rendering and drawing.  I will also post some drawing from my Action Analysis class later.  I hope you look forward to them!

Ta ta!

Mid term update

Sorry about having no updates so far this quarter, with my wife in town and classes in session, things just got a bit busy and I haven't been updating as a result.
Today I'd like to let you know that I will be posting some images of files I've modeled in 3D software (Maya) for one of my classes later this week. I am still perfecting it, but since midterms are here, I have no spare time and need to get these files onto the next step, texturing.
Till then, Sayonara!

School in session

Well school is back in session, and things are looking up. Not only am I taking a 3D modeling and lighting class, but my wife and my cat have moved back in with me, thanks to a new job she got :D.

So things will be different, but better. I will still have all those late and sleepless nights doing homework, but this time I don't have to face it alone. I look forward to the classes, and have a lot of work to do already. I'll keep everyone posted.

Also, don't forget to check out the latest episode of 7th Row Center, now streaming.