A jump/hop animation for the Wute

SpartanFlower Rigged Video

SpartanFlower Rig Completed

Another milestone on the way to my films eventual birth! I have completed the rig for the SpartanFlower, Hugo Vast's spaceship (and a character all it's own).

Vast Space Project Update

This has been a truly tumultuous time for me. I have been trying to move to another house and doing work to make the odds & ends meet. I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while. Hopefully, when the move is done and I am all settled in, I'll be able to continue full steam ahead on the Vast Space Project. Until then, I will be thinking about all the wonderful work I have yet to do on this project!

Rigging Hugo

Arrgghh!!! I have to repose Hugo into more of a t-pose for easier rigging! I'm going to try and use Maya's HumanIK system to rig him. Hopefully, that will make things easier.

Spartan-Flower Re-texturing

Here is the first part of the retexturing process. I decided to re-texture the Spartan-Flower in Maxon BodyPaint. I needed the ability to paint across models and use masks accurately. Hopefully, I can integrate this into the workflow effortlessly.

Yep, it she looks all new and shiny now, but wait till she gets a little banged up and scorched!

Extended Ladder

I'm still in the process of moving, but I started working on the "Vast Space" project again. I am going to attempt to repaint the textures for the Spartan-Flower in Bodypaint. Hopefully this will be easier than it looks.

Here is a render of the gantry ladder extended:

Survey Holo Table Textured

Here is the Surveying Holo Table with some textures added. Textures are preliminary (I haven't designed the final output yet.) I added a version with no lights at all to show the tables self-illumination.

 

Survey Holographic Table

Hugo needed a survey holographic table for mapping out areas on a planet's surface that also doubled as a regular meeting table or utility table when not in use for surveying.


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Environmental Tests

Playing with Vue Xstream (software for creating environments), trying to pin down the look for the moon that the Wutes live on.

To Come: New Equipment and Software

Looking forward to getting some more equipment and software to help with the production in the next couple of months. One piece of equipment I'd like to purchase is a new input/painting device: the Wacom Cintiq 24HD tablet. It's a tablet/screen that you can draw directly on, removing the distance betweent the use and his work. The software I'd like to purchase is Maxon's BodyPaint software. This software will allow the painting of 3D objects in a manner that will give more control than ZBrush's pixel painting. Hopefully in the next couple of months I'll be able to show more progress on the production work on the Vast Space project.

Small Exhaust Test

To take my mind off of events, I decided to test how the rocket engine exhaust from the Spartan-Flower might look. Haven't done a lot of particle tests in the past, but was interested in how easy or difficult it might be to simulate a launch.

 

 

 

There's still a lot of test to do and this is the first of many. I still need to play with collisions and other particles, but I think I'm beginning to get a feel for it.

My Sad News

I have been very grief-stricken, busy and lost beyond all lbelief from incredibly heart-rending news these past few weeks so I could not work or post regularly.

My beloved wife, Susan, passed away from this mortal plane on September 13th @11am. The love I had for my wife, my best friend, is practically indescribable. I miss her very, very much and I am saddened for those who knew her because they knew she was a very special person.

My best friend and the love of my life is gone and I am feeling so lost. I miss my Susan.

Thank you everyone for your warm thoughts and prayers.

Love, Reggie

Vast Space Movie Poster

Hello Everyone!,
I'm sorry I haven't posted in some time. My wife has finally begun swiftly recovering from her health issues and I can start (slowly) ramping up production on "Vast Space".

Firstly, I think I've finally decided to give the project it's final name, "Vast".

Here is a poster that I've been playing with that gives an intentionally misleading darker tone to the short:

 

I have many more poster ideas to come.

 

Thank you for all the prayers for me and my family. She's doing so much better.

Hugo's Tool Kit

I decided to design a toolkit for Hugo to work on his spacecraft and around the campsite with. Mainly, it will be on the landing gantry with him to supplement his lance. The tool kit will hold large tools in a magnetic suspension field so that in zero gravity, you can just put the tool in the field to 'dock' it. The tool box has a rotary inner barrel that has six magnetic suspension fields for tools. You can select which tool you want by just pressing a button and the rotary inner barrel will rotate to the selected tool.

Wute Retopolization

I had to retopolize the Wute for efficient/ease-of-animation sake. I think he looks a bit better. I made his toes a little thinner for grasping surfaces and a little longer so that he could jump more naturally, like a kangaroo.

Whew! Finally rigged landing gear/airlock gantry

Hello everyone,
I haven't posted in quite some time. My wife's been in the hospital going on three weeks now. Very serious stuff. I'd been staying in hotel rooms to be near her. Now that she's out of some of the worst of it, I've transitioned back to our apartment.

Since I've been back home, I started working on Vast Space again in an attempt to take my mind off of everything for a while. To that end, I have taken the rigs for the landing gear and the airlock gantry and combined them into the main model. I'll probably post a test movie soon to show how everything looks in motion, but for now, here's a photo of everything extended.

New Landing Gear

It's been a while since i've posted. I started work on the new Spartan-Flower's landing gear. It looks a bit more sturdier, easier to rig (and animate), plus it has shock absorbers which SHOULD work - don't know how I'll rig 'me yet, but I'll figure that out on the other side.

The Spartan-Flower seems to be coming together as a model and rig quite well.

SpartanFlower Landing Gear Update

I tentatively rigged the landing gear for the SpartanFlower, but unfortunately there are several problems, principle among them is the design. It looks too flimsy to support the 'Flower's weight. Another problem is that when unfolded, the gear barely reaches the ground and it doesn't have enough room for the shock absorbers to take effect. Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Airlock/Gantry Rigged

I rigged up the airlock/gantry for the Spartan-Flower. I may add a winch to the platform portion so that the entire thing doesn't have to come down. I didn't texture anything yet. I call this airlock/gantry system, "The Plank."