Pretty Much the End

It has been many months since any updates. In fact I really don't know if anyone is reading this, but for those who do.

No work has been done on this project for almost 5 months now. Motivation and time are the current road blocks that killed this project. Though what I and Ryan have done as greatly increased are knowledge we have decided to move on. There is plenty of learning to be had in over things.

Anyways good news is is that I am planning on publishing what we have done here in the next moth or so. I am finishing rendering what I had animated and I am planning on compiling it with the anamatic to give you peoples a glimpse of what we had planned.

I still have passion for the story and in the future if the feeling arises I will do some things with it. But in the mean time it is over. I will do one last post when I have everything available

like I promised

well, like I promised here's the Doctor's head.

it's not finished yet, mainly the mouth needs attention, but I've been modeling his body as of recent. when I can find the time anyway. still struggling trying to balance school, homework, my job, and this project. Mainly because good grades are important to me, if they weren't, I wouldn't have such a hard time ditching an english paper for this project. I'll find a way to make everything work though.

--Ryan

small update from Ryan

right, Will set me up with a system I can run Blender on a few weeks ago, and I have modeled the doctors head so far. I've also gotten permission to install blender at my workstation in the CNS department and work on it during downtime. unfortunately, downtime is becoming more and more of a rarity in the office and my homework and study loads keep getting bigger. I'm really feeling the stress of this production, school, and work right now and I'm really hoping I can do this. I know I can do it, it's kind of like looking at a cliff you're about to climb and thinking "I'm supposed to get all the way to the top?" (I like to rock climb, so that's where the analogy comes from.) what's more is that there's a time limit, and technical issues which need to be worked out, along with my general inexperience in the field. as will said before, he's a year ahead of me, at least. I just started in 3D august 2007, and my ignorance is apparent, at least to me.

I'll upload a picture of the doctor's head real soon, I still need to put teeth in his mouth, and work out some issues with the lips.

It's been a while...

Sorry for the lack of updates. Currently Me and Ryan have been trying to figure out the best resource to get this project rendered in time. And for a while I was stressing about it. I have been picking up on some of the restrictions with larger environments with characters and trying to work out ways of speeding up render time without losing out on quality. This has been a huge learning experience for me and Ryan.

Anyway I wanted to mention some of the solutions that we have3come up with in relation to rendering resources. Both me and Ryan went to a 3D Animation program in high school at a place called the Granite Technical Institute. I spent 2 years and Ryan spent about a year and a half. That is where basically we both began are adventures in animation :) Anyways we still have close relations with the teacher of that program and has allowed us to setup a render farm in his lab.
His lab consists of about 40 computers. I don't know the exact specs but I will post those when this is all final. I am going to try to setup a render farm, but my knowledge of such things is limited. If I start to waste too much time trying to get something like a render farm to work efficiently we will probably do away with the idea. We would then just end up doing single machine rendering. Splitting up the project files into frames of a hundred or so, and then do it that way. Its a little harder but its about all the choice we have if I can't get a render farm setup.
But other options have made themselves apparent in the last week. Thanks to my Bro I learned of an world wide open rendering project called BURP. The idea is the same as a render farm. Where you have a single location of where the project file is. Then that one place sends out work to thousands of other computers. Substantially cutting rendering time down. I have already done one test render and it worked very well with all the effects that we are implementing into this project. If you want to check out that render here is the link http://burp.boinc.dk/session.php?id=770 Anyways this has become a possibility and it would make me very happy if we could use it. There are some restrictions on what exactly you can render though. Becausee it is free to use you can't render anything that wll be used for commercial purposes or will make any money. So I am going to present this project to the administrators of that program and see if we can get a green light.
Another plus to something like this is that we will be able to render this out in HD. Instead of a DVD resolution. But we'll see. This might be another one of those goose chases that everyone talks aobut nowadays.

Thats what has been happening recently, and agian I will try to post more often.

portriats

Thought I'd stop by and show everyone some portriats I did. Just something to help make you look forward to the finished product.

wiping off the rust.

gosh,m we finally got our computer problems resolved by running a network cable from Will's room to my room so there's no need for USB drives (which is what we were having issues with in the first place). got my workstation set up today with Will, really he set it up with a little help from me running cables. but it works really well as far as I can tell. now the only problem is with me.

usually a two week break wouldn't be a big deal for me, but because I'm still unfamiliar with blender I'm really rusty, it feels like I'm trying to relearn a piano piece I played years ago. I recognize the tune but it's still difficult at times. but, I think I'll be able to pull back up fairly quickly, I've still got the essential blender to help me out, and if I can't figure it out for myself Will can help me.

I'm still really excited about the project, the storyboard and animatic are pretty dang cool, still extremely rough and everything, but it definitely gets the ideas across. y'all should be excited.

Quick update. The first animatic is put together. It is just a draft and is missing many audio assets. But this gives us an aproximate time and it will help are musician develope music with a time code. Anyways I am not going to post it, because I don't want to ruin it for you people, but I can tell you that it looks like it will be 6 to 7 minutes long.

New Character!

Wanted to stop by and give you people a look at another character in this little short we are producing. Also as a reasurence that we are still working on it. Also we are planning on finishing sometime in mid April. No set deadline yet. There might never be one. We'll see. Anyways enjoy!

download available! (among other things)

there was an update of images and even a download last night. after re-designing the soldier character, and a few new concepts of Kira, Koei's sister, we felt that it would be a good idea to update the images. they're actually pretty cool I think.

working on the storyboard has been fun so far, getting camera angles, shot transitions and a feel for what the shot is going to look like is just a really cool feeling. one shot in particular I'm excited about, it's in the opening sequence, and I don't really want to give too much away right now, but it's going to look really cool. I am seriously geeking out about it. I really want to get started on it. maybe an animatic would help the process out a bit.

I'm rambling, storyboarding is going well, and I think we can get it finished tonight. that's really all the news I can think of, except I need a different computer to work with because the one I was using wouldn't recognize USB memory devices. kind of stinks, and puts a delay on some things, but I'll be able to pull it off. all that's left is seeing who will model the soldier. I think I might end up doing that as will is going to model Kira.

check out the website if you haven't already! there's a cool wallpaper waiting to be downloaded. www.projectkoei.totodojo.com

Soldiers and story boards

whew, I feel absolutely useless to this project right now. I've been trying to work out a new soldier concept because we don't really have time to model rig and all that for an entire new character who would be able to express emotions. the soldiers as they are right now would have to be able to yell, cringe and express pain and all that. which would require a lot of work with the face. I was at work and I thought maybe using a Riot helmet with a reflective sheild would work, and after experimenting with some conceptual drawings and found one I liked. unfortunately it looks similar (but definitely not)to the Halo helmets from the well known video game series.
well, I left those conceptual drawings home this weekend, so I had to draw a new one to show my partner, and together we came up with something that will work. it requires a re-make of the soldier concept though. it's difficult because neither of us have really worked with armor before, and we're going for a very specifica look that is still practical to a point.

the story boards are going to start when we have some free time, and I am excited about finally getting the story down visually. to start setting up camera angles and what not. being able to block out the animations and everything I think will really help me get excited about the project. not that I'm not excited about it, I just have a lot going on right now and I feel as if I haven't been doing enough for the project. I feel bad about it really.

music is coming together, but it's not really my department, we're having a few friends of ours play instruments and it's going to be amazing. look forward to a little sample maybe.

learning to blend

well, I've been messing around with bender, trying to familiarize myself with the alien interface, and I think I'm getting the hang of it. obviously I'm not going to be as fast as someone who has been working in it for a while, but I think I've picked it up fairly quickly. it makes me happy actually.

I also found out that the UVSC library has some of the gnomon DVD's available for 3-day loans. I'm getting them today if everything goes smoothly and I'm hoping to learn some tricks of the trade before I start modelling the doctor's head in 3D.

another exciting thing is that UVU is taking a trip down to dreamworks in february, it's in the middle of the semester, and for a whole week, but I think it would be entirely worth it. I'm a little worried, they want us to put together a portfolio, but being a freshman I don't really have anything truly impressive to put into a portfolio, except what I did last year. I mean, I have a few sculptures I could use, but not much else. we'll just see how it goes, and if I can be one of the seventeen allowed on the trip.

I've also been taking a 2D animation class, and only now that I'm doing some of the stuff do I realize just how essential it is to 3D animation, it's difficult to describe why it's so important though, you just have to experience it for yourself really. Rodayne is a great teacher, and I look forward to working my pencils down to nubs.

all in all, I am excited for everything, from learning to blend, to my 2D animation class, and the prospects of visiting a major studio. I'm very excited.

Lip Sync

I have been working on some lip sync for the main character. This is also a first time for me. I just wanted to show you guys how I am doing it so far. Enjoy!

finished sculpture

the sculpture of the doctor is finished! unfortuneatly it wasn't until today that we were able to take pictures of it, my camera seems to have wandered out of my apartment while I was away for christmas. (I'm pissed about it, so it's a little touchy)

anyway, here is what it looks like for those of you who check the blog, but not the site ( www.projectkoei.totodojo.com )

Main Character almost completed!

And by the tite the main character is almost finished. Right now I am working on a proper rig and facial expressions with keyshape drivers. Also I am working on developing keyshapes for lip sync. We'll see how that goes because this is a first for me. Also sorry that the project site is down. Server issues... I will post when the are back up.