Maya's renumber option in render settings

So I'm working on a super quick turn around short film. There are several shots that use basically the same animation, but I look at it from different angles to help minimize the amount of animation I actually have to create. Enter Maya's renumber frames option.

Each shot is the same frame length (15 frames). One shot starts at 1023 and goes until 1038. I rendered that shot out just fine, then went back into the Maya file, repositioned the camera, and then rendered with a new name, but also used the renumber frames option. I told the frames to start numbering at 1129.

While I could have just written them out with a different name (this would have not overwritten the other frames), I wanted to get the frame numbers correct during the render, so there would be no question as to where they should go in the edit.

Another little used feature of Maya that proved to be quite helpful!

First Day of Winter Quarter Begins...

...and everyone has an "A" so far. Don't mess it up for yourselves!

Alleged Unfair Work Conditions At Rockstar San Diego

Kotaku has an interesting story today about Rockstar San Diego. I'm really looking forward to Red Dead Redemption. Everything I've seen from it looks amazing.

The Princess and the Frog

So I finally got around to watching "The Princess and the Frog". I went in really wanting to like the film, and overall, it was a decent movie. I did think it had a few holes though. If you haven't watched the film yet, this is the part where you'll want to stop reading.



A lot of this film felt like a TV special rather than a film. What I mean by that is that several parts of the plot seemed to go by very quickly, or have the audience accept a lot of the story with little or no explanation. Why would the servant character go against Prince Naveen so quickly and easily? Why would the Shadow Man buy the sugar mill? What would he want to do with it? Why would the Shadow Man be so set on destroying Prince Naveen in the first place?

A lot of the character design looked like an episode of the Proud Family as well. This is not really a surprise, given that one of the lead animators on the film was the creator of the show.



Like I said, the film was halfway decent, but hardly the glorious return to 2D animation that it was touted to be. While this is not the fault of the technique, hopefully the businessmen and women greenlighting future projects understand that as well.

Did you see the film? What did you think?

-Floyd

Happy New Year!!

So this is a New Year, and as such, it's a time of year that people like to make resolutions. I plan on blogging a lot more this year. I'm also going to get a CG group started in San Diego. I used to have one years ago, but it kind of fizzled out. I'd also like to maybe write a book about getting started in the animation industry. I started in animation over ten years ago now! These are some pretty big goals, but I think it's possible.

Keep watching this space!

-Floyd

My Aniboom History challenge

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

This weekend I had a few beers, grilled some steak, and animated my arse off. This was the result. If you like it, please go over to the Aniboom website and give me a good vote.

Gullible isn't in the dictionary

So tonight I got two emails from my mother that had been forwarded to her via a long line of gullible people (including one of my sisters). The first one was about an internet virus hooked up to a Hallmark postcard. The second one was about carjackers using paper taped to your rear window to trick you into getting out of your running vehicle to remove it. Both emails are scams.

Snopes is your friend.

John K Does A Cartoon Pitch

John Kircfalusi did a great panel at Comic Con where he pitched a cartoon. It sounds simple, but as anyone who has done a storyboard pitch can tell you, it's not a simple thing. Check out the video and see for yourself.