And, as you’ll be able to tell, this guy’s not so good at walking.

But, first, this is my masterpiece (so far) of timeliness! Weighing in at just 1 second (actually 23/24th’s of a second), this is my shortest clip thus far. Great for those with short attention spans! This may become the clip length of the future, as we become ever so adjusted to needing things now, now, now!

Anyway, I was inspired by (my own) Clayman video from the other day. Instead of trying to create complex things, I could just start simpler and work my way up.

Usually, I like to jump right in and be able to make something that’s actually useful. A lot of times, just doing subpar stuff–even while learning–just feels like a waste of time.

Anyway, with my Clayman figures, they were pretty basic figures that (I think) I put together relatively quickly in order to try out my (then new) video camera.

I figured I could do the same with 3d animation. Why I didn’t have this realization months ago, I don’t know. Maybe that’s something that Joanne can figure out. (I’ve been lax in linking out to Joanne, since she’s not been blogging much lately, but I still need to keep linking so that I maintain my lead in our blog sparring, especially if she starts up again.)

Well, anyway (again), here is the creatively named “Test Figure.” Oh, I could have called him PseudoClayman, or Obesityman or some such thing, but I have lots of models called “Weird Head [insert Roman numeral here]” so why not just Test Figure, eh? Call him T.F. if you like. Pretend it stands for The Fatman or something. Don’t worry; he can’t walk so he won’t be chasing after you. Yet.

He even bounces a bit when he hits the ground. That was my idea. As if you didn’t know. Anyway, I created the model from scratch. He started out as a rectangular solid, and he still has some of the blocky shape, despite my efforts to the contrary. I also did the textures. He’s got very short pants. Maybe they’re bikini bottoms. Who knows. But he does show off a lot of leg. And toes, which you may not see well from this angle, but they’re rather long. And, he only has four fingers. Ditto for toes. I also did the rigging (simple though it is) and the animation. Walk cycles are my weak point (I loose track of what should be going where, even though I can clear envision the scene) thus he falls instead of walking very far. He slips up pretty much right away.

At any rate, maybe I can do better with my next model. But, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk. And T.F. can’t crawl yet either.

Popularity: 3% [?]

I’m not sure at what point this turned into an animation blog, but it has appeared to have done that. I really ought to get back to blogging about blogging, as that is when I had the most number of readers. And, that leads into a different topic which will (lest I forget) be a topic for another day.

Anyway, all half dozen of you still reading this blog probably saw Pete’s water burst photo yesterday. As I mentioned in the comments, that reminded me of project I had done last fall.

I was trying to do water effects with 3d animation. Posted below is my third attempt. It’s a whole two seconds long, which is good for those with short attention spans. My last animation weighed in at 5 seconds long, so this new one will be even quicker to digest.

It’s great for people on a diet too. With the 2 second length, you barely have time for one, maybe two, kernels of popcorn.

Popularity: 3% [?]