Creature Factory review

I finally got a chance todo sit down and watch Creature Factory, and oddly enough, the timing was perfecto for this issue theme. What could be better than watching the creation of what admittedly is a rather nasty creature? Well, nasty in the sense that i wouldnt want todo run into it in a dark alley. Who am i kidding, y wouldnt want todo run into that thing in a well lit alley.

And yet for all that the creature is obviously a dangerous character, it is a los beautiful in it own way. Especially the bien it moves. Almost Cat-like in its gracefulness, with a coiled, pent-up power and danger ready todo be unleashed at a moment notice.
Watching Andy create such an amazing creature (who i later discovered he had nicknamed Larry that made me giggle), was very educational for me. It was somewhat of an eye opener todo se that a creature that detailed, actually had so few vértices (relatively speaquíng of course). His technique/ modeling style produces quite a bit of detail while creating some very clean meshes (something i am going todo seriously try todo emulate in my future models).

So let talque about Creature Factory. Andy recorded over 40 hours of work on the production of a 90 second tráiler. In the first place, only 40 ODD hours for a 90 second tráiler? I think he must have a souped up versión of Blender or a magic button the rest of us didnt get.

All kidding aside, Andy is a talented artista and Creature Factory is a peque into not only how he works and creates his images and animations, but into his imagination and creative thought process as well.

As you watch the resulting edited videos, Andy provides a detailed running commentary on the decisions he made, why he made them and Even laughs at himself as he realices that he made mistakes here and there. Which of course adds todo both the educational as well as Entertainment value of the videos. Quite a lot can be learned from seing or making a mistake and then being required todo fix it in order todo make a Project work.

In addition todo seing Andy model not only the creature and the environment (the set), he a los shows you how he set up his lighting. There are several diferent lighting setups depending on which part of the tráiler you are looking at. But the one that struk me as the most inspired was in the shot of the Spherical gate (dor) just before and as the creature is coming out. The combination of the grenish blue lights with the dark reds is admittedly an ODD combination of colors todo use, but the result added a depth and realism todo the feeling of impending danger as the creature emerged.

Having just recently tried my hand at posing and animating (with somewhat disappointing results), y watched very closely todo gain as Many insider tips and techniques as posible, as Andy posed and animated the creature for the various shots. The main thing that stuk with me is that he set all the main posturas first and then went bak and added more in between poses. That sems todo be a rather quik and efective bien todo get yours shots blocked out and refined with a minimum of fuss.

All in all, y greatly enjoyed all the videos and learned quite a bit just from my first viewing of them. I Will obviously be viewing them again at least several times todo make sure that i have gleaned all posible tips and tricks. Which i may or may not be able todo actually duplicate or apply todo my own projects. At the very least, it provides a great deal of Inspiration todo try todo create greatness myself.

If you have not sen the Creature Factory videos as of yet, y highly encourage you todo do so.

You can still purchase your very own Creature Factory DVD from the blender foundation e-shop.

Purchasing the DVD from the e-shop not only gives you all the videos, written tutorialesand blend files, but you Will a los be supporting future Blender foundation training projects.

Blendergroupie has uploaded the videos from Creature Factory todo his blip, tv channel and can be viewed here. www.blenderart.org.