rigging reel 2014

I have recently updated my rigging demoreel. Re-edited and added some projects from DNEG and Prime Focus and the last Potter I worked on at MPC. The background music is my favourite band Front Line Assembley, last track in the AirMech album.

Hotel Transylvania Zombie rig for download

Great! A small christmas in october - Sony Imageworks Animation sharing their Zombie character rig from Hotel Transylvania :)

Here is a download link:
https://secure.sonypictures.com/animation/hotelt/zombierig/videosubmissions/

correct model topology website

Here is pretty good pinterest.org website showing good examples of creature model topology:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/345369865148046999/

Splash 2014 - rigging of dog for Vampire Academy

Czech:
Splash se blizi, pro me uz to bude po 4. co tam budu mluvit o rigovani. Pekne to utika! Letos to bude o rig setupu psa pro film Vampire Academy - reknu neco o modelu, kontrolnim rigu a hlavne deformacnim rigu kde se podivame na svaly a deformaci modelu a face setup. Bude toho na jednu hodinu az az! :)

English:
I will be again on this year`s czech CG biggest event Splash. This time talking about how full cg dog was rigged for Vampire Academy. There will be a lot to show during one hour. If you want to see some techniques how animals get rigged for live action movie and you can make it to Prague, make sure you register for Splash 2014.

Nvidia windows kernel mode driver stopped responding

Recenly I bought new laptop with nVidia GeForce graphics card and I had this Kernel Mode Driver problem. Basically your 3d application or game freezes and Windows is blocking drivers from access to graphics card. I should say it was occuring when using 3d software Autodesk Maya, not in game. Since I managed to fix it, I wanted to share it here on my blog. Here is my system config:

LENOVO laptop
windows 8 64bit
GeForce GT 745M with 2GB memory
intel i7
8 GB system memory

Unfortunately no settings changes on nVidia card helped - I had to choose intergated Intel graphics card for Maya. This stabilized the application. With nVidia Settings you can selectively change which card is used for which application.

In case you still cannot resolve your problem, try this nVidia GeForce forum with other tips:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/709328/geforce-drivers/nvidia-windows-kernel-mode-driver-335-23-stopped-responding-and-was-recovered-successfully/2/

maya shrink wrap deformer

Just had a look at Maya 2015 and found this nice new deformer, actually it's been a while since Autodesk added a deformer. Shrink wrap seems like a nice and probably stable slide deformer type with many options. Have fun!

great X-ray bone footage in motion

Here is great X-ray bone footage in motion. Usefull for rigging, but for artists and modellers/ sculptors as well:

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/amazing-x-ray-gifs-show-joints-motion

check out these videos too:
http://vimeo.com/4683942
http://vimeo.com/5397933

DOOM 4 reveal at Quakecon

It has been some time. Here is a must-post news for someone like me who is ultimate ID Software fan. So finally at this Quakecon we will see a glimpse, maybe more from long awaited sequel to ID`s flagship title - DOOM4!!
Here is more information:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/06/10/doom-4-e3-quakecon-2014/

Btw. listen to the sound at 0:59 - for those who remember original doom door opening sound... ;)

TheKhumi versus Valinor game in AirMech

I haven`t beed posting for some time. Here is one great game by AirMech players TheKhumi and Valinor. I was really impressed and wanted to show to anyone interested in this game. It is so pure, as they just use tanks and you see the classic moves here being done couple of time. Also a defensive carefull way of TheKhumi with Osprey unit healing mech and Valinor with more offensive play with his fast Striker with sword and later rockets.
If you like games like Dota, League of Legens or Star Craft, have a look at AirMech. I think at this point it is pretty advanced and well balanced game.

Vampire Academy VFX breakdown

Here is our demo of VFX for Vampire Academy


Vampire Academy Breakdown from Prime Focus World Official on Vimeo.

Lego the Movie FxGuide documentary

Here is FxGuide.com document about Lego the Movie. Pretty good coverage of all things CG society would like to know: depth of field, camera moves, animation restrictions, render software for lot of raytracing, modelling process, atmosphere etc.

(you need to follow the link and watch it on vimeo.com, or on AnimalLogic website)


FX GUIDE EP 186 THE LEGO MOVIE from Animal Logic on Vimeo.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2

Just saw Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 - amazing animation movie! I loved the animation, the gags and the artistic style. The daddy character got more importance in the story then in the first movie which was cool.
I did quite well in the boxoffice. Made so far $273 million worldwide against budget $78 million, boxofficemojo.com. First one made $243 million with budget $100 million - so financally did better as well.
What else to say, similar nice surprise like Lego the Movie I saw recently. Great use of 3d animation! Btw. some of the gags/sounds reminded me Despicable Me (strawberry).

Trailer:

Autodesk Maya on per-month rental

Maya for 281 Euro, not bad. Autodesk has introduced their software rental plans and affordable software license deals.

LINK

AirMech links youtube learning videos in-game

For players of AirMech or those interested in real time strategies, this is great addition to Airmech learning tutorials - links to youtube videos made by AirMech players themselfs.

cartoon mouth setup in MoDo

Really cool demonstration of a cartoon mouth setup in MoDo by Richard Hurrey from Pixar. Very easy to change order of deformations and turn On and Off various deformation groups.


modo 601 - BallMan Rig Overview from Richard Hurrey on Vimeo.

Nicolas Ferrand - Thief game art

Impressive body of work for Thief game by Nicolas Ferrand
http://www.nicolas-ferrand.com/Thief

MoDo in 3d animation pipeline - case study

Heh, great evolution of a studio pipeline :)

Courtesy of 3d packages Lightwave, Modo and Maya from presentation by belgian studio Creative Conspiracy.
I personally got more interested in the rigging abilities of MoDo after looking at some tutorials from Brian Tindall. Watch the full video to see interesting case study 3d animation pipeline of a commercials/TV animation studio.


Creative Conspiracy's use of MODO on Uki & De Lijn ‘Ants’ from The Foundry on Vimeo.

Brian Tindall moving to Laika for Boxtrolls

Nice article about Pixar rigger Brian Tindall having moved to animation studio Laika.
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/02/post-pixar_award-winning_brave.html

Also mentioning his current project Boxtrolls and interest in 3D printing technology, which is used in Laika for their stop-motion style animation projects.

Ftrack introducing Locations

Asset Management and Production Tracking system Ftrack is introducing Locations:

http://support.ftrack.com/customer/portal/articles/1460648-2-4

Locations features allows out of the box to work basically on cloud* and allowing to have your team on different locations, therefore the name. It also allows storing locally or synchronizing via cloud when needed. So files don`t have to be always uploaded or downloaded.
Very useful for production which needs to be organized but need to work with external resources. I think best for asset building like Modelling and Rigging and Animation in shot production because of its lower data requirements.

* using chosen provider, which is by default Amazon S3

Face cartoon rigging website

I always keep losing the link to this website, altough it is out there for quite a while. So I am making a post for this here.
Anyway, very useful as a guide for face and body cartoon topology and recently some free videos on face rig setup with link full iTunes version:

http://hippydrome.com/

Fabric Engine first deformer tutorial

Here is nice demo of making a simple deformer in Maya using Fabric Engine


Splice Deforms: 01 - Wave Deformer from Fabric Engine on Vimeo.

AirMech tutorials

For all who want to explore this great real time strategy game AirMech, here is great source of help videos by EagleShadow. They explain basic gameplay, buildings on the map, role of each unit, airmech types and different strategies. Plenty videos to choose from:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EagleAirmech1?feature=watch

ILM London facility official

ILM headquarters have officially confirmed with giving some details expansing of their bussiness to London:

http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/entry/view/id/38377

Here is updated page with job opportunities now open for applications for London:

https://www.lucasfilm.apply2jobs.com/ProfExt/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.showJob&RID=5528&CurrentPage=4

Pipeline Fundamentals book

There is this book about pipeline, which still waits for its release in UK, so I ordered it from amazon.com from US - Production Pipeline Fundamentals for Film and Games.
Quite interesting, I had a Look Inside and it actually allowed me to go quite far to the Version Control section.
So for anyone interested in this subject I would recommend have a look at this book. You can even check couple of parts for free aparently, before you buy your copy. From my experience there are still a lot of people who don`t understand how pipeline should be built. I have to add that this is about diplomacy and communication and being able to sell (explain) your ideas to CG supervisors and the rest of the pipeline team.

book on amazon.co.uk Kindle Version:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Production-Pipeline-Fundamentals-Film-Games-ebook/dp/B00I9AUQQQ/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

book on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Production-Pipeline-Fundamentals-Film-Games/dp/0415812291/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391997312&sr=1-1&keywords=production+pipeline+fundamentals+for+film+and+games

Sony Pictures Imageworks moving part of their staff to Vancouver

Not a good news from L.A. based Sony Pictures Imageworks. A company behind visual effects for such blockbusters as The Amazing Spiderman is moving part of their staff to their Vancouver offices.
More in the Variety article

Whiskytree Showreel January 2014 on Vimeo

Quite impressive, great full CG environments from Elysium by Whiskytree. Plus other stuff from various projects.


Whiskytree Showreel January 2014 from WHISKYTREE on Vimeo.

Goleam? GOlean!

Spotted this pack from distance and it looked familiar. Being recently testing crowd software Goleam, I though we had a pack in our company from some old evaluation... But  seeing the whole thing revealed something quite different...

Chad Vernon asset management demo

Chad Vernon has recently posted a demo of his custom asset management system, interesting:

Ftrack in Cinesite pipeline

Very interesting close insight to latest pipeline implementation at Cinesite using Ftrack platform

making of music for demoreel

My friend Pavel Kacerle made quite an effort to make a soundtrack with help of his friend who studies sound engineering for his demoreel. And made a making of too. Look at how one CG artist takes care of his promotion :)

Charge the dragon animation short

This is animation short made by czech VFX and animation studio R.U.R. Dedicated to legendary animator Bretislav Pojar.

New czech RPG game on Kickstarter

Czech development team with their game on kickstarter, half sum collected on 1st day!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1294225970/kingdom-come-deliverance

muscle-based skeleton locomotion system

Very interesting muscle based system which modifies skeleton motion


Flexible Muscle-Based Locomotion for Bipedal Creatures from John Goatstream on Vimeo.

Warhorse game developper hiring

New game developper Warhorse Studios with its offices in Prague is hiring game artists internationally to work on their medieval times RPG title Deliverance: Kingdom Come.

Warhorse Studios on facebook

Splash 2013 video

One of the best SPLASH conferences so far. Nice look back video cut with track from my favourite NIN.

John Knoll appointed CCO at ILM

With some delay, as I just noticed this article on Variety, here is a post on quite important management promotion at ILM. Senior VFX Supe John Knoll was promoted for Chief Creative Officer at ILM to help with resources coordination, early production decisions, troubleshooting and sharing what everyone is doing on their shows. He is to work on the creative side together with ILM President Lynwen Brennan managing the overall production.