Update on Life!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. In my defense, ever since I graduated (June 5th, 2015) from Full Sail, things have been really crazy - all of the time.

I decided to create a post to let every one know what I have been up to these past couple of months!
So, after I graduated I immediately moved back to New Mexico (my hometown) so I could get back on my feet financially, start on some personal projects, and really start to apply to jobs that pertained to my degree. I worked a job at a local cafe for a little over a month to help me out financially (while waiting to land a job with my degree elsewhere). I also babysat my cousins for about three weeks. I spent a lot of time hanging out with my family and just enjoying having a social life again! While in Full Sail, I didn't get much of a social life with all of the homework, crazy class schedules, and trying to squeeze in sleep somewhere in there, so it was great to finally get time to relax and unwind from all the craziness I went through.

While working and having some spare time as well, I also was part of an internship with Theory Animation. This internship was unpaid, remote, and it was pretty laid back for everyone. Our team would meet weekly for our meetings (via Skype) and critique each other's work, get assigned new work during those meetings, and repeat that every week. I learned how to use Blender a little bit while being part of that internship. I also worked on a 2d animation short (that I will post up after this post) for a competition I was a part of, The United Nations Climate Change Project. The 2D animation was roughly about 15 seconds long, and it wasn't of the greatest quality, but I did my best on it with the time I had (about 2 weeks). A few weeks after submitting my work, I found out that I won that portion of the competition, in addition to the portion of the competition that I won the year before that. The last phase of the competition was to be interviewed to see who would win a free trip to France to work with the French Embassies for a week. Three lucky students would be chosen for this trip. My interview seemed to go well and everything had gone great so far in the competition for me, but unfortunately I received the phone call to let me know that I did not win the trip to France.  I was pretty disappointed that I put so much work and effort into the competition and did not make it, but I am happy for the people that DO get to go.

Anyways, I was only home for two short months when I received an email regarding a rigging job. I thought at first it was just a free lance gig or something of that matter. The person and I emailed each other back and forth and soon enough, he wanted to have an interview with me over the phone. The interview went great (even though I was incredibly nervous and hadn't slept in over 24 hours thanks to my graveyard shifts at the cafe). The person I was talking to, DJ, was the technical supervisor for the company "The House of Moves" in Los Angeles, California. They were looking for a junior rigger to join the team temporarily (ending September 30) and it was a paid position. I was SO excited when I found out all of this information and realized how well the interview went. This was on a Monday that I received the phone call and he told me he would let me know the following Monday whether I got the job or not. Well, just three short hours after that phone call, DJ called me back to ask if I could actually start on the following Monday instead! It was so sudden and kind of crazy to pack my stuff up and leave home again, but I was excited to get my career started finally.

I have been working as a junior Rigging Artist at The House of Moves for over a month now and I absolutely love it. The people are so easy to get along with, the atmosphere is inspiring and easy to learn in, and I couldn't be more fortunate to have been chosen for this position - especially right out of college. About a week ago my contract got extended (it was initially supposed to end on September 30th because that was the "trail period" to see if I would get along well with the team or not) and so I will be here for awhile (most likely through the end of the year)! I have learned so much and just continuously keep getting taught new things every day by my coworkers and my boss.  I have tons of free time again, but I spend most of my time focusing on being healthy and getting myself back into the gym. Its one of the best hobbies I have picked up. Even though I am really loving my job, I am having a hard time finding somewhere to live in Cali (currently I'm staying with family members that I hardly know) on my own because everything over here is extremely hard to afford. I also really miss being home, too. It's never easy leaving home and I always miss everyone back home immediately after I leave.

Well, hopefully I will find a small house for myself soon and see where this job takes me. :) Also, I forgot to mention that I am working on a Triple A video game at HOM, but I cannot mention the name of the video game until I get the OK from my boss after it's released. I also get to go home for a week soon too, yay!! I can't wait to see my dogs and family again. Until something else crazy happens or new projects appear, I will talk to you guys later. :)
-Shannon.

Student Rigging Demo Reel: May 28, 2015

The moment is finally here.. my demo reel is done!! For now, at least. This reel will be continuously updated as I learn new things and get better as a character rigging artist. Today is my last day of class at Full Sail, and I have completed the demo reel that I have been working on for the past three months. This reel focuses on character rigging, and I just want to say thank you to the awesome animators and texture artists who helped me with my reel! With that said, enjoy. :) Please leave feedback if you'd like! I deeply appreciate it and all critiques are taken in. Thank you!

Artwork Progression

I went through old pictures of my artwork, and decided to compare my new artwork to my old artwork to see how much progress I have made. Wow, what a difference a few years can make! I really learned how to make things appear to have more depth, and to really push values darker. This is great motivation to me, and I encourage anyone to do this who is an artist! There may be times when you had pieces that you weren't so happy with, but let those downfalls benefit you and let them be the fuel to the fire to your creative spirit! Practice makes perfect, and we all make mistakes in between the victories. Keep working hard, fellow artists. :)

Dinosaur Rig: Motion Test

So this month, I have been working on my dinosaur/creature rig (whichever name you think suits him best!). My favorite part about this rig is his tail as I gave it 3 different systems: IK, FK, and an autoWave. This gives the animator more control over how the tail moves and also gives them more flexibility with the rig. With the autoWave system, all the animator has to do is adjust the attributes for the speed, amplitude and delay of the joints and press play. If they want more overlap, they can adjust each individual joints speed, delay and amplitude. This will really come in handy for various animation scenarios.

Here's the motion test I created for the dinosaur rig. Critiques are always welcome! Let me know what you think. :) Also, my reel will be finished in about a week, so stay tuned!  You can check out my current progress on my reel at my website: www.shannongilmorecgwork.com. Thank you in advance!
http://youtu.be/0O8aEycDCOo

"The McCutcheon's" Traditional Piece

Here is a finished piece I did as a wedding gift for my best friend and his soon-to-be wife. Its 18x24 inches in size, and it's all in graphite pencil. Prisma color pencils were used for the colored numbers. The reason the numbers are the only thing colored in the picture is because that is the day they are getting married (May 22nd), as well as his real motocross racing number. I also added in a progression photo of the drawing so that everyone can kind of get to see what my "drawing process" is. Let me know what you guys think! If you have any questions or concerns, just shoot me an email at shannon2171995@gmail.com smile emoticon I'll be posting this on my website as well as part of my portfolio: www.shannongilmorecgwork.com. 
Thank you in advance!

"The McCutcheon's" Progression

 "The McCutcheon's" Final Piece

PCC3: Creature Rig

As I have completed the first week of my PCC3 class - the last class in my program at Full Sail - I am almost completely finished with my creature rig! I plan on finishing it up this weekend, creating a motion test for it, and passing it off to my animators for my demo reel. :) I also will be adding my mechanical robot rig to my demo reel as well. I have a very talented animator working on that rig as well! Stay tuned as I wrap up my first student demo reel. :)

PCC2 Final Shot - Small Dragon Rig

This final shot was created for my PCC2 as part of my demo reel. The animations might be expanded on and other minor things may be changed  on this shot over time. However, I am happy with how it come out overall and can't wait to see what my final demo reel will look like. :) Enjoy!
As always, thanks for your time!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9uPS-xDKsE&spfreload=10

Small Dragon Animation: Test #1

As I wrapped up my PCC2 class today, I finally was able to render out the animation for my small dragon rig! smile emoticon This is more of a test render, as I plan to expand on the animation some more throughout next month and fix a few other minor things. Thanks to my awesome animators for all their help while I focused on the rig! Check it out and let me know what you think! http://youtu.be/WFVBqK5rCsI

Small Dragon Rig: Motion Test

Here's the link for a motion test for my dragon rig so you guys can see more of the rig, instead of just poses :) I will be posting up the animation for it in about a week or so once it is finished. The model was created by Kyle Havrilesko, and the textures were created by Shane King.  Let me know what you guys think and if you have any questions! Thank you for your time and interest. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6GGAA-4aaE&spfreload=10

Dragon Rig Poses

This week I submitted my small dragon rig! I am happy with it overall. If I was given more time to work on it, I would've really added more to it improve it even more. I know that I need to add some blend shapes to it for some better deformations in certain areas, and I will add to it continuously to make it better over time. This dragon rig really gave me a lot of technical hurdles to overcome, as well as issues with the model itself. I learned A LOT while working on this model and I cannot wait to see how much more I improve as I continuously create new rigs in the near future.

Today I posed my dragon rig just to show him off a little bit. As said before, I need to add some blend shapes in certain areas for better deformations, but this is what he looks like right now. Also, I have an animator creating a short animation for him as we speak so I will be able to post that up soon. I can't wait!
Thank you for your interest and time!

Small Dragon Update: Fleshy Eyes

My small dragon rig is coming along nicely! Today I have been setting up facial controls and blend shapes for the facial rig. Here is a some tests for the fleshy eyes. :) The first video is the very first test I did for the fleshy eyes, and the second one is what I decided looked better as it tugs less of the skin around the eye and more of just the eyelids. The rig will be complete by this Thursday so I will be creating a motion test for the entire rig soon when it is more polished up and complete. Critiques are welcome and encouraged, as always. Thank you!

First test:

Current end result: 

Foot Squash Test

Here's another cool little thing I did for my dragon rig! I added in a squash to the feet so that when it's animated, it can show the characters weight and I feel it is very  suitable to the character, as he a little bit chubby anyways. I'll get a motion test of the entire character done tonight to share with you guys! Thanks. :)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kTghjusR-8&spfreload=10

PCC2: Small Dragon Rig Update

This past week I have been working nonstop on my Small Dragon rig! I am feeling confident about it being on my demo reel. Last night, I mainly focused on doing final touches on the rig - SDK's, hiding attributes that don't need to be there, and also adding nCloth to the dragon's wings. I have created two test videos of the wings and how they interact with the character. This is my first attempt at nCloth wings, so critiques are welcome and highly encouraged. Changes will continuously be made to this rig during this month to improve it, and I already have some animators lined up for this character for my demo reel presentation of the rig. Later on, I will post a motion test of my dragon rig. There are still some issues with it that need to be fixed, but I plan on troubleshooting those problems today and then getting started on it's facial rig immediately afterward.

I am very excited to see the turnout of this project. :) Thank you for your time and interest! 

Update on Demo Reel

Hi guys!

So, if you are interested in checking out the first part of my demo reel go to www.ShannonGilmoreCGWork.com. I plan to edit it and fix up the asset at the end of this month. Right now, I am working towards completing my second asset for my reel - a dragon rig.
I should have it's basic rig completed by the end of this week and I will post up a short motion test video. Stay tuned!

Thank you for your time. :)

Demo Reel Update

My demo reel is still most definitely a work in progress! However, I do have part of it posted. I plan on fixing up this project some more this month by fixing some of the weights and topological issues on the model. This week, I started PCC2 so I am now starting the second asset for my reel. You can check out my reel at: www.ShannonGilmoreCGWork.com.

I will do my best to keep you all updated on my progress as I go along. Thank you for your time!

WEBSITE UPDATE: Domain Name

For some reason, my previously domain name got cancelled which resulted in me having to change my domain name. Fortunately, the change is minor. Previously my website was: www.ShannonGilmoreCGWorks.com, but now the correct website domain is: www.ShannonGilmoreCGWork.com. The "s" was just simply taken off of "works". I apologize if this has created any inconveniences for anyone.

The first part of my demo reel will be posted up on my website by Sunday night (March 29th), which will be featuring my female rig that I have been working on this month. Please check it out! Thank you for your time and interest.

Update: Female Rig - Final Submission

As of tonight (March 22, 2015), I have completed the Female Rig I have been working on! I will be posting up a link my demo reel soon once I have gotten this character animated, and if I have time, I will also post up a video of a test of the facial rig. :) Stay tuned!! I am very excited to have completed my first month of finals at Full Sail, and cannot wait to see what my final demo reel will look like!

Progress Update: Female Rig - Facial Rig Portion

Hey guys! Here is a little update of the facial rig portion of my project (click the link below).
All critiques are highly encouraged and appreciated!

I created my blend shapes and set up the joint-based facial rig. Also, I added in a slight eye tug (or "fleshy eyes") on the skin around the eyes. Obviously, I still need to work on some of the weight painting and correct the blinks with some in-between blend shapes and correcting my weights some more. This week, I will create the GUI for the facial movements that will be placed right next to the head. I will also create attributes on the head control icon that will also be usable for the facial movements. I am creating two control systems (GUI and the attributes) so that it will easy for the animator to choose their preference and feel comfortable with the rig.

I will post up a better motion test soon, I just wanted to update what I am working on as soon as I could. Thank you for your time!

http://youtu.be/jORKp6GWz8U

Milestone 2: Progress Update (Female Rig)

Here a progress update of the rig I am currently working on! I was having some binding (skinning) issues at first, and I need to fix her bikini top as it does not deform correctly with the torso of the body when the spine is rotated. Also, I am going to be adding in some helper joints to the knees and elbows today for better deformations. This week, I mainly focused on adding in various attributes to the feet, toes, and fingers. There are FK controls as well as attributes so that the animator will feel comfortable with the rig, whatever their preference may be.

Now, I can get started on the facial rig! I will be using a mixture of blend shapes and joints placed directly on the face. The blend shapes will be driven by a icon GUI placed right next to the head of the character, and the joints will be driven by icons directly on the face. There will be a feature within the GUI to control the visibility of the icons on the face for the animators. Hope you all enjoy!! I can't wait to finish this rig and get it animated for my demo reel that will be located atwww.shannongilmorecgworks.com smile emoticon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCrWnTLZ0f0

Milestone 1: Progress Update

I have officially began the first part of my demo reel! Yesterday (March 2nd) I began my PCC1 class where I will be rigging the female model that I had previously talked about. The first milestone for this project is due on Thursday (March 5). This milestone is just to update my teacher about where I am on this project and how far I have progressed in the past week.

As of right now, I have created all of the control icons and put them in their respective places, created the hierarchy for the joint systems, constrained the icons to their respective joints, created an IKFK switch for both of the arms (using SDK), and created a visibility swap attribute (using SDK) for both "FK Fingers" and "FK Toes". Tomorrow, I plan to create all of the attributes for the fingers on the hand control, and all of the toe attributes for the toes on the foot control - all using SDK. Doing this method of including attributes as well as FK controls give animator more freedom with what kind of system they are most comfortable with, and I find that extremely important to always keep the animator in mind.

After adding the attributes to the hands and feet, I plan to bind the mesh to it's skeleton and once that is done, I will tackle the facial rig! I am very enthusiastic about this project and cannot wait to show you all of my hard work! Thank you for your time and interest.

Current Status of the Rig:
(The FK controls are currently turned off for the fingers and toes. The IK control is currently turned off for the arms as well. The control is placed right around the wrists when shown.)

Approaching PCC1: Female Rig

PFP (Portfolio Pre-Production) classes ended yesterday! Starting on Monday, I will be diving into my PCC1 project - the Female Rig. Over the weekend, I will be correcting some critiques on the rig (minor joint placement issues, setting up a more advanced facial rig such as the locators, joints and their controls) so that I am completely prepared to tackle this rig. I also plan to get started on it so I have a slight head start into this month, just incase of any potential troubleshooting errors arising later on - I will have extra time to take care of those issues!

We are allotted about two and a half - three weeks to complete the rig, and then the last week of class we will be creating a small demo to place within our demo reel for graduation. I can't wait to get started! Also, I will be posting up progress updates on it each week. Stay tuned!

Contact Information Update

Hi guys! I have some important news for those of you who need to/would like to contact me, or would like to check out my work through these last three months at Full Sail.
I have created my official business cards that I will get printed out very soon!
Also, I have created a professional website and changed my email from Hotmail to Gmail!

My website: www.shannongilmorecgwork.com
My gmail account: shannon2171995@gmail.com

My hotmail account is still active (shannon_2171995@hotmail.com) but I am slowly moving all of my information over to my gmail account. So if you need to contact me, please send me an email to my gmail account. Thank you all!

Solo Head Rig: Update

At last, I have finally got back to the solo head rig! This rig is primarily just aimed for me to use as a "practice" head rig, so I could experience a lot of trial-and-error, and decide which techniques work best for the rig, and which ones do not. This was my first attempt at an advanced facial rig, so I did encounter more than a handful of mistakes. Below I have posted a video of how I went about creating the joints on the face so that the joints will also follow along with the blend shapes that were created for the model (excuse the mistake I made of constraining the control icon to the locator, instead of the control icons offset group! I corrected myself afterwards). I only demonstrated one joint placement because as you can see, it takes some time. I am thinking about creating a script for this process so that it will be much quicker and easier for me on future facial rigs (I will keep you updated on this script). 

As you can see, the blend shapes are driven by icons in front of the face. As I said before, this has been a real learning experience for me so, now I realize now that I should create a GUI system on the side of the face so that it does not create so much clutter in front of the face. Also, I will create much more visible control icons that move the joints around so that it is much easier for the animator. I plan to create a visibility swap for these controls within the GUI system so they have the option to hide them or not.

I learned this technique from the Jeremy Ernst method: (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1600901/jeremy_ernst_fastandefficietfacialrigging.pdf).
The geometry that the blend shapes were created from is what I call the "cage" of the face. Its just a duplicate (or low poly model of the face, if available to you) of the mesh in which the blend shapes were created, and the rivets, locators, joint, and joint controller are all placed upon. Once all of that is created, you will then bind the joint to the Original mesh (the actual character mesh that you are using). This process helps avoid double constraints and allows for the joints to follow along for the ride with the blend shapes. Thank you for your time and interest in my work, and I am excited to learn even more about creating facial rigs through different techniques!

Demo Reel Assets (PFP)

So, as I explained earlier - this month for school, we are allotted time to prepare, research, and choose our assets for our demo reels that we will have created by graduation. I have chosen 3 character models that highly interested me and plan to approach each one differently. One model will be completed each month (March-May). The first month I will have PCC1, then PCC2, and then PCC3 for my last month. Here are my models! Can't wait to get started on them and keep you all updated on their progress! Thank you. :)

Female Model (PCC1)


"Lil Dragon" by Kyle Harvilesko (PCC2)




Creature (PCC3)

Update on Current Events

I just wanted to give you all a small update of what I have currently been up to!

As for the facial rig that I had been previously working on, I am still working on that outside of school. I am working out some kinks - deciding how I want to set up the interface controls, understanding how a facial works better, and finishing up the facial joint system. Just FYI - this model is not going on my demo reel, this is just simply a model I am using so that I can learn how to go about the facial rig system with different techniques by going through a lot of trial and error. More updates to come on that soon.

In school, I have been working on creating a personalized business card, website, and creating pre-pro for the last three months at Full Sail. The business card will be done by next Friday. The website will be up shorting following the business card. The pre-pro for the projects that will be created during the next three months are for rigs I plan to create. Each rig is unique with their own challenges. I am conducting research on each model on how to create the rig in an efficient manner, research on anatomy and skeletal structures that are similar to the model, a plan on how I intend to tackle the rig, and research on new rigging/scripting techniques.

I will post up progress updates of each model frequently. Thank you for your time and attention!

Facial Rig: Trouble Shooting Occurrence

Over the weekend, I planned to have my rig finished by Sunday. However, I ran into some issues that I was unsure of how to trouble shoot. After conducting research and seeking my instructor for some guidance, I figured out what the issue was and was  able to solve it. Even though this issue may seem minor to others, or just something that I should have already known about, I am still in the process of learning through trial and error so that I can increase my technical art abilities and problem solving skills for future, more complex projects.

Problem: The issue that I was running into was when I was trying to create a point-to-poly constraint from a vertex to a locator. My process: click on the vertex, command-click the locator, and then create a point-to-poly constraint with the Maintain Offset off. When I performed this operation, the locator was not constraining to the selected vertex, but instead was constrained to a random vertex on the head.

Solution: After conducting some research, I realized that the UV map of the mesh makes a really big difference when constraining to the mesh. Once I looked at the UV map, the UV's were not mapped out properly (or at all). Most of the UV's were lying on top of one another and were not unfolded. From there, I had to re-map the head mesh entirely for a more proper layout. Once the mesh's were re-mapped, the point-to-poly constraint worked perfectly.

Update: Facial Rig

This week I have been working on the blend shapes for my facial rig! I plan to have the first version of it completed by Sunday. As always, critiques are highly encouraged and very much appreciated, so please just let me know what you think! Thank you all for help and encouragement! :)

Robot Rig Update

I decided to edit my Robot Rig by taking out the clavicle control and IK Handle all together. In agreement to the critiques I received on it, the clavicles ruined the illusion of it being a mechanical character, so it seemed best to just do away with it. Here is a short motion test to show how the rig moves now. The rig was pretty excited about the change, so he decided to give you guys a little wave at the end of the video! Anyways, feel free to critique the rig. All critiques are highly encouraged and very much appreciated. Thank you. :) 

Facial Rig: Work in Progress #1

Currently I am working on a facial rig. The model is just of a simple head mesh. All that is created right now is the head, jaw, eye ball, and eye lid joints. The joints are not bound to the mesh yet as I still have to create joints on the face for extra, settle movements for the animator to take advantage of. I created the joints for the eyelids by using the "fan" method. There are three joints chains for the top eyelid, and three joint chains for the bottom eyelids as well. Using expressions, I have made it to where the eyelids correspond to the movements of the eyeball. Example: if the eyeballs look down, the top eyelids will follow the eyeball down, and the bottom eyelids will go down as well. If the eyeball looks up, the top eyelids will go up, as well as the bottom eyelids, etc.

Once I have finished creating blend shapes, the controls for the blend shapes, the joints on specific parts of the face, and am ready to start binding the skin to the joints, I will also add in a "skin tug" around the eye by adding in a very low influence paint weight on the vertices that are located immediately around the eyeball, to create a more realistic look. I plan to create joints for the ears to create settle movements of the ears moving up and down, so the character can be more expressive.

I have attached photos of what my project current looks like. Once I am able to bind the skin, I will post up a motion test video. Thank you for your time and interest! I am excited to see how this rig turns out.

Robot Rig Finished

Today I finished a rig that I have been working on for the past week and a half. Since the model is of a robot, I wanted to make the rig fairly simple but to the point so that it has the functionalities that it needs. I created an IKFK switch for the arms, and a visibility swap for the IK and FK controls as well so it makes it easier for the animator to deal with. The clavicles were created with IK handles (single chain) so that the animator can create more achievable movements with the character. The legs are IK and I created the switch-foot system for the feet so there would also be more achievable and realistic movements for the feet, as well. At last, I created a variety of attributes for the hands using the SDK method. Each finger is able to curl and spread on its own, I created a thumb drop for a more realistic thumb, and there are also attributes for the entire hand such as a "fist" and "spread" so that all of the fingers move at the same time.

As every rigging artist deals with, I encountered several problems with the rig as I was creating it. I was making some minor, amateur mistakes such as using the wrong kind of constraints, having things parented in the wrong places, constraining the wrong things, etc. I was also running into rotation issues with the arm systems when I constrained the Pole Vector control to the it's IKhandle. Once I redrew my joints, double checking to make sure that my arms were planar with a slight bend in the arm systems, I was able to correct my mistake. Now that I have completed the rig, I was able to learn from my mistakes and I feel a lot more confident about my rigging skills now.

The only script used on this rig was a padding script for the joints just for the sake of saving me some time. Other than that, everything was created manually. There is not a face on this model, so I did not have to worry about doing a facial rig or blend shapes for this model. I am highly encouraging critiques on this rig and appreciate them as well! I feel like it is at a finished point, but there is ALWAYS room for improvement so I would love to hear from other fellow riggers and make any improvements to it that are needed. Thank you, in advance!

Animation Production: Final Movie

Last month, my team and I (five people total) collaborated to create an animated short about a clumsy male rescuing his damsel in distress who is tied up in a room. As previously posted, I animated shots three and 11 while my team animated the other parts of the movie. For the final movie, we added in a few sound effects as well as background music to enhance the movie a little bit. This movie is not a fully rendered out scene, we just created a play blast from the Maya scene.

We had a lot of fun with project and are all pleased with the turnout of our final project. I hope you enjoy it as well!