Keyframe Kitchen

We're Fresh!

2011-10-19T22:03:00.002-04:00

Crazy deadline is just about over. 15 animators on one job is the most ive seen so far. Lets go for 20 next time clients!

some music for your eardrums...

different take on disney tunes
ross brunetti, check out his skree and halloween albums to get you in the mood for the howliday. see what i did there?

Interwebuals
Photoshop tutorials here and hnyuhh
image optimization
15 free vector sites
speed painting tuts 1, 2,
matte painting
inspiration mattes
33 smoke brushes
30 photoshop actions
typography

on the road to recovery

2011-10-13T23:44:00.002-04:00

slowly. very slowly. things are in motion.

here are some projects I've worked on recently:

16bit - Dinosaurs
little boat
kaeloo!
8 bit game title screens
foodgawker

desktop cleanup

2011-08-28T13:48:00.002-04:00

Links

Chute
Disney Animator Andreas Deja Blog
title sequence history
Jean-Francois
vfx article
15 "best" animated shorts
15 minimalist fairy tale posters

summer.

2011-06-25T18:07:00.004-04:00

INTERNET NUGGETS
smear blog
10 modern torture practices
digital tutor mudbox texturing
animation studio world maps
rain town

Links

2011-06-12T22:40:00.005-04:00

cleaning up the desktop short cuts... not much new in terms of art and work.

my 1 year review is coming up at framestore, hoping to get some good and constructive feedback from the team.

keep an eye out in the coming weeks for a the latest project i've been working on.

Interwubuals...

The Bearded Trio
inspiration!
creativity source
wonderful short short
100 books to read
30 books to read
5 hardest books to read
photoshop file condense
quality animation
100 man movies

new script idear

2011-04-25T23:19:00.002-04:00

so i'm adding another animation tool to my check-list. I'm not going to reveal exactly what it does yet...but i couldn't find any documentation on the whole internet! or maybe I just a bad googler. here's a hint - "displayRGBColor -c ;" keep an eye out for that as I'm a lot more interested in starting that one then continuing on with the SnapKey alterations. A new goal I'm practicing along with my list of thousands is the art of meditation.

no good images for inspiration or zen.

Intervebuals

free footage - spout to bomee for this one
RPG aromas
10 ways to juice your creativity

Snap Previous Keyframe Value V.2

2011-04-12T20:38:00.002-04:00

/*
Tool Name: Previous Keyframe Value Snap
Author: M. Tyler Heckman
Date: 04/13/11
Version: 2.0
*/

proc prevKeyValue()
{
string $animCurves[] = `keyframe -q -name`;
float $selectTimes[];
float $selectValues[] = `keyframe -q -sl -valueChange`;
float $allTimes[];
float $snapValues[];
float $valueHolder[];
int $keyCount[];
int $keyCountSum = 0;

// stores first selected keys value of each curve

for ( $i = 0; $i < `size $animCurves`; $i++ )
{
$keyCount[$i] = `keyframe -q -sl -keyframeCount $animCurves[$i]`;

if($keyCountSum == 0)
{
$snapValues[$i] = $selectValues[($keyCount[$i] - $keyCount[$i])];
$keyCountSum = $keyCountSum + $keyCount[$i];
}
else
{
$snapValues[$i] = $selectValues[$keyCountSum];
$keyCountSum = $keyCountSum + $keyCount[$i];
}

$allTimes = `keyframe -q -timeChange $animCurves[$i]`;
$selectTimes = `keyframe -q -sl -timeChange $animCurves[$i]`;

//snaps all selected keys per curve to their respected first selected key value

for ( $b = 0; $b < `size $allTimes`; $b++ )
{
for ( $a = 0; $a < `size $selectTimes`; $a++ )
{
if ( ( $allTimes[$b] == $selectTimes[$a] ))
{
keyframe -e -index $b -valueChange $snapValues[$i] $animCurves[$i];

keyTangent -inTangentType flat -outTangentType flat -t $selectTimes[$a] $animCurves[$i];

}
}
}
}

clear $allTimes;
clear $selectTimes;

};

prevKeyValue;

Interwebuals

Meindbender. Because they are just that good.

Spring is here

2011-04-11T19:31:00.003-04:00

Uncharted 2 came in the mail today. Got a snail mail (classy) and email from "The Academy" letting me know my film, pork 'n bones was selected into semi finals of the student academy awards. highly doubt it will go an further, but hey, at least I know that their letterhead is cool!! I wonder is they use the same one for the celebrities mailboxes.

I am rolling out version 2 of my previousKeyValue script.... you can read a previous post about the inception and future of this tool.

big addition to the tool is now you can select multiple curves' keys and they will all snap to their respective first selected key's value!! Give it a test drive and let me know how it works in the comments. Haven't made it's counter tool which snaps to the last keyframe selected's value. that'll come in time. for now if you need you can use the single curve at a time script for that( in an earlier post). Oh shew - I left that script at work. Well i'll post it tomorrow so look for it.

Here's an artist's concept art with a little breakdown of her process. I forgot her? name. Do'h! but i do oh so admire her/his/its talent.

Interwebbuals

no links today. Soddy!

busy but not

2011-04-05T00:20:00.004-04:00

These days i've been very busy as well as keeping a list of new goals. I've began drafting out my spring and summer weekends which are full through july already. What needs to cahnge is that though i've been busy im not using my "free time" as efficiently as I could. A kick i've been on recently that i reccomend to anyone who works and can listen to music at the same time are audiobooks and podcasts. As much as I love music, there are days and weeks where I feel like listening to someone talk rather than tunes. It's a more efficient use of your time as well. So say goodbye to the excuses "i don't have time to read books" or "i don't enjoy reading" or " i've never read the book *insert classic* but i really should before i'm 30", because audiobooks allow you to multitask like never before ( unless you're a girl, then you were born naturally gifted to multitask) .
It's been maybe 2-3 weeks and i've knocked down 3 books. 3 books i would have never read/reread/remembered. This week though I'm taking a break and am back into my oldies tunes and nico's playlists he provides. god bless half rez.

thinking about what i can add to this blog...any thoughts? what would you like to see more of? I should start throwing up some more art right??

Interwebbiez

design inspiration!!
what I wore today!!
schweet artist
another rad artist
beautiful letterhead designs
25 harry houdini vintage posters
fucking awesome unsolved mysteries

Borders.

2011-03-22T22:01:00.002-04:00

Borders are going out of business so i snagged 9 of those baby moleskin pads. They are very pocket portable for all your brainstorming doodling needs. Been working on some tweaks to that snap keyframe tool. haven't got alot of time though at work recently. Gotta make a new reel soon. Here's a fun project that I'd really like to work on with someone. 99.5% chance of it not happening. sigh.

DigitalGold:
45 photography tips
Destino
FuckYeahConceptArt
50 best film credits

LastKeyValue Proc

2011-02-10T21:00:00.003-05:00

okay slight tweak to the nextKeyValue proceedure i wrote to quicken up your anim pipeline...this script snaps all the keys to the value based off the last keyframe selected as opposed to the first ( the original script). nearly there on making it possible to have more than 1 curve selected and each snapping to their respected values. also working on a script that spline and flat tangents all your keys for your out of stepped, soyou dont have to go in and micromanage right in the begining of animating....

proc lastKeyValue()
{
string $animCurves[] = `keyframe -q -name`;
float $selectTimes[] = `keyframe -q -sl -timeChange`;
float $selectValues[] = `keyframe -q -sl -valueChange`;
float $selectTimesLast[] = `keyframe -q -lsl -timeChange`;
float $selectValuesLast[] = `keyframe -q -lsl -valueChange`;
float $allTimes[] = `keyframe -q -timeChange $animCurves[0]`;
float $allValues[] = `keyframe -q -valueChange $animCurves[0]`;

// Sets selected keyframe values to the last keyframe value
// in a selection and flattens their tangents.

for ( $i = 0; $i < `size $allTimes`; $i++ )
{
for ( $a = 0; $a < `size $selectTimes`; $a++ )
{
if ( ( $allTimes[$i] == $selectTimes[$a] ))
{
keyframe -e -index $i -valueChange $selectValuesLast[0] $animCurves[0];

keyTangent -inTangentType flat -outTangentType flat -t $selectTimes[$a] $animCurves[0];

}
}
}
};
lastKeyValue;

Shiver me timbers, It's internet gold!

style inspiration
concept art
concept art world
ISO50 design
vfx stock elements
matte painting
matte painting tips
dylan cole
nerdboyfriend style

Itch.

2011-02-08T19:56:00.003-05:00

more more I'm getting the itch to be drawing and begin the long and arduous process of short creation.

today i scratched it a little with some doodles.

hes a picture to use for inspiration.

in other news i lost another cellphone...

Interwebsels

Rasterizing tips
3d dragonfly creation
feather system
gruffalo - making of

Snickers: Focus Group

2011-01-21T21:30:00.005-05:00

Here's some of the jobs I've worked on at Framestore NY.

2011.

2011-01-21T20:21:00.005-05:00

well clearly the last motivational "get this blog on track" post didn't work so hopefully this one will. I have enough content for atleast a few posts. just need to get to it.

Today i'll share my first script that I did without it being an assignment.

First and foremost lets be clear everyone has their own way to work/animate. Their own comfort level with certain buttons and functions. I only offer this as an alternative and look into how i work.

Now about the tool. Everyone I talked to always said it would be a bit useless to have this tool because they are already accustomed to their methods which are quick, but I think if you get used to my script, it can speed up your anim workflow.

The set up:

you have x amount of keys on an fcurve all at different values and you want to select one or a chunk of them and re-align them to a certain value in the graph editor.

The meathods:

Snap value - problem is it only snaps to whole numbers rendering it useless.

MMB key attribute - this seems to be the preferred by animators, but because i have not really explored the mmb, i haven't grown dependent on it and therefore tried to quicken my workflow my own way. I see this technique as involving too many steps and moving your cursor around the screen-estate too much. To use this method you click on the keyframe in the timeline for the value you want to snap to, then you mmb to the designated key you want to snap(this prevents the grapheditor from updating itself), lastly you can ctrl+wer keying each channel (untidy and unecessary) or you go to the channel box, select the attribute and key it. Now i'm not 100% sure but i THINK you can only do this method for 1 key at a time.

PreviousKeyframeValue Tool - My little uncomplicated tool. Where once you set it as a hotkey (plugging the script into the hotkey editor) all of the MMB meathod is simplified to a button press. Also this script allows you to do more than one key at a time. The only thing to keep in mind is that the value you are snapping to will always be the earliest keyframe on the timeline you selected, which makes sense because more often then not your are snapping keys next to eachother to create flat tangents etc.

The code

// PreviousKeyframeValue
// Ver. 0.1
// To use: select two or more
// keys in the graph editor
// on a single curve. Snap!

proc prevKeyValue()
{
string $animCurves[] = `keyframe -q -name`;
float $selectTimes[] = `keyframe -q -sl -timeChange`;
float $selectValues[] = `keyframe -q -sl -valueChange`;
float $allTimes[] = `keyframe -q -timeChange $animCurves[0]`;
float $allValues[] = `keyframe -q -valueChange $animCurves[0]`;

// sets selected keyframe values to the first keyframe value
// in the selection and flattens their tangents.

for ( $i = 0; $i < `size $allTimes`; $i++ ) { for ( $a = 0; $a < `size $selectTimes`; $a++ ) { if ( ( $allTimes[$i] == $selectTimes[$a] )) { keyframe -e -index $i -valueChange $selectValues[0] $animCurves[0]; keyTangent -itt flat -ott flat -t $selectTimes[$a] $animCurves[0]; } } } }; prevKeyValue();

okay. that should be it. feel free to give it a try. if you have any suggestions or comments feel free to let me know. this is the first version and I do intend to keep adding to it and making similar tools to anim workflow.

INTERNET GOLD

9 useful web apps
digital painting video
designspiration!

No Post is Good Post

2010-08-24T20:23:00.002-04:00

phew haven't updated this in a bit, which is good i guess? It means i've been busy.. or lazy... I need to get into the process of migrating this blog into a personal life/art blog post-graduation rather than a thesis update blog...

anyways we're going to do a bullet style highlights update because that's how we roll around here as you should know...in order from beginning of summer to end of summer... if I can remember that far back.

- went to a cajun food festival
- won judges choice award and outstanding achievement for PnB at SVA
- freelanced at Framestore NY
- became staff at Framestore NY
- loved Toy story 3
- play a lot of intense 4-square
- enjoyed thoroughly Dispicable Me
- fished a lot out at Montauk
- picked up tennis
- signed 1 year lease with ashley
- definitely not on the computer as much as of late
- won Honorable Mention for 2010 Adobe Design Achievement Awards for PnB
- played a bunch of HoMM3
- still need to get my computer fixed
- celebrating ashleys 24th bday by seeing Chelsea Handler in AC
- reunion down at the shore house because the Rocks will be back

No links. sorry!

Round 1 over

2010-04-18T16:07:00.004-04:00

Pork 'N Bones website

ahhhhhh finally time to breath and get back to my sketchbook.

Had the first showing of the senior thesis on friday. I am very impressed with my year's work. Everyone turned out some quality projects. Even the less finalized pieces looked great compared to past years. I hope everyone is proud of themselves and continues to grow and produce more art in the future.

My thesis " Pork 'N Bones" turned out to be a hit based on the audience's laughter and gasps! A bit surprised with myself and fairly unexpected. My intention from the start was not to make something amazing or epic, but just to affect one person out there and make them smile. So the response my film is getting is a bit overwhelming! I am being encouraged to keep working out the kinks though of the piece. Something I actually am struggling to do since I am more than sick of working on it. I am however avoiding the release of it into the wild and the interwebs until I fix the sfx and music.

The most difficult thing to do now is accept the fact that the thesis is supposed to be "done" but all I see are mistakes when I view it. I can see why filmmakers, animators, and actors avoid watching their work when it is "complete".

Now I am off to begin my career as a professional animator and filmmaker.

15 useful guides for any techy
101 mac tips
100 snow leopard tricks
Meinbender CN spots
100 must see Man Movies
NEOGAF's freeware game forum and nyc indie game dev scene
ISO50 - scott hansen music playlists
Cali studios
Monstre
Rigging Mentor
10 tips for freelancers
french roast
Keith Lango's Life after Pose to Pose tutorial on polishing.... a step I have yet to get to :(
Amb Occ tut
Keith Lango and his Living Line technique - looking forward to attempting this
list of great classical composers
flash fx reel
want to buy a rice cooker from newegg?
Keith Lango - creating good poses , overlapping , balance , moving hold
Sunny - experiments with achieving 2d style within the 3d medium.

trees!

2010-03-19T14:56:00.003-04:00

2.5 weeks left before thesis is due. crap.

1 Month

2010-03-04T01:59:00.003-05:00

haven't posted to this blog in bit.

if you're interested in seeing what progress i've made with my thesis head over to porknbones.blogspot.com - I keep telling myself that i'll finish, but how much edits/clean up is up in the air...disappointingly.

it's the home stretch now. for everyone. just get me out of school finally.

Linky Dinks

Kaelou
13 crazy body mods
Photoshop "best of" tricks
50 best traditional animated films
15 free apps for mac
start watching at 1:20 - i swear they are stoned

labs

2010-02-14T22:26:00.003-05:00

this is a work in progress shot of the new pig gears textures done by Jack Covell.

having major computer problems at home so i'm forced to work at the labs...

correction to the last post - zhenting has not shaved yet so hes still in the league. sweet.

definitely getting a steam account after thesis. big thanks to zhen for letting me use his to play TF2. sooooo good!

vampirism.

2010-02-08T18:24:00.002-05:00

living during the night. sleeping during the day.

I've come to report that one of ours has fallen. The 2nd official member of "The League" has succumbed to shaving.

Long live Z.Z. Zhenting Panda Puff Zhou.

Let's see who else will crack under the pressure of facial hair.

great Droopy cartoon!

Chuck Jones: Extremes and Inbetweens

Venture On!

Madame Tutli Pultli - great stop motion film.
Ditry Birdy - John Dilworth
Life is flashing...
fantasy...
euphoria...
malice...

yooouuutuuube - alice

23.

2010-02-06T15:24:00.003-05:00

23 shots left to animate by beginning of march.

big thanks to Jack Covel who made me a sweeeet pile of ash and the mecha-pig.

Venture On!

short film involving a grim reaper...
30 free commercial computer games
great site for animation reference even if it already is animated/mo cap
dover boys smear blog
game artist forum
1st cartoon tex avery directed
modeling reference

Imagination is the only solace for refuge

2010-02-02T23:58:00.005-05:00

The lights are off in my apartment. I sit here late at night staring out over Manhattan through the curtain of snow. Thinking that I'm in a future civilization. Peering out at the handfulls of illuminated beacons from other settlements; they glow so faintly that it is just enough to wonder if there are any tauntauns out there. The world has grown desolate.

"The universe watches and tries to play tricks on you... it wants everything to be dust." - J.L.

Newest member to the League of Extraordinary Thesis Beards: Travis Tu.

Current members:
Tyler Heckman
Zhenting Zhou
Chris Meek
Sashdy Arvelo
Travis Tu*

BEARD!

2010-01-27T21:50:00.007-05:00

Back for round 2 of posting. Alas no thesis updates.... I'm thinking about making a blog specifically for my thesis. so keep a heads up for that. you'll prolly recieve an email when its ready for launch.

Papa Noel gave me a beard for christmas. He made me promise not to shave till thesis output. And thus The League of Extraordinary Thesis Beards was born.

current members:

Tyler Heckman
Zhenting Zhou
Chris Meek
Sashdy Arvelo - newest member

to commemorate the leagues origin I posted pics of how the beard is doing....
Tested out the disintegrating tree technique. Thanks to Meek and Nico for pointing on the UV problem. Had a nice little chat with Svenom today. And my thesis progress got some "good" reception; if that is worth anything other than a false sense of security. Life is good.

Some cartoons I grew up on as a kid. Classic gold!

Venture On!

League of Super Evil! - channel surfed onto this 3d cartoon one day. it's grown on me ever since. maybe becuse the hero is a psuedo Grim!

SSS tutorial and theory

50 top game developers of 2009

Animation Backgrounds - a personal favorite (shout out to jennings for showing me it awhile ago)

The Area - a decent site that has me coming back for the tutorials

LuGher 3d - bunch of shading and lighting resources

Tiny Inventions - I forget why I book marked this to be honest..

best DIY projects of 2009

61 free apps -( double post?)

BEST ROAD TRIPs GUIDE - drives of a lifetime

13 easy tools to build a free site

Making of NEOsitrin - watch the original clip here

motion builder tutorials

Speaking of Aniamtion : interviews and podcast like " animation podcast"

Carlos Baena - yall should know

4mm games

another sss tutorial

CG and FX site

lighting tuts GI and FG

Good to be back

2010-01-26T19:41:00.007-05:00

So after much encouragement from my fans ( Jesse and Sven I'm looking at you) I decided to get back into my posting regimen. This post won't have any thesis updates. You'll have to wait for the next one as videos are currently being uploaded.

Only big things yall missed out on are ...

- I am now an uncle.

... thus ends the big things you've missed out on.

but to tide you over heres what you've been missing with the Ballbarians.

and heres all the sweet links I've found during my posting hiatus.

Venture On!

making interlocking gears

10 alternative to itunes

33 type effects in photoshop

22 worthy of addiction flash games

awesome CSS resource

61 amazing free apps

10 torrent search sites

great advice about bettering yourself as an artist, professional, and a person

character design blog

great interview with 6 top directors (Kathryn Bigelow, left, Lee Daniels, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron and Jason Reitman)

5 second project contests

want to learn anything about finance? check investopedia

99 best free games of 2009

soundcloud

AMAZING cartoon - roger rabbit's "Something Cooking"

physical sun and sky tut.. for what its worth

more lighting tutorials

xnormal - shout out to jesse for this

tricks to make windows 7 even better

power users guide to video encoding with handbrake

cube craft

LOGO design process tutorial from start to finish

Lots more to come.

progress

2009-11-18T22:50:00.007-05:00

haven't had much time to post. Still on track with thesis so that's good. interning is going really well.

heres a test render of a blocked animation - there'll be some bushes and rocks, and some textures.

early test render from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

This is a blocked animation for Zhenting's thesis.

Dancer_blocked from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

this video is a basic walk for pig

basic pig walk test from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

The Ballbarians

2009-10-21T23:56:00.003-04:00

before we get started - great little doodle site for sketching!

Hi everyone. So things are getting ridiculously busy with thesis. I forgot to announce that I'm back playing intramural dodgeball. After two great seasons, the Artful Dodgers are no more, for now... Nico and I are now on the Ballbarians. We are about halfway thru the season and doing just great. This time we joined the top division in the league. Shit is serious. check out our team blog!

Heres a quick sketch I did for our team. - after we chose the name we found out what it means on urban dictionary - check it out...
Also went to Cut and Paste last friday with Nico.
This was a world design competition. split into 3 categories 3d, 2d, and motion graphics

contestants were given a theme and they had roughly 20 minutes to create an image representing the theme.

it's been a week so my desktop is effing cluttered with So You Dont Have To links.

have a field day with them:

50 browser games + 50 more

Zbrush clothes tutorial - shout out to david kang for that

sexy little color scheme maker

sweet article on a 1 man feature film

6 apps to help you remember

web design tutorial

double post??? - CG textures

5 new technologies that will change the world

pixar/ luxo parody

cool Left and Right infographic

greast place for cheap cables and the sorts

50 schweet websites

SICK digital matte paintings / photo

Sighhhh... more gobelins

15 most brutal execution methods - really tyler?

fighting a mental block

2009-10-13T21:54:00.001-04:00

interview with pixar illustrator lou romano

All Links, All the Time.

2009-10-12T01:40:00.005-04:00

sadly no 'new' thesis work to post.... but my desktop - make that desktops, plural- are getting too full of good links. I scoured the internets to find the best of the best webschtuff .....

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

Steamboat willie - the first disney *cough* Ub Iwerks *cough* cartoon to be fully synchronized to sound.

turkey in the straw - the original tune played in steamboat willie as well as many other notable shows

stefan Sagmeister - renowned graphic designer speaks about the power of sabbatical

sweet millions spot - sleeping pig - one of my new favorite commercials

sweet millions spot II- bunnies - how could I only show one?

sammich art!

Time Out's top 50 animated films - and no I don't agree and niether will you. 10/pg

in russia algorithm photoshops you!

95 sites you should consider bookmarking

12 Hi-Res Grunge textures. you want.

35 "mac" browser plugins

10 tips to make your site gain vistors

HI RES wallpapers of every shape and size

Props

2009-10-02T19:05:00.004-04:00

not posting as frequently.... but here are some props. Threw on some test lights to try out some different methods on the renders too. - have 3 different ideas for the end render right now.

a conundrum

2009-09-19T23:04:00.002-04:00

Do I change my thesis design/render or not.

hrmm.

Week 1 Done, Do Week 2

2009-09-14T22:47:00.002-04:00

Goodbye to my original Grim Skull! While thinking about blendshapes I got into a little modeling frenzy and came up with 2 new tweaks to my grim skull. here is one concept I'm going with. If blends dont work too great with it I'll try my other design.

Just finished putting together a new previz! phew. I'll try to get that up.

BEAUTIFUL INSPIRATIONAL SHORTS

Pandore
Un Tour De Manege
Neositrin
Dog and the Butcher

So you don't have to

Essential Free Mac apps
4 places to download old computer games!
Hive of Flash tutorials
Happy Aftereffecting!
Painting with Polygons

year 6.

2009-09-08T12:41:00.004-04:00

Too much to talk about. Mind is blown between summer's past and school's future.

gotta get back in the grind. massage some software. develop a thesis.

Wowee!

animatic v.5 from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

EA FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4

2009-07-14T13:50:00.003-04:00

worked on this while at Framestore. Was quite fun. My 4 shots were the trainer and scorer. wish they would have let me take my gecko anim tests though. Hope to go back there. really liked the people, environment, and pipeline.

so after the hiatus of being at the beach house....I'm about to take another one and go to south east asia for 6 weeks. really cramming in finishing up my thesis character models and a near final animatic.

- T

Animatic V. 4

2009-06-09T08:39:00.002-04:00

New ending once again.

REMOVED

Up, up, and away

2009-06-08T00:42:00.008-04:00

Kinda pissed because I thought I was being "original" (is that even possible anymore?) in my thesis giving Grim square blocky hands and what do i find after watching Up??? oh Carl Fredrickson and his cubey hands!! Curse you carl!!

For the people who care, don't care, should care, and shouldn't care here is my 2 cents about Pixar's "Up". I give it a 6/10 - where Cars would be a 3/10 and Nemo would be a 9/10.

of course it definitely needs a 2nd viewing but overall the movie wasn't anything spectacular and I have alot of beef with this movie and story. The one thing I do applaud the film is for not sticking so hollywood with it. They really pushed design, concepts, reality boundaries, and made the hero of the film a 78 yr old man ( have no idea how this made it past the suits, because if there is one thing I learned in "making an animated series" class cartoons are made based off their marketability. And I don't think many children will want a geezer for an action figure or lunch box or bed. Kevin and Dug? sure but not a senior citizen.) For a more detailed opinion of why it was not a favorite movie, be my friend and talk to me in person.

Top Favorite 'Xar movies in order:

1. Finding Nemo

2. Monsters Inc.

3. Toy story + Ratatouille + Incredibles

( yeah that's almost half their movies but what can I say they are all so good)

Been working on a new animatic - pretty happy with the ending idea. It is based off idea #57 of Pig being a machine/robot and you are going to see the storyboard for the big reveal.

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

essential free windows apps

10 things to do and not do in NYC

making a perfect linux machine

45 design tutorials

37 text effects and photoshop tuts

gargle

2009-06-01T22:20:00.002-04:00

been sick as a dog with worms for the past 4 days.

finally getting it out of my system.

E3 started today. whether on purpose or truly leaked it is funny to see how much has been revealed before today.

honestly not too impressed with xbox's camera gimmick. doesn't seem like it acknowledges differences in speed only position.

absolute best animation was the Rock Band: The Beatles intro video

Ju Ju Juicy Juice

2009-05-28T21:56:00.003-04:00

Ålittle sumin sumin for UP

also a little easter egg I noticed in Up's logo is the front whiteside of the house is an "up" arrow.

neat.

Not much to report on. Watching the National Spelling Bee. Oriflamme. wtf? Guayabera?

Had a good two nights this week with Meek and Neek. Isagoge? Sophrosyne - duh. Can't believe this girl got "menhir" wrong.

Between brainstorming with them and some others I think I've finally broken out of the creativity cocoon and am nearing a solid ending for the thesis. Am looking to do another animatic soon. Hoping to get character models up to 95% done.

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

10 awsome color pickers

500 watercolor brushes

best MS Paint pictures

trippin' - the actual site can play most youtube videos. fun to play with.

animatic v.3

2009-05-18T08:31:00.001-04:00

REMOVED

changed ending.
edited some shots/timing
cut some corners by rehashing shots and not retiming

overall timing is a off but good enough for now.

Soundtrack is completely out of whack, but that'll be fixed when I have a finalized animatic.

we'll see if this holds up.

Honey Bunches of Links

2009-05-18T00:12:00.002-04:00

35 online freelance tools
40 free icon sets
pick up line generator

procedural city!

man rules
useless knowledge
Rabbit Holes 3d Holographic art
Meet the Spy - TFC2 - would love to see this turn into a tv or web series

Hot Town Summer in the City

2009-05-14T17:39:00.006-04:00

Well we are a few weeks into May and life is just settling down... or is it? spoooooky

Event Horizon:

Living on a "week to week" basis with Ashley. So far it's great and she's the bestest evvvar.

Nico's Un-21-birthdance party

Internshipping at FramestoreMiddle of reworking my thesis animatic - happy that I'm keeping up with thesis production.

The best part of this past week has been the fact that I am able to catch up with all the on demand tv shows!

My friend jordan blit showed me some animation shorts that my pig reminds him of. A bit dissapointed about some of the similarities but oh well. what can you do. It's bound to happen with everything in the world.....right?...RIGHT?!

Still have a big list to make to fully organize my summer beforeI ship off to SE Asia!!

So you don't have to
50 drinking games

Demo Reel Spr. '09 !!!!!

2009-05-08T11:14:00.006-04:00

Hey guys here's my demo reel.

Animation_Reel_050509 from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Dissapointingly I didn't put more pieces in but they are not finalized enough to justify adding it to my reel. You can still view them on Vimeo though!! take stroll through animation lane!

Even though I am foremost an animator here is some lighting and modeling i've done.

Lighting and Model Reel Spring '09 from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

And of course : SO YOU DONT HAVE TO...

awsome 2d fx tutorials

awsome photoshop tutorials

and a smorgasbord of texturing help from CGTalk

Le Sigh

2009-05-03T13:05:00.004-04:00

heres a new bussiness card

I don't even want to get into what my past few days have been other than horrible. Big set back in life. just need to keep swimming.

Here's one of the best characters in any animation. It is the penguin from Wallace and Grommit " The Wrong Trousers". watch it. love it. watch it again.

Cheers to that!

2009-04-29T08:35:00.003-04:00

Mentos Lip sync from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

lip sync final from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

nsmb

2009-04-28T09:44:00.001-04:00

heres a little hype for the new punch out coming on the wii!

1 week left

2009-04-27T15:32:00.005-04:00

damn! it's been a week since I last posted - you know what that mean? I've been too busy with other crap - like finals, moving out, selling stuff on craigslist.

i'll post some visual stuff later tonight for the illiterate, because that's what we do here. cater to the illits.

last day of class thurs.? Big Kentucky Derby party at ashleys :)

Moving Holds are the death of me

**edit** Ok - I lied. I thought I'd update content. decided to keep working on my anim for seth.

heres some links for you kinky computer people who stalk my private interweb real estate.

break the law by hacking a soda machine - i do not promote or advise it.

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

64 things every "geek" should know

13 free mac apps

21 free textures

Boring Text Post

2009-04-21T00:41:00.003-04:00

Ah! phew! le sigh!

handed in my thesis dvd for lerer's class. what a relief. haven't started the hw for blit or seth though. In an even deeper hole for Hell class.

general thoughts about The Lerer Thesi - A much better turn out than expected. Only 2 people didn't hand in stuff today. It was nice to see everyone's hard work from last semester through now. See where people made changes and what stories changed. Congrats to Chris Meek with what lerer called "the best overall disc of both classes". Congrats to everyone who pulled off the disc as well! Everyone is coming along well and am excited to work with you all next year! Pro about my thesis presentation was the amount of laughs, smiles, and involvement from the audience: w00t! the con: I butchered my new ending when explaining it to the class. So now everyone is biased to it. Most people say they expect a bond between Grim and Pig and want it to end in a similar style of Grim walking away trying to get rid of the pig and pig keeps following.
So where am I with that?? I'll tell you where. back at the end of last semester. wtf.

I'm actually very proud of how I rigged Grim. There were a few errors but nothing crazy. Could have been A LOT worse what with the cloak, sleeves and what not. Did a little diddy with the neck so that when turned JNT A rot'd 50% JNT B rot'd 2/3's of JNT A and JNT C rot'd 1/3 of JNT A.

Setting up some business meetings with my thesis's unofficial Lead Modeler and Lead Rigger. As much as I wanted to be the sole provider for my thesis ( and based off my Lerer Final Disc is doable) I think it is a smarter move to exchange services, though kept at a minimum :) I will however work in hand with them during the process so as to fully understand the rig and models. Will be drafting up a "production schedule" for us soon. My thanks already goes out to them.

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

60 textures effects and all the good jazz

some surreal inspiration!

beautifu HDR image of times square

SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT - such a rediculous little program for 600$ >_<

small update

2009-04-18T14:37:00.003-04:00

The artful dodgers -my dodgeball team made it to playoffs again. This time we can't fail.

I've been deprived most of my adulthood of good cartoons. I grew up on looney tunes having seen every eps. Well now I happily have volume 1-5 ( just need 6) to be able to relive the golden age of animation ( and start getting another series. Batman + animaniacs Im looking at you)

don't know if i can put the time/work in for seth and jordans hw this week disappointingly.

gotta get this character rigged, redo previz, and dvd out the door.

sneak peak at pixars new short before Up

some photoshop brushes - one day all these brush presets will come in handy for texturing... one day.

ShamWow!

2009-04-15T21:46:00.008-04:00

Grim
Alpha v.1

Doing a basic rig for Grim to pass this semester. Keeping a list of everything fancy I need to add to the rig this summer.

Need to play with a SSS for Pig- I think he'll really look brilliant with it. Considering adding cheeks to his default model.

Both Grim and Pig will get a Remodel session this summer, along with a Z-brush treatment and texture.

Will also need to model, props, landscape, do some color scripts, and a new make a new previz and animatic/storybaords this summer. Oh boy!

Really happy to see Grim and Pig in their "natural" environment. So far they are looking good in the style of the all white scenery.

p.s. I forgot how much I like rigging and lighting!! JOY!

It's that time again

2009-04-14T21:57:00.006-04:00

I havent had much time to post, 's'nor'e' much time to do much of anything else let alone think.

Heres some WIPs

lip sync WIP from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Rough Couch Potato from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

So You Dont Have To

Free Online storage

30 free fonts

15 essential checks before launching a site

15 watercolor effects in photoshop

stop and stare at the new intuos tablet...... now cry about the price

29 best places to live

14 HQ textures

great site if you don't have friends

10 most disturbing movies

Royalty free music

Senior Thesis Show '09

2009-04-10T15:24:00.005-04:00

Just got back from seeing all of the senior theses

ugh wasted half my day that i planned for modeling >:o

anyways - it was good to see everyones hardwork paid off in their theses.

everyone should give themselves a pat on the back - actually a kiss- for accomplishing it

of course there were some phenominal ones and other lackluster.

A noticible difference between last year and this year's work:

Last year had a lot more pieces that were either great or just plain bad.

this year most of the pieces were all within a happy medium of success - as well as a broad amount of varying skills in all aspects with a noticeable amount of theses that spread the Love (the work ) around the department.

Congrats to all of you again - i look forward to working with some of you in the future.

Got me excited for "The Pig and The Reaper" - and I hope it has you excited too!

It has begun!

2009-04-10T03:37:00.003-04:00

PIG!
Alpha Version 0.1

Another quiet post

2009-04-06T12:49:00.003-04:00

great little thing I found on another site and you tube. I know the majority of disneys work is original but it's funny to see them recycle and rehash some of their work.

funny little site you can use on people who don't know what you're talking about. - google it for them

some incredible drawings taken into a 4th dimension!

for those people who like to discount shop online

This is why you're fat - just go.

nice little site to know - when i need to make an actual website

couldn't stop watching this trailer all week - " that's such a samantha thing to say"

ever wonder what inmates on death row get for a final meal??

just a link

2009-04-03T18:40:00.001-04:00

28 principles of animation!!

Last month

2009-04-01T18:26:00.003-04:00

April. Last month of "junior" year. Last month before summer. Last month before I work 100% on my thesis.

Heres me and jack acting out some movements for our motion capture class at curious pictures's studio.

you feel invincible in the suit and just want to constantly be moving.

Mo Cappin' at Curious Pictures from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Heres is my latest most up to date animatic - I redid every drawing

animatic for thesis from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

heres my hw for blit today - still in stepped mode.

Rough Change of thought - adv. Blocking from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

picked up more looney tunes dvds from the school library-Need to get more blank dvds too - you can make of that what you will.

Hell class was cancelled today but didnt find out until i was at class.

Napped from 130 - 5. hadnt gone to bed the night before.

jason Osipia's book " stop staring" is awesome.

Ashley got me "the illusion of life" book for my bday - sooooo good too.

we were supposed to do the 11secondclub for Jordan blit's final but we think they played an april fools and posted a sound byte with no vocals. so I don't know if we are still doing that or not. hopefully they changed the sound clip tomorrow. april 2.

asked jordan for some ideas how to go about animating the "marvin the martian" scurry for Grim - he suggested making an alternate rig that has 4-6 legs.

also posted the question at the forums on 11secondclub.com - hopefully get some good feedback there.

SO YOU DON't HAVE TO!

30 hand drawn web designs

30 redonk photoshop tuts

40 papercraft webdesigns

Updatezaur

2009-03-25T08:53:00.007-04:00

word.
So i am redoing my entire storyboard, making a few changes to it, and redoing my animatic. heres how far im rendering the shots. ( this guy is coming out from behind a tree)
also made my first business card - a bit sloppy but had to get it out the door so I could get a class
heres the pose from this week and geuss what - stunnah t won this week. that's 2 now.

heres last week's gollub gesture pose.

Rough Fan and Box stack - Blocked from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Rough Change of Thought - Blocking from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

So you don't have to

40+ website designs

101 free downloads - havent checked it out but yah.....

Grim

2009-03-23T11:22:00.007-04:00

worked on grim a bit. really just redid his teeth, made him a nose ( which is a placeholder right now), and messed with his cloak/body proportions.

Registered for next year. My senior year. Finally. after next year it will have been a total of 6 years in college. 2 diff school, 2 diff majors, too many good times.

Next year I am signed up for Lerer's thesis class and am looking to grab a signature to do an independent study.

I found this great video of charles manson. You may ask why it's great. Well from an animators pt of view he goes through so many extreme and wild emotions, it's perfect for reference material. enjoy the laugh.

So you dont have to!

70 photoshop resources

Excitement!!

2009-03-19T15:43:00.006-04:00

So rather than spending my whole day working on Seth's incredibly long assignment ( though i did for an hr), I have been getting myself so worked up an excited for thesis!

in my dirty diaper full of excitment I went buck wild and started putting my cloud concept art into 3d. Granted I really only roughed out "educatedly"-yet-random clicked away at vertices.

The best part is they were extremely simple to create. So with more time and planning I have no worries about making my cloud props.

...now if only the same could be said about the trees.

back to modeling

2009-03-19T13:20:00.005-04:00

Now that I rushed to get the animation exercise done for Lerer I can spend time modeling my thesis and redoing storyboards. Because people came in with barely any work on their anim exercise I don't have to worry about fixing it up for a bit and can get back to the bigger more important picture. Thesis.

Still rough models but I reworked the body shape, gave him a bit of an underbelly, changed up the nose a bit, gave him an eyebrow, added some tails, and fixed his legs. What makes me happy is that for the most part I would call it an improvement and that's just magical.

Also with some diggin' I found an AWESOME expression sheet for wallace and gromit who are inspirations for pig. It's pure goodness. Like a Mr. Goodbar. Aw man I loved those wrapped in yellow - the ones with peanuts.

and for the moment you've all been waiting/scrolling for- this post's .....

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

Entertainment Links

Cookie Monster and Kermit Dee Frog

Daft Punk Keyboard

3D on the mind!

2009-03-18T20:12:00.003-04:00

going to create another blog solely for contact info and my work.

here's great links!

CrazyBump

IvyGenerator

Really?

2009-03-18T00:34:00.004-04:00

Has it honestly been that long since I posted last? sheesh - some people.

Heres a video of some hw for seth's class.

disappointingly i don't have an image from his week's gesture pose contest. now rather than emotions seth is giving us "moments" to act out - this week was a spectator right before his team is about to score.

Once the 5 minutes were up , we walked around the class observing everyones, and as soon as we were sitting back down, I knew he had won it and I told him. He went on to win.

If i'm correct that brings the count to:

Tyler- 1
Nico- 2
Nicole- 2
Deborah- 1

I could tell nico and I had the same idea but he executed the legs and mouth much better than mine expressed. Schweet Stunnah N!

Rough Close Up from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Dodgeball Life:

The Artful Dodgers lost terribly in their playoff game
The Artful Dodgers season 2 began picking up Stunnah S(ven) and a new girl
The Artful Dodgers lost the first 4 games.
The Artful Dodgers won the next 4 games.
The Artful Dodgers play their "Krazy Hat Game" at 5 pm Saturday March 21st, on 53rd st and 9th ave. All are welcome.
The Artful Dodgers play crazy flip cup at 6 pm. All are welcome.

Personal Life:

I turned 23.
I see Elysse tomorrow.
I went to Florida for a week to visit Teddy.
I booked my big summer trip.
I have a ton of thesis to do.
I quit facebook - i think that was awhile ago though.
I came up with a new play.
Theres a bunch of wii game I want to get.
Ashley bought me the illusion of life!!!!

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

20 Facebook applications to make it more useful and less addictive

what a fucking week

2009-03-04T08:48:00.004-05:00

no details.

stress of life and work is overwhelming.

heres stuff to look at.

Rough penny from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Rough Jump from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Rough Waiting from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

rough basic walk from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

rough ball obstacle from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

rough pitch from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Rough push from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

S. Gollub gesture pose Round 4

2009-02-25T15:19:00.009-05:00

Oh yes it's past that day of the week where I can upload a gesture pose.

word was grumpy. I don't think my pose for grumpy is that great really. It doesn't speak grumpy....just cranky old man. Nicole Marino won this week. No one's was really exceptional. her char was sitting down with an aarm across the lap i think and arm covering the spot nex tto her so it seemed you couldnt sit down. and the char was stand offish i guess. This was the first pose I am actually 100% dissatisfied with. I def think i could have made it stronger and more impact less old man. Oh well till next tues...

Heres an updated Ball w/ personality >>>>>>

Updated ball w/ personality from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Heres my blocking for couple interaction hw assignment >>>>

couple interaction blocking poses from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

Heres my expression change assignment ( of course i plan to go in an revise, like every hw, after the fact )>>>>

expression change hw from Tyler Heckman on Vimeo.

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO....
interview with patrick smith > i like to think of him as next gen plympton.

best type of 2009

rediculous paintings/illustrations

33 sex tips

Cat, Mouse, and Soda Popinsky

2009-02-23T23:28:00.007-05:00

Hewo you digital nomads.

Here is a garbage picture i made for you to be amused by for 3.8 seconds.

it also acts as my lead in to one of Jordan Blits hws for the week.

Take a ball..... with a tail... add personality to it. Rwaaaaar!

On a personal note - The ArtfulDodgers - my intramural dodgeball team made playoffs.

be happy for us.

Ended!

Animate Expression Change

2009-02-20T14:51:00.003-05:00

For my change of expression animation exercise I decided to write myself a letter so I could record myself reading off it. please take a look at the letter I wrote.

Squishable.com Check it out!

2009-02-20T02:48:00.004-05:00

No. I didn't make that.

But it is the best reference I can find for square hands.
I wish I could make better video footage for animation purposes. It's such as hassle recording on my little digital camera. I'll post a video soon of the footage I made for Lerer's chair pull soon.

Lerer Animation Exercise ( plain walk to door, open door, walk approx 5 steps to desk, pull out chair, sit in chair, study ball on desk): Splined up through the door. basic blocked steps to desk. I feel this is my worst walk I've done. I can't quite put my finger on what it wrong. It's something about the legs either they are too wide, or short. I'm happy with the door opening and stepping through. content with it's timing. Though I feel it lacks much character Lerer said don't add much until you do it right the first time.

Seth HW ( animate a character expressing a change between 2 different emotions) : going to thumbnail, block, and hopefully get to splining it all tomorrrow.

Jordan HW 1 ( animate personality into a ball with a tail) : thinking of ideas

Jordan HW 2 ( animate 2 characters interacting with eachother - they must touch) : thinking of ideas

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40 rediculousnessinged AfterEffects tutorials

32 "I'm a PC" essential (and free) apps

S.Gollub Gesture Pose Round 3.

2009-02-18T00:48:00.002-05:00

Didja guess the word for this gesture pose? It was a difficult word this week to convey in 5 minutes. No I didn't "win" this week. Neither did Nico. This week we had a new winner. Deborah. yay! I did manage 2nd place. the camera angle again is what did me in. To be honest though, I don't think this is that strong of a "confident" pose - nor do I think Deborah's was or anyone elses' in the class for that matter. You really could tell that this was a hard week because there were significantly less poses that even were close to somewhat conveying the word than for the past 2 weeks.

okay...work! sleep! class! work!

ENjo!

NO LINK FOR YOU!

Line of Action!

2009-02-15T22:38:00.002-05:00

Now I know this isn't the line of action all you animators had in mind - but a new technique I'm developing ( it's in the prototype stage right now) is drawing a line across my midsection from hip bone to hip bone. It allows me to see the slight angles my hips make when I move in the mirror.

Also note :

the multiple tries it took to get the line across.

it is green sharpie.

the love handles.

I'm getting sick btw. so look for an update about that in the week.

S.Gollub Gesture Pose Round 1

2009-02-13T00:57:00.005-05:00

This is the first time we did the 5 min pose competition in Seth's class. Stunnah N(ico) won that one.

I think I could have picked a better camera angle for sure - the hands get lost in the sillouette too much.

This was also a 5 min pose for Jordan Blit's Adv. Anim class. The word I picked was rage and Blit guessed it right! So that's a personal win!

Moom is an angry Moom.

He's just hungry.

Coraline was great. go see it. see if you can pick out the few CG parts. I love stop motion for 2 reasons:

1. you can tell the animation is man-made. the movements are fluid yes, but there is still the sense of jitter and unevenness existing.

2. I loveeee love love flowing / pouring liquids in sto-mo

SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO

100 textures

15 secrets to designing the perfect icon

13 supermarket secrets

S.Gollub Gesture Pose Round 2

2009-02-11T08:37:00.006-05:00

In my Anim 4 class we have a little competition each week. Seth gives everyone a the same word and we have 5 minutes to create the best pose possible to describe that 1 word. I love this exercise we also do it in J. Blit's class. Last week was the first time we did it in Seth's. I will upload that pose when I locate it. Nico won last week for " waiting " I believe the word was. This week was " depressed ". I won that one. I dont know what it is but gesture poses get my adrenaline pumping and really help hasten your blocking/posing process as well as getting you even more accustomed to the controls/rigs/ etc. I'l update every pose I do from now on in the class. 2 wins and seth drops your lowest hw grade. Till next time!

heres a vimeo link to the MOVIE

Here's my first video upload ( it failed so I made a link ) to the Keyframe Kitchen! This was a homework assignment where we had to block in a baseball pitch! I think it turned out well. A tad slow for now, easy to fix of course. I definately can notice my blocking skills getting better with speed, sillouettes/readability, and poses. When I have time I'll upload more videos.

ENjo!

NO LINKS - Booo0o0o0o0o

Quick Little'un

2009-02-10T17:35:00.004-05:00

This is a rapid fire post. A lot of info in very little time and clarity.

ComicCon Nyc '09 was fun

Madworld - great. Conduit - letdown. House of the Dead: overkill - redeemed. Overlord - on track. Booth babes - yay.

Dodgeball, artful dodgers - 8th. crucial 4 wins needed. god help us all.

season 2 with artful dodgers. Ashley - Seth maybe.

too social. lost time. less this weekend. Rub and coraline on weds. 3 animations due for next week already + hell hw.

blocking Blits. im guessing up till 5-6 am.

SO YOU DONT HAVE TO

how to frame and compose a shot

Models Version 1.0

2009-02-06T00:50:00.007-05:00

Hi everyone - here is a quick look at some REALLY rough models for my thesis.

Pig - still have to finish shaping and smoothing him out. Need to decide on his nostrils and if he should have an indent to separate his brows or not. A little uneasy about how his mouth is going to work. I modeled proper geo where his mouth would be so it can still animate, contort, and express emotion, but there won't be an clear cut mouth/lips. oh got to add his tail too. Sproing

Grim - really need to figure out his nose/ "nose hole". his hands need redoing. I need to model hands but keep them blocky. Chris Meek suggested checking out Clone Wars. I did. The hands though different, still good reference for what I am aiming for. What pisses me off the most is on my computer at home the model looks "fine" but at school the monitors warp the model making it thinner and taller. Bad News Buffalo.

Should be doing hw tonight. Comic Con nyc tomorrow. Hands on conduit, madworld, and more!

Teddys birthday tomorrow. Double date with Nico and Angela fri night. Seeing Chad/Ogilvy peeps sat night. Brunch with ashley, her folks, and my parental units sunday. Dodgeball sunday at 3. team happy hr after.

ENjoi! and look for my impressions from ComicConNYC

So You Dont Have To

15 Logo Design tutorials- Not much to say. Some decent info on logo design.

AnimationMeat - an animation site I recently found. havent delved too deep into it. But from a cursory glance I noted some worthwhile nuggets

150 Best Flash games - you all know how much I love my flash games. I'm a hard person to please though, and most of these please me.

Snowing in the City

2009-02-03T11:22:00.003-05:00

It's snowing again. I'm procrastinating....again.

I need to keep up the posting though. My days have grown long again. Up till 4 each morning and rise by 9/10.

My school work is taking over already. I already had to stop working out :(

Well anyways just to prove it I did end up getting ashley's scanner. So here's a little pose of Grim for my thesis. Nothing great, but what this drawing did for me was reveal the way a nice little detail to how I am going to design the trees. Take notice of the tree trunk. Yup that's it.

When I get a moment to breathe I'll post up a bunch of overly ambitious animation homework, and the first modeled version of Grim and Pig.

Over halfway done with reading The Watchmen. Great book. Zero action. How can it be a movie. I guess a drama. hah. Also, I can't stand Rorshach's character design. Defaintely not what i envisioned underneath that ink blot face.

I completed Geometry Wars for the Wii - Not 100%'ed probably only 75%'ed but since I've beat all the levels it's moved out of my backlog.

Going to comic con on friday with Nico. Then double dating with him to see Coraline. joy!

As for the blog - I want to add small quick comics to my updates as well as something else that I just forgot. I forget a lot. A lot a lot. You learn to love it. Well actually I think more people hate it. But the sound of a child's laughter makes up for it.

ENjo!

T

SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO

Hack you life with 4 years of great links

50 Icon sets

Back on Track - 8 Track, Train Track, Race Track

2009-01-19T20:52:00.005-05:00

Oh the wonderful world of blogging. Where time doesn't pass unless the blogger dictates it to with posts and the digital air smells of spring and twitter-pated animals. Yes. I am back. After the hiatus due to the torrential downpour of finals and the Tiger Woods upswing of the holidays.

Speaking of holidays what better day to start back blogging then MILK Day! It's a favorite holiday among the skeletal crowd, where bones stay fortified and mustaches drip dry.

This year's blog will be a rip-roaring good time filled with:

A New Banner to Head the Blog!

Brand Spanking New "So You Don't Have To" Links!

Oodles of Noodles Delectable Drawings

Updates of the Omnipotent, Ever Looming and Weaving Thesis

as well as

Nostalgic Videos

ANIMATION exercises.

"We're here.

We're queer.

We don't want any more bears!" - Homer Jay Simpson

I've taken the past month off from blogging to discover all these links So You Don't Have To

ENTERTAINMENT

Finally have time to watch all those t.v. shows?

Don't like t.v?

Would rather plays games?

EVERYDAY LIFE

TechCrunch's 2009 websites you can't live without.

ART

80 Illustrator Tips, Tricks, Tuts, Brushes, etc.

30 Photoshop text effects from SixRevisions

25 resources for "flourishes" and the like

ENjoi! and welcome back holmes

Oh Noes it Snoes

2008-12-17T14:38:00.001-05:00

Haven't had a minute to breath the past month let alone post due to finals and wrapping things up for Christmas... ahem...."The Holidays" to be politically correct. Here are 4 shots from my thesis story board. I'll be posting the animatic in a bit. Everything is rough right now. I plan to redraw my boards when story, chars, and shots are 100% finalized. Not much else to show right now. I'm trying to fix up my laptop. Will get around to posting some 3d models I did for my modeling class as well as some sketches. Disappointingly I don't have as much as I would have liked to show for my finals.

So You Don't Have To:

For watching tv shows

For learning Python

New Sense of Depletion

2008-12-07T23:37:00.003-05:00

I'm spent. Here are a few character designs for my Animated Series Final, " Village Bigfoot".

Emma is on the left, Hogan is in the middle, and Sonny is on the right. He's Hogan's cousin. A yeti.

Ramble:
Just need to bind the the pitchbook at kinkos and turn it in on weds. Also for weds, I need to re-output my thesis research dvd. props 8 to Stunnah Nico for connecting the endjumps on dvd version 1.Too bad I messed up while exporting the sound. The animatic would have had a bigger punch with the music on for the first viewing to the class. What surprised me was the amount of laughs I got without any sound or fx. So that gave me a little reignition to press on. Tues I turn in my Chubby Character + Rig. Just need to try round 4 of doing a few corrective blend shapes.

ENjoi - jigga wha!

Final days

2008-12-04T17:17:00.005-05:00

Here's an early shot of a character from my Animated Series "Village Bigfoot". OM NOM NOM! I do have her as neat and tidy vector art but I need to stop putting high res images up here or get a watermark.

Headache from texturing.

2008-11-20T20:06:00.003-05:00

Not much to post today -

worked all day. my brain is mush from trying to texture. I think I've discovered my least favorite thing to do in the industry. Good thing I can only get better at it.

took a small break and played the wii. a mouse came out while I was playing and crawled into my roommates graham cracker box. He ate for a bit while I tried to move super quietly and pick the box up and trash it. This mouse is the devil. He's un-catch able and been a nuisance since Masala Bollywood undergone construction. Of course Ashley had to call as I'm reaching for the box and the mouse scurried out.

So You Don't Have To:

heres some good lighting effects you can achieve in Pirateshop, I mean Photoshop.

Geometry in Maya and the Wii

2008-11-18T13:15:00.002-05:00

Updated UVS. working on textures and blend shapes.....and geometry wars galaxies.

Glaring through my hangover

2008-11-15T19:01:00.003-05:00

I've had my days and nights planned out as to when I would be doing my Modeling and Anim hw, and when I get a curve ball and email questions to teachers my whole production screeches to a halt. Not fun. So i've been trying to keep busy by doing what other work I can gather together.

I scanned in my rough draft of boards that will be used in the animatic for the rough cut of music.

I did my last production art still. I didn't get the depth I wanted in this but it's done and that's what matters.

That is all. :(

Spent my "1 day a week" with ashley and kat and erin. watched the disappointingly lucky UGA beat Auburn . Thank god.

MOAR production art

2008-11-12T02:42:00.006-05:00

Yes there is a lot of to do for thesis preproduction this semester. Want to know how I get it done? I use it as my procrastination for my other work.

And no. Don't remind me about the ink spill on the Grim page.

One more page to ink and I'm MOARRR than set for production art the production book.

Caught the Last Bit of Sun

2008-11-10T01:56:00.005-05:00

So as my 'stunnahing' "followers" know I was in a wedding last weekend and thus missed out severely loving my 2nd wifey, Maya. I was unable to do some hw so I made it up for this week. Here is an outdoor scene lit with Maya Software.

There are a few things I'd like to change, for one being the reflective map on the lamp post metal - the img keeps getting repeated a bazillion time, and I have exhausted my troubleshooting stamina. It's more or less done. That's what's good. ENjoy.

Unwrapping a Nintendo Wedding

2008-11-07T01:46:00.002-05:00

Small update tonight. I've sat down and reorganized what needs to be done in within the next 5 weeks ( end of Fall Semester) and boy is it a lot. When isn't it a lot though? Unwrapping UVs is hell, though I believe I am getting the hang of it much better now. I posted some prelim UV Maps for a model. There's Three-Dimensional boots, clothing, ak-47, goggles, and a belt among all those 2d pixels. As much as I enjoy modeling I am definately noticing what areas of 3D hold my interest and drive.

A small recap from the Halloween/Wedding weekend.

I sit in front of my computer 24/7, So You Don't Have To, reaching into the depths of the internet to bring you the best links of the day.

The Sega That Once as according to Arstechnica.com

Real Life Photoshop

Polar Bears know Good Web Design

2008-11-03T14:14:00.006-05:00

On Thursday before leaving for the wedding weekend I discovered a Cracked.com photoshop contest. the entries are meant to be crappy - no professional photo manipulation in the whole thread. Here was my rush job for "the day after the 2012 elections". I would have liked to done alot more to it but you know how trains don't wait for you.

I've done the dirty work of finding great links - So You Don't Have To. ENjoy.

15 Key Elements to Making a Good Website
http://freelancefolder.com/15-top-site-elements/

Top 10 Scariest Movies according to LiveScience.com
http://www.livescience.com/culture/top-10-scariest-movies-1.html

Rigging and a Halloween Wedding

2008-10-30T00:12:00.002-04:00

Redid my IKspine, FKspine, BINDarm, IKarm, and FK arm rigs for Chubby. Learned a ton more in the process. Have my IK leg in the rig but is hidden in the pics. Every time I rig I fall in love with it more and more. Really going to see where it takes me. Would love to learn more than the basics of rigging such as the coding and using utility nodes. ( other than the mult/div for the bind arm rig) Feels like I've been asking TOO many questions to people, maybe everyone is edgy this week. Will carry on my g-pa ''monsterness'' for a few days in my batcave.

Looking forward to this weekend. Going to MD to be in a wedding. Congrats Dave Rock! The group is dressing up as Mario Bros. characters for post-rehearsal dinner since it is on Oct. 31. Bought most of the elements to create the costumes tomorrow at short hills. Ashley is princess peach, I'm mario (with an authentic mustache), Teddy is Luigi, Rex is Toad, Leung is Yoshi (hard costume to pull off), and Phil is Wario. Worried that so many days away from maya is going to take a large toll on my homework. Setting my priorities for class/hw/: Anim3, Thesis, Modeling, Lighting+Rendering, Devving the Anim Series. Sorry Lisa.

Texting with Stunnah Sven right now. Pretty cool. Nico didn't text me back. Yeah. I called you out. I still love you Stunnah Nico. So cold and lonely in this cave.

p.s. the worst part about running windows on boot camp is I can't do the Mac-apple-shift-4 to do a screen grab. I need to use Windows On-Screen Keyboard to access the PrintScreen function which btw is terrible and hope they fix it in Windows 7.

P.p.s My newest list for my life is what I should be doing with my spare time. I won't go into it, but yeah. It's nuts.

More Production Art

2008-10-27T14:36:00.004-04:00

The pics with the flower are a bit older. They were done prior to a major story revision. And the ink wash is a version I did prior to the one in the previous post with the outlines. I'm not sure which I like more.

Thesis Production Art

2008-10-27T14:10:00.004-04:00

My 2 year thesis project has been in the works since last spring. Concurrently I am whittling away at my storyboards, my final script, and the production art. Here are some samples. ENjoy!

Lighting midterm

2008-10-27T13:58:00.001-04:00

This is my bedroom. Surprisingly spacious for the cost and location in nyc. These two pieces were rendered with Maya Software. Overall I'm content with the images. There are some compositional elements I would like to change as well as add more to the room, such as add a brick bump to the wall, add a cord to the tablet, throw in a cell phone, wallet, etc. Maybe I will add to the scene if I reuse the model for my final using Mental Ray. ENjoy!

Mushroom Men

2008-10-25T13:02:00.001-04:00

Now this being my first post no one out there on the inter-web-o-sphere-o-information-globe knows my passion with mushrooms. I would say it runs in the family, but that would make us sound like we are lawn gnome collecting lunatics. No. I'm not obsessed with mushrooms, they are just fun to give personality to and hunt for the edible ones.

Before I knew of the Mushroom Men video games (see below) coming out, I had done several illustrations of some mushrooms. Too bad my computer and external HDD both crashed - I lost everything. Luckily I had posted these up on FB so I was able to retrieve them. You'll get to know that crashes picnic frequently in my neck of the woods. ENjoy.

This is a new IP coming out for the Wii and DS. I must say as much as I am not into platformers this game has a ton of potential and is looking pretty on Ninty's little white box that could. One of the highlights of this game is the weapon customization. You are able to pick up a ton of found objs. and mix and match them to create different weapons with different abilities and stats. Keep an eye out for it. Definately a a 3rd party title worthy of atleast a rent and a possible craigslist purchase.