Beautiful Machines

Recently I got the opportunity to photograph some vintage tractors. Great modelling reference .. really ... it's not like I'm a farmer or anything ... not that I have anything against farmers ... I love them ... well, not like ... "love" ... OH FORGET IT!


Rest of the album can be found here
Beautiful Machines

Maya 2012 view-port render

Maya 2012 Realtime rendering from Tony Jackson on Vimeo.

I'm really liking the real-time rendering in the Maya viewport. Just have to try and do some more work on this soon!

Chain Guns done ...


Weapons ... nearly complete ... from Tony Jackson on Vimeo.
Such small updates now ... I've not got a lot of free time to spend on it for the foreseeable future, so the updates will be some what small for a while. Ho hum.

First weapon ...

Still lots to do here ... the detail is still missing ... but I'm going to try and put all the big components in first before I finish the details.







Incremental update ...

Done some work on the "communications" array, more detail in the feet and a few other small updates. Need to get to the "weaponisation" stage soon, before I lose interest.







update from Tony Jackson on Vimeo.

Modelling nearly done ...

So, nearly finished the modelling stage ... just a few hurdles to over come before I can move on the UV mapping, followed by the texturing, then rigging, then animating.





Now with Feet from Tony Jackson on Vimeo.




Documenting progress ...


Detail pass from Tony Jackson on Vimeo.
More documenting of the build progression. Looking forward to getting started on the texturing.

Mech concept ...

Building me a big effing Mech ... plan is to have it all stripped down with no armour ... exposing it's ... erm ... insides. Like I built the thing in my garage or some-such.


Lost posts ...

I appear to have had two posts go missing ... which is weird!!!
So here is at least one of them again ...






















And a process gif ...

Motion Tracking

Tracking Test. from Tony Jackson on Vimeo.

I've been playing with matchmoving on and off for years, using different software, with varying results. I got a copy of Matchmover with my Maya license and decided to dabble once again. But it was mind numbingly frustrating, I couldn't get a single solve to work. All the videos I've watched make it look so easy and they work every time!

Anyway, I dug out an old license I have for some very cheap tracking software PFHoe, and after some fiddling, I got some reasonable results, and, in about 100th of the time I spent with Matchmover!

It's not perfect, but it's not bad.

Dynamics test


Dynamics Test from Tony Jackson on Vimeo.
I used cheap motion blur and I think that's why there is some strange movement on some of the debris pieces when they are close to the camera.

Next stage will be to sort some shaders, add dust and smaller debris, some camera shake, background elements, and if I can find the right car models, some traffic.

Re-work...

I'm having another crack at improving my last painting. Adjusted her pose and changed the space, amongst other things. Hope to find a few more hours this week to get into it.