Victoria Nece

Bite-Size Jurors

Monday, 06. 16. 2008  –  Category: Graphics

I’m working on a series of films about juries at the moment. They should be pretty fun to do (I get to animate trial by ordeal, for one), but there’s a lot of character work and not a lot of time. Thus, digital puppetry.

I was hoping to work with After Effects’ extremely fun Puppet Tool, but the results I got while experimenting were just a little too squishy for this project. (Anyone know some tricks for getting convincing, not-too-exaggerated motion out of it? Even liberal use of the starch tool seemed unhelpful, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out a way to make elbows and knees bend properly.) So for the moment it’s back to IK rigging — and a lot of carefully placed anchor points.

I’m much more satisfied with the results, particularly now that I have a keyframable checkbox parameter that switches the bend direction of the joints. In plain English, I can make someone’s elbows bend both ways — e.g. a character can go from having their hands on their hips to picking something up off the table next to them with very little trouble.

Creating the jurors themselves was a lot of fun — the characters need to function more as archetypes than individuals. The result: a wide range of ages and races and a complete lack of faces.

I now present… my little jury guys (and girls!):

Warning: Do Not Eat.

Okay Paintings

Saturday, 06. 7. 2008  –  Category: Tutorials

New Photoshop Tutorial! Give pictures a convincing “painted” effect. This technique works best with images that have large, clearly defined areas.

The results may not make people think you’re the next da Vinci, but they might make them wonder if you actually got out a canvas and brushes for once. With any luck, your local coffee house will be begging you to hang your work on their walls!