Digital Rebel Academy

Amazing new video - Brave "The Prize"

2012-02-23T03:23:00.000-08:00

Amazing 3D character girl reference. Look very well the detailed main character of this film.
This is how a well done girl character gets your attention.

Curso de Personajes 3D cartoon para animación. Aviso: Nuevo horario fin de semana.

2012-02-23T02:43:00.001-08:00

Próximo Reportaje a Grangel Studio.

2012-02-22T10:16:00.000-08:00

Nuestros amigos de Arte y animación van a ofrecer un fabuloso reportaje con entrevista a Grangel Studio.
Estar atentos y no os lo perdais. Gracias a Christian Dan por compartirlo en su magnífico blog. Aquí el avance en forma de trailer que han publicado.

Frame a Frame: Grangel Studio - TRAILER from Christian Dan on Vimeo.

Prime The Definitive Digital Art collection

2012-02-21T04:29:00.000-08:00

5 High quality books of digital art in 1 slipcase. The good news is that it includes a CARTOON category. So publish your images here.

http://www.3dtotalpublishing.com/prime/prime_submit.php

A Monster in Paris. A nice song by "M"

2012-02-20T14:42:00.000-08:00

Un monstre a paris - La chanson du monstre **HD** por MonsieurHD

La Luna short film from Enrico Casarosa

2012-02-16T07:07:00.000-08:00

30 seconds more of La Luna. I love this little big film!

New modeling system Zpheres for max

2012-02-14T02:34:00.002-08:00

In this online article of 3D World magazine you will find the complete story about this plugin experiment. Very interesting tool! http://www.3dworldmag.com/2012/02/13/zspheres-modelling-system-for-3ds-max/

The Lorax six new videos on youtube.

2012-02-13T02:45:00.000-08:00

Enjoy this six new little videos about The Lorax on youtube.

The Lorax and the animals surprise the Once-Ier at his house.

The Once-Ier discovers the Truffla forest.

The Lorax explains the card game to the Once-Ier.

The Lorax revives the Once-Ier by the river.

Grammy tricks Mom so she can tell Ted about the Once-ler.

The Lorax - Ted shows Audrey the Truffula seed.

CURSO 3D Cartoons para animación.

2012-02-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

Curso presencial en Barcelona. Aprende a crear personajes 3D cartoon para animación.
Abierto periodo de inscripción. Comparte el enlace de abajo en facebook, se sortea una plaza gratuïta. Daos prisa las plazas son limitadas!

Beautiful art of Brave's Disney/Pixar

2012-02-07T03:41:00.000-08:00

Captain Proton realtime

2012-02-07T03:34:00.000-08:00

Rotate, zoom, and move Captain Proton model in realtime without plugins. Just the browser.

http://p3d.in/sLGCj

Making of Captain Proton

2012-02-07T00:50:00.000-08:00

Making of Captain Proton. Artículo "como se hizo" Captain Proton en 3DTotal.

3DTotal has published an article I did about my last character done in Blender.
You can see step by step.

> Link

Kung Fu Panda 2 director Jennifer Yuh Nelson

2012-01-31T08:54:00.000-08:00

Kung Fu Panda 2 director Jennifer Yuh Nelson. Very interesting interview.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Complete shortfilm

2012-01-25T03:21:00.000-08:00

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

This is the full lenght short film.

Figure drawing reference

2012-01-24T03:21:00.000-08:00

A good resource for figure drawing. But also for 3d character landmarks. I hope you find it useful. Thanks to the author Josh Reed for sharing his work.

Drawsh

Alien Pinup

2012-01-11T10:36:00.000-08:00

Alien pinup revisited. I hope you like it.

Sandro Cleuzo

2012-01-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

Sandro Cleuzo Character design reel.

Sandro Cleuzo Design reel from Sandro Cleuzo on Vimeo.

Captain Proton!

2012-01-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! These days a lot of things has changed. We've an entire new year to achieve new goals. I want to share my experience in 3d cartoons with young students and people interested about character design.
This lil alien is one of a 3d toon character series.
I was listening star trek voyager where appears Captain Proton and the super evil Caotica...
Testing open software for cartoon. It means Blender, Gimp and Mypaint.

I modeled the character with traditional polygon and box modeling techniques.
Textures where painted with the 3d paint tools in Blender.
I gave expresion and posed the character with the sculpt tools in Blender.
Composition in the Blender node editor and few small final touches in Gimp.

Share The Joy

2011-12-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

A Christmas animation short film. "Share the Joy", from Shed MTL

The Last Train Making of

2011-12-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

"Giant Creative". Interesting info about how they made their short film "The last Train"
Again you'll see nice toons here. Enjoy the little video.

The Artists

2011-12-22T08:16:00.000-08:00

I want to share this little film. Nice Cartoon story telling. Very simple but effective and nice designs also.
Thanks to Giant Creative for sharing this with other works on vimeo.

Fantasia. Disney 1940 Completa, free.

2011-12-19T03:37:00.000-08:00

La película Fantasía de Disney (1940) Entera en youtube. Disfrutadla con los crios.
The film Fantasia. Enjoy it with your kids.

Glen Keane about Rapunzel

2011-12-14T04:07:00.000-08:00

Glen Keane talks about the creation of Rapunzel.

Claire Keane and her Rapunzel mural. Dad has to be proud of his brilliant artist daughter!

Sergio Pablos part 1 of 3

2011-12-14T02:11:00.000-08:00

An interesting interview series with Sergio Pablos. He's a very good profesional in the character design and animation industry. Thanks to Jamaal Bradley for sharing this on vimeo.

New Todd Oldham book about Alexander Girard

2011-12-14T01:50:00.000-08:00

In the Stephen Silver course I learned to see not only look at shapes, variantion and contrast on others designs. I didn't understand artists such as Alexander Girard, Charley Harper or Lou Romano before. Now I like their works because I understand the importance of shapes variation and contrast in their designs. Maybe it's not my favorite style of work but Alexander Girard has a lot of other interesting elements in his characters to discover.

New trailer ParaNorman

2011-12-13T01:53:00.000-08:00

Don't miss this film. Nice cartoon there.

Cowboy is going to be the one!

2011-12-11T04:53:00.000-08:00

Well, we've few votes but everything looks like the poll about the next character timelapsed video is going for the old cowboy.
I'm doing a lot of experimentation with the opensource software. I've years of experience with 3dsmax. I've 3dsmax 2012 license so I've tested all the last improvements. I can say that Blender has strong enough 3d tools to do what a character designer needs. It's an "all in one" crossplatform program (Win, Linux, Mac).
In of more or less 130Mb (the download file is even small) you have even more things than in the Autodesk package. Like the digital sculpt tools.

I'm going to share with you in "CC by" some .blend files that is the Blender format (you can export to obj always to import in any other soft) so...

Visit the website and download it> Blender.

Despicable Me concept designs

2011-12-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

Amazing characters art of Despicable Me.

http://livlily.blogspot.com/2011/11/despicable-me-2010-character-design.html

Andrea Balsich

2011-12-02T04:17:00.000-08:00

Andrea Balsich is a great sculptor. Here's his blog with nice cartoon references for 3d cartoon on it. Next time I will show you some videos of how to start with 3d models for cartoon animation. Enjoy Balsich:

http://ablasich.blogspot.com

Traditional animation for digital magazine

2011-12-01T01:48:00.000-08:00

There's some nice character designs.

A Tribute to Satoshi Kon

2011-12-01T01:30:00.000-08:00

In memory of Satoshi Kon, master of animated dreams who untimely passed away on August 24, 2010, an exhibition of tribute drawings made by french artists. See some examples more here.

Tangled - Visual Development: Color Keys

2011-11-30T06:12:00.000-08:00

Very interesting art reference and a lot of material.

http://livlily.blogspot.com/2011/11/tangled-2010-visual-development-color.html

Team Loro Short Film

2011-11-30T02:01:00.000-08:00

Hi, I just finished my schoolism course with the nice artist Stephen Silver. It has been a lot of work and a lot of fun. I'm preparing a new site where you will see how to develope cartoons in 3d. I decided to wait until I finish. Strong things has changed in my mind about character design due to my experience in the course. So keep in touch!

In the meantime I want to share this that I found in the Pedro Conti's blog. Nice character cartoon designs, render and animation in this shortfilm.

"La seine" (Extrait du film "Un monstre à Paris")

2011-11-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

I hope you love Vanessa and "M" voice. I love to listen it again and again, and again... Please more movies like this!

Pixar's Brave new trailer

2011-11-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

Dynamesh features from Zbrush and more.

2011-11-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

More great cartoon sculptures. This time videos from Max Ulichney.

Fish Monster timelapsed video

2011-11-16T13:56:00.000-08:00

Another great video from Frederik Storm

Timelapsed modeling 3D cartoons

2011-11-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

Hi, a lot of time without updates. I've been very busy with Stephen Silver course and other things. I hope you like this new posts.

I post a new serie of cartoon timelapsed videos. These are very good references to introduce you the digital sculpture for cartoon characters.

Frederick Storm

Subdivision surfaces, modeling characters, explanation and refs.

2011-10-12T03:27:00.000-07:00

Some urls where you will find the best refs and explanations. It will help you to get the fundamentals from basic to the pro.

The polygon, explained.video.
http://vimeo.com/2158374

What subdivision surfaces is. Explanation video.
http://vimeo.com/2650080

Subdivision polygon artifacts. (Distortion and pinch trouble) Solutions and technique (very good).video.
http://vimeo.com/2158706

Subdivision surfaces and modeling technique explained. web.
http://www.blendernewbies.com/tools/subdivisionmodeling/subd_PRIMER/page1.html

Topology edge ring flow. web.
http://gotwires.blogspot.com/2011/09/video-tutorials-topology-edge-ring-flow.html

Examples:

Modeling example. Jafar part1. video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NdwMNNrVod8

Modeling example. Jafar part2. video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3uNaQeLA1ZU

Modeling hair, mouth and teeth for cartoon. timelapsed fast from Daniel Williams.video.
http://vimeo.com/5622787

Use of topology

2011-09-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

See here a nice example of 3d cartoon characters topology. These are examples from "Meet the Robinsons". See how the same geometry arranged in other way can produce the different characters. The edge loops are the same.

You will find some poles examples in blue. These vertex with more than 4 edges connected has to be placed where don't affect the animation too much.

Poles deform with some kind of pinch effect. Try to avoid them in places with deformations when you animate.

More 3D Topology for animation

2011-09-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

I want to share this video about topology for animation. It's in Blender again but it's not important the software. Thanks to Angela Guenette for sharing this free on youtube.

StarCrab

2011-09-19T02:08:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the second class in the Character Design course. As soon as I've news and a review of the assignment I will post the comments here. In the meantime.... "StarCrab" a mutant hero with a crab arm. Maybe he can fall in love with the Alien Queen. We could have a nice space cowboys adventure.

Alien Queen

2011-09-10T12:52:00.001-07:00

The Alien Queen concept.

Lil Viking concept

2011-09-09T02:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is not from the course but in the meantime I want to share with you this little guy. A viking kid concept I did but never saw the light. Well, I'm working on it so you will see other versions of this theme (Vikings). Next time I hope I can show you some 3d cowboy that is waiting in the pocket.

First Assignment at the Stephen Silver course.

2011-09-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

As I said I'm doing the Schoolism course about Character Design with Mr. Stephen Silver. We just started this monday.
Well, first assignment is for the teacher. So he can evaluate our level and how he can help us to improve individual. I hope that at the end of the course I can show you the evolution of my skills due to the Mr. Silver guide.

The Character description was:

NAME: walter chipwitther

WHO: wealthy entrepreneur

AGE: in his 60's

WHERE: London, 2011

PERSONALITY: jolly, full of laughter, enthusiastic man happy to be alive and well.

CLOTHING: Wears a bow tie, smoking jacket and monocle

LOOK: Heavy set, around 5'6", receding hairline

And this is what I did (He wears a Churchill's bow tie). Comments are welcome.

Head topology.

2011-08-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

I rescue this video to introduce some concepts about poly modeling and head topology. It's a video about edgeloops, poles and more... I hope you find it useful. Thanks again to Jonathan Williamson for sharing this free.
Try to have a smooth base mesh! ;)

Head topology video explanation. 19min 22seg. (english).

Some cartoon head topology examples so you can study them. They worked well for our animations. There's a link to the video animation under each image.

Video animation with this character

Some test animation with this guy

Modeling technique and basic hotkeys

2011-08-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

Here a traditional modeling survival kit. It's a video that explains the poly modeling technique for hardsurfaces. But... All the actions and techniques are the same I will show. Author: Grant Warwick. (Thanks for sharing man!).
He uses 3ds max but you can reproduce the same with other softwares. 90 min. of a complete free tutorial so enjoy and practice before going to organic character.

Modeling technique video.

Depending on software I've different keys. To customize yours It's something basic you should know about your 3d program.

Blender: CTRL+ALT+U show the customize interface menu.

3dsmax: in the Menu Bar: Customize > Customize User Interface.

The hotkeys I use for modeling with vertex, edges and faces for main actions in 3dsmax:

Loop selection for vertex, edge, face. SHIFT+LEFT CLICK
Ring selection for vertex, edge, face. SHIFT+LEFT CLICK
(over next edge in the ring direction).
Extrusion for Edge or Face. SHIFT+E
Connect (for edge, vertex the same). V (I choose V by default V is assigned to views menu).
Target Weld for vertex. Q.
Move, Rotate, Scale. W,E,R
Xray view. ALT+X
Isolate. ALT+Q
Soft Selection. CTRL+ALT+Q. (Also assing a hotkey for increase or low the soft selection range CRTL+ALT+MIDDLE CLICK and moving the mouse from left to right does the action for me).
Bridge (for edges). B
Weld vertex. F
Fill face or Cap a hole in 3dsmax. C
Toggle end result on/off. (You use a subdivision modifier to see your work smooth so you will need a key or button to toggle this on/off easy).

Depending on the software you'll have tools more confortable than others and sometimes you've more than one way to do the same action.

For example: in 3dsmax "Target Weld" the last vertex you choose is the weld position for two vertex.

In Blender you can choose at which position weld the vertex (First, middle or Last) Also you can use the snap tool and automatically weld vertex dragging one to other.

In the next post I will show the main parts of the previous character concept. First of all pay attention to the construction. I maintain volume following the edge loops that I draw over the character sketch.I arrange the geometry and give enough density to it in the right place so it can deform well in animation. I go in depth with details on face and body parts.

3D with appeal

2011-08-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

Before you start following the 3d model creation. I recommend to see these videos. It will help you to understand the concept "appeal" in 3d. Don't worry about the software.

Appeal part 1

Appeal part 2

About appeal in other example

3D cartoon for animation - Old cowboy concept.

2011-08-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

This is the 2D concept I will use to transform into a 3D cartoon model.

Next step I will talk about the technique and I will starting the 3D model.

Feel free to follow the process and ask in spanish or english.

3D cartoon creation starts today!

2011-08-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hi! Today I start showing how to create 3d cartoon characters for animation or illustration. It's a personal project to warm up before I start a cartoon design course with Stephen Silver. That I will follow here in September. Comments are more than welcome and I will answer any question.

This is the concept to start working. An old cowboy.

Here's a profile design...

...and some photo reference to start with the idea.

I will upload a 3/4 view and a full body design ref also.

I work with 3dsmax to create the 3D character but the technique can be followed with any 3d software.
I recommend the open software Blender it's free and a very good tool.

This is what I will show:

Modeling
-Shortkeys and technique.
-Head modeling and topology.
-Body modeling and topology.
-Modeling complements, as cloth or hard surface objects.

UVS, Textures.
-How to map a character and its objects.
-How to avoid texture distortion with check maps.
-How to paint skin for face texture from scratch.

Lighting and rendering.
-Shaders with basic light studio render.

Hair.
-How to create realistic hair in 3D.

I hope you enjoy following the updates and maybe learn something interesting.
Let's go!

Unlimited detail in 3D real time rendering.

2011-08-03T01:22:00.000-07:00

I found this video in this article about point cloud rendering. It's not about 2d/3d art but it will change things in the future for everybody working with digital graphics. Hope you like it.

Eternal voyager

2011-07-30T02:07:00.000-07:00

Something very different from last concept. A classic deep space sci-fi theme. An astronaut traveling in space for eternity. Well not for eternity but with time enough to cross the univers... And if he finds a black hole or another kind of strange cosmic phenomenon maybe he could continue his travel across other universes. Yujuuu!

Socks monster

2011-07-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

This is my new friend.

The monster that lives in the laundry basket.

Silver fox

2011-07-18T01:14:00.001-07:00

Aquaboy

2011-07-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

Aquatic little hero sketch of the day.

I wondered how would be this aquatic mutant boy.

Capi

2011-07-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

My cartoon interpretation "Capi".

Now that movie is coming... I remembered my childhood hero.

Ice Spirit

2011-07-06T01:13:00.000-07:00

The ice ghost is a little being that cristalizes water licking it.

He has a perpetual cold.

Le chat du robot

2011-07-05T04:32:00.000-07:00

Original image has big resolution so here an example:

Cat detail capture.

Robot detail capture.

Twitter, facebook, linkedin and the Blog connected!

2011-07-01T06:39:00.000-07:00

Just connected the blog with twitter. So it goes this way. I publish here and the post appears on twitter. It should then appear on Facebook also because Twitter is connected to Facebook.

Blog>Twitter>Facebook.

Anybody nows how it works better? Well this post will show if I've done well or not :)

2011-06-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Countdown to Start an incredible course with Stephen Silver (amazing cartoonist).
If you want to follow my posts about this Schoolism course experience. You only have to subscribe in the blog or add as follower. I will show you (step by step) how I create 3D toons for animation with appeal. I will start with the finished work of the course as reference. But I will start now with other 3d characters before the course so if you want learn how to do amazing 3d cartoon characters, Subscribe now! It's free and 4ever.

Vivatokyo internacional party at Tokyo

2011-06-29T01:29:00.000-07:00

My brother Edu organizes this amazing international party Vivatokyo. Since this kind of international culture is a big influence on my art. I had to publish it! Next party I will be there! For sure! I promise! :P

2011-06-20T03:16:00.001-07:00

Other places to go after Citia Annecyfestival. My short film "Holymonks" has been selected at the "Film Festival della Lessinia".http://www.filmfestivallessinia.it/it/

A little fox.

2011-06-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

A little fox logo design I did time ago.

3 monkey kids for a London KungFu School

2011-06-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

Petrus

2011-05-27T03:07:00.001-07:00

Ninja!

2011-05-27T03:06:00.002-07:00

More lil girls

2011-05-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

Monkey kid

2011-05-27T03:04:00.002-07:00

Viking

2011-05-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

Lin Lin

2011-05-27T03:03:00.002-07:00

Yun

2011-05-27T03:03:00.000-07:00

Mai

2011-05-26T01:57:00.000-07:00

Jaw, the bad guys Boss

2011-05-26T01:44:00.000-07:00

Bad guys cave 2nd

2011-05-25T04:13:00.000-07:00

Bad guys cave new color version

Bambino Ravioli

2011-05-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

2011-05-24T04:57:00.001-07:00

The bad guys cave! (Holymonks concept art)