New Year, New Side Project

Ahh the new years. Fresh powder, fresh outlook, bright days, bright future, and utter freedom.

Im finally free of CATO. I enjoyed my stay for everything it was worth, but its definitly refreshing to finally after so many years, just go to a well paying and good job, and go home and not worry about homework or the final next week.

However, i dropped out yes, this by no mens means ive quit. Quite the opposite in fact, the move was to pursue early career goals. So heres my New Years Goals for 2008:

1. Develop a prototype of ProjectX
2. Solidify the design doc
3. Prepare a pitch, both conference and elevator type
4. Pitch my game concept to publishers

While this may sound like great fun... i still need to practice my skills in animation and presentation. So with all thsi extra free time on my hands, ive decided to undertake a Machinima project. Ill however be using the Source Engine as its what im most familiar with.

ill announce what im doing for practice as i put up small segment here and whatnot, and its a clip called "Garbage Day!!", to which the clip ill be mimicking using Gman and Barney can be found here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=i7gIpuIVE3k

Ill keep posted as developments follow. once the practice 1min clip is completed, ill be immediately following up production on a more serious more dramatic scene. Ive been told the last scene from Blade Runner would be cool, but well have to see.


If you STILL visit here and you STILL care, keep watching this blog. new developments at least on a weekly basis :)

Sonic Death WIP 2 (and below)

Sonic Death - WIP2 from KyleHarrison on Vimeo.


Sonic Death WIP1 from KyleHarrison on Vimeo.

As part of the Death of a Character challenge at Digimill.

Erics Magic Trick - PASE

Erics Magic Trick from KyleHarrison on Vimeo.

cut off at around 5 and a half hours,. or somewhere around there.

Beginning is atrocious and overall im not exactly THAT hapy with the final product, but then again, i DID have an extra 4hours i could have used to further make this piece shine.

But ive run out of time :(

Edit: btw, i know the beginning blows alot of chunks and tbh it kind of makes me sick everytime i see it, shoulda reworked the intro. Also the outtro, meh... i thought him going after the burger would have been alright, looked good in my mind, but i think simply ... slinking out to the side would have been more called for.

7:15PM - 10:15 PM

11:14 PM -


Drill 3 - Render from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.

Rendered it out for fun. Enjoy.

Right Click > Save As here for the hgih quality 720x480 version (1.5MB)

Below this line are WIP shots.
=-=-


10:39PM -
Ive decided i want to render this puppy out so im going to spend tonight doing such a marvelous feat. No fancy rendering just some good ol' motion blur! Ill post that in the next edit.

10:15 PM -


Drill 3 - Completed from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.
Well ive run out of time. I certainly hope this is satisfactory enough to warrant a pass. Personally there are a few things i know i should have done, but didn;t. If it were an assignment to be worked on throughout the week i probably would have done everything i wanted to do. But alas, 6 hours is all i get.


9:45 PM -


30 min left from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.
with only 30 minutes left i guess im pretty satisfied with what i have so far, cleanup is taking way to long, theres probably something wrong in my workflow methods or something as where i am right now should have been where i should have been at the 4 hour mark (minuts the tech problems)


9:30 PM -


5 h 15min mark from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.
Changed the ending quite a bit, threw in a dirt slide type move, accented the "spit" and cleaned up alot of the keys and made sure some overlapping secondary action was going on. However, in order to get this captur ei spent a good 20 minutes wrestling with the quicktime codecs as they started failing half way through capturing all of a sudden


8:15 PM -
BLAH! Vimeo screwed up the encoding
Ugh, sitting at the 4 hour mark now. Not alot has changed because i just wrestled with the neck bone freaking out and i did something NOONE should do: Not save since starting.

I will be constantly saving again >_> That was terrible


7:30 PM -


3:15 mark from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.
15 minutes into it. This is basiaclly the the keys with spline interpolation on with very minimal cleanup.
im not done obviously, but i thought itd be cool to v-document my progression.


7:15 PM - Commencing... now


7:10 PM - Deciding to try something a little bit different for animation posting. Ive noticed i do alot of capturing to test my timing in actual time SO ive decided to video log my progression using steps along the way.


7:00 PM - This is more of a memo to Graeme Morris, i finally got some time to do this thing so here goes, my clock for the next three hours begins at exactly 7:15. Ill inform in the blog of any fluctuations.

These notes will eventually be deleted and merged into the final post.

Drill3 - Ball Pitch WIP 3 Hour Mark

Drill 3 - Pitch 3 Hour Mark from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.

3 hour mark of the 6 hour ball pitch throw.

Now i spend the next three hours making it all pertyful :3

Drill 2: Box Jump from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.


A non rendered version of what i wish to hand in, not sure, there are a few more minutes to go before drill is over, so i may tweak until then.

Sorry Mario Pochat. But you know what they say, something about imitation being the highest form of flattery.

Drill 2: Box Jump (Practice WIP 2)

Drill 2: Box Jump WIP 2 (Practice) from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.


About an hour and 10 minutes in.

Added smooth interpolation and adjusted the fcurves.

Im noticing some timing issues now though :X Ill try to remedy those

Drill 2: Box Jump (Practice WIP - Keys)

Drill 2: Box Jump - WIP1 (Practice) from KyleHarrison and Vimeo.javascript:void(0)
Publish Post

45minutes in to a 3 hour drill practice. Keys, properly timed out to how i like it.

Also a first: My first 29.9fps animation! Up until now ive only done 24fps, lol.

Drill 1 - Walk Cycle

Nothing incredibly special, just a walk cycle.



Ill be completing a Box Jumping drill by the end of today, so ill post that up when im done the drill.

So i sat there,,,

Hey everyone.

I WOULD have something to show today as it was my first drill, but im not allowed to upload it under some....certain circumstances. Lets just say its a cool walk cycle with freelance strutting attitute, as a ball with two legs. Thats all im saying.

Secondly, i have ANPRO which the class si dedicated to making a 1min short for Animators (model packs for Modelers), well i was racking my brain for quite some time on what id want to do for a short. I kicked around ideas liek a soccer ball but nothing i thought of i really wanted to do. It wasn't until i saw a post on the Digimill Forums about a Jauilbreak idea, that mine suddenly hit.

I wanted to do a short with a non-silly story.
I wanted to do a short about a jewel heist.
I want to remake "Transparent"

One of my older flash cartoons that i was very proud of back in the day. And now i have the ability to realize it into what i wanted it to be in the first place.
Now about stick men, not about violence, not even about dialoge, but a cool actionfilled Jewel Heist short film using cool shot types and descriptive movements.

I can hardly wait to get started im so excited!

Eric ENHANCED Promo Shot

Click for Larger Image

the model is Eric. Im giving him a technological facelift.

Mostly for fun, mostly for 'coolness', and msotly: becuase im bored. Main inspiration came from alot of comments from people "Hes naked..." so, i thought id give him clothes, some hair, and a pair of glasses.

The shirt logo is subject to change but consider it something like a watermark ;D

Anyways its not quite ready yet, still got alot of tweaking to do before its perfected.

I plan to use him in CGTalks next Animation Session challenge.

until then.

WIP - Box Lift

New WIP, it started off as the box lift assignment but i want to make this much more complicated.

This is the first official WIP capture, theres still some glaring rough stuff clearly visible, some things are to sudden when they should eb smooth, some things are sliding around still when they should eb planted, essentially its because im warming up to the idea of 3D Keyframing and inbetweening, haha. Its not bad, just takes some getting used to. Unlike my Much More short which was all straight ahead animation.

Also ep2 of Crash Without Recovery is in 3 shorter parts and they are out re-E3 predictions. I was pretty much caught off guard so i was unprepared, still i dont think i did too terribly, though i think the camera threw another 80lbs onto me haha.

First was me, representing Microsoft for the CRW E3 Round-Table



Secondaly was Steve, representing Nintendo



and lastly is Curtis, representing Sony

WIP6 - Much More [Rendered]

A couple things here and there changed since the last WIP yesterday, some suggestions by Nathan and Orrie who have been helping me along since i started with this, and to them i owe a gigantic "Thank you" while i may not have been able to interpret everything they've suggested (or even gotten around to some) this was one GIANT learning experience for:
1. Perseverance
2. Deadlines
3. Eye for Animation Quality
4. Maintaining a schedual
5. Dedication
6. lots and lots of hard work

Im defintiely alot wiser now thanks to this competition setup by AnimWatch.com and the direction of Nathan, Orrie, and my instructor Graeme Morris.

And i also got to thank the same three people for the character models im using, i dont think ive mentioned it until now and for that i feel bad, haha
Eric Model © Graeme Morris
Eric Rig © Nathan Hibberd
Gyro © Orrie Walls

I plan to continue this craft called 'Animation' for my future career in the Games Industry.

WIP5 - Much more

Animation is basically done, jsut needs some tweaking, though im unaware of how much more time i can dedicate to the actual animation aspect of this, it needs more of a set (or not, whatever, just some lighting will do) and needs an entire day to render (or at least a good chunk of a day), and its to be submitted by Saturday in its entirety.

Check out my competition: http://www.animwatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1129

WIP4 - Much More

Focused alot of my attention today on Gyro this time. I hope when i walk away and come back to it later on tonight ill still be convinced that there is some personality behind him now.
Next step is to flash out the rest of the scene, the deadline draws nigh, and id like to submit the full thing, smooth or not. If i can get it fnished before the deadline, so much the better.

To bad too because i wanted to add some Sysflex clothing action on Eric, :\

WIP3 - Much More

WHOA triple update for this day. Yet another Playblast.

Anyways, some updates to the "Much More" animation, including a reaction for Gyro, an idle animation for him too, and animated the second shot. Unfortunately it is only the same length as the previous, and i had no access to headphones either, so i ended it here as im also running short on time again. Always fun and satisfying :)

WIP2 - Much More

Test Capture of my entry to AnimClips. Lacks any motion in Igor (Gyro, compliments of Orrie Walls) and any motion in the good Doctor played by Eric, in the second shot (compliments of Graeme Morris and Nathan Hibberd).

First capture, first WIP in 3D.

WIP1 - Mr. Ball Scared WalkCycle

first WIP video of Mr. Ball walking towards something thats scaring him, or something very intimidating and he doesn;t really want to go towards but is forcing himself too.