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Demo Reel, 2003

This is a collection of my work. I handed out this reel during Siggraph 2003, and also submittted it to Sky-Skan for the 3D artist position they had open.

Software Tools used: Maya Complete 3.0 through 5.0, Adobe Premiere 6.0, custom in-house software, Adobe After Effects 5.5, Cool Edit Pro 2.0

Render Facilities: 17 Dell Precision Linux Workstations @2.0 Ghz / 1Gb RAM

The Flower

This project was not scheduled to be near completion before the 2002 ACM Siggraph conference in San Antonio, Texas. Due to unforseen circumstances, however, other side projects were abandoned in the week prior to the 2002 Siggraph conference, which allowed me to continue work on this piece. This is a work in progress.As this was a solo project, I was in charge of all aspects of the production, rendering, compositing and final editing of this piece.

Summary: Duties included set construction, set dressing, particle effects research and deployment, all lighting, render management, code developement, script writing, storyboarding modeling and animation.

Software Tools used: Maya Complete 4.0.2, Adobe Premiere 6.0, custom in-house software

Render Facilities: 17 Dell Precision Linux Workstations @2.0 Ghz / 1Gb RAM

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This piece was submitted to the International Planetarium Society conference in Wichita, Kansas. The original concept was developed by Sheryl Hurley, 3D animation instructor at the University of New Mexico. This piece presented a considerable challenge, as it was produced in only 4 days.

For this project, I was charged with all animation and primary visual effects. This included motion design, dome camera rigging, camera animation and comet effects design. I was also responsible for lighting and editing. Sheryl Hurley designed and constructed all geometry for this piece. This animation also features a real star field, constructed from positional data provided by NASA A file parser and data handler was coded by Kelly Hirai, a student at the University of New Mexico.

Summary: Duties included primary animation, particle effects research and deployment, lighting, render management, camera rigging and editing.

Software Tools used: Maya Complete 4.0.2, Adobe Premiere 6.0, custom in-house software

Render Facilities: Partly rendered with 17 Dell Precision Linux Workstations @2.0 Ghz / 1Gb RAM

Partly rendered with the Los Lobos Linux supercluster, (128 Dual Processor IBM Linux nodes ) housed at the High Performance Computing Center at the University of New Mexico [HPC@UNM]

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This piece was originally designed as a solo project, but after consultation with other students in the UNM Animation Program, it was decided that two students would be ideal for undertaking a project of this size. This piece, which is untitled, went from conceptualization to completed render in 10 weeks. This time frame includes pre-planning, scriptwriting, storyboarding, primary character modeling, set design, lighting, animation, compositing and post production editing.

For this project, I opted to focus my attention on lighting and effects. Though I modeled the main character Deathscythe (black/gray Mech unit with batlike wings), primary character animation was handled by my partner, Glenn Huval. Models were constructed in a four week period which included texturing and animation rigging. After this period, Glenn was given set mockups and the primary character models and was set to the task of primary animation. During this same period, I began final set construction, which included modeling of all non-animated geometry, as well as all props used in the piece. Additionally, I was in charge of lighting and effects for the project, which included raytrace setup, particle effects and shader construction, as well as lighting setup for a daytime environment.

My duties also included post production compositing and final editing for the piece. During production, I helped to write MEL tools for character pose animation. I also wrote the Rendershell utility in C++ (avaliable in the Code section for review) to help facilitate the render pipeline during post. Additionally, I wrote time tracking utilities

Summary: Duties included set construction, set dressing, particle effects research and deployment, all lighting, render management, code developement, compositing, editing, secondary animation, script co-writing, storyboarding and character modeling.

Software Tools used: Maya Complete 3.0, Adobe Premiere 5.0, Adobe Photoshop 5.5, custom in-house software

Render Facilities: 8 Silicon Graphics 320 Workstations (non-networked) @ 450 Mhz / 512 Mb RAM

(custom software was needed to deploy a pseudo render farm using limited hardware)

© 2003 Aaron Romero.
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