Working towards my passion for bones, taxidermy, sculpture and CG animation – Reworking the skeletons in my closet

AKA : Using found art as a means to integrate the tactile into the non tactile digital medium.

After a leave of absence from my studies I have decided to return to my original orientation for my masters which is my digital sculpture work.

Examples of my earlier found works (1994- 1995- artwork part of Rights of passage, graphic novel).

By using the tech with the ACID vision imaged based modelling software to drive my goal of sculpting and reworking of found objects in the digital.
I am exploring imagery from my childhood in Zimbabwe- I have always seen bones as beautiful sculptures –I remember visiting friends ranch as 5 or 6 year old and seeing a huge elephant skull on their front lawn and thinking “Wow! Amazing I want one for my room!”
As a child I used to practice taxidermy with my older brother, skinning cane rats, duiker and snake and monitor lizards – I always saw the remains of creatures a great big jigsaw puzzle waiting to be solved.

Everywhere I went as a child in Zimbabwe I saw skeletons and taxidermy in people’s homes – it was a part of my child hood culture- Both my siblings still have skeletons and as their bric a brac and home clutter. It seems to be a part of our heritage of growing up at that time in that place.

Close up detail of deer skull (skull courtesy of Brisbane Museum).

This passion for this aesthetic was also reinforced by HR Geiger’s creature creation in the film Alien- but my work hopefully doesn’t have the same associations – as for me there is a purity of form – almost a landscape to the topology of bones.
I also have an illogical interest for Xeno Taxidermy but without the need for getting into the blood and guts of it so to speak. And there are the health and safety issues- hell let’s admit it - space. I live in a flat with an 8 month old child now, not a big farm where I can bury carcasses and dig them up later for fun jigsaw times.

3DSee

I am working with David McKinnon to integrate the Acid vision/3Dsee application into a computer games studio workflows- demonstrating its potential commercially as well as using it as a practicing digital sculptor/vfx artist. My goal is to further develop/promote the Acid vision software in my field of expertise. Which is character modelling for real time 3D applications, simulators, games and digital sculpture.


I am also using 3DSee to convert my photographs of animal bones from the Brisbane museum to create a model and texture library to create useable (animate-able) 3D props for an animated sculpture /vfx piece, (A sort of software art piece).



This technique of mixing media real and virtual would allow me some creativity in the form of re-manipulating the bones - reconfiguring them making new species – (Digital Xeno taxidermy).
I have been looking at artist and naturalist Sarina Brewer as well as Jan Svankmeyer’s animation work as a source of inspiration for future works.

Prix Ars submission

Its been a long time since I have updated my blog-
I have been working on a less educentric approach to my work - I have veered away from the educational videos back to digital sculpture - aproaching digital sculpture from it use as a virtual archiving tool as in use by 3Dsee and instead using its library of assets (as well as my own) in "found art" aproach- butone in which I can then manipulate and edit.



BirdSkullVideo_Process from Jake Hempson on Vimeo.




Prix Ars submission info from Jake Hempson on Vimeo.

Intro: Key topology areas

Intro: Key areas of deformation. (2mins 34 sec)



Shoulder/Chest Area.(2mins 58 sec)



(Very rough pass video cuts of modeling for deformation- feedback welcomed)
The first vid is an intro to areas to be covered in the full tut series, the second video is a run down on "traditional modeling" techniques for the chest/shoulder area-(to be updated with a more conceptual topology flow video of the funnel crossed with a cape concept).




First pass concept vid of the "Funnel" flow concept in action.

MODELLING FOR ANIMATION OR TOPOLOGY FOR DEFORMATION: SCRIPT

Topology for animation: The human body- the shoulders:

What we will be covering in this chapter - where the important topology lies on the upper body of a person. Specifically the key area of deformation around the shoulder: (Fade in Skeleton+ High res mesh)

What we would like to introduce is the concept of key edges or cuts for deformation which run from under the under the pectoral muscles (label), up over the top of the arm bicep/triceps area (+label as red edge loop appears) and around to the back/scapula area (label). (Camera moves around high level geometry over skeleton, as labels of muscle groups appear….pop…pop)

Why is topology for this area so important? (high level geometry fades out)

The shoulder area has the most extreme movement in both rotation and translation - (fade in Skeleton animation of movement extremes).

The Scapula (label) and Humerus (label) act as a ball and socket joint with 180 degree rotation along the z axis. [FEEDBACK NEEDEDHERE] The scapula (label) which supports the arm can also translate around from the back around the rib cage (Skeleton animation: rolls the scapula to drop the shoulders slumping the chest)

Key concept: A popular solution is to think of a poncho (or cape) dropped

over the shoulders of your mesh. (Camera moves around high level geometry as mid resolution poncho drops over shoulders)

With medium resolution example shown here you can see how the key loops shown in red (T- shirt version of the upper torso now starts to animate to same extremes- camera circles the mesh for +- three extremes of movement).

With careful skinning and no additional bones, this same concept can be applied to lower resolution meshes, which could be used in game. (T- shirt version of the upper torso now starts to animate to same extremes- camera circles the mesh for +- three extremes of movement).

Here the upper torso of the model is simplified to 3 rows only for shoulder

In the next video we will explore the key area of the groin and buttocks which again has large extremes of movement.

Write up new proposal including ACID work – roadmap to exegesis

Concentrate proposal on:

How do I access my impact on the field through these video tutorials- is it robust practice based research

What is innovative about my practice of doing the videos?

- Simplification

- Key principles

- Non software specific.

- Short time period 1 minute to 5 minutes.

I also need to look into education theory-how do I incorporate them into video tutorials/teaching practice and Guerilla CG.

Topology concept- draft video

Meeting Notes: 14.10.07

Notes from my 15 minute meeting with supervisors :

What are my eventual aims and outcomes of the M.A. ?
Is it the process or artifact/artwork that is my aim?

>If it is the process---> Then is this process then going to be a working practice specific for games - as a research question developing a working model for getting sign off on 3D sculpts -iteratively reworking and getting additional feedback from the client-art director- i.e. similar sign off procedure as Lucas arts uses for is 2D concept artists. Where George Lucas will draw or write feedback on the actual prints of the works. Then the concept artists will then implement the feedback and print it out. George will again review and comment - this cycle will continue until George is satisfied.

This sort of process of using Maquettes is used in Film but have yet be used as standard working process in games.
Can I make this a part of my working practice as a games artist?

>If it is the artifact---> Then I need to steer my research into the unknowns of "Fine Arts" (prejudicial) and then the question is why?Then how?

Sharing skills: Video tuts as an offshoot of practice/as practice?
I have started recording my digital learning process using Camtasia (screen grabbing software).
This is part process of sharing work also in part because I am now teaching full time and need to improve my teaching and ergo work flow process and documentation.- also the people that are really well respected and skilled are people that share their knowledge. Since I have come here to Oz I have been sharing what I know through giving talks though organizations such as IGDA . I am going to continue doing that by documenting my process. (thats one of the plans anyway).

Also went to the library yesterday evening and got out some great books on electronic/digital art/science art - One of which I am reading is from the Ars Electronica group (in the list of links) - I will post up any conclusions as and when. (Plus links to books and ISBN numbers).

SILO: Demo play

Just having a bit of a play with SILO - Thinking about buying it-I want to develop my speed modeling and it has loads of other features such as sub-division re-topologising tools e.t.c.

Virtual_Kas(Update)

Sculpt image uploaded- done for now- I am a little disappointed with the end result. I need to move onto something new - took far to long working on this CG sculpt.