what I've been up to lately

Still working on the spider rig and about to start a full biped rig, but at the moment, I'm focused on facial rigging. I got this great head model from my friend Iana and I've been modifying it to be able to create some facial expressions and controls. Little did I know that it would be such a long process... I had to retopologize a bit because the export from Mudbox was a pretty dense mesh. I think I was able to keep it pretty true to the original model. Then I had to add teeth, a tongue and eyes.

Here's what I came up with:

Weird, right? Not too bad for my first try at modeling mouth parts... at least in my opinion. Although, now it's time for the real test -- to see if they look really crazy when I try to make her smile or open her mouth. Fingers crossed.

Sketching on the plane

I was drawing some lions in my sketchbook on the flight into Frankfurt and a family with two little girls was sitting next to me. The older girl on my left didn't say a word to me, but kept looking intently at my drawings, then finally looked up at me. I smiled and she pointed at my notebook. When I handed my pen over and asked if she wanted to draw something, she carefully drew a heart on the page. From then on, we were immediate friends. She told me her name was Emma, she's 5, her parents are 41 and 44 and all about her pet chickens and her old dog. At one point her parents had to tell her to stop trying to use me as a pillow and to stop trying to speak to me in German. So adorable.