SHIPS: Illustration and Song Video

Whoop, time for an update. This one's a little different because I'm going to include a video of me drumming (Wow, who knew I don't only sit in front of the computer...? =P). But first, another illustration work:

This is one of the illustrations I did for an upcoming book for young adults called "SHIPS". This specific illustration won't be used in the final book because the author wanted to decrease the number of drawings, so I'm showing off here. =P Though I kind of cringe looking at this drawing... Working on this project has made me realize just how sad my drawing skills are. Anyhow, for more information about the book, visit the website(WIP), also linked on the right side under "SHIPS".

Next is a video of me playing drums for a song called "Creator of All" inspired by a character in SHIPS. The song was written entirely by the author of the book. My drumming is not anything to boast about (and I mess up a couple of times), but it was fun playing a great song on a nicely sounding drum set with musicians who actually know what they're doing. Make sure to change the quality to 480p since Youtube doesn't provide an option to embed in that resolution.

Now, if you viewed that without noting that the camera angle from behind the two guitarists was from another take, then I must've done a pretty good job. =P
The video itself looks pretty simple, but it actually took a while to get it looking and sounding like this. I had to learn a whole new software to edit the audio (called "Audacity") mainly because the recording wasn't the best (everything was recorded using one microphone). I tweaked the audio (and actually cut and extended very small portions of it) to make it more "perfect". Then I went through a process of using Windows Movie Maker (which I initially chose to use because the expensive After Effects refuses to play audio back with the video on demand), then using After Effects (because the exported video from Windows Movie Maker had problems due to a weird source video), and also using a video converting software called Format Factory (which actually became integral for me to finish this video because that weird source video still caused problems when exporting with After Effects). Whew.

Adieu for now. =)

Pumpkins, Donation & Failed Golfer Video

I thought I was kind of overdue for an update. =P
Three things to make up for the lack of updates. The first one is another old work. It was an assignment to take a photo of a pumpkin and render it in different artists' styles using Photoshop. I forgot the names of all the artists except for Dr. Seuss (#7). #8 was to be done in my own style.

This next one was actually part of a bigger drawing but this was the only portion I was able to salvage... Eh, more like the only portion I'm willing to show. =P A rather touching notion of those who have practically nothing giving what little they have to help other unfortunate people.

And this last one is a simple project I did for fun in After Effects. I took the video of my friend hitting a golf ball and turned it into the following:

Oopses, how'd that dot get there? Okay, see you next update. =)

Children's Book Illustration: The Wolf and the Lamb

I was looking through some of my old stuff the other day and decided I'll upload this. It was a project to reinterpret and illustrate a story for children. Mine was one of Aesop's Fables called "The Wolf and the Lamb". Enjoy. =)

Mac OS X Desktop Fight

Hi, everyone. In a previous post, I mentioned that there is another piece I worked on in After Effects that I wanted to post. It was a joint project between Howard and me for a class, and we were talking about working on it some more afterwards, but I don't think it's likely to happen anytime soon, if at all.
So... well, here it is. =P For the few who have seen it, you probably won't notice much difference, but I did tweak some visual elements. For what it is, it's pretty much complete, minus a few visual and audio hiccups. A very short, experimental project done in After Effects... Here is me (on left) and Howard (on right) duking it out on the desktop of Mac OS X on a computer at CSUF. =)



At the end, it's supposed to be me as a "digital ghost" getting even. Oh, and if anyone knows the name of the girl in the picture we fight over, feel free to let me know. All I know is that it's a Korean celebrity. xP Okay, see you next update. =)

*The video looks a lot better full screen... Trust me. =)
*Edit: Looks like the girl's name is "Han Ga In". Thanks to Youtube user "halfnhalf030387" who pointed this out.

Random Drawings

Hey, people. How's life? Good? Good. Here's an update with some random drawings. Enjoy. xP

Some Updates (Text Animation, Textured zTrex, and Buki)

Let me sneak in a little update here and see if anyone notices. xP
First, my first text animation in After Effects:

As you can see, it's literally a "text" animation. =P It plays the second time with motion blur applied to the frantic zoomed-in shots of "text". I've been exposed to After Effects for the first time this year, but it is such an awesome software. It's amazing what you can do with it. There is another piece I really want to post here that I worked on in After Effects, but that is for another time. Next up, it's zTrex, finally textured...?

The zTrex you see here is actually an updated model of the one I posted over a year ago. As for the texture, apparently, some people are angry with me that he is purple. What? you've never seen a purple dinosaur before..? =P Err, not that zTrex is a dinosaur...

And, finally, introducing Buki! First, the 2D turnaround:


And the 3D turnaround:

Who's Buki, you ask? Well, he's the character of a short animation I'm co-directing with Howard Cheng. Among other things, I designed, modeled, and textured the character. I think it came out fairly okay, haha. I would say we are over 60% done with the animation. Meanwhile, you can follow its progress on the Prickly Pachyderm Productions blog, or the "Bukido" ("Buki" was already taken. xP) blog... whichever is more frequently updated. That's it for now. Thanks for sticking around! What I meant to be a little update turned out a bit longer than I expected. Eh, well, expect more frequent updates from now on. =P

3D Human Head (and Glasses)

Hola, chicos. I think it's time for me to update. =P Some of you know that I've been working on modeling my brother's head, but I didn't have any decent renders to show until now. I think I've spent a little over 30 hours on this project, and for now, I'm calling it "done" because I have other projects to work on. =/ I'm fairly content at how my first human head turned out, so hope you enjoy it... First off, it's the ambient occlusion render of the smoothed head geometry:


Next, the unwrapped UV and the painted texture, along with the wireframes:


My brother also wears glasses. I decided to model it thinking it would only take me 2 hours at max to get all the details down... it took me over 8. -.-;; Please look at all the little pieces that I painfully modeled. =P


The final rendered images with my reference pictures for... reference. =)


And this last one's just for fun... I decided to place my bald brother at the Bryce Canyon. I think it looks kind of real...?


Thanks for visiting. I guess I might as well say my turkey holiday greeting now since I'm sure I won't be updating until December... So Happy Thanksgiving and Feliz Navidad! =P

3D Zippy

Surprise. xP


Yeah, I know some of you must be scrambling back to your seats after having visited my blog just because, expecting nothing, and upon finding a new post, fell off your chairs. Oh, you didn't? Heh, a new post nevertheless. As you can see, it's a 3D version of Zippy. The render above are the orthographic front and side views. The one below is ambient occlusion renders (?) of Zippy more or less in the neutral pose I tend to draw him in.


Some of you may be wondering if Zippy's also rigged. Eh, kind of. If you look carefully, some parts seem kind of weird... That's because I semi-rigged, weighted, and posed Zippy within 2 hours, so it's nothing I could animate with, but just thought to do it so Zippy doesn't look so stiff. =P The render below is how I've always colored my character.


Does he look weird with these colors? It appears people have been assuming Zippy's supposed to have no colors, a weird concept to me who has always imagined his character in green. Hm, I don't know... Maybe I could make better choices for color. xP Anyways, I guess my 3D character post wouldn't be complete without me making things look shiny, so here ya go. =)


Oh, noez, it's the meeting of the Zippys! =P Thanks for visiting. =)

P.S. Imaginary prize for anyone who could point out a certain change in the character design for Zippy from the last post to this one. =D Addtionally, check out Naturally 7 and their "Vocal Play" (Video linked for a limited time only. =P)

"Zippy"

This is it. This is the video you've been waiting for... or couldn't care less about. =P A special thanks goes out to Howard whom I tortured for his time/energy/resources to try to finish this in time for the finals. The character in the animation is "Zippy", who looked quite different when I first created him back in 6th grade. There is no special meaning underlying the story, which is also not much of a story at all. This was purely created for experimenting/fun/grade/maybe portfolio. Some of you might remember a little portion of this animation was the first thing I posted on this blog... Hope the end result doesn't disappoint you. Maybe I'll revisit this one day and fix all that I don't like about it (e.g. sound effects). Anyways, without further ado, I present to you... "Zippy". =)

Are you a fan of Zippy yet? Hmm... maybe subliminally making people familiar with him might increase Zippy's popularity... Presenting Zickey! Mwahahahaha. >=D


Okay, well, maybe not too subtle. Heh... I guess something about Zickey sounds icky. Cheer up, Zippy. I won't do that to you again.

Mickey Mouse

Whew, update. xP Sorry it took so long. I wanted to sort of clean this drawing up a bit before posting it online because my inking was horrible, so I casually started cleaning it up on Photoshop here and there... and ended up taking far too long. -.-;; Anyways, here's a Mickey Mouse comic strip that I made that plays a joke on... well, take a look and see. =P

I had always wondered about Mickey's ears since I was a child. I didn't realize until this semester that it was intentional. I also found out that most people never give Mickey's ears a second thought. Still have no idea what's wrong with Mickey's ears? Take a look at Mickey's ears when he's facing forward and when his face is turned sideways... it doesn't rotate like it should in a 3D world. I guess that's the magic of Disney. xP

And I know there are those of you who expected this update would be something else. Well, that's coming next week. I just wanted to get this out of the way first. =P