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MONDO LUIGI Part 2

OCTOBER 17, 2006
Wendell_1

BEHIND THE SCENES

In my first Mondo Luigi article (4/25/06), I tell how I met Brian Hoard and of our eventual decision to work together on a project. I always have several stories percolating on the back burner, but the Mondo Luigi characters seemed an obvious choice for Brian's Maya 3D approach to animation. I've only done 2D animation using Flash & Toon Boom Studio software. I've also created some hand-drawn, scanned and assembled animations. I thought it would be fun to see my characters puffed up into 3D.

When Brian is ready to begin a scene, I send him a rough storyboard along a couple of finished color renderings of the main characters. I also provide him with a soundtrack (I get to do the music, a real perk!) and a timing breakdown of the action within the scene. From then on, Brian does all the hard work.

I've often wondered how Brian churned my 2D characters into 3D. It seemed magical, a mystery. He'd discuss "rigging" and other terms unique to 3D animation and though I had some vague idea of what he meant, it was nothing concrete. I knew the process was kind of like puppetry but, until I saw the QuickTime movies now available on his site, I had no idea just how labor intensive the 3D construction was. I find it fascinating and technically daunting.

I know there's a ton of stuff begging for your attention here on Drawger (& elsewhere), but if you find an extra couple of minutes, check out Brian's informative QuickTime movies. He's made a page just for us with "Final Movies" (only 2 finished, so far) and "Behind the Scenes", which deals with the process. One of the QuickTime movies "Luigi Breakdown" was done for a talk Brian recently gave to a class of fourth-grade kids. Perfect for me.

Click here to view:
Luigi/BrianHoard
(You may need the latest QuickTime player from Apple - it's free)
Wendell_2
Luigi Rigged
Topical: Animation  
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