November - 2021

My Research Interests

As an artist who uses the computer, my animations and artwork represent large parts of my research. But my work as an artist/animator who also teaches leads me into compelling avenues of inquiry that may not be aesthetically stimulating, but which are relevant either in producing my artwork or teaching my students. MEL scripting, for example, is not beautiful to look at (unless you are a technical director perhaps); but it may facilitate some aspect of animation that is not readily apparent. This section of the site is dedicated to providing some explanation of these types of projects.

ek_placeGreeb.mel

Hand in hand with ek_panelMaker.mel, ek_placeGreeb is a script designed to help with spaceship construction, but it can do quite a bit more. Basically, it uses Maya's Geometry and Normal constraints to snap an object to the center of a single face on another object. The user can then slide the object around the surface of the target object. When finished, the user can delete the normal and geometry constraints. Usage: This script allows you to stick chosen geometry to a surfa

ek_panelMaker.mel

This past summer (2021), in the hopes of aiding my students in creating a new Hard Surface Modeling assignment I had conceived for the new MART 362 Animation Production class, I wrote a script to automate modeling tasks. As with many MEL scripting projects, it went through several iterations before I was happy with it. I have long admired images of space ships, especially those produced with high details. I remember sitting through Star Wars when it came out in the theaters a