Clay Figure Construction

Said last time I would post pictures of my clay figure if I could.

Step 0 -- Hamster test:  Made a simple clay model of my hamster icon to ensure all the techniques I planned on using would work out.  Fishing line can withstand temperatures around 275 degrees Fahrenheit without incident.  However, polymer clay cannot withstand the uneven heat of a toaster oven.  Hamster came out a little toasted.

Clay hamster with fishing-line whiskers.  Looks like the 8-year-old me painted it.

Step 1 -- Wire and Foil Armature:  Sculpey clay is not supposed to exceed a thickness of 1/2 inch for baking purposes, so the foil helps bulk out the body.  The wire also makes the character more durable.  If a limb were to break, the wire would keep the figure together.

Front view of armature

Side view of armature.

Step 2 -- Base and 1st Baking:  I wanted the legs to be solid clay so the character would have a heavier base than top.  I modeled the feet and put a skeleton of clay on the legs and hips.  This gets around the baking thickness issue because Sculpey can be re-baked.  This also meant the character could stand while I worked on the top features.

Tin foil critter wearing pants?

Step 3 -- Body, Face, and 2nd Baking: Bulked out the legs, layered on the torso, and sculpted the face and tail in their entirety.  I wasn't really happy with the facial expression, I haven't mastered faces in clay.  The body was done in white clay so the color could be painted on later.  Essential details like nose, teeth, and eyes were done in colored clay.  Whiskers were also added.

Side view of armless figure.

Closer look of face w/ fishing line whiskers.

Back view.  Spiky tail turned out really well.

Step 4 -- Arm Base, Mask, and 3rd Baking:  Finalized the pose for the character's arms (though I wonder now if having the arms down would've been more dynamic).  Added the mask. 

Spitfire is not amused.

Step 5 -- Tiny Ninja Weapons:  Modeled Spitfire's iconic throwing knives, a pair of kunai, and one star.  The star was the most fun to make, and the most difficult.  All of these are about 1/2 inch long.

Miniature shuriken not recommended for actual use.

Step 6 -- Arms, Clothing, and Final Bake:  Layered on jumpsuit and added various gear including the Light Grappling hook Lift System (L.G.L.S.).  Fun fact: Spifire wears his LGLS and weapon belt reverse of the other ninja characters because he is left-handed.

Side view of Spitfire. 

Front view of Spitfire.

Step 7 -- Painting:  In which I am still working on.

Earworm of the day: Mannheim Steamroller's rendition of "Deck The Halls"

Skip

I totally just went a week without posting.  Wow.  Shame on me.

I had a great Thanksgiving with my family, and I learned how to make pie crust (successful on first try!)  Pie crust isn't hard, but it's a consistency thing that doesn't translate well onto a notecard.  You really have to have to learn it from someone who knows what it's supposed to look like.

Can't say I got anything else noteworthy accomplished, but I plan on making a figurine of one of my characters tomorrow.  We'll see how that goes.  If I'm successful, I shall post the picture on Wednesday.

Earworm of the day: "76 Trombones" from The Music Man.  I only had to hear it once to memorize the tune as a kid.  It's that infectiously catchy.

Komodo

Four days until I get to go home.  Whee!!!!

Finals week hasn't been so much work as trying to convince myself to work.  However I am now down to putting the last tweaks onto "Catch of the Day" so that it'll be really good instead of just sort of good.  I meant to work on it today, but after the effort of creating a final draft for my Multiculturalism class, all I wanted to do was play with the computer.

So I made my first attempt at a realistic CG-Eyeball.

Which I forgot to save the render in .jpg format.

Darn.

Well, there's also this:

I was on a lizard kick, so sue me.

I very rarely come up with a truly inspired antagonist for my stories.  Komodo just kind of popped out of nowhere (likely from one of the alternate dimensions his companions originated from).  He's a tracker/bounty hunter person, and is very persistent in finding his targets.  I wouldn't call him evil, just amoral, and just happened to have take a job that puts him up against the ninja.  He's a nice enough guy when he's not out to kill you.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, he is a Basilisk lizard, not a Komodo dragon.  The two lizard-things with him are actually not "people animals" like my other characters, they're from alternate dimensions and behave more like animals in our world.  Komodo technically commands them, but still makes a point to be nice.  Jacobson is fond of riding around on his shoulder.

Earworm for the day: "Make a Move" by Royal Tailor

Misplaced Wildlife and Festive Banana Bread

"Catch of the Day" by myself:


I really must apologize to anyone glancing at my linked-in profile right now.  I know it'll be getting double videos in the blog-feed-link-thingy, but having video embedded looks so much better than simply providing a link and saying "go here".

The fall quarter is almost done with, and I'm really, really, incredibly excited to go home for winter break.

I made banana bread today.  The recipe was just a basic one pulled from a Better Homes and Gardens cook book.  Nothing special at all.  Well, ok.  I didn't have any plain cinnamon, so I used pumpkin pie spice.  All my baked goods have tasted of pumpkin pie as of late because buying more spices is not a necessary item on my to-do list.  I also don't own a loaf pan, so I did some quick math to make sure the 10 1/2 x 7 wouldn't overflow and shortened the cook time to 20 minutes instead of 50.  Turned out just fine.

Earworm of the Day: "Taken by the Storm" by Article One.  Yes, that's a violin.  Also, they're Canadian.  For more cool stuff from north of the boarder check out the NFB.

3D Modeling Standards

I've discovered the school library holds a subscription to 3D World.  I wish I had discovered this sooner.  I became a regular reader back at my community college, and I have missed it since moving to Chicago.  The October issue had a description of TurboSquid's new(ish) Checkmate program and included a short list of what it takes to make a computer model to their standards.  I quickly jotted these down for future reference.  I do not have the skill or the resources to make models for sale at this juncture, but if I establish high-quality habits now it will make things a lot easier further down the line.

Granted, most of the standards are sort of "duh" things.  Like no laminate faces, name everything, and orient your model so it's standing in the "up" direction.  Others standards do take more know-how.  Some I don't understand what they're talking about.  It's all part of the learning process.

In other news, drew this yesterday:

Ancient Kenlilian in his natural habitat

I was trying to figure out why my alien characters were crazy colors, could run fast, and had eyes and nose positioned so far up on their heads.  This was the best explanation I could figure.

Earworm for the day: (oh you're going to hate me for this...) Keyboard Cat.

Laconic

Tis best to not procrastinate on homework.

Failing that, tis best to keep the blog post short.

Earworm for the day: Crazy Love by Hawk Nelson (I am shocked I haven't done this one already.)

Catch of the Day

In other news... there is no news.

Earworm of the Day: "I Refuse" by Josh Wilson  Not on my list of favorites, but it's what I got stuck in my head right now.

Quick! Before the Router Dies Again!

So, it turns out that the school library, when it gets to closing time, forgoes any announcement that it's closing time in favor of simply turning out the lights and waiting for students to filter out the door.  It also turns out that the Loop campus closes at 6 pm on Saturdays.  Closes completely.  With red theater barrier across the door and everything.  What's up with that?

I must say that I have gotten none of my personal animation or modeling projects done on account of finals week is 14 days away.  Not to say I haven't been making up stories, because I'm always doing that. Have I introduced Kesikt yet?

Kesikt the Kenlilian.
Not shown: the fact that she's purple.

Normally I would take a moment to describe Kesikt and what makes her tick (trying to piece together her memory after a traumatic brain injury is a big part of what makes her tick these days), but I should really get back to my homework.

Speaking of which:

Eaglets rejoice.  It's raining fish.

That's part of my homework.  The animatic will come soon (at least it better.  It's due Monday).

Earworm of the day:  American Pie by Don McLean (I someday hope to memorize the order of the lyrics on this song.  But not yet.)

Webcomics and Pie

I've found another webcomic to obsess about.  It's called Slightly Damned, and it is hilarious.  My archive binge was on Friday, which means I'm just about out of the obsessing phase and into the "regular follower" phase.  A good thing, since I have lots of homework to do and I really need to focus.

Also on Friday I made that pumpkin pie.  I am thankful my roommates were here to help make it.  Never before have I seen a pumpkin split open with such swift efficiency... after the three of us got impatient of carving it the normal way that is.  Here were the results:

Mmmm...pie.... :)

Earworm of the day:  "Me Against the World" by Simple Plan (It was stuck in my head yesterday.  No explanation exists as to why.)

Game Critique #2: Hedgehog Launch

Let me start by saying something's wonky with the view counter.  I highly doubt I have a small following in the Ukraine.  That would be interesting, but statistically unlikely.

Today I continue critiquing games...

Hedgehog Launch
Made by Armor Games

Premise: You live on a small island nation that looks a lot like suburbia.  The government has elected you as the new head of their fledgeling space program.  The catch -- they can only give you $50 to start and they want you to use the national mammal, a variety of hedgehog.

The controls are pretty easy to learn as they only use the arrow keys and the mouse.  You launch the hedgehog with a slingshot and steer it around the sky with the left and right (and later up) keys and try to collect as many coins as possible to fund your upgrades.  Randomly placed platforms are provided to bounce off of and achieve more air-time.  Upgrades include better launcher, more efficient/powerful jet pack, secondary rockets to go higher, parachute to slow the hedgehog's decent, a radar to detect platforms, and cute little goggles for the hedgehog to wear as it zooms across the sky.

Which brings me to what I like about this game.  First and foremost, it's cute.  I was wary at first about the "launching hedgehogs into the air" thing because I don't enjoy seeing small vertebrates getting hurt.  However there is no "splat" at the end of this game (though there may be a shooting star) and for all appearances the hedgehog seems to be having as much fun with this adventure as you are.  Secondly, the soundtrack rocks out, which turns a relatively silly game into and awesome game.  After all, you are playing with jet-packs.

The platform radar is my only real frustration in this game.  It is very handy to have, but doesn't always show platform placement accurately, particularly when near the ground.  It's also requires taking your eyes off the main playing screen momentarily, effecting one's ability to aim at said platforms.  Nonetheless, I found myself missing the platform radar when I replayed the game, so it is a helpful feature.

Hedgehog Launch is also a very short game (takes about 10 - 15 minutes to complete), but that's not really a problem as it lends itself very well to replay and attempts at beating your previous high score.

---

Earworm of the day (provided you don't get the Hedgehog Launch b.g. music stuck first): Save Your Life by Newsboys

Brain Full, Can't Blog

I have spent part of my morning and most of the afternoon buried in Chemistry homework.  Having just gotten caught up, I find myself with nothing noteworthy on my mind whatsoever.

Then again, is anything on my mind ever noteworthy?  Probably not.

So in the interest of not loosing my focus and getting burned by acid in today's lab project, I will simply post my usual earworm and leave this post at that.

Earworm of the Day: Shine by Pillar

P.S.  I do have an animation currently in the works.  Hope to have it done by next week.  May take longer.  Depends on how much free time I can afford to burn and how fast I can work.  Fingers crossed.

In-fossa-ble?

Screencap of the skull modeling setup in Maya.

I've been busily working on modeling a fossa skull.  A fossa is a predatory animal from Madagascar that might be related to the mongoose (citation Wikipedia, so I'm not 100% sure of the mongoose thing, but it's sure not a cat).

The image I got off Wikipedia looked like it was a cued up to model from.  I soon discovered it wasn't.  I had to do a slight resizing on the separate components in photoshop to ensure all angles were at the same scale.  That, And I'm reasonably sure the image is a drawing rather than a photograph, though I'm not positive.  It is inarguably in perspective, which means the image of the underside of the skull and the image of the top are hopelessly misaligned.

Thankfully the human brain is not a computer, and is therefore able to make best guesses and fudge things if need be.  And who really looks at a fossa skull that often?  (Aside from those with a zoology degree and an interest in Madagascan wildlife.)

Earworm for the day:  Hold Your Colour by Pendulum (I was coloring something very psychedelic today, so it got stuck.)

Game Critique 1: Elephant Quest

I recently signed up for a site called Kongregate which has lots of free computer games from various companies and is generally all around fun.  It's possible to play games without an account, but having an account allows you to save your games and achievements.

Having had a basic education in game design, I can't help but try to see beyond the graphics and puzzle out what makes these games so darn addictive.  So here's my two cents on one:

Elephant Quest:
Made by Armor Games.

This game is adorableness armed with laser cannons.  You're a small blue elephant.  Your hat got stolen by a big purple woolly mammoth and now you want it back.  To do so, you have to brave a maze of levels inhabited by hordes of strange monsters and complete quests from other elephants to get upgrades so you can face Woolly in the final showdown without getting trampled to death.

Though you will get killed repeatedly, you also have an infinite number of lives.  The rooms can be visited as many times as needed and the monsters are always there exactly the same as before.  This may seem like an annoyance at first, but becomes essential at the end.  Just completing the quests and beating all the rooms is not enough to beat Woolly.  I'm not familiar with gamer terminology, but I believe this is called "level grinding".

The level map is laid out in a easy-to-navigate spiderweb, if such a thing is possible of existing.  The level-up is the real unusual part because it's graphical.  You start at the center and collect the increments sequentially through a virtual maze.  There are 5 categories for upgrade points: intelligence, agility, endurance, charisma, and HP.  Except for HP, the upgrade points can be spent on upgrades like weapons and jump height and little elephant fairies that deal damage to nearby enemies (and they're so very cute).  Complicated?  Yes.  It took me a while to figure out how it all worked.

---

Earworm for the day: Emperata Overture

Mashup

I am reading a book on animals that went extinct within human history, and it's got me thinking of Twiggy and the Jackalope again.  Part of the story involves a Rare/Extinct animal zoo at the north pole. There's also an entire army of vengeful dodos, descended from those who escaped their home island long ago.

Of course the Dodo Army is an equal opportunity employer, and has therefore picked up a few other animals over time.  For comedy's sake, one of these is a chicken.  (and yes, I didn't look up the spelling of the name "Meredith" until later.  Note to self: always spell-check the names.)

DoFranklin, DoMeredith, and DoTreena; members of the Dodo Army.

Character detail of DoMeredith the chicken.

All the dodo names are ["Do"(as in dodo) + Some actual given name] and they earn a second name later in life by doing something unique.  For example: DoDonald Cleaver (favors a meat cleaver as a weapon), DoElla Dial-Tone (spent years in the north pole zoo pretending to be empty-headed), DoMaynard The Bard (self explanatory).  Oh, and did I mention that the dodos wear hats?  It's a cultural thing.

"And now for something completely different!":

EY's Spaghetti-Fish-n-Veggie Meal
--or--
Too-Lazy-To-Go-Buy-Spaghetti-Sauce Meal
Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 servings spaghetti noodles
• A cup or so of frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 breaded fish sticks (fully cooked)
• 1 Tbsp butter or margarine (I use butter)
• Handful of shredded cheese (two singles slices work ok in a pinch)
• Enough water to cook the spaghetti, 1-2 Tbsp for the vegetables, and a 1/4 cup for later.

How To:

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions.  Use a 2 quart pan (trust me, you'll need the space).
2. While that's cooking, put vegetables in medium-sized microwave-safe bowl and add a tablespoon or so of water.  Cooked covered for about 4 minutes on high.
3. Remove vegetables with a hot pad or oven mitt.  Immediately add butter and cheese and stir until mostly melted.
4. Reheat fish sticks (0:45 to 1:00 will work fine)
5. Break fish sticks into smaller pieces.  Add to veggie-cheesy mixture.  Stir.
6. Cover and place in microwave for another minute to make sure everything's melted together.
7. By now the spaghetti should be done.  Drain and return to 2 quart pan.  Dump in the veggie-cheesy-fish mixture and stir.  Add 1/4 cup water and keep stirring.
8. Serve with a side-dish of fruit to make a meal.

Makes 3-4 servings.

Nutrition Facts:  More nutritious than a bowl of ramen, but would never be endorsed by Dr. Oz.  Fish and vegetables are good for you generally, but I would not recommend eating this if you have qualms about fat or carbs.  The fish, cheese, and butter do add salt.  It's college student fare; use your better judgement.

Earworm of the day: Nothing springs to mind.  Have a nice day.

A Day for Videos

So I've gotten into my head that I want to make a pumpkin pie for halloween.  I'm talking buying an actual pumpkin.  It took a while for me to find a recipe that didn't call for a 15 oz can of Libby's.  I don't care if it's "100% pure"; if I don't get orange gunk on my hands and fresh seeds for roasting, it's not pumpkin.  I did find a recipe with an actual pumpkin though.

In Storyboarding class we discussed editing and the importance of timing.  We also watched The TV Show.  I recommend it in full-screen.  For my homework assignment, I brought back my character Jimmy and pitted him against a bunch of frog-things.  (a better quality video can be found here on Vimeo)

I subscribed to Vimeo for my Storyboarding class.  I'm not going to do a compare/contrast between Vimeo and YouTube because I've never joined YouTube, but I've been happy with Vimeo so far.  There's a lot of high-quality stuff on there.

In case you need to get Zorba's Dance out of your head...
Earworm of the Day:  "Faking My Own Suicide" by Relient K

Unexpected Guest

I occasionally have weekends that make Mondays seem like no big deal.  This was one of those weekends.  On Saturday I was nearing melt-down point when in came a small blue parakeet.

Yes.  A parakeet.

I was just finishing my laundry when a bird waddled up to me, chirping for attention.  I'm pretty certain our apartment doesn't allow pets other than fish, so a parakeet was the last thing I expected to find in the laundry room.

After informing the manager of our strange visitor, I took her back to my room and constructed a cage out of a milk crate, a mesh laundry hamper, and a handful of knitting needles.  Having no money for birdseed I decided to feed her Cheerios, which took her a minute to figure out how to eat (I'd imagine it's like eating a bagel with your hands tied at your sides).

I have never owned a bird, and only once had a chance to play with one.  I'm more used to rodents, cats, and dogs. The parakeet, which I quickly dubbed Headpet (for her affinity for perching on my head) flitted about my room and tested the perching potential of each piece of furniture and the window shades; experimented with the noise-making potential of my house keys; stood on my laptop and tried to make sense of my homework; and generally never held still.

Fortunately parakeets are diurnal. As soon as I got Headpet in her makeshift cage and turned off the lights, she quieted down and went to sleep.

On Sunday I made a few phone calls and found an animal shelter to take Headpet off my hands, get her some proper birdseed, and hopefully find her owner.  In some sense, having to babysit a bird should've been another stress on top of a big pile of stresses, yet somehow it came off as a refreshing change of pace.  At the very least it makes for an amusing story.  Sometimes getting knocked off our game gives us a chance to start playing something different.

Earworm of the day: Why Should I Worry from Disney's Oliver and Company

Alien Slang and Cartoon Eyes

So I was inventing some slang for my alien characters today, specifically the ones that have some involvement with their planet's military.  This was way more fun than it should've been.  For example, book rookie:  a person who claims they know how to do something solely on the grounds that they read it in the manuel.  Or drilled: to have removed through a process, such as one runs practice drills to replace blind instinct with useful training.

Then it occurred to me that "drill" in the military sense might itself have originated from slang or metaphor, though I'm only speculating.  A quick google search provided an explanation of why the Marines do drills (the marching kind) and a couple of ads for power tools.  Clearly I need more research.

My Design Interfaces class has started using a new mockup tool called HotGloo.  It's a new experience having a tool that can design and test out website functions without being tied to any particular computer, or wait for a hundred libraries to load like an Adobe product.  Not that I have issue with Adobe.  It's how I make things like this: 

I'm currently working on the rest of the picture.  Points for guessing who's eye it is (hint: he has been pictured on this blog before).  It occurred to me that I could do a short tutorial on cartoon eyes, but I don't have a screen-cap program to make a video with.  Any ideas for a solution?

Earworm of the day:  Please Don't Let Me Go by Group 1 Crew

Beth Redesign

Character expression sheet for Beth's redesign.

As artistic skill improves, so occasionally must the design of one's cartoon characters.

I've pretty much drawn Beth the same way since the day I finally figured out the significance of construction drawing (a very nice tutorial on that here by the way).  For a while I drew her head as an egg-shape, but the trouble was always how long to make her nose.  It was never consistent.

I've changed Beth's head to be two separate circles for the head and the muzzle, which has several benefits:

1. A circle looks the same from all directions, so it's much easier to think of it in 3D.  
2. It helps establish the placement and boundaries of her mouth and prevents me from drawing her nose too big (which has been an issue in the past).
3. Beth's a hamster.  Have you seen a hamster's muzzle?  Hold that thought...

Pocket-sized adorableness.

They got the round nose thing going on, so it fits with her species.  (btw, the hamster in the photo is the real-life Beth the hamster.)

The final bit of the redesign is her hair (er... headfur?).  I've always drawn her with no hairstyle whatsoever, but most of my other important characters had some suggestion of a hairstyle. Beth looked  like an extra in her own cartoon.

I decided on a half-way point between her parents' hairstyles with a lot of extra bed-head thrown in.  Three lines facing forward and two facing back over the base of the closest ear.  This lends itself to more expressiveness, like standing on end when scared or drooping when tired.

Earworm of the day: have we done Raver's Fantasy yet?  We have now.

Head in the Clouds

I have finally picked up a Discworld novel.  This is a surprising development, not because it isn't something I would do (I totally would), but because I'm only getting around to it now.  I started with book one, The Color of Magic.  Thus far it is a very funny, and slightly hard to put down.

Having figured out Harold Washington Library's system for categorizing fiction, I hunted down another two books by another author, Richard Bach, who's apparently obsessed with aviation, but that's ok because his novels are nice short reads filled with a child-like imagination.  The only word I can describe them with is "charming".  Charming in the completely serious, un-ironic sense.  Pure day-dream like flights of fancy.  The series I picked up is called The Ferret Chronicles and it sounds exactly like something I would've written in middle school, with the big exception that Bach actually knows how to write novel and my middle-school self didn't (not that I didn't try).

In other news:  a friend of mine shared this video with me.  Post-its are versatile little things.

Earworm of the day: Take Me Into The Beautiful by Cloverton
(They also have a free download of the song at their website, just a note.  Free stuff is always neat.)

Easy Cheesy Potatoes

Have you ever bought a pack of that "easy melt" cheese?  It's the stuff that comes in wrapped slices like American cheese, but it's especially made for making grilled-cheese sandwiches (aka it's probably mutant Velveeta).  It makes a fine grilled-cheese sandwich, but ever tried to eat that stuff plain?  It's nasty.  It's not real cheese.

So a year or so ago I bought a pack of the easy melt stuff, not knowing what I was getting myself into.  Several months later it was still in my fridge, and it hadn't grown any mold yet.  This could be proof that it's an orange, hydrogenated dead-zone similar to the ones found in the ocean, only it was in my fridge which is almost as disturbing.

So, getting to the point:  one day, faced with a 2 month old half-pack of undead easy melt slices and some very much alive potatoes (they always sprout eyes by the time I use them), I created this recipe:

EY's Easy Cheesy Potatoes

Need:

• washed potatoes (doesn't matter what kind they are, or if you peel them.  I buy what's on sale and keep the peels on.)
• 6-8 (or maybe 10) slices of single-slice cheese product of your choice
• water
• oven-safe casserole dish or baking pan large enough to hold everything without overflow
• aluminum foil
• knife

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg Fahrenheit (176 Celsius)
2. Cut up the potatoes into slices about 1/4 -- 1/2 inch thick.
3. Lay potatoes in bottom of dish/pan, layering to 2 slices deep.
4. Add enough water to surround but not cover the potatoes.  Tops of potatoes should be sticking out of the water.
5. Unwrap singles-slices and lay a single layer on top of potatoes like a big cheesy blanket.
6. Cover pan with aluminum foil.  Place in oven.  Place on top of cookie sheet if using a small or shallow dish.  There's a chance it will boil over.
7. Cook for about 45 minutes, or until potatoes split in half when you stick a fork in them.
8. Remove pan from oven.  Remove foil.  Serve with vegetables and/or meat of your choice.

Servings:

Creates as much as you put into it, or about 1 person per potato if we're talking russets.  Smaller potatoes and you're on your own.

Nutrition facts:

How should I know?  The nutrition info for an unpeeled potato can be found here.  Read the package on your chosen cheese product and do the math.

Earworm of the day: Can't Shut Up by Anthem Lights

Jimmy!

At risk of becoming captain obvious, I have changed the background color of Penguins With Jet Packs from black to graphite.  I had a comment that the white-on-black was a little hard on the eyes.  I can't complain; graphite is very in right now for animation software and it's reasonable to believe they're on to something.

It's been very wet up here in Chicago, and the rain only stopped an hour ago.  Luckily it hasn't been too windy for umbrellas.  I finally invested in a set of register pegs so I can utilize the light tables in the 4th floor lab.  I have a short animation I want to make, but drawing in the computer is so tedious.  I wonder if good ol' pencil and paper will be better or worse.

Today I had a mini-animatic due in Storyboarding.  We were given a 12 second soundclip from the TV show South Park and asked to make an animatic with it.  The visuals were up to us.

I have never watched an episode of South Park (though cultural osmosis has taught me it has something to do with satire, vulgarity, annoying voices, and the repeated slaughter of a particularly unfortunate character named Kenny.)  My unfamiliarity with the show meant I was free to make up whatever explanation I wanted for what I heard in the soundtrack.  This was incredibly fun.  Here is the result:

New thing to note: it's always best to create a mobile version of an animation in iMovie before attempting to upload to blogger.  The original copy was apparently too large.

And yes.   I did look up who this "Jimmy" character was after I was done with the project.  No, I do not have an interest in watching South Park any time soon.

Earworm for the day: The Russian folk song "Korobeiniki"  (old-school gamers, you're welcome)

Error Some Place

One day I decided to re-create one of my favorite art projects in Maya.  The image is of a radio-active dinosaur:   

The original is color-aid paper on matte-board.  The assignment was vibrating color (yes, it's fully intended to seer your retinas, and the digital scan doesn't do it justice.)

So I went into Maya, modeled a 3D version (only took two tries!  I'm improving!), created and exported the UV map and did some preliminary coloring and lighting just to start getting the feel of how to re-compose the picture for 3D space.

I hit the render button...

...and I hit a brick wall titled "//Error: setParent: object 'renderView' not found."

Apparently it's a bug in the latest Maya.  A horribly frustrating bug.  Luckily a short google search yielded great results.  Found the fix here.

Hooray for the internet.

Earworm of the day:  Animaniac's Ballad of Magellan  Staying historically (semi)accurate through off-screen violence!

Turtles, Arowanas, Pirhanas

Went to the Shedd Aquarium today for the first time since I was... 4?  5?  Well, it's been over 12 years so it was time to go back.  We went out for brunch first though at this amazing place called Yolk.  The food was very good and Dad loved the coffee.  The aquarium was fun.  They had an exhibit about the amazon, which included some of the biggest freshwater fish I'd ever seen.  Forget trying to catch one with a fishing pole; they'd pull you under before you could reel them in.  There were also a lot of turtles.  We saw an aquatic show that featured white-sided dolphins and a talented sea-lion.  It was surprisingly short, but I guess it's best not to tire out the animals.

The sad thing was, most of the fish I knew the names of, I learned from facebook's Fish World game.  Well, you can't say I haven't learned anything.

On another topic:  When one is creating stuff, it's always good to check if it's been done before.  I can't say yet whether or not someone else is developing a tv-show with ninja hamsters, but I did find the game Ninja Hamsters vs Robots.  Now if only I can get past the 3rd level.

Earworm of the day: Wake Up by The Arcade Fire (because the Shedd uses it in their aquatic show).

The Importance of Having Backstory

I love making up wacky characters of various kinds.  It's one of my favorite things about writing.  Usually though a good character is something that springs to my mind by accident.  Most of my characters, when I first write them, are incredibly flat and it may take months or years to flesh them out into a person I'd want to write dialogue for.

This holds especially true for my character Beth, who is meant to be the protagonist of the story Animalburg.  I decided that in-story she was 12 years old (my Animalburg characters have human-esque life-spans) so I assumed that she would start the story a little flat, and gain characterization as I wrote.  But I could never put pen to paper.  The character bored me, and one can't write with a boring character.

The other day I got off task and created a truly out-there character named Cylee.  She's an 7 1/2 ft tall space alien with bright green fur.  She was born during a pivotal battle of a revolutionary uprising on her home planet.  She grew up in a world of cultural turmoil.  As an adult she took a job as a grunt on a space cargo-ship.  She's traveled all over the galaxy, picking up snatches of other languages, fashion ideas from other cultures, and married a space-age gunsmith.  Her best friend is an alien that looks like a porcupine dragon.  She has an attitude, shows affection shoving people around (getting various results depending on the size of the recipient), and she knows how to curse in 10 different languages (though she's only conversationally fluent in Kenlilia and Trade-standard).  Needless to say, she's very fun to write, especially when paired against my character Owl who is much smaller than her.  She tends to treat him like a child, much to his annoyance.

Cylee yanking Owl into a stairwell, and out of danger.

And then it hit me what was wrong with Beth:  I had never given her a back-story.  So, to start the thought process, I drew Beth as a three year old.

Now I have to figure out how she went from wearing pink and dragging around a blanket to wearing cargo shorts and aspiring to be a ninja.  This will indeed be fun.

Earworm for the day: Halo by Manic Drive

Rodent in Motion

The above is a short project I worked on over the weekend, trying to animate the walk-cycle of a cartoon mouse.  By no means is it a life-like walk; it's really very simplified and I think a mouse would have a much faster gait.  I'd imagine it almost like a quick trot.  Or perhaps the front legs trot while the back legs bounce like a rabbit.  It's impossible to find a good reference video.  I typed in "mouse walk" on YouTube.  I got 20 ways to sync sound effects to foot-falls.  I tried "mouse slow-motion".  I got 100 videos of small toys and lightbulbs being decimated by mousetraps in epic slow-mo.  (Why lightbulbs?  I'll never know.)

Between Mickey-mousing and shattered filaments, I did find this very talented rodent.  Unfortunately he is too quick, and the video is too poor quality, to actually get a reference from.

Speaking of references, I found a fascinating book with detailed drawings of various animal skulls from all angles.  The skull is the underlying reason (quite literally) to why heads of all vertebrates look the way they do.  The book was made for biology students, but it practically begs the 3D modeler to put a page in the scanner and create an bison or lion skull to add to their portfolio.  I'm debating weather to do so, and if so what animal to pick.  Decisions, decisions...

Earworm for the day:  I've got nothing.  Enjoy an annoying-song-free day.

The Battle to Keep On-Task

Woman walks in on a rat's birthday party.

Happy Friday everyone.  So far so good on my goal to keep this blog updated.

My plan is to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from now until who knows when.  I want to have at least one link to an interesting web page in every post.  This does not count the earworm link.  That's just there because my brain is like an iPod shuffle.  In addition, I would like to post a picture or drawing once a week and an original video (aka made by me, not just swiped off YouTube) once a month.

We'll see how that goes.

I don't have any insightful musings for the day, but while digging through my bookmarks for a link to post I found Murphy's Rules of Combat.  Enjoy.

Earworm for the day: Chris August - Battle

Warning: science inside!

I am determined now.  I really must update this blog more regularly.  I've said it a billion times (well, maybe more like 3).  Anyway, this time I'm armed with a checklist.  Maybe that'll keep me motivated.  Praying about it too will probably help.

So anyway, a new school year has arrived and I'm back in the wild and windy city of Chicago.  I am adjusting to living on the 13th floor of a building.  This is one floor higher than the highest classroom I've ever been in (Business Ethics last winter).  The upside is there's always a breeze and a good view of the sunrise/sunset.  The downside is getting up and down efficiently.  Today, just for kicks, I took the stairs.  Going up.  I made it, but had to sit down and gasp for air upon arrival.  Never doing that again.  Well, unless I really want to get in shape...

One of my classes this quarter is Environmental Chemistry.  Awesome thing about college:  My teacher works for the EPA.  Scary thing about college: there's a door down the hall that says "WARNING: Radioactive Material Inside!"  Yeah.  There are actual bona-fide scientists doing relevant research in DePaul's facilities.  Just as long as no mutant animals go charging around the building, I'm all for it.

So back to chemistry class.  We're learning about air pollutants:  where they come from, what they're made of, and how specifically they damage our bodies and our stuff.  Being a college course, this involves some actual chemistry stuff, like Lewis structures and balancing reaction formulas and knowing that pure oxygen is typically diatomic and why it's typically diatomic.  And what "diatomic" means.

It occurred to me, while playing pyramid solitaire, that it would be really cool (and really educational) if all this chemical reaction stuff could be turned into a card game.  It would be simple really.  Turn the periodic groups into stats, be able to trade in element cards for compound cards, and vice-versa.  I almost mentioned it to my teacher today.  I'm kind of glad I didn't.  I went online first and googled "chemistry card game".

I found Elemento.  I totally want this for Christmas now.

And now I can put aside my idea for a card game and rest easy knowing that it's been done.  But not before I send this link to my teacher.

Earworm of the day-- Forget and not Slow Down: Relient K

Place Holder

Haven't posted because I've nothing interesting to say. Here's a silly picture.

Beginner Japanese, Courtesy of Styx

Screenwriting has been both my favorite, and my hardest class this quarter. Today, I got the first complete draft of my assigned screenplay done! And it's about time too. It's due Tuesday. No time like the last minute. But really, I'm happy mostly because it's one of only 2 stories I've completed, front to back. The first one has yet to be edited (and it really needs an overhaul, but that's a project for next month).

Animation History is my next crisis to face. I have a list of names a mile long that I really need to know. Or at least have notes on. The names range from as easy (Walt Disney), to easy to anime-fans (Osamu Tazuka), to "who the heck is that?" (Ralph Bakshi anyone?). My roommate is Japanese (her home was not in the path of Friday's Tsunami thank goodness). So after the lesson topic of anime, I came home and started trying to pronounce the names I learned correctly. She thought this was funny, not because I was mispronouncing things, but because an American was trying to speak Japanese. She also flipped when she discovered I knew what "arigato" meant (Styx songs can be educational. Who knew?).

One more week, and spring break will be here. I can't wait.

Catchy song of the day: Francesca Battistelli's "This is the Stuff"

Chicago

Life has been interesting.

I am now at DePaul University in Chicago. A quick Wiki-search will tell you that the name Chicago derives from an native-american word for "wild onion". The building with the most square-footage in the city is Merchandise Mart, which is so large it has it's own El station, and it's own zip-code. The two tallest buildings in the US can be found here: The famous Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and the Trump International Hotel and Tower. In fact, Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper, but you probably already knew that.

It snows and/or rains every other day here. Typically I go bananas over snow, but now it's lost it's charm. I really prefer the rain. I want spring to come. I'm tired of iced-over sidewalks in the morning.

Public transportation has been a blessing. I've yet to ride the bus, but the el/subway are so convenient that I really can't complain. When we were hit with a foot of snow earlier this year, I was still perfectly mobile. Others had to dig out their cars and drive through slush. I just had to walk and hop on a train like always.

The other blessing is the stores. There's a reasonably close Trader Joe's, and an Aldi right underneath (turns out they're owned by the same company!) It's a bit of a hike, 4 blocks maybe, but I need the exercise. Even more convenient is the Borders store, which unfortunately is closing due to bankruptcy. On the up side, their closing sale was the best excuse to get a really huge book on animals, a really cute greeting card with a frog, and a copy of Mouse Guard (which is becoming one of my favorite graphic novels).

I think I like Chicago.