Thanks for the update – except your images (“some of the work of my new character artist lead”) aren’t showing for me. 
Bummer. Anyone else?
And are you Mac, Windows or Linux?
But if I click on something then it enlarges and shows the content.
Windows here
edit: Maybe bec relatively high res together with high count of images ?
OK. Thanks
Ok, let me know if there is improvement.
Windows. Now I can see them tho.
1 Like
cool. I re-saved smaller and adjusted the format.
Thanks!
Very interesting insights, Richard. Funny, I’m working in a different field, but a similar size working place, and there is a similarity of experience about heirarchies and roles. If your workers are good people (personally, not professionaly), and they respect one another’s abilities, things usually work out. At least that is my experience.
Thanks for the comments!
(responding to “leads” pdf above)
Yeah it’s true. And you can continue to grow a company on that basis I think.
Up to a degree and It does have limitations. For example if you are in a service industry some customers may not get the same service as others when you don’t have a consistency between staff. Just as a very general corollary.
On a creative project however, the issue is that the inconsistency affects if the project holds together artistically. And that is the main challenge. And the larger the crew the more critical it is to establish leads.
Interesting that my team was large enough to establish leads but just barely large enough to have underlings. In some areas this is in place, such as concept art and 2D design. And one guy wants to train the most obvious person under him to do some specialized modeling for one of our clients.
For now that is about as far as we can stretch it.
Coming in a few months we will get a flow of interns and it is going to be interesting to have Leads for them to work under. So this is a critical time for us in so far as expansion goes.
There is an update on one of the sets:
This is being modeled in Blender. It will eventually get textures with Quixel Mega Scans as well as Substance Painter and we will export everything to unreal for rendering.
Also we are modeling low poly characters that will be used to render out an animatic as we continue to work on higher detail models.
1 Like
Ooh, an update! Nice to see you’re doing more work on the short film, Richard. I guess you’ve put more on it besides these two small updates of the models in these past few months?
Excited for more updates!
Thanks!
Yes. There has been a lot going on “under the hood”. We are doing a lot of work with BlendRig 5. I have a rigger who has been working hard to master it. It is a very complex system. But also very rewarding.
Then I had an animator working hard over the last months. He completed the first very short scene and a dance test for Angela. Then he got about 70% of the basic animatic blocking through the scenes with a stand in character. The plan is to retarget those to the low poly characters above and start assembling the animatic version.
Unfortunately he had a deadline and went off to join the military which is a requirement in his country.
So… I am looking for a new animator.
In the mean time I have been busy with work, but recently got a chance to take Unreal for a nice test drive with a work-related project. Trying out the new real time ray tracing features with an RTX card.
Man I now see I need to get my hands on a Titan RTX… lol
Lets see… also made some updates to the script. Added some needed dramatic elements. My storyboard artist should have the new storyboard done next week. That will probably be the nest major update.
EDIT: April, 04, 2020.
Be sure and visit the upper parts of this thread where I removed walls of text and replaced with images of progress.
1 Like
Here is the basic progression of the new poster. First, I had one of my artists create a few possibilities. And as a team we voted on the ones we like the best. I had a few personal favorites.
But ultimately we all chose this one. My overall favorite too:
Here is the current rendition:
And framed into a poster format:
Okay, I just checked your updated progress. It’s looking really good for the short film. I can honestly say I’m excited for the final version of it.
Best of luck to you and your team, Richard.
1 Like
Cool man. Thanks!
I appreciate the support.
There is a slightly enhanced version of the storyboard already. Clarifies a part that was not obvious before and includes my artist’s version of some of the images I manipulated to make changes in another scene.
1 Like
A new little character is emerging. basically he is just a doll in the room.
Here is how we prepare to design something, using references:
Here is the concept:
Sculpting Progress:
4 Likes
I have been training a new animator in Blender. He comes from Maya. He has been with the studio about two weeks. Finally got him to the point where he can start to learn Blenrig5. While we are finishing up rigging Angela he has been practicing.
A very short clip with Spring. But it is a start.
2 Likes