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Pinky and The Brain
To begin with I would like to quickly speak with you about a cartoon I watched when I was younger called Animaniacs. It was a great show. The writing was intelligent and funny, some of the references I did not get but the over the top physical comedy always made up for the jokes I missed, and the voices were perfect. My favorite episodes were when they would play a Pinky and The Brain cartoon. The characters were created by Tom Ruegger and voiced by Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche. I can go on for a long time about how the show shaped a lot of my humor and other aspects of my life but I do not want to bore you. I just recommend if you have never seen either Animaniacs or Pinky and The Brain to watch them.
On a quick side note, I want to bring to your attention a great animation by a company called Zim Animation. About two years back, I watched a video they made in which they remade the intro to The Real Ghostbusters 2d animated show, scene for scene, into a 3d animated intro. You can find the video at this link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcBcQCxxEvs
After seeing the video, I decided I wanted to do the same thing for Pinky and The Brain.
In February of 2017 I started to break down what I needed. I began by using a video of the 2d animation to create my storyboard for the animation. I also compiled as many references images as I could for the characters and scenes I would need to create. Here are a few of the images.
Once I knew all the scenes I needed, I started looking at what objects could be used in multiple scenes and built out many of the basic assets in Maya. Including some of the more iconic items.
While I was creating basic assets, I also started modeling The Brian in ZBrush. I am still new to sculpting in ZBrush so there was a lot of trial and error. I was also finishing other projects as well as creating small 3d prints that helped with my sculpting skills but also made me take longer on this project. When I came back to it with my full attention I was able to complete the sculpt for The Brain and sculpt Pinky.
I am still currently getting them ready to be rigged for animation and textured but during the trial and error process, I also started setting up one or two of the individual scenes. I started with the first scene inside the lab that included the characters.
While getting everything set up in that scene, I decided it might be best to start from the beginning so I also started modeling the Acme Lab exterior for the first scene.
While working on that scene I also realized at the end of the animation, one complete scene goes from the cage in the back room and zooms out to a view of the exterior of the lab. At that point I realized I needed to model out the majority of the lab interior and not just the specific scenes I was thinking. So I started modeling out other areas as I worked.
Currently I have finished adjustments to the characters and finalized the sculpts and materials. I have also completed the rig for Brain and after painting the weights he should be ready for animation. I hope to have Pinky completely rigged and ready for animation much faster thanks to the similarities it will have to Brain.
While getting frustrated with the rigging process for the characters I also did some work on the first scene.
The rig for Brain has been completed but I am having problems skinning the character. I was getting frustrated again so I went back to completing the scene work using the character models as proxy pieces. I was able to almost completely finish the final scene. I just need to add a couple of textures. I have added a few comparison shot below.
Skinning for Brain is nearly finished. A lot of scenes will require more than just the rigged characters. I will soon finish the skinning for Brain then start on the rigging for Pinky. While working I those I have been able to set up a few more scenes which I have posted below as well as began posing the characters for some scenes in which they either do not move, or move very little.
This is where I am currently at in the project and I will do my best to keep a running log and try to post weekly updates. Feel free to follow along, I hope to be done soon.
At this time I want thank all of my instructors at Laurus College for teaching me the skills to get this far. In particular, one of my past instructors and current co-worker Andre Wahl for all the help he has given, I would not be as far as I am in this project without his help. You can find some of his work here at his Artstation.
I will continue to keep this progress blog updated as I complete more of the project. I am currently hoping to finish getting the characters ready for texturing then rigging in the next week.
If you would like to contact me, my email is