Time Lapse – Bat Skinning
Skinning pass, at mega-speed, made to a bat rig.
I worked on this guy about 2 years ago. Originally planned to use this footage as a skinning tutorial but i never got off the ground fully. With all this footage I decided to try speeding the entire process and see how interesting it looks.
Modeled by Shon Mitchell.
For more information about the rig, and to see it in action, check my previous post!
Kinect Disneyland Adventures
Kinect Disneyland Adventures came out in November 2011. We brought on a freelance Character TD to help share the load and I was responsible for his work as well as my own rigs All the characters were implemented using Character Studio to client’s specification.
James Bond 007: Blood Stone
James Bond Blood Stone 007 came out in November 2010. The project was mostly animated in MotionBuilder but Maya was used to build the character skeletons and setup secondary movement for clothing. I helped setup various NPCs and enemy characters for this project.
Cogswell College Lecture
This past Tuesday, I was invited to give a guest lecture at Cogswell Polytechnical College.
I gave a simple lecture regarding making rigs that are pleasing to the eye; it’s a somewhat obscure topic that I find most schools don’t fully touch on. Thanks again to Cogswell for inviting me and I look forward to seeing some new talent graduate!
For those that attended the lecture. After the jump, you can find my powerpoint slides asawell as a link to the pipeline book I talked about but failed to recall the title at the time (Implementing a Digital Management System. ISBN:0240806654)
Talking Games: Article Round-Up
Some nice articles I came across this past week.
Masterpiece: Final Fantasy VII
“FFVII is filled with so many unforgettable, emotional scenes that it’s no wonder it still has such a large following. From the opening sequence and the bombing of the first Mako reactor to the final battle with Sephiroth, there’s a lot to take in.“
“Substantial reward is very important to help motivate the player to push themselves to get better and try more difficult challenges. The difference between unlocking a new way to play the whole game or unlocking a digital badge, or hat for your character is quite large, but adding something as in depth as a new playable character also comes with its own set of difficulties”
Analysis: What the Video Game Industry Can Learn From the Death of Glam Metal
“During the heyday of spandex, excessive use of hairspray, and sing-a-long hair metal anthems, a tiny music scene called grunge managed to rise to greatness, as evidenced by Nirvana’s rise to the top of the music charts. The over-saturation of glam bands in the late eighties and early nineties is a perfect analogy for what’s happening to the gaming industry today.”
Talk Sport Street Fighter IV vs StarCraft 2
“There’s something distinctly feminine about choosing to get really good at a game. Unlike the very male experience of playing whatever, whenever, basically playing as much as you can get, basically waddling around the game shop with your trousers round your ankles, choosing to get good at a game requires commitment, or even devotion. More difficultly, it also requires that you choose a suitor.”
Talking Games: Good Articles of the Week
Aside from the epic clashing of words between Steve Jobs and Adobe, there’s been some good gaming reads as well:
Analysis: How Does the Infinity Ward Fiasco Affect Call of Duty?
With all the departures, is Infinity Ward doomed as a studio? What about the quality of future Call of Duty games? GameSetWatch interviews some analysts and looks on into their takes on the company and franchise.
Lorin Baumgarten’s take on day one DLC model, particularity the model used by Capcom in Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2. In short, he’s not a fan 
Nice Guys, Stressed Ladies and the Curious Ways They Play Video Game
Amusing anecdotal article from Leigh Alexander on video games and escapism.
Rigging a Scorpion Mech: Part Seven, Arms, Claws and Cleanup
For this part I’ll go into some detail about the setup on the arms and claws as well as touch on a few other things as I prime this character for his first round of animation testing. More after the jump!
Rigging a Scorpion Mech: Part Six, IK Legs
I mentioned in an earlier post that I thought the head would require the most complicated rig to work. Today’s post is to show that 1) I was sorely mistaken, and 2) the leg rig is quite interesting and borrowed a setup often used for the hind legs of cat and dog rigs. More after the jump!
Talking Games: Must-Read Articles
Weekly round-up of articles I’ve read this week that I found most interesting. Some are critiques, others are design related, maybe even some conspiracy theory add-in. Tune in every week and see what pops up next!
Embedded videos of cartoons seen in Heavy Rain
I thought I saw Pyrats during my Heavy Rain playthrough, check out that and the other two animations!
Making Decisions Matter In Morality-Oriented Games
A analysis on the current design faults with games that use a morality systems.
What Virtual Worlds, Facebook And Fads Mean For The Game Industry
Opinion article comparing the current “social game” boom of new to the “virtual worlds” boom of old, plus how does social games impact the core game industry.
“The gaming industry is not shy when it comes to hype. While it may feel, to avid followers of a particular game, that there is never enough media – there usually is.”
Rigging a Scorpion Mech: Part Five, Messing with the legs
I’ve now made further progress in rigging the legs. For the limbs, I’m implementing an IK/FK setup. My approach for setting up the switch is a twist on the standard 3-bone setup where the original joint chain is duplicated and influenced by two separate chains.
