light test

a few light test on the scene.  I like the first one the most.  I don't want to give too much story but she needs to want to go outside, and the house needs to feel quiet, almost dead.  The second feels very staged to me. like a cartoon, at least for inside.  I can see the second as exterior night time lighting.  While the third seems okay, but I'd like more depth in a night shot.  I believe the part of me that loves the night scenes in Batman the animated series is picking at these images.

now with clearer eyes

Making updates after some helpful suggestions. clear eyes

Gertrude lighting render

A render from a scene in the Grim.  I liked the first renders, but I felt like they could still be better, or at least look more solid.  Maybe it's because I'm use to stop motion, but I like CG to look like I can touch what's on screen.  I'm glad I messed with the lighting and rendering early on to get the look I want.  I love the eyes in this render and the ambiance makes me think of films like "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", which is exactly what I wanted.

Episode two first animations

Here's a first look at animations being done for the second episode of the grim.  This time around Gertrude's hair is being animated through cloth so I just need to run a simulation after completing her body animation.  This is much better than the last model whose hair had to be animated along with the rest of the body through controls on the side.  I hope to post other scenes in progress later, so long as they don't give away anything.

New Grim animtation begins.

Just started animating and rendering scenes for the second Grim film.  After the first short I learned a lot about working with layers like master layers and ambient occlusion.  For this film I'm now using a larger series of render passes including ambient occlusion, depth of field, specular, reflections, and others.