Joe Bryant

some sketchbook pics

2011-07-25T07:07:00.002+10:00

I have been doing a bit of scribbles in my notebook while on planes and trains recently. Mostly heads and characters I want to use in a game someday.

carpark concept photo

2011-03-10T00:44:00.001+11:00

maybe a neat background environment for a video game?

...red shreds,

2011-03-10T00:39:00.000+11:00

at which the hungry birds now pecked and tore.

Perforce trading cards!

2011-03-09T14:08:00.001+11:00

Perforce merchandise?! Sweeet!

colourful shoes

2011-03-09T11:32:00.001+11:00

someone was pretty happy about these.

Time to return this

2011-03-05T20:53:00.001+11:00

:'(

i like my pixar cup

2011-03-02T22:18:00.002+11:00

and i'm taking it home from work because I don't like seeing other people use it!

Juri!

2011-02-28T21:55:00.003+11:00

is the best (around) :D

Inactivity!

2011-02-27T18:28:00.002+11:00

On this blog. By me! Lets change that, shall we?

I might do some light sprucing up on the design side (nothing too drastic) and start posting here again. I've been learning so much awesome new stuff recently it'd be a shame to one day not remember any of it!

New daleks

2010-04-19T03:04:00.007+10:00

Watching the new series of Doctor Who at the moment, which is a bit hit and miss. Along with dumbed down dialouge, crummy camera angles, and silly stories, the latest miss is the new dalek design, which essentially makes it larger, fatter, and crayon coloured. Someone also decided to redesign the eye stalk, making it articulate using ball joints and visually displaying a fleshy eye in the lens. Wow. I hate it. The tennant series had a much more mature sci-fi feel, where as smith's is pulling us into the 80s again with its colourful visual style. Too bad the show was getting pretty ugly back then... and while it is possible to make a good looking picture while limiting your colour scheme to match a rubix cube, I don't think they're currently hitting the mark for me. Oh well.

The Terrible Thing of Alpha 9

2010-03-23T08:08:00.003+11:00

This animation is becoming an old favorite that I keep going back to look for. It has a great story and efficient style that tells of a pretty clever animator behind the scenes.

KeyTangent Script

2010-03-04T12:03:00.005+11:00

There are heaps of these kind of scripts around, but usually you want to make your own to suit the way you work. This script sets all keys for selected objects in the current time range to use preset tangent types, and also sets your default key tangent type as well. Lets me quickly bounce between stepped and plataeu modes while sketching out my animation, also good if you are working in a large timeline and don't want to trash your curves in finished sections.


string $inTangentType = "linear";
string $outTangentType = "step";

// Convert all keys for selected in timeline to $outTangentType
int $minTime = `playbackOptions -q -minTime`;
int $maxTime = `playbackOptions -q -maxTime`;
string $minmaxTime = $minTime + ":" + $maxTime;
$sel = `ls -sl`;
keyTangent -inTangentType $inTangentType -outTangentType $outTangentType -time $minmaxTime $sel;

// set default key tangent to $outTangentType
keyTangent -global -ott $outTangentType;

Open Script

2010-02-20T11:07:00.005+11:00

Quick little script for opening files in the current folder, good little trick if you work like I do, and if you hate getting distracted everytime you have to go hunting for the file you want to open.


string $file = "_ANIM.mb";
file -save;
string $scenename = `file -q -sceneName`;
$filename_arr= stringToStringArray($scenename, "/");
stringArrayRemoveAtIndex((size($filename_arr)-1), $filename_arr);
$filename_arr[size($filename_arr)] = $file;
string $filename = stringArrayToString($filename_arr, "/");
file -o -f $filename;

Of course replacing the $file with as many different files as you want. In each shot I'll have an _ANIM, _CAM, _ENV, _LIGHTING, & _RENDER at least, so I can quickly zap between them using duplicates of this script.

Shot Workflow

2010-02-19T18:42:00.003+11:00

Well, I've been racking up alot of shots with test animation, just to make sure it looks right, and in the process I found myself in the deep and mosquito ridden jungles of disorganisation. As such I've been getting some housework in order - after things came to be in a bit of a tangle, i began untangling with my unoffical favorite part of doing projects: automation.

The first thing is having a file referencing plan in the shot folder. When I had about 10 shots I realised that I was running around between files chasing settings like light attributes and render passes - it had the potential to get very confusing very quickly. So I made things a little more strict by having the animation, effect and environment elements all funnel into the lighting file. I made a rule that this lighting file is the only place where light linking happens, and where the beauty is developed. This lighting file is then referenced into the render file, which by another rule is the only place where render layers/passes and other render options live. After I did this, life became a little simpler, and I realised I could reuse environment, lighting and render files between shots - so all I really had to do was work on the animation.

After I did this I was able to work on new shots more freely, but that led to another problem - reorganising shots. Each shot is stored in a numbered folder, and inserting shots means renumbering others, which is a pain the next time you go to open your comping file. Since I knew I'd want to be constantly reorganising things, I automated my comping workflow as well, so it is the least intrusive to my work.

Of course, to minimise the amount of re-wiring in comping files the solution is in the use of relative paths, and having a different Blender comp file for each shot. The awesome part is I can reuse my comp files if my maya render layers follow a naming convention. Blender stays quiet if a image sequence input doesn't actually find any files, so the same comp file can be used for a variety of comping situations. When I've finished animating a new shot and rendered it, I just throw in a Blender comp file, open it, adjust the duration and hit render. All of the layering is done for me as per my render layer names, and the image sequence nodes can be set to 999 frames long - they just become blank when they run out of frames (most of my shots are only sub 200 frames).

All this means less time stuffing around, and more time animating :D

Connect Mesh script

2010-02-08T12:01:00.007+11:00

This is just a little melscript to connect the geometry of two selected objects. Its better off as a button for me as I use it quite frequently.


// Make mesh connection between first to second object in selection 
string $select[] = `ls -sl -dag -lf`;
$str1 = $select[0] + ".outMesh";
$str2 = $select[1] + ".inMesh";
connectAttr -f $str1 $str2;

Useful things in Windows 7

2010-02-03T17:37:00.006+11:00

Just wanted to point out some less obvious things I like about Windows 7... not that it's new anymore.

Copying Files. Oh yeah, the best thing about Windows 7. Copying a file using Ctrl+C also copies the full filepath to the text clipboard. This is very handy for quickly opening files rather than navigating using a program's open dialogue.

Libraries. Right click a folder and add to library. They are basically expandable shortcuts. They are great for when you're working with specific parts of a big project (in my case, my work drive and render drive), and don't enjoy the repetitive action of navigating to and fro every morning. There was a hacky trick where you could do this in XP using folders created in the start menu.

Virtual Hard drives. Yeah, hardly groundbreaking. But its good that they actually support them, even if they use their own hdd format. I think this is most useful for me simply because I run bat files to attach them when I want to do some work. This is the bat script incase my computer blows up and I realise I haven't backed up my precious, precious files.


@echo off
echo > c:\script.scr select vdisk file=c:\W-drive.vhd
echo >> c:\script.scr attach vdisk
echo >> c:\script.scr create partition primary
echo >> c:\script.scr assign letter=w
echo >> c:\script.scr exit
diskpart /s c:\script.scr

Woman in Shock!

2010-02-01T11:26:00.001+11:00

This was a fun image I had in mind while designing the header for my website, during which I wanted to make an image of a damsel in distress, as if taken straight out of an old black and white episode of Doctor Who.

View in Gallery

Production Pipeline

2010-01-30T12:18:00.017+11:00

My production pipeline is now in full swing for my short film, meaning I can press a few buttons and it spits out the composited video of the shot I'm currently working on. Its pretty important to have everything set up correctly to really streamline the rendering process, saving time to allow for focus on the final production frames. It's also much better for reviewing the animation, seeing one shot blend into the other, and seeing where the animation is needed most.

For each shot, I have the animation, environment, effects, camera, and lighting split into separate files, some of these files usually referencing other model and rig files elsewhere in the project. When working with multiple shots, it's pretty important to have some kind of pipeline for each element, so that when updates occur they update throughout the project automatically. I'll try and explain the setup here for what goes into each shot:


Character: SHOT <-- Lighting <-- [Animation, Camera] <-- Character <-- Rig <-- Model 
Environment: SHOT <-- Lighting <-- [Environment, Camera] <-- Model 
Effects: SHOT <-- Effects <-- Camera

To render each element, I have batch files in the shot folder to generate the renders on my render drive.


"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\bin\Render.exe" -r mr -cam _CAM:camera1 -pad 3 -rd R:\KittyString\03_MURKY_DRAIN\02_UNDERWATER_SHOT\_LIT_ANIM _LIT_ANIM.mb  
"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\bin\Render.exe" -r mr -cam _CAM:camera1 -pad 3 -rd R:\KittyString\03_MURKY_DRAIN\02_UNDERWATER_SHOT\_ENV _ENV.mb
"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\bin\Render.exe" -r mr -cam _CAM:camera1 -pad 3 -rd R:\KittyString\03_MURKY_DRAIN\02_UNDERWATER_SHOT\_EFFECTS _EFFECTS.mb 
:: shutdown -s

shutdown -s is nice too! Command line rendering with Maya is pretty common - I only use it when I'm working with the shots in this project, as it tends to minimise any mistakes in render settings. You might notice the camera specified is _CAM:camera1; this lets me be lazy with my camera referencing, as the rendered maya file will probably have 3 or 4 referenced cameras in it, but only the one we want is used for rendering.

So the rendered passes for each element is split into folders, and then assembled in the compositor. I'm using Blender and so far its very handy. The great thing is its so lightweight and simple, so after a render from Maya, I can just fire up Blender and set it to work. I have different comp files for each shot, and one for each section, allowing me to easily turn a sequence of 'just rendered' shots into a quicktime file for previewing.

So far so good! I'll be sure to post some image updates soon.

Learning Blender

2010-01-29T16:26:00.002+11:00

I've been spending a bit of time learning Blender, and I'm starting to like it. I have tried before and was put off by the interface, but I knuckled down with some video tuts (from all kinds of people in the colourful blender community), and now I'm feeling like a pro. Still getting the hang of using it for rigging and animation, but I was surprised to find out it's got a fairly decent compositor built into it, which I might use for my short film, and anything else in the future. The sculpting tools are not bad either. And of course, its free.

Bone Replacement

2010-01-22T13:34:00.016+11:00

This is just a simple rigging note that I've found useful in Maya.

When rigging in Maya, you may occasionally want to replace some bones in the skeleton, this can be annoying after you've already done some weight painting to the skin. The skin deformer knows which bone a weight is assigned to, but the actual weights reference a bone by name only. So we just need a new deformer. You can swap any of the bones in the skin deformer pretty easily by following this procedure:

duplicate original_bones, creating new_bones
remove the original_bones from the skeletal hierarchy
rename new_bones to match original_bones

At this point, our model is still skinned to the original_bones. We need a temp model skinned to new_bones to ensure we preserve our weights.

duplicate model, creating model_temp
make skin on model_temp using the skeleton (which now includes new_bones)
copy weights from model to model_temp

Now we have 2 meshes, skinned to both skeletal instances with the same weights. Though model_temp is correct, we usually don't want to trash our original model, so re-add the skin and copy the weights back.

detach skin from model
make skin on model using the skeleton
copy weights from model_temp to model
delete model_temp.

It's a fairly simple process, but very handy.

WIP Murky Drain colour concept

2010-01-21T16:55:00.004+11:00

This is a WIP colour concept I'm working on for the Murky Drain environment my short film project.

Short Film

2010-01-18T10:35:00.005+11:00

I've been working on a 3d animated short film during the break. The goal is to tell as simple story, be a pleasure to watch, and complete it in a timely manner. I'm slowly digging my way out of preproduction - Not running too far behind schedule but it sure is keeping me busy! I'll be sure to post updates as they come.

New Website!

2010-01-13T10:42:00.007+11:00

Robomojo.net lives again! I dusted off that old webdesign and brightened it up to hopefully catch more attention. Still some minor bugs here and there, which will be ironed out shortly. I've integrated this blog into it as well, so I don't forget about either of them again!

2009 Animation Showreel

2009-10-14T13:09:00.007+11:00

This is my Animation Showreel as of October 2009.

Shot Breakdown available here!

Redtribe

2009-10-11T19:48:00.006+11:00

My time at Redtribe, a small games company here in Melbourne, came to an end recently. I was there for 2 years and 8 months, and now I'm sniffing around for greener pastures. It was an interesting introduction to working console games, and over 4 or 5 projects I soaked up as much knowledge, experience and fun as I could, until I became a soggy, wet sponge. I've been wringed out since, and now I'm just excited about what I could be working on next!

Infestor's neural parasite doesn't seem to fit

2009-06-22T16:53:00.012+10:00

The Infestor is new Zerg caster unit in Starcraft 2, replacing in part the Defiler from the original game. I've only seen them in action in the recent Battle Report 3, but it must be said that the fact this fat, spiny creature can use its Neural Parasite ability to instantly mind control any unit (biological or mechanical) WHILE BEING UNDERGROUND (!) is a little overpowered, and unconventional.

This ability came two abilities of the previous game, and both abilities were pretty fitting. The queen spat a parasite onto another unit. The dark archon was a kind of supreme being shrouded in red smoke while hovering; OK, he seems capable of mind control. The Infestor doesn't. Blizzard have nerfed the ability in making it temporary, it is still very much OP.

Basically, I reckon the infestor should have to unburrow, spit the parasite, wait x (10) seconds for the infestation to occur, then mind control for y (also 10) seconds. It should be up to the targeted player to notice if the unit has been infested, giving them a chance to act. This should result in less spam of the ability, gets the infestor away from the front lines, and adds an more of an element of sneaky to the game, rather than just darn unfair.

Splinter

2009-06-20T23:12:00.003+10:00

Splinter is a pretty cool horror film. Without giving too much away, its got something to do with corpses with spiney things coming out of them, plauging a small group of characters who were already caught up in a bit of a tangle. Other than one or two squimish scenes, its a fun film, featuring creatures, critters, and people being tricky by using a pump action shotgun with only one arm. Always a winner!

11 Second Club November 2008

2009-05-03T23:00:00.001+10:00

The head scientist returns to an experiment gone horribly wrong...

See notes.

Starcraft 2

2009-04-18T20:33:00.006+10:00

Blizzard have finally released their 2nd 'Battle Report' for Starcraft 2, showing new graphics and gameplay in a terran vs zerg matchup. The battle report concept is a tool to illustrate Starcraft 2's design as an E-Sport title, in response to the competitive nature of its predecessor. It's also a great showcase of the game in progress, which remains highly anticipated despite a lengthy development period.

It certainly seems to be a very good looking game. I've been keenly following it since its announcement, and hopefully it will be released by the end of the year. While it doesn't seem to have the charm of its 2d predecessor, Blizzard community managers are actively working with their fan-base to ensure this sequel exceeds all expectations. This also means geeks like me can cling to all kinds of dev information and images and salivate over it.

Personally I hope they add some more goo, slime and blood to make it more like the original. So many iconic visuals came from marines exploding into a blood pool, and hydralisks spraying spines with green slime splashing from their shooters. The pictures, the sounds, my hope is that it feels the same to play. By the look of things though, I have nothing to worry about :D

Left 4 Dead

2009-01-31T17:38:00.004+11:00

Despite my initial fears, L4D is still great, and has been eating most of my free moments over the past few months.

The game is survival horror, and you choose one of 4 characters to survive against entertainingly large amounts of zombies. Mixed in there are 4 (also playable) special infected types. You generally play with other people, and usually against other people.

After prepurchasing the game, I was certain the full version would have more variation in it than the demo. More infected types, more survivors, more weapons, more levels. To my dismay, it only had more levels, but I keep playing, and it's still fun.

Fortunately Valve continue to support their games post release, so this game will probably continue to evolve over time, (just as Team Fortress 2 has) maintaining a strong userbase in the meantime.

Claudio Munoz

2009-01-06T00:09:00.002+11:00

Fell in love with this illustration in The Economist today.

There is nice grouping in the heads, in pairs. I love how the expressions blends from being terrified of going down the roller coaster, to sullenly noticing death from behind. And the one squealing like a pig! Meanwhile the background is so playful!

The artist's name is Claudio Munoz, more gems to be found in his portfolio.

The Thing

2009-01-03T15:15:00.004+11:00

John Carpenters The Thing is a cult horror film with a gory charm I had forgotten until recently. I found it particularly interesting for its wild special effects shots with gruesome images of dogs and humans and other creatures being imitated by the Thing, sometimes rather inaccurately.

I was interested to learn that the special effects were mostly handled by a young guy named Rob Bottin, who lived at the studio for the year or so it took to complete the film, subsequently being admitted to hospital... He really loves his job! Stan Winston also helped out with some shots of the dog monster in the kennel, which I felt were less wild and exaggerated (and more spooky) than some of the other parts Bottin handled.

However, without picking each shot apart, it all sums up to a wild ride. You should watch it (again?), unless you're a little squiemish about.. well.. revolting images.

Oh, and word has it that a prequel is in the pipes, involving the events suffered by the Norwegian crew after discovering the alien ship. I suppose it could have some kind of surprise ending involving more aliens... Either way the bar has been set pretty high!

Raptor Run Test

2009-01-03T12:02:00.004+11:00

I've been playing around with this giant bird character for a little while. Its basically a velociraptor with a beak, a shorter tail, and longer arms. This animation would be a run that is just before a pounce, so I have the hands out a little; they would otherwise tuck in under the chest.

Raptor Run Test from Joe on Vimeo.

Facelift

2009-01-02T21:07:00.000+11:00

I've been away for a little while, having pre-christmas work nightmares, and then post-christmas travels. So, to boost my enthusiasm now that I'm back, I decided to spruce things up around here. Looks better to me!

11 Second Club November Draft 01

2008-11-17T00:36:00.002+11:00

Link to Video

Just blocking out for now. There will be some background characters that fill in the crowd reaction in the audio.

My interpretation:

The man has just rescued the young lady from the hands of a group of scientists, who were attempting to duplicate her using an experimental machine. The man is to be seen as somehow respectable to the group of scientists, but they stubbornly insist that they are on the money.

A link to my entry is here.

Completed 11 Second Club!

2008-11-06T21:21:00.001+11:00

Finally, I completed something outside of work! I'm simply relieved that I can finish and submit something was essentially a lunch time project (plus a late night or two). I am fairly happy with the result, and eager to get started on the next one.

My progress was as follows:

13th: animation draft with default biped in 3dsmax 14th: character models with simple face rig
15th: test facial animation
17st: Camera cleanup.
21st: Animation draft finish
25th: test character model for basic form (body, fingers) and details (clothes, hair)
28th: Animation cleanup.
29th: Damage control. Removed clothes and hair; presentation to focus on animation. Test Renders.
30th: Final animation cleanup: Final Render.
31st: Submit!

I was admittedly cutting it a little fine, but I felt pretty comfortable in the final days, but I was pretty happy with the overall result. I had a decent character workflow; characters in separate files, easy merge process and animation transfer. I would have liked the shot to be complete with clothes, hair and background, but ultimately this submission was about the animation. I also felt the face rig could have been a touch more 'elegant', including better squeeze controls and perhaps 8 lip controllers instead of 4. Maybe next time!

11 Second Club October 2008

2008-11-01T04:12:00.001+11:00

11 Second Club October 2008 from Joe on Vimeo.

Two people, suspiciously disguised as naked clones, discuss 'the point' over a couple of beers.

Trying out for 11 Second Club

2008-10-15T19:26:00.001+11:00

Amidst the highs and lows of work, I thought I would try out for this month's 11 second club animation competition. My entry is here.

I'm kind of building my bits as I go, and going for some more straight ahead animaiton style, so I am not sure how the forum regulars will react over there. Most commonly I see people using the traditional approach; grab a rig, pose to pose, etc. I want to learn as much about rigging as I do animation, so my entry may be slightly different.

Cornered 3d Mockup

2008-10-05T19:54:00.000+11:00

Where did the time go?! Alas, the cornered competition is over! and I breathe secret relief in seeing very few finished entries. But now, what do I do with this thing? I've been so absorbed by work, I had pushed it aside. I am not too sure... I guess time will tell.

Wall-E

2008-09-19T21:28:00.000+10:00

It was Great :) From an animators perspective, there was about 6 minutes total of live action that I would have perferred to see in CGI, but I thought it was awesome none the less.

Rogue

2008-09-16T23:36:00.000+10:00

Maybe just because it's an Australian creature horror, this caught my eye during it's marketing time. I liked Rogue (I didn't like Lake Placid 1, 2). It was clear, clean and had some fun moments, not to mention some very nice Australian landscapes. Perhaps there isn't enough monster crocodile overall (it's about a monster crocodile by the way), but it didn't have any blurry 0.65 second CGI action shots, which is something I very much appreciate. Only one shot was a little funky on the animation side, but it still looked great. There is a great one of the croc eating a dog, which is pretty enjoyable. That dog was acting very strangely.

The Mist

2008-09-14T11:53:00.000+10:00

I wasn't expecting anything from The Mist. It's one of those titles that has you assuming it will be crap, and the special effects shots turn out to be filtered actors behaving like cranky ghosties. But with this movie I was pleasantly surprised; this mist has monsters in it! Terrorizing a large cast of characters trapped in a supermarket. While the monsters are cool, the movie is quite long and heavy, including a drawn out bible bashing segment and an ugly ending. The monster segments work really well to loosen up the mood. And there's a healthy dose of gore as well!

Cornered Goodness!

2008-09-13T15:45:00.000+10:00

There is some goodness coming out of the Cornered mini challenge! Digitalwerk, Sandr0, Mellbrix, cook5000; I reckon these peoples are on to something special! It's great to watch, gives me some ideas on how to approach my one. Looking at these entries though, I've got a long way to go!

Cornered 3D Mockup

2008-09-13T12:39:00.000+10:00

I haven't had a lot of time to work on this, just bits and pieces over the last couple of weeks. I thought I should try and sort out the overall look with some geometry and lights, before getting into the texturing. I have to finish the modelling once I am happy with it, then do the UV's, then bake the lights, probably play with some other lighting as well, then get started with some more detailed stuff. Below is the wire.

Angel Cop

2008-09-13T07:49:00.000+10:00

Watching Angel Cop on my VHS back in the day is definitely one of my favorite childhood memories. It really has everything you want in an 90s Japanese anime; a healthy mix of elite police, terrorists, scientists, cybernetic bodies, and rouge psychokinetic agents. Oh, and gore! It's fun, and neatly contained in 6 episodes, taking you from urban action to epic showdowns.

The art style is reasonably consistent, changing only a little after the pilot, and the synthesized soundtrack will glue you to every moment. I'll have to watch it again, even if it's just for the slightly tacky title sequence!

The Peon's Crusade

2008-09-12T04:55:00.000+10:00

I've been busy lately! At work we've been discovering the wonders of the infamous 3dsmax motion-mixer, which will undoubtably lead to an animation production that is slightly wonky! I have been getting a hang of all of the issues though, which include character playback offsets, memory leaks, and backwards compatibility (yadda yadda yadda). The secret is: Don't ask too much of it, and fewer things will go wrong! 3dsmax really is a lackluster program sometimes! The memory leak in 8 SP3 is particularly woeful, which eats memory every time you adjust timing until the the program dies. Fortunately mix files are backwards compatible, otherwise the whole thing would have to go out the window!

Corner concept

2008-09-01T01:24:00.000+10:00

Am planning on entering Cornered to get my game art practices up to scratch. It's the kind of thing I know vaugely how to do, but am not directly exposed to it at work. In this corner, a giant something lives in the wall and eats people... I'll add more clutter and chaos in 3d, depending on my budget. My entry is here.

Tropic Thunder

2008-08-31T20:13:00.000+10:00

Ahh, Ben Stiller. Of course you've seen Zoolander, and of course you know about Tropic Thunder. Personally I enjoyed Zoolander more; it stayed on track, where as TT sets out to explore. I was having a really good time in the first 10 minutes with the over-the-top war movie bits. And then the movie started, changing its tone - I wanted more of the silly stuff. But still, the rest was very fun!

Rod Guen

2008-08-28T15:46:00.000+10:00

A friend at work passed on a link to Rod Guen's website, which showcases an amazing collection of girls, superheroes, comics and storyboards. The girls gallery is definitely my favorite.

The Hive

2008-08-28T00:41:00.000+10:00

Don't expect alot from The Hive. Terrible editing, acting, cinematography, and dialogue ruin this kind-of-interesting aliens + ants adventure movie.

The editing is guaranteed to make you confused, and the poor camera work is often hilarious. There are lots of ants in this movie, and it doesn't muck around until it reaches it's annoying mid section, where the narrative seems to get bogged. It's laughable, while not intentionally funny, but it is on the line of just plain terrible.

There's a guy with an ant in his brain who flinches 'involuntarily' and starts to go quietly crazy - oddly this doesn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the ants in the movie; it's just a rogue ant biting brain bits when it feels like it. You'll be confused.

Somewhat redeeming is some of the aliens + ants concepts flying around. An alien is controlling the ants, which sometimes become a physical extension of the alien form - forming tentacles, and even a computer matrix cube thing with electricity pulsing inside. It's cool, and makes you unhappy that the rest of the film isn't.

Watch with beer, and keep a finger near the fast-forward button.

First!

2008-08-27T21:54:00.000+10:00

Hello! This is my new blog. Above: A pink squidgy thing.

About Me

2008-08-19T07:55:00.007+10:00

My name is Joe Bryant, I'm 26 years old, and I live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm a character animator with experience in 3d animation and 3d character setup.

Experience

Feb 2007 - Sep 2009 (2 years 8 months)
Red Tribe - Animator
Red Tribe is a games studio in Melbourne, Australia. Character animation and setup using 3D Studio Max for projects involving combat, cutscenes and dancing. Worked directly with various outsourcing parties. Assisted engineers with automation tasks. Briefly touched upon Creative Producer role for XBLA pitch title.

Original IP Pitch (XBLA): Creative Producer, Lead Animator
Developed existing game design and art direction for pitch prototype, Assisted with project management, Created stylised animations for player, enemy and critter characters, Rigged characters.

Original IP (Wii): Animator
Created stylised animations for player and enemy characters, Created scripted animations, Rigged characters.

Unannounced Licenced Project (Wii): Lead Animator
Created realistic animations for various characters, Managed outsourcing of animation, Created previs cinematic animation, Assisted with design elements including gui prototypes and level progression.

Space Chimps (360, Wii, PS2): Animator
Created stylised animations for player, enemy and critter characters, Rigged characters, Optimised characters.

Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal (360, Wii, PS2): Animator
Created stylised animations for enemy characters, Rigged characters, Created effects, Optimised characters.

2006 (6 months)
- Queensland University of Technology - Sessional Academic (tutor) for Animation and Motion Graphics, teaching Photoshop and After Effects.

2004-2005 (8 months)
- WebXpress - Worked as a contract developer for various design and interaction design projects for a number of clients.

2004 (6 months)
- Qantm College - Lab Supevisor (after hours tutor) assisting with queries regarding a variety of software programs.

Education

2006 (1 year)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) (Majoring in Communication Design, Specialising in Animation), Queensland University of Technology

2003 - 2005 (3 years)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Specialising in Animation), Queensland University of Technology

2002 (1 year)
- Diploma of Screen (Animation), Qantm College

Software/Programming Languages

Expert
- 3D Studio Max
- Alias Maya
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Photoshop
- Macromedia Flash

Competent
- Macromedia
- Dreamweaver
- Maxscript
- Melscript
- Actionscript

Doom

2008-07-01T00:56:00.000+10:00

Tonight I watched the Doom movie attempt for the second time. I found it in the bargain bin at K-mart for $8 - I thought it would be good for a laugh :) I had the same impression as the first time - the monster shots were rushed, its too dark, and just seemed kind of silly.

Then I watched a few of the bonus features and saw how much the team really got into it. They used lots of prosthetics, it all seemed really well done, and from the interviews it sounded like they were doing a really good job, and they were really proud.

And then in the movie it looks terrible. It’s a shame, because the quality looked really good in the making of; it just goes to show how production values can be wasteful if they are not properly handled in the final presentation.

Kung Fu Panda

2008-06-21T00:54:00.000+10:00

I was lucky enough to see Kung Fu Panda at the IMAX here in Melbourne (actually my first IMAX movie!) experiencing 90 minutes of awesomeness. I bought the Art of KFP book earlier, so I was pretty familiar already with what I was going to see, but it was still good :)

If I were to pick gripes, It did seem a little too brief in the story department. Some parts were a little rushed, which seemed to strip some of the deeper meaning, and create a few clashes in the characters. Master Shifu and the Furious Five required some getting used to. Maybe I didn’t like the tone of the celebrity voices, but it just seemed to switch between ‘cool Kung Fu movie’ and ‘kids movie’ from time to time.

That being said, it certainly was a pleasure to watch, with sweet animation and visual style. I can recommend the Art Book also for some excellent drawings of Nicolas Marlet, which includes plenty of great character designs, including the ones who seemed to miss the bus.

Robokill

2008-06-19T00:59:00.000+10:00

Take a look at Rock Solid Arcade’s top-down shooter Robokill - Titan Prime, a classic arcade shooter web game with RPG elements (there’s a shop, items and inventory). You basically have to clear out rooms, shooting robots, collecting the wads of cash and items that fall out when they die. It’s simple and fun. The presentation is fantastic. Try it out!

The Happening

2008-06-16T01:04:00.000+10:00

I had some ‘out of nowhere’ expectations for this movie and, well, lets just say, it worked for me. It was a pretty simple ‘idea’ movie, which didn’t seem to take itself too seriously. Thats to say Mark Wahlberg didn’t take it too seriously, with the most annoying ‘I’m an eager Science Teacher’ voice ever. The best bits of course were all the death scenes, but, unfortunately, the trailers probably ruined the half the fun for you.

Not everyone thought it was OK though, Grace hated it, and so did Metacritic (aka everyone else), giving it a 35 last time I checked. But hey, it might be worth the ride for you. Although, as a friend at work pointed out, you might not be too enthusiastic about M. Night Shyamalan taking on Avatar: The Last Airbender anymore…

Harvest

2008-06-10T00:50:00.000+10:00

Do take a look at the very awesome Harvest - Massive Encounter for your strategic pleasure. The game basically has you mining resources, managing energy distribution and positioning laser towers and other defenses in the path of incoming flying saucers. They look cute, and I’m sure they just want a hug, but you’ll have to kill them. It’s simple representation shows it’s strength when your base design flaws are exposed by your deceivingly slow enemies.

I like to play at double speed :) but I can’t seem to get past threat level 56!

Attack of the Pyramid Squid Monsters!

2008-06-09T10:25:00.002+10:00

This has been a little lunch time project of mine for a few days. I know there's a bunch of perspective errors and the brush work is at times a little too many scribbles, but I'm trying to keep my workflow nice and fresh. Drawing the tentacles was a pain, I think next time I will work with vector masks for areas like that.

See in Gallery

The Orphanage

2008-06-07T01:02:00.000+10:00

This movie is very good, and is a great guide for efficient movie making! Nice work to director Juan Antonio Bayona and no doubt producer/presenter Guillermo del Toro. The house in this movie did a fantastic job too.

The movie is basically a haunted house story, and is full of creaky hallways, metal clangs, and ghosts. I jumped on several occasions; its the children. I think my memories of the alien in Alien 3 running on the roof kind of mixed with the creepy characters of The Ring and The Grudge, and now I’m just terrified of children in the dark. I think real blood makes me a little wheezy too… I’m so tough!

The Blue Girl With Green Eyes

2008-06-02T00:24:00.002+10:00

I was playing with some brush settings in photoshop, and thought I'd follow through with this one. This was a bit of fun! I'm working on a tentacle monster project in the background at the moment, and this kind of gets me back into the swing of things! I actually spent a bit of time on the line work here - although it's still quite messy. I need a better way of controlling the shape of the lines, rather than fiddling over it with the eraser. I like the colours though!

See in Gallery

Showreel May 2008

2008-05-20T10:15:00.001+10:00

Showreel - May 2008 from Joe on Vimeo.

This is my character animation showreel as of May 2008.

Skullworm Test

2008-05-17T00:18:00.002+10:00

Skullworm Test from Joe on Vimeo.

This was a creature I was testing for a short film project that unfortunately didn't get off the ground. The tentacles are composed of node chains with each segment's child containing the skin link and moving independently. I'll be sure to re-visit this creature when the storyboard is finished!

Spider Demon

2007-01-17T02:41:00.000+11:00

I began working on this as an idea for a short monster shot, thinking to create a human that had been bent, twisted, and reshaped into a demon monster. I began roughing out the skeleton in Maya and then worked on a paint over in photoshop, giving me an idea of the form of the monster.

I then revisited the creature and blocked out the 3d form, and later applying some texture to get a feel for the monster. Unfortunately I didn't finish the creature.

Green and Yellow Fella

2006-01-04T02:37:00.002+11:00

Pondering, strangely evil looking guy - achieved through the choice of light and eyebrow pose. I moved from a paintery style to cartoon, noting the difference between the face and hand, but I think they work well together, so long as one is moderately dominant. Here, the face is given some touches of life that seem more natural than the stark green-orange-yellow combination on the hands. The hair narrowly avoids ruining the whole thing - had it the same paintery style as the face, it would work better. This is also clearly a lighting exercise; the gradient background acts as a helpful guide.

See in Gallery

Showreel November 2004

2004-11-18T13:55:00.001+11:00

Showreel November 2004 from Joe on Vimeo.

This is my first showreel, with clips from content created for 1st and 2nd year student projects. In retrospect, I made a very strange choice for the music!