Finish Line

Hey guys! So after a very emotional and physical journey to what institutions call...thesis, Jessenia and I are "done". I put the quotes because there are so many tweaks and shots that just didn't render correctly. Although we have submitted already to our department at the School of Visual Arts, we are still tweaking. We are preparing for festivals now. If you are interested in coming to our second screening, you can come down to the Visual Arts Theater on 23rd street between 8th and 9th avenue here in New York City at 7pm. More screenings hopefully coming soon. For now we tease you with our 3D print of Marla that we graciously got from our Zbrush professor here at SVA. The bug coming soon and videos of the recording session. Also worth noting that Jessenia and I are currently freelancing at Framestore NYC and that has taken up some of our time. Cheers.

C.R.E.A.M. get the money!

Just a note out there that team Luciernaga has won the Alumni Scholarship Award from the School of Visual Arts.  A grant given to students from alumni that feel their final needs the financial assistance. This news was given to us on February 12 but I just recently came across the post on the sva website so I wanted to share. We used 75% of the grant on musicians and recording studio. So watch out for a teaser trailer for our thesis and clips from the recording.

Look out for Jesse Flores - BFA Computer Art

http://www.sva.edu/alumni/index.jsp?sid0=79&sid1=116&page_id=1303

Released Poster

Here is a promotional poster for our thesis! It is coming down to the wire and we are ramping up on renders and compositing. Here is a quick taste of Marla IN COLOR and a matte painting. Spread the word!

Pre-Viz v028

Here is the latest Pre-Viz with current animation. Hope you enjoy! Jessenia and I are currently finishing up any texturing/shading left. I have started final lighting on most of the town. Although we will not leak those images out yet until they are nice and sexy.


Luciernaga Pre-Viz v028 (boards) from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Lets paint the town!

So during the holiday break I took the chance to complete the textures and shaders for the town homes and stores. Also had the opportunity to clean up anything like geometry, scenes and making sure things get referenced in correct. I hope you enjoy.

Latest Pre-Viz

Here is the latest Pre-Viz. The newest pass to our score is not sync to this new edit but I can assure you its sounding great. Newest animation is posted in this pass along with the early storyboards.


Luciernaga Pre-Viz v027 (boards) from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Bug/ Marla Turn tables

These were for a presentation but we figure we still upload. Turntables showing off model and wireframes for Marla and the bug. Marla modeled by Jessenia Nauta and bug modeled by Rogelio Olguin.


Marla / Bug Turntable from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Long overdue! Marla model and wires

Here is a short video of the Marla model along with the wireframe. Created by my incredible partner Jessenia Nauta. Good stuff!


Marla Turntable from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Animation Animation Animation

Here we have some more animation shots for you to enjoy. Look Development sheets for Marla and the town coming soon.


Shot 080 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.


Shot 100 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.


Shot 105 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Bug Rig Video

Here is a video showing off the bug rig. This rig was created by our good black magic using friend Zhenting Zhou. I know he had hell to go through between the model, animators and the directors but he did it! So proud of the rig and the great things the animators are able to do thanks to him. Much love Zhen!  Check out his blog to the right to follow this great rigger!



Bug_test from zhentingzhou on Vimeo.

Look! Whats that up there?

A quick post to let you guys know about the new logo we got up there. We went with a classic looking Disney look there. Also we figure since a lot of people couldn't pronounce it we would add the "how to enunciate" section there like Ratatouille. Nice design by the fantastic Brandon Lori. Check out his work, a link to his thesis is posted to the right.

Animation and updated Pre-Viz

Here are some final shots from our animators and also an updated Pre-Viz with either their current or work in progress animation. Soon enough we will post up the look development of Marla and the town. We are texturing and creating shaders. As well we are sending off some render passes to start our compositing pipeline. For now, enjoy some animation.


Luciernaga Pre-Viz v023 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.


Shot 025 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.


Shot 030 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.


Shot 090 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Marla Rig Video/ Reel

Here is a video showing off the Marla rig that my good friend Christian Haniszewski did for us. This also is his current character reel. Thank you Christian, without you Marla wouldn't have been able to come alive!


Marla Rig from Christian Haniszewski on Vimeo.

Silence! Marla Speaks!

Another awesome animation test done by another animator of ours; Doug Rappin. Marla will not be speaking at the end of the final thesis but this here did make us double think it. This clip was from " All Dogs Go To Heaven" and we will like to say we have no copyright over this clip. This was merely for animation test and for fun.

 
Marla Facial/ Speech Animation Test from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Fine! you can look.

Here is the released PRE-VIZ to Luciernaga. Yup finally approved to be seen by the public. Jessenia and I are very very proud and hope you enjoy this "sneak peak" at our final thesis. Its hard to make out some visuals being our thesis is heavy on effects and compositing but we promise to make it pretty. Also the music you hear is the first pass at the score for the final piece.


Luciernaga Pre-Viz v013 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

She doesn't sit still!

Some more great animation tests. These were done by the fantastic Michelle Czajkwoski. A more polished version of her earlier walk cycle test and a GREAT action test. Really bringing Marla to life with some great character. Awesome stuff. Enjoy.

Marla Animation Test Walk Cycle 03 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.




Marla Bored/Action Animation Test from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

All we need now is a plague of locust

Here we go! Here are a few angles of the final bug model. Incredible Stuff. Thank you Rogelio Olguin. The rigging is being finished off soon enough by our second rigger of the group. Below also are a few colorscripts Rogelio provided for the bug textures.

The Barrio

Here are the latest tweaks I had to do for the environment. I was not liking the way we had it, things were too straight and polished and not cartoony-ish enough. Here are some quick renders of the environment and also some awesome flower/plant models done by Rogelio Olguin.

Keanu Reeves once said WOAW!

As environments are being locked and set up for animation I came up to this shot which is the intro to the forest environment. Following early colorscripts I did, I started designing the layout and feel of the forest. I am working on a second one but for now this is concept art for the forest layout. Its very enclosed and compressed and leaves a lot of room for creepy silhouettes and hidden corners. The yellow dots will be small bugs flying around.

She's alive! She's alive!

Moment a lot of us have been waiting for; the beginnings of animation. Here we have some early animation tests we did with Marla to test out our rig. There were a lot of issues we caught early on thanks to these tests; majority of them being around the skirt area. We have solved these issues and have now distributed shots to our animator and have begun ANIMATION! In the meanwhile Jessenia and I will be doing Look Development and Texturing on Marla and environments. Big thank you to all our animators! Lets make it happen!

For more descriptive explanation on each test, click and go to our vimeo channel to read each videos explanation. More videos on the way as more tests are coming in.

TEST DONE BY SASHDY ARVELO

Marla Sitting Animation Test from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

TEST DONE BY MICHELLE CZAJKOWSKI

Marla Animation Test Walk Cycle 01 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

TEST DONE BY SEAN HANNON

Marla Jump Animation Test from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

TEST DONE BY SEAN HANNON

Marla Animation Test Walk Cycle 02 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

That lil bugger

Another epic update on the real star of the thesis. The Luciernaga (firefly). Model being done by Rogelio Olguin. A great over all artist. I have provided the concept art I did for the bug. You can def see the evolution of the bug but its looking great. Model is going through minor tweaks and missing wings but other than that, 90% complete. Going into rigging soon. Enjoy.

What in the world?

So I decided to dish out a few renders of Marlas town for your viewing pleasure. Now being these environments are created on a shot by shot basis, here is the big intro environment for you. A lot of these environments are going to be matte paintings and heavy texture work so the models are simple.

grr..eek..ahh..hee

Oh yes, it is time to reveal your first glimpse at MARLA. Now we were going to post up the model but we felt you guys deserved better. So we will start with a bang and show some expressions one of our animators did (Sean Hannon) and also include a stress test another animator did. (Michelle Czajkowski) I hope you enjoy it and are just as excited as Jessenia and I are to start ramping up in the ANIMATION STAGE of things. Shoutouts to the animators and Jessenia for doing some incredible blend shapes and of course an incredible model. Brian will be proud.


ps. since new names were just introduced, make sure to check out the blog section on the right to see more of their work.

Marla Face Rig Stress Test V001 from Luciernaga Leche on Vimeo.

Face Expressions

Yeah Yeah I know it's been awhile again. All you guys been seeing is artwork and no 3D. Well thats cuz we not trying to present any 3d till its like super awesome. Alright well school is about to start next month so there WILL and HAS to be updates more often. Pre-Viz is complete, we have the whole story and visual down and its broad and closed enough for tweaks. (look out for that pre-viz which should be posted very soon) Marla is modeled, UV'ed and in the middle of rigging-ness thanks to Miss Jessenia and our fellow rigger/modeler Christian. So below are some more awesomeness from Brian who did these expressions sheets for guess what? Blend Shapes. VITAL art pieces for getting to know Marla better and for production. As you can see Marla is growing up. This was her final stages and the final approved look for her. Incredible stuff by Brian. Jessenia and I are very grateful for his work and help. Please visit his blog. Incredible artist and incredible person. Cheers.

creepy crawlers!

Oh yes here we go some nice silhouette designs for the bugs in the forest environment and for the main luciernaga. (go translate that from spanish if you really want to know what that is) The first designs come from our fellow modeler David Chen. Second one comes from Christian Haniszewski, one of our modeler/riggers of the group. And the last ones are mine. We have more finalized version but you'll just have to wait for those.

Also if you may have noticed as more names are mention we will be posting their blogs up so you can check out their work. Give credit where credit is due.

Here we go again

Yes yes I know, no recent updates. Well good news..theres one now. lol Models are coming in and I got to take a sneak peek at the Marla model. OoOOh man! This should be rigging month and more environmental modeling stuff. We are hard at work and we cannot show no 3D-ness just yet. Until then I will humor you with some color studies I've been cooking up. These are vital in any production to set the mood and feel you want for your film. It helps during texturing and lighting/compositing later on. Also keeps me on my toes being there will be tons of Matte Painting going on. Enjoy!

Ps. Jessenia is working on a sexy new banner for the blog as you may have noticed, title changed from LECHE to LUCIERNAGA. If you ponder what that is, go to dictionary translate from Spanish to English.. hush hush.. SPOILER? Also some nice bug designs coming soon. watch out for those!

A Proper Intro to Miss Jessenia Nauta

I came to realization that my fellow thesis partner was never formerly introduced in the blog! After many countless nights of guilt I decided that when she will be introduced, it will be with a bang. So here it is, a flower design I made earlier in the year that I handed over to her to "pimp" it out. Clearly she did not disappoint and with my tiny -2 cents she smacks the world with this. A style sheet that represents the colors and beauty that we are hoping to achieve. Mucho love to Jessenia!! ENJOY!

Design/ Modeling/ Texturing/ Lighting/ Rendering - Jesse
Compositing/ FX/ Layout and Composition - Jessenia

lets play dress up!

So authorization from Jessenia was needed for this post, and I got it. The awesome clothing concepts she designed for Marla. Incredible stuff. Thats 2 posts in one day...Oh snap!

It's worth mentioning that after her sketches we realized that Marla needed to look a bit older compared to Brian's sketches. So these sketches are closer to Marla's final proportions.

where you taking me?

So I know its been a while but do not go sleeping on us just yet. Jessenia and I have tons of goodies for all of you. At the moment she is helping out on the presentation of some environment props I model/textured/lit and composited; so look out for those soon. Also some clothing concepts for Marla that Jessenia cooked up are being laid out for presentation at the moment. I'd like to post up some environment sketches I've been working on. The first 2 are all digital and the last one I did some marker/pen sketches and then brought them into photoshop for some quick value and light studies. Enjoy!

More finalizing characters

So once again B-Rye attacks with some awesome work for me. i am beginning a first pass at the modeling of the character, at least a general base to see a feel for her, I will post that soon but until then, enjoy some more B-rye concept art work. Make sure to check him out at ( http://brianjartworks.blogspot.com/ )

MUCHO LOVE BRIAN!

Character Designs

I am generally focusing on environmental design, color and lighting, texturing and framing for my thesis, so I have one of my closes friends (http://brianjartworks.blogspot.com/) helping me out with the character designs for my thesis and of course he did not let me down. Here are the first pass at the 3 characters for my piece. I know..3 characters. There is a massive team in the works but still I know its a lot. There is still more development to make but here they are.


The current name for my main character (compliments to Brian) is "Marla".