I suddenly realized...

...that I haven't actually put up a rendered version of JJ despite repeatedly saying that he's done. So here he is.

Filling a request to see some of my sketchbook...

So there you can see some of the development of Dondrees, the sidekick, and JJ

And some Boston Stoker chalk drawings

He's here again...

JJ now exists in the mesh [punny isn't it]. I have to learn how to properly assemble his arms and add some other details but his design is finalised. He closely resembles some of my early sketches, which you all online have not seen, and the nose was inspired by the American Dog the original name for Disney's next upcoming animated feature, Bolt. New name, new director. Anyway here's the official debut of JJ.

GAAAAAAAHHHHH....

That's all.

Lately...

I've been drawing mini portraits of of people I ride the bus with as I go home. They are side portraits and are no more than an inch and a half to two inches in height. The two that I've completed I have since taken and supersized on the chalkboard at the UD Boston Stoker, coffee shop for those who might not know. While I don't drink coffee personally, I'm a hot chocolate fan (their's is ridiculously not sweet enough, I add syrup), it's a good place to hang out and the regular weekday crew are cool bunch. So I present to you my supersized portraits, this also my first time dabbling in the world of color artwork at such a large scale. There are only six colors of chalk there, if you're lucky.

The previous post...

was just obnoxiously whimsical thinking before I had; a name, Jay Jay; and character description, "the tall skinny guy, who somehow knows everything and gets really annoying at times." Special thanks to Timmy O for that great description. It turns out that it's really hard to design a character when you have no real description of what they should look like and what parts of their personality should be exaggerated in their body. I now have a page of drawings and one good concept to go off that are making my modeling which is now being done completely in Maya flow very nicely.

It is a bit difficult to learn new modeling techniques and software at the same time but it's coming to me even easier in Maya than in 3DS Max. Ultimately if you really have the art part down pat the software become nothing more than a tool that you need to practice to become completely adept with. I have to admit that thanks to the Digital-Tutors modeling tutorials it's so easy to go through the process using their techniques for my model really makes it all fly. So here's the start of Jay Jay:

It happened...

...today my main character appeared on the flyer that I was drawing on, oddly enough I was drawing on the Chinese earthquake flyer, but he just appeared on the page. A mere 2 months after starting on his evil sidekick. I was going to model him in clay first but the ceramics room was closed. It turned out that when I started modeling on the computer I didn't need there was no pre-viz needed. I might still go down and sculpt him out because it's fun to play with with the clay. Hooray for analog solutions!

Here he is...

complete with the personality he'd been lacking.

So soon...

I'll post the finished new look of the sidekick. He has a little bit more personality and you'll just have to wait.

So Mr. Worth let me in on a few key things in my sidekick guy that I didn't know until showing him the character. His knowledge of animation is far superior to my own and I'm grateful for that fact. So while I'm modeling one character the other is back on the sketchpad getting some revisions. WOOT!

Hard at work...

I've been sketching and drawing like a madman in solving the design issues with the guy in the green shirt. The sidekick, guy in red, works perfectly. I just know that there's a better design solution and I come across a few but I'll start modeling my favorite tonight or tomorrow.

That's two...

So far things are progressing along I just need to figure out how the story goes. Although I feel as though I know my villain-to-be well enough that a hard fastened script isn't necessary. He has no outside input and was instead thought up last night as I failed to go to sleep. The inspiration of this guy after days of agonizing and consulting with friends came from an i.d. card of mine from 4th grade. The sight of which made me realize that there's an 11 year gap in my life where there are no pictures of me outside of various i.d. cards. So here he is and the him side by side with his sidekick-to-be.

It...is...finished...

Yay! He now has hands and feet. So he's finished. I've made the executive decision to make him the silent sidekick. Which just leaves an evil villain-in-training.

So quick note...

S0 I rock, and modeled the character I designed for my evil villain. He just doesn't have a name yet. Here he is...I'll post my sketches of him later including his dry erase board origins.

Yawn1

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