My Animated Life

I was first introduced to 3D modeling and animation about a year ago, and it's now one of the things I love to do most, even though I still have a lot to learn. Here are some of the works that I have done so far. Some are assignments and some are just experiments on my own.

Here's an Audi R8 whose license plate bears my initials and my birth date. I love cars and this is one of my favourite because it looks futuristic, but not ridiculous. It's actually still a work in progress as this car still has no interior, no engine and no wheels, as shown in the second image.

For one of my assignments we were told to model our own heads, which I did. I was too lazy to figure out a creative texture for my head so I simply painted myself into Homer Simpson, which is very befitting, because I failed to put any brains into doing the texture.

Well, it might not look perfectly like me, but at least it looks like a human, so I guess that's sufficient for now.

While experimenting with 3D elements, I realized that one of the most intriguing part of it was lighting. I have always been fascinated by how different lightings can make your image look either photorealistic or fake. I like to create photorealistic photos, and here are my shots at it:

I tried to light up the condo with daylight and then create a night scene using interior lightings. The experiment went pretty well, I guess, and I'm looking forward to doing some architectural jobs or interior designs if given the opportunity.

Throughout my experiments with lighting and all, I never really understood caustics, what it is, why do we need it, etc. However I gave it a try anyways, and even thought it looked nothing like a gem or glass or any of the things they show in the final outcome in tutorials, I guess this turned out ok.

Anyways I'm sure some of you might think I totally suck ass in 3D, and some of you might wonder how I did some of the works, so feel free to leave comments, I'd really appreciate it.

Here's a model of a keychain that I did for my VFX assignment. It's not super detailed but at least it looks like the original one. Done in 3D Studio Max 9.0 and rendered with mental ray.



And here's the original one:

In case you don't know what SPCA is, it stands for Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Here's a promotional video I did alongside my girlfriend and 4 other girls with whom I've been working closely ever since.I was the main animator and compositor of this animation, and this animation, from pre-production to post-production, was done in about 28 hours. It isn't perfect, but I'd say for a work done in such a short time, it's one of the animations I like the most. Basically all we did was create those individual elements in Photoshop or Illustrator, then place them in 3D layers in After Effects to give a false sense of perspective. Then we added the song L-O-V-E by Olivia Ong just to make things sweet. Here's the outcome :D



Here are the wonderful people with whom I worked to make this video possible:












Rong................... Carlyn................. Shin.................... Ah Val











... and Heng Xiao Wee

Alright, here's the fun stuff. This was one of the most difficult but most rewarding projects I've ever done. It involved loads of books, some mounting boards, batteries, light bulbs, a refrigerator, and a whole lot of clay. The whole process took approximately 6 hours, and I could tell you that this was one of the funnest projects I've done to date. Basically it was shot frame by frame and then composed into a video, which is what you're seeing now.

In case you're wondering, Lopo is the name of the main character in this animation. This name is derived from "Low Polygonal Character", the reason being the character has only simple geometries to it. The reason it is called "Lopo II" is because Lopo II is actually the successor of Lopo, which is the first model we made, and destroyed in the process of animating because the clay was too soft whilst the skeleton was too hard.

As a result we asked Agito (one of the "A"s of AKKA Studio) to make a more flexible skeleton and I made a new Lopo around it. Process of animation was pretty smooth except the clay is somewhat too soft, and in order to animate it properly, we had to freeze it to harden it. Overall I'd say it's an unforgettable experience.