The Blog of the Will Pittman

Weekly Anatomy 01 - WIP

2011-04-16T01:54:00.010-05:00

So at This point, I think I'm done the high res model, I've decimated it, and probably tomorrow I will start creating a lowpoly mesh for it. Maybe a mesh every two weeks isn't realistic given my amount of free time. We'll see how long it takes to do it properly and I'll keep doing it until I can do it super fast.

Another Model Update. Tweaked the proportions, and started honing in a bit on details. I am going to try to use the "helmet hair" as a base, and then use a few planes on top of it to give it a more realistic silhouette. I don't know how well it will work, but learning is what this is all about.

I blocked in the face a bit more, and I have started fleshing it out a bit. It's going to be a pretty cool weekend, as always I have some anatomy studies to do, but I also have some tutorials on writing shaders, the team fortress 2 characters to see their rig/topology, and I've extracted a bunch of the meshes/textures from oblivion so I can take a look at some of those. Oblivion doesn't seem like the easiest game to bring custom faces into, but I do plan on creating some props first, and then an environment, trying to adjust to the tile-based video game structure for environments. Pretty excited.

CGtalk thread
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=6948079#post6948079

Getting back into it

2011-04-09T01:35:00.003-05:00

Hey Folks,

so it has been a while since I posted. I got a job offer, which long story short meant another two moves, and then I had to set myself up in my new appartment. After a month or so of playing ps3 (no girlfriend here, after all...) I started getting back into 3d tutorials and this past week I started working my way back into modeling, sketching, and anatomy studies. I'm hoping to do zbrush sketches pretty frequently, and to continue doing 3D tutorials - Lighting at the moment. This is some of what I have been working on, a WIP Zbrush sketch of a model, and then another couple quick sketches I did.

...actually my scanner does not seem to be working at the moment so the model will have to suffice.

Early work on Sofie

2010-11-29T22:31:00.004-05:00

Hey Folks!

I jumped back into 3D today, and starting modeling my character Sofie which you may have seen in the post just before this one. I'm very happy with her lips, and the rough shape of her head so far. I have been experimenting a bit with polyflow a bit, and I'm feeling much more confident about changing the flow of the polygons. Date-day with my girlfriend tomorrow, but I can't wait to post more updates as I go!

Concept Art - Sofie

2010-11-18T22:54:00.004-05:00

These are a couple of drawings that I did while researching a new character that I am going to model. Her name so far is Sofie, and she's a WWII pilot. Just a taste of what is to come :)

Lost in Space...

2010-11-11T18:51:00.004-05:00

I'm really happy with this one! I came up with the idea when I was trying to think of stupid stuff that I did when I was a kid. I remember this one time my sister and I made a bunch of construction paper levers, switches, and screens and taped them to the bottom of the kitchen table so that it could be our space ship. I tried out a few different more serious/dramatic thumbnails, but in the end it was a lot cuter to look at it like a parent would - just outside of the 'ship'. Then I thought it would be cool to have those E.T.-like shadows coming out from under the table, making it look even more surreal and space-age. Hope you like it!

Gamer's room

2010-11-04T21:01:00.003-05:00

I'm going to give myself some distance from this painting to see if I'm really finished or not. But I am fairly happy with it so far. I set up a second monitor so that I could paint zoomed in, and just look at the other monitor to see the overall effect. I it worked out pretty well, except that my second monitor being a cheaper end led has very saturated colours without a complete tonal range. I was able to fix it with most colours, but it leaves pinks coming out VERY bright magenta if they are anything above a midtone... I'll have to see if I can tweak the colour temperature of the monitor to fix it.

New Layout

2010-10-26T20:16:00.001-05:00

Congratulations Alex and Courtney!!!

2010-10-18T14:11:00.001-05:00

Finished Paul's Birthday Painting

2010-09-01T16:20:00.001-05:00

Given the choice, I'd choose Boba Fett over Jean Luc Picard any day. But even though I'm not as excited about the Star Trek Universe, I'm still pretty happy with this painting.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Seahorse, Band Cover, and Chris's Card

2010-08-15T12:59:00.004-05:00

Since I moved I've had lots of time to work for the first time since november, and I've been crunching out work like crazy. Here is a seahorse that I did for my girlfriend's mom's birthday, a CD cover for the Living soundsystem, and a card that I made for my stepdad. I also started playing around with a new version of Colors for the DS, and I'll post the results as I go. I had no idea that the touch screen on the DS was pressure sensitive. So cool!

Seahorse painting WIP

2010-07-01T19:53:00.000-05:00

At the moment I'm working on a seahorse painting for my girlfriend's mom, and a CD cover for a band. I won't show the bandart yet, but here is the seahorse so far.

Finished Liam

2010-05-13T01:03:00.002-05:00

So I finished Liam!! I can't wait to start my next project!!!!

Colour

2010-04-21T23:08:00.003-05:00

Slow progress lately. Here is some the non-final colours on Liam. I still have a lot of tweaking to do with the Spec map, and some on the diffuse, but I think it is coming along nicely.

Normal Maps + AO in UT3 editor

2010-02-09T20:10:00.004-05:00

I know this is essentially more of the same, but I repainted the normals to fix them up, and burnt an ambient occlusion map before finally putting it into the UT3 editor. Everything looks better in the UT3 editor. guffaw.

I love Normal Maps

2010-02-04T17:49:00.003-05:00

I put this together to show a friend of mine the progress I have made. The map still needs a bit of repainting, but I am still happy with it so far. A year and a half later, I am still impressed with normal maps.

Finished High Res

2010-01-06T11:25:00.002-05:00

A return to 3D

2009-12-20T06:30:00.004-05:00

I have not worked on this since before the animation festival - it's time to start pulling this together so that I can have another portfolio piece.

*WIP Navy

2009-12-02T04:20:00.001-05:00

I started another painting. Hope that you like it!

Finished Canal

2009-12-01T16:58:00.004-05:00

I finally finished the canal painting! I tried to upload a .swf of the progression, but it was rejected by google video. Another day, perhaps. Happy December 1st!

WIP Canal

2009-11-22T13:25:00.003-05:00

I am sorry that this is so slow-going. I needed a part time job, and aside from a couple of days off a week, I am only getting two or three hours at a time to work on the painting. The job itself is pretty fun though, so I really can't complain too much.

**WIP - Canal IV

2009-11-17T18:27:00.002-05:00

well this painting is starting to come to a close. The water and the snow needs some work, but we are getting very close to the final image. I am sorry that this has been just about the only thing that I have posted for the past few weeks. Exciting, interesting new projects are on their way!

Canal - **W.I.P. III

2009-11-03T17:46:00.002-05:00

I think I am just about done with the design of the shadows/lighting - I am starting to clean things up and make it presentable. Mirrored the image again to help the picture look fresh to me. I hope you like it!

Happy Birthday Dan!

2009-11-01T14:40:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T13:44:00.002-05:00

Canal - **W.I.P. II

2009-10-27T14:09:00.003-05:00

**WIP update IV

**WIP update III
**WIP update II

Canal - **Work in Progress

2009-10-26T14:02:00.003-05:00

This painting is still in the works, but I am fairly happy with the direction that it is going so far. I do not think I have ever gone into so much detail researching not just references, but figuring out about really who lives in this town, whose boat is this, the insides of the boat etc. I am very excited about this concept, and I think I might do a couple paintings of the interior as well.

Liam W.I.P.

2009-10-07T11:21:00.000-05:00

1930 *update

2009-10-01T09:40:00.002-05:00

Fixed Normal Issues, Started Texturing the Head

2009-09-03T22:47:00.003-05:00

These stills are taken from 3DS max, and not the unreal engine - so they look different than they should. Unfortunately the Unreal Editor does not work on this computer, so I will transfer over actual screens some other time. Right now I have it back in 3DS to add some hair. Ciao!

(The eyes will not remain white, those spheres are just a filler for now)

I lied, it is not finished yet

2009-06-10T13:49:00.002-05:00

2009-06-10T11:58:00.002-05:00

Here is a painting that I have been working on for my portfolio. I feel like I could spend at least another week refining it, but I need to mail out my portfolio in a bad way - so hopefully this is sufficient to show my painting ability. If I was to do this again, I think that I might change the angle of the shield, or the sword... the pose could use a bit of work.

Summer Fun II (WIP)

2009-05-15T23:47:00.003-05:00

I am playing with different ways of uploading videos so that they are most compatible with a variety of art forums... Vimeo seems great, although I cannot seem to embed the video in a forum other than eatpoo.com

http://www.vimeo.com/4671359

Summer Fun (WIP)

2009-05-13T16:00:00.003-05:00

More Film stuff

2009-04-07T00:58:00.004-05:00

Film Cover Linework

2009-03-04T21:53:00.002-05:00

Perseus Model

2009-01-06T12:12:00.002-05:00

Over the holidays I polished the perseus model a bit more. I'm pretty happy where it is right now, I think that texture aside, it is what it will look like when it goes into the film.

Anatomy Model

2008-12-18T11:28:00.003-05:00

Perseus WIP

2008-12-15T07:29:00.002-05:00

Working on the Perseus model some more. I'm having some problems still with the anatomy, but I am not sure what I can realistically do within the time constraints of the project.

Michelangelo Rocks my Socks

2008-10-18T19:19:00.003-05:00

Just finishing up some sketches for bobby's thing this week. I did a study of Michelangelo's Moses (with horns, haha) which came out kind of lacking... I think I was getting kind of antsy towards the end). I also did a sketch of King Polydectes from my story. I'm still working out his design, as with the overall design of the film.

Mom's wedding program

2008-10-18T14:50:00.002-05:00

Spent a long time working on this and got some amazing help from my roommate that really helped me push this painting further. I can't wait to try out some of that stuff on a next painting!

Gorgons, Olympians, and Swords, Oh my!

2008-10-11T22:29:00.002-05:00

Soo this weeks bobby sketch. Not a great life drawing, but I'm starting to get there with the designs in the new story change. I cannot wait to start building some of this stuff in an exciting 3rd dimension!! wahooa!

Bobby's class

2008-10-04T22:38:00.002-05:00

Feel like an idiot for not submitting the scarface sketch, or the painting from last week in Bobby's weekly sketch critique, but here is the submission.

The life drawing technique this week was to use no structure or lines at all for that matter - made some of the drawing go a bit wonky, but I think it is changing my drawing in a very positive manner.

Scarface

2008-09-30T00:04:00.002-05:00

I was watching this black and white movie this weekend and thought that I should study one to learn how they balanced all of their tones in the scene to create something with as much detail as real life and still manage to have everything read. Instead I tried to draw a friend somewhat unsuccessfully and then paused the movie to sketch this out.

Digital Sketching

2008-09-27T04:04:00.002-05:00

Too bad I did this right after submitting my portolio to Bobby, I am thinking I should do more of these, a really fun study. can't wait to get new computer to do more!

More sketches

2008-09-26T20:17:00.002-05:00

I have found that for café sketches it is doubly beneficial for me to sketch a lot of people from far away - that way you only pick out tonally the key features -and also they are less likely to notice you. I blocked in a lot of sketches, then made the mistake of rendering the best ones first while I was still cold. As a reslut the best rendered were the most mediocre charicatures of the bunch - but they are here anyways.

I need to do more studies of drapery, lighting, and the feel of hair before I can properly apply these while doing café sketches... but the distanced sketching helped (less details , more tone - details added later).

in the offchance that anyone is reading this - I would love to figure out how to link to other blogs... maybe I should take a day off one of these days and just figure that out + make a nice layout or something.

tone and stuff

2008-09-18T05:20:00.002-05:00

Had a mindblowing life drawing lesson today - changed the way that I draw, and how I approach drawing things... I'm really excited to see where I can take this.

Bobby sketches

2008-09-06T13:36:00.002-05:00

here are some life drawing/café sketches

Ani Difranco

2008-08-20T23:40:00.002-05:00

Did some packing today - then took an hour and a bit to myself to do a study. I could finish it... or I could start a new one another day...

Cake slathered in Pearl Jam

2008-08-11T22:23:00.002-05:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the 4th year film. picked up some sweet free cds from the library. cooked lasagna and corn bread in a record breaking 5 hours. life is sweet. I love my guitar, I'm going to bed.

Studies, Modeling, and Guitar

2008-07-19T20:38:00.004-05:00

Not the most eventful saturday ever, but I should be heading out with some friends later on tonight. It's very humid here, and despite the fact that it is making me lazy, I'm also bored, so I pretty much spent the entire day working on the Jeanne D'arc Model, and these drapery studies (I spared you the ugliest ones). A good hour or so in the backyard playing guitar too, but it was raining, so I didn't stick around too long, for fear of damaging the guitar. well here is the delectable delicacy of the day!

PS I'll post the Jeanne D'arc model when I've worked on it more, and the silhouette looks more... well finished. I've put a lot of time into the flow, and study of the back muscles, but the front just looks like one ginormous pot belly. a very bland one. without shape.

Out with the old, In with the new!

2008-07-17T20:47:00.003-05:00

Haha Anthrax

Anyways, I've been doing some really sweet studies of Michelangelo's work (I always knew he was the coolest ninja turtle), and wow let me say that guy could sculpt!!! Since this whole modeling thing seems to be something that I am interested in for a career, I have decided to start doing some serious modeling.

Unfortunately the Mick Jagger is not going to be completed - his polyflow was too messed up, and the guys at work felt it was an interesting start, but not good enough - so I'm starting from scratch, and this time I can pretty much guarantee that I am going to make some ginormous mistakes, but if I can pull this off, even poorly, it's going to be a amazing learning experience. Anyways this started from a sketch that I did of a kind of prissy lady with a purse who was eyeballing me strangely for sketching on my lunch break..... aaand I came home and sat down to plan a sculpture, and kind of put two and two together as I was looking through some of the Jeanne D'arc paintings that i have. I read up on her this summer -and whoa - crazy lady, let me say - super neat story.

Well, my wrists are doing the carpal tunnel thing, so Im going to dodge the computer altogether at this point, let alone start modeling, but hopefully tomorrow I can work out some of the flaws in the drapery, and start doing some studies of individual pieces of armour (which I really know nothing about) - but I'm going to model her nude to start, then add all of the armour/drapery on top because a)for some reason that appears to be the trend in the CG community b) I seriously need to practice my anatomy and then once I nail it - show that I can do it c) it might even help me figure out why drapery does it's thing where, as I sculpt it overtop of itself.

Adios!

Sorry for these, super rough, but they are more personal than anything.

bad, sweet, bad art. better than nothing?

2008-07-13T20:34:00.002-05:00

well nothing mindblowing this weekend (not art -wise, but went to niagra on the lake/niagra falls which was awesome) - but I started my first face in Zbrush, and started trying to learn from pictures on the internet. fun stuff.

Summmmer

2008-06-09T17:49:00.003-05:00

Hey guys

it's been a while, but to be fair I spent a really long time without the internet in somewhat of a sketchy living arrangement. Suffice to say that things are muuuuch better now. Anyways, on sunday while I was kicking around the house waiting for a rainstorm, I sat outside in the garden sketching some stuff - I think there more than ever I learned that sometimes you have to cheat values quite a bit to make something look good. I kind of lost motivation when it came to the stick. The second drawing was done while I was playing Knights of the old republic again. I hate this character, but she was onscreen when I got the craving to draw. It was supposed to be everyone aboard their ship - the Ebon Hawk, but I guess I lost motivation in favour of supper.

Summer is coming! So is Camping!

2008-04-08T04:58:00.004-05:00

Don't have a whole lot of time right now, but also don't have a whole lot to write. This is basically the latest portfolio that I handed in for life drawing. I seriously need to start using this or the livejournal thing to post art more this summer (appariently there is more of an art community there).

Hmmmm wow the theme of this one seems to be smoking. I guess between that one session of extra life, and the sketching at the mall/busstop there was just a lot of smoke going on.

oh yeah - more friday sketches

2008-02-16T18:34:00.003-05:00

I forgot about these- this is some stuff that I did in Bruno's class. the guy with the lute is my music teacher. and no - he doesn't dress like that - but he's still pretty awesome.

Keep on truckin'

2008-02-16T15:03:00.002-05:00

I'm going to have a colossal post coming up once I get some batteries for my scanner as friday was a really, really good drawing day. I am continually amazed with nupastels, and I want to try painting something with them - as they are just that awesome. in any case, here is a 3D model that I have been working on for the group film. it's not quite done yet - I still need the side mirror, and door handle on one side, and there will be a muffler/axis underneath the car... or at least I think so - it doesn't appear that it will add much to the actual design that you will see, but then I might as well make this really nice so that I can stick it in a portfolio or something. Yuriy's original design, by the way.

Twiddling thumbs

2008-02-12T23:40:00.003-05:00

Well - tonight was one of those strange nights where I had time to do stuff - and then did it, but did a poor job, and wasted that time. I wanted to paint - I practiced painting, did a poor job, and decided instead to cleanup the layout that I was trying to paint in hopes of trying it again another day. In any case , this is the fruit of my night... for better or worse. hopefully it will look nicer in painted form. Unfortunately it did not look so similar to other things that I draw all the time when I started it. mainly - I want to be able to draw moss, trees, sand, grass, and rock properly... but it looks like it is still in the works. well - on the brighter side - let's hope I can fix it up a bit another day when I paint it.

Aaaalmost there!

2008-02-05T02:29:00.000-05:00

Soooo despite starting on friday, this project is taking much longer, and is much more ambitious than I thought it would be, but I have learned so much along the way that even if it doesn't work it was totally worth it. plus I'd at least be able to custom-scale the object to my character's head if I wanted to play the game with it, but I'm running into problems now on making it universal for everyone. but so as not to completely bore you to death, here is the bandana in the game- normal map, and texture included. *sigh of relief* I want this project to be done so I can start on a new one :D.

The modding trials round 3

2008-02-01T19:57:00.000-05:00

alright so all my other attempts at modeling have been crowned with a glorious disaster, but we'll see how this one fares. here is the bandana that I made as a test to see if I can import it into the game. I'll start small this time, then build up. and this time I know it's possible to get it into the engine.

1hr 38 min worht of reasons why Kevin Lanning is my new hero

2008-01-27T02:46:00.000-05:00

Alright - so I picked up an AMAZING book on 3D modeling - not so much because it broke down HOW they did it, but because it showed the low poly meshes of a few of the models in gears of war. WOW. first of all, I lost hte ability to speak in words after seeing how they solved stuff, and just how amazing their work is, and then after hours of studying how they use bevels to create edgeloops (making it very, very easy - totally second nature) I was able to literally poop out this model. the last model didn't have anywhere near as much detail as this one, as nice edge loops - nor was it anywhere near as fast to make.

I'm now very confident that I can make realistic-ish 3D models, and I want to do a few deformation tests on this to see what it looks like, and my next project will be a realistic face. possibly a celebrity. I'm feeling old Ben Kenobi right now, actually. then after that I'll play in Zbrush for a bit, and hit some UV mapping tutorials. This summer is going to be the greatest summer EVER!

oh and if anyone wants to see my demo reel:

http://animation.sheridanc.on.ca/portfolio/Internship/class_list

check out mine, and anyone else in our 3rd year program! Adios guys!

The Imperial March

2008-01-14T05:38:00.000-05:00

okay - so I'm not actually listening to any music.. .but the Empire Strikes Back Menu music is the imperial march, it has been going on for the last hour on repeat as I keep telling myself - just one more step before I can turn it off. and now I have. What an awesome movie.

Anyways, so here is the model the quick colour sketch, and the colours the model is supposed to be, and the render. wow. once this works, it's going to be beautiful... Mike Watters- you are a god of maya.

Sympathy for the Devil

2008-01-10T23:47:00.000-05:00

I'm running out of names, so I'm just going to start listing the songs that I'm listening to as titles unless I have something more appropriate. Expect a lot of Rolling Stones and Floyd... I'm on a very strange kick with both of them lately. Anyways - the silhouette is coming even closer, and Mike is going to help me render him and have the model look totally awesome for a portfolio. I can honestly say that this is the best that I can do - every ounce of effort that I have is going into this model. I wonder what I'm going to do with it afterwards? lol Guitar hero?

Sleepy is me

2008-01-09T00:53:00.000-05:00

Awesome - I'm really excited because the silhouette of the character is starting to read like the concept sketches that I started with. I also changed the pose a bit so that it looks a bit more natural which I think helped the overall appeal, and may help the character look natural when I rig it later. well. if I rig it.

Kind of a random comment, but Grandpa, if you are reading this, can you email me your email? I tried to send you an email the other day, but it came back. I'm just not sure how else to reach you.

Time to pack! Home I go!

2007-12-23T03:38:00.000-05:00

wow.... that's a couple of long days - here is the model so far - I just attached the head for kicks - the neck isn't positioned properly at all and the meshes aren't even sewn together. I just wanted to see them side by side.

Also - it is officially time for me to do some cleaning, and powerpacking so that I can catch the bus tomorrow... I... really hope they let me take my guitar with me... I don't know what I would do without it.

Unless I decide not to sleep for the 2 hours or so that I have to sleep - this will be my last post for a couple of weeks as I am heading home. I should still be drawing though - so hopefully I will have some new layouts by the time I get back.

oooh - and by the way - check out how all of the squares flow on the model... I'm so proud.. soo.. soo proud that it is working! The pecs flow into the deltoids and then follow down the back into the trapezius, which then circles around and flows around a plane on the bum and back up the other side. There's some other smaller stuff -but that is the main attraction as far as I'm concerned, as I planned it, and executed it completely on my own without any kind of tutorial help *while I was doing it. I still spent hours, and hours studying tutorials beforehand until I *think I got the jist of it. adios!

En Guarde!

2007-12-21T23:11:00.000-05:00

heeey!

been a while since I posted, but i've been working diligently every day. here is a HUGE update on the work that I have been doing on the Character Design for Maya. He now has a name - Darek. a personality too - but I'm tired and lazy, and it's going to be a long night - so I'll just post something nice to look at. by the way - just like 5 minutes after doing this, I adjusted the chin, and it looks like 10 million times better. I hate myself for jumping the gun.

Maya Modelling

2007-12-18T05:47:00.000-05:00

Alright so I've set up this really sweet world that I don't want to talk about too much until I set up more so that I save the surprise for later. In any case - it's being built around a character that I am designing for my portfolio - and here are some of the more successful sketches. wow I am tired.

American McGee - here I come

2007-12-14T05:55:00.000-05:00

alright so another update although there is still much night left to go. or rather a whole new day... I guess at 6am it's pretty much morning. or at least early enough for me to associate it with not wanting to wake up. Fortunately for me, I am still awake.

Anyways - I finished the second layout that I started last night, and as a warm-up, I tossed out another potential character Design for the 3D modelling project that I'm undertaking. I'm going to keep working on that as the night goes on - but I'm so proud of this layout that I wanted to post it. plus techincally I haven't been posting daily unless I post this today - so there is some motivation there too.

And wow - my dream would be for the likes of American McGee, Ken Wong, or Norman Felchle to pop onto my blog and critique this. it's still technically night so I can dream. I might submit it as fanart on the American McGee forum.... maybe it would get noticed? who knows - if not then at least it's a new audience of people, and a new source of ideas.

Yesterday's work

2007-12-13T23:33:00.001-05:00

this isn't everything, but I seriously have to get to work so these are the two major portfolio assignments that I was working on last night. I'm very happy with both so far!

... Knees and Toes... or feet, rather

2007-12-12T04:24:00.000-05:00

alright - so two nights of sketching in a row - two nights of prioritizing learning to conciousness in class - but I really do believe that this is helping me a lot. Also, it means that I get to put a delightfully blue streak across the date today which means two days that I have drawn for myself in a row. How long can I continue this hot streak? (ungh - and how much time can I spend uploading this stuff to like 3 different sites in the hopes of getting feedback).

Will

Babes, and Boba Fett

2007-12-11T06:10:00.001-05:00

Well, it's been a long time - but while I was tossing my leica reel together tonight and talking to Gus, I started thinking about potentially working in the comic book industry. it sounds nice... I mean it's still sequential art, and I get to spend loads of time on each drawing making it exactly how I want it to be. Sounds awesome right? Plus appariently Dark Horse takes on a lot of new talent - which is awesome because they are the label that does all the star wars comics. ha. yeah

anyways here is just some stuff I felt like sketching. pretty much whatever really.

Grab the corkscrew, pop 'er open, and celebrate my first comission ever over a most deliciously refreshing glass of bubble tea

2007-12-09T02:03:00.000-05:00

YESSS!!

Today is a good day. First off, I'm posting the comission that I did for Up Front: A free indie magazine in ottawa. Check it out here:

www.upfrontottawa.com

Anyways this is the cover of the magazine - and here is to hoping I can pick up some more jobs like that one!

There is also a chance that I might be able to finish compositing this hell-spawn of a scene TONIGHT - which would be amazing, and it would definately mean an update soon. Hahaha I never thought animating a 28 frame animation would have taken this colossal of an effort.

Cats, Cousins, and Cops

2007-12-04T02:33:00.000-05:00

It's been a good while since I've posted anything. I should probably stop writing this because I seriously think that I put it on every entry that I write... Anyways, here is just a couple of character colour concepts for our group project about a Cat that gets tied up in a scheme with undercover cops and the mafia. far fetched? yeah, kinda, but it's a cartoon - loooong way from being done, but I am eager to post it at the very end of the year when (hopefully) we are finished. Oh - I just finished my first comission for Up Front - a free indie news magazine - it comes out this friday, and if you're too lazy to hitchhike to ottawa to pick it up, I'll be posting it up here once it's released.

Look it's a Pirate! AAAAAAH

2007-11-06T04:25:00.001-05:00

.... couldn't resist one more... it had to be done or else I wouldn't have met my goal for the night...

Private Pirates, at your service!

2007-11-06T04:06:00.000-05:00

a couple more sketches I tossed out tonight. it's 4am and I still can't stop drawing these characters. man animating this is going to be wicked. too bad I haven't finalized the main character to a polish that I love so much yet. It would make it a lot more bearable to animate.

Pirates - Detective Style

2007-11-06T02:44:00.000-05:00

Alright -so I decided that these characters would be acting in a really cheesy Film Noir Detective romance kind of way - kinda like Casablanca, or the two recent classics that I have watched and absolutely fell in love with: Double Indemnity, and The Big Sleep. Oh man I need to feed this craving some more - good film noirs seem few and far between, but these were great - especially double indemnity. Anyways here are the designs.

oh and just something to note. I drew these yesterday, and I lost them because I am a fool. So I then spent 2 hours looking for them before redrawing them. I'm still not 100% convinced that these were quite as good as the others - but it's at least as close as I will be able to redraw anyways.

Workbook Sketches

2007-11-01T11:51:00.000-05:00

I can't wait to colour these, and add in the characters because they look like they are pointing to nothing which is extremely displeasing to the eye. However this is necessary I guess to figure out exactly what the layout is going to look like. hm. I dunno. Anyways - life drawings and charicatures are coming as soon as I unlazy myself enough to take pictures and post them.

Editing with a cutlass 101

2007-10-14T16:17:00.000-05:00

Hey guys

I first off want to apologize. I posted concept art that I did for somebody else during the summer, and I took it off because since I don't own the copyright, it's not mine to post. Second of all, I wanted to post some quick colours and layouts that I have been working on for the group project. cheers folks.

Posting ... all... the... time?...

2007-10-11T02:39:00.000-05:00

Alright- sooo I haven't been posting. shame on me. Regardless, here is some workbook panels that I made for Mark Komza's layout class. Hope this is what we need...

-Will

Back again

2007-09-06T00:06:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

okay - HUGE absence over the summer, but now I'm back and I'm going to post at the very least that painting that I did for mother's day. I'm not exactly sure what I'm putting up right now, but it's basically whatever else I have at my fingertips already scanned etc. from over the summer. I should be posting more regularily again soon.

Will

oh yeah - well that is my family (mom's side), then there is two sketches that I did for amberwood, and finally there is a sketch of Tia Dalma that I did for the wading pool kids as a colouring contest.

The legacy of Wonderboy

2007-05-11T13:05:00.000-05:00

I totally realize that this title has nothing to do with anything at all. however, despite all this, Ive been working on this for the past 2 and a half days, and I have to finish it by sunday so I'm losing the few straggling bits of sanity that I posess on a good day, and I therefore decided that I can call this whatever I want. I'm also listening to Tenacious D which of course has absolutely nothing at all to do with anything, of course.

Anyways- this is a mother's day present. in the works. Just felt like posting osmething / procrastinating. later folks!

I would also like to make a formal announcement: Vestibule. That was it.

Problems in Game Engine

2007-04-06T23:48:00.000-05:00

Hmmm - I got really close, but I'm now having troubles with the model. For some reason when I bring it into the game engine, there are some holes appearing. All of the Normals are pointing in the right direction, and I'm not sure what it could possibly be. Here are some screens demonstrating the problem while the mesh is loaded into the conversion tool to bring the model into POTC.

Please help me- anyone. any suggestions?

If you're not half as excited as me about this - you're not coming to my birthday party - so there.

2007-04-01T20:09:00.000-05:00

*Phew!

I absolutely love doing this model - but after starting 6 hours ago listening to the same 30 min Ramones CD that I have on repeat - I think that if I hear another Ramones song - I just might... I don't know turn it off... I'm also super hungry because I have only eaten an apple in this time. SO that means I'm going to go eat. Make some kind of big meal - I feel like I deserve to take the time even though this model is not homework, and from that point of view - a waste of time. My goal is to finish this by the end of the night so that tommorow morning Mike - our 3D teacher - can help me rig it so that I can import it into POTC. Man - once I get to texture this thing it's going to be the most rewarding thing EVER! I just might have to import him into every game I own. I mean - can't you imagine Grand Theft Auto 4 with Davy Jones? I'm feelin' it...

There's always a post and a warm cup of coffee on thursday. mmmm

2007-03-29T14:49:00.000-05:00

Right now I'm taking blatant advantage of human nature. The reason I am posting this abundance of life drawings is not because all of them are fantastic - some of them are pretty good - yes, and I've started to comprehend how to use line weight properly. but really. really, really this post is more to cover up the pictures that I uploaded a few days ago while caught in the excitement of the movie. So if you defy your human instinct to scroll down the page, or to read all of the words written here - consider yourself a deviation. But I guess I'm just bitter 'cause you can make fun of me now.

Animation time!

2007-03-27T12:28:00.000-05:00

Arrrr there be a Davy Jones in the House?

2007-03-25T00:36:00.000-05:00

HOLY CRAP!

I love 3D modelling. I can't wait to make games. I can't wait to make games. I can't wait to make games. How am I ever going to ever get any kind of homework done now that I have this incredibly awesome tool at my disposal. this is the head of Davy Jones for my POTC mod. Body yet to come - this better freakin' work! I can't freakin' wait. I love life! Make video games love life!

Spare time you say? What is this?

2007-03-23T22:48:00.000-05:00

Well - I have decided to undertake a project to import Davvy Jones into a pirate game. So.. naturally I've been doing a bunch of art to try and figure out how his head ... is... and I figured I might as awell post it. As I type, I'm still working on a side view, and a front view for it, but I figured that I might as well take a break for a good sketch dump since I neglect this site far too much. So here you go - sploosh!

Will

Anthrax and lack of sleep triumph hand in hand for the first time since high school!

2007-03-20T03:26:00.000-05:00

Horay!

I haven't listened to Anthrax in forever, and I haven't lost track of time like this while doing school work like this in a long time. I see a bright future of at least enjoying 3D work if I can't get work doing it. 3D rules. I don't care how ugly these screens look now ... it's my baby... my... very, very old homeless baby.

Will

Where Have I been? What have I been doing?... Nothing...

2007-03-19T20:53:00.000-05:00

Alright- so this whole daily thing got completely flushed. It's not like I'm not doing the drawings for it every day, I'm just being lazy, and not scanning them every day. Here is something I did today. I did other stuff today, but I didn't scan them.. so I should have a pretty massive dump coming up soon of new sketches. plus I should really update that painting thing - I've done a decent amount of work since the last stage shown here.

Please dismiss the fanboy painting I did... I was experimenting with a cool new way of painting that I learned from a video on eatpoo. it worked, but beyond the scope of setting the light source, I lost motivation. it was more of a quickie for a friend anyways..

stupid photoshop

2007-03-11T23:23:00.000-05:00

Well, the weekend has been great - it felt more like a march break than march break did. I continued this painting tonight for a couple of hours, but unfortunately I started to run into some extremely weird problems in photoshop that ended up frustrating me until I stopped. This still isn't done, and I seriously have to up the contrast on the character, but I think that I did a decent job on the rocks so far. Certainly much better than I thought I would anyways.

lazy is me

2007-03-05T02:18:00.000-05:00

alright - so I haven't posted in like 3 days or something. I scanned the drawings. I did teh drawings, but it just takes too much effort to post, and this is my 'vacation'. So here is what I started working on today. Unfortunately as of right now the contrast and composition is a lot better with the linework on, but I'm working towards getting rid of it. So for the purpose of this post, I'm leaving the linework on. If I could use this for a school assignment- I would be a very happy man. But it's not likely. Say I wonder if I could publish something with all rough paint like the pic up there... It mean, I can do it really fast. really, really fast. and it looks sweet. to me anyways. wow you can't see the detail when it's this small.

I wish we had homeless that fought petty thugs for the good of mankind...

2007-02-28T07:22:00.000-05:00

I went to Alex's/Courtney/Sam's house today and watched Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles with them. Whoa - it's been a long time, and despite the 80s music and hair, they were still pretty awesome. So I nailed out a couple of sketches then, and spent the rest of the day either working on my storyboard (day) or blowing the snot out of ships in a star wars game (night) hey - it's reading week, I'm allowed to have some fun - right?

Who said anything about 'attractive' art

2007-02-27T05:11:00.000-05:00

Well, another day is more or less dead. I have spent the entire day drawing, and thinking, and drawing, and thinking etc., and I have managed to come up with 5 concept board panels, my characters are radically simplified for the board, and I have the surrounding stage completely fleshed out. I did TONS of studies of victorian architecture today, but since they are mostly very, very rough, and also since it is 5am, and I'm tired, I'm just not going to post most of it. So there :p

Calloo, Callay, what a horribly unproductive day

2007-02-25T04:31:00.000-05:00

Hey Guys,

Today I had a fantastic day, but failed yet again to produce anything mindboggling. That said I DID get groceries, I DID apply for a whole slew of jobs for the summer, and I DID have a fantastic supper at Alex, Courtney, and Sam's house. Unfortunately I also did miss Steve's thing he was going to do tonight because I don't have his contact information. D'oh! Anyways, so the stuff I did actually work on today are preliminary character designs for my Victorian Era set storyboard, and a picture with boobage in it for Alex. Cheers to you, my friend. Well, Adios folks, I'ma gonna read some bookage in my beddage, before turning out the lampage to do some hardcore sleepage. Goodnight Folks! If you're not in bed yet, you're working too hard.

I am so tired... you have no idea

2007-02-24T06:20:00.000-05:00

this post is going to be super brief because I am super tired. The drawings I'm posting today are... crap to say the least. so. yeah. not great. they made good experiments, but you can't see the context. too tired to explain. going to bed now. byebye now, bedtime for me.

Mr. Clean Tell me is that really you? I wonder what you've done to become so big and dumb I know you can't change your lifestyle once again....

2007-02-23T00:45:00.000-05:00

There we go - my day was just made- I got to put some Millencolin lyrics in the title of the post. Today I learned a lot more about colour in life drawing. The presence of a model, and the amount of colour schemes we push out in the 3 hours of class was phenominal for teaching me about colour theory. Not the sort of colour theory that you can read in a book - I've memorized most of that a long time ago, but the kind of practical colour theory. That said, the life drawings that I am posting may not be the best, in fact they are not my best, but they are a true representation of what I did today, and I think that I lreand a lot about colour, and they were very successful colour studies despite their failure as drawings.

I also speant 5 hours cleaning up the carriage. Well, not quite, a little under 5 hours. cleaning up takes a loooong time to make it looks nice. I think I succeeded on the first few, but once I got to the 3/4 drawing, I think my ellipses were off, and my line weight was not quite up to par. oh well.

For the remaining hour of the night, it's either Star Wars Galaxies, or colour experiments for me. I know what I should do, but I might just relax. I feel like I deserve it. yeah - there you go - I said the D word that I hate. Deserve. Recoil in disgust.

Excuses, excuses...

2007-02-22T02:30:00.000-05:00

Well, Youtube is down temporarily, and all I worked on tonight was my animation, and an essay. I am far too lazy to draw tonight, and I was using my animation as my ace in the hole - sooooo I'll post my animation tommorow, and that counts as today's post. :p

So tired I could sleep a Giraffe...

2007-02-21T02:21:00.000-05:00

Holy crap I'm tired. These drawings were largely done for the sake of doing drawings, and they are absolute garbage. Except for the studies from Memoir's of a Geisha. They aren't detailed, but I wanted to study the shapes they used for the composition. I found it instead to be a useful lesson in staging - particularily in the cuts with 3 people onscreen (or more). I finished my animation tonight. Hurrah. Oh - I also learned about conflict. I always say that Contrast is everything - but then contrast is a conflict - so maybe then it's conflict that is everything. Except that I treat them both differently. For example, I did this character for our Perf. Art class and he had a conflict between his addictions. That probably means nothing to anybody but me because I haven't gone on to explain anything but I am so tired that I'm going to say goodnight. right there. right at the end of a sentence wihtout further elaboration. So good night, and if you are as dissatisfied as me with these sketches - just look at yesterdays... I should have posted some old ones - it would have bought me some time, but it would have been dishonest, and I would not have accomplished my goal.

PS: I forgot to mention. These layouts - though crappy they may be are an experiment. I am setting these up without any kind of thoughts aas to the setting at all. I draw a series of shapes, lines, or arrows that work compositionally, and then I start shaping them into whatever object I feel like ,or it begins to ressemble. I use this frequently with characters, but I am struggling a lot more with layouts. I will keep trying though - I think I could unlock some awesome sketches if I keep it up. I hope. 'night.

Contrast Rocks the Universe!

2007-02-20T06:36:00.000-05:00

okay... so about a year ago I discovered that contrast was pretty much everything with pretty much everything. I don't care if it is life experiences, tone, colour, pacing in a story - it pretty much rocks the world. Today I learned this in a totally new way. I messed around with my contrast and brightness settings on my monitor, and then signed into Star Wars Galaxies and WHAMMO! wow - all of the sudden every planet in the game looked like a beautiful painting. It blew me completely away, and I can now totally do some awesome colour studies from the pallettes they used in the game. So tonight I have some SWG sketches to show off, and some doodles from in class. The rest of the day has been spent animating. Which is becoming less annoying. Hopefully this lasts!

Scanning Blues

2007-02-19T06:04:00.000-05:00

I feel slightly ripped off with this particular post. I just spent the last 2 hours painting a really rough layout but I cannot transfer it digitally accurately because a) my scanner is too small, and despite now having the money to get a scanner, I am having a notoriously difficult time finding one b) my scanner is completely changing the colours in the painting. Fortunately the colours remained more or less intact when I shot it with a camera, and I am hoping to do the second half of this painting in photoshop. Perhaps afterwards I will then recreate it in actual paint. Perhaps not. In any case, this is a Work in Progress, definately not a finished product, but I feel quite content to have accomplished this much in 2 hours. The rest is all detailing, and I am much more confident doing this in photoshop than in real paint.

The drawings are little sketches that I technically did before bed last night, when I spent an hour doing some studies of random things. Most of it was either others work, or not great (such as the examples here) but it does show what I have been up to in the past day.

As for my homework - today I spent the day working on my animation. Through Kill Bill, Kill Bill 2, The Last Samurai, and then half of the Last Samurai with commentary on, I managed to clean up 36 drawings of around 130 due thursday. Keeeeep on truckin'! Also I went to go help out some friends of mine that are applying to animation.

Oh, and finally despite the fact that this post reads as monday at 6am, I still techincally consider this Sunday night, because I have not gone to bed yet. So this is my sunday post. Later Folks!

And now for today...

2007-02-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

Today has been pretty uneventful - and pretty full of work. That... sounds like a lot of days at school. Anyways, I had a very surprising amount of fun doing this assignment. I have a feeling that may have something to do with the fact that this is the first assignment that strongly uses perspective all year. Actually we still have yet to do a layout this year *cough *cough stupid layout teachers *cough *cough. Actually that is mean - we have had two fantastic layout teachers this year, but we have so far had a serious lack of any assignments, so I feel I have the right to whine about it despite the fact that I have to sacrafice sleep and whatever form of social life I currently have if we started getting busy in layout.

Anyways, these are the roughs for some victorian horse -drawn carriages. I included my rough lay in for the 3/4 drawing just in case Siobhan, Karima, or Steph would find it useful. I realize this is silly, because so far I haven't told any of them about this site yet. Plus it's pretty elementary stuff. But I figured I'd post it for the good of... uh... mankind... anyways.

Well, it looks like it's time for me to animate again now *groan... I can't wait until it's 2am and I can stop working and sleep... or ... something...