If at first you don't succeed...

Try, try again. That's absolutely the lesson I am learning while playing with dynamic systems. That said, the technical side of things is absolutely fascinating.

ZBrush work - Old dude!

This is the result of my first full ZBrush tutorial. I'm still totally blown away by the intuitiveness of the program.

3D Steve!

Here is Steve, in all his 3D glory!

Sneakin' Steve

Steve is sneaky. Hide yo' kids! Hide yo' wife!

My first ZBrush!

I was a bit worried about taking a class on ZBrush, since modeling is definitely not my strongest point. While it has its eccentricies, the modeling aspect of ZBrush is the most intuitive thing I've seen in a long time. It was like playing with Play-Doh, and I love me some Play-Doh. This ear is the first thing I made, and I'm pretty pleased with it.

One Ugly Chick

This is from a study I'm of an artist that I've known and loved most of my life, without knowing his name (or even just how much I love his stuff). Basil Wolverton's ability to make such grotesque concepts so appealing is freaking amazing, and has had an impact on a lot of artists (most notable, to me, John K -- those closeups they would do on Ren and Stimpy got me every time).

Some Robo Rabbits!

Here's some robot rabbit action. These are some concept art sketches I did for a project I'm working on. Robots and I don't get along all that well, so I went a little silly on this, but I think they turned out pretty fun. Top - styled after Ripley's Power Lifter suit thing; bottom - more of a Voltron-style thing. AND I'LL FORM THE EARS!

The Devil's in the Details

One of these days, it'll finally sink in that if I take the extra time to put details into my projects, they'll turn out a million times better. As I slowly work through the Kitchen scene, I'm taking on each piece as a separate project, allowing myself to put in those details. This is turning out to be a heck of a lot better than any other environments I've built.

Of course, this lack of detail isn't just in modeling -- I've discovered it in drawing, as well. Each little extra bit you throw into a scene makes it feel that much more real.

Kitchen setting

While I realize that the whole point of the 11 Second Club is the animation itself, I thought it would be a good excuse to work on some of my other skills. I don't have a good environment for things to take place in as of yet, so I decided to start working on a kitchen setting (which, obviously, is going to be the setting of my 11 Second Club entry this month).

I'm relatively happy with my progress so far. Most of it is just blocked out at this point, but I've started working on some of the detail. So far, the cabinet doors and the sink are pretty much finished (modeling-wise). Once I get all of the final models finished, I'll start working on the textures, and, finally, the actual lighting of the scene.

So, uhh...there's this...

Here's a new model I'm working on. This is the first defined character model I'm attempting without the use of image plane references, and, so far, I can tell. I'm having a heck of a time getting the face to get into the right shape.

Despite the fact that, thusfar, he looks only passingly similar to my character, I don't think it's too bad.

11 Second Club

I've been following the 11 Second Club for the past month, and have decided that it would be rather smart of me to get involved.

For those who are not familiar with the thing, here is an explanation from the site itself:

The 11 Second Club is a monthly character animation competition. Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue provided by the club. Throughout the competition, participants can share their progress with each other and critique each other's work. At the end of the month, everyone votes for whose submission they consider the best for that month. The idea is to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment.

What should make it fun for me is that it's animation of all kinds -- so if I don't feel like doing 3D, I can work on my 2D animation. This will also give me a chance to create more assets to use in different projects.

I've got a few concepts for this month's competition already, so it's just a matter of choosing what I want to do. I've got a bunch of characters to choose from, as well (though, if I decide to use Russel, I'm going to nix the fur modifier, because JESUS that killed me last time.