MK-Fan flick

Motion Capture

2007-12-15T14:18:00.000+11:00

hey all, recently i have been exerimenting with motion capture data, and researching various systems including the camera less setup here
also i have been testing the new weights/rigging tools like heat and dual quanternions ( http://www.blender.org/development/current-projects/changes-since-244/skinning )

in short the results are quite good, a few bone adjustments and adding a few helper bones it worked first go
results are here http://mfoxdogg.googlepages.com/motion_capture_test.mp4

well anyway i hope to use such technology in this film, if i ever get the money to do it :)

ok see Ya's

Art Show

2007-12-13T21:16:00.000+11:00

hey all i have great news :), one of my art works is in an art show in, wait for it, Kingsport, Tennesee :), and apparently every loved my work , even made blendernation

well you can find more info here
and a local news story here

well see ya's

weights stage of rigg rev5 Finished!!!

2007-11-06T16:48:00.000+11:00

sorry for the delays but working on this other film (latest cut online here) and various other things i haven't worked on this, anyway i have finally finished the weights stage of subzero so now i can pose him around like an action figure :), now i just need to add controls , rigg the face and some corrective shapes :)

well see ya's

new film

2007-08-20T23:38:00.000+10:00

Hi all, recently i said i was working on another project and i would eventually tell you about it, well i haven't finished the storyboards yet but i have made one of the main characters and most of the stage, this project will also serve as a testing ground for the production setup i have planned to the MK-fan flick and any others that i will work on, the title of this new project is called "loner", i will publish the screenplay once i have finished it, well i hope you like the test image, btw the lighting will not be the final lighting, that will be done after the animation, as i am using the same production pipeline as the Plumi guys, and lighing will be in a seperate file and will be on a per-shot basis. also my entire production pipeline is completely Linux based, windows will not be used for any part of my blender productions, animations and stills, and im very happy with this setup, i can go on for hours but i wont ;)

well anyway see ya's later

NEW Rigg, Once again

2007-08-03T22:27:00.000+10:00

Yes thats right Sub-Zero has a new rigg yet again, using the new rigging tools developed by brecht i was able to get further in 2 hours then i did in 2 months :) thats right is hands are deforming nicely still need some corrective shapes. forearm and elbow working nicely and above all the shoulder's are rigged!!! with only 3 bones (2 deforming), currently i only have deforming bones, as I'm taking a slightly different approach, get deformations working nicely first then add the controls later :)

New Web Site Finished

2007-07-31T14:30:00.000+10:00

Hey all, just making a post to say that my new website is finished, Some of my animations are there also on the site there is a RSS feed of this blog, My Ohloh stats and blender's Ohloh stats, and my email address. also when i make a new work that i like, it will be posted on the front page.

See ya's later

P.S
Incase you don't know its at
mfoxdogg.googlepages.com

"The Essential Blender" Blender's new book

2007-07-13T10:47:00.000+10:00

hi all, Recently the blender Foundation released a new book aimed at beginners of both 3d and blender.
And i must say it is a very good book. now you ask why am i telling you this? Well I helped write it (Technical Editor), and because i helped I got 2 free copies, one with a thank you note by Mr Ton Roosendaal (CEO of the blender foundation and the newly established Blender Institute and is the lead developer/inventor of blender).
Also thought you guys would like to know, that this book will be used in class rooms as a text book to teach students how to use blender. i don't know about you but i think its very kewl :)

by it here http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info.php?products_id=96

See Ya's

btw, i will show you my current film once i have finished the story boards and rewritten the screenplay :)

New Rigging tools

2007-06-13T09:53:00.000+10:00

once again i will have to make another rigg of sub-zero because brecht of the #blendercoders has developed some really nice weighting rigging features.

which means bye bye weight paint, as these new tools are so good you can do perfect weiughts in one simple ctrl-P->armature->heat equalibrium,

also he has also coded dual quanternoins to avoid the inherant shrinking of joints, which will avoid the use of many corective shape keys.

oh and one more thing, CRAZY SPACE IS GONE!!!! so now when i have the amature modifier enambled in edit mode the verts move where i want them to not all over the place :)

more info and a demo movie can be found here

well see Ya's later

Blender 2.44 Released!!!

2007-05-14T09:42:00.000+10:00

thats right Blender2.44 has been released with many new features including SSS (sub-Surface Scattering) which will add alot of realism to my models, this release also includes my wave modifier work, kinda cool hey :) , well any way i stongly urge you guys to download 2.44 as soon as possible :)

get it here
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

release notes here
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-244/

New website and gallery

2007-05-12T10:38:00.000+10:00

hey all soory for no updates i have been very busy with blender2.44 and another film project i'll tell you about later, i have just made this post to say, I have a new hompage with better designs and includes my latest works, and no imageshack links YAY!!!

here it is, please update bookmarks
http://mfoxdogg.googlepages.com/home

P.S. its still unfinished and i need to add a few links to my animations

see Ya's and enjoy :)

just a quick update

2007-02-14T08:59:00.000+11:00

hi all, i am making this post to reassure you that i have not stop making this film, i am currently rigging the hardest part of the human body - the shoulder- I have gotten some great advice from bassam and he has allowed me to study his mancandy2 rigg before its release, speaking of releases, Blender2.43 will be released in the next couple of days (we hope) , and due to that i am going to be a little too bus y to work on this rigg, but rest assured i will finish it!, thats all for now

see ya's

Rigg Revision4 (hand)

2007-02-04T15:11:00.000+11:00

hey all, I have finally finished doing the weights and shap keys for the hand...again and i tell you thew rigg is holding up quite well with more controls then previous revisions an i am very proud with the results of this rigg

here (.mp4) is a test vid of the final rigg

PS. i have done the upperarm after i made that vid and sreenshot

well cya's later

Stage Update

2007-01-24T13:08:00.000+11:00

Latly I have been learning alot about shadow Buffer lighing techniques and i have applied them to the stage for this film, as you can see i have changed the feel of the set to a much more darker, cooler feel.

The greatest aspect of this new lighing setup is the rendertime
This image: 2:39mins
Old setup: ~50mins

I won't be using raytracing anymore as it takes too long to render, may use AO on the characters but not the stage

well see ya's later

Rigg revision4

2007-01-22T18:15:00.000+11:00

Here is the crrent state of the rigg revision4

this rig is alot better then all previous revisions as it has a proper bendy spine with 3 controls, inproved foot rigg with alot less bones overall, it contains a hip bone and obviously custom bone shapes which makes it easier to see what postion the bones are in

generally its a great new rigg all over

some functionality needs to be added aswell as doinfg the deform groups and driven shape keys, thegeneral rigg is finished :)

well see ya's later

once again, A new Sub-Zero!!!

2007-01-20T13:03:00.000+11:00

MakeHuman is now a standalone app and produces great models, with great topology (edge flow)
and come already UV mapped (alot better then mine).
So i Have decided to to use a makehuman model instead of my crappy thing, this also means i will have to rebuild the rigg again, which is ok as i needed to rebuild the rigg as it would have been a nightmare to animate

the image is a comparsion of ythe new subbie and the old

see ya's all

More Practice animations

2007-01-16T15:30:00.000+11:00

yes I have been practising animation lately and i thought i might share my results with you guys

here they are
sneaky
Flying
Ball interaction
Fighting
Jump
walk then jump

they are in .mp4 and was made in blender2.43CVS(testing build) as i used the new renderpasses and render layers and composite node in the rendering of these anims

the character is called mancandy it is a community model and rigg designed to help new commers to blender, made by Bassam Kurdali, director of elephants dream

Fun With Nodes

2006-10-26T22:44:00.000+10:00

with the latest release of Blender , came the introduction of node based materials (shaders)/compositing, and during that time i have become very proficient with them. i am hving plans of redoing some of the shaders/textures with nodes like suby's skin (very ugly and hard to adjust.

well i thought i might show you guys the results of my latest exeriments with screenies of the node setups.

Material nodes

Composite Nodes

See ya's later

new rigg update

2006-10-26T22:27:00.000+10:00

sorry for the latness as i am now a blender dev, also a member of the Blender Documentation project, i also help administer/compete in #smc (speed modeling challenges), and help maintain the smcIrcbot. and many other things (recent Blender conference) i have just been pressed to find time or Drive to work on this.

now time for some good news. Sub-Zero's Hands are now fully rigged animatable :)

here is a screenie

sorry to say this but with the new release coming up and renderer is being finished and code cleaning and documentation meeting and dev meeting this weekend it will be a little while before i will work on this, but it will be easy to rigg the rest of the arm and i have aquired a tut for rigging shoulders, so look forward to some nice looking movments :)

see ya's later :)

Rigg-Revision3 FINISHED!!!!

2006-08-31T22:11:00.000+10:00

Yes My 3rd Rigg is now completed all thats left is to do the Vertex groups and wieght painting and i will have an animatable Sub-Zero Horray!!!! :)

Here are some screenshots of the new rigg

Deforming Bones

Helper Deforming Bones

Contol Bones

Proxy Bones

All Bones

See Ya's

Ps i am always on #Blenderchat@irc.freenode.net if you want to talk to me

A happy Time

2006-08-30T15:49:00.000+10:00

as i promised i am starting production back up, My rigging/modeling/lighting/rendering skills have greatly improved, i am also working on a different platform, i am now working under a Linux OS (SuSE 10.1) now

Sub-zero's rigg has been greatly improved and many uneeded bones have been removed as muscle movment is now going to be handled by DrivenShapeKeys, the new rigg is alot more predictable hence removing alot of keyframes, and is also alot more easy to use and animate, but it is far from finished

I will post pics&vids as soon as i have finished the rigg

see ya's :)

Practice animation II

2006-08-06T21:14:00.000+10:00

time to show you the results of my second parctice animation
-Model created and rigged from scratch
-Found appropriate 'Base' composite setup
- more then a simple walk cycle
-worked with limbs that have more then 1 control point
-worked with limbs that have a high number of bones (18)
-found out rendering timeframe (> 3 hours rendering required)

the animation can be found here (DivX 1.2Mb) .blend file can be found here

See Ya's

Practice animation

2006-07-24T15:33:00.000+10:00

Just because production has stopped for the time being doesn't mean i should stop practicing
Here is a small vid (divx 300Kb) of a practice animation using one of the 'ducks' from Elephants Dream

enjoy

see ya's

Blender2.42 Realeased!!!!!!

2006-07-18T19:16:00.000+10:00

A Great day In the History of Blender3D Has Arrived. 2.42 has been released after almost 1 year of development.
The New release has lived up to and more of my expectations with Many major new features and many workflow and UI Improvments.

Release notes can be found here

the Picture was made in 2.42 utilising Node Materials, Node Compositing, And the New Array Modifier (Title was added with GIMP)

See Ya's Later And Download Blender3D www.blender.org

A Sad time

2006-07-14T12:21:00.000+10:00

Hi all, I regret to inform you that production on this film will be halted Until August/September

I am doing this because my skills are not up to par for this film so production is going to be halted until my skills are improved. To that end the 'Google Summer Of Documentation' has many Books relating to Blender Being Produced, also Blender2.42 is soon to be been released :) with an Overwhelming amount of new features (List of new features can be found here) and it will take some time to get an understanding of the new features

Do not Fear "I WILL FINISH THIS FILM!!!!!!"

So see ya' s Later

ps GET BLENDER!!!!! www.blender.org

Particle experiment

2006-07-09T12:03:00.000+10:00

this has nothing to do with this movie but i thought you might want to have a look

I was just playing around with particles and the TIME IPO

Here is my results
http://www.f-forge.com?d=m8uTLQxgcIW1PrVnylRZ
its the .blend file the .movwas to big to upload/download (148mb)

enjoy

Eyes Rigg

2006-07-06T10:56:00.000+10:00

just a quick update, I have developed a rigg to control the Iris of my character's Eyes

here (.mov) is an test animatoin from the rigg

Blender World Cup

2006-06-16T21:24:00.000+10:00

sorry to say this but for the next 2 weeks it will be taking part in the qualifiing round of the Blender world cup and I will have no time to work on this movie......sorry

See Ya'
Wish me Luck

UPDATE!!!

I came Dead Last :(

Blender 2 Terragen script

2006-06-02T18:03:00.000+10:00

This Blender/Python script takes the Active camera's movments and generates a terragen script for backgorund plates and animations

eg. Hills outside a window or a plane flying in the hills

Please note** this script has no GUI and i have no intention of giving it one as it an in-house script if you wish to add a GUI feel free to do so

Please note **Sun's attributes are altitude=LocZ heading is RotX not its LOC generally point the sun towards the Global center

For best results 'export target'

it is found here (ignore the commented lines in the script)
http://www.f-forge.com?d=kOe5aMUwTVJbfAHzcpu8

here is a small animation (.mov 1.2Mb) of the results of the script
http://www.f-forge.com?d=EbyPds5ZqGnJBiISo7fk

Good Luck and Have Fun

REQUIRES:Blender 2.37(and greater) and Python 2.4

New Member 'Steeve'

2006-05-22T10:50:00.000+10:00

I think it is time for me to introduce you to Steeve my Test Dummy. 'clap' 'clap' 'clap'

Steeve is mainly used for test animations and pre-vis work

Here(.mov 1.2Mb) is a video of him in action doing a funky walk

See Ya'

New Sub-Zero Finished upper body rigg

2006-05-15T18:34:00.000+10:00

After a few months rest iI have finally finished Sub-Zero's Upper body Rigg also i have a nrew production pipline in place which keeps Blender up-to-date and provides interconnectivity
A new feature utilised is Bone Layers

Skeletal bones

Muscles

Control Points

Full Rigg

Here is link to see thr rigg in action (.mov)

Enjoy
See ya's

Sub-Zero Model update (face texture)

2006-03-15T12:25:00.000+11:00

Just a quick update.
UV mapped the body of Sub-Zero
perform a quick test to check what his face might look like by the end of the fight

See Ya'

Sub-zero Update (Rigg)

2006-03-10T14:43:00.000+11:00

I have Finally done it!! After 3weeks I have rigged is Left arm, Shoulder, Hand, Fingers, Head, Left side of his neck.

Here is a Screen Shot

sorry no vid yet I will release one once I have done the other side

See ya’

Sub-zero Update

2006-03-03T09:55:00.000+11:00

sorry about the lateness (ISP trouble) but in that time i have got alot done with Sub-Zero, even to a point of saying he is finished, I am now onto rigging him (again) with a much more sophisticated rig

here are the latest test renders (they were rendered last month not this month)

Sub-Zero Model update

2006-01-27T21:46:00.000+11:00

I have been working on this model for the past couple of days (and having alot of fun doing it :) )
And is what I have got so far.

Not bad for my first ever Human Model :)

See Ya'

New Sub-Zero

2006-01-26T23:34:00.000+11:00

Unfortunately, I Have just realised that 'make human' models SUCK!!!!
So this means I will have to start all over again modeling him myself.

Even after all my hard work, that is why i am keepingh the original model and rigg for testing purpases and maybe the occasional tinker

See Ya,

Beta Level Rigging

2006-01-21T15:59:00.000+11:00

My rigging system is almost complete
just a few fine tunings and adjustments in the facial rigg

cool feature: all the foot_IKs have a floor constraint
so the feet don't disapper through the floor

Here is a screenshot of the whole rigg

here is a screen of the facial control system

Early Rigging

2006-01-08T19:50:00.000+11:00

after starting from scratch i decided to use what i have contry to peoples opinions
here is a sreenshot and a film of the early rigging including some facial controls Here (.mov)

Sub-Zero early renders

2005-12-16T10:08:00.000+11:00

Here some early render of one of the characters-SubZero

stage - beta

2005-12-10T21:44:00.000+11:00

this is a beta test render of the stage the action will take place which is the Kombat Tomb from MKII

it is nowhere near finished but is enough to move forward to develope the characters

see you soon

Welcome

2005-12-10T14:13:00.000+11:00

Hi, This is my MK-fanflick blog