Sneak Peek: Brudders CGI

Here's a peek at what Sergeant, Toullie and Sister look like rendered in 3D.


These images are from a test of the new Skin material introduced in Lightwave 10.1. (See, we are working on the movie!)

And this is what a rigged character looks like inside the 3D program running on my tablet PC.


As you can see here, Lightwave 10.1's new realtime previewer, called VPR, is pretty sweet.

Okay, so if these were actual toys, would you buy one? Let us know; we're thinking about making that happen after the movie is finished.

Finally here's a small sample of the mocap 'puppetry' created for Sergeant last fall using iPi Desktop Motion Capture:



This video may look a little 'jumpy' because the animation was played back live and I'm sure frames were being dropped for realtime speed. Next time I'll post animation of all the Brudders characters pre-cached for full speed playback.

G.

May the Force be with Tou

Well, another Memorial Day weekend has gone by without a new Star Wars movie. If that saddens you, we can help: check out Brudders - Episode 54 'Star Snores'.

The Studio is finally open to all of our online friends! If you drop in now, you can learn about the making of Episode 54.

- Sgt M.

Inspiring Movement

Toullie becomes Sergeant's muse in the moving Brudders - Episode 53 'Inspiration'.

Still working on the Brudders movie. Talk about a 'Never Ending Story'.

- Sgt M.

I am Toullie, hear me roar!

This week, on very special Brudders, we continue last week's sensitive gender bending topic in Episode 52 'Ladylike'.

If you're curious about some of the technical stuff behind our upcoming short film, visit our other YouTube channel LGD Test Tube. We just uploaded a calibration video for our motion capture system with annotations. I wouldn't exactly call the video entertaining but if you're the 'geeky type' you might find it interesting.

- Sgt M.

Happy Presidents' Day

But, really, shouldn't happiness be for everybody? Well we think so, and we created a brand new Brudders comic to help spread that happiness. Read it here: Brudders - Episode 51 'Confession'. It's good for the soul.

By the way, the drawing session for this episode was recorded. We'll premiere the video at our YouTube channel in a few days.

Speaking of video, work on the Brudders music video 'Don't Fear the Pooper' continues. Fear not; we're still intent on getting this project done before next Gothtober.

- Sgt M.

What's the scoop on 'Poop'?

Sorry for neglecting the website since last November. (Yikes! Has it been that long?) The Brudders short film project 'Don't Fear the Pooper' is taking a lot longer than we anticipated. Most of our time is being spent R&D-ing the experimental mocap system but we have the process mostly nailed down now.

Another reason for the delay is that we decided to up the production value quite a bit. Funny how that always happens. We were originally aiming for a 'quick and dirty' machinima look for 'Pooper' but because the quality of the mocap software improved dramatically last December, it seemed a shame to settle for our original goal of 'just okay' animation. Anyway, now we're shooting for a spring or early summer release and I think the extra time will be well spent. Hopefully, the release won't be as late as next Gothtober. Now that would be embarrassing!

Just for fun, here's a peek at the proxy model of Sister with mocap test data applied:

I know I keep talking about starting a public production log, and I will try to get it posted on the website this weekend. Really, I mean it. In the meantime, here's another mocap test video from last year: Deform Test Mocap Session. The motion from this session was created to test how well the characters deformed in motion, and it's the same data applied to the Sister rig in the above image. Pretty fun stuff! Come back for more sneak peeks at this production soon.

By the way, we posted Act I of the 'Pooper' animatic at the Little Green Dog Movies channel. This is essentially the same video that premiered last October at Gothtober 2010 so there's nothing really new here. If you haven't already seen it though, I hope you enjoy it. (The original blog entry about the animatic and Gothtober can be seen here: Hello Gothtober 2010.)

Finally, I've been itching to draw the next episode of Brudders. Maybe I can make time for it this week. Keep your eye on our tweets!

G.

Happy 60 Years Charlie Brown!

That's right, Peanuts celebrated its 60th birthday last month and we mark the occasion with the 50th episode of Brudders, which we're calling, well, 'Peanuts'. (Good grief!)

Read the artist's notes about this strip here and write your own comments and questions.

- Sgt M.