BYU's Newest Animated film

BYU's newest senior film is a short called Owned. This is a render from that short. I am responsible for the three characters' hair, and this is the first of them. Her name is Abby.

There are still some glaring issues with the pigtails obviously, but other than that I'm fairly pleased with how its turned out.

Its really fun working on this film, and everything I've learned from the last film, is helping a lot with making this one a lot more awesome.

In Light of the Mayan Apocalypse...

I figured that since allegedly the world will end in fire or something in a couple of days, I'd post something festive for that occasion.... Kidding!

I was going through my files, trying to back up my work before we switch labs after Christmas Break, and found the first thing I ever did in Houdini about a year and a half ago: this torch flame!

Its insanely short, I can't remember why I didn't render out more frames, and maybe there is a longer one hidden somewhere, but I remember both enjoying this assignment a ton, and going crazy over the shader and other little things. I think I'll go back and try to make some really nice fire sometime and composite it into a real image someday. Only after I get the hair working in actual shots for our senior film though.

Also stay tuned: I'm modeling and grooming a lion over the next few weeks, so hopefully I'll have that to show you guys soon!

Tyler Carter is Having a contest

Sorry, Nothing from me today, but soon I'll have some sweet hair shots to show you guys from Chasm!

But today is not that day. Instead I am giving my friend Tyler Carter a plug. He is doing a giveaway on his blog. There are some REALLY cool prizes including half-tuition to AnimSchool, and a number of stunning prints. He is one of the most talented people I have ever met, and I am sure that in a few years he's going to be pretty legendary.

So check out this video:



Enter the contest. Follow his Blog. Maybe you'll win! and if not, at the very least you'll be following a really ace artist.

New Demo Reel!

Check it out! I made a new Reel. Let me know what you think!

Simulation Reel November 2012 from Meredith Moulton on Vimeo.

Houdini Hair

Hey guys! Its been a while since I posted anything new to this blog, because I've been hard at work trying to figure out how to do hair in Houdini for my class' senior film. This is Addison, the main character, and this is just a test to see how well her hair reacts using muscles/chopNet to drive it instead of DOPs. It seriously cut down simulation time which is a neccesity for the crotchety computers we have to work on.

New Drawings. Hooray!

I realized I've seriously been neglecting this blog. I'll be better I swear! Here are some drawings I've done fairly recently.

Dirty Diana: 

Would you believe I drew this before I read the Hunger Games? Drew this in November or December probably as part of an assignment where we were supposed to design a hero. I am a bit of a fan of the Roman goddess Diana (aka Artemis in the Greek legends, Goddess of the hunt, and moon) So I decided to turn her into a Superhero. I called her Dirty Diana because of the Michael Jackson song. In hindsight that's kind of a misnomer since Diana in the legends is a pure lady. Oh well. 

I happen to struggle greatly with drawing 'scary' things so I was instructed to emulate Michel Gagné's style. This is what I came up with.

Ugly sketchbook scan of another superheroine. Loosely based off of a halloween costume I sported when I was in high school. I have a thing for archery I guess. 

And Dr. House. 

Thats all for now Folks! Stay tuned. I'll be uploading more drawings soon! 

Bird Groom

Last semester for I tried to use Shave and a Haircut to do a groom for this bird I modeled and rigged. In hindsight I don't think I would have approached it this way, I definitely would have painted on his head and arm feathers, rather than grown the hairs on those smooth areas I think, but this was good practice. and I think its an ok render. Nothing amazing, and I find new mistakes everywhere, buy it was a learning experience for sure.

I'm going to upload some stuff about my rig and some test animations sometime, since that stuff turned out way better, so stay posted.

On the Goodship Lollipop

So I made this blowpop. Its all procedural using slim shaders.

PS its only the purple one thats fake.

Bird Animated

Here's a playblast of an animation I started on today using my new and improved bird! Its not anywhere near finished, but I thought it would be cool to show what I've been working on lately.

Besides, who doesn't want to see a bird singing Sinatra?

A Preview of what I've Been Doing

Remember this Bird that I was working on a few months ago? Well I realized that it was completely awful in every way so I'm in the process of rigging a BRAND NEW bird, that is way cuter, a more operational rig, and will have more impressive feathers, so stay tuned!

Procedural Apple Shader

So here is he apple shader I did in Slim. It is 100% procedural.

 

and the turn-around I know there is a bit of a seam but I know how to fix that now with the manifolds.

And if you were curious, here is my shader network. I'm pleased with how small it is

At first, I was extremely reluctant to take Shader Programming class but I'm actually really loving it now. Go figure.

A Hodgepodge of new art.

Here is an apple I painted in photoshop 

Belly Dancer for Character Design class

I'm going to Model this bird in Maya in the very near future. I want to learn how to be awesome at rigging wings. 

See ya real soon

I drew this for a little girl who really likes me for some reason, so I dropped this off at her house and she really liked it. she gave me 6 hugs for it. Thats glitter on the balls and stuff, it doesn't scan well. Giving art to little kids is the best.

Hello World

I got a copy of image FX magazine a couple months ago and tried out a digital painting technique... on a very cartoon-ized version of myself. Just for fun. All in Photoshop

Zoo Sketching!

Last week, some friends and I went to the Hogle Zoo. That zoo is nice, its a cute little zoo that is easy to walk through in a couple hours, but its also one of those places that makes me miss Maryland where I was only a few metro stops awayfrom the National Zoo which is huge and free. Anyway, here are a few of my sketches from that day

I tried out a new calligraphy pen, and a super fancy pentel brush pen...that just leaked everywhere. Thank heavens for water soluble ink...

Figure Drawin'

Just some figure drawings I liked from my gesture drawing class taught by Ryan Woodward

The Sartorialist is a good reference.

Just going through my old art on my computer. Realized I never posted this. If I recall correctly it got torn apart during critique for being too 'safe', but I still like it. The girl reference came from The Sartorialist. The assignment was to take someone and cartoonify her. I suppose I could have exaggerated her more, but, like I said, I still like it.

Hair again

So I've been working more on hair, you can look back and see where I was a few months ago, I think I've improved a lot. Check it out!

I also gave her shave eyelashes, making her look more feminine and less alien.

There are things that bug me about the model, but I think I've gotten so much better recently.

Bird with his feathers

I''m getting further on that bird I was working on a while back, I'm working on the feathers, they're a bit too muppet-like for my tastes, but they're better than they were before. Maya Fur is what I used.

Right now I'm fixing completely redoing a horrible rig I made for him, so you'll see an update soon.

Buy War Bonds

Buy War Bonds from Meredith Moulton on Vimeo.

The updated version of my mailbox animation.