New film character

 Update

I still have a good bit to work on but I thought that I should at least post what I have been doing thus far. I am still reworking a few aspects of the character. I am currently working on the knife on her hip. I am reworking the original model and I will be posting a before and after pic of it soon.  I haven't added the displacement to the bodice and the bracers in this render but once I do all the detail in those areas really pop.  I reworked the model of the cloak to fix the inner penetration issues of the hood as well. I have been going back and forth on the look and feel of the cloak. I will also be posting some of the looks that I have come up with, hopefully by the end of this weekend.  I am also planning on redoing the belt as well so that it fits in with rest of her cloths and the period which I am trying to set the story in.

Let me know what you think....

 

New Character For My Short Film

Here is one of the characters to my new short film that I am working on. Actually its my old senior film that I created during my senior year at SCAD but it didnt turn out nearly as well as I want it to. However now I have the time to sit down and really think of all aspects of the film and really give the story the dedication that I have been wanting to give it for some time now. Also I am learning so much now that I am in the career field and I am itching to tryout a few new things that I have picked up so far. 

Now some of you might have seen this character before but for those of you would havent here she is.  The main model itself was created by a close friend of mine Travis Overstreet about a year ago. She looked a little different at that time, and no she didnt have hair then either hahaha. That is one of the many things that I will be working on over the coming weeks. I changed the cloak to be thin instead of the fur covered one that I had orinally had on her. The fur was just an added headache to get looking correctly and the time it took to render was nuts.  She originally had decorative flaps in the front and back of her dress but after careful consideration and knowing what a pain it will be in the future to turn everything into cloth I decided to leave the flaps off.  I will be making tiny tweaks to the model either adding or modify existing geo in order to make the character fit the world that she is from and I will be posting my progress as I go.

Check out this AWESOME reference site for Maya users

So once again I am back to work on my new film and I have been looking for new ways to improve my techniques with texturing /shading, lighting, etc. So after about an hour of digging around on the web I found this collection of links and information that someone has put together. Everything from animation to shader writing with Renderman can be found on this site.

http://www.tokeru.com/t/bin/view/Maya

If you are having a hard time figuring something out or even if you are looking for something new this site should be able to lead you in the right direction.  Look to the left of the screen and under the heading TOPICS you can find all you need.

Cold Country

Won an

Platinum Pixie Award!!!!

Months ago a close friend of mine Mark Simon, the owner of Fizz City Films here in the Atlanta, submitted our little film into the Pixie Awards. Time passed and I had completely forgotten about it until this morning when I received an email from Mark with the exciting news. WE WON!!! Travis and I were awarded the highest honor for Cold Country by receiving a Platinum Pixie for our work. 

I will be getting more information on everything this week and I will defiantly be posting a picture of the award itself so stay tune! I just couldn't wait to share the good news!!

This is what the award looks like but instead of Gold ours will be Platinum 

Come see
Cold Country
and other amazing films at
ASIFA ATLANTA
(ASIFA) Atlanta - Association Internationale du Film d’Animation 

Local Animation, International Exchange
 

Travis and I will be speaking on a panel about the film along with other amazing animators.

After which the showing of the International Animation DVD will be featured!
Come see all the fantastic animated films that were selected from other countries to be show here in the US as our film COLD COUNTRY represents the south east region overseas!!!!

 

Finished!!

I could sit here and pick at this painting for hours but I think it is finished. I wasn't setting out to do a high detailed painting or anything, just something that I could do to practice working in photoshop.  This image took me a total of 8 hours to do. I worked on it for about 2-3 hours a night for the past few nights before bed just so that I could do something with my day besides 3D work. I am pretty please with the results.

Cooper (my dog) likes the fact that he is now immortalized in a painting..... I think it is getting to his head

Anyways, its late and I am finished for the day.

Progress Update

I still have a little bit more to go but here is what I have done so far. My only fear is that I am painting on a brighter screen and the colors are off but I will fix that near the end of the painting.

New Project

So like all pet owners I have a great love for the animal that I share my life with.  SO I figured what a better way to practice my traditional art skills then to paint my dog! haha.  I am going to be posting the progress when I can so stay tuned.

Here is the progress that i have made so far.

Working in 3DS Max

So every since I spoke with Trick 3D and local animation / VSFX company here in Atlanta (who does awesome work btw.... check em out!) I have been working, when I could, in 3DS Max.  I have been a Maya user for years and I hate to say it.... I think I might convert! I was really wanting an excuse to use the Ivy Generator plug in by Thomas Luft and I needed a project to play with in Max. The scene is done with the Mental Ray sun and sky function and the control you have over the sun is so much easier and more user friendly than in Maya. On top of that I love the fact that you can change the exposure and mess with the shadows, midtones, and highlights in max. You can see a small preview of what your doing then when your are happy..... Render that bitch out! So much easier than moving a light..... rendering, raising the intensity.... rendering....blah blah blah. The more I use the program the more I like it, but I believe that Maya will always have a place in my heart considering it was the first 3D program I EVER learned.

And as always, after I rendered the image, I brought it into Photoshop for a little tweaking to finish it off. My screen is a little dark at my house but I think it still turned out pretty well..... hope you like it

Enjoy...

After looking at both images I decided on this one. I added a few rocks under the water just to give it a feel that it was a lake bottom along with a small amount of color correction in photoshop. I didnt want to add to much to the image because I thought that "less is more."

Sometimes in life the simplest of things are the most beautiful.

Work in Progress

So years ago I came across a picture of the reflection of a few blades of grass protruding out of water. It was a simple picture, but the way that it was taken stuck with me. For years I have been a nature photographer hobbist and I thought that I could merry my love for photography and 3D together by recreating that image that has stuck with me for so long.

The only problem is, I have created two different versions of that image and I can't decide on which one I like the best. However the first image is more of what the picture looked like and the second seems to have a little bit more interest to it.

Tell me what you think.....

C3PO

I have been working on this on and off for a while and finally decided to finish it. Mainly because Dragon Con is now over and I was surrounded by Star Wars characters all weekend and I need to work on something Star Wars related... haha

Enjoy!

New Vue Render

Continuing to work in Vue in my spare time and I am finding that I am liking it more and more.

Here is my newest Render....

Animation Insider Interview

Stop by and check out my  interview!

 http://www.animationinsider.com/2012/09/chris-palmer/

 

Updated VUE Render

I wasn't really happy with the last render that I did so I worked on the clouds a little bit more and I think I am happy with it now. After the render was finished I did a few tweaks in both Lightroom and Photoshop just to clean up the image.

Tell me what you think!

Enjoy!

A Room With A VUE

So I have been teaching myself e-on software's VUE 10x-stream lately and I figured that I would post what I have done so far.  As a lot of people know I am big into snowboarding and for the past three years due to school I haven't had the money to go. SO I made this image because I am missing the snow and the feel of the cool breeze on my face as I fly down the side of a frozen mountain.  Also my screen are not color corrected.... which I am working on fixing, and the colors might be a tad off on other screens. But here is my first render out of VUE and stay tuned cause there will be more..... I think I am addicted to this program hahaha

Progress

So here are some images of my progress on my model. They are just a couple of Maya software  renders at the moment.  I still have a few more things to do in Maya and then I am going to take the skull into Zbrush. I have never really used Zbrush before so its going to be fun to figure out all the awesome things I can do with it!

On ward and upward!

So for the past two months I have been fortunate enough to be working with the talented people of Turner Studios in Atlanta GA. We are in between episodes of the childerns show that we working on and I am taking this time to work on a few projects of my own. 

I am going to putting up my works in progress and the finished projects as they come to an end on here so stay tuned!!

For those of you who played Warhammer 40k this is one the Necrons for that table top game. I use to paint these little guys when I was younger and I thought that I would do something like them in 3D. So I did a quick sketch and started modeling.....

Cold Country  
has made it into the 

ASIFA - Atlanta International Animation Day DVD!!

Come see the show and hear Travis and I speak about the film On October the 28th at the Plaza Theater

In 2002, ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation) proclaimed October 28th to be International Animation Day, commemorating the first presentation of projected moving images to an audience. Since then, it has been ASIFA's tradition to exchange DVDs with its chapters all over the world.

ASIFA-Atlanta joined the festivities in 2006. Cold Country will represent ASIFA-Atlanta in the 2012 program, the only ASIFA chapter in America's southeast region. 

This year, ASIFA Atlanta is celebrating International Animation Day on Sunday, October 28th at the Plaza Theatre.

Cold Country 
Interview

Travis and I were interviewed by ATLanimation.com after winning the Audience Choice Award at the Roll Yer Own film festival 2012.  Stop by and check it out!

http://www.atlanimation.com/2012/07/30/animation-spotlight-twenty-questions-for-chris-palmer-and-travis-overstreet/

Check out this awesome up and coming online Magazine!

www.ATLanimation.com

Creator Corey Burkes is putting together a online magazine squarely focusing on the animation talents, small and large, within in the Atlanta and southeast regions. Corey is continuously attempting to connect with all animators in the Greater Atlanta area to give them an extra voice, showcase their work, and express their thoughts on the animation industry from their various perspectives.

Also as an added bonus he is compiling a ever growing list of the local "who's who" in the Atlanta animation community so that artist can connect with each other! 

Cold Country

  is to be featured in the 

Educational Film Market 

in the

14th Hiroshima International Film Festival!!

Travis and I at the 2011 Savannah Film Festival, after seeing Cold Country on the big screen for the first time.

Cold Country
won

Audience Choice Award

At the ASIFA - Atlanta's Roll Your Own Film Festival!!!!

So honored!

Cold Country

Is now making its way around the Film Festival Circuit!!

I am so honored that our little film that took only ten weeks from start to finish has done so well and has reached so many people.  Travis and I could not be more pleased on how everything turned out. I hope to keep everyone up to date on the festivals that it is apart of and any other  news regarding the film. So stay tuned!!!!

Please feel free to check out the film on Vimeo

https://vimeo.com/41591040

Or visit my website www.cgpalmer.net where you can see some to the story boards, concepts and credits

Here is a list of the festivals that Cold Country has been apart of... Hopefully this will continue to grow!!

Roll Your Own

Northwest Animation Festival

Savannah Film Festival 2011

Savannah International Animation Festival 2012

SCAD - Atlantamation 2012

Cold Country was also show in the SCAD ANIMATE 2011 Show in Savannah GA.