Zcarver

Okay, my waiting is over...just made an order! I hope for the best! Good Luck! :) AZ

Any chance of a picture? That must feel good to see a white cap when coming home.

I wonder if Jack could reach to 2000 post before this year is up? Hum.. I think he would need to post at least 7 or 8 a day till the end of the year. Can't be done, no way, no how! :rolleyes:

Thank you :rolleyes: Yeah my first walking character was a robot too. It is easier to set up a IK rig for a robot without using bones and don't have to worry about weight maps. I use Fprime as well, awesome isn't it! Hopefully when LW 8.5 and 9 is release it will be even better. Especially with the dual cores computers. Yes I am on many of the 3d forums. I am zrender8 on LW and spinquad. The animated short I am working is called, "The Immune System Defense" (ISD)It shows how the white blood cells (The Knights u see in the lower left picture above) fights the Pathogens inside a boy's finger. I have about 5 mins and 34 seconds of 50 "720x486" clips done. I have been working on the project for about a year, but about 4 months of rendering. I am on and off with this assignment. I have been doing several 3d projects over the summer and I also teach lightwave in NY and FLA. So it is hard for me to focus on the "ISD" project all the time. So much to learn, but not enough time, you know? :( A few Images of ISD:

Thanks Kjl. I like your render look. Very Nice! I am using Lightwave 8 and learning Maya 6.5 Unlimited. Both are excellent programs to use. Looking forward in getting Vue 5 from e-on software also. I have a few samples below. I really enjoyed using these programs. But there is so much to learn to get good quality animation. I am pretty much doing everything from modeling to special effect animation. I have about 3 years experience, but only a year of character animation. Getting Grass to look good can be hard or easy depending on what you are looking for. I tend to stay away from Photo-realistic images because they are render killers. I like cartoon "cell-shader look" and the standard "3d animation look" like Toy Story. Cartoon renders are very easy and fast. The standard 3d look can be trouble-some but I have the hardware to complete decent renders. I am currently working on a 8 min animation short for a friend. Yeah I started out modeling rooms and simple objects. I try not to get too involved into robots when looking for a job. I am trying to tackle organic character animation. But it is amazing what these programs can do weather you are Pro or amateur :rolleyes:

Yeah, working with fur and grass are render killers. Especially when you add dynamic effect to make the fur or grass react with objects. I did a 3D cartoon scene with a helicopter flying over grass, pretty cool how to make the grass move. The picture below is a clip of a 5 part scene to show a grass scene to a client. These 3d programs are tricky. :o

I never read the book, but I did see the movie a few years back. I think several times, it was a good 2d animation movie. Yeah I remembered that trap scene. I was a teenager and feeling bad for the little fella. I would like to do something similar to Watership down in 3d. :o In fact I think I will see it again. Thanks, Dan!

While the price increase is no laughing matter , I thought some of these cartoons were funny. :rolleyes:

I just heard a friend of mine in Weymouth, Mass lost power and massive flooding all over the city of Southern Boston. Those who lived in Mass and Conn how did you make out? Hope all is well. AZcarver

I agree, however I'll give deamworks a lot of credit for producing many complex-mulit character scenes. The one thing I notice about Pixar is that they don't have many characters in the background. For example: the zoo scene, you can feel the presence of a crowded zoo. All of the city scenes, including Grand Central Station where the animals were running loose you see plenty of people walking around. In the Incredibles all of the city scenes were empty and didn't have that city feel. There was one black and white (TV look) shot of city people walking around, but that was it. No doubt The Incredibles is Pixar 's best animated movie and I do like it better than Madagascar because of the story line. Madagascar has isome funny moments portraying other movies and the penguins were cool. The beach scene with the water was very impressive.

You can find some information and more photos here: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_liger_hercules.htm http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/liger.htm

Not sure if this was ever posted.... The 10ft Liger who's still growing...He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a 3D creation from Hollywood. Hercules is his name! Part lion, part tiger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one, standing 10ft tall on his back legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is the largest of all the cat species. On a typical day he will devour 20lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100lb at a single setting. At just three years old, Hercules already weighs half a ton. Can anybody send some meat please. I get the feeling he is looking at me like a steak. Like in Madagascar!

That is a nice shot! The knee is touching and all! Just curious about what type of tires the racers use. How are they different from normal "jap" bike tires?

Well whether the movie is good or not, it certainly was good for a single day of selling tickets. He is the news: "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" grossed $50,013,859 from showings at 3,661 theaters and more than 9,000 screens around the country on Thursday, including special midnight shows, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. That beat the one-day record set in May 2004 by "Shrek 2," which sold $44.8 million on a single Saturday — its fourth day in theaters. The George Lucas film, which features the transformation of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker into the evil Darth Vader, also beat the opening day record held by "Spider-Man 2," which grossed $40.4 million when it opened on a Wednesday last June. "Fifty million is a good opening weekend, let alone a single day," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. "This is the box office equivalent of a 100-year flood." :D

Well, there is a lot of room for a new story after the "Return of the Jedi." "The Rise of the sith" :D I also heard rumors that George is making a TV series as well.

One newspaper say 3 1/2 stars, another say 2 1/2? Who cares, either way George is a winner. We all want to see how the little kid goes bad. 28 years and the waiting is over. Boo HOO!:D

Talk about an endless winter! You're killing me!

I think the weta team set a record for most visual effects work on a single character. Gollum has over 250 facial features and 300 different muscles movements. In some 3d applications this is called endomorphs or morphing. It allows the animator to change the original base shape of the character or object to create another look. It took weta over 7 months to get the right features going. Many morphs were created as they go. Motion capture and bones can't do everything. It was a good thing for the animators that Gollum had no clothes, just diapers. That would of added more calculations time to the scene. A feature called Dynamics usually control the cloth effects. Like Yoda. That is heavy duty work:D

I just got off the phone with Ronski today. He just returned from Hunter Mt with Wes and told me of the news. I hope all is well and you recover fast Buggs! I was going to post a thread about it. Glad I rode with you at Okemo! Good Luck!:) Tony Z

.......That is a tough one. It depends on the conditions. :D

Thank you for the info Mirror!. I was asking because I thought I was going to Winslow, Maine on April 20th. I was hoping to teach a group of clients some 3d animation. I was told they are coming to NYC instead! Boo HOO! I would of like to squeeze in a 2 day trip at the loaf after the teaching assignment! Oh well!

I hope to be there as well. I miss that place! I just found out Okemo last day is April 10th. Oh well, my season is finish! It is a shame, they have about 83 percent open too. I was hoping for one more week. I guess Okemo aim for 150 days of skiing and that it! Boo HOO! Hey Jack, when does Sugar Loaf ends it season? I don't recall how long Sugar Loaf stays open till? Did the Mt ever stay open till the first week of May? Just wondering. For those who are still riding, ENJOYED!!!! :D

What ever happened to Vinny? I haven't seen him in over 2 season ago. He is truly the best soft-boot rider I have ever met!

I will be going to FLA and Washington D.C. to teach 3D animation. I will miss the cold and the snow. Boo HOO!:(

He's a Nuckle-Head Dragon Freak! You know what I'm saying:D How you feeling Buggs! Just got back from Okemo again! Hero snow conditions for the last 2 days! Awesome Big Time! Hope to see the gang soon in April! Maybe at MT Snow!