Hello Earth

I watched Tekkonkinkreet after I got it and I really love it! What a treat and what a great way to get more inspired. I also watched the extras, and the extras on the Paprika dvd and both have helped a lot in firing me up. So today in response to this positive energy I worked on some tests. I tried out some textures with the buildings, and also had fun experimenting with compositing- to give myself a feel for how the character may look with the painterly background. From the tests I've determined that the painted textures route is a really good route to go. This image isn't a cg painting. The background is a render, and the character is also a render but from a separate scene, and I comped the two together. The only painting that was done was additional clouds and dust, some post lighting and color treatments, and I lightened Keith's mustache a bit. For a test I'm very pleased with the results, and I look forward to getting to the official stuff! Note once again, this is just a w.i.p. test, so things will definitely change~ cool!

Am I going forwards or backwards? Progress is slow these days. Really all that's going on is UVing... lots of UVing... fixing models up and adding final things... so I don't got any render shots for ya- but I'm looking forward to rigging them, that's what I really want to get to... Also, gotta get to more environment models and further the "set". I want to make the time period more modern (what I had blocked in first was really old western...). I'm thinking of using a lot of patterns and colors if I can to make the world interesting and maybe even bizarre.

Want to know some random news? I recently bought Paprika (just came out recently to DVD here in US!) and Tekkonkinkreet! Weeee! I love the creativity these films exude. It was Mind Game that really helped set me on a new direction for thesis, so I'm excited about Tekkonkinkreet multiplying that inspiration and drive and solidifying the goal for a crazy cool visual style.

The artist Taiyo Matsumoto, whose manga Tekkonkinkreet is based off of, also did a comic called "No.5" which I saw 5 or 6 years ago. I read the first volume and was really immersed and really wanted to know what happened next, but it was only till last year that I saw vol.2. Unfortunately by then I forgot the specifics of vol.1, but that didn't stop me from getting the 2nd one since I didn't want that one to disappear too. The art is really fun and funky. I want to be uninhibited like that art...

action figures!

Howdy folks. I've been working on blocking in the environment and doing texture + lighting tests with it. I also finished UVing Keith and tried seeing what giving him a painted texture look would be like (thank you Will for the link to Ben Fiquet which inspired the painterly style... although mine isn't on his level haha). I tried out this "SSS fake" as well and the results are pretty neat although I haven't played with it much.

There in the middle is all the characters just thrown in together so I could take this pic. There's Read (the girl). Yay. This reminds me of looking at a shelf of toys. Oh, and Sam's poncho is up like that cuz it's the default pose before it gets nClothed.

Last weekend I reworked the fight scene so I'll have to storyboard out the newer and better version. Much thanks to Dave for helping me out with the choreography and camera shot ideas, brainstorming with me and helping me make sure the fight becomes more polished. Reworking the fight scene also has cut down on some of the scary tough animations I would have had to do... whew!

Well that's all for now~ hope you like the new shots!