Happy? No. Not Really...

so...i'm not in this for the fun. i'm in it for the suffering. my suffering, my personal angst and especially kevin's suffering. i, for one, do not think we should be having "fun" while doing this. it should hurt. we should suffer for our art. we should be anguishing over every frame of this film. but, clearly kev has too much time on his hands. instead of making progress on morty or, um...doing whatever else it is that he does...he thought it would be "fun" to make morty's wheelchair do a "wheelie" with canned smoke coming off the chair...he's enjoying himslef, and if i have anything to say about it, the suffering and the gnashing of teeth will commence forthwith. less "cutesy" and more wringing of the hands, huh?

Happy NOW?!

I'm a very suggestible person. So here's your stoopid wheelchair, doing it's stoopid wheelie. It wasn't all a complete waste, though... I was able to construct an Xpresso script that allowed me to only have to move the body of the chair and the wheels would automatically rotate according to the position of the body. Nice!

Alright, everybody back to work. No more fun & games. Ya hear?

Wheelchair Test

So, here's a little test I did for myself. From this I can see that some of the shaders aren't behaving in the way I want them to (note the grainy effect I'm getting, especially on the seat & seatback), and now I can spend time tweaking to get it right.

enjoy.

Wheels

I took a break from organic modeling to create something a little more straightforward. Still needs some texturing details on the tire treads and maybe a few bolts and minor stuff, but for the most part, it's complete. Might dirty up the chrome a bit too. This one took me about 6-7 hours to model. I was able to use a little creative license and reduce the actual complexity of a real wheelchair because the look of the film will be stylized. Next up will be an IV stand and heart monitor.

I'm also rendering a simple camera move on this. Why? Because I can. That's why...

...stay tuned.

Guess Who... AGAIN...

There is more to this movie than this old guy. Really. But this is a process, so suck it in and enjoy it already. I KNOW I AM! **sigh**

Anyway, I threw some wrinkles on his face, and decided that it still needs a lot more work. And who better to do the work than my good friend Joe? He tells me he can illustrate a wrinkle pattern using something called "ink". mm hmm. Whatever this miracle substance is, i'm skeptical. But I digress. He assures me that his process called "drawing" will do the trick. I'm a little incredulous if it doesn't involve a mouse or stylus, so more power to him. Take a look at the wrinkled Morty... NO! his body isn't done yet, that's why his "arms" look like they're sticking out of his head... but trust me, it's a process. Oh, and i threw a photo of a living room behind him to add atmosphere and to get a feeling for his soon-to-be setting. Which I still have to model. After I finish Morty. And his Wheelchair. It's a process.

We're Back! We're BROKE!??!?!?!?!?

We did it. We're broke. We're idiots. All we have left are our dreams and even those are obscured by the sea of red ink we now wallow in. Ah well, Kev needed a real machine to crank out these new, processor-intensive renders. Couldn't have him be patient or anything, NAW...let's go buy the top-of-the-line G5, he says, the REALLY COOL ONE. Why do we need that video card? "Cause it's the COOL ONE!!!! and it'll be killer for all the video games I'll play...I mean...All the renders I need to do"....The killer G5...that's the investment we should make. No, really it's fine...Excuse me while I throw up in the want-ads section of the Free Press. I am looking there now for a couple of night jobs for guys with no brains. The really good news is that we'll have to land a ton of freelance to pay for the new member of 'THE END' render farm. I HATE FREELANCE. Good thing Kevin doesn't need more than 14 hours of sleep a night or I'd be worried...Anybody have $5k they wanna loan us?

Health Alert! Update

Well, Joe's pretty much back to the land o' the living, and I appear to have at least 3 kidney stones (say hallelujah!). After 7 hours of an agony I have never known, the first seems to be almost near the end of it's journey. I still have two more up the the ol' kidneys.

All that said, don't expect too much until Monday. Then we'll get right back to it.

Mama!

Joe is deatlhy sick, and I'm trying to pass a kidney stone. God help us all.

Will update when we decide to be healthy, again... Honest.

-kev

Like Cows To The Slaughter

It's funny. Really. Trust us.

Kevin Is Not A Free Thinker...

As Kevin and I have been developing the film, I have noticed some trends emerging (aside from the fact that I am the dark, grizzled, moody, eternal pessimist and he's the cheery, hopeful, annoying optimist). Kev, as he's modeling seems to want EVERY detail spelled out. Our conversation will go something like this: Joe: "Hey, Kev...I just finsihed some model sheets for Morty, why don't you check them out...". Kevin: "Yeh, Joe, great...but I need to know how many hairs there will be on the 4th largest age spot on Mort's right temple. I can't model until you have that all figured out, y'know..." OY. All kidding aside (kind-of) we have gone through great lengths to design and develop our characters and you'll get a glimpse of all that hard work and effort as we move along...This group of sketches show Morty without his ears. Why?, you ask...Cause Kevin needed to know what his neck looked like (you thought I was kidding). By, the way...there are 14 hairs on Morty's fourth largest age spot...

Morty In Action

Well, here alas, is Morty in motion. Nothing special, just a morph target test. The reason why his movements look completely unatural, at this point, is because this is only meant to show me what the various expressions look like. In other words, there is no real rhyme or reason yet as to why he's moving the way he is moving. Tonight, I'll be working on the rest of his body some more, so expect some clothes next time. I might even work out some more texturing...

Oh, and if you don't already have Quicktime installed (***sigh***), you'll need it to watch. You can get it from here

He brought his glasses, so he'll have them

I know this isn't video, as promised, but it shows where we're at so far with Morty. I've adjusted his brow a little bit so it can be more expressive, added some age spots, and i've finally given him his glasses. He's still got some work left to do before he's ready for prime time (a lot more texturing, hair, etc... ), but I have added some facial morphing targets only to see if he's headed in the right direction... and because it's cool. Unfortunately these kinds of things take time to render, so i won't be able to put up anything until tomorrow AM. All that said, click above to check him out looking a little disjointed... or maybe he's passing a kidney stone?

Thanks, Universe!

It appears that the universe decided to tell me my future by way of a Jones Green Apple Soda bottle cap. This is good news because I have everything riding on this short, if only I could figure out who this "friend" is?

Another bottle cap told me to Learn About Bugs... but hey, they can't all be winners.

Anyway, I'll have some motion tests of Morty making facial expressions up here in a day or two, so keep your eyes peeled. He'll have his glasses on and some texture work as well, maybe even clothes, but don't hold yer breath. punk.