Little Bad Wolf from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.

Bus stop badness .

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Goblin after effects test from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.

So - trying the same layers I used in Character animator in after effects
and in the case of the dodgy walk cycle- trying the same thing.....
The walk sort of works!
But after effects was dismally slow with the boned puppet with duik on it- and thats just one little simple character:-
I think segmented characters are way faster and don't body after effects down.....I think.
So I guess the next thing is to try attaching just an animated head and lip synch from Character Animator and attaching it to a body with ik in After effects.
But what it leads to is back to Toon Boom...

Why-?
 because after effects isn't really geared towards 'characters'- as a unit- just comps- whereas I hope and assume that Toon Booms libraries are just that-
ie I hope you can set up a character, put it in the Toon Boom library and then insert it into any scene and its all good to go.

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A bit simple,  but it all worked fine in the game at a small size.
Codebreakers_Janitor_run_walk from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.
A bit mechanical on the walk with some foot sliding due to the animation sampling for the game- the run is a bit more fluid.

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A scratchy thumbnail animatic of a story- well half.
Really scratchy- but even still the feel of the story comes through
who'd have thunk?

Its about creativity/ideas setting you free but its also about me thinking of focusing on animation and calling my business Free Range Animation  -
partly because I'm out here in the country
but also to distinguish my stuff from the woeful corporate/establishment type stuff
- the ideas are free range not battery ones.
Free range animation. from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.

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A few sketches toward the magic word book- some are getting there- others I think I need to look at the roughs again to regain the proper thread/character.....

anyway...... for those of you in the void who like such preliminary work

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A bit cold in the shed at QLD sculptors....
I only just made it in time...so wasn't properly focussed....


This time I sat on the other side- so didn't have the shadows but did have the lead-reflecting-on-the-page  issue.
More importantly I  wonder if I need glasses- well I probably do....

still its like going to the gym- you get points for turning up I think.



Model had stripey socks...and tattoos (which I left out).

 Little extra sketchbook doodling......(not done at life drawing)

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Codebreakers_female_walk_run_idle from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.

A render of the fermale character......rendered frame  seemed bright enough in the max render windw- seems a bit dark......have to fiddle with light bbefore I go and render the rest of the backlog.

anyway again model texture and design by Milenko and animation by me.
I love how sculptural his low poly models are.

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Codebreakers_male_run_walk_idle from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.

I have bunch of work thats largely unseen- well on my site and here.
Heres a test render- only just looking at max materials and lights and rendering again.....
funny when doing stuff for games I never bothered with the renderer stuff really because the rendered object was in the game engine not Max.
Anyway
the lovely sculptural models and textures are by Milenko and the anim by me.

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Takeoff from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.

Another silly cycle- this time made a bit more elaborate than the previous test exercises.

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Trying to finish that pass on The Magic Word book,- the one where I reduce the spread ideas.
I'll scan them in and then try to sort out in photoshop-
and then do a digital rough pass - probably in sketchbook pro based on the best combination.
Oh yes and the words....I'll try to cat herd the words too.

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 Well an odd week-
Time lost to Birthdays (mine and my wife's)- well not really lost- but not working or learning /enjoying life.
Time lost due to the house renovations.

Time spent on another pass on Magic Word book roughs:-
I'm determined to get it to the stage the Over and Out book is at.
I'm doing it a bit differently- instead of doing all the roughs in Photoshop I'm doing them in pencil on print outs from Indesign.
I was trying to do a pass where I reduce the options to just 1 or 2 per spread ( normally I do 4 or 5 or more)- and nearly got through it.
I'm not sure how other authors find it but I have moments where I'm thinking "Is this working? It was working...is it now?"-
then later its "oh yes- this is good-what you've just done works a treat-thank goodness".
I think in particular I have to make sure its funny to match the idea or maintains the mood throughout- and not make any drawing overly scary or if they,-
are they still need to be slightly ridiculous or funny.
The story is a bit Roald Dahl esque because baddies get their comeuppance in a Dahl way.
Part of me worries- but I think if I keep it funny and the Baddies ridiculous , despisable, architects of their own demise and in no way role models then its OK.

also spent a bit of time thinking of 'future sci/fi ' ideas with a bit of a post global warming bent.
Was talking to Sam Bowring about possible ideas for books- and I like the idea of Sci fi anthologies of the sort that I had as a child (ie collections of Asimov or Ray Bradbury type)- but illustrated.
Funny how when you ought to be doing something else you get brilliant ideas for something completely different.
Not quite like "how to end world hunger" but always feels that important.

- looking at Sketchbook again and Storyboard pro.
I'm thinking I'll do my drawing in Sketchbook from now on because photoshop's line quality is so rubbish  and because it saves psds swap to photoshop when I have  to.
(Or Manga studio.)

 Actually I bought several animation related books while in Sydney- which I have been looking at and reading:
 The Nine Old Men
Drawn to life,
A book on Toon Boom and
The Art of Big Hero 6.
Animation is on my mind but finishing this Magic Word book idea to the minimum level must be done.
 Only made it to one life drawing class at Qld Sculptors.- the model I think was called Chantelle.
I thought she is exactly the sort of model Degas would have liked- (sculptors doesn't have a bathtub though.)
I think I was a bit hot and cold- I got the basis of her face correct,shading a problem
...on her legs below the lead was reflecting the light above so I couldn't see the line I drew as I drew it so a bit messed up......

Also quietly wondered why girls get themselves waxed..(top image)....a mystery.
Especially if you've got the sort that's neatly tucked-
(again no idea why women worry about large lips or whatever....again a mystery or victims or some sort of media myth)
Moral of that is- don't think- draw.

Anyway onward and upwards.

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As Jessica rabbit would say-

Was a good week for The Magic Word book as I did a bunch of pencil /block out roughs/thumbnails and it looks like it will be good.  Which is something because I tend to be guarded and self critical- so if I think it'll be good that's conservative.

Plus more time spent on after effects and illustrator testing  things and learning .

 Not a great week on  the life drawing front- mind you I know to expect a third or fourth week dip.

The guy was at Sculptors QLD shed- the girl at  Jugglers art space.
Thoughts-
Girl moved around a lot/didn't hold still-
ie if you rough the head and work down to feet- when go go back to the top head is in different position/ angle (not simply going back to top and seeing you did it wrong).

Jugglers was packed- a bit uncomfortable really- I sat next to a landscape architect student and talked to her in the break which was nice because I felt everyone might have been advertising people and its nice to find someone randomly that you can relate to.
(- having flashbacks of QUT student days helping my then girlfriend colour her site plans/analysis and the expensive annoyance that was Letraset.......)

Guy at sculptors was the opposite- he held very still-
(but I still didn't quite feel my energy was there this week).
Actually find drawing guys less stressful- they don't have to be "pretty" ,
mind you if you are in the proper frame of mind for drawing as you see is their humanity- and yours.

I think the thing is to remind yourself its like the drawing equivalent of going to the gym- so even if the drawings didn't turn out- the mental and physical effort of  training will still help.

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It arrives.

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What's been happening?
Well I've had a lot of trouble with Photoshop CC 2015.
Its the most broken worthless software I've ever come across- why? Well its seem creative cloud installs a myriad pieces of what is basically surveillance software on your machine-
and in particular the creative cloud library thing - a swarm of CEPhtml engine processes would bring my machine to its knees while trying to use photoshop. Basically I'd try and draw a stroke with my cintiq and it would wait 5 seconds and then display the stroke.
Switch to any other program and cintiq and that program would behave.
Apparently a lot of other people have suffered the same fate and I learnt from them a way to disable the cloud library and photoshop is now quasi usable.

The lesson here is that all of the various specific use programs are worth their weight in gold- ie anything by the foundry, zbrush, manga studio, the toon boom software etc ....
Why?
Because their software works, and clearly they went to some trouble to ensure this because in a niche market you can't afford to be pedalling broken software.

On top of that a week  into my subscription Adobe sent me an email saying they were going increase the cost of subscription by $100.
On top of that my version of Adobe CS5 has been rendered useless by the CC install- where once it worked fine now it doesn't work properly with the cintiq and is laggy and broken. So I can't go back unless I nuke everything I guess.
On top of that it won't let me run both versions of photoshop at once- which to me is odd because CC was NOT an upgrade to CS5.
On top of that photoshop still does aliased staircased lines!
It's total shit- open any other software and they do a far superior job.

I'm glad indesign appeared to behave after losing so much time to the photoshop problems.




I've spent a bit of time on a potential illustrating job, and some more time in indesign trying to set up some of the books I'd been working on,
 basically because in a week I'll go to the CBCA conference in Sydney and be amongst the book people- so I wanted some things more presentable.

....... and more time in after effects going over things.

And more time at life drawing trying to exercise my drawing muscles.
If I could mange to do life drawing 3 times a week and sustain that for a few month I know my drawing would jump. Currently I've managed twice a week for three weeks?
The drawing at top were at the Jugglers Artspace, the lower at QLD sculptors. All A2 done on my knee with a gatorboard backing.
Jugglers seemed a nice group- looked like a few advertising types there- but its in the Valley so that makes sense.

I'm going to jump straight back onto the animation learning/updating and tests- and I think out of pure disgust I might leave photoshop alone(for drawing or animation)  unless absolutely necessary for a while.

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beast from Lachlan Creagh on Vimeo.
(with what was going to be funny sort of rhino head)

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Well I was working on this about 15 months ago....then nothing.
Might post a few roughs of cards and tokens......
Heres a couple of tribe tokens

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Unlerlying watercolour.
The original plan was to have all watercolour- but I was way behind- so I decided watercolour colour and black photoshop lines.
The watercolour alone is nicer but I didn't trust myself given the time (seeing as this is my first traditonal media book).
Next time.....

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Hooray

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A few versions in lines of the cover for Little Bad Wolf-
Riffs on the main front cover idea- with me  trying to decide who's on the back.

There was a whole round of roughs before it.
and a whole series of last minute shenanigans as a commitee descends
and attempts to design after the fact-

or the colour as the case may be.

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 and probably searching for work as well.

Well I *think * I've finished Little Bad Wolf.

Now staggering about trying to see where I was at a few months back-
one of the things  I'd nearly finished was roughs of the book idea......"Over is out"

It has been decided that I need to get a job....
so I suppose I'll have to brush up the blog and brush up/redo the website....

but I think I'll spend the remainder of the week and finish the roughs for that book so at  least its at a showable/pitchable stage.

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