This is a rendered image from the Journey of Oz. In this shot the Wind-Up Smasher of Oz is chasing the heros of the story–TikTok, Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodsman. The backdrop is a miniature I built out of foam, plaster, and random parts. At this point I’m not planning on finishing the animation, so instead I’m rendering out various higher quality stills from the project.

Poor TikTok! Was tweaking Smasher’s rig and I decided to do a quick render. I’m really liking the way these rigs have turned out. Smasher’s hands now stay put on the hammer, and I have 2 goals that I move around to adjust the hammer rig. The hands stay rotated and fixed on it, and the arms move separate. Woot! I still need to UV texture Smasher.

I’ve successfully re-rigged TikTok. He’s a lot easier to pose now. I’m so glad that Lightwave updated and rewrote its rigging system. This pose took no time at all to achieve. Some of the technical hurdles on TikTok involved the fact that his waist needs to stretch and move while the two halves of his body need to rotate independently as well. I also had a big issue with the rig popping and jiggling when I…

I’m getting really excited. I’m getting close to finishing up all the characters for my first scene. I think I will be animating by this summer! I started up this project in 2006 crazy enough. I’ve not been actively working on it all of that time of course. It had fallen by the wayside but in January I really started spending a lot more time getting everything going on my animation. I of course got married,…

Make sure and click the links to see the unsquished images. I didn’t shrink these down before posting. TikTok is nearly done. I’m finishing up on his texturing. I’ve just got to redo his mustache and finish up on some final detail work. I still need to do his backside more thoroughly too. The wind-up smasher is also coming along. I’m nearly done modeling him. I have to finish his riveting, do his UVs and texturing, and…

TikTok is rigged! He took me a lot less time than Scarecrow did.