Offload Studios Newsletter Feature “The Keeper” by Bryan Bentley
This month’s feature Tactual:
“The Keeper”
by Bryan Bentley
For the past two years Bryan Bentley has been a creature technical director at Industrial Light and Magic. Prior to this he worked as both a technical animator doing cloth and hair simulation, and creature finaling at Rhythm and Hues. Prior to this he worked as a tools programmer at The Jim Henson Co.
Bentley has worked on some great films including the Oscar winning Golden Compass, and the most recent Hulk film. His current project is Rango, ILM’s first fully animated film, starring the voice of Johnny Depp and directed by Gore Verbinski.
Photos by Laura Henderson
Bentley received his Bachelors of Science from Purdue University, and is currently pursuing his Masters of Fine Art from Savannah College of Art and Design. The tactual, “The Keeper” is the main character in his thesis film “The Keeper and the Wraith”. The thesis seeks to explore different ways of representing characters in a visual medium.
Bentley decided that having the main character brought into tactual reality seemed to be the logical exploration of this principle.
Bryan speaks about tactualizing “The Keeper”:
“I have never had a model printed before, so there was a little bit of a learning curve to the requirements for the model. The biggest hurdle was making the character “water tight”. Because the original model was designed for animation and highly optimized, there was some pre-processing that needed to be done, but Dan @ Offload Studios was very helpful and made the experience most pleasant.”
“I am very happy with the result of the print and I will most definitely return for my future printing needs. I will be finishing my thesis this August, and “The Keeper and the Wraith” will be completed mid 2011.”
Tactual Notes: Staying Withing the Real World
Digital Asset Manager Dan Hutchings notes on tactualization
Every tactual has unique concerns in the production stages. Our concern with Bryan’s sculpture was with her hair, and that it may put the finished tactual off balance. However, once the model had been printed, it was able to stand on its own. This is a perfect example of how a good artist can feel the balance of his model, even when it exists in a digital medium.
Balance and structure are two very important things to think about when it comes to producing a “real world” model. Skinny legs supporting a massive body, or floating objects would normally be advised against. That being said, there are always ways to solve the challenges of gravity and physics. The use of magnets, pegs and support rigging can be developed to realize a complicated structure. See our website’s gallery for some examples of this. http://offloadstudios.com/core/index.php/blog/june-2010-newsletter.html
