Autorig tutorial prep work 04
Posted on March 4, 2010
Filed Under Animation, Modeling, Portfolio | 2 Comments
This time I am modeling the hands. I am not looking at references yet, just blocking out the shapes.
You will see me starting from a cube, which I subdivide manually to extrude faces and create the fingers.
I push the details on one fingers then duplicate it to create the other ones. Very often you will see me going from low poly to high poly using the 1 and 3 keys in maya 2009.
and here is the second pass
http://www.vimeo.com/9924238
Third pass, refining the shape, cleaning up some edges, adding more detail

Related posts:
Autorig tutorial prep work 03
Autorig tutorial prep work 02
Autorig tutorial prep work 01
Low polygon modeling tools
Autorig tutorial prep work 03
Posted on February 28, 2010
Filed Under Animation, Modeling, Portfolio | 2 Comments
Here is the nearly final model. Click on the picture for full screen version.
I will work on the hands tomorrow.I am still not entirely happy about the junction between the chin and the cheek bone, the eye/nose area also need a bit more work but that should be enough for the Autorig tutorial.
Related posts:
Autorig tutorial prep work 02
Autorig tutorial prep work 01
Low polygon modeling tools
Autorig tutorial prep work 02
Posted on February 27, 2010
Filed Under Animation, Modeling, Portfolio | 4 Comments
Here is a video showing the modeling process for my tribute to Pixar’s “Up”.
You can double click to see the video in Full screen but if you first click on the Vimeo logo you will be able to see it in full 1600×1200. You might also be able to download the video from Vimeo, it is in Xvid/Divx, sorry I don’t have Quicktime pro but Virtual Dub or KMplayer allow you to go frame by frame if needed.
[...] Read more
Autorig tutorial prep work1
Posted on February 9, 2010
Filed Under Modeling, Portfolio | 6 Comments
As some of you might know, I have decided to make a tutorial showing how to use the zooTools and SuperCrumbly’s abAutorig autorig scripts.
To demonstrate this I wanted to model a new character so here it is!
Charles Muntz is definitely my favourite character design from the movie UP.
I have mainly focused on the right hand side and will mirror it next time.
Life drawing week 03
Posted on February 2, 2010
Filed Under Drawings, Portfolio | Leave a Comment
Here are my latest drawings. Two long poses.
I tried to think about the composition a bit more this time. The thumbnails on the top left corner are the base for my composition.
I wasn’t too happy the way things were going for the first one and restarted from scratch, which didn’t leave me with enough time to finish the pose. I had in mind to incorporate the little platform the model was standing on originally but realised that it didn’t present much interest so I decided to go for something tighter, with the feet fading away.
The second one is pretty good, but the model is way to high on the page. The foot is better than my last attempt but the hands, especially the right one would have needed more work. The quality of the line is still very poor but I am working on that.
Things are getting better and better I feel and there is definitely some improvements compared my first drawings. My skills in drawing from imagination have also dramatically improved and I can now draw different body parts without reference.
Those two drawing will probably be my last pencil shaded piece as I feel it is now time to move to Oil painting. I have been told that moving to paint would help me to improve my drawing skills and Painting is also something I always wanted to try but never found a good teacher/course until now.
Life drawing session 03
Posted on January 26, 2010
Filed Under Drawings, Portfolio | Leave a Comment
Here is the pose we worked on yesterday with Marc again. 1h40 pose. Longer poses are great as they allow for corrections and trying different techniques. I got stuck with the feet so moved on to do some shading in order to define the belly a bit better and try to create some volume.
Contains nudity
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Life drawing session 01
Posted on January 21, 2010
Filed Under Drawings, Portfolio | 1 Comment
Working in Guildford is just as good as London as I found an Art center offering evening life drawing classes. I enrolled to two life drawing classes and 1 watercolour painting class. It has only been a week but this is looking really promising. The teachers in both classes are really good artists … which doesn’t mean they are good teachers but I have some of Glen Vilppu tapes and the Force: Dynamic Life drawing for animators book which are really helpful.
I regularly sketch from memory while commuting on the train but the first drawing proved really overwhelming. I didn’t know where to start!
Hit the link for my drawings. Obviously this post contains nudity
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Chico Chica Boumba
Posted on November 26, 2009
Filed Under Animation, Portfolio | 4 Comments
Here is the teaser for the TV Pilot I worked on over the summer at 2 Minutes in Angouleme. There are about 2 of my shots (:21s and :26s), one of them got screwed up during Comp but you will finally be able to see what the show looks like.
[...] Read more
“Creature box” blog
Posted on November 5, 2009
Filed Under Character design, Modeling, Portfolio, Video Games | Leave a Comment
I just found that great blog from some Insomniac concept artist. Too bad most of their sketchbooks are sold out.
I would love to model some of their characters one day.
[edit] well I just started ;-) Proportion are off, it is a very rough pass.
Modeling “Rickshaw” timelapse part 02
Posted on October 1, 2009
Filed Under Animation, Portfolio | Leave a Comment
Moving forward, this is 1 hour of work in 5 minutes. I used Camtasia this time so the result should be a bit smoother. Unfortunately Camtasia pause button didn’t work so 2 hours are missing, you won’t see the entire panel detailing sequence and few other things. Sorry.
[...] Read more
Modeling “Rickshaw” timelapse part 01
Posted on September 30, 2009
Filed Under Animation, Portfolio | Leave a Comment
I always wanted to record a modeling session timelapse but wasn’t too sure I would be able to finish a full model while being recorded. I also had no clue how fast I was at modeling and was worried I would make too many mistakes. Just like everything, if you don’t try, you will never know!
[...] Read more
Thirsty got ears
Posted on September 23, 2009
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | Leave a Comment
I just finished modeling a nice set of vampire ears for Bishop. Cartoony 3d ears are usually simplified to the Helix (ie Pixar “Up”) but I felt the need to model the Antihelix and Antihelical fold.
Shot 08 Work in progress
Posted on September 18, 2009
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | 5 Comments
Following Mike Stern’s tip on the latest Animation Mentor newsletter, I have decided to bring all my shots to the same level of progress, then focus on the polish. That one was one of the most advanced ones but I have tweaked the camera slightly and might end up cutting it in two for the last part.
Anyway, I am posting this as it is right now and will do the editing once I have all the other shots.
Shot 01 refining
Posted on September 17, 2009
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | Leave a Comment
here is the first shot from my shortfilm. The elbow is very jittery as I can’t remember where to find the IK elbow. Hope you like it though
Shot 12 final
Posted on September 16, 2009
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | 2 Comments
Well that’s it for now. Here is the final pass for that shot. The long chair will still be tweaked later (the design is still WIP) but I am now moving to the next shot. Hope you like it. Shoot any comments
Props done
Posted on September 15, 2009
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Portfolio | Leave a Comment
I just finished modeling the props needed for the first shots of my short film. The sink was originally modeled in Maya 8.5 but I have had to do some heavy cleanup on the mesh when I imported it into Maya 2009.
For some reason some faces were duplicated and normal inverted. Anyway it is done I am very pleased with the freshly modeled Victorian tap. I might add a bit of texturing but most of the work will be with the rendering. I was tempted to make the props a bit more cartoony but will keep them like this for the time being.
No fancy GI and no wireframe for the moment, just a quick turnaround with Maya’s hardware render buffer (thanks Tobias!)
Shot 12 work in progress
Posted on September 13, 2009
Filed Under Animation Mentor, Portfolio, Short film | 3 Comments
This is one of the shots from my short film. Our little guy is a vampire who fell asleep and wakens up realising that he is burning. The shot is still in step (well most of it is blocked on ones anyway)
I have reframed the shot compared to the original version I did during Animation Mentor but something is bothering me. I am gonna keep it this way for the time being and we will see how it works in continuity with the previous and next shots.
I haven’t yet worked on the legs/steps once he lands as I am still unsure about how long he will stay in the air. Do you think this is too long or just enough?
Also the combination of legs/arms flalling makes it a really busy silhouette, should I just animate the legs and keep his arms frozen forward? I will check some old Warner Brother cartoons and try to find some answers tomorrow.
I will also do a proper rig for the long chair tomorrow just so I can give it a more organic feel to it (think Gobelins short films)
[update] looking at it with fresh eyes, I think I will start the shot a bit later and keep the take for the previous shot. The framing will look better.
“The Contender” lip sync
Posted on September 12, 2009
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Portfolio | 2 Comments
If you are wondering what was the idea behind my latest Bishop mod, here it is ;-)
It is a quick lip sync animation, just to try some lip sync, facial animation and rendering with Mental ray/SSS/displacement map.
Don’t worry I don’t have the pretension to compete with Marlon Brando. For some reason I just thought it was funny to have Shrek saying that line.
New project “The Contender!
Posted on June 4, 2009
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Portfolio | 7 Comments
Here are some renders of my new Bishop mod. This is a new project I am gonna work on when coming back from Annecy. Yes I am a Dreamworks fan boy but there is an other reason I chose Shrek for inspiration.
Wireframes after the break
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Rare game showreel
Posted on May 11, 2009
Filed Under Portfolio, Rare, Video Games | 4 Comments
I am finally done with it, well it is just time to move on so here it is! This is the work I did at Rare/Microsoft game studio for the past 18 month, working on Banjo Kazooie “Nuts and Bolts” and also the Avatars.
http://www.vimeo.com/4454784you can find a Quicktime version here
http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/game.htm?id=blog
























