Tezuka In English Discussion Forums

Hi everybody! It's been awhile, hasn't it?

Things kind of got busy for me during the holidays. So, I didn't have too much time to converse at message boards then. But, afterward...

Well, what happened was I got a few very good DVDs for Christmas. This included the all CG anime film Appleseed, and it's sequel Appleseed Ex Machina.

Now, Appleseed I've seen before, it's a pretty good flick, and i think the toon-shaded characters were pretty cool, but didn't seem to look as natural as hand drawn characters.

But, Ex Machina, which was new to me, blew me away! It's story was excellent. And, more relevant to this thread, the CG animation was breathtaking.

It was also toon-shaded, but in a more subtle way that suggested hand-drawn rather than trying to replicate it (it looked like painted comics to me, actually). It didn't look as much like hand-drawn animation as it's predecessor, but it felt much more like it.

I've enjoyed CG films before, but this one had me saying something new...

"Oh my god! I gotta learn how to do this stuff!"

So, I downloaded ('cause you can't beat the price). And, I've been learning how to use it since.

Ordinarily, I'm depressed at New Years, because I see it as "Another year just went by, and my life still sucks". But, for once I was excited, because I got to start the year off learning a new art-form.

Here's some of what I've got so far...

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2228 ... p02nj4.jpg

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3074/w ... s04ro1.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1125/gems01yg8.jpg

I actually made this pine-cone by accident...

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/8760 ... e01zc0.jpg

Here's a 1-up for everyone...

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/9672 ... m02rx2.jpg

...and another one for anyone who has 3D glasses...

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/8159 ... m03sm0.jpg

And, a cuddly toon-shaded Teddy...

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1680/teddy01kl4.jpg

Now keep in mind, I've still got ALOT to learn about this. I've barely begun. But, when I've mastered this, there's a good chance that many of the projects I had been planning to do in Flash. May instead end up as full CG works made in Blender, instead.

Don't expect to see those for awhile, though. I'm a horrible procrastinator, and I've been easily distracted lately (all the teen angst I suppressed during my actual teen years is catching up to me in my 20s).

But, here's to the future!

That is soooo awesome tetsu!:D

I'm glad we didn't scare you off

I'm afraid I scared off cmoon :sniff:


Hey tetsu, did you see my websites? I am doing epublishing now


edit: omg this is post 1400

Here's a few more...

This robot was my big attempt at modeling something based on a design drawing of mine.
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6531 ... obot02.jpg

It's a little taller then the drawing, but still quite faithful to it.

My goal is to be able to model my characters to look exactly like (or at least pretty damned close to) a three dimensional replica of my character design drawings.

Also, for dinosaur fans, here's an Apatosaurus.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/838/ ... urus04.jpg

Here he is up close...

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/762/ ... urus03.jpg

Notice the way he's colored. That's real crayon! I colored solid squares of color on paper with a set of crayons. Then I scanned the paper, and created bitmaps of each color that I finally imported into Blender as texture maps, and mapped onto this character.

Then I got carried away, and built a little set around him...

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7012 ... urus05.jpg

...which can be viewed at different angles...

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/1228 ... urus06.jpg

..it hopefully gives the appearance of a coloring book page (let me know if I pulled it off).

This means I used advanced computer graphics to make something I could have made easier by just drawing dinosaur on paper and coloring it with my crayons! Go me!

Well it does make 3D images easier...

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4329 ... rus3d1.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/715/ ... rus3d2.jpg

But, the real reason for this will be revealed very soon!

yes it does look like a coloring book page

The shadows make it seem the the dino is floating in the air.

Don't worry. You didn't. And pointing out errors like that helps me learn.

Update: I replaced the vid with an HD version. It looks a little better, but I still don't get what I gotta do to get it to look good on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsSrNHC6lm8

Hey, haven't been posting here much, I know. I've been busy working on my writing. In fact, I hadn't done much with Blender until a couple days ago.

In order to make sure my skills stay sharp, I decided to throw together a quick turtle (I've kinda been into turtles lately).

45 minutes or so of messing around, and I made this...

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/7865/turtle01.jpg

Not that great, I know. But, it looks alot like a PlayStation-1/N64/Saturn game character. And, for 45 minutes of messing around, I don't think 32/64 bit game graphic quality is too shabby.

Still, I knew I could do better. So, after looking up some reference photos, I reworked him into a, hopefully, pretty decent Leather-back Sea Turtle.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8011/seaturtle02.jpg

And, knowing I could do a better "land turtle" if I used reference photos from the start, took more time (a few hours for the carapace one night, a few hours for the rest the next night), and made the shell a separate mesh.

I ended up with this...

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4650/turtle03.jpg

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm really proud of this one. What do you think?

Either way, I think I got my CG "workout" in.

BTW Happy 4-20 day everyone!