Blizzard intro challenge attemp

About two weeks to the end of May, I decided to “try” to do the AnimChallenge which was a short six seconds of Blizzard-like highlight intro animation video. The free rig was provided by Agora. Rigged by the great Kiel Figgins. The model of Symmetro was created by Tim Oliver Haag.
I thought it would be interesting to create a grappling component to add into the rig. However, I did not do a good job with the rope rig, I didn’t have time to experiment either so I used it anyway.

Creating art and animation after work hours can be tough and exhausting at times. I think that no matter what stage your own exploration or learning projects are, they are still relevant and are important to your growth. Although the risk of putting your work out in the world whether if they are finish yet or not can be negative because they can be seen by potential employers who may not have time to read your explanation of stage they’re in. Also continuously posting work in progress can be as negative as well if you never post finished polish work. At least these are what’s going on in my mind when I decide to post something online.

I recently looking into the working file of this animation again with the goal of continuing to work on it as it has some potential, it could go into my personal demo reel. I saw so many issues made in May. In particular, the spine was quite stiff and poses were not so great. Overall things were moving too fast. I need to break it up further. Previously I tried to squeeze everything into 6 seconds which was part of the challenge but if one can not understand what’s going on, it would not be a good video regardless.

I was happy to see all of these issues, it meant that I grew since May. My skills had leveled up. That old yearning and wishing to have more time in a day, more energy to work on my animation skills comes again and again. Animation sure is tough. It is a marathon after all. It is so satisfying when you get a bit more stamina, a bit more knowledge, and a bit more skillful each time I do an animation project whether for fun or for work.

Modified eyeball

In May, Kiel Figgins released two new amazing character rigs: Nora and pet. I love the appeal of the characters but I thought to have a little fun with the pet rig. In particular, I thought of having an eyeball could help the pet to be a bit more expressive. With respect to the modeler and Kiel Figgins, this was just my own personal exploration.

I made a quick animation to show the eye rig modification for my own amusement. Having the eye gave the pet a bit more expression that I thought brought a bit more personality into him or her.

Glitch Techs' fan art experiment

Glitch Techs was a new animated show on NetFlix back in February 2020. I fell in love with the energy and the characters in the show. It was all about video games, imagination, adventures, teenage shenanigan with heart warming connection between characters. Overall, I felt like a kid again watching the show, in a good way.

Miko was one of the two main character and I thought she was such a good character. And with the goal of leveling up my 3D modeling and rigging skills. I pursued this month long experiment.

The process:

Using what I was learning from Shane Olson 3D Character Workshop, I created the initial blocking of her our of basic shapes. Then slowly I built and separated her into subtools in Zbrush. I also created her pet’s “Ally” with the goal of rigger them both.

I continued with Miko first. I learned how to Retopo in Maya. I actually enjoyed this process, however, I was still learning to make good edge loops for animation. These are not so great, specifically the face area but all part of learning.

I then created her binded skeleton. After testing out the initial binded skeleton worked well. I started creating controls for her. I was experimenting with different colors with the ctrl shape that I realized later not the usual practice in the industry for good reason. I also modeled and rigged up her guanlet which was a savy tech used to give her armor, gadget and weapon to deal with the enemy glitches. (the show was very much like a Ghost Buster feel)

I wanted to make sure that she has the ability to select different weapons using the Gaunlet and also a glitch affect would play when she does weapon selection. All of these attributes selection were added in the Channel. Because this was an experiment, I was not concern about whether or not she will work in game engine.
Aside from the gauntlet, I gave her a Cloud’s sword and his Cauldron because I was playing FF7 remake during that time. It was a great game that reminded me of my younger days playing the original. I wish it was a one complete game instead of parts…I will play the future parts anyway. I also blocked out and animation being inspired.

My old artist’s signature can still be seen in the early 2020.

I was starting to get a lot of lewd content users’ followers and attention. I had one person even asked me if the model will be released for free. Upon looking into his profile, I saw that he used 3D models he found on the internet to make porn content out of them. I then found out about “Rule 34”. I never thought people would get off on a 14 year olds character from a cartoon show. I was feeling very unmotivated afterward. I decided to take a break.
Originally I was planning to release the rig for educational purposes, but after having found out about the lewd contents of Miko character, I no longer had the drive to continue doing so. At the same time, work was picking up so I ended up putting her project in the backlog. I will return to finish her up in my own time and for my own purposes but I will not release her out there.

Valentine 2020 animation sketch

I had an idea for Valentine but as usual I’m busy with my day job. Nevertheless, it is important to get your ideas out! good or bad, it is yours and it is also good practice =) The rigs were from Kiel Figgins.

The Yello Mouse experiment

The Yello Mouse is my artist signature; I then decided to create a character out of it. The first version of The Yello Mouse was created in late 2019. The plan was to release a free rig for educational purposes alongside with a Youtube channel but I quickly realized my time was better-spent learning/experimenting and creating instead of managing a channel. The first version of the character was simple box modeling. The rig was manually created from the ground up. Thinking about how to ease someone new to 3D into using a basic biped rig, I made toggle attribute for several sections of controls to have their visibility on and off with the thought that one can just focus on the basic first but have the ability to turn on more controls to work with if needed/when ready.

First version of The Yello Mouse Model/Rig

The second version of the character was created in February of 2020. It was my way of pushing myself to learn Zbrush. I created the character in Zbrush and Retopo him in Maya. That was my first time using Maya Retopogy tool. I loved it. I learned to use Substance Painter to do a basic diffuse map on the character. I then decided to use Mgear to rig up the new version of The Yello Mouse instead of manual rigging as my goal for these kinds of learning exercises were all to rapid prototype. I also modeled/ manually rigged up a small motorcyle for the mouse based on the model of my own motorcycle. The creation of the version 2 model, texturing and rig with simple animation to test the rig was done within two weeks. This achieved my goal of rapid prototype on top of learning new tools along with learning how to sculpt and retopo.

Second version of The Yello Mouse Model/Rig