I completed the visor and grip knob assembly.  I quickly whipped up some nice beveled rivets.  I will later texture these to look like Phillips-type screw-heads, complete with bump map.

I posted the signup sheet this morning in the PiP breakroom and response was extremely good.  I think there is over a dozen names on the list now.  I will leave it up for the rest of this week just in case people haven’t seen it yet.  I will take the email addresses that people have provided and send out a newsletter of sorts detailing my intentions for the workshop, along with a propossed  date and time.  I am meeting with Dulcie tomorrow morning to discuss using PiP’s animation floor as a location to give the workshop from.  There are plenty of computers and they should be more than powerful enough to run Maya for what we will need it to do.  I am very hopeful that we’ll get access to the studio and have a great experience.

Before I converted www.douthwright.com into this Blog, there was a book store page where I had listed recommended books on art, animation, and 3D (specifically for Maya). Well, the book store is coming back. I am in the process of reviewing and revising my books list and making sure visitors can simply click on a book and link directly to an online book seller (it will either be Barnes & Noble or Chapters/Indigo, I haven’t decided yet). Any revenue generated from book sales will go toward maintaning this blog and future plans to include video tutorials for 3D in Maya. So check back in the next few days and you should be able to start checking out what books I recommend.

I finally decided on a working title for the 3D project so I had something more unique to refer to it as, than just “The 3D Project”. So, from here on I will refer to the 3D Project simply as “The Pilot”

The end goal is produce a static shot and leave it at that. So what that means is producing a full model of a pilot character, his outfit (which includes the helmet), the aircraft/spaceship, and the hangar where the scene takes place. Originally, there were plans to include a second character, a deck worker who might be refueling the spaceship, but the schedule won’t support it.

Even surface materials and lighting are being left out of the this first project. My only goals are the modeling of the scene objects and even then, only from the angel of the static camera. The test rig of the helmet was just an exercise in one of my other passions, rigging. It will be hard, but I have to leave rigging to another time.

As for the design style, I will be scanning some drawings in the days to follow this post which will show just where I am going with the style. All I can say, is it is no longer “photorealistic”, as I had first envisioned. I am now developing a more cartoon-like style with exaggerated elements. Stay tuned for some drawings that will hopefully say it all!