It has been a while since my last post on personal stuff here, huh?

Today is just for a quick 2D animation exercise I did yesterday. It is to start my account on Vimeo, where I will share new videos. Soon I will post a TV spot I animated. I'm only waiting for the narration to be completed. =)

Virgilio - Basketball 2D Animation test from Virgilio Vasconcelos on Vimeo.

Kung Fu Panda will take almost a month to have its premiere here in Brazil. I am really looking forward to it, that will open just after Wall-E in local theaters.

Fortunately there are things everyone can see no matter where you live, thanks to the internet, like this cool CG Society article on the production of what's being considered the DreamWorks masterpiece.

Tomorrow begins the greatest animation festival in the world: Annecy.

Oh, well... Some day I'll manage to go. =)

If you're reading this post and happent to have the chance of attending to it, please don't miss this opportunity! You'll see great things like the new Pixar short, a Richard Williams lecture (and possibly his DVD release) and the new movie by Bill Plympton, among other very cool things.

GeneriRig is well known by who study character animation, and we often see it in action in sites like 11 Second Club.

Originally made for Maya, it has been ported to 3DSMax. Now it's Blender time! =)

Karl Erlandsen made it and we can download GeneriRig for Blender. Among the features:

- IK/FK arms and legs, with the ability to blend between IK and FK modes and to scale them along their length
- FK spine, with the ability to scale individual FK segments
- Facial shape keys from the original Generi rig, complete with driver-based interface.
- Reverse-foot IK setup with automated foot/toe roll.
- Head and eye aiming.
- Automatic eyelid tracking as the eyes move.
- Stablity - this rig is fully capable of flips and upside-down motion.
- Zeroed controllers. Just select any controllers and press Alt-S/Alt-R/Alt-G to reset them back to their default state.
- Blended forearm rotations - twisting the wrist won't lead to the dreaded "drinking straw effect".
- Facial modifiers for the jaw, the brow, the tongue, and even ear controls
- Character scaling
- Locked controllers - if you can translate/rotate/scale it, then try it and see what happens!
- Locked selection - selecting all controllers is as easy as hitting the 'a' key...

I have a new object of desire: the Richard Williams DVD masterclasses recorded at Blue Sky Studios.

Below, the trailer! Wow!

UPDATE:

At the time I wrote this there wasn't anything on Richard's website, but as Joel noticed in the comments section now there are some very cool videos that makes me even more willing to buy this 16 DVD box set. =)