Focus... I am Speed

Six weeks and counting. Yes, you heard me. Another 45 days more and I'm done with school officially. This is the point where most of us begin to wonder if we can extend our days at school. Isn't it ironic?

The above is a test render for my fly through of the park. I've had an incredible amount of help from some of my school mates on this and am really grateful. It's gonna be a tight race to the finish line... very exciting, a little apprehensive! ;o)

Occlusion Ambient

This is my first occlusion ambient pass on Maya. By the way, if you had just click the link on the left, you will know that Maya is the sanskrit word for Hindu concept of Illusion. Yes, I am back at it again (dunno whether to sigh or smile). My matte painting class also needs Maya for the last project. Maybe it's for the better. It's always good to have another set of skills, but this Maya you are talking about. I've always wanted to render my 3D models to this point, but we were never taught how to in year one. Calvin says rendering OAs can fry one's computer.

Anyway, this is a scene from my Comic Art class project with Spiderman! :O)

Two and a half weeks left to the end of the semester. Hang in there!

Rigging 101

When you see this, it just tells you that I am near the end of the semester. Two more weeks exactly. I'm completing several projects simultaneously, two of which are worth mentioning at this point.

A) Docu-drama for HD video
Everything has gone exceptionally smooth (in general) for this project. Even my trip to Batam for some of the scenes was trouble-free. So much so, I'm almost certain that we had picked on the right subject to work on. The working title's Project: Red Light, and that's about how much I'll reveal at this point.

B) Character Design
I'm more or less happy with the seven characters that have resulted from the months of brainstorming. I will be placing the characters into scenes with sets and props within the week. The props play an important role for the realism of my characters, so will be working hard on that. Was just at Page One and was inspired by the Art of Toy Story 3!

More updates real soon!

Organic modelling is not a food

It's week 10 of semester two. Halfway to go before the end of the semester and things are definitely beginning to pile up. There is a character design presentation on Monday that I'm trying to finish. It's my take on Mary Poppins, Pixar style; and also my first HD video short story assignment. So far, it's been pre-production work. Will start shooting with my team next week after Monday's presentation. Theme for that 5 min short - Horror! And finally, a short presentation on my favourite photographer for Digital Photography this Wednesday.

In the meantime, will leave you with organic modelling. We just began creating a face today. More updates real soon after Monday.

ipod this

Today we continued working on modelling the iPod. For me, some days are better at Maya. But all days are for being picked at by Serbian instructor, Borko. My nickname is Harry. He gave that to me after that wonderful magic trick that nearly burnt down the school. :P

I have been looking hard to find some more time to go beyond homework, because homework only gets me at the same level as everyone else. If I wanna be really good, I know I have to just go that extra mile. The trouble is that finding time for that extra mile. A hint I hear from other cohorts is that semester one is always the honeymoon period. Oh man! Sometimes I wished that work wasn't in the way. But that'd be the easy way out.

Did I mention that since many instructors are taking time off this Christmas, there have been quite a bit of make-up classes this the past week, stretching classes from 9am to 7pm past in the next few days. An art history presentation next week, a five-page Art History term paper, a flash animation, two slow moving digital art projects and one traditional animation short is on my plate right now. Keep moving forward as Walt Disney once said...