The Og Bog Blog

Oh Canada

2012-01-31T13:21:00.000-08:00

Zoinks! After two weeks in Vancouver, I'm back in the states. Man, I had a blast. I worked on a project with UBC Fisheries (more to come later), followed by the Vancouver Game Jam.

I ended up on a team with James and Scott, and we made an awesome lil Unity game in 48 hours. One sleep break Friday night, followed by marathon production!

Hence, today I am taking it easy. But I still felt so jazzed about fast production that I felt like making some more stuff. So here's storyboards for an old pitch of mine, which I pumped out in about 2 hours this morning. Stay tuned for more content from my adventures in Vancouver!

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Some sketches

2012-01-08T00:14:00.000-08:00

Chaka Khan...plus a conch shell.

heads

In a talk with the wizardly Tony Mullen at the December Seabug, he quipped that all drawing teachers ever say is "draw looser." I was drawing this rather nobbly antelope off of arkive.org and felt pretty stiff. So I kept drawing until it felt loose enough. Indeed, I'd say the second-to-last one ended up the best.

My cat Charlie.

I've been playing with watercolor pencils on occasion.

Nekkidness.

Drew a guy, then tried to stay on the single subject.

Character studies from Disney's Alice in Wonderland

I looked around on the internet for a fashion generator, with humorous results. Pity I can't recall the URL.

More Disney studies, from the excellent http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/

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Baby New Year!

2012-01-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

In homage to the inimitable J.C. Leyendecker, I made a Baby New Year illustration for our tumultuous 2012. The bad news is I put this off til the last day of 2011, but the good news is I'm getting faster! This took about an hour of doodling and compositing my doodles together, plus five hours of painting.

Here's to a great 2012!

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Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season this year! Here's my Christmas card, which warped into more of a comic strip than a card.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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October sketches

2011-10-29T01:18:00.000-07:00

Yaaay! Finished this sketchbook in under 2 months, without resorting to unpolished unscannable gesture-binging.

Some credit for this completion deadline goes to Star Trek. I successfully watched Star Trek TNG in entirety over the last month or so, and I don't think I've ever had a show so good for multitask drawing.

Sketched a lot of lifeforms from photos this time around. I was going to http://www.arkive.org/random-species over and over again. Although I grumbled about it, I tried to draw the plants, coral reefs, fish and birds it threw at me over and over. In other words, the boring stuff. In retrospect, birds, fish and fish are more interesting than I thought. But mostly, plants are stupid.

I dunno if it's "correct", but I like rendering fur in a specific way. Scribbling back and forth for fur doesn't look right, because you don't get wispy points with the fur. Similarly, repeated lines don't look as good, because it's hard to get a concise sense of border.

The hybrid is drawing a series of "U" strokes, where the start and end of the U create a wispy, feathery edge for fur and feathes. However, the inner border (the U bend) feels thick and materialized.

Lizards are one of my favorite things to draw. Their legs don't fold in a hinge motion. Instead they prop up on their legs and rotate to move them. As a result, their legs bulge with muscle in all the funnest places. Also, their feet (which don't function like springs ala mammals) have toes that point in slouchy rest poses. If a claw isn't digging into tree bark, it lays sideways on the nail. It makes them looks a little disheveled and unplanted.

Uploaded in reverse; sketches at the top are the most recent.

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Me, doing a hilarious impression of you

2011-10-04T03:28:00.001-07:00

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Me Oscar! Me sketch!

2011-09-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Lots of animals and such. I think I was feeling self-conscious about my habit of heads, so there's a fair amount more "whole body" anatomical sketches.

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Rendering gold

2011-09-13T01:25:00.000-07:00

After the amazing Paul Richards posted an analysis on gold (based on the tutelage of Mathias Verhasselt) I was compelled by the lure of beautiful renderings to follow along. Here's mine, plus a breakdown of layers and stuff after some experiments with color eye-dropping and layer mode transfers.

All of these were solid color layers, painted in with layer masks plus a clipping mask to the original silhouette layer. I've been off this system for a while, due to early days as a photoshop n00b being frustrated with jumbles of unnavigable layers and layer groups. But coming back to the philosophy of one layer per art pass was nice, in that it really fixes the eye-dropper problem of mud color.

Also, check out the photoshop filter Pixel Bender, specifically the Oil Painting mode. When used on a sketch, it generates really nice ink-like results, that follow contours rather than just blotching in pixels. You still will need to hand-edit stuff, but it cuts out a rather big step!

I'm also using a two-tool setup for most of my brush work (all of which is being done via masks). First, a round brush set to full hardness with pen pressure affecting size. However, it's not set to full pressure, as that gives you the ugly Photoshop rat-tails. I used this to lay in block passes, switching between black and white with X. Second, I use the new Mixer Brush tool, which functions like a more advanced smudge tool. (In fact, I reset my R hotkey to it.) After the block pass, I blur some edges with this. I've found that it's way easier to start with hard edges and make them soft, rather than to start by fuzzing in soft edges and hoping for hard edges later.

The layer setup also lets you simply change the base layer with pretty convincing results right away. Case in point, assuming the base metal would absorb less base color, here's a darker metal that still reads pretty realistically.

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Sneak peek...

2011-09-12T01:21:00.001-07:00

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Iguana hipster progress

2011-09-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

He was getting a bit nubbly, so I went back and tried to add a "planar" pass, ala his face being a single plane rather than a bunch of wrinkly iguana bumps getting rendered separately.

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Iguana hipster, first draft

2011-09-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

If you look at the original sketch of this dude, he's just a head study with no torso or arms. My initial instinct was to think about futuristic fashion designs, but then a thought occurred to me. How come in the future, and on alien worlds, nobody dresses casual? Even beyond the current pop culture plague of space marines, most depictions of aliens have them wearing swishy bedouin drapery. Why? The T-shirt pervades modern culture with good reason: It's cheap, looks good, fits many sizes, can be worn loose or tight, and is a palette for a message. So why do we assume future societies would backtrack into a realm that uses twice as much fabric, zero industrialized production, and no hilarious catch phrases?

So I started with an attempt at "futurist casual" but it just turned into hipster. Crap. So I suppose the next step is attaching some lasers or LEDs to this guy's comfortable sweater vest.

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Sketchbook finished!

2011-08-29T01:08:00.000-07:00

Finished in 2 months and 3 days, just shy of my 2 month goal. Curses! Oh well, got some good stuff out of it. Hope you enjoyed looking!

Also, I've started a blog where I pitch one story idea every day. It's a habit I did in college for a while and have recently restarted. Go check it out! http://hereisthepitch.tumblr.com

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SIGGRAPH sketches, and beyond!

2011-08-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

Dayum. Volunteering at the Siggraph Blender booth was awesome. It's been a while and I'm still processing it.

In any case, I made lots of cool sketches there, and since! If I could keep this drawing pace up I'd kill a sketchbook a week. Which, considering how tedious scanning is, would suck.

Anyway, check it out!

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Moar Reddit alien

2011-07-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Of course, immediately after posting this to Youtube I realize he still has sliding feet. G'dangit!

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The Reddit Alien!

2011-07-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

I made the Reddit alien from www.reddit.com in Blender. It's got VERY cartoony rigging, and also is rendered using the Cycles engine. Enjoy!

http://www.blendswap.com/3D-models/characters/the-reddit-alien/

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2011-07-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a video regarding how to make cool space-like backgrounds, ala the one I used in my marketing video for The Dying Dimension. Enjoy, and go fund my project!

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Just a recent drawing

2011-07-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

I've got a finished sketchbook I need to scan...but...bleh. Drawing is fun, an hour of back pain standing over a scanner isn't.

In the mean time, my new sketchbook's off to a good start. Here's Cap'n Dax, the pirate lord!

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2011-06-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I won a contest on the Stranger for $16 from Stranger contributor Derek Erdman. I just got the check, and this lovely work! It has ascended to the hallowed domain of my walls.

I drew a caricature of Derek as thanks for his generous offer.

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Seabug, June 4th!

2011-06-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Seabug turned out great! And this Seabug marks a first in that we recorded it (I expect badly) and will be posting it soon. Prepare for awkward, completely un-edited goodness, coming soon!

After initially panicking about attendance, we ended up with a great crowd with some great lessons.

Special thanks to Blender Cyclist Lee Posey...

And Blender's rigging master Nathan Vegdahl...

for their continued knowledge-dropping at Seabug. Even when put on the spot, they always manage to pull a random tutorial out of their hats.

I'll post the link once it's up on the internut. Stay tuned, dear reader!

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Man in the Moon

2011-05-11T00:21:00.000-07:00

Quick lil 15 minute speed paint. I ought to be better about doing this as a daily habit before bed.

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Blender links!

2011-05-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

Had a great time at Linuxfest Northwest, chatting about Blender and open source goodness! I mentioned a ton of links during my presentation, and I think this should cover the basics of Blender.

My blog: www.ogbog.blogspot.com

my portfolio: www.behance.net/ogbog

my twitter: @ogbog

Fresh, daily Blender builds: www.grahicall.org

Blender forums: www.blenderartists.org

Free CC blend files: www.blendswap.com

Makehuman project (screw Poser!): www.makehuman.org

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20 min. sketch

2011-04-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

Just messing around before bed....I am fascinated with how the value process in a sketchbook (quick hatching/shading) can go faster and look better than the value process in photoshop (filling in value regions ala airbrush.) In other words, I want photoshop to feel more pencil like.

Seabug tomorrow! Come visit!

And my new game Knights Vs. Aliens is out! Go buy it! http://bit.ly/GetKvA

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Seabug, April 9th!

2011-04-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

In case you forgot, my off-monthly Blender shindig is still going strong! The next Seabug (Seattle Blender User Group) is April 9th, and we'll be doing lots of fun stuff. Learn more and RSVP at the Seabug eventbrite page!

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My article in BlenderArt Magazine

2011-04-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

Check it out! I wrote up an article for BlenderArt Magazine on how to make tile-tastic naturalist 2D sprite environments. So nice to see your name in print :D

http://blenderart.org/2011/04/01/blenderart-mag-issue-32-now-available/

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Ivan Aivazovsky speed study

2011-03-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

I continue to approach speed painting with a completely noncommittal experimental outlook. This time I made up a new set of parameters:

•30 minute time limit

•Study of someone far greater than myself (in this case, Ivan Aivazovsky, whose ocean landscapes blow Turner out da water)

•Do mine at half the size of the original to keep it thumbnail-y

•NO COLORPICKING from the original. Had to eyeball everything.

Not perfect, alas, but acceptable for 30 minutes.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Blender splash screen contest!

2011-03-27T06:03:00.001-07:00

Here's my 6 AM renders :D I'm a bit sleepy, to say the least.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Utterly misleading caricature progress

2011-03-15T00:12:00.001-07:00

I have, in fact, NOT worked on this in about a month. But tonight I thought, "say, wasn't I going to finish that Dan Savage pic?" and opened the file. I apparently forgot that I did a complete start on a color pass :P

This in no way counts as a speed paint any more. Not only because I haven't opened it in a month, but also because I have no recollection of how much time is invested in it now. Somewhere between 3 and 6 hours is my best guess.

Anyway, on another note, I'm going to try and retire B&W starting images. The Tick drawing I did was done in straight color. This was B&W, then brought into color. The unfortunate truth is that I have so little trust for coloring via a layer mode transfer or fancy doodads like that, that I end up just painting in Normal mode, e.g. repainting the entire thing on top of itself. That wasted time is probably why I haven't looked at this in a month.

AlsoSpiresHDisoutforiPadandiPhone4sgobuyitandrateit! http://bit.ly/GetSpiresHD

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Spires HD now available!

2011-03-14T13:37:00.001-07:00

Hey guys! Spires HD just went live, with optimized graphics for iPads and retina iPhones. Also added a ton more Survival maps, Extreme difficulty, and the new Siege mode.

Check it out! http://bit.ly/GetSpiresHD

Here's a trailer I put together for it, edited/composited in Blender:

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Playing with compositing more...

2011-03-10T14:33:00.001-08:00

Not lovin' the pink horizon right now. Mostly just cranked it up to 11 while making sure it worked. Methinks I'll be shooting for an atmosphere akin to some of my favorite painters, ala Salomon Corrodi and Jean Leon Gerome.

Also hunted down more loose keyframe doublings, which was resulting in pop-locking, and also the foot sliding is fixed. Next up, animating him walking onto the platform thingie for a turntable.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

My top 5 favorite illustration resources

2011-02-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

A huge change between artists of my generation and older generations is the democratization of learning resources. Since time immemorial art has been a "pay to play" industry, where a significant chunk of change was needed simply to access learning resources, good teachers and educated peer feedback.

But we've got the internet baby! Forums are filled with helpful critique. Video tutorials still lack the true feedback of a face-to-face teacher, but still get you pretty far. People make tutorials to drive traffic to their personal websites. And if you're truly, desperately hungry for art, piracy provides a first rate black market education.

Now all people need is skill knowing where to look! So although I follow a gazillion fantastic blogs, forums and news sites, on various topics, here's my top 5 for illustration.

5. conceptart.org--it's finally finished!
There's a lot of great stuff on CA, but this particular forum thread is where people post finished pieces. I visit this fantastic place daily to see cutting-edge illustration in a variety of styles, in a finished format. We judge ourselves in comparison to what we're looking at, so the healthiest thing to do is be looking at the very best.

4. Art Knowledge News
Another resource that's technically not educational, AKN wins on sheer quantity. Posting press releases from galleries worldwide, they average upwards of 10 posts a day. In my opinion, no other site will leave you with an utter breadth of exposure to styles, history, culture, and namedrops.

3. Golden Age Comic Book Stories
This blog's name is a misnomer--Few of its posts are actual comic book panels. However, it is a phenomenal resource for old comic and magazine covers, and (bizarrely) illustrations from the Brandywine school, American illustration, classical painting and other goodies. I have found these guys to be consistently the best and most refreshing resource for a number of my favorite old-time artists: NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Frank Frazetta, Maxfield Parrish, Frank Schoonover, and many others. You might know that you like Howard Pyle, but this site will shock you with just how much content the dude put out.

2. The Gurney Journey
There's a new business model these days. You make a blog, you put content out regularly, and after a year you assemble that content and sell it as a book. James Gurney's blog uses that formula, and he deserves a gold medal for how to do it right. Gurney is the illustrator from Dinotopia, and uses his blog to showcase his production techniques, plus provide lovable anecdotes about himself and the artists that inspire him. The knowledge he drops on you is so good, you can't help but buy his books afterward, even if you already learned 80% of the info by reading his blog--it's just a way to tell him thanks.

1. The books of Andrew Loomis
Andrew Loomis was an American illustrator from the golden age of illustration. Working with peers such as Norman Rockwell, Haddon Sundblom and Gil Elvgren, he arguably outstripped these better-known contemporaries in artistic impact. How, you ask? By writing a series of art education books that still arguably have no equal. Many of the greatest illustrators alive today (Alex Ross and James Gurney, for example) credit him as a primary educational influence, and if you read his books you can see why.

His books are no longer in print. While this is tragic, they've been allowed to expire into the public domain, and thus are now freely available online in PDF form. My dad had Creative Illustration when he was a kid, and when he dug it out of storage and lent it to me, I was blown away. Later on, the internet informed me that the rabbit hole went even deeper--5 other awesome books to peruse. Not only that, but my dad's musty tome regularly goes for over $200 used on eBay!

Any other good resources out there? Lemme know!

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Dan Savage speedpaint WIP

2011-02-18T23:41:00.001-08:00

About 2 and a half hours in on this one. Much of the best caricature IMHO is based on celebrities and politicians, and I wanted to do something relating to the upright citizens of our fair Seattle. So who better to start with than Dan Savage?

Here's the steps in reverse thus far. All photoshop.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Fashion illustrations

2011-01-23T22:09:00.000-08:00

I find that at libraries and bookstores, I spend less time in the Art sections these days, and more time in odd reference topics, such as fashion, antiques, architecture, etc. I don't need a tenth "how to draw human anatomy" book, I need books on the flavor of human existence.

Here's some studies of illustrations in Cally Blackman's 100 Years of Fashion Illustration. I tried to name the dudes I was drawing from, but where my notation failed doublecheck the book. Good read! Also, random art theory note: People often have trouble wrapping their heads around Andy Warhol, and his ideas about multiples, mass production and pop art. Knowing he got his start in fashion illustration, it makes a lot more sense. Fashion deals a lot more with repeating textiles, and one "art piece" of a dress is designed for it to be worn by lots of people. In essence, he was applying the motives of fashion to visual art, where you normally make a singular unique painting, and that's where its value comes from.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Not-so-speedy Tick speed paint

2011-01-17T23:40:00.000-08:00

You may remember this little exercise I dida while ago. I started purtying up my favorite head from then, and it's stretched beyond the restrictions of a speed painting. So here's my pic of The Tick.

Now I like it enough that, sigh, I'm going to burn even more time getting it really polished. Justice never sleeps!

Also, a quick interesting side note, I think it's fascinating how learning the technology behind something makes you a better artist, because then you draw the stuff you understand on a technical 3D level. I remember distinctly when I learned about Ambient Occlusion, and afterward tried like crazy to draw it in everywhere.

Similarly, nowadays I know a lot more about subsurface scattering. As a result, I tried to bring it out in this. All I did was brush in extra saturation on the transition from light into core shadow. It's easiest to spot on his cheeks. I'll have to play with that more.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Skirt cloth sim test

2011-01-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

Here's the skirt with a cloth sim on it. The system of individual proxy cones for collisions seems to be working--they bounce as if friends with each other, but never intersect as if enemies of one another.

Also made a stop motion beard animation. The lengths I go to, just to avoid the tedium of sketchbook scanning. Sheesh.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Skirt and belt with a cheap clothsim

2011-01-15T10:58:00.001-08:00

Here's a quick update on the skirt. I'm currently working on adding a hemline and rendering out an animation. I found that the best way to handle the two-level pleated skirt was to have them only collide with a proxy cone around her waist, one per skirt layer. It makes it go faster, and also has the added benefit of dodging intersections.

I'm reeeeaally itching to just dive into materials and texturing, but am trying to be sensible and hold off.

Stay tuned for video!

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Production limitation goals, AO & SSS stress tests

2011-01-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

Added more detail to the concept for her blouse, since we can't just go with a girl's ripped tank top forever. Now I'm aiming for a square neckline victorian nightgown, which IMHO will bring out a bit of "bedroom" vibe, which befits this young lass's, ahem, personality.

I modeled the blouse more toward the square neckline and straps, and also added the "damsel in distress" rips along the shirt's edge. Much as I'd like to just dive into texturing, methinks I'd better finish all the principle modeling :P

Additionally, I did some speed tests using Blender's Simplify tools for rendering. The speed jump between 100% and 75% is staggering, not so much between 75% and 50%. But in all cases, the quality suffers very little.

Long renders are the number one thing to kill my interest in a project, so I've got a number of specifics I'm holding to for this. Hopefully this should keep me to a minimal amount of watching paint dry.

Crappy unwraps. Don't need pixel perfection. (lol, already broke this rule)

Edge loop perfection. Don't need perfect edge loops. (wasted waaay too much time ignoring this rule already.)

Limit of level 1 subsurfacing

No raytracing

Mesh reusing/rehashing

Mirror modifiers

No mesh intersections/fancy froo-froo stuff

Allowances

Massage time spent on animation
Approximation Ambient Occlusion
Subsurface Scattering
Heavy compositing

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Some concept art to help with wardrobe

2010-12-31T02:24:00.000-08:00

Trying to post a WIP update any time I get an evening to work on this. Usually the habit is I work on it all night, then am like, "ooh, if I just wait until morning when I add this one thing, then I can post a status update with a better screen shot." And we all know where that vicious cycle goes :P

Was testing some material settings for hair, and in my spare time tried to mock up where the costume would be going. So, of course, now it's 2:20 AM and I spent too much time on concept art

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

New project, motha truckas!

2010-12-29T06:58:00.000-08:00

I showed off the initial exploits for this at the last Seabug. At that point I had just finished the initial body modeling and layered SSS setup. I want to be more regular in logging exploits of this new project. Other silly goals are to first release each of the characters as individual files on Blendswap for shorter, more achievable goals that bleeds toward a longterm short film goal.

For chronology's sake, here's some earlier production pics I sent over Twitter. Here's first pass at modeling:

First progress on multilayer SSS:

And now, where I'm at currently. Eyes are improved, Hair has a start on model and texturing. Her blouse is currently just a modeling test, to get a big stack of modifiers working (Mirror, Armature, Subsurf, Shrinkwrap, Smooth, Solidify.) But chances are still high that I'll flatten it all down and just weight-paint it

Any feedback appreciated. Will try and have an outfit concept drawn up next, so I ain't modeling blind!

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Water simulation I did over the weekend

2010-11-29T09:27:00.001-08:00

No raytracing, some mild compositing.

If only there were some sort of venue I could show off how I made this...Oh yeah! December 4th's Seabug is fast approaching! Tickets are free but space is limited, so go and RSVP at http://seabug.eventbrite.com now!

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Head Thumbnails

2010-11-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I sat down to do an hour of photoshop calisthenics, and it wasn't flowing out for me. I've started three speedpaints since the last one, and although they're all good at the base level I lacked motivation to work them into frothy completion.

So I started thumbnailing, and I really enjoyed some of the new brushes in Photoshop CS 3. The finished project, meh, but I was on a role.

Then I got another idea: Let's just make a bunch of abstract shapes, sleep on it, then tomorrow build those into finished line drawings. Here's the abstract shapes:

And here's the new heads. Hot diggity! Next up I'm gonna throw hair on 'em all, because leaving characters bald is a bad drawing habit I should work on. Bottom row #3 is my favorite. Might work him up to a finished piece.

In addition to not drawing hair on enough, it's worth cataloging that another bad habit of mine is drawing people with their mouth closed. Food for thought.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Speedpaint 03

2010-10-21T00:12:00.001-07:00

Now with Photoshop CS5! Very fun, lots of cool new features that slap you in the face within the first 2 minutes.

Probably went a little longer than I expected here... 90 minutes? Was chillin' on this dude's Thelonious Monk playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmhP1RgbrrY&p=4ADFDD92486076A8&index=3&feature=BF

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

A small pipeline revision

2010-10-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I haaaad originally planned to use Farsthary's most excellent Unlimited Clay tools for Blender. But after 45 minutes of trying to dig up old experiment builds that had it, I decided to wait until it's finished :P

Instead, I'm going the old fashioned route: starting with a low-poly model, which then gets sculpted up later.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

The Reversed Character Pipeline

2010-10-16T22:58:00.000-07:00

The 3D character pipeline as I learned it happened in the following steps.

1. Concept art
2. Low-poly model
3. UV unwrap
4. High-poly sculpt
5. Bake and paint textures
6. Make shaders
7. Rig
8. Animate
9. Render/Export

Technology has changed dramatically since I learned this. PTex might mean that UV unwrapping is a back-end afterthought, instead of an annoying front-end necessity. Sculpting tools have grown substantially, but more importantly automatic re-topology tools have grown. More and more, the theoretical pipeline has been shifting toward this:

1. Concept art
2. High-poly Sculpt
3. Paint
4. Low-poly model
5. UV unwrap
6. Bake textures down
7. Make shaders
8. Rig
9. Animate
10. Render/Export

Trying out this pipeline theory is going to be the focus of my next long-term Blender project. In addition, here's some other things I'm looking forward to trying out:
•Multilayer SSS
•Spline based facial rig
•Multiple material types

Here's hoping it turns out well!

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

The Cataphract rig, now available!

2010-10-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Go download my new Blender rig at http://www.blendswap.com/3D-models/animals/the-cataphract/

Here's is maiden voyage into animation, which I made at last Seabug. The next one's December 4th, be there or be square!

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Metarig Shape Library

2010-09-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a lil helper tool I made for Blender's metarig system. I have always been a fan of any tool that lets people animate faster if they hate the pains of rigging, and the new Metarig tool is a beast when it comes to that.

This tool takes it even further. The Metarig Shape Library takes the bones of your customized metarig, and simply assigns a library of draw shapes. BAM! Where previously you might have had trouble spotting what bones were control bones and how they worked, now they all look like nice grabbable widgets.

Enjoy!

http://www.blendswap.com/3D-models/misc-objects/metarig-shape-library/

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Textiles

2010-07-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

For the past year or so, I've been ashamed to admit a growing nerdiness about textiles. For Seattleites, the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the SAM both have a number of kimonos and primary source outfits with fantastic textiles, so if you're in the area I recommend taking another look at these.

Why are textiles something to think about?
1. You can't sculpt them in a 3D program
2. Outfits can say a lot more about a culture than the creature anatomy wearing them.
3. 3D and 2D art both tend to focus on contrast and silhouette first, material texture second, and fabric pattern...last? There's a ton of resources about fabric drapery for 2D drawings, 3D sculpting and cloth simulation, but very little discussion about what's on that fabric.

It was really bugging me that with most detailed fabrics, the 3D inclination is to #1. find a photograph of a fabric and #2. call it a day. But the more you look at fabrics, the more something even this complicated actually seems to be laid out in an approachable style. This is my first attempt at making up a process to address the problem, and it turned out passably IMHO.

The process is really quite simple; essentially you're making a big detailed square, then putting another big detailed square on top of it. It was so easy, I spent 15 minutes to make a tutorial!

So what does it look like in 3D? Here's a quick attempt to throw it on the Turtle That Won't Die. Not much going on yet other than procedurally unwrapping to the rug texture, plus a node setup to generate a normal map off the texture.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Blogging your art vs. polishing a portfolio

2010-07-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

To start with, the obvious conclusion: Yes, hybrid is the answer, using a blog that surrounds its outer border with your best art, right up front for early viewing pleasure, followed by an up-to-date assessment of what you did last week in the form of a blog post.

But I wanted to sing the praises of blogging regularly. Updating a blog regularly presents oneself in a way portfolios can't: a lifestyle artist. When you are viewing a person's portfolio, it can feel like the job interview, with them casting themselves in their best light. But when you're reading their blog, it's the day-in and day-out of their artistic life. It's habits versus single spit-shined presentation, and habits count for a lot. Nearly everyone can relate to a great first impression with someone, only to learn that their daily habits include no reading, too much television, drinking too much, avoiding spicy food, or chronic lateness.

Many good artists have said drawing is just like physical exercise: talent counts for very little if you don't work out regularly. Similarly, a lack of daily practice in art shows. It doesn't matter if you've won a gold medal, a pot belly speaks about your daily habits in the here and now. If you haven't drawn anything in a week, it's probably noticable.

Anyway, I drew some stuff. Oh snap, 8.5 x 11 is so much more easy to scan! Although this first one's actually a straggler from my other sketchbook, which I somehow forgot.

Ahem, put at small size. On account of da nakedness. Also, I want to give a shout out to Paul Richards, whose blog at http://autodestructdigital.blogspot.com/ has been fantastic to read. I found it completely by accident while doing a GIS for Paul Richards. He's awesome, and everyone could stand to learn some amazing things from his insight. I think he's been behind a lot of my naked lady drawings lately, which he elevates to a masterful art.

Sketchbook theme: BLOW MINDZ. Although I think I also want to bring back extra rendering in this one, since my last book was a bit too gestural for me.

These last ones were drawn off a google search for "Women's hairstyles." Easy spot to get pleasing, unique mugshots!

Thus far, I believe I am failing at blowing mindz this sketchbook. Again with the head drawings! Hopefully I'll pick up the pace in the coming week.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Anuzzer sketchbook, mon frére

2010-07-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

Once again, uploaded in reverse chronology. Which makes the final image a humorous summary of the whole sketchbook: nekkid ladies, dinosaurs, fat dog, and animals. Speaking of which, warning: nekkid ladies. I don't care about gestures, but the ones with more graphic, ahem, renderings are all resized tiny to protect your innocence. Click the thumbnails to enlarge at your own risk!!!

Teehee, at this point I'm ashamed at how many of these I've had to make thumbnail sized.

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Zoinks!

2010-07-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

Here's my breakdown of a sketchbook's workload:
1.5 hours of boring scanning
1.5 hours of boring editing
.5 hours of boring posting

Anyway, my other finished sketchbook ought to be posted soon. Why can't the scanning/editing/posting be as fun as the drawing?

www.oscarts.orgoscarbaechler@gmail.com

Good bye, 11x14. We'll always have Amsterdam.

2010-07-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

First up, some highly belated sketches from Christmas through March. I've got a whole secondary book I've finished since then, more on that later.

Due to how these get added to blog posts, they're actually in reverse chronology. Always interesting to see, IMHO; near the end of a sketchbook drawings get way better, because I get nervous about having nothing good to scan. Anyway, enjoy!

I like doing "head storms," a common subject for daily sketchers who just need an easy boring theme to fill a page. Additionally worth noting, I draw further and further away from shading in this cycle, because I've felt more and more like drawings should be clean for taking into photoshop.

Sucks from the neck down.

I've recently fallen into the habit of drawing nekkid people a lot more. Additionally, I've become much more comfortable with the obvious goal of nekkidness (sexy posing) in lieu of the standard "classy life-drawing" poses. A pity teachers can never actively tell you (or a model) to just make it sexier, for fear of lawsuits or unteacherly conduct.

Drawn from some painting on display at The Frye in Seattle, my absolute favorite museum.

The first part of this was fun, and from an old drawing exercise of mine. You imagine some phony sparring game plot line, like "Blah blah blah magic crystal, and all the celestial beings agree that their champions will fight on their behalf across the earth!" Then design a bunch of quick characters for said setting.

Anyway, hope you like! The next sketchbook will be up by Sunday probably.

Speaking of which...As my 25^th birthday approaches (tomorrow), it's time for me to say goodbye to an old friend: the 11x14 bound sketchbook. Over the last 2.5 years, it's been my drawing medium of choice with good reason. I originally switched to this huge format to combat two things: cramped drawings, and long-term durability. Before I began using them, I dilligently filled up a bunch of half-full sketchbooks from school, as teachers would want you to have a class-specific sketchbook that usually couldn't be filled in a quarter alone. As a result, I mysteriously get way better at drawing halfway through them. Additionally, most of my pre-11x14 sketchbooks are a bizarre mix of formats, paper quality and binding.

But rest assured, I'm retiring the 11x14 for good reasons. First, it's sucks to scan something larger than your scanner. I have to scan each page chunk twice, then put 'em together in Photoshop. Double the scanning, double the editing. The reason I scan huge loads of pictures all at once is because scanning a large sketchbook means moving my scanner/printer into a cumbersome spot on the middle of my desk.

So yes, I am sacrificing artistic integrity and large formatting, in exchange for ease of use and avoidance of tedium. I'll miss the extra space, but I won't miss devoting a whole weekend to standing over my printer.

Ogbog out!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Turtle monster, part...eighty five?

2010-04-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

A quick preview of what I'm working on, or rather, refusing to let die. I looked through my old entries and found the blog post 18 months ago where I talk about this guy being my learning dive into Blender. Much progress on a waaaay timewaste-y project, that's served from day 1 as my project-oriented learning tool for Blender. Clearly still not finished: the toes, horns, shell spheres, mount, and a million other things....

But point is, ZOMG I love Blender's external-edit projection painting! I've dumped whole evenings in the toilet fiddling with texture seams and UV coordinates for this guy on previous evenings. It got frustrating, so I ignored it for about three months. Then with Blender 2.5's new feature I fixed everything (color, occlusion, and displacement) in under a week. More art, less time wasting!

Desert scene is by Potado at Blendswap. Although I can competently do environs or lighting/rendering setups, I certainly don't feel like doing so for precious free time projects. Anyway, here's the link to the desert file.

http://www.blendswap.com/landscapes/desert-dunes-2/

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Untitled

2010-04-16T09:49:00.001-07:00

Results of the Big CG Survey 2010. Props to Terragen for outdoing Blender on value, not an easy feat! http://bit.ly/9rTFDh

Posted via email from ogbog's posterous

More Harmony drawings

2010-04-16T09:22:00.001-07:00

But really, it's mostly an excuse to check if my blog, which cascades to Google Buzz, will now additionally cascade to twitter and therefore facebook. Testing...testing...

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Harmony and Alchemy

2010-04-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been playing a lot with two free pieces of software. Both function largely as one-trick ponies, but their methodology makes them extremely fun to dive into.

First up is Alchemy. It's almost like drawing in real-time with a lasso when you use it right, and the mirror function is incredibly fun for quick bilaterally symmetrical drawings. Check it out at al.chemy.org

Second up is Harmony, an awesome little ditty of HTML5. It's got an inky, bleedy feel to it, far better than anything I've managed to get in Photoshop! It's great for relaxation, since you can draw lazy and it'll still look appealing. In my own humble opinion, the horse I made with it is the first good drawing I've ever freehanded with a mouse. If you've never tried drawing with a mouse, it's like drawing with the wrong hand with the wrong fingers. But Harmony still rocks! http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/

Six pages left on my current sketchbook. It's always so triumphant to finish one, but it's also so tedious to scan all my pics in at the end...soooooo tediouuuuuus....I think I subconsciously forgot to bring a pencil today to delay the inevitable :P

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Monster-off

2010-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

A buddy and I did a monster draw-off, with this as my result. I was trying to concept something disgusting with his tail, like a bile sack at the end of his digestive tract that he could spray foes with. Ew!

Dave's work thrashed me though. I gotta step up my game! Check his stuff out here:

http://twitpic.com/10fo3i

Lastly, Seabug is this coming Saturday, so if you're a PNWer looking for free 3d lessons on some excellent free 3d software, come down to AIS for some lessons. RSVP here!

seabug.eventbrite.com

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

New sketchbook drawings

2009-12-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

Some of these are from the Rijksmuseum when I went to Amsterdam for Blendcon, and some of them are from the Michelangelo exphibit at the SAM right now. Most are simply doodles from imagination. Enjoy!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

Here's my Christmas card for 2009, illustrated in Photoshop. Have a happy holiday season, y'all!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

SeaBUG orthos

2009-12-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Some last minute orthographic paintings I pumped out for people to use at SeaBUG. Oh man, that's technically today!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Another speed painting!

2009-12-03T00:55:00.000-08:00

This one clocks in at under 2.5 hours. I'm beginning to worry...this process goes so quickly, and with such reasonable results, that it makes me itch to do another one already!

Seabug this Saturday, by the way. I'm sort of the emcee, but it's pretty casual. If you like Blender and are in the PNW, come by and we'll drop some knowledge on you. seabug.eventbrite.com

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Speed painting!

2009-12-02T00:31:00.000-08:00

I've landed on a technique that I'm really enjoying, and feel like it's finally steering me in the right direction. I hope to perhaps post some info on the process at some point, but for now just know that it's essentially the exact same thing all the good artists online always say; limit your brushes, limit your layers, etc.

I can't yet post the piece that convinced me I was onto something (due to seasonal reasons) but here's a speed painting I did using this method. It took under two hours! It could certainly be worked up even further, but I prefer it as it currently is, a statement on quickness. I'm feelin' good!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Several items of business

2009-11-24T00:26:00.000-08:00

#1. Blender Conference 2009 was amazing! I met some great people and had my brain turned inside out from everything stuffed in there. As King Arthur once said, this new learning amazes me!

#2. Seabug 2 is coming up, December 5th! The first Seabug was a big hit, and I'm hoping it becomes a trend, then a tradition. Who knew so many talented and wizened Blender users operated throughout the Pacific Northwest? Learn more at http://seabug.eventbrite.com/

#3. Baaauuugh!!!! I had a big computer hardware wipe, which included losing a variety of art and writing projects. I have since learned my lesson, sprung for a new external, and finally set up Time Machine on my Mac.

#4. Philosophically speaking, I still like the idea of a project post per week. But in terms of real-world materials, it's just not feasible. To scan a whole sketchbook takes an hour of backbreaking, super-boring labor, if not more. And by backbreaking, I mean both my own and the spines of my sketchbook. Sadly, in getting my computer wiped, I lost a big pile of sketchbook scans that will have to be redone, from two different sketchbooks at that, and both of these poor tomes are already duct taped from all the wear and tear. So in the interest of my sketchbook collection's long-term lifespan, I've got to limit them to one big scan session per book, once they're filled.

#5. Although that means less postings, I should strive to have more non-sketchbook short term experiments posted. Such as this self portrait I did, one evening after feeling morose about my wiped computer hard drive. I keep devoting a lot of free time to nerding out over my favorite painters (William Adolphe Bouguereau, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, I'll post the whole list some time) but largely failing to attempt their best medium: representational illustration. So, while restocking my library of their paintings to use as desktop images, I took two hours to bust out a self portrait.

I religiously painted this using only one layer, because so many of my photoshop experiments have died by getting bogged down in technicalities. It was quick, simple and unrefined; I think I only used one brush the entire time even.

#6. My presentation from Blender Conference 2009 is now on the web! I think. It wasn't working in my browser, but word on the street is that this link should eventually lead to the video. http://www.debalie.nl/player/playmovie_v2.jsp?movieid=330612&videofragmentsid=

Happy Holidays, y'all!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Blender Conference 2009

2009-10-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hangin' out at BlendCon. Lots of good stuff! (My presentation included.)

I'm like a million items of business behind on my blog updates. I'm expecting to do a huge number o' posts once I'm back in the states, on all sorts of subjects. Stay tuned!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Speed paintings

2009-10-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Time: 70 min

Time: 100 mins

Instead of curing my 3D woes with an old-fashioned pipeline (thus defeating my experiment early), I cured my ailments with a bit of speed painting.

Tried to keep these to a time limit via set playlists in iTunes; after about an hour of music, the sound of silence signaled that I needed to move on. Additionally, I flattened the finished products down and didn't save the PSDs. The less legacy, the more spontaneity. Plus my traditional speed painting amateur preferences: one line layer and one final layer, only two brushes.

I'm considering doing the exact same thing tomorrow night, as I already have a bunch of things I'd do drastically differently. Case in point, upon using a splayed brush for my grass, I realized I, uh, could have done that for the guy's hair :P

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

A night of Harmony

2009-10-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

Oy, when it rains it pours! So I'm going to fallaciously post some entries in a gradual manner, thus hiding the fact that they all happened at once. Busy, busy week.

About a week ago I spent an evening watching some tube and relaxing with Mr. Doob's Harmony. I still contend that it's one of the best art tools ever, despite being so limited and small. Here's what I yielded over the course of the night. Rough, certainly. But for quick gestures, so fun!

www.oscarts.org oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Ack! So behind on posting!

2009-10-10T01:01:00.000-07:00

But not for lack of intrigue!

First, SeaBUG! It's first because, well, it's tomorrow. Me and some other Blender enthusiasts have put together a Blender User Group, where we'll be running tutorials and workshops on several aspects of Blender. Check it out! seabug.eventbrite.com

Second, Townrs Defender Lite is out! Try it out, see what you think and go buy the full version! TownrsLite

Third, Sketchbook news! Yes, I've completely, utterly fallen down on the job of my "sketch of the week." But in my defense, it's not for lack of sketching, it's for massive dislike of tedious scanning. I'm actually half way through my new sketchbook, despite never scanning the second half of my OLD sketchbook. Conclusion: Screw "sketch of the week," I'm just going to stick with my huge sketchbook dump every half-sketchbook.

Fourth, MORE Blender news! I'm going to be presenting at Blender Conference 2009 in Amsterdam! Supposedly the whole conference will be recorded, so I'll make sure to post a link once it's up.

Gah. Can't wait for the mind-numbing boredom of November. Ah, what a lovely fantasy..

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Release!

2009-08-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

As art director at Prophetic Sky, it gives me great pride to share with you that our debut iPhone game is released!

Prophetic Sky Inc. Releases New iPhone Game: Townrs Defender

Seattle, WA Jul 30, 2009

Seattle, WA - Prophetic Sky Inc. is thrilled to announce the immediate release of Townrs Defender, a new game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The application is available today on Apple's App store. This release brings a challenging strategic fantasy realm to the iPhone where players must defeat ruthless enemies and save their town. Choose between several magical weapons and master arcane spells, and use the terrain to your advantage. But watch out, the advancing armies outnumber you a thousand to one!

To play, navigate around the outside of your city wall and use guard towers, teleporters and the healing well to your advantage. Attack enemies with four different gestural attacks, and use the pinch motion to zoom in and out on the battlefield.

Play against three modes of difficulty on your iPhone or iPod Touch, and unlock a variety of hidden characters. Townrs Defender is the perfect fantasy roleplaying game for players of all ages, with hours of adventure packed into a single app.

A trailer is available on Youtube.
Pricing and Availability:
Townrs Defender is only $4.99 USD and available from the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game can be purchased here.

www.propheticsky.com
www.townrsdefender.com

Prophetic Sky Inc. was founded by Microsoft alumni Nick Elliott and Evan Moran in 2007, with a simple commitment to tell the world's stories through games. Prophetic Sky is located in Bellevue, WA. Townrs Defender is their debut product. For more information visit the Prophetic Sky website.

###

Oscar Baechler

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Sketch of the week #1

2009-07-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

Already I'm enjoying the ramifications of doing a sketch of the week. After forgetting I'd planned on this and spending my week on gestural quick studies, I remembered it. Thus, I found myself encouraged to sit down and commit to something today, when normally I can often find myself only drawing on the bus.

I decided on a safe topic, my old favorite subject that, honestly, I draw far too much: heads at 3/4 rotation, lit from a side and above, caricatured and old.

I also discovered a great trick for blurring today. I scan these in at 600 DPI to get a lot of the fine line details. The problem is that then the little scratchy lines aren't blended into the full value regions I'd want. Normally I'd set a copied layer to multiply, and blur it to get the lines turned into shapes. But a quicker, dirtier way of doing it is just use the blurring power of aliased resizing; just transform the layer (Command + T) and shrink it down. Then transform again back to the full size, using snaps to get it pixel perfect.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Sketchbook dump, birthday style!

2009-07-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

First off, let me say that I'm going to switch to a "sketch of the week" formula for getting my art off of my daily sketching habits. Two main reasons for that; first, scanning half a sketchbook always eats a whole evening. Second, I think I'd enjoy the challenge of getting out a really solid drawing out every week, rather than doing too much flippant quick drawings.

That being said, on to the art.

The premise of this is a Heavy Metal-esque space harem, where some space dude's women just sit around bathing and smoking space hookah. Undoubtedly influenced by the egyptological art of the Napoleonic era, which had a number of fantastic harem paintings. (Do a GIS for Jean Leon Gerome if you need a new desktop background.)

A dinosaur.

Pachycephalosaurus drawn from a skull at the Colorado dinosaur museum.

Also, dinosaurs and birds have a freakin' bone cupping their eye! The sclerotic ring, look it up.

Compositional exercise. I find I'm doing more drawings like this, where I focus on perspective, figure and element placement more than full-on rendering of details.

Elf head study.

Monster thing.

Lady on the bus I drew. Good to get away from imagination drawing all the time

Should have some more news coming soon...

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Progress on monster project

2009-05-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a firm believer in project-based learning. There's boundless reasons for it, but mostly I like how problems you should understand and assets you need will arise organically.

Case in point, my turtle monster project. I hated the chair on him, as did most people who saw it. Now he's got something much more likable: a sort of siege tower, which will have a rope ladder leading to a platform. On this platform, cultists will sit to charge up energy within the siege tower's "energy vortex" or whatever. Then, in a saddle slung between siege tower and extruding control posts, a driver will sit, controlling the turtle mount with dark energy from a staff.

As a result, I ended up needing a cinematic-quality humanoid rig! My plateau for this rig was simple: As many bones as necessary for smooth, accurate deformations, without yet going into the much more intense realm of scalar bone setups and muscle deformers.

Here's the initial result, sans a face rig and sans a few more correction bones (such as at the elbows and at the hands). But otherwise, this setup's pretty devoid of rubber banding and bending artifacts, which is all I really need. Next step, rigging the weight skeleton!

Also, here's an update shot of my turtle, with the beginnings of its newer siege tower.

Thanks to CyaNn, who made the shader I threw on these guys. Check out his stuff at the Blender Open Material Repository. His shader made these instantly look cooler than their boring ol' polygon versions as they currently stand.

oscarbaechler@gmail.com

www.oscarts.org

Top 10 Sketchbook drawings, February 24 to May 9

2009-05-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

What a change! Last sketchbook's theme was gesture drawings, and although it went fast (January/February), I ended up with little worth scanning in. So this time around, the theme was finished drawings. I ended up with a lot more stuff rendered beyond mere gestures, and am a lot happier with the results. Here's my top ten favorites, possibly out of order.

#10. Southern slave-owning dwarf concept. Fun and challenging to draw!

#9. Head study. This is a lighting scheme I love to draw, which really clicked into habit from an Alex Ross lighting study for "Uncle Sam." Read it, it's amazing! I was watching Bill Mahr while drawing this, and I think Bill's certainly distinctive mug leaked into this.

#8. Muscular Russian head. Same lighting scheme habit as above.

#7. Two heads of opposite gender and emotional polarities. There's some braid studies to the left of the girl's head.

#6. Assorted roughs, plus a Hans Dahl-esque girl. I admit, I largely chose this in my top ten because I felt lacking in full-body drawings. As always, my love of drawing heads gets too much exercise. The text is me cataloging "monster-style" teeth I like to draw on monsters. Exhibited in rough is a favorite--inward pointing teeth.

#5. The hornbill at Woodland Park Zoo. I live near the zoo, I'm a member of the zoo, and I draw there as often as possible.

#4. Caricature of my dad. He's a bike rider of rare enthusiasm, and I tried to make this caricature of him as extreme as possible. I'm hoping to spruce this up in photoshop as a Father's Day gift for him.

#3. Bowing Satyr. I was quite happy with how this turned out. I was experimenting with something I like about certain Frazetta paintings, where he makes figures' cast shadows strongest on their own person, with shaded chests bleeding out and shadowing much of the lower body.

#2. Brick Fuggler, private dick. Why is this guy so fun to draw? I like that I can go back to older ideas for new inspiration.

#1. Head swarm. This was a lot of fun, and it made me realize how broad you can get when you try and draw in several styles all packed in together. Plus, I love drawing heads! The ugly old man at 6B and the Sean Penn-ish caricature at 3D are probably my favorites.

And although these are nice, I think the best drawing this time around is still the one I previewed in my previous post. So technically, this list goes to eleven.

My next sketchbook will be a new hurdle I am bound to struggle with. Why? Because the goal is to ONLY draw in color. Here's hoping it works out!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Sketchbook Preview

2009-04-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

I generally assign a theme to a new sketchbook. Often times it's a subject matter I want to focus on, sometimes a new medium, sometimes a new methodology. I usually base this choice off of whatever I struggled with or got bored with in my previous sketchbook.

My previous sketchbook had me focusing on full-body pictures and gesture drawings, as I wanted a better understanding of where I was placing anatomy before rendering it up. Additionally, I was relying too much on my classic crutch, head studies. I got a lot of success out of this gesture-oriented sketchbook, but with one problem: practically nothing rendered into fullness that I felt like posting!

As a result, I made fully rendered, finished pieces the focus of my current sketchbook. And now I've got way too much to scan! But it's almost finished.

Here's a preview, an attempt at Bouguereau-esque imagery of genteel girls doing girly things in garden settings. What a tool that Bourgeois Bouguereau is.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

The design choice for the future of web composition.

2009-03-04T00:09:00.000-08:00

Safari 4 beta came out recently, and one of the big new features is a version of the Opera Speed Dial. It seems like blatant copy-catting to me, but I don't really mind; the more companies can steal from each other in tech wars, the better they become.

But it makes an interesting point about web design: Does your site succeed or fail when reduced to a thumbnail representation? This (the only accessable pic I could find, as Safari 4 prevents screenshots) shows how many sites, when reduced to thumbnails, all look the same. You can argue the Google map or the Wikipedia puzzle globe stands out as a graphic homepage, but otherwise these are all white sites with black scribbles. In fact, the most striking "speed dial" is the worthlessly non-loaded black picture.

http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/techchron/2009/02/24/safari500x345.jpg

I think that although websites clearly deal with composition and layout as blocky news sources, they haven't really dealt with their future reality: appealing to users at a glance, with nothing but a thumbnail.

I think this also raises an interesting market ideal for web browser developers: How will you support site-defined thumbnails for sites? I'm sure that, if given the chance, the NY Times, Yahoo, et al, will want to set their own icon, in the same way they choose their mini icon for their URL.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

End of November through January Sketchbook

2009-01-18T14:57:00.000-08:00

All done! It took a while to kill the rest of this sketchbook on account of all the moving I had to do this month. But, on the plus side, you can already see the benefit of my new apartment: proximity to the zoo! I look forward to many weekends to come spent drawing at the zoo. I'll skip the commentary, other than I plan on getting away from doing heads all the time in my coming sketchbook.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Thanks, white Christmas!

2008-12-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

Seattle was covered in snow for a week and change until Saturday. Which was cool for me, because I got a week of working from home! Once again, props to Blender for being the open source wonder that it is; Had I been on Maya or Max, I'd need an at-home commercial license, and would have been out of luck like so many commuters in Seattle.

My other Christmas present is a new apartment in upper Fremont, which I'll be moving into in about three days. One of the best parts about this new location is that it's walking distance from the Woodland Park Zoo. As a card-carrying member of the zoo ($45 for unlimited visits, Definitely worth it!) I'm looking forward to regular visits with my sketchbook.

As an additional item of business, the primary outline for what I hope is my first book has been completed. My New Years resolution is to have it completed this time next year. I am reminded of something Hubert Selby Jr., author of "Requiem for a Dream," said in his biographical documentary. If someone says they don't like it, or it can't get published, who cares? Send it to a hundred people, or a thousand. Something like that. Point being, it's better to write a crappy book and say you did it, and your next one might be better, than to be defeated by your own self esteem on day one.

And, lastly, I returned to an old project, this time via the wonderful world of Blender! I originally made this project in Maya and Mudbox, but never really completed it. I've got a much better grasp of my modeling, unwrapping and texturing process now, and thus have finally started moving forward with some sort of color completion on this.

There's many things I'd do differently on a second go-round for this. But since I think it silhouettes awesomely and was 75% completed already, no use in startng over. If you compare it with the original, you'll notice I made the upper body into a muscular, angry character this time around. Props to Blender's proportional editing falloff and sculpting tools!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

The next generation of the gaming market.

2008-12-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

I just typed this up for another quadrant of the internet, but it's something I've repeated so often that I thought I'd put it down somewhere official. Then in a few years I can look back and talk of how sagely or ignorant I was.

PCs are a difficult market because you can steal games. Consoles are a difficult market because you can resell games, thus limiting creators to one profit per hard copy when said hard copy changes hands five times. This often equates to a $50 sale and several $45 sales by GameStop, with creators only touching that initial $50. I think the future of gaming will be an evolution of the "Online Console Marketplace," where games are downloaded over proprietary hardware (consoles instead of PCs.) This gives extensive security against game stealing, and also eliminates the reselling dilemma. Furthermore, with proliferation of broadband (and if Obama does his rural broadband infrastructure thing, even more so) and hard drive space being a joke these days, the tech limitations that neutered this business model in the past are no longer concerns.

The only other part of this to address is the transference of interface. Many people (myself included) find a keyboard and mouse the ideal interface; a keyboard provides a multitude of keys and a typing interface to aid communication, while a mouse alone can provide as many buttons as an entire console controller. Furthermore, console joysticks can't provide the precision movements of a mouse. However, I think it's easy to get over this simply by providing more support for keyboards and mouses for console gaming, even packaging consoles with this option. One thing that Guitar Hero has shown us is that people don't mind maneuvering large piles of hardware to get a good gaming experience.

Anyway, that's my oft-repeated position on the future of gaming.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Alien update

2008-12-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

Here's an update on my alien I've been toying around with in photoshop. Since this was just for fun, I doubt I'll mess around with it any more. However, I'm glad I at least took the leap into color, which normally is where I get fatigued with my personal projects.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

The 100-pronged structure attack

2008-12-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

Like every sniveling arts & culture nerd, I've been "working on my novel," which is so frequently ridiculed that it's hard to understand anyone posting about it, unless they already sold it to a publisher. But really quick, here's a few thoughts in my defense, many of which are just about my artistic philosophy in general.

1. I'm young! Better to start now at 23, rather than waiting until I retire or my kids go to college.

2. In my artistic experience (mostly with different forms of visual art, but also with cooking and writing) everyone starts off bad. You have X number of failed attempts and disasters in you before you'll produce anything remotely worthwhile. Hence, the best thing to do is just get these disasters out of the way as quickly as possible through regularly working on them. In a forgotten age, this was known as "Practice." In other words, the best way to look at your first novel is this: practice for your second novel. Thus, once I get this one out of the way, the second one will come faster and sharper.

3. I occasionally scribble this down as something I want on my tombstone: "The world's worst drawing is a lack thereof." In other words, I'll take the guy doing the crappy, biginner's-step awful art over the guy who's too lazy to do anything but heckle any day.

4. It's good for you, internally! I dislike it when people stretch creative muscles for the wrong reasons. Too many people figure their book would suck, and therefore not sell, and therefore serve no purpose. What ever happened to writing for fun? In terms of what should motivate you for creativity, here's how I prioritize things: #1. Do it for yourself, #2. Do it for viewers/readers and their praise, and #3. Do it for material success. If I enjoy writing, who cares if it doesn't sell, or even if nobody likes it?

5. I feel like I've had enough of a win ratio with smaller writing projects that I can be motivated about this.

Now that I've written another overly long contextual introduction, here's what I wanted to bring up. I'm a big fan of structure. In fact, I think it's the most important part of writing. If it sucks and rambles in its outline, paragraph or logline format, it'll suck in its larger format. Although my methods have changed, I haven't written a story without outlining in some form or another since sophomore year of high school.

But what to outline with? There's any number of recorded outlining formats, and zealous cults form around all of them. Here's some of the ones I'm familiar with:

1. Syd Field's 3-act screenwriting formula

2. Any number of structural recommendations from Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat!" including his personal logline format and his 15 beat story outline.

3. The Hero's Journey, made superfamous from Star Wars

4. One my teacher Stephen Glover was a fan of was a 9-beat arc, labeled "You, Go, Seek, Find, Take, Return, Change." In other words, a protagonist plus six verbs.

5. Any number of "Adventure Planning Guides" recommended for roleplaying games.

6. An arbitrary order of events, which was the first way I outlined (before I knew outlining and structure were so beneficial.)

Furthermore, character outlining is something with many many models. It's another issue that's covered copiously in roleplaying games, with numerous models, and most authors I know have their own version. These outlines vary from lists of physical features (hair color, strength score, etc) to more probing, conflict-oriented inventories (what is your character ashamed of? What would make him sell out his friends?)

I started extensively outlining D&D characters in high school using a document I made up called "Oscar's Exhaustive Character Outline." A year or so later, in theatre class we were given a character outline to fill out for homework, and I liked seeing the similarities and differences between my outline and my teacher's outline. The outline focus in my past payed off, as I was one of only two students to get an A on the assignment. (The other was my wife!) After the assignment, I added many of the questions to my own personal outline. Over the years, so many character outlines have been incorporated into my own, including stuff from practically every RPG or creative writing-oriented teacher I've come across.

Currently, I occasionally get stuck on a part of my story outline. So what I've been doing is going back to the parasitic, absorbing nature of my Character Outline. If I can't figure out the breaks and beats using one form of story outlining, why not try out another? Most of them fit into each other, but by having these other options available, I can pick and choose what works best at the time.

Case in point, I landed on the smallest form of story--a title, a main character, and a logline. I then jumped into my personal story arc outliner (a mix between Glover's setup, Snyder's setup, Hero's Journey setup and arbitrary order of events.) But I couldn't get it! I didn't know what to do in the second half. The breakthrough came when I first tried doing each method separately as far as I could take it, and finally tried labeling each of the "Three Acts" with a sentence each.

Suddenly it came easy. At that point, I discovered I had no trouble labeling acts One and Two. After that, the task of thinking up a single sentence for the last third of a book seemed easy.

I guess what I'm advocating is that you avoid writer's block by seeking out wiggle room. If you hit a wall outlining, it doesn't mean your story sucks, and it also doesn't mean the god whose altar of outlining you worship at is full of crap. It just means that you'll benefit from a little perspective, eh?

www.oscarts.org

oscarbaechler@gmail.com

State of the Union

2008-12-08T23:28:00.000-08:00

A couple thoughts on a variety of topics. First off, I watched "The Hulk" tonight. The Hulk is already a throwaway character in my opinion, and I think they did well with what they had. He's a big strong dumb one-dimensional hero, with a devastating lack of memorable villains, but they stuck to what made him endearing, story-wise. As Marvel has wisely figured out, you don't go to these films to see Iron Man or The Hulk; you go to see them for Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, the people behind the mask. So considering General Ross is more of an archetypal "military badguy" than a memorable character in himself, and Abomination is pretty much Ugly Hulk, they could do worse. There's something I like to bring up in comic book movie debates, regarding how you should grade on a curve. Batman is arguably the strongest comic book property in the world, with three other contenders: Superman, Spiderman and Wolverine. Also, I'd say he and Spiderman tie for the strongest tier of memorable villians to draw from. When you consider this, then consider that 90% of all Batman movies are unwatchably bad, it's hard to criticize The Hulk too much.

Also thought I'd throw in two museum reviews. First, I finally saw the new Seattle Art Museum, and it's fantastic! Visually stunning when you walk in, a sense of storyboarding as you round corners and enter new rooms, and a much better flow of exhibits from one wall to another. They also bring out more of their large pieces thanks to their huge open spaces. I used to be a harsh critic of the SAM, and even though I could respect their focus on a comprehensive inventory of art history, I thought it was poorly executed. Unless the feature exhibit was interesting, it wasn't worth the money. Sadly, I was late to the exhibit I had been hoping to see (the forerunners of the impressionists), but the revamped museum was nonetheless a treat.

Additionally, I just saw the Frye's Egypt exhibit again. I think this was a great collection of work, and it held a special place in my heart for having a piece by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. However, they're tie-in video exhibit, "Empire," felt like garbage to me. Never trust art that doesn't hold any meaning until you read the Artist's Statement. The point of this was to tie into Egypt, Aztecs and Napoleon the modern equivalents of parts of those empires, which is through lavish latin parties and soccer hooliganism. Or at least, I'm sure the people behind this used some excuse like that to obtain grant money. They then procrastinated until a week from their deadline, then panicked and rushed stuff together. The result is some interviews with soccer fans and filming a roof party in Brazil. Maybe I'm reading too much into the motives of "Empire"'s creators. Then again, it takes a loooot more reading too much into their work before it gets the benefit of the doubt.

Also, just so I don't leave with no new art, here's two pieces. The first is a WIP tarting up of one of my recent sketchbook drawings, which may or may not ever get finished. The second is a piece of space art I did a while back for fun, just because space art's so fun and quick.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

First half of sketchbook, best-of

2008-12-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

The primary form of traditional art I do in terms of quantity is without a doubt sketchbook doodling. I try to draw every day on the bus to and from work, which means that when I'm "on" I can get two hours of drawing a day. I don't have a 100% success rate, especially if I end up taking a nap or can't get a seat, but in comparison I'll at best do one photoshop illustration on the weekend.

Really quick, here's some thoughts on my sketchbook process, which can differ hugely from artist to artist.

•I use 11" by 14" Cachet acid free sketchbooks, which are bound in black hardcover rather than spiral. I like them because they're highly protected since they've got spines and thick covers, which means they'll be protected years from now. I like the large format (but not a hugely ridiculous format) because it's the largest format to fit in a backpack or totebag, and I won't kill people on the bus by whipping it out.
•I start by dating the inner cover. This particular sketchbook is dated "November 3, 2008...One day to the election!!!"
•I write "FRONT" on the inside cover as well. I've had numerous sketchbooks that I accidentally start from both ends.
•I then write a list of subjects on the inside cover, as a way to avoid artist's block. I find that when I don't feel like drawing, I can just look at this arbitrary list of subjects and just pick something, then force myself to draw that. Here's the current list:
---life drawing (people on the bus)
---Head (as you'll see, I do this one way too much)
---Full body
---Gestures
---MONSTERS!
---Abstract
---New Media
---Write
---Arbitrary line of action (this is a technique I developed, in which I draw any sort of squiggly line, then start attaching a person to it. Very organic!)
---RPG races
---RPG character (By "RPG races/character" I'm referring to an old favorite for inspiration of mine. I'm frequently creating characters for D&D games and such, and also have several long-term RPGs I've been designing myself. So even if I don't feel like drawing a person on the street or random fantasy crap, it feels good to draw my characters, as a way to get in character.)

•Drawing on the bus is an artistic skill in itself. Many people I know gave up on the idea, due to how the bumping, shaking, starting, stopping and embarrassing onlooking crowds discourage good art. But like anything, it just takes a lot of practice. At this point I think my bus habits have been folded into my technique, which has led to a more careful and precise, value-based method in general (albeit at the lack of gestural quality.)
•I also draw primarily using mechanical pencils. Mechanical pencils on a bus? It's like I combined the most erratic and harsh things I could! But similar to drawing on the bus, drawing with mechanical pencil just takes time. I also have a specific recommendation if you're drawing with mechanical pencil, and need a way to avoid the harsh, sharp, paper-indenting quality it's usually associated with. To draw gently with mechanical pencil, I recommend using training wheels by overextending your lead, even to around an inch long. What will happen over time is that you HAVE to start drawing softly, or else your lead breaks. over time you'll develop a soft touch, and you'll also find that you can increase or decrease your line weight by increasing or decreasing the length of your lead. Once you master these things, you've got two luxuries: first, you'll never be choosing between short, stubby old pencils and long new pencils. Second, you won't have to sharpen any more. Give it a shot, eh?
•Lastly, I mark the final page of my sketchbook with the date it was finished. The theory is to get better at filling it up faster every time.

And now for the point of this post. With the last sketchbook I finished, the whole time filling it up I kept planning to post the best stuff on this blog, and make it a regular habit. Unfortunately, by the time I finished it, there was too must stuff to put up. Do you have any idea how boring and time-consuming it is to scan stuff? Blah! I'd rather be drawing.

So with my current sketchbook, I decided to post my stuff at the halfway point, as a way to cut the workload in half. So here you are, the first half of my November 3rd sketchbook. These drawings were my favorites of this half, although I had to nix a few excellent (but work-related) sketches. Here goes!

This was two things: some quick gestures for a death animation, and a decent head. One problem I've been running into is that I draw heads WAY too much. It's my favorite part of anatomy, and also the part of anatomy I'm most comfortable with. A lot of this translates into my favorite parts of 3D: facial rigging. I also recently created an in-house head generator to mass produce avatar options, and thus have been in a mood of recording different facial features.

I drew these robot heads on a trip up to Bellingham, WA to help my brother move.

Also drawn on my way to Bellingham. The nipples were my brother's idea.

More heads, trying to get a handle on different facial features, such as "Pink Flamingos" eyebrows and a more protruding lip tubercle.

More heads, studying mongoloid features and skeletally stretched skin.

MORE heads, studying what I think of as Greek/English features: low noses, small pouty mouths, and smooth zygomatic processes.

I was trying to recreate what I think of as "Waterhouse Chin," referring to the recurring muse of John William Waterhouse's paintings, most famously seen in his masterpiece "Lady of Shalott." It's partially due to the upward tilt of the head, and partially due to the square jaw offsetting otherwise feminine features.

My favorite yet! I like that I retained some human qualities in this, and although I went waaay off the "realism" cliff, I think I maintained a realistic anatomical bone structure in this.

Another random head, with my most common "alternative media" of pen. Considering this was drawn from imagination, I felt happy with how realistic it turned out.

Toying around with the anatomy of an alien species...I'm going for two tongues (the main aberrational feature), broad, short heads, lizard/dinosaur features, and semi-permanent wide eyes and grins. Still needs some work, IMHO.

Some gestures and studies of torsos. I think I was feeling guilty about drawing nothing but heads.

Aaaaand lastly, some more heads and a gesture drawing.

Here's hoping the second half of this sketchbook was as fun as the first.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

An art history hobby project: six degrees of mentor separation

2008-10-15T00:12:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading a book on Gil Elvgren, who is arguably the greatest pin-up artist of the golden age of pin-ups. The nature of the golden age of pin-ups is that the genre worked side by side with the golden age of illustration, and in the section on Gil Elvgren's influences and contemporaries, it does in fact feature works by several of my favorites; Andrew Loomis (IMHO the greatest teacher by publication in representational and figurative art history) is prominent, as is the buzzword artist of the illustration genre, Norman Rockwell. It's also worth noting in this chain that Loomis is listed as a primary influence of Alex Ross.

One thing I can most definitely say for Andrew Loomis is that, in his book "Creative Illustration," he credits his major influences. Principle among them is Howard Pyle, and he reprints a document of Pyle's which meticulously outlines the exact scientific nature of how light works. Howard Pyle's paintings might not have been the most beauteous of the age (certainly nothing to scoff at though) but he ended up with a much greater influence than his contemporaries because of his contribution to artistic education.

Now the question arises: who taught Pyle? A quick glance over Wikipedia will show that artists are frequently documented with their noteworthy students, but less frequently with their noteworthy teachers. And more important than Howard Pyle, who can trace an artistic lineage all the way back to someone like Da Vinci? The next important idea (especially in terms of Pyle and Loomis, who specifically published as a form of teaching) is whether an artist was directly mentored by another artist, or just intensively studied them. Especially in our modern world, resources needed to STUDY an artist are legion, but it's rare to directly apprentice under James Bama, Alex Ross, or similarly impressive name-drops. That is, unless you pay out the ass for animationmentor.com's resumé of Lucasarts and Pixar veterans. As Jimi Hendrix said, let me stand next to your fire.

That being said, I think that due to technological proliferation (whether it be the ease of internet or revolution of industrialized printing presses) at around 1910 or so, it became increasingly plausible for a young artist to "study under" a historic artist simply by examining his works and artifacts. Alex Ross is the greatest example of this, especially with him listing Andrew Loomis as an influence. Did he study under Andrew Loomis? Technically no, but he was part of a generation whose realistic artists undoubtedly owned all of Loomis' books. Loomis, lacking mass produced instructional texts, represents a generation that needed hands-on instruction. Theyir primary methos of learning were apprenticeship, their local gallery, and (Leonardo's favorite) learning through good ol' fashioned study of nature.

The modern generation is different in my opinion. For one thing, we have a vast population of talented artistic teachers who yell at us to go study nature; I think we're more likely to do so just because it's said much more frequently. Second, we can tailor who we WISH were our influences, learn about these tailored influences with the ease of a google image search. I recently saw my first ever Walter Langley painting through the randomness of the internet. I instantly fell in love, looked up a bunch of his stuff, and plan to regularly return to his paintings in hopes he rubs off on me. Even doing this through the library is easier, as the internet lets me manually check out Langley-related books in a moment. And thirdly, the modern artist is different because we exist with the luxury of "Tutorial Culture." Do you want to be a matte painter? Go explore www.3dm3.com and, with a few days of tutorial crunching, you'll be closer. Want to be a rigger? Go to www.rigging101.com and, with a few days of tutorial crunching, you'll be closer. Want to find out who's way better than you, then ask them questions about where to go next? Go to CGtalk and explore their "best of" section--expect a major blow to your self esteem and a major step forward in your understanding of representational/cartoon art.

But the question still remains...who can trace their artistic family tree back to Leonardo Da Vinci? Can you?

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

2008-10-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

You know what I love? Starting personal projects, then saying "ooh, look over there!" and starting a new project.

Such as this photoshop painting! I wanted to do a high-detail caricature in the vein of John K. Although it's colorized, it hasn't actually been colored. I think this has some potential, so long as I don't get excited about some new thing I started.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

2008-09-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

I must admit, I dropped off for a while on blogging. I've been stretching my legs as art director at Prophetic Sky, and having a blast. I can't shed too many details, but here's some newer developments in my artistic arena I've rather enjoyed...

First off, Blender is awesome. The more I use it the more I like it, and I feel like I'm completely over that "new program" hump of learning. Anything beyond this point is advanced stuff, such as masterful rigging, nodal interface, and Python scripting. My goal is to learn python scripting, because aside from its uses with blender, it now transfers over to Maya and actual programming. That's one issue with MEL--if you're not in Maya, what's the point?

Second off, speaking of new programs, I've been learning MaPZone for procedural texturing. I've done a little of this in Maya's hypergraph, but MaPZone truly knows what it's doing. Furthermore, procedural texturing is truly an art unto itself--how do you make a texture when you're not allowed to simply add pixels by hand? Try it out, it's free! www.mapzoneeditor.com

Thirdly, I've been handling a new field for me--2D orthographic buildings. It's a new frontier for me, because I'm not only focused on character stuff usually, but it's also from the classic pixel RTS/RPG top down view.

And lastly, since I ought to post something worth seeing, here's a WIP for an idea I wanted to explore. It's essentially a huge, two-headed war tortoise, which will hopefully have that gargantuan feeling of an oliphant from LotR. Check it out!

Next big chunks are the head and anatomically correct feet, and after that I'm going to be modeling all the little detail stuff.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Happy Birthday dad!!!

2008-07-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

I painted this for my dad's birthday/father's Day present. And I'm psyched at how it's turned out! After grabbing a DVD of "Travels in Europe with Rick Steves" from the library, an image/concept that stuck in my head was the dervish dancer from the episode on Turkey. So I painted him, and am pretty happy with the result. Happy Birthday, dad!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Thoughts on Blender

2008-06-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

I'm much deeper into the rabbit hole of Blender now, and a particular analysis of the program has stuck in my mind.

It goes like this: Blender's biggest shortfall is its age. The program is still only about ten years old, while Max, Maya, Lightwave, XSI, etc. are often twenty, twenty five years old. As a result, those programs have had a lot longer to add on new features, remove problems, or adjust what's already there.

But there's the rub: all these "additions" are basically polishing something already in existence. The result? Due to the built in hierarchy of Maya or Max now, there's some problems they can't fix, because these flaws have become an integral part of pipelines everywhere. So to change a major part of Maya or Max, they have to rip out a ton of infrastructure.

Now try jumping into Blender, and you'll soon discover all sorts of things that they change from other programs, because they don't have to restart from the ground up. As a result, things like basic movements, the graph editor, character tools, weight painting and the like work the way they should.

Weight painting is a great example. In Max and Maya, the first thing you do when learning to weight paint is pull out all your hair. The reason is because you have to get comfortable with the mathematics it's based around: adding up to %100, no more no less. So it ends up pissing you off when you can't increase a bone weight, and it especially pisses you off when you reduce weight to 90%, and it shoots to some wonky bone in order to automatically add up to 100%.

But mathematically, how does that make sense? Anything divided by itself equals 100%, so Blender goes off a splendidly additive system. If you've only got a cumulative 90% of the weight distributed (aka 90%/90%, aka 1) it doesn't jump to new places. If you've got (GASP!) two different bones at 80% (aka an unimaginable 160%) it just figures out the math any third grader should be able to handle, and puts 50% weight in both areas.

It's clear that Blender's youth may limit its functionality so far, but at the same time Blender's youth means it tore down a lot of the broken, unfixable ideas from other programs. To date, I've used Blender tools for modeling, UV unwrapping, rigging, skin weighting and animating, and all of these have left me pleasantly impressed.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

My movie to-do list

2008-06-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

The problem with IMDB's top 250 movie list is that it's too democratic; any 13-year-old kid can create a profile and rank The Matrix higher than The Third Man.

The problem with AFI's top 100 films is that it's too mired with dogma. Some secret panel of men with long white beards tell us what's good, often when historical significance or precedence is all a film has going for it (Snow White's on it, not because it's the best animated feature, just 'cause it was the first.)

But combine the two, and you get an excellent cross-reference of the gems of our cinema landscape. So I'm going to get back on the wagon and make the big push to round out AFI's top 100, as well as the first 100 of IMDB's 250. Here's what I've got left:

IMDB
1. Paths of Glory
2. M
3. The Lives of Others
4. Double Indemnity
5. Eve
6. Spirited Away
7. Downfall
8. Metropolis
9. Modern Times
10. Rebecca
11. Life is Beautiful
12. Some Like it Hot
13. City Lights
14. The Seventh Seal
15. The Elephant Man
16. Touch of Evil
17. Once Upon a Time in America
18. Kramer vs. Kramer
19. The Great Dictator

AFI
1. Some like it hot
2. African Queen
3. The Grapes of Wrath
4. Bonnie and Clyde
5. High Noon
6. It happened one night
7. The Best Years of our Lives
8. Double Indemnity
9. West Side Story
10. Birth of a Nation
11. A Streetcar Named Desire
12. Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid
13. Philadelphia Story
14. From Here to Eternity
15. Mash
16. Stagecoach
17. Network
18. An American in Paris
19. The French Connection
20. Wuthering Heights
21. The Gold Rush
22. City Lights
23. The Wild Bunch
24. Modern Times
25. Giant
26. Duck Soup
27. Mutiny on the Bounty
28. Frankenstein
29. The Jazz Singer
30. My Fair Lady
31. A Place in the Sun
32. The Apartment
33. The Searchers
34. Bringing up Baby
35. Yanky Doodle Dandy

I'm watching All About Eve right now, which is freakin' terrific. In some ways, the art of the evil woman has been lost. Sure, there's still female bad guys, and catty teen girls are frequent villains. However, that truly lifelike, catty, two-faced type of the finer sex's uglier side is a rarely well-portrayed character. For more great films with this, I recommend The Manchurian Candidate, Sunset Boulevard and Singin' in the Rain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years..._100_Movies
http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

I have a confession...

2008-06-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

The first step is admitting you have a problem...so I'd just like to confess that I've developed an addiction to the firefox plugin on www.stumbleit.com.

For those of you not in the know, stumbleit.com has you fill in your user's interests, then provides you with a time-sucking firefox button, which will randomly pull up pages relating to your interests. Here's one I just came across, for all you mac users:

http://www.opensourcemac.org/

But the main website you need to check out is:

www.stumbleit.com

Seriously. It'll replace your current "web 1.0" internet addiction in a heartbeat.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

More new art!

2008-06-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here's some stuff I've been painting recently. One is a mother's day gift for my mom, one I gave to my brother at my bachelor party, and the last one's a present for a friend's birthday. Back in the day I would make attempts at art for people's christmas presents, but it's hard to pack in 20 to 30 pieces in one holiday season. So my New Year's Resolution this year was to paint for peoples' individual occasions, most notably birthdays. This system's been much more successful (although not bulletproof), and definitely facilitated much more frequent painting.

I also have to strongly agree with the argument that you can never be good at photoshop until you've tried your hand at other media. The Art Institute of Seattle doesn't have painting as a requirement, but we do learn photoshop and illustration techniques therein. However, it was always a situation with me where I was terrified of the program. "Is this selection clean? Is this the right layer?" I would generally be far to careful and mathematical--like you can easily do in 3D. But once I started water colors, there's this intense difference. You're constantly making mistakes and resigning yourself to a lack of an eraser or undo key, so you drive on and create a finished product. Once I experienced that, photoshop and painter became much more free-form painterly and casual; in that last illustration I did, I was so lazy that I just had a "value" layer for most of the way through, laying down B&W, then just colorized it and had color-transferring layers on top of it.

But enough of that, on to my new paintings!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

New art

2008-06-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

I've been rather busy these last few weeks...first off, I got married! The wedding was a blast, and I couldn't be happier. I don't deserve what I lucked into.

Secondly, I've been doing some art projects in my free time, some as part of a skill test for a local company. But anyway, here's a chunk of concept art I did, which I'm rather happy with. Enjoy!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Blender 3D

2008-05-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

Time to make the jump! As of right now I'm seeking ways to emulate as much of the Maya interface as possible. Also, it'd be interesting to mess around with the scripting language in Maya. My theory is that if it's anything like MEL scripting, I can get away with some copy/pasting and write a plug-in to switch to a Maya-esque UI super fast.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

11 Second Club WIP #2

2008-04-25T17:53:00.001-07:00

Getting to the stage of tweaking and nitpicking, eh? I'm going away for the weekend, then hopefully I'll finish polishing this off before the month ends.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Phantom Menace vs. Ratatouille: the importance of choice

2008-04-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

I just watched a great film and a crappy film one after another: Episode 1 and Ratatouille. Episode 1 is traditionally blasted for Jar Jar Binks and a general stew of crappiness aside from that, and anything Pixar just gets a blanket statement about story, dreams, Renderman, etc.

But I noticed a very specific difference between the two in terms of story mechanics this time, which I think is the key to why Rat was great and Episode 1 didn't measure up to previous SW films: choice as a story mechanic.

There's a number of good films that put hard choices on the shoulders of characters. But in Ratatouille they go the extra mile: EVERYTHING is choice. Almost at NO point is Remy carried along by fate. He CHOOSES to break into the kitchen, to fix the soup, to go back and stick with Linguini, to let his family steal, soon and so forth. Choice is so big a part of the movie that even in the place when Remy is swept along by fate in the sewer early on, he's given an arbitrary choice of guessing which sewer pipe to go down. It's a meaningless choice, because he's guessing randomly, but it is nonetheless a choice, and therefore it carries emotional weight. As a result of all this choice, when it finally comes to the moment of truth, when Remy/Linguini have to rely on others and see if they're believed in, everyone else makes a choice, and it shows a lot of character for everyone involved: most leave, but the rat family finally believes in Remy, and Colette still believes in Linguini.

Compare this to Phantom Menace, in which the characters are almost nailed to a conveyer belt. Engine trouble FORCES (ha!) the heroes onto Tatooine. Watto's supply monopoly FORCES the heroes to deal with him. With no worthwhile currency, they are FORCED to look at Anakin as a solution. Jar Jar is FORCED to follow Qui Gon due to a life debt.

Sure, there's plenty of times where characters overcome odds in saber fights, podraces, etc, but they almost never made conscious, hard emotional decisions to be in those situations. The third act is the icing on the garbage cake: Metaphorically like all other parts of the movie, Anakin is forced into an auto-pilot starfighter that drags him into a situation where he saves the day. He has no heroic spirit or courage leading him to make choices others would fear. Similarly, Qui Gon's death is not a result of any internal, meaningful choice on anyone's part, especially Kenobi's or Qui Gon's. Instead, Obi Wan is forced into a spectator role, then afterward is just a dude fighting another dude. Imagine the guilt Obi Wan would feel if instead he made a bad decision, and that led to Qui Gon's death. Imagine the powerful message of love if Qui Gon sacrificed himself to save Obi Wan (as Obi Wan later does to save Luke, etc.). Less choreography, more choice please.

To analyze things further, compare Anakin (crappy hero) to Luke (good hero). Anakin does not succeed or fail by his choices, literally. In the new films we learn about a prophecy apparently meaning that Anakin's fate is already written in the stars. So who cares? WE knew he would be Darth Vader, and the reason he sucks is because apparently the Force new as well.

But Luke? Luke is a hero of choice, of decision. It's never "he's a good guy, he's the hero, just trust me." He's presented with potent, troubling decisions about his father, his loyalty, his friends and his greed. And in all these cases, he CHOOSES the light side, rather than arbitrarily have his decisions made for him. Same thing with Han Solo. Imagine how meaningless it would be for him to pick off Darth Vader in the end, if instead he was with Luke to start with, just blindly on the good guy's side.

But enough of that! Back to work with me. I should have my trial-finished 11-Second-Club animation completed tonight. Stay tuned!

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

On facial animation

2008-04-18T11:09:00.001-07:00

I'm working on that 11-Second-Club animation right now, and I thought I'd say something (ha!) about lip-syncing. We only really had one or two classes at AIS involving lip-syncing, and I would argue that was good, because I do think it's takes a back seat role to physical body animation.

With that in mind, a lot of what I know about lip-syncing I figured out by actually animating lip-syncs, and I've found a lot of the stuff I learned coincides with what you're supposed to be doing. Here's one thing I've found to be truly important about lip syncing (and, blah, I always remember it 100 frames into animating...). With fast-talking dialogue, you have to understand how it slurs, because the slurred form is how you'll end up setting keys.

Right now I'm animating the following line: "And you want to call it a health problem." To mark this phonetically every time a unique syllable comes up in writing is ludicrous. You'd be doing this:

"Aah-nn-duh Yee-oo Ww-ah-nn-tuh tuh-ook Caaah-ll..." so on and so forth.

But when you slur it a bit, it comes out looking much more natural, because in fact we say 90% of things slurred.

"An Oooh Ah NN Ahk Ah it," so on and so forth.

The jaw is especially important. It opens and closes far less than we think. If you do it every time a new letter shows up, you'll get speed-racer talk.

So in conclusion, just like most animation, less keyframes is better, counterintuitive though that may be. Now hopefully by writing all this down, I'll remember it on frame 1 next time...

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

2008-04-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

I'm working on an animation for 11secondclub.com's April competition. Here's the first go at blocking stuff out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eXTU9seLSk

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Experimental animation's true calling

2008-04-03T22:03:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIzRI73gzrE&eurl=http://cgi.fark.com/cgi/fark/youtube.pl?IDLink=3513727

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/moo.html

And for the sake of vanity, here's my own experiment: http://www.oscarts.org/production_03.html

As someone who has magical fantasies about someday dominating and mastering the indie/experimental animation market through a combination of bribes and demagoguery (only to be overthrown when I can't rig the vote...), it warms my heart that the modern landscape offers an opportunity for this medium which has been hitherto unknown.

A while ago I found an anniversary archive of Cal Arts experimental animation from over 20 years or something. The article flippantly mentioned that despite this robust portfolio, the school began discouraging experimental animation because it's, shall we say, practically unmarketable.

However, my generation has a much better opportunity to not only create experimental animation, but also profit from it. Here's what I think the major factors contributing to it are:

1. Internet distribution reaching a wide audience. How many people have seen Charlie the Unicorn? Ask this at a college, and you aught to hit at least 50%. Back in the day, you had to drop $50 on a festival submission fee so that 100 people could see your stuff. Now you can get it out there and build a rep without spending a dime via YouTube. Even better, a site like www.awntv.com or www.atomfilms.com lets you actually MAKE money off your cartoons through ad revenue. And even in the case of real-life viewings at film festivals and venues, you still have much better access; film festivals always have websites now, and it's far easier and less committing to hit "upload" than to send out a whole press package with a VHS tape. www.withoutabox.com offers a search engine that lets you submit a film to any film festival in the world, all from a central hub.

2. Technology. Back in the day, animation was great because it could tell any story and show anything possible through the pencil. Well, in modern day we essentially have a thousand new metaphorical "pencils" to explore looks, production techniques, stylistic approaches and motion methods. Flash, 3D, and After Effects mean that any video-oriented medium can be approached in a whole new way.

3. Exposure and learning resources. Distribution is terrific for the indie animator, but it's also great for the up-and-coming artist looking for a niche. Now when you're in school, there's a multitude of cartoons on YouTube that lets you hypothesize about your own ability to create such a cartoon. Similarly, you can easily find a number of great animations that are supplemented with tutorials, explanations, production focus, and a method of contacting the artist who created it.

4. It's hip to be square! Disney famously set the pace for years in the animation industry, setting standards for quality, convention and popularity. And even when projects like Yellow Submarine or Fritz the Cat would try and make elbow room for the weirdos, they were playing to a very small weirdo crowd. But in today's landscape, kids love finding the primordial, aberrant animation that you can't necessarily throw on Cartoon Network. And even then, often times you can, and when the demand is high enough it DOES get on Cartoon Network. A great example of this is Jason Reitman, director of Academy Award-winning Juno, who back in the day was posting stuff on AtomFilms. Clearly, there's people out there who dig this stuff, and an ever-increasing crowd that'll drop 90 minutes on this market rather than on some Pixar-imitating SFX-laden piece that is nonetheless devoid of style and substance.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

Neverwhere review

2008-03-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

I read "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman before I had even heard of Sandman, and it encouraged me to check out a lot of his other stuff. It's a terrific book, and I've been wanting to see the BBC series for a long time, but wasn't willing to shell out for it.

But hey! Now it's out at Hollywood Video, so I'm watching it right now. The production quality is a little, uh, BBC-esque, but the wiki says that the show came first, then Neil adapted it for a novel. This kind of explains the lower level of production, since it came before he was a truly famous writer. Nonetheless, the series is still wildly entertaining just based off of the strength of the concept: that we ignore homeless people and other street-culture vagrants because they actually exist on a slightly different plane of existence.

In conclusion, if you're a big fan of Gaiman, watch the show and read the book; if not, you should still enjoy one of the two. You'll undoubtedly become a big enough fan that you seek out the other one anyway. Also, bonus: muzak/ambiance by Brian Eno.

www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com

The top five list of...uh...lists.

2008-03-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

In a lot of ways, animation school is very much a frou-frou "build your own education" sort of experience, and although faculty may push you toward one direction or another, you can always just claim to be a 2D guy and only touch Maya for the required classes, or vice versa.

However, all that aside, I think there's a handful of "commandments" that every animator should learn verbatim. People have memorized far greater quantities of info, and therefore I don't think there's a good excuse for spending three years at school and not learning these by heart. (Although I admit, if you put me on the spot I might fall short of reciting everything perfect...)

So, without further ado, here's my top 5 list of lists!

1. Disney's twelve principles of animation. Ideally, one should know the complexities and intricacies of the twelve principles, and although animation varies greatly based off of experience, passion, talent, and resources, generally one thing instantly sets bad animation apart from good animation. In bad animation, it's usually not that you're using a principle poorly; you're not using it at all!

2. Blake Snyder's 4 elements of a logline (taken from his book "Save the Cat!") As Pixar says and everyone parrots, animation is all about story. Similarly, story is all about the logline. If you can't tell me a story in one sentence, it's a crappy story. In case you don't have his book (although you should definitely buy it), his four elements are...

1. Irony (Peter Sellers' "Being There" is an excellent example: a mentally handicapped dude rises to national politics.)

2. A Compelling mental picture. I think the two key elements of this step are first, a protagonist, and second, a complete story arc.

3. Audience and cost. A lot of this lines up with Disney's "appeal" principle, and arguably cost determines how much of #1-#11 you can afford.

4. A killer title.

3. At least one of several story beat methods, which include Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet (also in "Save the Cat"), or for a less screenplay-focused model, any number of the "Monomyth" structures, better known as the Hero's Journey. Several of these formulas are described in the wikipedia monomyth page, and I frequently use a version provided by Stephen Glover, but it's generally the same: you have to hit certain story notes in a certain chronology, or else it's just a series of vignettes.

4. Andrew Loomis' four steps for informal composition, as highlighted in "Creative Illustration." Okay, maybe this one's a bit of a stretch, but I think it's desperately important for one main reason: knowing this method means that Artist's Block is pretty much unheard of. Once again, I think this is a detailed abstraction of a Disney Principle (Staging), and it's important to start seeing everything as composition. I remember making thumbnails as a freshmen, and I couldn't see the forest for the trees. I would make my first mini design, then just draw fairly identical versions of it. But Andrew Loomis' method is a brilliant staple of drawing; you throw down some abstract lines, it makes abstract shapes, you fit your concept into the abstraction, and you get a dynamic and surprising new composition every time.

5. Andrew Loomis' four essential principles of tone, also in "Creative Illustration." Light is a science, not an art; it becomes art in how we interpret its inalienable properties, and Andrew Loomis provides the exact foundation for you to jump off of. Additionally, read his exerpt from Howard Pyle, who Loomis was building off of. I've heard variations of these principles from a number of artists, but as far as an empirical printed form, here's where to go. Another analysis of these principles is to break down tone into their five categories: Halftone, Highlight, Core Shadow, Cast Shadow, Reflected Light. The best illustrators I've learned from (including Dave Ehlert and Bruce Sharp) generally teach to some version of this formula.

So there you go. And I think it's worth noting that, even though I'm more technically oriented than traditionally oriented, none of these concern a computer program. Curious, eh? I think there's a number of other lists that didn't make the cut (for instance, uh, every chapter outline Loomis EVER had), but these are the essentials I try to keep within arm's reach of my computer chair.

Auditory philosophy of the demo reel.

2008-03-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

A lot of the feedback I've been hearing regarding audio on a demo reel is pretty blunt: if it's not a lip sync, just remove audio entirely. There's some good logic behind it. Worst case scenario, they hate your music tastes and therefore hate you, and the alternative worst case scenario is they like your music tastes and it's unfortunate that YOUR art isn't as good as that musician's art. Additionally, they might be listening to something already, and on the job-seeker's end of things, rendering without audio results in a smaller file size.

But I think there's a rebuttal to this. Put simply, here's my philosophical model:

A. Your demo reel is a compilation of all your best art, and anything sub-par should be removed.

B. By definition of a demo reel, it shows off your editing abilities.

C. Since the art of editing CANNOT be removed from your demo reel, it HAS to be polished into a beautiful "piece."

D. As numerous media shows (previews, music videos, video in general, etc...), an integral part of good editing is based around your ability to present audio dynamically, so that it goes hand in hand with your visuals.

E. Therefore, a demo reel should have dynamic visual and sound editing.

But of course, then it's worth exploring what good editing is. After all, in the same way that no sound is still technically better than bad sound or over-complicated sound. What I've discovered is that the point when music on my demo reel sucks is when it's clashing with animations that are already animated to sound. I predict that in an ideal world, my demo reel will be comprised entirely of clips that already have a built-in sound narrative, and therefore no new audio is needed.

And my render's done! So enough burning time.

Screen capture software

2008-03-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

I've been trying out some screen capture programs to get footage of my rigging goodies in action to throw 'em on my demo reel. So far I've tried two programs, with mixed results...

Copernicus: On the plus side, this program's free to use, and it's also available for mac. Unfortunately, the quality of the output is pretty bad, and you can't really mess with the settings too much. A lot of the captured frames seem to be blended between camera moves, and therefore get some weird artifacting. But, on the other hand, it pumped out a file successfully.

Camtasia: This was recommended to me by dudes at www.strutyourreel.com, and it's once again got some ups and downs. For one, there's no mac version, but that's pretty minor; I just rebooted in windows and installed it there instead. For another thing, it's only a 30 day trial. Bummer. And lastly, although it pumped out a native format video file (.camtec) it took me a couple tries to get the file format I wanted. However, the ends justify the means, and Camtasia's final output was great. The quicktime file I ended up with is great quality, and I look forward to replacing the ugly, way-too-fast copernicus footage.

First Post!

2008-03-14T05:20:00.003-07:00

Hey y'all, my blog is now launched! I look forward to posting lots and lots of stuff. But to start things off, check out my website at www.oscarts.org, packed full of meaty animation goodness. Enjoy!