RWBY Series 1 Wraps Up

The first series of Rooster Teeth’s Poser Pro powered anime, RWBY. wrapped up on the 5th of this month (November 2014). Production continues on the project, but there is little official word on what comes next and when. The series has been released on DVD and Blu-ray, and the soundtrack is also out.

It has to be said that Monty Oum is one stylish devil and I must further admit to having become something of a fan of his work since a press release from Smith Micro popped up in my inbox. To be 100% honest I’d never heard the name Monty Oum till I started digging into just who was behind RWBY. I’d seen a snippet of the Haloid (Halo/Metroid) fan animation, so I had at least had a run-in with his work. I’d also seen a couple of episodes of Red VS Blue but hadn’t relised that seasons 8+ of the show were made with Poser. It was only after hunting down all Monty’s low-fi but incredibly produced and choreographed action animations (Dead Fantasy, Haloid), that I developed an appreciation of the mad skillz (as the kids say) this guy has as a director, editor and animator. This work also gave me a deeper respect for the animation potential of Poser.

It’s hard to write about RWBY without being all Oum be a god. It’s his baby. He’s responsible for the concept, directing, and large parts of writing, animation, and character design – basically all the stuff that us 3D people are interested in. But let’s not forget the awesome talent of Shane Newille too. For a look at what he can do just check out his awesome Megaman X Fanimation, for which he also did the soundtrack. It is great to see what creative, ambitious people can accomplish with a budget (though apparently with no official figures out there who knows what the budget really looks like), and basic tools.

RWBY certainly isn’t to the tastes of everyone. First and foremost anime is one of those things you either love or “can’t get”. Some are weary or outright snobish about westernised anime, and then there are the clipping and other minor animation flaws. For the most part animation shortcomings didn’t bother me, but every now and then there were instances where hair would phase through apparel and weapons sheathed on the back, or feet would slide. …but I’m not really writing a review here.

So, lets just cut to the chase. Watching RWBY has been entertaining, with some of Oum’s signature intricately choreographed fight sequences, and for me it has all been about the seeing Poser in action for a relatively high profile project. Oum’s work with Poser is inspiring, and his message of working with the tools you know and have at hand (not worrying about the tools and wiz-bang you want or think you should have) is refreshing.

RWBY is now part of Poser history. It is a rallying call to all of us that use inexpensive “hobbyist” software. The success of Rooster Teeth Productions should be equally inspiring – a production house that has its roots in no/low budget, but innovative Machinima. It really is a whole new world here on the internet. If you’re smart and you are driven you can accomplish anything with virtually whatever comes to hand.

I am looking forward to getting a copy of the RWBY DVD, watching all the episodes back to back without the distraction of ads. Most of all, I’m looking forward to Oum’s commentary. You can watch all the episodes for free at Rooster Teeth’s website and on their YouTube channel.


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Big Lazy Robot Creates AI Terror With Keloid

Keloid_07Anyone with a taste for sci-fi will find Big Lazy Robot’s (BLR) spec film, Kaloid, a tantalising treat, and all the more so if AIs and mechanized armour are your sort of thing. The film is effectively a high impact trailer for a film that doesn’t exist. The plot, as typically presented by a trailer, is not fully apparent but there are allusions to humanity having installed AIs to keep the world’s population in order, perhaps under the thumb. It seems something has gone wrong, or significant elements of the human population have grown tired of their tyrannical custodians and have decided to revolt.

Keloid from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

The film spent two years in the making for a completed film of just 3 gripping minutes. The production values are nothing short of AAA, and has purportedly attracted attention for a possible full production. The first thing I thought when I saw the robotics designs was that it looked like some of the design talent  from District 9 was somehow involved. This turns out to be true. The guy, as I know now, is Aaron Beck, who is based out of Wellington, New Zealand. In addition to his work on District 9, Beck has also worked on Avatar and Elysium. Beck’s Blogger currently has a modest following and is home to some very inspiring works of cyborgs, androids, and other sci-fi goodies.

However it pans out for Kaloid, BLR, the small Spanish based firm, has made its splash with their production work to date. Just check out their worked on the rather stylish Absolute Vodka ad. Or perhaps more interesting to us 3D enthusiasts, why not check out the fantastic advert they worked on for German electronics retailer, Saturn. For this they made and rigged the models and animated the some of the sequences.

Saturn – Evolution from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.


Poser Pro Used In Popular Web Media Red VS Blue and RWBY

Rooster Teeth Productions' anime RWBY character, Blake

It is often part of the marketing pitch that we hear programs like Poser and DAZ Studio are used in professional applications. Most of the apparent professional usage of these programs is well hidden, so we are usually left to take the word of testimonials with a slice of scepticism. The Poser page on Wikipedia offers us some insight into some uses, though they are largely unreferenced and don’t make for hugely inspiring reading if you’re looking for solid professional and creative examples.

Enter Rooster Teeth Productions

At least one addition that can be made to the list here is the extensive use Rooster Teeth Productions (RT) has made of Poser over a number of years for their popular Red VS Blue (RVB) series, and now the hugely popular RWBY (Ruby) anime styled series. While Red VS Blue began its life as a short collection of Machinima Halo parodies made with the Halo game engines, it has since moved to using Smith Micro’s Poser.

Nailing down exactly when RT moved RVB to Poser is tricky if you aren’t a constant fan (which I’m not), but it would likely be at least since Monty Oum joined the production company in 2010, bringing his serious animation and Poser skills with him.

This hilarious fight scene clearly shows that by season 8 (2010) RVB had moved out of the Halo game engine. Is this Poser? [Confirmed via correspondence with RT that RVB season 8 was Poser powered]

Oum The Mighty Poser Champion at RT?

Oum obviously bought a lot to Rooster Teeth, because in 2012 he was given the chance to give his own concept life, as creator and lead animator. Perhaps bringing more than talent, Oum bought fans. His deviantART profile has over 30000 watchers and his Hailoid (Halo fan animation) and Dead Fantasy videos have grossed millions of views at YouTube and Game Trailers.com.

Whatever the reason, the first RWBY episode has already accumulated 62K Facebook likes recorded on Rooster Teeth’s website and 1.3 million views on YouTube since upload on 25 July (2013). This makes RWBY many more times popular than Red Vs Blue Season 11.

So, what’s RWBY all about?

RWBY has an obvious anime, and JRPG inspiration to its visual style, characters and plot.The cast is composed primarily of female warrior students embarking on a new stage of their life, Studying at the prestigious warrior school, Beacon Academy. The world these characters inhabit is a dangers post mass monster invasion world where only a handful of powerful cities offer a relatively secure life. Undoubtedly this will lead through to self sacrifice and world saving heroics thrust upon a band of warriors still in the grasp of puberty.

I admit that when I first watched the initial episodes I was fairly indifferent. The show has a decidedly cutesy air about it, something I tend to steer clear of in my own content consumption (anime or otherwise), but I found the show growing on me and it’s comic style and characters endearing. Also as a 3D enthusiast and user of Poser and DAZ Studio there is a certain amount of technical curiosity. So, for all it’s stock-standard plot devices and clichéd characters, there is something about this cute, fluffy show that will appeal to many, if given half a chance.

Rooster Teeth RWBY anime Weiss (white) character

How Much Poser?

Watching an episode of RWBY is an interesting experience for Poser users, many of which would never have dreamed such a production was possible. The question soon arises, how much of RWBY is actually Poser? According to Steve “Think” Cooper and Shane Newville (artist working on RWBY) in this thread at RDNA, quite a bit. As in almost all. Steve Cooper (who apparently had a detailed outline of the workflow) says:

“RWBY, it turns out, uses very little outside Poser to generate the final video. They are modeling their characters in an OBJ friendly tool [Blender and Maya I think – Jim], then rigging, animating, and rendering inside Poser. All the sword trails, the explosions, the fabric and hair movement, even the final line work of the characters is being handled in PP 2012. They have engineered some really clever methods, with minimal material nodes and combined some tricks from one of Poser’s old timers for the trails and particle sprites.”

But what about the animation? Surely that’s all motion capture? Shane Newville says: “Maybe 1/3rd of it is mocap. For a lot of the scenes we did start with mocap, but there was so much cleanup, retiming and editing it might as well be handkeyed. There were also a lot of scenes where we just didn’t feeling like suiting up and started going to town on it. But one of the coolest parts was getting to make good use of Poser’s pose library. A lot of our older animations have been added to the pose library to be repurposed later.”

Roost Teeth RWBY anime Yang character (yellow)

RWBY Tech Panel at RTX 2013

Here are a few extra details I picked up from watching a recording of a RWBY technical panel at the RTX convention (which was sadly less detailed than one might hope).

  • Working with Poser and Blender was much quicker than a pure Blender workflow.
  • The production used lots of “cards”. 2D images with trans maps for many props like trees and “flip book” card animations for particle effects – made with particleIllusions.
  • Some physics simulation but hair etc but mostly hand animated for sake of control
  • Focus on art and getting the job done instead of focusing on incorporating the latest tools and gizmos.

Niche Audiences and Indie Budgets No Issue in Social Media Age

While Roost Teeth may have grown a lot since its humble Machinima origins, RT and RWBY are still very much niche names, but a fantastic example of how a small content house can utilise media channels like YouTube, and inexpensive software, like Poser Pro 2014 to create and disseminate appealing content and carve out an impressive claim. Perhaps it is a measure of RT’s success that it now releases all its content on its own site and simulcast on Crunchyroll, before releasing to YouTube a week later.

Whatever you think of the RWBY or Red VS Blue, you have to admit that these are impressive uses of Poser, and demonstrates a level of mastery that is inspiring. In the age of social media, and viable niches it is programs like Poser that can bring the creative dreams of individual artists and small studios to life and hopefully find fame and fortune in that niche without having to play a find the publisher game.

Limited time special on Poser 9

If you have yet to give Poser a whirl you can pick up a copy of Poser 9 for a mere 30 bucks (offer ends 30/09/2013). Considering Poser 10 is currently $299, that’s a pretty damn fantastic score. If you like the software you can then upgrade to Poser 10 or Poser Pro 2014, and make a nice saving.

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Expose 11: The Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe

Expose 11 - Digital Art annual cover artOpening a new decade of digital excellence with Expose 11

Expose is one of those annual art publications that just about every digital practitioner, 2D and 3D, beginner and elite fantasies about having their work accepted into. With Expose 11, the book has just wrapped up its first decade of publication, and bound to be a fine addition to coffee tables and bookshelves in the homes of digital art lovers everywhere.

Giving some idea of just what sort of quality you can expect from Expose 11 you only need to take a peek at some of the names on the judging panel – names like: Syd Mead (‘Blade Runner’, ‘Tron’, ‘Aliens’, and ‘2010’), Chris Perna (Epic Games Art Director), Chris Sloan (award-winning Art Director from National Geographic), Alex Morris (arch vis guru), and joining the team this year is Don Seegmiller (trad/digital painter with many books and gallery appearances under his belt).

Together the panel of judges painstakingly whittled the submission stack, some 8000 images deep, down to just 587 images from 405 artists. One can only imagine the slowly ramping up level of difficulty and pressure when it came to picking the best from the best at this level. Surely a holiday would be in order after such a task!

Many readers will undoubtedly find familiar works in the pages of Expose 11 (and any other volume of the publication). The artists in the pages of Expose are not mythical beings passing their works on to the masses through favoured servants. Many of these artists frequent art hotspots like CGSociety, CGHub, deviantART, and are responsible for high-profile works that are instantly recognisable by many. Their works adorn countless movies, novels, pen-and-paper and video games. Some of these guys will be on your friends lists and even more will be on your watch lists, and if they aren’t then they sure will be after you recollect the fragments of blown mind. To me, this familiarity is definitely part of what attracts me to these books.

The works are collected over 23 categories, including: Comic/Manga; Portrait (Painted & Rendered); Fantasy; Fantasy Femmes; Architecture (Exterior & Interior); Concept Art; Environment;  Matte Painting; Science Fiction; Robotic/Cyborg; Warriors & Conflict; Whimsical; Surreal; and Transport. Discounting the Arch Vis guys, of the remaining 13 artists specifically mentioned just two have a 3D heavy portfolio, Daniel Bystedt (new favourite of mine as of now) and Yong Soo Choi. Doubtlessly there are many more 3D artists of rather large calibre within those 288 pages, and I look forward to finding out just who is in there.

Where do I buy?

Expose 11 is currently in pre-order from Booksamillion with a release date of August 6 (paperback), and October 15th (hardcover). Strangely both versions, paper and hard, are priced very similarly, at least that’s the case at Booksamillion. Similar prices are also available at Amazon. Expose 11 is also available direct from Ballistic Publishing, though not at the discounts of amazon and Booksamillion.

Exotique 7 - Ballistic PublishingWhile you’re waiting for the release of Expose 11 why not check out some of the back catalogue (assuming you don’t already own each and every volume): Expose 10 Expose 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,

Or check out the Exotique series. Viewing by the editor, Daniel Wade, reveals many of the Exotique and other Ballistic Publishing books.

Expect a full review sometime after the pre-orders go out, and before the end of the decade.