my creative space thursday

Hello everyone and a (very belated) happy new year! Does this still count? Or are people already feeling sour about this year?
Well, happy new year anyway...

I must confess that I'm an avid blog reader, and everyday I go through my gmail reader happy in the knowledge that I will find something inspiring. Today, whilst reading Loobylu I found post that will hopefully help me kick my proverbial behind into gear, as I haven't feeling particularly creative. In it Claire mentions kootoyoo's (aka Kirsty) idea of showing her creative space every thursday.
As Kirsty says “Each Thursday I’m going to post an image of what’s in progress either on my desk, in my spot, on the sofa, desktop, at the kitchen table…whatever. If you’d like to play along & find some new blogs along the way then you just need to post & then pop into my creative space post for the day & paste your post URL into the auto link widget…”
So, I joined and this week I'm number 21!! How cool is that?
My photo isn't very impressive, I'm at a stage in the process of creating a softie that's isn't too showey and to be honest, I'm still trying to get my brain around this ultra robot, with extra fancy joints. I decided to use a tool of my trade to create a "3d" version of the toy but, right now I'm not too sure where I'm heading.
Well, do check Kirsty's website and look at the other more impressive creative spaces, but, don't forget to come back next thursday :)

silly little thing

Just a silly little model that I just finished for an animation exercise with Nani, hopefully I will post it here pretty soon! It isn't that special but, I'm really pleased with it. As people used to say "simple things please simple minds" ;oP

presenting MiauMau

Hello everyone!
Here's a few drawings from my latest pet project... It is a bit of a "self-portrait", in a certain way it is more of a alter-ego, pretty much like Clark Kent and Superman. Basically if I put a pair of glasses on and change my hairdo, I should look something like these pictures!!
Scary!
Ok, enough silliness. These drawings represent the 6 basic facial expressions: Happiness, Hanger, Disgust, Surprise, Sadness and Fear, they also include the basic phonemes* that are used to do lip sync in 3d.
Hopefully, I will be able to show you the full 3d model pretty soon. Right now, Miaumau is still under construction and with the help of my bear and MacGio (a friend of ours, check out his website), this little kitty will finally see the light of day.

*Here's a little something something for you guys out there who either want to learn a bit more about 3d character animation...
If you have looked through several book about 3d animation you will find that they tend to use more phonetic blendshapes than the ones that I mention in this post. I tend find those unnecessary, they just seem to confuse me even more, and to be honest (in my point of view) don't really help when I'm trying to do lip sync, especially if I have to do it quickly.
It is better to keep it simple!
As Robert Browning used to say, "Less is more"