T-18 Tank Mecha

While I have been taking a break I have been working on a small project, creating a model of a Mecha based on a T-18 Russian Tank. It isn't complete but I wanted to share what I have done so far. 

        

I used blueprints to make the body as close to the original T-18 Tank as possible, and made small adjustments to size to fit the Mecha aesthetic better. I originally had the rear engine modelled too but it made the build too back heavy.

The arms and legs are additions I made without reference, but I tried to keep more of the flat, angled panels the rest of the tank used. I made the feet with a ski mode and a grip mode as I planned the mech to be in a snow and ice climate.

             

I spent most of my time working on the turret and cockpit, making it fit within the frame of the mech while being able to rotate 360 degrees without causing any clipping. I imagine this being used in a survival game where the player can enter and exit the mech depending on the situation, gathering and taking part in small scale skirmishes as a human then returning to the mech as a storage and transport hub that can be used for large scale fights. 

Despite my skillset being more aligned with animation, I do find myself often coming back to modelling as something I enjoy, especially hard surface and mechanical models.

Associate Motion Capture Specialist at Rockstar Games

I've been putting off updating my website the last few years as I had a job at Rockstar Games as an Associate Motion Capture Specialist for two and a half years. Due to the nature of work at Rockstar there wasn't much I can update on, but it was a good experience with good people.

Seeing the people working at Rockstar, a triple A games company with some of the most well known games be so human and down to earth did make me smile. Being able to give my own input and have it visibly affect the project was always amazing to see.

Now I'm giving myself a break from work, ever since I left university I've either been on jobsearch or in a job. I'm still slowly looking at job opportunities but it's not my focus. For now I'll see what comes next.

Games Technical Instructor at Staffordshire University

It's been a while since my last update, but since last year I've been working at my old university, Staffordshire University as a Technical Instructor for Games and Visual Effects. The job itself covers a number of things ranging from teaching to supporting staff and students with hardware, software and anything games related. 
In particular I've been in charge of their motion capture stage, the largest in UK education. It uses Vicon mocap software and hardware, and I had worked with their system since I was a student here, so it didn't take me long to adjust to any new changes.

I was unsure of the teaching aspect at first, teaching students to use mocap and overseeing their sessions but I ended up giving sessions pretty naturally, and have been hearing good things from both students and staff.

Seeing the university again and students working on various projects has made me want to work on games and animation again, and I've been able to work on a small project in some spare time. I plan to show some of my progress here soon, so I hope you look forward to it.

3D Animation Showreel - March 2021

 

A showreel showing some of the work I did at Keyframe Studios for Dead Pixels. There's a focus on action here, between the animations and song I chose. Once more of the work I did comes out I hope to put them together for another showreel.

Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy!

Dead Pixels Animation Portfolio

It's taken longer than I would have liked, but I've finally gotten some Dead Pixels content from Keyframe Studios and put together this portfolio video.

 

There are two videos, this one which has a small commentary of my time at Keyframe Studios and the work I did for rigging, skinning, scene work and animating, and a showreel focused on animation, which I can use when applying to jobs. It feels good to have some evidence of my work, instead of just using text all the time.

I hope you enjoy the work I've done!

The showreel will be available in the next post.

Freelancing with Keyframe Studios and the release of Dead Pixels Season 2

For the last few months I've been working with Keyframe Studios again, but this time in a freelance role, and instead of the second season of Dead Pixels I worked on animation for the 5 minute version of The Adventures of Zeze Zebra, a CGI show aimed at young children. 

My role here ended recently though, and I'm back to searching for jobs. This time though, I want to spend more time wokring on my own project. I've been working on my Fino model whenever I've been searching for jobs, but this time I want to work on something that is less of a hobby or portfolio piece, but more of a serious project. I want to make a game.

I've mentioned wanting to work on a new project in previous posts, and I think that is what I'll do. I will still be applying to jobs and trying to find places to work, that will be my focus, but any spare time I have I want to spend on something new. I don't want to give any details for now, in case this all comes to nothing, but once I have something to show I intend to leave updates here similar to Project Fino.

As a final note, the second season of Dead Pixels released recently, on January 26th on E4 and on Channel 4's VOD service. I watched the first episode, and it's strange seeing the things I worked on appear on a tv show. I knew most of the details of the show from when I worked on it, and got to watch most of the episodes before they aired, so I admit I don't feel as excited as I thought I would be on something I worked on, but seeing it there in front of me did make feel proud.

I hope to put some Dead Pixels content on my website soon once some more time has passed for people to watch it, but for now both seasons of Dead Pixels can be seen on Channel 4's website, as well as Avatards, which some people may not know but it was the original concept for Dead Pixels.

 

Dead Pixels: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dead-pixels

Avatards: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/avatards

Project Fino Update: Idle Loop

 

 

 

Another update to Project Fino. 

I decided to continue using the Fino model I've made and work on creating animations, but quickly ran into some problems with my 3DS Max License since I'm not in university anymore. It doesn't look like there is anything I can do about it, and I rendered the little I did in the time I had left. An Idle animation that I haven't had a chance to look over.

Without 3DS Max I'm not going to be able to continue Project Fino for now, and it's going to be very hard to work on anything else since 3DS Max is my most proficient software. This is a chance for me to try out and learn other software though, and the first that comes to mind is Blender considering it is free and open-source. It would let me make my own assets while keeping ownership of them or using them commercially. 

For now though, with the world and how the Corona Virus has affected it, it's hard to bring myself to work properly. The last few updates for Project Fino took me a long time to work on, and my own work ethic has slowed down a lot. I'm hoping that things get better and the world can start moving again soon.

Project Fino Update: Completed Skin

After a bit of a break with everything going on, and applying to jobs again, I've decided to work on my own projects again as well. I've come back to Fino again and finished up the skinning, then found myself switching between texturing, skinning and even modelling again to try and make Fino look better.

She has an updated texture for her face, most noticeably the lips to make it easier to tell where her mouth is, which was becoming more of a problem. The first picture in the last post shows how hard it was to see where her mouth was.

*Note that Blogger has changed it's Post format, so the images below may be displayed differently to previous posts

 

I smoothed out some places like the shoulders which had some issues when the collarbone was rotated to more extreme angles and the jaw, which was very different due to the structure of an anime style 3D head.

I made a quick metal pipe prop and put her in a few poses to try out the rig below: 

     

     

She still needs a facial rig to give her expressions, and I want to improve some parts of her model and textures, especially the hair which only has plain colours, and her eyes which feels sort of boring? I'm not too sure, but it just doesn't fit with the model for me. The two things that are on my mind right now are that I've been on this project for a long time now, and that trying to make the improvements above would move away from rigging and animation, which is what I should be focusing on. 

What I'm considering right now is: 

1. Creating a facial rig, letting her talk and show expressions
2. Creating animations using Fino to put on my website, from basic cycles like walking to more action based animations
3. Pausing work on Fino, and working on a different project more focused on games design

I have an idea in mind for the last one, and if it gets far it would lead to making my own game, which is what I want I've always wanted. To create video games. 

The first two however would be better for my website when it comes to applying for rigging and animation jobs, and it has been a while since I've uploaded any animations to my website. I've been waiting for Dead Pixels Season 2, among some other things I worked on, to come out and to display on my website, but it looks like with Corona Virus it's been delayed until further notice. 

For now I'll consider my options and see what I work on next.

Project Fino Update: Rigging and Skinning

It's been a while, but finally an update to Fino.
I decided to try and get things moving by speeding along. I've been on this little project for too long now, and need to stop hesitating. That said, I've still taken a long time to finally put up an update, something I need to work on.

Other than some small tweaks on textures with the arms and shoulder armour, I decided on a basic texture for the eyes and hair. The eyes are a fairly undetailed texture using large blocks of colour for a sort of overall "Faded" look, while the hair I struggled with a lot before deciding on a very basic "Colour for each strand" approach. It's not the best, but I've never been much of a texturer.

I've finally been able to work on Rigging, the focus of what I've been doing at Keyframe Studios. It's been a while though, with most of the work I did at the end of my time at Keyframe Studios focusing on Animation and some scene composition. 

One of the things I've learned to do is form the CAT Rig around the model, most notably the legs and waist, but also the spine fitting to Fino's body. I also added bones for her teeth in case I want to try a different kind of smile, and a small bone for her nose if I need to animate Fino sniffing.

I don't think I'm quite finished with the CAT Rig here yet, I've been unsure about the lower body the most with how the thighs move compared to the waist, though this is always a difficult area to work with.

Finally I've got a test of the Rig so far, only using 3DS Max's Voxel Solver. At first glance, Fino looks pretty good here, other than obvious problems like the armour bending. The pose itself isn't too extreme though, and I didn't pose any intricate parts like the fingers or any of the facial features. 

I'm still shaky on the upper legs and how they bend around the pelvis though, and how close the shorts come up to the belly. Another part of the model I'm thinking of reconsidering is the shirt or vest, with how the open areas of the shirt move with the body. Not only does the bra I've used still look strange on Fino, I'm thinking how something like her arms would interact with the shirt, or how to animate the shirt moving. This is something I've had to consider before, and I've thought about using something in Unreal Engine 4 to simulate it, but I'm wondering how much simpler it would be to have full control in one Rig rather than use multiple programs. I plan to spend some time looking at this again, but if there are any changes I don't see them affecting the CAT Rig too much.

An end to my job at Keyframe Studios

My job as Junior Rigging Artist and 3D Animator at Keyframe Studios ended at the end of March, and I've been relaxing at home the past few days.
The second season of Dead Pixels is expected to be released soon, with some potential of a third season later. Unfortunately I can't show any of the work I've worked on until it's released, so it's going to be a challenge trying to apply for jobs, even more so with the Corona Virus right now. For now I can list links to Dead Pixels for people to look at or watch, though the animation between the two seasons are noticeably different.

Channel 4 Website: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dead-pixels
IMDb Website: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7559438/

There were some talks about a third season of Dead Pixels, and that I might be asked to work on rigging and animation again, but for now I will be searching for and applying to jobs, this time with some experience in hand.

A small update: 3D Animator

Another update on me and my job.
My role as Junior Rigging Artist for Keyframe Studios was originally supposed to end at the end of January, but when I applied for the job I also expressed an interest in a 3D Animator job they were also advertising. I didn't get the 3D Animator job, but near the end of my Junior Rigging Artist contract I was given some animation work as well as some scene composition work. After showing what I could do, they offered me an extended contract as a 3D Animator which I accepted.

I'm at a similar position as my last post where my contract will be ending soon, and it looks unlikely that I will have my contract extended again, but this job has already been so much more than I thought it would be. I hope to be able to show what I worked on in my CV and on this website soon.
I will be looking for a new job again soon, but this time with experience in the industry. I hadn't thought about it until writing this post, but I really can call myself a real 3D Animator now, not just a title on a CV or resume anymore.

A small update: Junior Rigging Artist

A small update seeing as it's been so long. I am currently working as a Junior Rigging Artist for Keyframe Studios. It's been an exciting change, moving to London on my own with no friends or family. It's my first time working in the VFX/Animation Industry and it's been pretty great, a chance to use what I learned at university while learning how things work in the real world.

The job only lasts a few months unfortunately, but it's been inspiring to see everything in action, even pushing me back into working a little on Fino.

On the Fino side, not much has changed since last time, just small adjustments. I ended up making some changes to the model, adding Teeth and Ears, and for a brief amount of time tried to add back a Pelvis and Underwear I modelled a while ago thinking I can use some of my newfound Rigging knowledge, but between the Texture and Unwrap I've already done I decided to continue working with what I have, and try to finish this model that I've been working on for so long.

I have been losing inspiration to work on Fino, not because I don't want to work on her, but because I've been wanting to try working on something new. For now, I plan to focus on work and leave any personal projects for my spare time. As much as I would like to work on my own ideas, it's hard to bring myself to open 3DS Max after 9 hours of working in it per day.

Project Fino Update: Unwrap and Texturing

Another update to Fino, but before that a quick update on the SAO Contest.
In the end, my design wasn't selected for the next stage of the contest. I thought that maybe using 3D Models to help visualise the design would boost me a little, but in the end the overall design really lacked any details, which I left behind to hurry and finish in time for the contest. Maybe if I had more free time to focus on this I would have done more in the texturing phase, but I accept that in the end the design I submitted wasn't good enough.

On to this post's main content, progress on Fino:

The first image shows the current progress of the model, while the second shows the unwrap and the texture I have made for it so far. I have been using the models, unwraps and textures from the Senran Kagura 3DS game as reference to help me to do this. The head, vest and armour pieces haven't been textured yet, and I want to go back over the arms and bra to add a little more detail in, but progress has been better than I thought it would be.
The first image is using Flat Colours in 3DS Max-all of the shading and shadows are from the texture itself, not from lighting inside of the program. I was a little worried how this approach would appear since light would always appear on the character from one direction, but since it shines on the most important side of the character, the front, it shows the model off very well, even if lighting is actually wrong. This also works well due to the bright colours used in this anime style. The mirrored unwrap for the majority of the body helps to cut down on space, and although it would normally be noticeable when a model has been mirrored, the head and glove help to keep attention away from that.
The unwrap for the arms look strange, different to what I have normally seen, though the unwrap is one of the parts of the model I pay the least attention to so far. The way the arm is cut open with only one seam up to the thumb before wrapping back around works pretty well for texturing, though that may only be for this one-way lighting approach to shadows.
I'm still finding ways that I could have improved the unwrap though, for example the size of some parts like the glove, which means that the texture on the left arm is more pixelated, or the shorts which, due to mostly being a Front/Back unwrap makes the edges very hard to texture without appearing stretched.
I'm surprised to be learning what I am about unwraps from just attempting it, but I'm appreciating unwrapping even more now. I might try to make some changes to the unwrap as I texture, and hopefully will have the textures completed for the next post. This would mean the model would be complete, at least for a base version. I have already seen some things I could change, for example, the addition of ears and teeth which I missed when modelling. I can definitely see why 3D modelling, unwrapping and texturing are done together.

SAO: Alicization Lycoris Contest: Fino's Armour / Bunker Armour

This is the design I submitted for the Alicization contest. I wasn't able to get a lot of time in to work on it, so ended up simplifying the unwrap and texturing a lot to try and rush it. It's been a while since the contest submission ended, but I did enter it on time, now it's just waiting to see if my design goes to the next stage. I'm feeling less confidant than I was at first, seeing how simplified my design has become, but hopefully the 3D visualisation boosts me a bit.

Incidentally, I need to get back to watching Alicization when I can. I stopped around halfway when it was coming out and haven't quite mustered enough strength to continue it - though I've been pretty bad with watching anime at all recently.

Project Fino Update: Clothing, Modifiers and a Competition

To start, here's an update on Fino:

I've also included a close up of Fino's face to show the kind of structure it has for animating, once I get to that point. The main focus has been clothing.
Clothing has been pretty difficult, being something I haven't really modelled before.
After a bit of searching, I tried out a few methods with the Cloth and Garment Maker modifiers. The cloth modifier is pretty good for animating clothes onto existing animations since it can record movements from other forces like the body, and the garment maker is a very different way to make clothes from what I imagined.

Above is a test using a short dress design. You can see the dress isn't tight against the body but still forms around it. This video gives an idea of what I used to make it, and I'm surprised at the "realistic" way of seaming the edges of "fabric" to create a piece of clothing in real time.

If I made clothes with these, I could rig the current body, make clothes around it, then animate the naked body underneath and have the cloth modifier animate the rest. For example:

The two modifiers have been pretty finicky though, and crash very regularly, or cause visual problems in 3DS Max. I'm surprised to see something that so easily breaks 3DS Max be included, though I suppose they aren't the only tools to do this.
They seem pretty interesting for clothing to fit around Fino's body, but making clothes created this way look right or move alongside a body properly has been difficult. The clothes wrap too tightly with the garment maker, and the large number of settings for the cloth modifier makes the clothes too loose, or just fall through Fino. 
I've considered using the garment maker alone to create clothes for Fino and manually animating them, but I'm worried how it would affect things like rigging and animation at later stages.
Having the clothing rigged to be the same as the body and to move exactly the same sounds like a possibility, especially with the Skin Wrap modifier, but I still feel like it would be too easy for even one vertex to poke out of the clothing. Discussions online seem to be similar between the two choices, and there isn't a clear cut answer.
In the end, I don't have any plans for this model to be able to change clothes or to have any animated materials, so I've decided to model closer to what I'm used to, a single model made of the body and clothing instead of multiple models for the body and clothes.

Lastly, I've found something extra I think I can use this model for. A costume competition for Sword Art Online.
The contest is to create a costume design that will be voted among others and can possibly end up in the game. There is a template on the site that can be used, but I think having a 3D Model to show a design would be good, and would make it easier to visualise for the game.
I could also submit things like the texture I would be using for the clothing to hopefully boost my chances. Fino's design fits the fantasy theme of SAO Alicization pretty well, and could end up being a kind of debut for her.
I plan to submit the design with the name "Fino" included, but if they don't want a character's name on the design I'd submit it as "Bunker Armour" instead.

Hopefully I can have more of her armour ready for the next update, or might have already submitted it as a design seeing as the contest ends on the 6th September.

Project Fino

This is a project that I started a while ago but have been working on very slowly. The plan is to go through the process of creating a 3D character model, unwrapping, texturing, rigging and animating, all towards either a animation showreel or another game demo, similar to Project Samuel.

Fino is a character I designed a long time ago. There's a lot of details about her I can give, but for now she is a young woman who uses a sword and shield and is similar in design to a knight.

The model itself was made using models from other games as reference. I feel like I ended up following the other models too closely, but it was a great insight to how models like these are made, and I feel a bit more at ease with modeling some body parts like the hair and chest.

Next I plan to model the clothes for Fino. I'm not entirely sure how to approach this as I know clothes have been done in different ways, for example deleting body parts and using clothes as a part of the character model, or clothes that fit over the body. I've already been experimenting a bit and have a few things to show in my next post, such as teaching myself the Cloth modifier.

A Year of Rest

It's been a while since I've made an update between job searching, living life, attempts at projects and improving skills, and just plain rest. The time after graduation is the first moment where I wasn't obligated to work or learning as a student. Holidays from school are similar, but there's the thought that you will always return when it ends. It's a subtle feeling of freedom and I ended up taking my time with my rest, but maybe I shouldn't have been so lenient with myself.

For now I have a part time job to tide me over while I search for the next job, and with it some stability in my life. I still want to find a job in the Games or VFX Industry, that much I know. Whether it be Animation like my university course guided me towards, other fields like Modelling or Design, or even going Indie and really trying to spread my ideas.

And that's why I'm back here.
A place to hone my skills while showing my progress, and something I should be doing more. It's easy to shy away from this kind of thing and not show the steps you took. Everyone wants to show their final result, not the mistakes or trips they made along the way, but I need to break out of that thought process. It's been over a year since my last update, and that doesn't look good to anyone looking here.
I've also decided to take a less formal approach to my posts, something closer to how game companies give updates on things like Facebook and Twitter.

I can't commit to any schedule for updates I make here currently, so will just be posting when I can. I already have a project planned to show here, one that I've been working on very slowly for a while now (Despite the whole "showing their final result" thing) but I'm gonna save it for another post seeing how long this one has gone on.

I'll see you in the next update!

A showreel focused on Motion Capture.

YouTube description:
A small showreel showcasing animations that used motion data. The raw motion data is shown first, followed by the final product.
For Project Samuel, the majority of the animations come from motion data, acted out by myself.
The young girl, Fino, was some of the first motion capture work I did where I instructed the Actor.
The Mathilda facial capture data was a little difficult to use. I'm not sure if it was the data or if I need more experience with faces.
The Sylvanas monologue only uses motion data for the body movements, while the lip sync was done by hand.

Website:
www.kanjoejji.co.uk

Email:
kanjoejji@hotmail.com
kanjoejji@gmail.com

Resistance by Sakagami Souichi https://www.tandess.com/en/music/

Mathilda Rig by Xiong Lin http://www.cgmeetup.net/forums/files/...

Sylvanas Rig by Truong https://gumroad.com/truongcgartist

Kanjo Ejji Animation Showreel - 02/05/2018

My final Animation Showreel for everything I've done at Staffordshire University, and the last time I can say "I'm a Third Year Animation Student".


Check the video description for links to the song and Rigs I used.

Kanjo Ejji

A quick render of Kanjo Ejji. Apart from being an Alias I use, it's also a name for this Katana. The design is very plain, with mainly the Blue and Brown colours making it stand out.
Kanjo Ejji roughly translates to Emotion Edge.