I guess I have to finally admit it... since Novemeber 1st (+-2 days :P) I'm a part of project called "Samsonadzeebi", which is kinda Georgian remake of Simpsons.... I'm just an animator there, please don't kill me!!! :P
poor us have to make about 20 minutes of animation every week and there is just 4.5 of us! u might imagine how not easy it is and what a simple animation we have to do to manage meeting deadlines...
unfortunatelly the first episodes were really poor, but I have to admit that progress is obvious... so to all people out there shouting out loud how BAD the series is... yes, sometimes they suck! But we are working really hard to change it)

Couldn't find 2nd or 3rd episodes on the web. So I decided to simply post an ad of the series.... khm... try... try to enjoy)

www.gtv.ge - is a web site I was kinda asked to create long time ago... like 4 years I guess... in those times I only new html and css, so it was veeery simple and updating the page was a terrible headache...
Recently I've learned Joomla, so I decided to make the site run on Joomla and improve the design a little bit...
I'm still not sattisfied with the look, but it's as far as I could go. It's just that my clients are afraid of changes and I didn't want to frighten them for free ;) so here it is) just letting you know)

This night I came up with an idea of an animated short. It's quiet simple yet IMO - original)
Plus I'm really out of practice in animation so I wanted the short to be kind of my come back) we'll see)

Here is a design of an XML Image Gallery I'm currently working on. It will be my first XML based flash app so it will take me few days I guess...

Available on flashden

VerticalPreloader is an utility I've designed and programmed to sell on flashden marketplace. It's currently waiting for approval. UPDATE: It's now available on Flashden too

Meet Chris... by ~DarkTs on deviantART

This is the very Chris I've done in 3D... this is my vision of him in 2D ;)

All choices done... by ~DarkTs on deviantART

Are you afraid of getting old?
Of realizing the very terrible fact, that all the choices, that you've done were wrong and haven't led to anything you ever wished for!

Tbilisi Extreme Sports Show 23.06.09 from Alfred Tsaizer on Vimeo.

I've always loved filming and editing... well, lately thank's to Tbilisi city hall I had the opportunity! Unfortunately my camcorder didn't have enough battery life, but well... I captured what could... and edited it (the part of process I love!))) )
so... please enjoy)

camera, edit, color - me)

music - Heart and Bonebreaker (by Illectronic Rock)

It's an update of my 2008 demoreel and I guess that's it... )) the next one's gonna be 2009)
Sorry for the stupid things I did with the sound... (I'm glad if u don't know what I'm speaking about ;) ) Anyway I'm not a sound editor...

I hope in my 2009 demoreel I'm gonna have less too "cartoonish" characters, couse i've got plenty of them so far... I hope to try myself in VFX and Compositing this year and in some sureal animation projects))


AlfredTsaizer 2008 CG & 3D Animation Demoreel from Alfred Tsaizer on Vimeo.

Did it just for fun while testing the rig...

+4 hours.... and body rigging is finished....  yeah, I know, I know...  it's too long for such a simple thing as using some automated rigging scripts, but what can u do... I'm new to Maya... so anyway... I've tried this thing, called Rig-O-Matic (liked it cause it sounds like a pluginf for MAX))) ) but couldn't make it work at first.... so as i'm starting to get tired and loosing the will to do the project, I decided I should do the rig in some more simple way... so I could still respect myslef and keep on doing the thing :P :D :D
So I've used FullBodyIK... it took me 15minutes of joints placement, 15 minutes of typeing (!) and about half an hour of fine tuning... (which includes finding renaming errrors, changeing joints placement and running the FBIK again and again...) 
never seen FBIK before... just read about it once... but i pretty like it... the only thing i didn't really get if there is a possibility to turn to FK... well, even if there is not - nevermind... I can live with that on this guy....
So, the only thing that is left to call the character done is skinning... and it's gonna take me about an hour I guess, coulse I've already done it once in Maya...
that's it for now)

Rigging

Here we are with the update! +10 hours....
Had little problems and that's why it took me 10, instead of 6 planned... plus decided to tweak the head shader and textures a bit more... u might not notice the difference, but it is there! somewhere.... i guess.... :P :P )))
had to redo the UV layout.... I used the UnfoldUV for the first time, so had a little problems.... guys who use UnfoldUV will understand me... they probably where in the same nearly crazy state when started using the software for the firs time... then I had to study the displacement exporting from the ZBrush and so on...
I'll probably add the guy nails to make it more alive and after that 'll start body rigging.... probably will use some free rig, couse I'm not in the mood of inventing rigging workflow in Maya.... not in the mood of watching 6 more hours of tutorials.... no...
I want to bring the idea to some state, where I can call it finished and start the next one... TheBaloonStory!) my short animation movie which has it's place in my mind for already over a year.... and didn't go far from my imagination... only have the script and lots of visual ideas so far....

Didn't have enough time for the last two weeks... exams, friends from other countries comming here, wild parties and so on))))
But here I am, back to the Chris)
I've added him the body!) And already Unfolded it) it's about +6 hours from the last check point) 
Gonna texturize and shade it tomorrow, I guess)

An here I am... after two weeks of rigging (why whole 2 weeks? couse I had to study how people rig in Maya))) special thanks to array[0] for supporting me and saving the project's ass))) ) and 2 days of shading.... finally I still didn't manage to get Normal map into Maya mental ray fast skin shader (I'm not saying a word about the displacement map) so poor me had to use good(?) old(!) bump mapping... but anyway I'm queiet sattisfied with the result... with both the shader and rigging....
I've got about 15 BlendShapes... plus 6 BlendShapes that are DrivenKeyed... (for the effect of eyes effecting skin while moving, wrinkles showing up when brows move and lips not intersecting when lips come to close to each other....)
18 joints, that have an effect  (excluding thouse which connect them)...
and 2 clusters)

the shader is mental ray fast skin shader as I've mention earlyer... thanks to Gnomonology Face Rendering in MentalRay by Alex Alvarez (the guy is great)... it would be even better if you, mr Alvarez, did explain how to use Normal maps with the shader... but anyway... hope will find out myself) thanks again)

Actually I forgot to turn MeshSmosthing back on before starting render, so... soryyyy))) :P and I'm to inpatient to start the rendering from the beginning.... although it's just a test.... bud I'll leave the render for night so u'll see it tomorrow)


Chris. First Animation Test from Alfred Tsaizer on Vimeo.

Plans:

Now I'm going to add the fellow both hands and shirt or... Ok, Nina, U win! I'm gonna add him both legs to! but it's just because u said)) beautiful women gonna kill me some day)
I guess I have to prepare my brain for new study.... I have to learn how people use Cloth in Maya... (GOD DAMN THE SOFTWARE CHANGING PROCESS!!!)
plus we're gonna have to learn the Hairing process and give the guy some.... and then.. then the setup is over and we will be finally able to start animating...
It's a disaster, that I don't know yet what EXACTLY I'm going to do with the guy... I mean I don't have certaing script yet... just some ideas... mostly stupid....

The idea came to me about 4 month ago... untill now had no time to start doing it.... it's gonna be a short (very short! less then a minute) of facuial animation.... aaand... maybe I'll create him the upper body to... with hands! :D :D

Here is the brief WIP by stages of modeing and texturing. 

Animation test from Alfred Tsaizer on Vimeo.

That's an animation test I've done for one studio to decide wether or not I'm the animator they need.
I've used standard CharacterStudio Biped plus face rig of the famous free "Max" rig. I just didn't want to use my riggs so I could concentrate on animation only (instead of finding and fixing some of my rigging mistakes ;) ).

It took me 19 hours within 4 days to animate it...

I actually did a little bit more, then the task said... . it's just that I was taught, that any animation should tell a story and a u should always know why, when and where character is doing what he is doing.... So the story I've shown in the animation came to my mind when I read the task)

Welcome to my blog. Here I post things I've done and things I do in progress. 

( My Works )

Decided to finaly make my own page... just to have my showreel there, and its url all over the net)) 
Decided not to complicate it and not spend to much time on it... couse, after all I'm not a web-designer)
So this is the sketch and i guess I'll use Flash to turn it into a web-bage, or... or maybe good old HTML)) depends on my moood ;)

Ok ok.... i had none of your comments, but i had my second look) and then i had the third one and then the fourth and so on....
so what i came up with is that... YES the blue was to much)) at first i believed, that it makes the design more light... less sweet) but... then i understood, that maybe very candy design is what we need, so here it is...
As u can notice the fonts are changed to...  in the first sketch it was just my favourite Arial, which i always use for the first stage sketches... it's just like a null font...
I added some more placeholders, like the text in the News and Shop paragraphs just to see how the page will look filled... it's still a bit empty, but i guess that's not my problem so far... i need some info to fill it in...
So this is for now...  if u have something to say about this... don't leave it to yourself ;) say it aloud))) i would be glad to hear it)