Left 4 Dead

Despite my initial fears, L4D is still great, and has been eating most of my free moments over the past few months.

The game is survival horror, and you choose one of 4 characters to survive against entertainingly large amounts of zombies. Mixed in there are 4 (also playable) special infected types. You generally play with other people, and usually against other people.

After prepurchasing the game, I was certain the full version would have more variation in it than the demo. More infected types, more survivors, more weapons, more levels. To my dismay, it only had more levels, but I keep playing, and it's still fun.

Fortunately Valve continue to support their games post release, so this game will probably continue to evolve over time, (just as Team Fortress 2 has) maintaining a strong userbase in the meantime.

Claudio Munoz

Fell in love with this illustration in The Economist today. 

There is nice grouping in the heads, in pairs. I love how the expressions blends from being terrified of going down the roller coaster, to sullenly noticing death from behind. And the one squealing like a pig! Meanwhile the background is so playful!  

The artist's name is Claudio Munoz, more gems to be found in his portfolio.

The Thing

John Carpenters The Thing is a cult horror film with a gory charm I had forgotten until recently. I found it particularly interesting for its wild special effects shots with gruesome images of dogs and humans and other creatures being imitated by the Thing, sometimes rather inaccurately.

I was interested to learn that the special effects were mostly handled by a young guy named Rob Bottin, who lived at the studio for the year or so it took to complete the film, subsequently being admitted to hospital... He really loves his job! Stan Winston also helped out with some shots of the dog monster in the kennel, which I felt were less wild and exaggerated (and more spooky) than some of the other parts Bottin handled.

However, without picking each shot apart, it all sums up to a wild ride. You should watch it (again?), unless you're a little squiemish about.. well.. revolting images.

Oh, and word has it that a prequel is in the pipes, involving the events suffered by the Norwegian crew after discovering the alien ship. I suppose it could have some kind of surprise ending involving more aliens... Either way the bar has been set pretty high!

Raptor Run Test

I've been playing around with this giant bird character for a little while. Its basically a velociraptor with a beak, a shorter tail, and longer arms. This animation would be a run that is just before a pounce, so I have the hands out a little; they would otherwise tuck in under the chest.


Raptor Run Test from Joe on Vimeo.

Facelift

I've been away for a little while, having pre-christmas work nightmares, and then post-christmas travels. So, to boost my enthusiasm now that I'm back, I decided to spruce things up around here. Looks better to me!

11 Second Club November Draft 01

Link to Video

Just blocking out for now. There will be some background characters that fill in the crowd reaction in the audio.

My interpretation:

The man has just rescued the young lady from the hands of a group of scientists, who were attempting to duplicate her using an experimental machine. The man is to be seen as somehow respectable to the group of scientists, but they stubbornly insist that they are on the money.

A link to my entry is here.

Completed 11 Second Club!

Finally, I completed something outside of work! I'm simply relieved that I can finish and submit something was essentially a lunch time project (plus a late night or two). I am fairly happy with the result, and eager to get started on the next one.

My progress was as follows:

13th: animation draft with default biped in 3dsmax 14th: character models with simple face rig
15th: test facial animation
17st: Camera cleanup.
21st: Animation draft finish
25th: test character model for basic form (body, fingers) and details (clothes, hair)
28th: Animation cleanup.
29th: Damage control. Removed clothes and hair; presentation to focus on animation. Test Renders.
30th: Final animation cleanup: Final Render.
31st: Submit!

I was admittedly cutting it a little fine, but I felt pretty comfortable in the final days, but I was pretty happy with the overall result. I had a decent character workflow; characters in separate files, easy merge process and animation transfer. I would have liked the shot to be complete with clothes, hair and background, but ultimately this submission was about the animation. I also felt the face rig could have been a touch more 'elegant', including better squeeze controls and perhaps 8 lip controllers instead of 4. Maybe next time!

11 Second Club October 2008

11 Second Club October 2008 from Joe on Vimeo.

Two people, suspiciously disguised as naked clones, discuss 'the point' over a couple of beers.

Trying out for 11 Second Club

Amidst the highs and lows of work, I thought I would try out for this month's 11 second club animation competition. My entry is here.

I'm kind of building my bits as I go, and going for some more straight ahead animaiton style, so I am not sure how the forum regulars will react over there. Most commonly I see people using the traditional approach; grab a rig, pose to pose, etc. I want to learn as much about rigging as I do animation, so my entry may be slightly different.

Cornered 3d Mockup

Where did the time go?! Alas, the cornered competition is over! and I breathe secret relief in seeing very few finished entries. But now, what do I do with this thing? I've been so absorbed by work, I had pushed it aside. I am not too sure... I guess time will tell.