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Plan for Danny Ngan

by Danny Ngan · 02/24/2002 (3:23 am) · 3 comments

I've been lurking in the shadows of this site since October, and I figured it was about time I said something (beyond a simple hello). Let me re-introduce myself. I am a 3D artist currently residing in Eugene, OR. I have experience working with the Torque Game Engine, specifically with character animations. In fact, I worked with the Torque back when it was still the Tribes2 engine (I'm one of the many former Dynamix employees). I'm currently teaching animation and 3D classes at the University of Oregon (have been for 3-1/2 years now) and working as an artist for BraveTree Productions. Oh, and Joe Maruschak is my roommate. Why is that important? Who knows. It's late...

Anyway, after lurking around here for a while, I finally have a personal photo on my profile. It is actually a render of the rig I'm using for my current character job. It is a combination of Max4's bones (red ones are animatable, blue ones stay hidden) with control objects that are custom spline shapes (the little green things attached to the skeleton). You can see a larger image here. The image was rendered using the Brazil Rendering System.

This particular job isn't using the TGE, but, just for fun, I decided to export a test animation to see if the rig would work in Show. And you know what? It worked. You can download the dts file if you'd like:

www.dannyngan.com/temp/rig.zip

This file is particularly fun if you play with the Thread Control. You can simulate the whole Matrix bullet-time effect. :)

Please note that this is just a test animation and not some of my best work. I did it to see where the skinning on my character was off and to take a break from painting vertex weights (ugh...). In fact, I hammered out this animation in about 5 minutes (Joe was standing over my shoulder as I did it).

OK, back into hiding...

#1
02/24/2002 (12:59 pm)
Danny,

Nice work!

Hehe. Reminds me of the old Toyota commecials (where the guy jumps for joy). Did you get Joe to act it out?
#2
02/24/2002 (2:19 pm)
Thanks! Joe didn't act out this one, but I have seen him practice ollies in the living room. Skateboard on carpet is very interesting. :)
#3
01/10/2003 (3:49 am)
Pity, the zip-link is no longer available..