The Monsters: Bottle Battle- Animated Short Released

My CG animated short is finally released to YouTube! Check it out below, and please like, comment, and share if you enjoy it!

The short was 2 months in the making as a personal challenge to see if it was possible to create a full CG short in that time period. To complete my goal within that time limit I had to animate 30 shots in 30 days (the fastest I've ever animated). In Animation Mentor we have several weeks just to animate one 10 second shot, so this was a great exercise in animation speed. As a result, I'm much faster now! I also learned more about every other stage of CG film production from storytelling, camera angles, layout, lighting, rendering, and (of course) a lot of animation things. I especially got a lot practice animating all that running (I didn't use any run cycles). In the end, it's not my most polished work (you can see my most polished work in my demo reel) but I'm happy with what I created in the time I allowed myself.

If I got to do it all over again, there are dozens of things I wouldn't do and dozens of things I would. But that's just hindsight being 20/20, so I'm going to leave this alone (except for maybe polishing up a shot or two for my reel) and am thinking up my next short! I won't start it until after I graduate from Animation Mentor (which will be soon, it's currently week 4 of my last 12 week class). I want to get my demo reel all together and sent out first. Then I can work on the next short to distract me while I wait to hopefully hear back from studios.

I figure I'll probably always be working on a short, even once I get into a studio. It's just a fun thing to do, getting to tell a full story and play all the roles in its creation. Though it would be nice to collaborate with a person or two (and would probably produce a nicer result, especially if they know about all the non-animation things that I'm still learning about). I highly suggest that every CG artist create a short of some sort, either by themselves or with friends. It doesn't have to be a 12 month production, it can be a short 2 month production like mine. That way you can learn what not to do and what you need to improve on in a short amount of time.

If you've made a short, or are currently making a short, mention it in the comments below!

Announcing "The Monsters"- My Upcoming Animated Short Film!

I'm happy to announce that "The Monsters," a CG short film I've been working on for over over a month now, is going to be coming out sometime this month! I say "sometime" because I'm still working on it. I'm in the latter stages of animation, but still have plenty of work to do, never mind the lighting and rendering (I'm using image based lighting and final gather with Mental Ray, so each frame takes a decent amount of time). Anyway, here's the first promo poster!

It'll be about 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes long and, as the poster says, is an action-comedy. I can't really say too much without giving it all away (3 minutes takes a long time to animate, but a short time to watch). However, I will say that the possible subtitle for the film is "The Bottle Battle." It should be fun! There's no dialogue, just a lot of physical humor due to some conflict between the characters. It's kind of like one of the old Road Runner or Sylvester and Tweety cartoons.

Work in Progress Screenshot from Maya

I'm not doing it for Animation Mentor or anything (though the characters are the AM rigs Monster Ball, Bird Ball, and Twig). It's a personal challenge I've set myself to see if (A) I can make a short all on my own, and (B) how fast I can do it. Which is why I'm using pre-existing rigs and several free props, along with the props and set that I made, to help speed it all up.

Work in Progress Screenshot from Maya

It's been quite a challenge so far, but I've learned/improved a lot at so many different things that it's been worth it. I've gotten a lot faster at animating, which is good since my last class gave us 11 weeks to make a 15 second 2 character dialogue. That's fine for school (and actually really good since you have the time to slow down and learn) but in a real production environment you have to work a lot faster than that, which is what I'm trying to train myself for here. And on top of that, it's just fun to be able to produce animation faster because you get it out of your head and onto the screen quicker.

Anyway, I'll keep this blog updated about the film's progress through the last few weeks. When it's finally released, you'll be able to find it on my YouTube channel.

Until next time!

Hand Practice Animation

Check out my new animation- a hand practice piece I did a few weeks ago. I did it while working on my AN05 Advanced Acting dialogue assignment because I was having trouble with the hand poses. It's based on webcam footage I filmed of myself making various hand gestures. Since I'm on break this week, I polished it up and rendered it out (using some of the lighting things I've learned from Digital Tutors). Doing this helped my hand animation skills a lot! I learned more about creating nice hand poses, getting into and out of those poses, and holding the poses while still keeping the hands "alive." I also thought it was interesting how the forearm and upper arm responded to the movements of the fingers/wrist.

Anyway, here's the animation! If you want to see my animations as soon as I upload them, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Animated in Maya 2013, rendered with Mental Ray.

CG Program Recommendations

Welcome to the final part of this three part series of art supply/program recommendations. Last time, I covered digital art programs. Before that, I discussed traditional art supplies. This time, I'm going to cover CG programs that I've had some experience with. I'll be gearing my recommendations more toward how the programs are at making still renders, though I may mention their animation capabilities a bit. Here we go!

CG/3D Programs
There are multitudes of CG/3D programs out there (you'll find people sometimes use CG and 3D interchangeably, since they have come to mean pretty much the same thing). Now while there are lots of CG programs, many by big companies, anyone who's done a quick search will know that there are a few main players. Two of these are the main ones that colleges seem to acknowledge (Cinema 4D and Lightwave aren't on any of my college's computers). The third is one that everyone knows is a strong competitor, though I guess it hasn't become "industry standard" enough to get into college classes. So first, the industry standard ones.

Maya
In my current universe, Autodesk Maya holds the title of Queen of All Things CG. Every CG class I've had so far used it, there are tons of tutorials, tons of websites, and tons of examples of it being used to make films. It can be buggy at times, but patches eventually come out and all is the right in the CG world again. I personally love animating in it (more so than animating in Blender), but I currently like modeling in Blender more. This could just be because I've spent more time practicing animating in Maya and more time practicing modeling in Blender. All in all, I think it's an awesome program. If you're a student, check out my post on how to get Maya for free. Because it costs thousands, if you're a hobbyist, I suggest you start with Blender. And if you've been using free programs and want to move up to an industry standard you can get Maya on Amazon and from Autodesk (the $500 difference is a subscription fee that you'd have to get after purchasing the program from Autodesk, so the prices are actually the same). Keep in mind that often there are only small differences between the versions (they do come out every year), so you may want to consider buying an older version to save some money.

3Ds Max
Autodesk 3Ds Max is another great CG program (I've played around with it a bit). I think that the reason people often have trouble deciding between Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3Ds Max is that they are both all-in-one CG programs from the same company. Why Autodesk has such similar programs, I don't know. I actually truly don't know the difference between them. The way I've always understood it is that Maya is used more often for movies, while 3Ds Max is used more often for games. Of course, there are many exceptions to that. Whatever it's made for, people seem to love 3Ds Max, so I suppose I recommend it if you find something that it does that Maya can't do (or if you're going to focus on games). You can get it on Amazon and from Autodesk.

Blender
This is one of the biggest CG programs out there, and it's totally free. I used it for several years before getting into college and being eligible for the free version of Maya. I still use it often now. It may not be "industry standard" but it certainly could be. The Blender Foundation has shown that a number of times with its animated shorts, and many professionals and small studios use it for commercials and other such things. I actually know of a couple of people who left the industry standard programs mentioned above for Blender.It has fur/hair, cloth, fluids, and all those other things you find in the "professional" programs. It also has a lot of tutorials available, including books and DVDs. On top of that, it has a built in video editor, so you don't even need something like Adobe After Effects to finish your animations off (you need After Effects, or something similar, if you render animations out as individual frames, which is recommended opposed to rendering single video files). You can use the Blender video editor with videos and frames from other sources (so you could use it with Maya or 3Ds Max). You can get Blender here.

Mandelbulb 3D
This free 3D fractal program is kind of a digital art program and CG program rolled into one. You interact with 3D fractal objects, and have to render your image out like you do in a CG program, but it's not as functional as a true CG program. You can't import models (though I've heard a few ideas about exporting models), and coloring and lighting abilities are somewhat limited. Also, navigation in 3D isn't that easy. But given that it was made by one person (Jesse of fractalforums.com) and is free, it's pretty awesome. It's functional enough for tons of people to be making beautiful 3D fractal art with it right now, and I'm sure that it'll continue to grow. I've used it quite a lot recently, and am looking forward to working with it more in the coming months. You can get it for Windows here (this is the one I use), and a similar program called Mandelbulber for Linux, Mac, and Windows here.

DAZ Studio/Poser
I've never tried Poser, but I have DAZ Studio. I know that there are some people out there who love those programs, and there are some people out there who don't think renders made with them deserve as much attention as they get. This isn't because the programs are bad, they are actually great, but the problem is that you are using pre-made content. With Maya, Blender, etc. you make your own stuff from start to finish, then render it. With DAZ and Poser, you buy stuff from the companies, arrange and pose it (though you can buy poses too), then render it. You're not relying on your own modeling, texturing, and rigging skills. Some great renders can be made with these programs (I get the DAZ newsletter, and there are always stunning renders making up the ads). However, because it is so simple and user friendly, a lot of people seem to feel they don't need to work with their images as much, creating a lot of bland, obviously CG images out there. Because it is not an all-in-one CG program like Blender or Maya, I think they approach it from a more playful mindset and feel that they don't need to read up on fancy texturing and lighting techniques. Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule (I've come across some great renders on deviantART).

So with all that said, do I recommend these programs or not? The answer is yes and no. Yes, if you are just a hobbyist and don't mind having to pay every time you decide your character needs a new outfit or a new hairstyle (you can find some free things, both from the companies and from users, and you can customize the models in other CG programs). These programs can be a great introduction to CG and can teach you how to effectively pose, set up appealing compositions, and appropriately light your scenes. Also, they can be helpful if you need a drawing reference for a pose but can't find any stock footage (I occasionally use DAZ for this). I do not suggest them if you plan on becoming very serious about CG. They are not used in any visual effects houses, so knowing them isn't much of a plus on your resume. Also, it's much more impressive (I think) to show off something that is wholly your own, made from scratch. Lastly, unless you start customizing the models, you may become constrained by what is available for you to buy. And if you're customizing the models, you might as well take the next step and start making your own things from scratch. You can get DAZ Studio here for free, Poser 9 here and Poser Pro here . Be aware that these are not good animation programs (at least DAZ isn't, because I've tried). They are very simplistic when it comes to animation (annoyingly so, I think). Many of the awesome animations you may see on Youtube come from people buying motion capture animations from the companies and applying them to their characters.

Renderers
Once you get comfortable with a CG program, you may decide to go find different renderers. This is not at all required to make great CG art, since all the programs tend to ship with awesome renderers already installed. But it never hurts to try some new ones out, because you may find some that you like better. The only ones I've ever used were YafaRay and Luxrender for Blender, but that was back before Cycles came out. I don't know how necessary they are now, because of Cycles, so I'm not going to actually recommend any renderers. However, here are some that I know of that seem worth a look: YafaRay (for Blender), Luxrender (Blender, 3Ds Max, SketchUp C4D, Daz Studio, XSI, and Poser), Aqsis (for many programs I think, though I think you may need the MOSAIC plugin for Blender), Pixar's Renderman (I think it works with most all the big CG programs, and I've seen it on Maya in my college), and NOX (3ds Max, Blender).

So, that's the end of this series of recommendations! I hope it has been helpful. As always, if you agree or disagree with my recommendations, leave me a comment! In my next post, I'm going to cover how to sketch animals. You can see some of my sketches on my Tumblr.

Until next time!

How to Get Maya for Free (If You're a Student)

Hi, guys! Today I want to talk about something that I know a lot of beginning cg artists and animators are wondering. How do I get a hold of one of those awesome Autodesk programs without putting myself in the poor house? You may know that Maya runs for over $3,000. You may know that the Personal Learning Edition days are over. You may also know that there are free trials. But 30 days is only 30 days. What happens when that time is over and you've fallen in love with the program? Well I'm going to tell you something that a surprising number of people still don't know. I know this because I got to an art school where you can get a number of CG related degrees (where I'm working toward my degree in CG character animation) and every so often I have to tell people this. Just a few months ago I had to reveal it to someone in my CG rigging class. I didn't even know about it until the end of my first year when I happened to overhear someone talking about it.

Here's the secret: you can get any Autodesk program for free if you're a student at a participating school. And there are a lot of participating schools (mostly colleges I think, but I could be wrong). When I signed up for the Autodesk Education Community, you had to have a school email address. But I now see on the FAQ that that is no longer required. You can register here.

Cropped from my desktop

Now, that doesn't mean you can just go download every Autodesk program and become the King or Queen of Turbosquid or start your own CG company. These programs are for personal learning use only, not commercial use. According to the FAQs, some of the programs have watermarks. I know for a fact that Maya and 3Ds Max do not have watermarks on their renders. However, Maya does have a popup that comes up each time you open a file saved with the Student Version of the software, saying that it was made with that version and is not for commercial use. Also, these programs time out in 36 months (though since new versions of the programs come out every year, this shouldn't be a problem). And obviously, once you graduate, all the free stuff goes away. But those are the only things that could be called "limitations" that these programs have. They are in every way exactly the same as their expensive counterparts.

However, be aware that since these are such awesome programs, they are big programs. Check the system requirements before you download and be prepared for a long installation time. I've got a Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) HP with an AMD Athalon processor, updated graphics card, extra RAM, and two internal fans to keep everything going (it was a birthday gift) and I haven't had a problem yet. The programs probably run fine on regular out-of-the-box computers, though they may react and render slower.

I personally think it's awesome of Autodesk to provide so much for free. I've actually never seen a more seemingly generous company. I'd love to be able to say the same about Pixologic (the makers of ZBrush, which I really want to use). Because, as anyone who's followed Sculptris' development over the last few years will know, they only got it when its creator Tomas Pettersson joined them in 2010. It was free before they got it. Now if they were giving a full-featured version of ZBrush away for free, that would be something to talk about.

Even Maxon, the makers of Cinema 4D have a free student version available now. The license is only valid for 18 months (1 and 1/2 years) but that's still pretty awesome. It beats a 30 day trial for sure.

So if you already knew all this, good for you! I hope that, like me, you're having fun with all these awesome programs. And if you didn't know this (and you're a student) I hope that you're as excited as I was when I heard I could get all these industry-standard programs for free. Again, you can register here.

Have fun!