Well, I’ve been doing a lot of work on ‘Tormented’. However, I’ve been focusing on the “logistics and production” side of things, rather than the 3d.

During these past days I’ve gone through a few documents including the actual synopsis, production schedule, budget, distribution plans and all that stuff. This may sound like a lot of useless work, but I am doing it for a reason. I’m going to “reach out for help” or whatever you wanna call it.

There’s this organization or something called Cinergia. What they do is to provide financial aid to directors, writers and whatever, to help them make their dream possible… meaning that they give you enough funds to make your movie.

The most obvious question would be “why no make this film just for the fun of it?” The problem is that, if you’re like me, you breathe, sleep and also eat. If you want to eat, you need food, and if you want food you need money. Now, if I spend 4 or 5 months working on this film, I better have a lot of money to survive while I work on this.

Nevertheless I’m unlucky enough to have this abundance of lack of money. That’s why I have to work, to get money. However if I work 10 hours a day the last thing I’ll want to do is work on a film… needless to say that a 4 month production can easily become a 4 year production because of that.

Anyone can argue that I don’t need the money because I already have the equipment, but the thing is that moviemaking SHOULD be something you could make a living out of.

This is where Cinergia comes in. If you’re like me you love movies, you love moviemaking and you love animation… but you want that to be your profession, not a “just for fun” thing.

So that’s the plan

Anyway, that doesn’t mean that I’ve also worked on some 3d stuff as well. I have a couple of small updates on the 3d side for you. I’ve been working a lot on Mariana and now she’s completely finished (almost). I had to change her clothing due to some changes on the script.

I personally find her prettier now

Here you can see two turntables of her. The first one is a standard full body shot…

… and the second one is a close up spiral shot kind of thing.

Anyway… I’ve also spent a great deal on the fabric textures to make them feel like “real fabric” instead of making a plain thing with this procedural texture. Another thing is that fabric isn’t actually opaque (and you don’t need to be a genius to see that…). I tried to make it a little bit translucent, but also design it in a way that you can actually see some “color bleeding” through it, because some fabrics are actually somewhat “see through” even if light doesn’t go through them.

So you can see the picture below and you will notice that you can somewhat see he pink panties, although the skin is somewhat difficult to see through the fabric.

In case you’re wondering, that’s pink lace… but I’m not showing you that…

ANYWAY! in other news… you may or may not know that SIGGRAPH is just around the corner… and the only explanation for you not knowing that is because you’ve been living under a rock for some time… or because you know nothing about the animation industry whatsoever.

Well, my bags are already packed, and I’m just waiting for the plane to take off. I’ll be setting up a uStream channel so you can see what I’m up to while I’m over there, although I don’t think I’ll be streaming live 24/7 because the battery of my laptop will die on me in no time if I do.

Anyway, that’s all for today. Gosh! This was a very long post!

Ok, I know this isn’t going to cause much of a “OMG! I didn’t know till now!” since I’m pretty sure everyone in the animation industry knows it by now. However it’s because of people like Stan Winston that the visual effects industry is what is it today.

So yeah, it’s a shame that everybody has to leave us, but that’s just the way things work I guess. He will surely be missed.

Stan’s IMDB page

Stan’s Wiki page

Well, hello! Long time no see. How have you been anyway?

Ok, I have continued working on Mariana. I finished the facial morphs and she’s now ready for facial rigging “à la Jason Osipa”. In the meantime I’m also working on some normal maps for her on Mudbox.

The reason why I’m going the normal maps way instead of displacement maps is because of render time. Besides, normal maps alone yield some really outstanding results by themselves.

I can’t even begin to stress how much I like Mudbox, btw. I remember I TRIED to learn ZBrush a couple of years ago or so, and I was completely clueless.

Anyway, so far I have the details for the lips and a little “bump thing” above the lips that make her look somewhat sexy (supposedly, anyway).

Someone is working on the sets, and later a third guy will work on the small props and such. That should give me enough time to finish her, and when she’s finally ready we will make this small teaser trailer demo sort of thing.

We’re actually going to look for ways to raise money so we can move this project along. If you’re into 3D you surely know how difficult it is to produce your own films while you’re working full time. Well, that’s pretty much our case, and the reason behind us trying to get money to produce this short is because we want to be able to focus on this completely and utterly.

I’m already working on some sort of “fund-raising, selling, and all that crap” plan, so everything’s going to be ready by the time the demo is finished.

Well, a while ago I had gotten into this web design contest by Microsoft. They were like celebrating the launch of the new Microsoft Expression software, so they ran this “Expression Contest” in Central America and the Caribbean.

I never keep up with the contests and stuff so I didn’t know about this one. However, a friend of mine told me “you should compete” and all that. Anyway, long story short, I did compete, and it so happens that I won the second place, hehe.

http://www.microsoft.com/centroamerica/msexpresion/default.aspx

The link above leads to the contest page. However, unless you you know spanish there’s not much you can do over there other than look for any “go to the english version” button…

Anyway, that one is surely going to look good on my résumé, even if I am not exactly a web designer

Well, by now we should all know that the meaning of life, the universe and everything is in fact 42… So, now that I’ve taken the obvious stuff out of the way I can forget about this nonsense and focus on the post.

Anyway, I’ve been doing some work and stuff. Not 3d-related work, though. I came with this crazy idea for an animated movie, and also another crazy idea about selling animated TV series to countries other than mine (since my country wouldn’t know about 3d graphics if it weren’t for the Playstation…), and also this extremely amazing idea for a comic, which is actually a trilogy…

In other news, I’m still looking for freelancing, so if you happen to be interested on my work drop me a line.

That’s pretty much all that’s happened so far. I will continue working on my experimental 3d between projects, but right now my mind is busy elsewhere.

And again, I need freelancing jobs!!!

And just a quick note, now that you’re here. Remember to join the ONE campaign to make poverty history. The link is on the sidebar

Ok, so it’s finally here. You’ve (hopefully) seen the WIPs that I’ve posted and all, and now here’s the real thing.

I’ve also finished my new site. There’s not much over there, but the main reason for it is to host my demo and any other information. You can visit my site here.

On my site you can also find my résumé. I will leave a direct link to my résumé on the sidebar for easy access.

So, I’m currently working as an animator/3d generalist in my country. However, I always look for ways to expand my possibilities, so I am looking for freelance work outside my country. By looking at my demo you can see I am very good at what I do, and I also love doing it.

And you can also tell that I dig Cirque du Soleil a lot (if you know Varekai, the second track on my reel should sound familiar).

Well, you may or may not know (most likely you don’t… bleh…) but I worked on a short film with some friends back in 2006. The thing is that I got an email yesterday from someone in Spain who had watched the film. That person was actually part of the team behind an animation festival called AniMadrid, and the reason for the email was because they had seen the film and they wanted it on the show.

Now, that’s surprising… Considering it’s an old movie and that I didn’t give it as much exposure as I could have, it’s a surprise that someone will watch it now, and even invite us to participate.

Soooooo right now I am getting everything together and I’ll be sending it next week or so. If you’ve seen my previous posts (and I’ll assume you haven’t) you’ll figure out the situation I am currently in… so this is kinda a light at the end of the tunnel, or maybe just the light midway, but at least it’s something.

Well, I am still working on my hopefuly-soon-to-be-released animation demo. As a matter of fact, I spent roughly all afternoon working on this animation and this is what I have so far (around 7 hours or so).

On a side note, the more I animate the more I am reminded why I love it so much.

I also worked on an interview with Ryan Wieber. He’s the guy behind Ryan Vs. Dorkman, as well as a digital compositor for Stargate Digital.

He’s worked on games such as KOTOR 2 and he’s also worked on Heroes and Stephen King’s Battleground.

It’s a long interview, but it’s really REALLY worth the read. You can read the interview on the link below.

BTW, just a little reminder: you can find links to my previous published articles on the “Publications” page on the sidebar, which would be to your right, I think…

http://www.renderosity.com/news.php?viewStory=13921

Ok… I’ve been currently working on some stuff including a poser model. Well, not exactly a model, but a “clothing model” or costume or whatever you wanna call it

I’ve always liked fantasy armors and stuff of the likes of Warcraft, and that’s pretty much what “inspired” me to make this model. I am still missing the sword, though.

In other news… there’s this organization that helps people produce their own films, and I am going to enter and see if I can manage to win something. We have to make a sort-of-feature film (more than 60 minutes long) and, according to what I understand, we’d have 18 months for it.

I have a story that could be used. It’s actually the story that I was developing for a comic, but I can make the adaptation if nobody comes up with a different story.

Hello world!

Things have been crazy. I am still working on my animation demo, and also on some stuff about marketing and stuff, looking for ways to make like an advertising comapny or something like that.

I have a lot to work on, but you can guess I lack the time to do everything I want.

Anyway, I want to show you this animation that I plan to use for my animation reel. Think of this as some sort of “teaser trailer”, lol

BTW, I’ve been connecting all of my WIPs using the video response feature. This means you can easily navigate through the videos to watch the progress.

Anyway, thanks for watching, subscribe, you know the drill