3D Printing!

For the last year I've been working over in New Zealand doing some insane hours, so unfortunately I haven't had as much time as I'd like to animate on the side.  However, the weather here gets pretty hectic, so I've been trying to be creative when I'm stuck inside.  A friend from work introduced me to 3D scanning, and we decided to go halves on a 3D printer not too long ago.  Most of my experiments so far have involved using these gadgets to replicate and customize car parts.  Here is a scan I did of a cracked door handle bezel:

I used a Sense 3D scanner to get the 1:1 dimensions and a rough shape to reference.  From this I could start modeling a replacement.

Once I had a low-res model that matched the size of the original part, I found (after many many failures) that it would print successfully rotated up at an angle.  I extruded some supports from a few edges to prop it up above the build plate.  Here it is in ReplicatorG ready to be printed:

3D printing is surprisingly difficult.  You'd think you could just drop in a model, hit a button, and wait for it to create it.. but there's a lot to it.  Supports are important, and the rotation of the object will make a huge difference.  You even need to decide whether or not it would print the model in pieces to assemble later.  It may come out better if you do that, but experimenting is all part of the fun.

This test print with the low-res geometry turned out really well!  It took a long time but it was worth it.

ReplicatorG adds all these extra supports around the model that are easily broken off when it's finished:

There are still some tweaks I need to do before printing out the high-res version, but now that I have a real, tangible piece I can hold, knowing what changes are needed is so much easier.

Not a bad start!  But you may be thinking, "why doesn't he just buy a new one?"  I'll admit that this method takes a lot of work, and in most cases it would just be easier to buy another.  This piece, however, is for a Toyota Sera, which is so old and rare that Toyota has stopped stocking parts for it.  In a situation like this where replacement pieces aren't readily available, having the ability to recreate or customize is huge, and it makes the whole experience more personal.  Being able to print a door handle bezel may not seem like a big deal, but this makes me very excited for the future!

Animatic from the olden times!

Several eons ago, before the invention of good things, I roughed out a short film idea with 2 lowman rigs.  Today I watched it again and felt inspired to do something with it:

June 11 Second Club

I'm about to leave the country again and wanted to get in as much personal animation as I could, so I decided to try another 11 Second Club competition. This one was way different, so I had a lot of fun with the idea. Here's the progression from layout to final:



Once the idea was laid out, I roughed in some animation:




The camera angle wasn't working on one of the shots where the other character talks, so I changed it up. I also got a lot of good feedback from a friend, and went further with the animation:




Once I was happy enough with how it was turning out, it was time to render and submit!

11 Second Club - May 2013

After watching from the side-lines as some colleagues entered the 11 second club animation competitions every month, (one even winning!) I decided I had to try it.  My acting experience is really limited, so it was cool to journey into this whole other culture, and I actually came to realize why people love feature animation so much.  You're not just making a character move.. you're giving them life!  During my second week this whole idea hit me and I started seeing this character have personality, and it felt great.  I'm definitely doing this competition again.  Anyway, here's my entry:

Thieves - 11 Second Club Entry - May 2013 from Sam Baker on Vimeo.

Stream of Consciouness

Wow I've been busy!  Almost a year since I've updated this blog, but hey it's been wild.  Unemployed for 8 months and then luckily landed a job up in Toronto, which is finally coming out of the 6 month ice age.  Anywho, this awesome animator named David O'Reilly (http://davidoreilly.com/) made a 17min long short film called External World, and released all 60 or so character rigs for FREE!  I just HAD to do something with them, so after work, in the 4 hours of sanity I had left in the day, I made new little animations.  Hopefully I'll continue this for a while.  Here's part 1!


Stream of Consciousness from Sam Baker on Vimeo.

Farts

It's been a while!  Over a year and no posts.  I've been busy, but also slacking, so here's a new one!

Motorcycle in a Tunnel

It's been an incredibly long time since I've touched this blog, but I HAVE been doing stuff, really! Here's something new. Unfinished, not sure what I'll do with it, but it's something to work on when I'm not making money :D



At the end there's supposed to be an explosion that thrusts the transport up when it slams into the bike, but I think I'll just cut the bike in half. Pieces flying around are hot.

Another Robot Animation!

Love this guy :P

More Side-Tracking!

Do I ever do work? Well yes, but only when it is necessarily vital to the completion of something utterly amazing. Anyway Jeremy sent me his blocked-out robot model and I rigged it up for an animation test. Check it out!

Inspired to make something crazy

This is a delayed post.. I watched Coraline again and still am blown away by how amazing the animation is. It's so ridiculously smooth and the arc's drive me crazy! LOL so I was inspired to make this wobbly creature thing. Rigged it with an IK for a "knee" and another for the foot. Just fun random stuff while I'm supposed to be working. Cheers :)

Getting Side-Tracked

So I got a job but keep procrastinating and playin around with stuff. Jeremy is just about finished with his transport vehicle, so I rigged the hell out of it and did some animation. Also Chubu.. yea.. had to play with some stormtroopers.

Tryin Stuff...

Ok so I got impatient as usual and skipped some steps to do a test render. I'm also trying some new poses and stuff though. Check it :P

Boosh Lip Sync!

Holy crap I'm starting an acting animation! I have absolutely no lip sync or acting pieces on my reel, which the guys at ILM said was a must, and I've only ever done ONE years ago at Ex'pression (which was terrible). Needless to say, it was time. So, I'm using this clip from a very funny show called The Mighty Boosh:



And here's what I have so far. I love Creature Comforts and thought it would be funny to make the characters fighting monkeys. You really should work from the body poses first and do the facial/sync last, but who am I to do things correctly? I started with the mouth, then did the eyes/brows, and then the head.. and my reasoning for this (aside from lack of patience) is that psychologically all the actions of the body start from the head, so shouldn't the emotion start there? Kinda like how my buddy Travis would animate using only IK hands for a long time because he believed hands led the arms. Check it out!

Shocks!

I'm going to be using these a lot, and a buddy wants to as well, so I put together a little tutorial on the quickest way to set em up. Check it out!

Learnin Me Some!

Bought The Art of Rigging and have been watching the ebook vids because I really want to make Chubu move right. Here's a test of the legs with a utility that keeps the knee joints rotating with the foot controller. Very helpful if you hate chasing pole vectors around!



Here's a semi-rendered out version of the ghoul fight sequence. Still more to come with textures and Nik's crazy amount of dynamics.

Chubu Cables V.1

Mr. Forbes is modeling up a robot and we want to get the gang back together for another collab project. Which means!!! Chubu needs some dangley hoses on him in addition to some kickass rigging. I'm studying up and working off a base mesh doing tests. Check it!

Games are Violent!

Been busy getting turned down by companies and selling everything I own to survive, but I was able to block out the full length of the fight sequence between the girl and ghoul rigs. More finesse to come soon!

Boarding

Sometimes when I want to do something super crazy and I'm not exactly sure how to go about it, or just want to get my ideas down on paper so I don't forget em, I'll sketch em out. Nik wants to show off the weapon/shield constraints by having the girl throw them in the air and switch hands, so I figured that would be a cool finishing move. Here's what I have planned:

New Quickie

I quit my job but made at least one good contact during the experience. The rigger on the team, Nikhil M. Anand, wanted some animation for his personal rig to test out some cloth sim for his reel.. so we figured this would be a good chance to collaborate. I'm having his woman character fight a larger skeleton-looking dude, and it's fun because I've never done one with so many weapons (or types of weapons) before. While Nik finishes up the enemy rig, I'm working on the woman's fight. Check it out!

Quick Random Animation

Ok so I finished my test over the weekend and have been relaxing for a few days. I got an Unreal character rig from a buddy and decided to animate him bashing a stormtrooper with a toilet. Why not?