One year ago I created an animation club for my students called 8FramesIn.  The purpose was to add additional animation opportunities to an all to short animation curriculum.  Seeing as one semester of animation is not much time in developing skill sets, I felt that by providing extra projects for students to animate it would help to further their knowledge and experience as animators.   This projects is a result of my efforts to strengthen an under developed program.

CONCEPT: Sphin the Sphedish Phish has been placed on sale.  As hard he he tries he still cannot manage to get purchased.  A young girl with her mother comes into the shop to pick out her first pet fish.  She wants Spin of course but the mother is hesitant. She tells her daughter that she is not sure about Sphin being  a good choice because of his price and asks if she thinks he can do any tricks.  Sphin hears this and wants to empress the little girl. So, he spins around and jumps up and out of the tank.  The mother points out another fish to the little girl.  He is disappointed as she is pulled away.

STAGE: The setting is a modern pet store. The stage is set in fish tank. Mother and daughter are behind the camera. The story is illustrated by Sphin’s reaction to the dialogue.

OBJECTIVE: This exercise is designed to give the student an opportunity to create personality within a character that cannot be deformed.  Facial expressions are not possible.  No arms and legs are available to emote expression with.  Therefore, the student must focus on body position and change in timing to create a sense of life.

ANIMATION:

Click here to view the embedded video.

SOUND: A rough cut of the dialogue has been written for the block in.  Once the dialogue is finalized the animation will be polished and matched with the track for rendering.

VFX: N-Particles were used to create bubbles and other small particles of food that float about the tank.

CONCLUSION: I have placed 8FramesIn on hold for the time being as I am transferring the rest of it’s contents to this blog.  I will be continuing to develop 8FramesIn and all of it’s learning experiences into a classroom of my own.

So, If you are interested in learning how to animate in maya feel free to contact me and I will keep you up to date as things develop!  Spread the word.

Craig Bowman

The ORB Character was created by me for my students to use within my animation class.

CONCEPT: You are a new recruit at a military test facility.  You have been charged to complete several training exercises that will prepare you for successfully completing a test firing of the ORB.

TRAINING MODULES

1: Ball Bounce — Timing, Graph Editor Familiarization.
2: Orb Bounce & Roll — Natural Timing, Settle In
3: Orb Jump — Anticipation / Arcs / Inertia (Forces)
4: Orb Fly — Overlap, Over Shoot, Settle in, Banking, Ease In Ease Out

MAIN PROJECT: Orb Test Firing

1. Beginning — Character must start on the ground.
2. Middle — Character must move through air.
3. Ending — Character must return to the ground.

Additional Requirements: Must work with 3 separate cameras w/ 2 camera cuts

GOALS:

1. Chance to explore the principles of animation.
2. To gain a greater understanding of working in motion passes.
3. Working within a proper curve order.
4. Working within a hierarchy of controls.
5. Gain a better understanding of the Graph Editor and Dope Sheet.
6. Explore camera composition and flow of action.
7. Gain a understanding of directing the viewers eye.

MODEL:

Click here to view the embedded video.

ORB RIG & CTRL DEMO:

Click here to view the embedded video.

TEXTURE Example:

ANIMATION PASSES:

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Pass 2 — Linear

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pass 4 — A this point I open student projects to edit and critique.  Finished animation to come!

Pass 5 — Clean-up — Demo Podcast to come!

VFX:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Future development:
1. Smoke
2. Heat Trail
3. Sparks

3D Models (Works in Progress)

This post contains several models that are works in progress.  Once my new class is finalized I will be continuing to develop these characters further.  Mudbox or Z-Brush will be used to add fine details. Texturing and shader development will then begin.  After rigging them I will proceed to animate and then it’s on to lighting.  Check back for developments!

I acquired my first guitar from a college roommate. Thank you Todd Fortner for selling me that guitar.  Since those days I have owned several guitars both acoustic and electric.  I love those instruments and the music that I have made with them.  However, making my own guitar has been a long time dream of mine.  I have a long way to go the creating any instrument of quality but I surely had to start somewhere.

So, I created this Shiny Red Guitar in Autodesk’s 3D Animation software (Maya 2008).  I spent 2 days modeling and 2 days shading and lighting it.  This 3D prototype will serve as the blue print for the creation of the real guitar that I fully expect will take much longer to craft.  Until then I will enjoy a healthy daydream of  the day that wonderful music will be created through it.

Music is obviously an art that moves us from within.  It connects people in ways that can be quite profound.   When I pick that first note I am sure that the feelings created will reflect the hard work and passion that I have for both visual art and music.

Craig Bowman

These are several 3D Environments that I created and or lit/textured in the past 10 years.  Some were created in Maya 1.0 Beta and others emerged from various versions of Maya.  I will be digging up more soon and have a few new ones on the drawing board.

ARcPoint — Maya 2008

Artist Shelf — Lighting Challenge CgTalk

Halloween — Maya 1.0

Coastal Watch — Maya 2.0

Green Room — Maya 1.0

Asylum Hallway — Maya 2008