Sports blogs are an amazing place.  While we can't be bothered to have an informed debate on the financial wellbeing of our communities, we can create vast mountains of statistical data suggesting the best possible pitching rotation.  Here is my contribution to that beautiful distraction from reality we call sports.

While trying to explain my choice of starting lineups, I developed a MEL script which creates a graphical representation of any statistical data set.  Below is a visualization of the Seattle Sounders 2010 season statistics for league play. 

In the first image (Salary Analysis), circle size (area) is dictated by player salary while the circle brightness is a function of age. The green ring is their total minutes played divided by their eligible minutes under contract.  The blue ring is their player rating.  For example, a young cheap player like Nyassi is a small white dot.  An older player with a large salary like Keller is a large black dot.  Players are arranged left to right on the x axis based on starts and games played.

In this second image I went a little stat crazy and invented my own metrics, with great names like OOP.

An early test render.

 Here is what it looks like in Maya.

MEL code snippet.

I'm going to translate this over to Action Script for a more interactive website experience.  Too bad there is no direct web port, Maya is a much more fun development environment.

Zbrush4 was just released and has caused me to resurrect all kinds of old meshes. Now I'll have to tear myself away from Zbrush long enough to rig him in Maya.....

Finished most of the head and general helmet shape. Basemeshes for the rest of the body are imported as subtools and ready to be detailed.

Zbrush 3.5 added the ability to quickly sculpt without the need for a basemesh, or polygons for that matter, by using spherical voxel-like objects called Zspheres.  I sketched the vehicles in a few hours on a friends couch, the character soon after.  All were part of a dozen or so quick sculpts to familiarize myself with Zspheres.

Fictional ad campaign for a freelance project.

Who doesn't love giraffes?

Pre-Viz for the secret agent challenge at cgtalk .

Squirties are round mounds of mischief. Get a few excited and it quickly looks like a potato sack race.


Building a squash and stretch rig which allowed for both joints and blendshapes was a good challenge. I always forget how much of my time is spent making character sound effects while I rig/animate. As the 'walk cycle' below was coming together, I would scrub the time slider while making dog/baby grunting noises.

A visual development piece which imagines pirate treasure in an attic.

A painted WIP of Lil'J.

Echo is the youngest of The Five. His job, along with his brothers, is to provide a check against the ultimate power of PAL.

Pathologically programmed ALgorithmic computer. HAL's eccentric cousin. PAL's programmed directive is to babysit.

It's Pat! He's the brother's first mash-up deemed "pet quality". While not bright and relatively harmless, Pat is relentlessly optimistic. His inability to fly never stops him from trying.

A work in progress of my favorite farmer. Lil' J is endlessly curious and determined. His imagination is the key component in the brother's monster mash-up operation.