3D Animation

Plan B: Bruce Willis

September 30, 2008 September 30, 2008 A few weeks ago, we began our character modeling module.  I really wanted to develop a set of original players for use in a short, three-minute animation I plan to turn in at the end of the school term.  They’re a fun, kind of cartoony bunch led by an animated toaster and inspired by all the great work the guys and gals over at Pixar are doing. Unfortunately, when it came time to start the module to begin modeling our characters, I didn’t have all my designs sketched out yet.  Procrastination: 1, Me: 0. A brief moment of panic followed. One of the course requirements is lip syncing. So in order to meet this, I decided I would just work up a real person. Another one of my goals is to eventually get involved with special effects, specifically integrating them with live action, so I’ll probably need to know how to model, texture, and animate real people at some point. That’s when my backup plan kicked in: I would collect photo reference and model an actor I admire and whose films tend to feature a lot of shooting and exploding. So, here’s Bruce Willis from his turn in Live Free or Diehard, along with the un-textured digital double I made of him using Autodesk Maya. Organic modeling is hard.  Thus far, our class has done automobiles, product placement, and environments, and right now I’m crying for a chance to return to the hard edges and machined surfaces of those projects.  I know Bruce will be very rewarding once I animate him, but getting there is a challenge I wasn’t prepared for.