harkyman.com » Artwork

Animators Survival Kit

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:54:05 +0000

The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams is one of the Bibles of modern animation. Not only does it give a fascinating inside look at some of the real work horses behind the animation we grew up watching, it also provides immensely practical formulas and templates for your own work. I’d read it before, but decided to finally buy it and make it my vacation reading last week. I can’t tell you how useful this book is for animation work.
As a warm up for my next book, I’ve been building a rig and doing some animation. The other morning, I spent about forty-five minutes doing a walk using the techniques in Survival Kit. It blew me away how following the tidbits of advice in there instantly infused an otherwise dull cycle with weight and life. Check it below:

Also, we were hard up for dinner ideas, so I made do with what was in the house. This takes 1/2 hour, start to finish, and turned out great:

Two chicken breasts, defrosted and thrown on the grill
Half a red onion, several close of garlic, and a small jar of artichoke hears, diced together
Heat olive oil in iron skillet. Salt oil and throw in handful of Italian spices once oil is hot.
Cook garlic/onion/arti’s in oil until they begin to soften
Meanwhile, cook ravioli (or tortellini, rigontini or other cheese-bearing pasta)
Put 1/2-1 cup of white wine into skillet with veggies and oil. Add 1 Tsp butter. Let simmer.
Dice grilled chicken and add to skillet.
Serve chicken/veggie skillet over pasta. Add fresh parmesean if you have it.

Meet Shrimpo!

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:34:31 +0000

Last night, a new force was brought into the world. Meet Shrimpo the Terrible (click for full size):

He may have been constructed from two shrimp tails and several plastic football-themed hor-dourves skewers, with a piece of green pepper for a head, but much like Frosty the Snowman, when Shrimpo came to life and started kicking butt at 80’s Trivial Pursuit during our New Years party, we knew that he had something special. You should have seen him wearing his beer-cap helmet!

Sure, he’ll rule the world someday, and we’ll probably all be very sorry, but remember this advice for the New Year:

1) Shrimpo the Terrible is always watching you.
2) If something good happens to you, it’s because you made Shrimpo happy.
3) If something bad happens to you, it’s because you have displeased Shrimpo in some way.
4) I’m the only one who he talks to at the moment, so if you need to get back on Shrimpo’s good side, you’ll have to go through me. I’m a very busy man. Food and cash will get you noticed sooner rather than later.

Anyway, have a great 2009, and long live Shrimpo!

Blender Animation Challenge

admin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:42:57 +0000

After acting like a know-it-all in a forum thread on blenderartists.org about restructuring the Blender Animation Challenge, I felt obliged to enter for the contest’s grand re-opening, as they seem to have taken my suggestions to heart. The goal is to produce around 10 seconds of animation from an existing base file that contains a character and possibly props. The first challenge was to have the character interact with the provided ball. My entry is below:

If you’d like to join the challenge yourself, go here!

Little picture

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:42:57 +0000

Not quite final settings for final render, but it’s getting close…

A Mom, a Beast and a Dog

admin — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:40:42 +0000

Click the image for full size:

Sets and Props

admin — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:39:05 +0000

Here’s the half-finished kitchen set, without final lighting or any props:

… and, the Beast’s favorite toy:

Whole in the Sky

admin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:06:30 +0000

Working a little bit with negative space, as well as visual direction and trying to create a small sense of tension in an otherwise serene image:

Click for full crop, full size.

100% Recycled

admin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:02:31 +0000

In the world of Blender, there are many permutations of Suzanne, the monkey-head mascot. Here’s one I hadn’t seen before, so I did it myself:

Click for full size.

Rigging, the Easy Way

admin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:00:43 +0000

Here’s the image I made for the rigging and skinning chapter of The Essential Blender. The Hank character is by Ryan Dale. This one’s really only fun if you’re into 3D.

Click for full crop.

Finishing Touches

admin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:57:29 +0000

Taking a break while a shot from The Beast renders for some animation testing. Figured I’d flesh out the website a bit and add some of my artwork that I did for The Essential Blender.

The story behind this image is that I was thinking about teaching and learning, and creating something like yourself. For some reason, I picture these little guys living inside Blender, building all the things you ask for behind the scenes. They finally decided to honor themselves for a change…

Click for full size, full crop.