The rig

Yo! Klas here.

I haven't had time to update in a while since we are on crunch mode. 14 hours a day for 10 days now, 7 days left to GGC. Intense.

I realize I haven't shown you Totec's rig yet ("skeleton"). So here it is. I have been using the CAT Motion system provided in 3Ds Max. The rig is fully stretch- and twistable and I've given him a basic facial rig which I've completed with morphtargets (modeled facial expressions you can blend between). I will just show an image for now, I will post a video sequence later :)

Regards

KT

At work

Hello people,

From my iphone. In the pic are Kaka, Klas and Evelina

We have started the crunch. Trying to get our teaser done for the GGC, there´s still allot of texturing to be done. But now we have a new addition to our team, Evelina Reich. To help us out with texturing and other 2d art we need. She´s an amazing 2d artist. And we hope she will still like us at the end. 

Over and out

"Don´t ever stop doing what you love"

Oljud

Jungle business

When I made the 3D scene for the backdrop, I had to be quick about it. I had no time, but I knew that this thing would be printed onto a 2,2x2,6 meters big backdrop, so I needed alot of details! By the time I had to stop working on it and send it to Klas, so that he could paint some on it, it was the largest 3D scene I have ever worked on.



In the viewport I had a total of 71 709 174 polys.
When I rendered, and the smoothers kicked in, there were 941 620 726 polys.
Stupid?
Yes, a bit.
But it worked, and surprisingly it only took me 20 minutes to render, @6929 x 10394 pixels.

Backdrop

I’m finally finished with all the presentation material for GGC. Last out was the backdrop, the computer was crying in pain with the 276 megapixels big file. Furthermore the title was in vector graphic with a size of 1200 pt (1297 pt is the maximum size that the program allows…), I’ve never made such a large image before, total overkill.

These matters have interrupted my main work of the project a bit. But now I can continue rigging the main character (setting up a skeleton) to then be able to start animating, I can’t wait!

Here’s the backdrop below, it depicts the view from the pyramid. It will be printed with the dimensions 3300 x 2300 mm, which explains the ridiculously big image file. It’s rendered from 3Ds MAX by Christian as a base which I’ve then painted over.

Ciao!
/Klas

Poster

Hey guys!

The last few days we have been busy making orders and other administrative matters for the Gotland Game Conference. At the same time we are completing some animations for a course. Intense.

Here’s a poster we’ll be using for GGC.

Happy Easter!

Gotland Game Conference 27-28th May

27th of May is the premiere for the teaser of Greedy God, at Gotland Game Conference! The conference will be held at Wisby Strand and is open for anyone, free of charge!

See you on May 27th!

Totec unwrapped

Allrighty. I’m done unwrapping Totec. The hair was pretty tedious to unwrap due to its complex shape. But besides that, it went on fairly smoothly.
Now I’m going to create a quick normal map in ZBrush before I begin rigging him, which surely will take its time since I’ve never made such an advanced rig before.

I’ve posted some old photos of us, working with the pre-production, on the "at work" page. Be sure to check them out, more photos will be posted later on.

To have something to show you, I’ve made a collage of some of my concepts of Totec. You could say it’s the history of Totec’s design, from the beginning to how he looks today, hope you like it.

/Klas

Totec

Here’s Totec, the hero of our film. It’s just a sneak peek of the 3D model; without clothes, material or texture. I did the base in ZBrush with Zspheres and then carried on in 3Ds Max where I made a lowpoly, which I applied turbo smooth to. I’ve had some troubles getting the hair right; I had to remake it twice before I was satisfied.

I’m thinking of making further details with Zbrush by creating a normalmap. But right now I’m making an UVmap in 3Ds to be able to give him a texture.

/Klas

Totec Hut

Here a 3D model of Totec´s hut i am working on. Trying got get the cartoon and Aztec design down. I got part of the way but there allot more to do. I am also working on 2 more huts now. I have to say that i am really enjoying doing this style.

Well hope you guys like it.
















"Keep being creativ"

/Oljud OUT

The Goat

Yes, there is a goat in the movie! I began blocking it out in 3D from little pictures in my head, and here's how it looks at the moment, whitout textures.



I made a rough lowpoly in Zbrush, then moved on to 3D Studio Max and did the rest. We decided to build lowpolymeshes and use a smoother to get the end result, instead of using displacement maps. Though we might use some normalmaps for extra details.

The story, briefly

Greedy God is a cartoony comedy, an animated short film by GAAD Studios.

Totec is an Aztec indian and the headman of his tribe. He took over the position when his father suddenly died. Unlike his father Totec is a clumsy screw-up who doesn’t seem to get anything right. The people of the village have never been pleased with his leadership, not even his own wife. Their marriage was arranged, which you will understand when you see her.

And as if this were not enough, their land suffers from a major drought. Their corn field is totally dying. This resulted in the whole village leaving Totec and his wife to their fate. I think you get the picture; he’s not the luckiest guy in the world. This is where our film begins.

They once built this huge pyramid temple that never worked, so they don’t have much faith in the Gods. But since they have reached rock bottom; he’ll try a last resort, to pray to the mighty rain God and beg for some rain, one last time. Unfortunately the God is not what you would call a decent guy, not even a mean guy. He’s that really evilly kind of guy, a true douchebag. You could therefor imagine that praying and offering won’t go as Totec planned, quite the contrary actually…

/Klas

Lucky bastards

Lucky as we are, we know some people who can help us out. For example our music for both the teaser and the movie will be composed by Rosanna Gunnarson and Axel Ragnerstam. We have worked toghether before, with awesome result! And we got feedback on the script, storyboards and animatic from Leo Sandberg, one of the most inspiring persons I've ever met.

Environment painting

I've just finished a concept of the environment. To include as much as possible in the concept I picked a frame from the film that shows the main character Totec, a lot of the forest, some buildings and of course the great pyramid in the distance. The point of this painting was to get all of the teammates on the same page regarding the general visual theme and the color palette. And to make the texturing a bit easier.

Click on the image to enlarge.

You may have noticed that Totec looks sligthly different. Well he've now got himself a facelift. I'll post the newest concept of him as well, which I made a while ago.

I'm almost done with the 3D model of Totec, I'll post a pre-render later on.

Klas

I'm currently away from the island, in a desolate place called Motala. Taking care of a little lamb that has been rejected by it's mother, running after me just like a small dog.

Beside from having been turned into a sheepdad, I'm sculpting on a model of the God, which will be finished this weekend.

"They're filming something. They're filming midgets!"