• Member Since 14th Mar, 2012
  • offline last seen Oct 5th, 2021

J-Dude


More Blog Posts18

  • 468 weeks
    Season 5 Premiere? Kinda underwhelmed me... (Spoilers)

    It was easier than it SHOULD have been to contain my hype over the hiatus. And why SHOULD it have been? Season 4's finale is pretty much my favorite ever, and we seemed to be gaining some awesome momentum as the show settled in.

    So why was I not more excited?

    Well... the premiere just didn't look very exciting.

    Read More

    5 comments · 561 views
  • 477 weeks
    Smashy smashy...


    Whoa, was Rainbow Dash at all involved, or did someone accidentally nudge CAIRO into sleep mode? Either way, a few million dollars of dead drone here... :rainbowwild:

    Read More

    1 comments · 652 views
  • 486 weeks
    "Whoa, what's up with Chapter 17!?" Well, let me explain...

    Telling you RIGHT now, don't read anything below the page break if you have NOT read Chapter 17 of Black Equinox. Let not your eyes wander, for the spoilers are HUGE.

    Read More

    1 comments · 599 views
  • 504 weeks
    My Everything Has Been Augmented...


    Hey folks, little update!

    Chapter 16 is well on its way, only in need of editing in fact! But I wanted to share the fact that my computer has just been put through a serious upgrade!

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    1 comments · 424 views
  • 512 weeks
    I... think I've met my match. Well played.

    Guys... I know I can come off as a cold person.

    Read More

    3 comments · 557 views
Mar
25th
2013

One-Thousand Views + Video! · 1:27am Mar 25th, 2013

Wow, so a thousand unique viewers have at least checked-out Black Equinox, six-thousand views in all!

I'd call that a milestone, so since I'm in a bit of a 3D binge, thought I'd throw this up here: an animation test for Twilight Sparkle :-)

Hehehe, yeah!

This little number is a test of the various functions I required to make the Source-Filmmaker/Garrysmod models work in 3D Studio Max. Nahka, who updated the models for detail and facial animation, helped in this by posting his source files, but unfortunately his facial expressions came in the form of busts of different characters, so making them all work for Twilight here was a lot of tedious work snapping vertices into place. Hours upon hours of work, just for that, and Rarity and Fluttershy have their OWN to do O_o

Getting the eyes working was also an interesting task, since the game models depend on a sort of texture alignment in-game, and not physically spinning eyeballs. I managed that with look-at constraints and FFD lattice deformers, but still had to render the eyes seperately and matte them in, inside Adobe Premiere, since the eyeballs would penetrate the eyelids when she blinked. Works great now, though :-)

Set up a simple IK rig, but if the short gesture she does with her foreleg is any indicator, I'll need to add in a redundant skeleton for IK/FK switching to allow me more control. Also, her mane doesn't move here like it will when I figure out how to automate the secondary animation properly. Her tail currently uses a splineIK system with a flex modifier, but it's a bit erratic and jerky-looking.

Anyway, enough Star Trek technobabble about multi-modal reflection sorting, this is a decent example of what to expect from my animation in-future. Hope you like it =D

Also, this currently uses a cel-shading effect to make her look cartoony. Hopefully this doesn' creep anyone out, and if possible, I can add SOME shading to flesh-out the details a bit more. Also, I'm aware the lines aren't as thick as in the show. If they were, then her mouth would look pretty awful, and I don't have much of an effective way to change the size of the lines in specific areas. So teeny-thin lines are what we get. Take it as artistic license ;-)

Report J-Dude · 340 views ·
Comments ( 1 )

Much better than I can do. :twilightsmile:
I'd say you did a pretty good job, and seem to know a lot about what your doing.
(Now if only you could get the next chapter out...)

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