First Update of the New Year

Here we are a couple of weeks into January and things are moving along fairly smoothly. At the beginning of this week, I had my first version of layout pretty much done and began sending it out to a few of my trusted peers and professors. Most of them gave me some great feedback to help the film flow much easier as well as telegraph the right idea or emotion. With that being said, here's the link to the most up to date version of the layout; once again, the password is "thesis."

Since I've taken the layout pretty much as far as it can go for the time being, it's now time to dive into the real bulk of the work which is animating! Coming in at just under four minutes, it's a bit more than I had originally envisioned but I think it is possible to pull off. It will be hard, but not impossible. Earlier today, I went ahead and ordered Jason Osipa's book "Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right," so hopefully I can pick up a few tips and tricks from that to help me along the way.

Outside of my own work, Patrick and Jonathan have been really working hard lately as well! Pat recently finished up a rough version of Boris with near-final re-topologized geometry and Jonathan has put in a simple rig to test whether or not the geometry will provide decent deformations as well as switching between quadruped and biped. I must say, it's really something to watch a character move from a description in a script to concept drawings to a moving 3D character! As of right now, Jonathan is thinking that Boris will most likely wind up using a muscle system and/or corrective blendshapes to get more accurate deformations. I know also that Pat is looking to use Maya Hair or Fur to give the little guy a nice, fuzzy look. Who knew a hamster would require so much detail!

In addition to Pat working on finishing up Boris, he has also started providing the hi-res models of my proxy geometry (used mostly for layout and in order to keep scenes moving more quickly). One more bit of good news, it looks like another of my colleagues might be able to help out with the modeling. The Spanish arena seen in the bullfight sequence is one of the more geometry-intense environments other than Marvin's house/neighborhood; my friend Megan is a modeler focusing more on environments and might just be able to squeeze the arena into her schedule.

So far, 2012 has been full of good news and some really great strides in progress. Hopefully this trend continues and I can keep posting updates to the film with some nice and polished animation. Here's to progress!