1999
These animations were rendered as previews directly from Max 3.1. Sure, they would look a lot better fully rendered with motion blur and all that jazz, but that would take time, time during which I could be animating. As I get a bit more time, I will render all of these animations out with motion blur and shadows and every other bell and whistle I can think of at that time. I think these animations are good enough to stand even without motion blur though. Judge for yourself. There are also a few issues with visibility. Max’s preview render currently does not allow true trancparency. In a few of Photor’s animations, I used visibility track heavily to give him all the ‘morph targets’ he needed. So when you view these animations, please ignore these ‘invisible’ objects. I will re-render these animations as soon as possible.
They were all rendered with QuickTime’s Sorenson codec. If you would like other formats (like DivX or something) please let me know, and I will see what I can do.
These animations were done in 3D Studio Max 2.5 using standard Max tools. These are animations from a web based 'trading card' game that my old company was developing. All the animations are from the perspective of the other player (opponent), and were completely produced by DJ Nicke. This includes modeling, texturing, rigging, and animating. Greg Sue, based on a character concept by DJ Nicke, designed Gigantus. Photor was designed by some light company, and was not influenced by Luxo Jr. Well, ok, he was, but don’t tell anyone.
Photor was born on the peaceful planet of Photon, in the Tri-Lambda Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. His parents, Mr. Watt and his wife, Filament, sent their son to the planet Day-glow-bah to be trained by Master Diode in the ways of Ohm. While he was away, his home planet Photon was invaded by The Outage Clan, and overrun by the Dark Side of the Ohm.
Photor swore to get revenge on the Outage Clan and has joined Monster Battlers to help him perfect his use of the Ohm. Through guided meditation, he can now shift his shade into various shapes. By drawing on the power of Ohm, Photor has even learned to fire projectiles. This however weakens him, and can only be done with the utmost concentration.
Photor is a total of about 2 weeks of work. One-week modeling and setting up his IK, and one-week animating him. His lamp arms are controlled via IK, while his head and base are FK.
During the cold war, the United States Military aimed to make the ultimate weapon. They worked to combine the brain of a human with the most advanced bionic body ever created. The project was hindered by the limits of current technology. In June 1989, the bionic body was finished, and the search for a brain began. By November of 1989, the science team had all but given up. Unable to find a suitable volunteer, the bionic body was to be destroyed. As luck would have it, 2 days before the bionic body was scheduled to be destroyed, ballet champion Michael Flatfee had a fatal accident. He agreed to have his brain inserted into the bionic body, and Gigantus was born.
While on his first mission, Gigantus started reminiscing about his old dancing days. By the end of his 3rd mission, he resolved himself to entering the dancing field again. The Military tried to put an end to it at first, but agreed to allow Gigantus this small pleasure. Laughed off of every stage from Broadway to Harold Square, he joined Monster Battlers, where his dancing talents, combined with his colossal strength, could be seen and appreciated.
*NOTE: Due to character design restrictions, Gigantus has no ankles. This caused a lot of ugly foot sliding and made solid contact with the ground near impossible. For that reason, most of the animations have been staged so that the floor is out of frame most of the time. This has led to a few weird camera angles. I don’t feel this detracts from the animation enough to merit a total redesign of the character. The lack of ankles was a purposeful addition, since this character was designed to run in real-time over the internet, using BDE’s B3D Studio tools (
www.b3d.com).Gigantus is a total of about 3 weeks of work. One week modeling, texturing, and rigging, and two weeks animating. I heavily referenced Fantasia and Warner Brothers cartoons for some of his dancing and also danced around my desk and the parking lot. His legs are IK with the rest of his body FK. I wrote expressions to control his fingers with dummies. I had some problems in Max 2.5 (like not being able to animate them after frame 100) which I have now solved (partially by upgrading to Max 3.1, but mainly by totally re-rigging each of his fingers in each scene). I originally took out the finger animation I had (as it looked funny having his fingers come to a sudden stop) and I am in the process of redoing all his finger animation now that Max is finally listening to me.
The Latest
These animations are the latest animations I have done. All were tests for myself to see how easy it was to animate certain stunts. My boss wanted to know whether we should use motion capture or try and hand-animate these moves for a web-based show.
Unfortunately, the deal was never signed, and the project fell through. Oh well, it was fun doing these anyway.
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