Job + Old Sketchbook

I got a job! I'm the new Interactive & Game Developer at the Boston Museum of Science!

Me on my first day of work :)

I've been working on lots of really cool projects. This position is perfect for me!

I've moved into an apartment outside of Boston and I've been going through my things. I found an old sketchbook from school and figured I'd share some of the better drawings with you. I doodled these guys out during my art history classes, enjoy!

Sketches of one of my character from my thesis

A sketch of a power cable that was going to be hooked up to the characters chest. This idea got scrapped as I started reboarding the story.

Originally I was going to make the arm latch open to dispense bandage, but simplified things due  to deadlines.

Hand and finger joint sketches

The rest of these drawing don't relate to any projects, they are simply doodles :)

I love this guy.

This guy is pretty awesome too.

Graduation! + Finished Thesis!

I did it! I graduated from Ringling College of Art this spring.

I submitted Purpose, my short film, to some film festivals so I held off on releasing my film to the public but I'm done with that for now. I hope you all enjoy my thesis. It took a lot of hard work and sleepless nights but it was worth it :)

Like Purpose on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/purposefilm

farmFolder

Hey I made another script

It's called farmFolder
http://webspace.ringling.edu/~bjones/ACCESS/farmFolder.zip

This script renames the folders created by the renderfarm

So instead of getting this after you send a bunch of jobs:

6820.sgimasternode
6822.sgimasternode
6826.sgimasternode
6828.sgimasternode
6829.sgimasternode

you get something like this:

shot10.6820.sgimasternode
shot10RGB.6822.sgimasternode
shot20.6826.sgimasternode
shot20RGB.6828.sgimasternode
shot20Glow.6829.sgimasternode

The script grabs the name of the job that the you assigned in maya from the log files and appends the job number on the end.

(because the log files include the frame number in their name it adds that too. So the folders will actually look more like this shot10.155.6820.sgimasternode) 

Being able to label your shots is really helpful especially when you are compositing different passes.

::IMPORTANT::
To use this script you need to make a new folder on the D: drive called farm
Then copy over the folders from your O: drive to D:\farm\
And then run the script and your folders will be renamed :)

I hope you guys like the script :)

Happy Render Week!!

-Ben Jones

renderBeep

Here's a quick script that might be useful for rendering

http://webspace.ringling.edu/~bjones/ACCESS/renderBeep.zip

renderBeep plays a sound after you finish a render

////////////////////////////

Put the renderBeep.bat file in your scripts folder: Z:/MAYA/2012-x64/scripts/renderBeep.bat

In your render settings in render options paste in this into Post render MEL: system("start Z:/MAYA/2012-x64/scripts/renderBeep.bat" );

Kick off a render, browse the internet, and listen for the beep to get back to work

Enjoy!

-Ben Jones

////////////////////////////

Additional Information:

the renderBeep.bat is a simple batch file, if you right click and edit it you can edit the code

Here it is:
START/min mpc-hc /play /close c:\windows\media\chimes.wav

by default it's set to open media player classic, play an audio file, and then close.

You can swap out the audio file for whatever file you want as long as media player classic can open it.

If you open Media Player Classic and go to Help>Command Line Switches you can view more options.

CopyZ - Copy ZBrush GoZ Textures Script

I made a quick script that copies the texture files GoZ makes and moves them to your sourceimages folder. I made this for my fellow Ringling CA’s and GAD’s to help streamline using GoZ with Maya.

Make sure to read the Readme as you will have to change the destination path for your maya project.

webspace.ringling.edu/~bjones/ACCESS/CopyZ.zip

//////////////////////////////

How to Configure:

Unzip to Z:\CopyZ\

 You will need to change the destination of the files in the script to your sourceimages folder in your maya project.

right click on the .bat file and click Edit

right now it is set to the default project folder

Z:\MAYA\projects\default\sourceimages"

You should change it to something like this

"Z:\MAYA\projects\thesis\sourceimages"

//////////////////////////////

Note:

There may be temporary files already in the GoZProjects folder from other people using GoZ. In order to not copy their files into your sourceimages folder I'd recommend deleting them before you GoZ your models.

You also should install FileTextureManager to help repath texture files:

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/rendering/misc/c/filetexturemanager

//////////////////////////////

Additional Information:

The excludelist file tells the script what files it should ignore.

You may need to adjust the path to the excludelist.txt file

The path is Z:\CopyZ\excludelist.txt by default.

Make sure the script can find where the file lives.

If you would rather the script move the files rather than copy them replace "xcopy" in the script with "move"

If you want to learn more here is some documentation

http://www.computerhope.com/xcopyhlp.htm

Hope you find this useful :)

-Ben

SR60 Heaphones

I bought a pair of SR60 Headphones about a year ago and I love them to death. They are extremely comfortable and have excellent sound. Unfortunately, after a year of abuse, one of the speakers would go cut in and out if I tilted my head. I wasn't too surprised that they started to break down, I commute and work in the labs a lot at my school so they spend a good deal of time in my backpack.

I figured the problem was a broken wire, so I held the cord with my hand and tilted my head to try and find where the wire was broken. I figured it was broken not far from the speaker itself, so I cut the wire to my headphones a few inches below it for good measure.

I unclipped the speaker from the headphones

and gently removed the foam earpad

 Using the low setting on a heat gun warmed up the hot glue inside the can. A hair dryer will work too if you don't have a heat gun.

After I warmed it up I quickly popped it open

I cut an old piece of speaker wire and tied a knot in it to protect the wire from being pulled out

 I desoldered the old wire. Just touch a soldering iron to the solder and gently pull on the wire.

 

There is a little red dot on the speaker, I used that to remember which wire I needed to solder to the speaker.

I slipped on a piece of heat shrink tubing and twisted the wires together. I plugged in the speakers and tested them to make sure they worked.

I soldered the wires together

And I used a heat gun to shrink the heat shrink tubing

I warmed up the hot glue and pressed the headphones back together

I clipped the speaker back on

And put the earpad back on.

And it's working great now :)

Interning and Stuff :)

Ok I haven't updated this in forever so let's do a quick update on everything.

I passed Prepro! I'll post my concept artwork from my Drawing for Animators class as well as my Storyboards from Pre Production class later this fall. My story is about a military robot who learns that war is not the answer. I've been modeling my set, reworking my storyboards, tweaking my designs to strengthen my story. 

I programmed another flash touch screen application for the Maine State Aquarium. It is similar to the Build a Fish program I made last summer only this one is Build a Fish.

I'm interning at Cramer, a digial marketing company outside of Boston. I interned there two summers ago and I'm back for more :)

http://www.crameronline.com/

I'm taking an online class through the University of Maine. I'll have all of my liberal arts classes out of the way so I can focus on my thesis :) Spring semester I'll just have my CA class so I'll have plenty of time to do some job searching and finally being able to enjoy the beaches :D (I hope).

I recorded a short video tutorial last night on how to make a contact sheet in adobe bridge, this is useful for organizing a large number of photos on a piece of paper. which comes in handy for DFA and Prepro.

http://tutorials.benjones.us

Web Design Tutorials

I decided I'd make a series of video tutorials specifically for my classmates here at Ringling on how to design a portfolio website. This tutorial shows the entire process from start to finish. I hope it is useful and I didn't skim over any important details. If you guys have any questions I'd be happy to answer them. 

YouTube Playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0A8ABC5723A827B8

Tutorial Website

http://tutorials.benjones.us/

Enjoy!!! :)

Gargolyle Character

So I really love this character I drew in my Drawing for Animators class and decided he deserved to be sculpted :)

After I sculpted the first one I thought it would be cool to do multiples of him and put him in different poses. So I used some Moulage to make a mold of him. Moulage is a type of alginate that is reusable. You can just microwave the moulage and it will melt it down. I put it in for a minute or so.

I used a piece of wood to apply the moulage (you don't want to use aluminum tools to heat up, or work with the moulage because the moulage will react to it).

I waited for the moulage to cool and then I gently peeled off the mold. Moulage is pretty fragile so you have to be careful. You can use a hardener (I think it's alum) to toughen the mold but I didn't need to reuse this mold many times.

I made a three part mold. I was considering making a plaster mother mold to hold it all together, but again I wasn't going to make many multiples with this mold.

Hindsight is 20/20. I realized after I made it I should have cut off the characters arms and legs and wings and then made the mold because I would be posing this guy in different poses. This would have also allowed me to just use a two part mold rather than a three part.

I didn't make any form or registration so I couldn't just pour the wax into the moulage mold. I ended up cutting off the arms and legs and patching the three pieces together using a soft purple wax.

I'll post some more updates on my progress as I work on this little series of sculptures :)

Update: 10/5/2010

I finished posing all of my wax gargoyles. Now all I have to do is sprue them up and make a mold of them and then cast them in aluminum :)

I'm really excited about these little guys! They are coming out great :)

Update 10/15/2010

I sprued up the five sculptures into one giant tree. Check it out!

I attached some vents to each sculpture so that when the aluminum gets poured in the air inside has a place to escape.

Its kind of hard to see but I attached some small pieces of wax to the bottom of the sculptures. Once I finish making the mold I will grind down the mold to expose the tips of these pieces of wax. This will allow the wax to escape from the mold without expanding and cracking the mold. I'll have to patch these holes once I finish burning out the wax.

 

Update: 10/31/2010

I've finished dipping my wax positives in a silica slurry to form a mold. To form the mold you have to dip the positives multiple times letting it dry for at least two hours between dips. The first dip is pure slurry, the positives are then dipped in slurry and coated with sand starting with fine sand and moving up to coarse sand. The final dip is pure silica.

The next step after the mold is made is to grind down the mold to expose the wax coated cup at the opening of the mold. The vents also must be exposed. 

 I ground down the little nubs from the small pieces of wax I added to the bottom of each gargoyle. This will allow the wax to escape during the burnout process.

I'll be casting these guys very soon now so stay tuned :)

Update 12/16/2010

It's winter break!!! I've been wanting to update this post for a while, but finals can consume a lot of free time :)

I burned out the max in the mold and poured the aluminum in the empty mold. I left the mold to cool down (molten aluminum is rather warm). Now it is smashing time :)

DONE!

Actually I'm gonna rub these guys down with some graphite and then spray fix it to give them an old look. So I'm almost done :)