Month Old Blender Donut

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Month Old Blender Donut

Why did it take me over a month to make a donut and coffee?

Because it’s not real!

Most of this scene was made in “Blender”, a 3-d modeling and animation software program. That includes the Donut, Coffee, Plates, Cup, Spoon, Wall and Counter.

The animation was also (partially) done in Blender. However, I’m only running on a laptop, and graphics processing takes a loooooooonnnnngggg time. It took my system 4 hours to generate one second of animation!

So, to make the final video a bit longer, I padded it out with other tricks.

  • It starts out with a static image of the coffee on the table.
  • The donut slides in (1 second of real animation).
  • Added steam to the coffee (green screen fx), and a glowing logo.
  • Used background audio and plate sliding sfx to finish the scene.

The logo was generated separately and added as an overlay in my video editor (Vegas). I also added a green screen movie of some steam for the coffee (found on YouTube). All of these embellishments make it *seem* that there’s 10 seconds of animation. But that would have taken 40 hours or more on my system.

Here’s the final still shot from my project (click for full-size):

Joe-Nut Donut (Blender)

Joe-Nut Donut (Blender)

So… Anyone else take the Donut challenge?

Joe

References:

Blender (program site): Blender.org
Donut Tutorial (Blender Guru): Blender Guru Donut Tutorial (YouTube)
Blender Guru (main site): BlenderGuru.com

 

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com

 

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Zuzubaland!

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Zuzubaland!


I’m a Hot Dog… And I finally got to play a Hot Dog too!
Zuzubaland! Hot Dog - Joe J Thomas

Zuzubaland (official site) began as a children’s book in Brazil.
The author, Mariana Caltabiano, then turned it into a cartoon series for Latin American TV, and it was dubbed into English at Bang Zoom! Studios.

The story revolves around a bee named “Zuzu” and her friends in a kingdom of food. Every episode is a fun little adventure (there’s even a witch and her hench-spider!).

Here’s a sample episode from YouTube named “Food House” (I’m the Announcer and Hot Dog):

Zuzubaland’s official YouTube page, and all the episodes so far are here:
Zuzubaland! (YouTube Page)

Zuzubaland! full cast - Joe J Thomas

The show and characters were a ton of fun to record. I hope you enjoy watching… and really hope they make more 😉

Cheers,
Joe

 

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com

 

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VHP: Virtual Henderson Project

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VHP: Virtual Henderson Project

Henderson is a cheesy beefcake of a man. If you haven’t met him yet, he’s a loose-cannon cop with the intelligence of a small soap dish. I’ve been providing his voice for Pendant Productions for a little over 3 years now, and since Season 3 is coming on March 22, I thought something special was in order.

I always wondered what Henderson would look like in real life, and recently, I purchased some new software called “Poser” that can create realistic 3-D human models. Time for a test run!

Virtual Henderson Project: The Process:
The modeling software does have a learning curve to it. This may be less if you’re actually a graphics person or an animator, but for me it was about medium level of difficulty.

After creating the model, the next step is rendering. For still images, it’s not too bad. A few minutes for each one. The animation, however, took a looooonnnnggg time on my computer. Since I wasn’t going to buy a new computer just for this project, I decided to limit the animated portion to 5 seconds. That’s 150 frames (at 30 fps), and each frame took about 4 minutes, so, yeah, long time.

The rest of the video is still shots that I pan up, down, or sideways in the video editing software (I use Sony Vegas).

For the whole project, I’d guess I spent about 30-40 hours.

Bonus! Here’s the blooper reel from Henderson and Havner Season 2:

      HandHbloopers2

…and Links to Everything Else Mentioned:

Enjoy!
Joe

 

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com

 

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Floating Head Without Green Screen

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Floating Head Without Green Screen

Hey gang!

While making my last song parody video (“The Hell of Diets“), I used a special video trick to make my head float:
The Hell of Diets! (title card)

Since I don’t own a Green Screen, I had to come up with another way.

Okay, rewind… “Green Screen? What the heck is that, Joe?”

Glad you asked! In simple terms, the actor is shot on a set that is all one color (usually green, but sometimes blue), then in the video production, the green is replaced with any other picture or video. The effect in video software is called “Chroma Key”. I’ve used Green Screen in my animation projects, such as the “Ban Ki-moon Tune!” – here’s a peek:
Ban Ki-moon Green Screen

No Green Screen? No Problem!

I realized that all I really needed was a way to ensure my face was lighted much brighter than the rest of the shot. Then I could use the Chroma Keyer in Sony’s Movie Studio software to remove everything else (the darker parts of the image).

Here are the steps (click on any image for a larger view):
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Sizzle of EVIL!

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Sizzle of EVIL!

EVIL never sleeps! (though it does “rest its eyes” from time to time)

Pitching and show bible building continues… and in that vein:

Live! from E.V.I.L. (Evil Villain Island Lair) has a new Sizzle Reel below!

PLUS! You can watch the whole series and learn more about it here:
www.LiveFromEvil.com

 

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com

 

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Ban Ki-moon Tune!

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Ban Ki-moon Tune!

Even an incomplete project can be a fertile testing grounds for growing new skills and fostering creativity. Here’s just one recent example from Joe’s Dump…

Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, didn’t have a song!
I couldn’t believe nobody had made one. Seemed like a shoe-in for a viral hit 😉

So, I created one for him – a parody of Herman’s Hermits “I’m Into Something Good”:

      Ban Ki-moon Tune! (Joe J Thomas)

Sometimes my initial goal gets expanded and leads to a more complicated project.
This time, I though I’d make a music video featuring a cartoon version of Ban Ki-moon!
Ambitious considering my level as an animator and the limitations of the software.

In the end, the video never came together… but I did learn some very valuable techniques for future projects:
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Five Star VO

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Five Star VO

Ten years ago, my career in VO got a boost of NASA proportions.

Through the kindness of a VP at Disney and five amazing animation stars, I landed my first agent.

Here’s the scoop!

Five Star VO JoeActor.com

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EVIL 007: Gathering of EVIL!

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Live! from E.V.I.L. (Evil Villain Island Lair)

Episode 7: Gathering of EVIL!

Virgil Villain and his henchman Weevil are hosting a “Lair Warming Party” on Evil Island… But with so many villains attending, who will be in control at the end?

Starring: (in order of appearance)
Joe J Thomas as Virgil Villain/Weevil
Herb Merriweather as Herb
James O. Johnson Jr. as JJ
Daniel Pierce as Mag Na Tude
Will Roberts as Atticus Merle
Marc Cashman as Johnny Wa
K. Woo as Sammy Smallfries
Nancy McLemore as Fatty Liver
Rebecca Michaels Haugh as Ida Herdja
Laila Berzins as Nicolette Clapper
(other voices by Joe J Thomas)

Gathering of EVIL! Cast

Gathering of EVIL! Cast

Live! from EVIL is a short-format 3d animated comedy series. See what happens with heroes and villains between all that action stuff 😉

Official Site: www.LiveFromEvil.com

Copyright Joe J Thomas, 2015. All rights reserved.
Not a Quinn-Martin Production.

External Links:
IMDB Listing for Ep. 007: Gathering of EVIL!
Live! from E.V.I.L. episodes on YouTube

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First Casting

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First Casting

There’s a first time for everything.

Casting for Live From E.V.I.L. was a first for me.

“So, Joe… How did it go?”

Wow! It was tough for a variety of reasons.

There were a lot of really good auditions. I’d asked for folks to come up with their own original character that would fit in at a party on EVIL Island, then voice a few lines. It was an opportunity to be really creative, and believe me, creativity is alive and rampant in Voice Acting!
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Dump Gold! (2014 Edition)

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Dump Gold!

(2014 edition)

Joe's Dump Store - Memorial Day Sale!

Joe’s Dump has been around over 2 years. With more than 100 posts, it’s time for a bit of Dump Digging to harvest out some of my favorite posts from the past year…

Organized by category for your convenience below – Enjoy!

Business:
V321.ru – The Story
Moth or Flame?
Technology Rising, Quality Sinking
You Actor
Good, Fast, Cheap – A New Take
Branding Versatility
The Myth Of Conversational VO
Silent Computer
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