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January 23, 2007 Felix Francis Noble He's finally here and he's perfect. Early on Tuesday the 16th of January, after a relatively very short (but of course, painful) labour for a first pregnancy, Felix Noble came into the world kicking and screaming before going straight on for a feed (for three hours!). It was such a surreal feeling to be suddenly presented with this shiny blue-grey mass of small person. I remember thinking "I know where you came from, but where the hell did you come from?" It was such a weird feeling see him go from ultrasound images, heartbeat sounds and some thuds in a stomach to cry into life and become a real person. I've been told that once you see your baby that you immediately fall in love with them. I have to say, this wasn't the case. Maybe because I was aware that it was supposed to happen. I was too overwhelmed with everything that had happened that night. At the end of it all, I was exhausted and was looking forward to going home to sleep, but as I turned back to look at Ellie and Felix after saying goodnight, it hit me. I was now a big part of a family that I loved and felt a deep unity with. It was suddenly a gut wrenching thing to have to leave them - even if it was for only a few hours. All I can think is how lucky
we are (which is pretty apt, as Felix means lucky as well as happy).
Lucky that he's turned out so perfectly, that the labour wasn't
ridiculously long, there were/are no medical problems with him or
Ellie, that he's a lovely and chilled out kind of guy and that over the
last three nights he's only woken up for a feed two times each night! I can't say it often enough, I feel so fortunate for all that I have and I appreciate it so much.
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January 14, 2007 Well, we're still waiting for that baby... He's now 8 days late, but we
were told that 75% of first births are late, so I guess it shouldn't
really be too much of a surprise. I think I've finally put in all of the things that I wanted to do to the rig. The outstanding things were making the script not name dependant and being able to adjust the number of fingers. This I think, is what I want
the rig to be. I don't have any more things I want to really add
to it. So barring any major bugs that anyone finds, I think this
will be the last version of the rig I will make. It's been almost
6 years of developing it now and that's a very long time.
Luckily, I'm very happy with the final result. I think I've taken comfort out of the fact that I am actually creating something, as opposed to our regular rampant consuming of things; and this thing I've created actually helps other people to create things. It's been really satisfying to see a great piece of animation and get an e-mail telling me that that artist had a great time animating it because of my rig. My hope is that it becomes so widely used that it becomes the standard in max and is the first thing people think of when they want to animate a bipedal character in 3ds max (perhaps I should send an e-mail to Autodesk, to see if they want to bundle it into future versions of max...). I don't think it has fully sunk in that this chapter in my life could now be over. I've been working on it for so long that I'm not sure what I'll be doing with my spare time in future. Perhaps I'll actually do some animation, but I think I'll be spending a lot of it just enjoying what it's like to be a dad. That is if that frickin' kid ever arrives! |
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December 18, 2006 Wow, what a year. In the time since I last updated this rambling little rant, I bought a house, got a big promotion to animation supervisor on a fully animated TV series and most importantly - in about three weeks, I hope to become a dad for the first time. As part of my preparation for impending fatherhood, I need to clear out one of the biggest things that will distract me from being a good father - the rig. I've been working during any spare time I could find here and there to make sure it's ready for its major update before the boy's born (we found out it's a boy by the way). There are a couple of things I would like to add to it (the ability to change the number of fingers being the main one), but all in all I think it's ready to release; and what a release for me it will be. I found that as I was scrambling to get it done before the baby's due date, I was making a lot of the other things I was supposed to be doing a lesser priority - namely, taking care of my partner in her time of need during the pregnancy. Generally I think I was there for her, but the rig became a big obstacle in preventing me from being as supportive as I could and should have been. In the end, I began to see the rig as more of a burden, something that was getting in the way of my relationship, but something that I had to complete. I take lots of pleasure working on it (in some weird, masochistic kind of way), but at the same time, I'm glad to not have to work on it any more ...well, for quite a while at least. This update to the rig was a
lot more work than I anticipated and I contemplated for a long time as
to whether the time I have put into this rig deserves some financial
compensation. Basically, I was VERY close to making this rig (well, the
resizing script actually) not free to download. A lot of people said I
should be charging money for it - and they're probably right. I guess
the fact that this rig has made a lot of people happy and aids in their
creativity is a good enough reward for me. It's been a big transition year into becoming an adult. As of a couple of weeks ago, I turned 33 and now I stare down a shortening road towards 40 with a whole new set of challenges in my life to come. ...however, being an animator means that I have the duty to remain a kid at heart. Huzzah!
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February 1, 2006 Yep, you guessed it, I've updated the rig again. The squishing of bugs is laborious, but it's a hell of a lot better than having a crappy rig out there with my name on it. Even though I'm back home, the stop-start life of a freelancer is no different here than over there. Well, I guess the difference is that unlike London, and in Melbourne particularly, there are a lot less visual effects houses here that I can peddle my wares to. It's funny, when you finish a
job with no new job in sight, the time you have off is scary as you
stare into the abyss of unemployment. However, when you get the call
that you're wanted on a job, the time you have off now becomes this
small, precious nugget of time that you know other artists would just
love to have.
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January 22, 2006 ...and I'm home again. After my 3 year London odyssey I have returned to the - undeniably, unbelievably hot - shores of Australia. I shall say no more than: today it was 43 degrees. Celsius. It's good to be home though. I'm trying to move onto the next stage of my life. You know, that stuff you're supposed to be doing after you turn 30 (which was two years ago by the way). Buying a house, getting married, raising a family. Ugh. It's such a cliché, but at the same time, I think I'm kinda ready for it... Japan was wonderful yet again (that was my 4th trip there - the stays are never long enough). Food is great, people incredibly friendly and (in Kyoto especially) it's almost impossible not to take a good photo, it's that beautiful. Yep, you guessed it, I've added a new version of my favourite waste of "time that could be spent animating": the skeleton rig!
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August 18, 2005 Updated the site for probably the last time before I leave for home. Added a commercial I worked on a little while ago. It's for... beef and lamb, as advertised by an animated Ian "Beefy" Botham and Alan "Lamby" Lamb. However, the voices of the characters are actually them (if you don't know cricket you've probably got no idea what I'm talking about). I've uploaded a new version of the skeleton rig. This time it's more of a... shall we say, core rewrite (as this seems to be the rant du jour on cgtalk about the recent announcement of 3dsmax 8) rather than a bug fixing exercise. I just tried to make it a little quicker to work with - although I'm sure that once max 8 comes out, the current delay in manipulating the rig shall be but a memory.
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July 18, 2005 As part of the process of moving back to Australia, I'm moving the website to a new server. Say hello to www.bradnoble.net (I JUST missed out on bradnoble.com dammit). To celebrate the move, I've finally uploaded the Captain Scarlet animation I did (almost two years ago!) and updated the rig yet again (every time I upload it I feel confident I've fixed everything and then someone at work will come across some annoying little bug that was created when I was thinking I was being clever).
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July 4, 2005 Guess what, there were a couple of tiny oversights with the rig - believe me, they really were small! Well, they're now fixed. I'll never say "bug-free" ever again (oops, just did). I've uploaded a script that will resize dummy cubes to sizes that can take them out the category of cubes and into the realm of... boxes! I'm going home! Yes, after two and a half years in London I'll be heading back to Melbourne, Australia in October. It's a bittersweet feeling. I'm quite homesick for the clean air, good life, good weather, family, friends, etc. but I'm also not looking forward to saying goodbye to the friends I have here, the amazing amount of stuff that goes on, the ability to easily see Europe, walking down the street and hearing half a dozen different languages, etc. Though I definitely won't miss the weather and the general filth!
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May 13, 2005 Skeleton rig 1.6 is now up! It's not quite the feature packed update 1.5 was but it does iron out a lot of issues and I think that it is now bug free (I'm always setting myself up for a fall when I say dumb things like that). Now to get onto my marketing department to let it be known in the community. Yeah, still keeping myself busy. I'm off to Morocco next week for 9 days, very excited about that. After taking literally hundreds of photos on my last trip of only 6 days in Bavaria I don't know how my photo albums are going to handle Morocco too.
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March 3, 2005 Someone found a wee bug in the resizing script. Have fixed it and uploaded it. I hope people read this to get the update. Well, I'll put the word out on the forums and hopefully that should cover most interested parties...
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February 27, 2005 Hey? Did I say I'd keep my promise? That's right. Skeleton rig v1.5 for 3dsmax 7 AND skeleton rig v1.25 for 3dsmax 6 are now available!
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February 26, 2005 The next (and most probably final) version of the skeleton rig is almost ready! I got an e-mail from someone saying that they had a slight problem resizing the legs of the r6 version. Well lo and behold he was right and there is a pretty major problem with the resizing script for the r6 version (the r7 version is fine as far as I'm aware). Sorry about that folks. I'll see if I can fix it quickly. There will also be some new animation up soon too.
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January 23, 2005 This is just a heads up (am I seriously using the term "heads up" here? Maybe I should chuck in a "FYI" while I'm at it!) on why the site's been quiet for a while. I'm busy at work at the moment and although I have not updated the site, that doesn't mean the ol' skeleton rig hasn't been touched. Far from it. The rig is being used in its first full production role (three concurrent TV commercials) and I must say, it's been passing the test with flying colours. However, there have been some improvements made to it along the way as it's been exposed to other animators and the way they work. Anyway, a new version is coming and it'll add quite a few features that will make it even easier to use. By the way, happy new year everyone. I spent my NYE in Antwerp. In case you're wondering, it's the second biggest city in Belgium and is a great place to visit. MUCH less tourist oriented than the other European cities I've seen but still very beautiful (especially of you like art nouveau) and full of incredibly friendly people (probably because of the lack of tourists). Finally, just have to say, saw Napoleon Dynamite the other day and loved it loved it loved it. I guess it's just my kind of film (ie. basically where nerds are cool!).
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November 26, 2004 Long time no update. Uploaded version 1.2 of the skeleton rig. Small fixes, little additions, you know. Still crashes on exit though! Grrrr! I've put up a 3dsmax 6 version of the rig as well as a dedicated 3dsmax 7 version. All future updates (version 1.25 will be available in a few weeks) will be made only for 3dsmax 7. On a side note, I'm on to 3dsmax7 now and it's a cracker of a release. It seems to have been made with riggers in mind (I thought I was supposed to be an animator! Hmmm... must remedy that with some actual animation). Next week I'm back home to Melbourne for only two weeks to soak up as much sun and Australian lovin' as possible to last me through these ridiculous London winters.
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October 19, 2004 I've uploaded the Thunderbirds title sequence I worked on earlier in the year. Che-che-che-che-check check it out!
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October 18, 2004 It's about time for an update here. I uploaded version 1.1 of the skeleton rig, addressing a few (fortunately small) problems people were having with it and a few things I had noticed myself. Secondly, I've uploaded Watermelon Love to the animation section. It's a short film by Joji Koyama where I was working mainly as effects animator. It's a great little film containing the timeless themes of seduction, watermelons and excessive packaging. Finally, I just have to say, 2000 hits in the first week! I'm rather overwhelmed by the good responses I've had for the rig, the site and the animation. Thanks.
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October 2, 2004 Wow. After putting the word out on a few CG forums, I've managed to get over 300 hits in my first couple of days. Finding it a little hard to believe, but thanks to everyone who has had a look at the site. My guess is that everyone's come for the rig but I hope they like the other stuff too.
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September 30, 2004 After having a bit of a problem registering www.brad-noble.com (on the account of me being a hasty dufus!), I found my brain and fixed the problem. www.brad-noble.com is now online!
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September 23, 2004 IT'S DONE! The rigging section is complete (and looking pretty snazzy in my opinion. Did I just say "snazzy"? ...oh dear) and that makes the website complete! Have fun.
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September 21, 2004 Animation section is done, as is the scripts section! Only the rigging section to go. That one will require some work before it's 100% ready...
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September 20, 2004 Inserting animation today, as usual, it's tougher than I first thought. It's still exciting when it works though...
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September 18, 2004 Experimenting with frames... pretty tough!
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September 16, 2004 Thanks to my girlfriend's suggestion of turning the capital I in Index.html to a small i, I now have the page turn up by default. Hooray!
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September 15, 2004 Today, I've started getting my website
online. It's basically (in maybe the most basic way possible) a test to
see if this works. No links working (yet), just pictures. |
