Check this out!

LAIKA's commercial division released a fantastic commercial a few months ago, and I've recently become aware of it. This is just more proof that some fantastic animation and experience can go into commercial advertising. Plus, click on the link under the video and it'll bring you to a cool video/background integrated page on Vimeo. Fantastic work.

“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.

Slight Update

Well, I've been keeping busy. New projects and ideas abound, but none are quite finished. Here's a small update on my rigging reel.

Spring 2010 Rigging Reel from Stephen Camardella on Vimeo.

It's Been Awhile.....again...

Alright, I understand. It's been a very.....very..........very long time since I've posted anything. Many things have been going on recently, mainly, Winter quarter at SCAD. It was way beyond brutal as I had senior film to attend to as well as a refreshing MEL scripting class that certainly taxed my brain cells. The senior film got a nice dose of the attention, but it's still not quite all there yet. There's still a good bit of lighting and rendering to be done and a good amount of animation fixes. It'll be posted as soon as its polished and ready to go.
I'm now in Spring quarter, taking portfolio and post production for senior film classes, so I might have some work from there to post in a bit.
On another note, I did get together a rigging reel recently, so that'll cover showing off the final Rupert rig as well as a MEL/Python scripting project I've got going, among a couple other rigs and animations (most animations are not mine). So for now, enjoy that, and I'll have another post shortly......I hope.

Winter Break!

Alright, the quarter's finally over. By the far the most grueling I've had so far, and it's probably not going to get any easier from here on out, but I'm up for it. Now that I'm on break (hah! break, they call it) there's still plenty to be done. Rig fixes, texture fixes, animation fixes, portfolio fixes....the works. I'll have animation reel updates in a couple weeks hopefully, as well as some new animation and rig tests. I also want to cut together a rigging reel, just for kicks. On top of that, my car could use a little TLC, as well. Boy that's a lot to do. This time, I don't have any media to accompany the post, but I did come away from Fall quarter with a nice quote from Professor Charles daCosta: when someone or something gets you feeling inadequate......

"Be Better not Bitter"

Finished Model

Here's the finished model of my character for my senior film. I've finally decided on a name for him: Rupert. I modeled him myself and I think he translated nicely from the character designs I did. I also paid very close attention to edge flow as well as proportions. A few proportions were changed a bit from the character sheet, but only for appeal. He's already UV'ed but the textures still need to be painted. Next up for him is rigging. The rig is going to consist of stretchy/ bendy spine, arms, and legs, as well as a facial rig, probably driven mostly by joints and blendshapes, and maybe a few clusters for the mouth. Now I need to force myself to take a break from senior film for a couple days to work on some animation as I've been skimping a bit in that department. I guess I just really want to see the character I modeled moving..... Enjoy!

Force Animation Turn-in

Here's the final turn-in version for my force animation. This is for my 3D Character Animation 2 class. I still have a few pops/ glitches to work out in certain areas, but for now I need to focus on my senior film for a bit, so it'll have to wait a few days.

Still goin'!

Alright, alright.... I'll admit it's been awhile, but I haven't forgotten about this little commitment quite yet. Actually, I've been hard at work getting settled into my classes for Fall quarter at SCAD, which is why I haven't posted recently. My senior film is coming along nicely, and I'm currently finishing up pre-vis. The story has evolved quite a bit since I first thought of the idea. Though, unlike most of my other ideas, instead of becoming a story I loathe after it evolves, every new iteration actually makes me a bit more excited to be working on it. Right now, I'm just itching to start modelling/ rigging to really begin to see the piece take form. I've been talking with quite a few people about different aspects of the production, and I've got a good idea of what I want for sound and aesthetic/ design. For sound, I'm pretty sure I've settled on a quirky, Thomas Newman type soundtrack (think American-beauty...kinda). Lots of Xylophone/Marimba and strings. Design, on the other hand, I'm looking for a textured, digitally painted look for the environment, mainly. I want to achieve this without painted textures though. How much of this idea will transfer to the character, I'm not sure. I think keeping a more refined texture for the character and his various props may add a nice bit of contrast between the elements. I'm doing this, and trying to keep up with my other two animation classes, among rig explosions and other things, so it's been a pretty brutal quarter so far, but nothing too unusual. For now, here's the 3D pre-vis for my senior film as well as a rough, unfinished blocking 2 (with some gaps) for my Force Animation for my 3D character animation 2 class.