-RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT-SCRIPTING- |
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Industrial Light & Magic Creature Research & Development for LUCASFILM, LTD. (2008-2009) |
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| Part of the convergence being done by my core creature development team was meeting with all divisions at Lucasfilm, Ltd. Weekly meetings took place (our Tuesday 4:00 P.M. sessions involved Trans 2 in the months of March and April 2009- in the room at ILM near the stormtrooper) with the research and development team while at Industrial Light and Magic (making tools, custom nodes, and rigging animation development over the coarse of a year) which led to sitting in on weekly critique and approval sessions of projects- led by creature department supervisor at ILM, Mr. Scott Jones. Four shots for Transformers were reviewed by my group over a period of a time. In our typical meetings, we were looking at follicles, motion, deformation, and node development with Lucasfilm's top engineers. What was analyzed was motion, compositing, color correction, and flow. Full knowledge of the Industrial Light and Magic rigging system "Block Party"( taught to me in Industrial Light and Magic training sessions), standard to all rigging at ILM, was applicable to these sessions. The "Block Party" system on Linux was used for this project. The film worked on is TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. Name not in credits for billing reasons. |
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Reviewed and approved shots.
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Link to Trailer with the reviewed shots (time 150-151; 153-155; 207-210; 211-218).
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ILM, LucasArts, and Lucasfilm Animation Convergence for LUCASFILM, LTD. (2008) |
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The lobby at Lucasfilm Animation Singapore
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This was completed and submitted at Lucasfilm Animation Singapore. This rig test is a combination of "Block Party" from Industrial Light and Magic (Jango Fett from Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones), Lucasfilm Animation (Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka from Star Wars The Clone Wars, in addition to the standard Industrial Light and Magic biped), and "Toolbox" from LucasArts (Darth Vader from Star Wars The Force Unleashed). The rig was completed on my own time on my personal computer with improvements to all three systems combined into one "uber rig" and a playblast was later submitted to the Lucasfilm, Ltd. server with documentation. In order to achieve this, I also acquired full working knowledge of standard Industrial Light and Magic quadrupeds and winged creatures. This was apart of Technical Art Documentation used in Lucasfilm Research and Development for Film Game Convergence development. This rig combines video game development, visual effects, and feature animation. This was made possible in Singapore due to my bi-monthly meetings with the two directors of DAG (the name for Industrial Light and Magic in Singapore) - Ms. Chrysta Burton and Mr. Nigel Sumner, where we discussed Film Game Convergence. In these meetings we discussed rigging, optimization, art direction, workflow, and convergence technology. This was later picked up once I relocated to Lucasfilm, Ltd. San Francisco where we had a core convergence team including the lead research and developer (Director of Animation Technology) at the "Big Rock" Clone Wars studio (former CTO at Weta Digital)- Ms. Monique Bradshaw, the lead creature developer for Industrial Light and Magic, the main producer for the Clone Wars in Singapore (via conference call)- Mr. John Saunders, the head Creature Development CG Supervisor for Industrial Light and Magic (lead on the Star Wars prequels), and myself. In addition to the topics discussed above, we also discussed modeling topology and rendering optimization. Lastly, research was done on "enveloping" by myself using Industrial Light and Magic technology. At my station, I had four computers setup, one of which was a Linux machine with direct login to Industrial Light and Magic's server and their software Zeno. I was doing compare and contrast simulations and playblasts of enveloping between Zeno and Maya with the hope to include more Zeno technology into future LucasArts projects. I was using Industrial Light and Magic's Zeno software daily during my work in the LucasArts division testing builds and experimenting with Linux Block Party. In this sequence, the motion, done by myself, was completed in approximately a half hour per cycle and "run_fly". Again, this is a rig test.
Steering Committee Best Practices and Tutorials (ILM/ LucasArts/ Lucasfilm Animation) |
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EA Sports MMA for EA SPORTS (2008) |
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| Research tests were done by myself using cloth nodes for muscle simulation (including research and development with the quaternion node) for the EA Sports MMA project right before my exit to Lucasfilm, Ltd. and presented to the art director on the EA Sports MMA project, who happened to be the art director on Tour. These tests also included breathing, flexing, and muscle jiggle done on Brian Urlacher's NFL Tour bodytype (MMA models had not yet been completed). I expect to see this in the title being done by EA Orlando because I used existing EA Sports technology that would build on EA Sports titles. Renders and playblasts were made in after effects and have been checked into the server in March of 2008. This was done when I gave three and half weeks notice to Electronic Arts prior to my senior position at Lucasfilm Animation Singapore; with detail description in video format as well as detailed documentation of the quaternion node in powerpoint (checked into the server). This presentation piece of flexing, breathing, and jiggle on a martial artist biped was shown to the Central Render team at EA Sports. CG supervisors in attendance were Mr. Andre Thomas and my mentor at EA Sports, Mr. Chris Hummel.. |
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 for EA SPORTS (2007) |
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| Worked simultaneously on this title while working on Central Football. I was in initial kickoff meetings to discuss the direction of the project from a deformation standpoint. Created research and development rig used to prototype potential deformation of title. Brought in to assist on simple binding and weighting of characters in between Madden tasks due to the lack of rigging experience on this franchise. Worked with other Technical Artists in TA Groups in the discussion of tools applicable to Tiger Woods Golf. Critiqued research and film documentation as relates to the title. One of the situations in particular was the discussion and assistance, by myself, on shoulder and latissimus dorsi deformation during the female golf swing. The discussion involved whether to rig the human for every situation (typical game development), or to rig them for one motion (visual effects). Vertice weighting and joint positioning was tweaked as well. |
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Madden NFL '08 for EA SPORTS (2007) |
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Research and development on procedural shoulder pads to be implemented in game. Worked with engineering lead to implement technique but ran out of time for implementation. Slight binding "weighting" modifications while as apart of Central Football Team at EA Sports (improper anatomy issue in this title as well, see NCAA Football 08 where this was corrected after a debate was won by myself and the modeling team over the animation director who came down from EAC to EA Orlando to try to incorporate ANT- an animation system used on EA Sports NBA Live- for quality of motion and blending on NBA Live (ANT) please refer to www.ign.com and look up NBA Live for this year- which looks and moves inferior to NBA 2K). This research and development was done under the guidance of the Art Director on the project, Mr. Ben Cammarano, who also recommended me to Lucasfilm, Ltd. In addition to the research I did on Madden, I was also involved with Mr. Cammarano in global meetings with EAC and EAUK reviewing work on Fifa, NHL, NBA Live, Fight Night, Harry Potter (through Mr. Sanjay Mistry- this was after meeting him in a presentation on Houdini at EA Orlando), and Facebreaker (with Mr. Peyton Duncan). Lastly, I was given the rigs of these titles to play with, analyze, and extract informaiton from.
This is the billboard in New York City for the annual MADDENOLIDAY. |
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Facial Graphic User Interface for TECHNICAL ARTISTIC EXPRESSION (2010) |
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This facial system is setup based on experiences at Lucasfilm, Ltd. Hundreds of poses can be created by translating the sliders around. This allows the animator to move quickly from pose to pose as well as create overlaping motion relatively easily. The test model is just that, "a test model", and the importance of the segment on this reel is to show the GUI. The character that this GUI is based off of is Anakin Skywalker from the Clone Wars. |
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Rigging Automation Startup Scripts for TECHNICAL ARTISTIC EXPRESSION (2010) |
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Once these arguments are set, the script generates a clean hierarchy of controls, naming convention, and the group that they fall in. This PYTHON script helps to speed up and automate the rigging process while keeping the original skeleton hierarchy clean. PYTHON is the language used by ZENO, the software used at LucasArts and at Industrial Light & Magic (Lucasfilm). These are starter scripts that I might use to begin the rigging process or block something out quickly.
Scripts in PDF form. |
Procedures and arguments called.
IKlegSetup (UpLeg, LowLeg, LegAnkle, LegBall, LegToe, legPVx, legPVy, legPVz)
muscleJoint (startJoint, endJoint, targetLOC)
fkController (jointParent, jointChild, controller, controllerRadius)
spine (root, waist, thorax, rootMaster)
arm (shoulder, elbow, hand, IKshoulder, IKelbow, IKhand, FKshoudler, FKelbow, FKhand, armPVx, armPVy, armPVz)
foreArmRotate (foreArm, foreArmTwistOne, foreArmTwistTwo, Wrist)
shoulderSetupStart (clavicle, armUpShoulder, aimTarget, shoulderTwistOne, shoulderTwistTwo, shouldUpVectorX, shouldUpVectorY, shouldUpVectorZ) |
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Body Script Launcher Tool for TECHNICAL ARTISTIC EXPRESSION (2010) |
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This is a tool that triggers the IKLegSetup script, the spine, and the arm script. This also puts the handles in a clean hierarchy.
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Tribute to Fantasia for TECHNICAL ARTISTIC EXPRESSION (2005) |
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| As a fan of Fantasia, a Disney film featuring both science and art, I wanted to create a tribute piece based off of the Nutcracker Suite. I completed all animation, rigging, modeling, lighting, texturing, and compositing on this piece. This entire piece was done in approximately three days at ACCAD under the supervision of my academic advisor (see THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL information for her credentials). It was important to create a computer generated squash and stretch rig while paying tribute to this classic piece. |
Squash and Stretch Research and Development
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