Here’s some more of the same episode 45 of Carl Squared involving the Zombie Aliens From Outer Space.  This time, I designed half graves, half flying saucers (as per the script).  I know, it’s beyond weird, but that’s what the Writer wrote it to be.  Any ways, it was fun.

Grey-Shaded Zombie Fighter

Toon-Shaded Zombie Fighter

The Zombie Fighters as they appeared in the show in the actual shot

Here’s a design I came up with a couple of years ago for Episode No.45 of the television series “Carl Squared”.

Grey-shaded version

Toon-shaded version

Here’s one of the shots it was used in:

I had been asked to design and produce a few shots in 3D for a video game that the main characters were playing.  It was called “Zombie Aliens from Outer Space” or something like that.  If you know the show, it’s completely done in 2D using Flash.  Of course the challenge for me was trying to match the style of the other 2D elements of the show.

The 2D style for Carl Squared

I used Maya 7 and rendered using the built-in vector renderer.  The lines on the surfaces of the stone in the model that were to depict individual bricks were achieved by sub-dividing the surface to create a grid.  Then I selected the edges where I wanted vector lines to appear and made them hard edges.  As hardened edges, the vector renderer treats them as if the were any other edge along an angled surface.  This also allowed me to keep these lines as true vector stroked lines that could be inported into Flash and further edited.

Here are some concept sketches alogn with the final cleaned-up B&W and Colour design …

Zombie Alien Mothership - version 1

Zombie Alien Mothership - version 2

Zombie Alien Fleet

Zombie Alien Fleet - Coloured

Unfortunately, they never called for any other 3D elements in the show.  Too bad, because I thought there were many opportunities to model elements in 3D and leverage the ability to rotate things smoothly.

PIP Animation was responsible for some of the scripts in the final season, and all storyboards, designs, animation, straight through to final cut.  Portfolio Entertainment produced the show and it was broadcast in Canada on Teletoon.

It was a fun show to work on.  At least now I can say some of my 3D work made it to the small screen.

In the coming months I will be collaborating with a 2D character/animator to create a character who they have designed and animated in 2D, I will model and rig it and they will take back to animate.  As a matter of fact, the character has already been animated so we know where we’re headed.  We are attempting to reproduce some of the 2D animation, but plan on leveraging the possibilities afforded by going 3D.  For me, it’s a chance to do some work that rewards me by getting into a character that I know will work.  It also has the potential to get the attention of clients who might employ us to keep going.  Second only to having fun making stuff in 3D, making money at it is the goal.

So, as soon as we reveal our work to the potential client, I will begin posting our work.

- Modeling lesson – “Adding a door to the dungeon”

On Saturday, we had another full house. All eight seats were taken and the night was packed with “3D goodness”. This time I wasn’t surprised when the final hour rolled around and we hadn’t started talking about animation yet. Having learned from the first workshop back at the beginning of May, I decided to split up the topics a little so that we weren’t just talking about the UI most of the night, but instead coming back to it again and again as we delved into the other topics, modeling and animation.

There were some people we got stuck here and there and that was to be expected. Expecting to understand everything in just under four hours, even the basics, is a tall order. So if any of you that were there are reading this now, go easy on yourselves, you did well, considering. Still, I believe that the original goal of the workshop was met, that is, I wanted to introduce Maya to people who have never really sat done and tried to make something with it. And to those that have attempted to make sense of it, the workshops were meant to help them break through to the next level where they became truly capable of solving there own problems.

Having a tool whereby you can bring to reality (at least on screen) anything your imagination can conceive is truly a gift to behold.

The workshops being, far from perfect, I will still continue on to the final installment in two weeks time and strive to hone the lesson plan even further with the hopes that they can deliver on its promises.

As with most things that are done in our “spare time”, work on another 3D project has come along and taken over all of my time. Not to worry though, I will get back to the helmet soon. In the meantime, enjoy this wireframe shaded view of Helmet No.1 with the rigged visor in both the up and down positions.

I added the two ear cups, head cover liner, chin strap snaps and leather base for snaps. I’m getting down to the detail work now and I might have to ask Jeff to borrow his helmet back because my photo reference just isn’t gonna cut it.

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.

That’s it for today. Hopefully I can find some more time soon to work on the visor assembly.

Here’s a look at things so far. Thanks to my wife for posing in the helmet.