Checkpoint 1 for Senior Project Contribution - UVU Fall 2019

90 Minute over the shoulder "Face Rigging Demo"
On YouTube for the public benefit.

https://youtu.be/jBHgldaFmx4?t=1879

The blend shapes are all in Mudbox, and I don't push those to Git

Here is my github link:

https://github.com/Squamashii

Here is a list of what I have done so far on this project:

Modeling: 

• I sculpted both boys
• Started the sculpt for Kong
• cleaned up the Zilla sculpt
• Modeled the Zilla character's hands, gums, teeth, tongue, inside mouth/throat  

Retopo

• All of the retopo on both boys
• All of the retopo on Zilla

Rigging on the boys:

• Face rigs for both boys: sculpted all blend shapes, 
• Created face controls, 
• Added and skinned joints for jaws, head, and eyelids, 
• Set up set driven keys for eyelids, etc

Meditation

When I was about 10 years old, I used to sit in the living room on this gold colored rocking chair that we had. I would do this in the middle of the day, and I was super content to just sit comfortably and motionless and think. One day my mom came into the room and asked, "Hey Spencer, what are you doing? Why don't you go play outside?" To which I replied that I was thinking. I might have also mentioned some of the things that I was thinking about...and that could be why later on, days later when she would see me sitting there thinking, I would hear her say something about me working on solving the World's problems. I really was.

One of the big things running around in my head was a way to grow food in a hostile environment, such as the the Sahara desert. Another thing I thought about was how to find a source of electricity so I could live wherever I wanted to, and still use lights and a refrigerator. These were just a couple of the topics that reoccurred often in my meditation sessions. The bad news was that I was a super shy 10 year old kid with absolutely zero resources, and I hardly ever wrote things down.

That day when my mom asked what I was doing, I believe was the day that I learned what the word "meditate" means. I feel like meditation has been a big part of my life ever since then. I don't do it as often as I did back then. Life keeps getting busier, but it is fun for me to take the time to think about blessing that I have received as answers to prayers. I really do believe that prayers are answered, whether we like the answers or not. I also like to take the time to meditate about life, and where I think my life might be going.

This story sort of highlights what I said in an earlier post (somewhere) about the way I think. I often wonder if other people think the same way as me, but how would we ever know that for sure? If you get to know someone well enough, you can get to the point where you can predict how they would think in a given situation, but what do people think about when they just have time to sit and think?

Do you sit and think sometimes? If you want a challenge, set aside a time where you can just sit still and think for an hour or so. Then write down your ideas, or the topics that you thought about. When I was in high school, I had some friends that whenever I was around them they only talked about sports. It was really bizarre for me because my family was never huge into professional sports, and it seemed like these kids thought exclusively about sports all the time every day. So, what do you think about?  

The Ship - A Crazy Dream

Ok, this was an interesting dream that I had recently. It actually worked as a coherent story. Sure some of the visuals are a little surreal, but I am always surprised when I can remember a dream as vividly as this. Most dreams just seems like a mashup of random things and places, and this one actually has somewhat of an ongoing plot. There is even an incident early on in the dream that saves my life later on in the dream...see if you can find it.

Enjoy this strange piece of work that came from my subconscious...

The Ship.
I was hanging out with Sarah (my wife) at my Parent’s house talking with my Mom. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. I answered it, and it was an old man that resembled Anthony Hopkins. Turns out, he was a great uncle that I had never met, so probably one of my Grandpa’s brothers or something. We will just call him Jack.
Anyway, Jack had 4 tickets to Disneyland, and he said he got permission from the park to bring his ship and ride it around in the lake. The ship was some sort of family heirloom, and he had possessed it for a while. So we were all like, yeah that sounds like fun! ..aaand…
Now we are at Disneyland watching some guys back the ship down into the lake from a flat-bed semi trailer. The guy at the dock asks to see our tickets/permission slips? Which were yellow receipt looking papers. He started interrogating me to see why we were there.

“So, is this a company trip?”
No, My uncle got these tickets somehow, so we are just here for fun
“Are you guys big sailors?, Is this your entire crew?”
No, never actually done it..ever, and yes this is the full crew
“Have any of you sailed before? This is a pretty complicated rig you’ve got here”
And it probably was. It looked just like a pirate ship, with about 8-10 sails. I started trying to visualize how we could steer it, and I glanced over at my mom, who made a gesture as if to say that she didn’t think Jack had even ever sailed before.. (Whatever that sort of gesture can possibly look like..right?)
No, I guess not...
“Well, just so you are aware, we have several experienced sailors on call today, just let us
know if you need assistance, and they can get to your ship quickly.
Then he threw in, “..And they are pretty cheap!”
Uh, thanks..

At that moment we were ushered into a building on the deck where I think we were supposed to have some sort of “on the water” briefing.. But we ended up just following our guide all over this crazy huge mansion. Finally, we were on the top of like 3 floors-ish, and the guide said ti was time for us to go, so he takes off through some double doors. We speed up to stay with him. Then, out of nowhere a random security guard in a yellow reflector vest hold his hand out to stop me. I tell him that I’m part of the group way up there, and he just shakes his head and says that he cannot let me pass at that particular moment..but doesn’t give me a reason why.

 After a minute or so, he put his hand down, and said I was ok to go. Great, now I have no idea where my family is, so I just take off through the double doors. There was a catering kitchen on the other side of those doors, and then another set of doors that lead to a big auditorium filled with people dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns. I was just in street clothes.. But I walked through the crowd anyway.. Got some interesting looks from people, but no interference. I made it to a staircase that went down to another big theater room, and it was cram packed with the same kind of people. I spotted some stairs on the other side of the room, so I bolted over there and it was a spiral staircase that went all the way down to the bottom. While I was running down the stairs, I was thinking ~Well, I have no idea which direction I will be facing when I exit the building, so I just need to find the water. I should still be pretty close to the lake.~ I really had no idea where I was because that guide had had us walking for a half an hour or so around that huge building.

I reached the bottom, and there was a door that opened right out onto the dock. I stepped out, and saw Jack’s Ship off to the left.. But it was moving! I started running down the dock, but it turned a left-hand corner before I got there so they hadn’t seen me. I started yelling their names as I got closer, but the ship was really loud for some reason. The ship started going faster. I sprinted to try to jump on, but just as I was about one step away from jumping, the ship clipped the dock I was running on, and I got jolted off my feet. Not to mention the shards of wood flying all over the place.

So now I’m just standing there like, what do I do. Looking for another way I can catch up to them. Then I hear a loud creaking noise. I looked over at the ship, which was probably 30 feet away by now, and I saw the deck break, flop up, and back and forth. Then the front 3rd of the ship sort of snapped up and twisted, causing the entire ship to twist around violently. Then it burst into pieces. I waited a few seconds for the wood to stop falling out of the sky, and then dove into the water.

As I got closer, I found some larger side panels that were floating and hoisted myself onto one and started paddling with my arm. I felt a hand reaching up from below the water. It was Jack. I tried pulling him up onto the wood, but it wasn’t able to handle both of our weights, and he wasn’t in a good enough condition that I would trust him to not slide right off if I wasn’t paying attention, so I jumped in and swam him to the shore. It was a bit of a struggle because he was a pretty big guy, and was struggling to keep his own head above the water. But we made it, and I dragged him up onto a safe looking bank, and then my phone rang… in real life, a telemarketer woke me up..

Giant Paper Mache Lord Farquaad Head

Wow, so, this is by far the biggest thing I have ever made out of paper mache.  My wife and I were in a show around Halloween of 2012 down with Payson Community Theater, and in the show I made a walrus mask for one of the numbers.  

Then, in summer of 2013 I got a call from the prop guy, saying that he needed my help on some props for their upcoming show - Shrek the musical.  I agreed, not really knowing what I was getting myself into.  Turns out in the show there is a guard at the castle who is wearing a giant head of the Lord Farquaad character.  Anyway, they needed a way to make a huge, light, and sturdy head...and I was the only paper mache "expert" they knew...so...2 months, 2 bags of white flour, and several giant cardboard boxes later.  Voila!

I heard that the head was then used by the Scerra theater in Orem, and now I have no idea where it went.  

In order to keep the cardboard together while applying the paper mache, I had to sew it into the right shape.  I started by punching 2 parallel rows of holes with a nail along the edges, and then sewing them together with a yarn needle.  Later I found that knitting needles worked well enough for a hole punch, and the work went faster.  The knitting needle left larger holes, but it didn't really compromise the structure since thething was just so dense.  

The hair and the nose were challenging.  The hair just because I wanted to make sure it would be durable, and the only way to get the shape I wanted was with really flimsy cardboard.  The hat because there were so many pieces, and I had to do a lot of calculations in order to get it right the first time.

I spent 3 entire days covering this with paper mache.  The thing was so big that by the time I would make it around the head, the first stuff would already be dry!  The mouth got a little to much moisture, and warped a little, and the hat ended up being a little crooked, but everyone loved it.

The End

Thanks Dad, Sarah, and David for your help...you kept me sane during the process :)

These are my final images from the intro to 3D graphics class I just took at BYU...Yeah, pretty much just transferring my Blender modeling skills into Maya.