It's been a while since I've updated here. I've been extremely busy working on Ruin for the PS3 and the Vita. I've hired 3 more talented artists and hope to hire one more to make a full team of 11 of us in the Character Department. The next 5-6 months are going to be very hectic to say the least. I'm putting my Modular Character Rigging Python scripts to the test and they are working well. I need to clean a few things up and also create a script to rig up the fingers dynamically no matter how many fingers you may have. It's actually quite a challenge.

 I've also sold all my Nikon gear and purchased all new Canon gear including about 7 lenses, a 60D and the highly coveted 5D Mark II. I plan to shoot a short film this fall with the 5D. I ordered a new shoulder mount, a Gini off ebay. I know... it's Korean. I really wanted to buy RedRock and/or Berkey System but the price was hard for me to pass up, considering that a shoulder rig is just a small part of my gear and I have many other things to buy. I'd like to buy an 1.2k HMI and another small fresnel Arri. My friend Adrian wrote a short film screenplay and I just read it again the other day and I'm pretty excited about it. I think it'll be fun.

I'm also doing a one day acting workshop with the great master of Acting, Larry Hecht. I always learn an immense amount from him and he's the only teach I actually take notes from. 

I joined a new acting class in Denver, DW Studios. They do the things I need the most work on which is acting on camera and memorization. They have techniques for memorization and make you memorize as best you can a new script the night of class. Also, they film everything, then play it back and give you a critique. This class is weekly and the teachers are good.

It's time to get back to work on monologues for our workshop... and then more character rigging, concept/animation reviews tomorrow. Whew... I gotta lot ta do. Just the way I like it. Live life to its fullest. 

Looks like AnimationMentor.com has some competition called animschool.com only they add modeling to animation. I'm not so sure about their sales video though, feels pretty "sales-y" without a single animation to show as examples, whereas AnimationMentor has great sample animations from their students. Probably too early to tell but interesting nonetheless.

How L.A. Noire Conquered The Uncanny Valley With Aussie Technology Depth Analysis

I've been reading a lot about calculating 3d space with just a few photos or using video. Looks like these guys have figured out a way to do facial motion capture using this crazy setup.

Click to read the article. 

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Made with Blender3d.

LIVE LOVE EAT SHORT FILM from Alpha Bravo Charlie Studio on Vimeo.

RED EPIC CAMERA - TOP TEN QUESTIONS - TED SCHILOWITZ & TONACI TRAN

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Red Scarlet Fixed Lens Camera - First video of a working Scarlet ! from Tonaci Tran on Vimeo.

A great short film by Disney, despite the mandatory ad in the beginning.

Prep Landing- Operation Secret Santa - Disney Prep & Landing

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Wow, this is fantastic! So very tongue in cheek the fact that it was made in a similar way to Avatar but acting like a fan of Avatar. I was done using Mo-Cap. I searched and discovered it was made by guys from Aardman Animation. 

"Animation Company Busty Kelp Breaks into Motion Capture with Inition
23 April 2008
When insanely talented animation company Busty Kelp decided it was time to add motion capture to their considerable range of skills, they contacted Inition for help in getting the right system.
Inition's Jeff Ferguson advised on latest developments in the field (independent of manufacturer hyperbole) and arranged suitable demos that resulted in them opting for the state-of-the-art Animazoo IGS-190 motion capture suit.
Paul Smith's Busty Kelp, which is associated with Aardman Animations, is showing off the first fruits of the IGS-190's realistic motion with a smashing character study of a Wood Imp, which can be viewed at Busty Kelp's website (click projects > Wood Imp). Busty Kelp's work includes the title sequence of the BBC's Euro 2008 coverage."-source inition.co.uk

bustykelp.com

youtube.com/user/GregMutt

This is a really great quote.
"Focus on ideas instead of tools (technology). Anyone can learn to use the tools, but it is the thinkers who really impact the culture in important ways."

kerismith.com

Here are a couple of interview audio files of Pixar animators Chris Chua and Austin Madison.

thepixarpodcast.com

I think Sony just gave Red Camera a giant hadouken! Sony explains video formats and I think they're eluding to Red not really being a true 4k camera. Interesting info Sony but it doesn't exactly generate much interest until we see a working unit of something impressive.

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/video/channels-cinealta/video-cinealta_hdworld2010_4k_roadmap