This animation was created with PD Pro Howler. As a digital pencil test system, it works great though it lacks some features that would make it a more professional tool. On the plus side, it offers tons of special effects for stills and animations.
This run cycle is for an animation I'm doing with my daughter for a song we co-wrote about her pet hamster.
I did this image using three programs. The basic model and texturing were done in Curvy3D, which is available at Curvy3D.com. Curvy probably predates programs like ZBrush but works in the same way by using displacement maps to alter the geometry of your model. This model started as a very basic lathed model but the displacement image really gave it some very cool detail.
I exported the Curvy model as an .obj file and brought it into Carrara 6 Pro to light and render. I also added a bump map to accentuate the details and give the ship a greater sense of scale.
After I rendered the model, I brought the image into Photoshop where I added the background, lens flares and engine exhaust.
From beginning to end, this image took between 2-3 hours.
A quick followup to my earlier post about PD Pro Howler, I put this image together in about a half-hour's time using some additional tools that come with Howler.
This image started as some fractal noise that was then extruded using the built-in 3D engine. Throw in some lens flares and a few adjustments and you've got an instant prog-rock album cover. Cool!
I've been a long-time fan of a paint program that used to go by the name of Project Dogwaffle. Dogwaffle offered all sorts of fascinating brushes and effects, along with animation as well.
I left Dogwaffle aside quite a few years ago but recently picked up the most recent version, which is now called "PD Pro Howler", available at TheBest3D.com. The basic program is still there but it's been augmented with all sorts of new tricks, including new animated brushes called Orbicles.
Essentially, Orbicles are clusters of animated dots that move and swirl as you paint, creating a very nice paint brush bristle effect. I started fooling around with this feature tonight and quickly came up with this imaginary landscape.
I think PD Pro Howler and I will be spending a lot more time together over the next few weeks.
My mother died early this morning. She was the most wonderful mother anyone could ever want and the kindest soul I've even known. She never had a bad thing to say about anyone and she was perpetually optimistic. She always saw the glass as half full, never half empty.
Thankfully, she never regained consiousness after her stoke yesterday morning and she died very peacefully around 12:20 am early today. She was well loved and lived a happy, blessed life. She will be sorely missed but we know that we will all someday be reunited in heaven.
During the Mobile Art Conference the 24 Frames 24 Hours mobile filmmaking workshop took place at the ITP Tisch School of the Arts at NYU (New York University). The mobile video was produced in 24 hrs collaboratively by the workshop participants under the guidance of Max Schleser. All material was filmed and post-produced on mobile devices and tablets.
While I didn't contribute any video, I was asked to contribute some music. Max and I went over some music I've created on my iPod Touch and he picked a piece of music he liked which plays throughout the last two-thirds of the short film.
I finally purchased an iPad 2 a couple of weeks ago. The first thing I wanted to do was try out some of my favorite music-making apps, so I installed Music Studio. I was happy to see that Music Studio is a universal app, which means that it's exactly the same on all iOS devices.
The biggest difference however is that the iPad 2 is obviously much faster than my old iPod Touch 2G. Instruments load up instantaneously and editing a composition is a breeze without the slight lag encountered on older hardware.
So, I managed to create this piece of music over a couple of evenings, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!
I did quite a bit of layout work on this film which was animated at DMI Productions in the late 1980's or early 1990's for Weston Woods.
DMI was a very small studio owned by Daniel Ivanick and was located in Nyack, NY. I worked there in a variety of positions for about a year and a half and had an absolutely wonderful time and a very fruitful learning experience!
This animation was done on my Nintendo DSi using the great animation app "Inchworm". This was a more traditional piece of animation which utilized the light table function to draw this flying fireball around the screen.
I put together this little animation using the great animation app "Inchworm" on my Nintendo DSi. I used the DSi's camera to take some frames of my face before and after I shaved my beard off and then animated some lightning to "zap" the beard away!
One of the spots required a parody to be sung to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". Knowing I enjoy creating music as a sideline, my friend provided me with new lyrics. Using my iPod 2G, my Akai Synthstation 25 keyboard and Xewton Music Studio, I created the backing track, which is pretty remarkable for a portable device.
Once everyone was happy with the arrangement, I copied the file to my low-end DAW software (Cakewalk Home Studio) on my equally low-end PC (and EeePc 901) in order to record the vocals using (you guessed it) a low end microphone I purchased at Best Buy.
I delivered the final track to my friends so that the song could be played back while the spot was filmed. All in all, I was very happy with the opportunity to provide the music for this fun spot!
I've been waiting for this animation app for the Nintendo DSi for years. In fact, it was one of the reasons why I first purchased my Nintendo, not knowing that the app would take three long years to come to light officially. Well, the app will be released via Nintendo's DSiWare store on April 25 and will cost 500 Dsi Points (or $5.00). I can't wait because this looks so cool!!!!
Irecently designed some paper models for a company who wanted giveaways to help promote their project. They were bidding on the opportunity to build houses to replace those destroyed in last year's Chilean earthquake. Here is the front page to one of those models.
I did this piece of music over a couple of hours this afternoon using Xewton Music Studio on my iPod Touch 2G. I also used an Akai Synthstation 25 keyboard to play the parts. I basically started with this lovely middle-eastern string sound and built the arrangement from there, gradually making it bigger and more enormous.
It goes without saying that the music was inspired in part by the news coming out of Egypt this past week.
I worked on this PlayStation game between 1998 and 1999. I worked for a multimedia company called "Music Pen", which eventually became "MPen". We developed a number of CD-ROM edutainment titles and somehow landed the contract to turn this anime series into a SONY Playstation game.
The game went through two distinct teams during the development of the game. The first team tried to develop the game using some very rudimentary development tools. They must have worked around the clock for months on ther concept of a free-flowing exploration type of game. Our in-house game engine really wasn't up to the task because it was built on the concept of manipulating flat planes of artwork in 3D space. The game looked interesting but that initial team burned out quickly. There was no real leadership and everyone seemed to throw whatever they thought would work into the mix.
After a dreadful presentation to the owners of the property, the game was put on hold for a short period of time. For various reasons, most of the people who worked on the first version left for greener pastures and a second team was created to help save the day.
Conceptually, the game turned into a platform game and I believe I came up with the idea of building the game out of predefined blocks so that the level designers could build their levels and environments and the artists could come in afterwards and replace the blocks with textured 3D artwork.
I was responsible for most of the 2D sprite animation, including the main character and most of his opponents. I also did a lot of concept art based on screen shots of the basic level layouts, trying to turn them into interesting environments.
John Schnell was responsible for most of the 3D assets (with the help of Vivian Luke). John was a brilliant 3D artist and really did some amazing 3D environments and texture work.
I know that Richard Guy is listed in the credits as a designer and art production co-ordinator. I remember he did an awful lot of texture design and I think he must have worked with the programming and 3D teams to turn our hopeless game engine into something usable. I don't really remember interacting with him a great deal, though I do remember him to be a very nice person to work with.
Finally, I have to thank Yee Ping and Philip who ran MPen and really were wonderful people to work for. I had a great time for the six years I worked there!
I designed a paper model a few years ago that was supposed to show what the future would look like, from the vantage point of the early 20th century. Basically, all the buildings would be outrageously tall and be connected with roadways and bridges.
The model turned out well but it never had the vertical height that drove home the concept. On a whim, I took my existing model and built a second set of buildings, then started stacking them in various combinations. The result is much closer to my original concept.
This was my entry for a song demo contest using NanoStudio, an amazing iPod Touch/iPhone app. It's compatible with the Synthstation 25 keyboard as well, which is great because I much prefer using a physical keyboard than the on-screen keyboard that NanoStudio provides. It's a great app and I hope you enjoy this short little piece of music.
Here's a photo of this year's outdoor creche at Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in Ardsley.
Every year I take home one or two figures that are in need of the most repair and do my best to fix them up and repaint them. I've also started to add some scenery so the two wall pieces are new as of last year.
By now mostly all the pieces have been repainted or touched up at some point. Next year, I'm going to add a backdrop so that we won't have to look at the dreaded pine branches any more!
