Arnaud de Mullenheim

Wisemen figurines acting

2011-11-28T12:21:00.001-08:00

For this "wisemen acting animation" i rig and animate the three characters.
For the first time we use at Akama studio my new the "Picker" interface on production.
Picker is very usefull to :
- select the character controls,
- switch arms ik/fk and keep the pose of the arms.
- reset the characters controls
- do the symmetry of arms or leg poses
- copy and paste poses

Final result is here CADEAU ROYAL

Volkswagen Making Off online

2011-11-28T07:32:00.001-08:00

Akama studio post today the making off of the Hedgehog I built for the Volkswagen commercial :

MAKING OF VOLKSWAGEN Hedgehog by Akama

Rig and animation was made with 3dsmax.

Commercial for Volkswagen

2011-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

I am very proud of my last project : the VW commercial.

Here is a pictures of the hedgehog rig , I have done at Akama Studio.

The mesh with the controls shapes :

The mesh with the rigged bones inside :

In the same time I continue to develop my maxscript interfaces "Picker" and "Rig Creator", these allow me to create characters rigs more faster on 3dsmax.

a "Picker" for 3dsmax animators

2011-09-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

I am actually working for commercials as animator and rigger. In the same time, I begin to develop a maxscript interface that allowto easily select controls, reset them, make the symmetrical pose.
I named it "Picker"

Demo Reel

2011-06-15T00:20:00.000-07:00

My demo reel is on Vimeo

2011-04-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

I am still working on the animated feature film "La mecanique du coeur". We are now at the middle of the production.
To be continue ...

2011-01-11T14:02:00.001-08:00

Please have a look on the website of the 3d cg feature documentary "Searex 3d" :
http://www.searex-thefilm.com/
I animate some swimming dinosaurs and other skeleton ...
It was in 2009, time go fast !

Sorry for the lack of news, but my work at Duran takes me all my time.

"La Mécanique du Coeur"

2010-04-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Since one month now , I am working at Duran on the beautiful animated musical feature project "La Mécanique du Coeur".
My first work is to make different walk cycles , dances and facial animations for the two main characters "Joe" (the bad guy of the story) and "Arthur" (an old man with a frozen back); these are show each week to the directors Mathias Malzieu and Stephane Berla for the validation. Doing the characterisation allow me to search and find how the characters will be animated before all the animators arrive.

"Basic Instinct" Carambar commercial parody

2010-03-28T08:26:00.001-07:00

Here are the 2 commercials I animate last summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7S20Fw04Ik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9vLBP0Cr5c&feature=channel
directed by Geoffroy De Crecy.I rig all the Characters and animate them in 3dsmax. The animation was done at 25fps, but shoted at 12fps with 2 exposures per frame for the stop motion style.

3dsmax Workflow

2010-03-14T01:36:00.000-08:00

For the last project, I was Character TD and lead animator and I had to organize a pipeline with 3dsmax. With a good workflow, animation modeling and rendering could be done at the same time. I did the character setup with the 3dsmax tools (bones, ik ..) without using any plug-in like Character studio or CAT. This means i had very light setups and perfectly adapted to the project and with the help of maxscript I developed specific tools for the animators.

Use Control Shapes to animate :
I use splines to control the bones, so all the keysframes are in these Control Shapes. The names of these shapes must be very clear ( like : Char_Ctrl_Hand_R, Char_Ctrl_Hand_L ). Respecting these 2 rules allows the animators to use the Load/Save animation tool of 3dsmax and writing maxscripts like symmetrical Pose ..

Layers :
I use layers to select easily all the meshes or all the control shapes of a character. Each character has 3 layers : Character_Setup (locked and hidden, Character_Ctrl (control Shapes) and the Character_mesh layer. For heavy meshes I add Proxy meshes, the animators can hide the Character mesh and visualize the Character with this proxy low mesh.

To communicate between the different steps of the pipeline in 3dsmax we use 2 main tools:
1- Xrefs files
We use the Xref for cameras and the set objects. We can't xref the entire setup of a character because that breaks the scripted controllers’ connections and custom attributes must be merged.
2- Pointcache Modifier.
The Solution is to use the local pointcache modifier that backes all the vertex of an animated mesh. I use some simple maxscript lines and a pointcache manager script to put the right directory path and record. It is very important that all the meshes of the characters (like eyes, tongues, …) are skinned, so the animation can be recorded with a local pointcache modifier. We add the turbosmooth modifier on the meshes in the final render scene.

With this workflow :
- Animators work in their own animation scene and only save pointcaches files (.pc2) on a specific place of the network.
- The render scene is very light with only meshes (with their own pointcache modifier). The scene is updated automatically, every time the animator resaves the pc2 files.
- The animator can save his animation on separate .xaf files if necessary.
- Animation and rendering are made at the same time with their specific light scenes, the animation retakes can be easily done without interrupting the rendering work.

Gnark !

2009-12-20T02:59:00.000-08:00

These last months, I take part in the animation direction for the tv serie "Gnark" directed by Frank Demolliere at Timoon animation (Paris)
www.timoonanimation.com/production-projets/gnark.html

Pubs Carambar

2009-10-06T00:46:00.000-07:00

Les publicités pour Carambar ne sont toujours pas diffusées, je ne peux donc pas vous montrer d'image pour l'instant.

du Taïchi chez les Incas ?!

2009-10-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

Sur Nescafé Tv , vous pouvez voir la pub nescafé sur laquelle j'ai travaillée cet été dans la chaleur des studios de Space Patrol.

voila un petit script bien utile

2009-07-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

J'ai écrit ce macroscript pour les animateurs 3dsmax qui en ont marre de recaler à la main la barre d'origine pour scaler les clés dans la trackview.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

macroScript SetOriginScale category: "_ arno _" toolTip: "OrSc"
(
try (destroyDialog OriginScale) catch()

rollout OriginScale "OriginScale" width:130 height:80
(
button btn_place "Set origin Scale" pos:[25,40] width:80 height:25
spinner spn_origin "Value" pos:[10,10] width:100 height:16 range:[-100000,100000,0.1]

on btn_place pressed do
(
trackviews.current.scaleValuesOrigin = spn_origin.value
)
)
createdialog OriginScale pos:[100,100]
)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

news

2009-06-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

Je termine quelques pubs délirantes pour la marque Carambar.

Je serais au festival d'Annecy du jeudi 11 à samedi 13 juin.

2009-05-12T03:58:00.000-07:00

A tous les amis animateurs, je conseille

Animation Runner Kuromi
Le cauchemar des animateurs de série tv mis en dessin animé! Il n'y a que 2 épisodes pour le moment. Ça m'a rappelé des situations vécues...

Red Sky Potatoes diffusé

2009-04-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

On peut voir sur Youtube la pub RedSky qui m'a bien occupé ces derniers mois.

Setup et animation sur 3dsmax.
Réalisation Geoffroy de Crécy.

Qu'est ce qu'un Anomalocaris ?

2009-04-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

Invertébré préhistorique faisant partie des Arthropodes ou plus précisément des Arthropodes Anomalocarides, Anomalocaris serait le premier superprédateur de la Terre. Il aurait vécu entre -535 et -520 millions d'années, au début du Cambrien. Il était carnivore et mesurait environ 2 mètres de longueur. Ses fossiles ont été découverts en Amérique du Nord, en Chine et en Australie

Setup et animation sur 3dsmax du personnage pour le projet de film Imax relief "Searex"

bird

2009-03-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

Je promets de remplir mon blog plus souvent que tous les 4 mois ;-).

Voici une preview d'un oiseau que j'ai setupé et animé sur 3dsmax avec les bones de base du soft, pour une publicité. Un script integré au setup permet les copies de poses d'une aile sur l'autre.

animation test :

detail du setup :

Les bones et helpers sont cachés lors de l'animation. Seuls les shapes de controle sont utilisés pour animer. Avec ce système les plumes glissent l'une sur l'autre lorsque l'oiseau replie les ailes.

des nouvelles ..

2008-12-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

Apres avoir travaillé tout l'été sur les Loups Garous du film Underworld3 chez Duran,
www.entertheunderworld.com
je setup et anime en ce moment des petites créatures aquatiques préhistoriques pour le film Imax 3d relief "SeaRex".

Demo reel 2008

2008-12-08T00:19:00.000-08:00

2008-04-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Voici sur le net , la derniere pub sur laquelle j'ai travaillé :
pub-decathlon-polaire

C'était a Mikros avec le réalisateur irlandais Rauri Robinson, qui est maintenant parti à Los Angeles pour faire Akira en long métrage.

Et aussi : le site de Dragon Ride , un bon vieux ride en 3d relief sur lequel j'étais superviseur d'anim : Vulcania

Bienvenue sur mon blog

2008-04-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

Mon ancien site est mort vive le blog !

Je vais pouvoir mettre régulièrement des exemples de mon travail sur ce blog.

Je travaille actuellement sur un trailer de film en tant que rigger et lead animateur, je test aussi le cloth sur 3dsmax. Bientot des images.