David: One of the favorite parts of this project was the opportunity to work with the Supervisors and the other production team members on a daily basis. Just the shear amount of knowledge I gained from the other production crew members and the way we worked together to solve problems and challenges was also my favorite part. The pipeline was solid and the creative workflow just plugged right into it which let us focus on the art of this short. I loved rolling up my sleeves everyday digging through the code and building tools to automate our day to day work activities.

David: As Assistant VFX Supervisor I had to make sure every file from the point of creation to the point of rendering fit our pipeline. I was also the Lead Character Technical Director for this project which meant I was in charge of the rigging team and building all of the skeleton systems. I was also responsible for the process of taking the rigs and integrating all of the FK/IK switches. One of my most rewarding parts of the rigging process was the facial rigging and blend shape creation for all of the characters. I spent a great deal of time writing MEL scripts to ease the process of animation for the animation team. During the first phase of production I was the character facial modeler. This was a decision you (Papa) made when you saw some of my past work. You said you wanted the person building the heads to rig the heads so there wouldn’t be a conflict in the way the geometry flowed an moved. Thank you for letting me do so much on the facial end of the animation.

David: My father had a computer business and he really encouraged us to use computers. I have a programming background and I love the way Maya is open ended and lets me expand my tool set. My background as a programmer has been so valuable for this project.

David: One script I use everyday is a little x-ray script I wrote and a renamer for your nodes. I’ll be glad to share those with our visitors. (see below)

David: I really like Rusty. Not because I got to play the voice of Rusty but just the way he looks. I had a blast making the rig for him and building all of the morph targets. Facial animation is really hard and he was even harder because of this snout.
 

David: Sterling is by far the most complex rig I have built so far. It is due to the fact that he is a swimming creature and a walking creature also. So I had to integrate a spine for swimming, one for walking and one to bind the skin to. These joint chains then control the over all movement of the creature. He also has a retracting tail with soft bodies which was a real challenge to create.

David: The tail was actually on a separate joint chain and it was constrained to the spine and to a NURBS curve. So we then move the object along the curve and it would pull inside of a lattice to retract into his body when he is walking.

David: Don’t be afraid of code. You don’t have to memorize every MEL command but learn to look things up in the help system. Also keep your script editor open and get used to the syntax of MEL. I think that is the hardest part of working with MEL. Get yourself a program like Edit Plus (that is what we use) and use the color coding features of these programs to color your syntax. Then just start to experiment and learn to automate your work so you minimize mistakes and errors. I think understanding how the nodes react to each other and what their outcomes will be really help you become a better TD.

David: I am really excited to be a part of this project. It’s really cool to go from some ideas we had on a napkin and to see it completed and produced. I want to thank my whole crew for the time and energy they put in beyond what they had to for a job. You all were very passionate about your work and it is very reflective in the work you produced.. Everyone worked 7 days a week on this project and it shows. We overcame some major hurdles along the way and this team really proved themselves to me with their professionalism. I would gladly work with any of you again in the future.