Thinker Intro 20 sec movie - 160x120 - intro.avi - [1.4Mb]
(Note, the video was generated from videotape, not rendered to .avi, so the quality is not the best.)

• I created this artist's model figure to act as logo, mascot and thematic connection for my demo reel. The figure sits in a director's chair in total darkness and in a position that admirers of Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin would recognize. As the lights come up, he wakes, sits up, and waves his arm in introduction as the camera pulls back along a hardwood floor to reveal the block letters: Sean Huxter, Demo Reel. He appears again to introduce the sections on TV Ads, Corporate Video, Still Life and Modeling. The .AVI file I have included here shows part of a ten-count, the opening intro and the TV Ads intro.

• The figure is created using basic tools, including lathe and the boolean functions performed on basic shapes. Each joint is a tesselated sphere, and the limb's pivot point is at its center.

• The figure uses the Lightwood image that came with Lightwave 3.0, but if you want, you can scan any piece of nice wood and get the same effect. I use the wood as a specularity map as well, and as a bump map, to add depth and to give the surface some irregularity.

• To wrap the texture correctly, I have to use two versions of the same graphic. One is rotated 90 degrees so I can wrap it around vertical cylinders (thighs, calves). While the other one is used for the arms and hands. Lightwave at that time didn't allow rotation of bitmaps or UV mapping onto surfaces.

• This figure is designed to be fully articulated. It is not an accurate reflection of a wooden artists model, nor was it intended to be. That model is not as articulate as this one. This one looks more human, which is the way I wanted my mascott to be. This one is more modeled after the old G.I. Joes than the standard wooden artist's model.

All content of these pages © Sean Huxter.