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I don't know about you, but I am very tired of Basic Guy. He was a model that I created almost 8 or so years ago for just personal animation and rigging exercises. Well, as you may know, he turned into way more than that. He has been downloaded thousands of times and has been all over the world (thank you all for the very nice emails)! I have been having so much fun with seeing him travel the world that I want to share more rigged models with you all. This time I will not be modeling them (whew!). I am working with a co-worker on hopefully 3-5 characters (to start) to share. Each character will have a wardrobe and accessories to choose from. How fast those assets all come out... I'm not sure (hopefully faster than slower). I'm also trying to figure out the best way to release these assets to you all. Do I just release unskinned assets? Or, can I create a pipeline for you all that is a lot faster (as in I skin and you all use a tool to "build" a character to animate in some kind of UI)? I'm leaning towards the latter. I know that most people that download rigs are animators that do not want to rig. So, I'm one of the "weirdo's" that loves both aspects. In my absence (from my blog) I have written an auto rig script that will rig characters in minutes vs the hours upon hours of manual work. So, it would be a very fun challenge to figure out a way to allow you all to build your own character and let you get to animating!

Anyway, above you will see "Zane". He is being modeled currently. But, when he is done, I will rig him up and share with you all. I'm VERY excited to get back to public releases and hopefully seeing my characters show up all over the place again!

cheers and thanks for stopping by!
Tim

BG version 3.something...

When I finished BG v3.0, my goal was to start animating again. It's been WAY too long since I actually set some keys on a personal project... So, I set out and I started to story board out some ideas. I was also reading the comments from you all about BG v3 and what improvements/additions you all wanted. Most of them were already on my list of things that I wanted to add...especially the bendy limb stuff. So, a bit begrudgingly, I decided that I would go back and work on the rig a bit more. These updates to Basic Guy will be more fun to animate for me too!

So, the first thing that I decided to implement was the bendy limb stuff. It took me a bit to figure out the best way to do this. I played with spline ik solutions, expression based solutions, utility node solutions...pretty much anything that I could think of. Unfortunately, nothing was working the wayt that I wanted it to. I would get everything set up and then I would run into issues such as spline ik twisting issues, fk/ik snapping issues, etc. Needless to say, I lost handfuls of hair during this!

The solution that I ended up going with was based off of Aaron Holly's ribbon spine. If you have never heard of this solution, it basically uses hair follicles to use as the deformer! This seems to be by far the most versatile solution. Perfect it is not, but I am very happy with it right now. The only down side of this solution is that I think you must be using Maya "Unlimited" to have the bendy stuff work. However, since I'm not really using much of the "hair" side of things, I may be wrong about this....

I also added more finger controls. Or more specifically, I added the "carpal" bones. This will allow you to get more realistic/less rigid hand poses.

Now this next announcement is really exciting to me. A co-worker has agreed to lay out his uvs for me!!!! Yes, Basic Guy is FINALLY getting uv'd! He also said that he would paint a texture for him as well. I'm also toying with the idea of modeling "clothes" that would be swappable on him. This way, BG will be way more customizable than he is now...

Also in the works is a more robust GUI. However, since MEL and me are not the best of friends, this process is taking some time. But, in the end, I hope to have a GUI where you can select rig parts, the ik/fk matching, maybe some pose buttons, face rig, etc...

Anyway, there is a small update as to what I've been doing lately.

Thanks to all of you who have emailed me with priceless feedback and also all the kind words!

Cheers and happy animating!
Tim

yet another update...

I have come to a conclusion… I am a terrible blogger! Since I first posted my blog, nearly six months ago, I have only posted three entries. In person, I talk a lot. Some people might even say too much;) But, for some reason, I have a really hard time sitting down and updating this site. So, I apologize to those that continue to stop by and see what I have going on.

However, I’m sure that 99% of those that stop by are wondering about Basic Guy v3.0 (and could care less about what I have to “say”). I get emails from all over the world asking “yo Tim, we’re waiting man!!!! What gives man?!?!”. Trust me, I want him done as much, if not more so, than the rest of you. Unfortunately, finding the time to actually sit down and work on him is REALLY hard for me these days.

Note: I’m about to go off topic;)

Recently (December of 2007), I have opened a small animation studio in Portland, Oregon. That’s the NW United States for those not familiar with the states. It is actually a satellite studio for Page 44 Studios. They are located in San Francisco, CA (I think everybody knows where California is!). I used to be the lead animator there for over four years. But, back in 2005 I moved back up to Oregon to try something new… Well, Oregon is not the place to really live if you are an animator…yet. We have a few studios here. But, it’s nothing like Cali though.

After struggling to find steady animation work, I decided to try a different route. Why not get something of my own going? I have always loved leading a team. So starting a studio was something that really spoke to me. While Portland isn’t saturated with tons of studios, we have a pretty large pool of talent. At first the studio was going to be 100% me. However, I have very little business training and figuring out where to start was a bit scary.

But, then I started talking to Page 44 again and they suggested the idea of me opening a branch up here. Needless to say, it is a dream come (coming) true! Sure the studio isn’t exactly “mine”, but I get to more or less run it however I want.

I have recently hired three talented animators to help me get things going. We are currently working on a very high profile video game title (I can’t really say too much about it because it hasn’t been publicly announced yet.). At this point, I have reached my limit for co-workers. I’d love to have more animators, but Page 44 already has a team of animators in San Francisco as well. Hopefully, one day I will have a team of animators, modelers, etc! Maybe next project…

By now, you’re probably skimming everything that I’ve written looking for anything about Basic Guy. Fine, I’ll get back to thatJ Basic Guy v3.0 is still being worked on… ever so slowly. If you read the part where I explained what is currently going on with my career, then you’ll understand that I have a lot going on with work right now. I also have a wife and son that I want to spend time with after working LONG hours every day.

Unfortunately, for Basic Guy, he gets ignored most days. There really isn’t a lot left to do. But, finding the time to do it is another thing. I’d love to say that I’ll have him done soon, but I can’t make that promise. But, it is something that I REALLY want to finish ASAP and release to you all. So please don’t lose faith in him! I’m also dying to animate him again as well…

Cheers and happy animating!

Basic Guy v3.0 still coming...

Well, I figured that I would at least post something so that all of you that continue to stop by can see that I'm at least moving forward on the new Basic Guy. His current status is that his face is all skinned and the controls are all there. I just need to get them all hooked up to the Osipa style controls... You may have noticed that I have modeled the eyes into the head as well. I had originally planned on doing the floating eye thing, but I decided that it was time to build them in. I also added forehead wrinkles to add just a bit more to his appeal. I have a list of "wants" that people have requested for his rig, that I will try to get in at some point. But, for v3.0, it will most likely only have the updated head. That is what most people have requested.

Now for my excuse as to why I'm not done yet. One word: Work. This month (well, the last 30 days) my task list has become almost too much to do (well, it actually is, but who needs sleep anyway;) ). I have just over a week left before I need to deliver my files to the programmers to implement. After that, my number one goal is to get BG v3.0 done (Well, that and keep my wife and son happy)!!! I'm dying to start setting keys on him as well. I haven't animated much with him in about 3 or 4 years (The apple piece in my reel is about the only animation I ever finished with him).

So once again I apologize for the delay. He is so close.

Happy Friday!
Tim

Basic Guy v3.0 coming soon!

So, some of you may have downloaded my character "Basic Guy" and maybe you have even animated him. One of the biggest "complaints" that I always get is "Yo Tim, why does he not have a mouth man?!?!?!"? Well, I had originally created him for just physical acting exercises...meaning no facial animations. But, as time moved on, I decided to update him a bit. So he received eyes and a black "uni-brow" bar. That was version 2.

Now, put on your pants and buckle your seat belts because folks... Basic Guy is getting a mouth! Woo WOO! I also plan on adding some other small (hopefully cool) rig features. "But Tim, when man? When will you release Basic Guy v3.0?"? Now that is the million dollar question... I'm trying to get it done soon. But, being back in the workforce full time, having an 11 month old son, a wife, 2 dogs, a house to upkeep, and other "reasons" leave me little free time (and energy). However, I have been trying to do some late nighters so that I can get him done. So, I don't have a date to give you, but I do hope that it is soon.

Here is a screen cap of his new head. I'm thinking that I might leave it detached, because then, I could have head "options" down the road. What do you all think? Good idea? I also would love to have a "Basic Girl" as well. But, first things first...

So anyway, I am still here and am trying really hard to get this guy done. God knows that I am dying to get back to my own personal animations!!! I enjoy creating characters and even rigging, but my passion is animation.

Cheers and happy animating!!!

-Tim

P.S. welcome to my new blog!