Getting back into it again...

It's been quite a break from animation... in fact over a month since I did anything linked to my work, and even then it was modelling and animating cigarette packets. Now I'm just wanting to get straight back into things, but before I start up in Maya, I'm going to have to get some sort of plot, character design or general idea together before anything is going to take shape.

Originally I was planning to make another generic rig, hopefully one that does not follow any particular story so it's a bit more universal for exercises. So a cross between my Stu Rig v1 (which is a year old, and I've learnt so much more since in every department) and Keith, which is nice and easy to use thanks to trial and error over about 7 character models. I may still do this, perhaps making a better characature of myself. I've seen some pretty impressive models that animators have made of themselves and was thinking it's not a bad idea. After all, the inspiration is staring straight in the mirror at you.

However, a new project that hopefully will take off is a little collaborative piece with a few people from uni, which should give me/us some direction in what to achieve in the big bad world. I've spent the last few days sketching some random characters to create a bizarre little community within my sketchbook. Some are good, others not so good, but hopefully I'll figure out some decent designs for people who are rather accident prone, eccentric, or just unfortunate. That, and one person who is just so charismatic and confident that you will have to buy what he is selling.

Hopefully some headway will be gained soon, but seeing as one of the people I will be working with is off on holiday, I'll either crack on with this by myself, or I will get on the case with a generic rig. We will wait and see.