The Dan Machine

More Canada Goose WIP

2011-09-30T16:21:00.001-07:00

WIP Canadian Goose Model for Work

2011-09-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

Reviving an old animation to beef up my portfolio

2011-09-26T08:48:00.001-07:00

current office mess

2011-09-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Photoshop Sketch WIP

2011-08-31T23:22:00.001-07:00

Turnarounds for Airport 3D Assets

2011-08-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

Figure Drawing with the LS8OO

2011-08-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

Meh

2011-08-21T21:20:00.001-07:00

Still Getting Used to the LS800

2011-08-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

Pretty Gradients for Sky Domes

2011-08-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

Stuff

2011-08-19T22:06:00.001-07:00

What is this I don't even

2011-08-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

A Couple of Internet-Related Items:

First sketch With LS800

2011-08-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

Figure Sketches

2011-07-12T22:25:00.000-07:00

Herp Derp - I made this based on a Reddit request...

2011-07-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

Dunno What This Is

2011-07-02T16:03:00.001-07:00

More on the Animation WIP

2011-06-03T20:31:00.001-07:00

Still working on the model, can't decide if I should move on to the rig or the unwrap, next. Probably the unwrap, get it out of the way.

Creepy Critter for Animation

2011-05-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

WIP for an animation rig I want to build. I'm aiming for somewhere between the creepiness of one of my pencil sketches and the functionality of the Generi Rig.

Doodle

2011-05-23T12:20:00.001-07:00

Bored. Made this. INTERNETS

2011-05-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

Tryina' Sell My Art

2011-05-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

Go HERE to check out the eBay auction.

Here's the ad copy from the page, though:

You're bidding on a signed, custom drawing (in black ink or graphite), 3x5 inches.
Your custom image will also be displayed with your name on my blog at
http://danmachine.blogspot.com.
I will also write a short bio for anyone who requests it.

What kind of sketch, you're asking?
Well, I'll tell you: Anything you request!
I can create characters,
draw landscapes, and copy photos if necessary.

The more you bid:
-...the cooler a person you are
-...the more the art you get will be worth

If you don't bid on this item:
-...you're bad person
-...you're probably going to have bad luck for a while
-...my massive student loan debt will stay the same size

Updated WIPS - Little Girl With Slingshot gets bangs, and More Cleaned Up Line Work

2011-05-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

Logo Design Ideation

2011-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

I think this has a way to go, but I'm not unhappy with these results so far.

More of the WIP

2011-05-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

WIP - An Old Character Revived, Rendered In An Even Older Style

2011-05-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

A Doodle

2011-05-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

A New, More Different Collection of Work Stuff

2011-04-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Boring Old WIP I'll probably never get back to...

2011-04-12T20:46:00.001-07:00

Play these Simultaneously...

2011-03-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Link 1
Link 2

You wont' regret it.

Fruits of Sketch Club

2011-03-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

My first Sketch Club piece. I don't know what it is, I was too busy chatting people up to understand what I was creating.

Sketch Club!

2011-03-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

Wednesdays at Cuppies and Joe, bring yourself and a portable creative project (like your sketchbook, knitting, or laptop) to Cuppies and Joe for a gathering of the antisocial sort! Sit with a large group of people who may or may not want to chat, but who definitely are into what they're doing!

Bizarre Random Photoshoppery

2011-03-10T13:18:00.001-08:00

Figure Drawing Dump. MESSY DRAWRINGS AHEAD!

2011-03-09T18:43:00.001-08:00

Work Stuff

2011-03-03T17:50:00.000-08:00

Revisited this track for the FINAL time. Hopefully.

2011-02-27T19:16:00.000-08:00

Anyways, I think it's about as good as I can make it without completely starting over. I need to let it go and move on.

UhUh by godhatesglobes

Random Sketch While in Chicago

2011-02-20T14:03:00.000-08:00

CONCEPT ART!!!

2011-02-13T22:18:00.001-08:00

Babby

2011-02-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

New ambient track I made for my good friend Mike:

2011-01-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

AMbIentKe by godhatesglobes

Planes

2010-10-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

A mesh, and four different diffuse textures I made for it. This is for work:

Loading Image

2010-10-26T16:18:00.001-07:00

I made a new loading image for my web site. It doesn't get a lot of play, what with internet speeds the way they are nowadays, so I'll post it here in all its glory.

Spaceship Thumbnails. For an Actual Thing This Time!

2010-10-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

More Work Stuff

2010-10-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

An Excellent MaxScript I used today.

2010-10-18T17:25:00.001-07:00

I've been pairing down polygon counts in high-res models, and today I experimented with this script I found on Script Spot. For those of you who don't just click links willy nilly, the script is called Topoproject, and it allows you to very easily create new topology for an object, and then sort of shrinkwrap it to the original.

Very handy. I was able to take a very high-res airplane model (from Turbosquid, where all things unholy come from), and just basically draw new topology over it on a plane, and then just drop the plane onto the plane. Ha! Plane on plane action. Anyways. Check it out if you ever find yourself biddling along at a snail's pace trying to create LOD's or whatnot. Word.

Image is from the author's page on Script Spot, I totally had nothing to do with making this script, aside from finding it on 'teh' interwebs.

Quick Little Character Sketch

2010-09-14T19:14:00.001-07:00

Work Stuff

2010-09-13T19:27:00.001-07:00

I'm building an airport for work, and I'm torn between having nice diffuse maps that don't mesh well with the satellite photos we have to use, and having matched lighting that is super blown-out. We'll probably go with the matched color ones, but oh well.

The good/bad one:

...and the bad/good one:

Farting Meatball Thing. 'Nuff Said.

2010-08-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

Bug, Bug, Crappy Drawing

2010-08-15T20:16:00.001-07:00

Some bug ideas I fleshed out for a friend. The top one is the bad one, but I liked the design better than the others, so I posted it anyways.

Musack

2010-08-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

An old track, with slightly better edits and mixing. A few added effects, as well.
Uh by godhatesglobes

Figure Drawing, and Boy Am I Rusty!

2010-08-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

It had been a while since I'd been to a session, and it shows. :(

Joe Morehead, My Hero

2010-08-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was randomly inspired to Photoshop my friend Joe Morehead's head into various iconic pop media. I had a good time with it, but I think he's a bit confused about the whole thing.

Legos, Legos, Legos

2010-07-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

I have been jealous of my friend Leviticus's online Lego creations-photos for some time, and, thanks to my friend J-Mo for returning many of my Legos, I no longer have an excuse to be so. Also, photographing Legos isn't nearly as easy as I thought it was going to be.

I Must Be Losing It, Because This Was Endlessly Amusing

2010-07-10T10:04:00.001-07:00

Old Stuff - A Commission Piece...That I Didn't Get Paid For

2010-06-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

This Summer, Rob Schneider Is... A Foot

2010-06-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Something Crappy, Something Good

2010-06-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'll give you a dollar if you can guess which one is the crappy one. I won't actually give you a dollar. Don't ask me for any money, I'm broke.

*edit: I took down the crappy one, because it was, well, crappy.

A 1 Page Comic, For My Friend Raighne

2010-06-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook Night

2010-05-30T07:26:00.001-07:00

Droodles For The Day

2010-05-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

Time To Get Over It, Dan

2010-05-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is the character from a previous game project that may some day get finished.

Semi-Recent Stuff-Job Interview Promotional Materials That Didn't Get Me The Job

2010-05-26T09:05:00.001-07:00

I made these Valentines for the people at Airtight Games when I interviewed there. I didn't get the job. :P

A Tiny Sketch Of CHX

2010-05-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook Page - Little Tiny Spaceship Thumbnails

2010-05-22T20:58:00.001-07:00

Semi-Recent Stuff- A Graphical Representation Of My Skills

2010-05-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Old Stuff - Concept Art From School

2010-05-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

I just love this drawing, but am also rather ashamed of most of it. Please enjoy!

How to make Squishy Characters and Muscles in 3ds Max with Squishy Bones, An EHow Article By Me

2010-05-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

This is a repost of an article I did on eHow:

How to make Squishy Characters and Muscles in 3ds Max with Squishy Bones, An EHow Article By Me

This article will take you through the process of creating bones in Autodesk 3ds Max that have scalability, while preserving their volume.

These bones will have squash and stretch, ideal for muscles, or exaggerated cartoon-styleanimation.

1) Most rigs that make use of squishy bones also have a base skeleton made from non-scaling bones. It is easiest if you start out with a simple rig, but it isn't necessary for completing this tutorial.

That said, open up 3ds Max.

2) Pull down the 'Animation' menu at the top of the window, and then click on 'Bone Tools'.

A dialogue should appear that has several tools for editing bones. Near the top, there is a button called 'Create bones. Click it.
(Animation menu => Bone Tools => Create Bones)

3) Left click in the viewport of your choice in a spot where you want your muscle bone to originate. Move your mouse to where the bone should end, and left click again.

The tool isn't complete. it's designed to make chains of bones, so it's going to try to make another. Right click anywhere in the viewport to complete the tool.

This should leave you with one reasonably-sized bone, and one tiny nub. Both are necessary for the muscle to be complete.

4) Name your bones. Select each one individually, and rename it something that will allow you to easily identify it, I'm naming the muscle bone 'Muscle_Bone' and the end bone 'Muscle_Teminator'.

5) Before you close the 'Bone Tools' dialogue, you need to do one more thing. Select your muscle bone. Now, scroll down to the bottom of the 'Bone Tools' dialogue, and at the very bottom are the stretch options for the bone. make sure that 'Squash' is selected.

This will insure that your bone will always scale non-uniformly in a fashion that will preserve volume.

6) Under the 'Create' tab, in the 'Helpers' subsection, select the 'Dummy' tool. Click and drag in the viewport to create a dummy object, and then create a second one. They should be roughly within the same scale realm as the bones, but slightly larger.

(Create => Helpers => Dummy => click in viewport to create)

Name your dummy objects, one to indicate that it goes with the muscle, and one to go with the end. These dummy objects will serve as intermediary pieces between your muscle bone and the non-scaling bones in the rest of your rig.

I'm naming my dummy objects 'Muscle Dummy' and 'Terminator Dummy'.

7) Right click on the 'Snaps Toggle' button to bring up the Grid and Snap Settings dialogue. Uncheck everything except 'Pivot'. This is so you can position the dummy objects exactly onto the origins of the bones.

Hit 'W' to turn on the move tool, and position each dummy object so that its pivot is directly on its respective bone's pivot point.

8) I believe order of operations is very important for this part. Believe is the keyword, because anyone who uses software like 3ds Max for any extended period of time will end up very superstitious.

Select your muscle bone. Go to the 'Animation' menu, then 'Constraints' submenu, and then 'Position Constraint'. Click on the muscle dummy object.

(click bone, Animation => Constraints => Position Constraint, click dummy)

Select your end bone, and then apply the same constraint, constraining it to its dummy object.

9) Select your Muscle bone, and now go to the 'Animation Menu' again, and then to the 'Constraints' menu, and this time select 'LookAt Constraint'. Now click on the end dummy object, NOT the muscle bone dummy.

(select muscle bone, Animation => Constraints => LookAt Constraint => click the end dummy)

10) Your muscle/squishy bone should be ready to use! The easiest way to test it, is to drag one of the dummy objects around, the muscle bone should stretch and squish between the two dummy objects.

If you have a rig, all you need to do is link the dummy objects (not the muscle bone or end bone) to the bones you want the squishy bone to be in between.

Tips:

Be careful not to give your squishy bones too much skin weight, otherwise characters can sort of explode at certain angles.
Think anatomically. The best way to utilize the effect of squash and stretch is to think about how it naturally occurs. Biceps are a good place to experiment, or in the stomach region of a character.
Keep a mirror near where you're working, so that you have good reference.
If you really want to go all out and have realistic bones, muscles, and skinning, then draw a cross-section line around your arm, your leg, or any part of your body, and watch it deform when you bend it.

Warnings:

If you're doing animation for a game, make sure the pipeline you're using supports squishy bones, or bone scaling at all.
If you're doing animation for a game, make sure the pipeline you're using supports squishy bones, or bone scaling at all.

Sketchbook Page- Ink Critters

2010-05-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

A Cute Little Kid With A Slingshot

2010-05-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook Page

2010-05-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to scan this for a while:

Random Doodle. Don't Ask, Because I Don't Know

2010-05-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

Self Portraits

2010-05-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

I recently did a self portrait, in order to whip my drawing skills back into shape:

Yuck. Let's try that again:

That's a little better. I think I might have to do another fifty or sixty to make this right.

Semi-Recent Stuff- Some Art for My Web Site's Graphics That Took Way Too Long

2010-05-22T13:21:00.001-07:00

Recently, I spent way too long agonizing over some of the graphics on my web site, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time doing the following drawing. It was primarily just to make a new and interesting button graphic. I'm not even going to tell you how long it took me to come up with it:

Of course, then, since it was high res, I spent another ridiculous amount of time in Photoshop coloring it, and rendering the crap out of it.

Which led me to having this graphic, which is hella' small, and kind of good?

I was also able to recycle it a bit to make the header image for my site, as is illustrated below:

Semi-Recent Stuff- Some Music

2010-05-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Durp by godhatesglobes

Uh by godhatesglobes

Semi-Recent Stuff- My Demo Reel

2010-05-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Old Stuff - Footage of Aleph, My Previous Game Project

2010-05-21T12:03:00.001-07:00

Old Stuff - 30 Second Short

2010-05-21T12:01:00.001-07:00

Old Stuff - A Dialogue Test

2010-05-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

Old Stuff - Items Which Were Rejected From My Web Site, But Too Good to Throw Away

2010-05-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

Of All the Audio Player Apps Available, the Best One is Really Called Foobar2000?

2009-12-27T09:46:00.001-08:00

There is a metric f*#kton of freeware out there that claims to be 'good' at playing music on your PC. If you're like me, you want to find the best one, but there is a sea of crap through which you have to wade before you can find that one gem.

If you haven't yet found the right one, let me save you the trouble. It's called Foobar2000.

Download it immediately, install as many plugins as you need (they're all directly linked on the site, and they all work), and you're ready to rock and roll, or acid and jazz, or whatever floats your ear-boat. In case you were wondering, an ear boat is a an oar boat with ears instead of oars. I am very clever.

I could list all of the features this software has, but really all I need to say about it is that it does what you want it to do. Whatever that may be, it does it.

Now before this goes any further, let's talk about video players. You will not find an audio player application that works for all of your videos. Angels will sing on that day, but it is not today. ...You can tell by the way there aren't angels singing.

Cut to this little kid who's standing next to me and staring without blinking: "Sir, you're just not listening hard enough." The little boy turns and points, and the camera pans over and there's like a giant alien or monster or something there, and- ...Wait, what was I talking about?

"But what about VLC?" You ask? Seriously? Have you used the playlist function in VLC? It crashes eleven times out of ten when you do anything in it. It's junk, and the interface is clunky and confusing. Also, with VLC I'm noticing that it chugs in places where Windows Media Player (yes, I hate it too, but bear with me) does just fine.

Here's the thing. I like VLC a lot. It's nice, because it supports all sorts of video file formats, plus every kind of video disc playback. The problem is that it's just kind of slow and unstable. If I can get a third-party codec to work in Windows Media, I do it, because it's always just a little faster than VLC when it works. I'm sure that last sentence will stir up all sorts of controversy, but you know what? Bring it!

Back to music player apps. The other options (as far as I know) are as follows, please keep in mind that I'm only mentioning the ones that are above the intellectual poverty line (that's not a thing, and let's just forget I wrote that, because I'm not deleting it):

I have to list iTunes first, because so many people use it, and think it's good. It's not good. It's good at what it does, which is defficating DRM all over your computer, aggressively selling you things, and preventing you from doing very much with your music. It also has a crappy structure for plugins, and has only one skin that doesn't really mesh very well with anything other than the Mac OS. This is corporate trash, which needs to be retooled in a fashion that makes it software, and not just a high-function advertisement.

Songbird

Oh snap. I thought Songbird was going to be the savior that delivered us all from the evils of iTunes. I was kind of right, but this deliverance is happening so slowly --and so unsupportedly (not a word)-- that it's hardly worth the effort. Songbird is a Mozilla product, which one would expect to mean it has a fan base. It doesn't. There isn't anyone really interested in it, and for good reason. It's like a slow iTunes. Really, there's not much else there. I mean, it's a little bit less selling-things-happy than iTunes, but it's basically the same thing. Except it's missing CD burning functionality, and support for many of the audio formats in which my music is encoded.

Ah, good old Winamp. I used to love Winamp. Back in the day it was the MP3 player. It was free, it had a fairly small memory footprint, and you always knew what it was doing. Now, unfortunately, it's been bought out by AOL, emotionally neglected, and stuffed full of canola oil-deep fried and breaded advertisements. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss the awesomeness of Winamp's Milkdrop visualizer, or the really cool skins, but what can you do? Nothing, that's what. It's too buggy and neglected to really be worth downloading anymore.
There are definitely other audio player applications online that work. I'm leaving them out for a variety of reasons. The reason I haven't listed most of them is simple: Support. These applications often appear to have been coded by a very small team of unpaid people (sometimes just one person, writing the app for themselves). With a team this small, it is likely that new versions --or even just patches-- of an application are very far off, or will never come to exist at all. I encourage anyone who's an audio nerd to go out and try them all to get just the right playback and playlist control. I'm sure that if you're an audio nerd, you don't need my encouragement. :) If you seen any offending omissions that are worth being mentioned here, please do so in my comments, or send me an email. I'll gladly hear you out and append them to the list.

Dan Machine