this is only a...

balloon bouquet

2011-08-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Using Animation:Master's Simcloth to create floating balloons.

Shaggy's BUS STOP Rope Trick

2011-03-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

A test of a strategy for using Simcloth for rope in Animation:Master.

Shaggy's Rope Trick was created for the Animation:Master forum collaboration project BUS STOP.

SEE the complete BUS STOP project at http://tinyurl.com/BUSSTOP2010

pants, pants, pants

2010-12-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

Simulated cloth pants have been a bit of a Grail. Difficult for them to survive rapid motion and being pinched in tight spaces.

I believe that Thom walk cycle is by William Eggington.

coil o' rope

2010-11-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

Toying around with simulated cloth to make "rope".

Modeled and animated in Animation:Master.

wet, walk and wave

2010-08-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

What would a rain drop character look like? This is one possibility.

puffy rocket exhaust

2010-04-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

A 1930's, Flash Gordon-style spaceship.

Old movie rockets fascinate me because they always look so fabulously ineffective.

Original A:M forum thread

made of whole cloth

2010-04-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

Testing simulated cloth on a moving character.

1 - the rarely achieved "lambchop" pose
2 - Punch
3 - sock puppet dialog test

money drop

2010-04-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

I'm pretend rich in pretend dollar bills. Created with Animation:Master's cloth simulator.

I'm not sure why that one little dollar bill at the end is wandering around like it's lost, but I'm sure that's fixable.

beyond spiral dome

2010-04-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

This is a comparison of rendering with "'ambient occlusion" versus rendering with a light dome.

Both renders in Animation:Master

Ambient occlusion darkens or lightens the surface of a model based on how exposed each point is to the surroundings. Light domes approximate this effect by illuminating the objects from many (hundreds) of different angles. In this case my dome is made up of lights traversing a spiral from the top of a hemisphere to the ground plane.

Ambient occlusion is easier to set up and does its thing on the entire composition, while the light dome must be carefully maneuvered and works on only a finite volume of the 3D space.

However, in this situation the light dome was faster to render; 2 minutes as opposed to 10 minutes for the ambient occlusion render.

tank treads

2010-04-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

Animation test of my displacement material that makes... tank treads!

The top shows the final rendered appearance, the bottom shows the actual wireframe the material is on. The tread motion is created by rotating the material on the model. It is a bit tricky to get that to synchronize with the forward motion of the model over the ground. But not undoable.

(Click image for more detailed view.)

Original A:M forum thread.

union jack

2010-04-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

My procedural material that creates the British flag, suitable for tea time, the Queen's Birthday or your next soccer riot. Now with 100% more hoisting and waving and flapping action.

"Rule, Britannia!" performed by the Volunteer Band of The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire regiment. Used without permission.

Created and animated with Animation:Master.

Original A:M forum thread

propeller

2010-03-31T00:14:00.000-07:00

Someone on the A:M forum wondered if a propeller could be made with a procedural material. Voila!

The left is, of course the basic mesh, the right is a render of the material applied to it.

dino skin

2010-03-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

A procedural material that creates tiger-striped dinosaur skin and protruding spikes.

original Animation:Master forum thread

robot elbow

2010-03-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

Using procedural displacement materials (not bitmaps) to create a more complex surface without modeling.

The left shows the actual mesh, the right shows the rendered result with the materials.

Created in Animation:Master

heavy syrup

2010-03-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

This is not a fluid simulation... it's a simulation of a fluid simulation. I manually animated the splines in this model to imitate the motion of thick syrup.

The first half shows the fully rendered view, the second half shows the splines.

Slight further development of the concept:

Original A:M forum thread

a pint of Guinness

2010-03-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

After I posted an image of my shamrock material on CGTalk, some wag asked, "More importantly, can you make a procedural material for Guinness?"

Click on it for a close-up to see the bubbles.

Done with mostly spherical combiners in Animation:Master

sham wow

2010-03-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

for St.Patrick's Day, a procedural material that creates... a shamrock!

Created using grid and spherical combiners in Animation:Master.

car paint

2010-03-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

It's a Brand... New*... DELAHAYE!

This test was about creating the new car "glamor shot" look with clear coat over various paint finishes. Some are hyper-iridescent treatments which vary the color depending on what angle you view the surface.

Created in Animation:Master.

* 1947 model year. Tax, title, and license extra. May not meet modern emission standards. Wide white sidewall bias-ply tires are for display only and may not be roadworthy above 25 mph. Passenger compartment is an extra cost option installed by the dealer. Dealers may not be in your area as the Delahaye company ceased to exist in 1954. Seat belts not available. Always park on a hill so you can start the engine by engaging the clutch as the car rolls down the incline. Never park on a hill as the safety brake is the object of a recall. Interior of car may contain numerous clowns who will jump out at you from the trunk. Open with caution. Always drive carefully. Do not drink and drive. If you need a drink after driving your 1947 Delahaye, a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 may be concealed in the "glove compartment".

jellybean jet

2010-03-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, someone on the A:M forum asserted that some task was easy, and another person retorted "yes, like making a plane out of jellybeans is easy."

So just to do it, I made this plane of jelly beans. The beans are individual models that I programmed to randomly choose their own color from several options, saving me from having to set each one manually.

on moonlight bay

2010-03-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

An animated procedural noise material driving "bump" on a flat mesh to simulate a large body of water. The boat and moon are also flat surfaces with images mapped on them. Created in Animation:Master.

ankylosaurus takes

2010-03-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

The first try out of a dinosaur modeled with the lowest density splineage possible. There is no CP weighting between the bones. Everything is hard-attached to the nearest bone.

Modeled, animated and rendered in Animation:Master.

just tests

2010-03-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

Did you know it's just about impossible to register a blogger.com blog with the word "test" in the name? I found that out trying to start this blog.

Well, less is more.

This blog presents some of my ongoing animation and CG graphics tests.

These are usually done quickly to test one small idea for feasibility and further development or perhaps to answer someone else's question.

They are not presented as finished works or as polished pieces for a demo reel. In most cases, many things have been left undone so the one small variable could be isolated.

Here's a test pattern, an experiment in the non-standard use of procedural combiners to create a representational image. There are no bitmaps here.