nakaikoi

New Website

2009-03-28T23:38:00.002-04:00

This is my new website: www.nakaikoi.com

Character Model

2009-03-04T08:33:00.003-05:00

Here is a pitch I did for a client. This character took me 4 hours to model in zbrush. Since this is only a pitch he still needs alot of refining.

My Logo

2008-07-17T23:16:00.002-04:00

I've always envisioned my logo to be extravagant with lots of swimming Koi Fish. Here is a Work in progress/concept sketch done in Zbrush. To pull off an animation of this scale, I am most likely going to need to use Houdini. Time to pick up a few training DVDs and begin learning!

The World is a Steam Engine

2008-06-02T16:28:00.009-04:00

high res quicktime file (34 mb)

Synopsis

A steam locomotive takes us on a journey through a steam filled environment. As the train chugs to the beat of the music, a sudden shift in time and space shows this ethereal world in all of its glory. The work as a whole is often viewed as a metaphor to ones passing life. We emerge from the fog, pass through its beauty, and end up somewhere unexpected.

About this Work
The World is a Steam Engine was originally a song I wrote in 2006. I removed the lyrics and turned the song into a short musical animation. The project served as my thesis for New York University's Center for Advanced Digital Application graduate degree program. It took 2 semesters to complete, one semester for previs and the other for production.

I am extremely grateful for this experience and for all of the support from my family, friends, classmates, and professors. This project really was an exercise in troubleshooting, and now that I have it under my belt I look forward to working on more ambitious projects like this in the future.

Demo Reel 2008

2008-05-15T00:04:00.005-04:00

High Res Quicktime File (83 mb)
Resume - PDF

2008-03-26T23:14:00.000-04:00

Here is my poster image for The World is a Steam Engine.

steam tree

2008-03-16T21:01:00.004-04:00

Ok sorry for not updating for a while. Client work, crazy schedule, yadda yadda yadda...

Ive been working on my technique and I think I nailed it. Attached is a WIP of a tree. There will be many more of where this came from. If anyone is interested in helping make more of these please help! I will be training friends how to make trees like this next week. The more trees the better! When this animation gets played on the big screen, you can brag to all of your friends and say "I made that tree!"

Download the quicktime here: bonzai_looph264.mov - 574kb

Industry crit

2008-03-13T21:17:00.004-04:00

industry crit: pdf 220 KB

Thesis Time

2008-01-24T10:19:00.000-05:00

I spent the majority of my winter break getting myself together and organized for this upcoming thesis project. I built a home studio for recording and visual effects. It will come in handy when all of the computers are taken up at the CADA lab.

Now that I built this bunker in which I will be spending the next three months in, It is time to go through all of my previs work and plow ahead with this steam engine project. "Push the pedal to the metal efficiently" - thats my motto that will get me through the year.

Stay tuned!

Vanessa's Character WIP

2008-01-10T03:56:00.000-05:00

I'm helping Vanessa, a fellow CADA thesis student with some character modelling. I started with the head tonight and stayed up till 4 in the morning... time flies when you are Zbrushing.

Efficient

2007-12-27T12:41:00.000-05:00

I am so efficient.

Dominoes

2007-12-20T14:26:00.001-05:00

Now that the end of the semester is here, I can post some of my work. Here is my final project for my Technical Directing class. I had to take live footage and composite it with falling CG dominoes. All done with 3ds Max and After Effects. enjoy!

Style Frame

2007-12-18T18:25:00.000-05:00

Here is a style frame for my thesis. Rendered with Mental Ray and refined in Photoshop.

The making of this styleframe required many passes. I intend on implementing this workflow for my animation. Enjoy!

Ron Paul 2008

2007-11-30T21:50:00.000-05:00

Im not usually into politics, but today I donated some money to Ron Paul and I feel good inside. Finally a politician who has charisma and passion. He talks the talk and walks the walk. He is a man of integrity. Today I donated money toward World Peace.

For those of you who don't know who he is check out these You Tube clips, see for yourself, and join the revolution!

Google him to find out more.

Organization

2007-11-26T17:04:00.000-05:00

My 9th grade math teacher once said "Organization is the key to a happy life." I agree with him 100%. I find that I am the most depressed when I am unorganized. When my work area is a mess, I can't function. When my files are all over the place I get stressed out. At this point in my thesis production the name of the game is organization.

I've got millions of particles to deal with, a complicated steam engine, and organic enviornments. I've got dozens of assets and passes at high and low resolutions. Its all about creating a pipeline and workflow to deal with all of these things. I will be a happy man when i get organized

to be a great artist...

2007-11-14T15:03:00.000-05:00

to be a great artist one must understand simple mathematics.

add to the point of vagueness
subtract to the point of refinement
multiply to sell your work
divide your heart and soul to the critiques

If you manage to survive...

add the remainder of what is left to bluntness
subtract that to the point of sharpness
multiply to the point of controversy
divide by zero

2 great scripts

2007-11-07T15:47:00.000-05:00

Im prepping up for the big INDUSTRY critique. fine tuning my animatic, getting my style frame solid, and picking out a nice color scheme. By next friday I should have a nice packaged post with pictures and video with all of my preproduction work.

I met with Hosenfeld and he gave me some good suggestions to enhance my work.
One being stylize the spirals. Instead of making them so uniform, have them compact where they start and stretch out where they end.

I also just got back from my meeting with Myles Tanaka, he said that I'm heading in the right direction. I should be fine with what I have. I think i will push my animatic a bit more for clarity sake. He recomended that I make the fish that eats the world HUGE.

on another note, I found two really great scripts on high end 3d.

Julian Tylney Taylor's - curveField - this handy plugin allows me to use a curve as a field for particles. In the end I get flowing particles along a curve.

Mihai Militaru's - Extract Curve From Edges 0.1.0- basically allows me to extract a nurbs curve from a polygonal object. this script is a lifesaver- I no longer need to switch back and forth between maya and max to do this.

Many thanks for your hard work. It will help me a great deal.

A Cinematic Partition

2007-11-03T14:10:00.000-04:00

I was waiting for the bus to go to the city this cold November afternoon, when
Tangerine Submarine's song "A Cinematic Partition" inspired me to do something else.

You'll see...

panel review

2007-10-30T13:13:00.000-04:00

So last Friday was the first panel review of my project. I thought it went pretty smoothly. I didnt get much feedback, so I guess I am moving in the right direction... or am I?

"The World is a Steam Engine" - particles spiral along the surface of a moving steam engine train and its passing landscape.

The bottom line is that I just want to make something look really cool. "The World is a Steam Engine" has no story, no drama, just really really sick visual effects. In the end it should make people smile and feel good inside for no particular reason.

Pretty soon I will post everything that I have in one concise blog post. For now I am just writing what is on my mind. Thanks for reading.

Im getting closer

2007-10-23T21:27:00.000-04:00

ok I'm definately getting closer with my spiraling look and feel. I'm getting kind of sick of looking at spirals so need to take a step back and work on other things.

There are some problems with flickering motion blur, but all of that should be solved with breaking up the particles up into passes.

photorealistic spirals

2007-10-19T17:49:00.000-04:00

ok so I worked on the procedural texture map and organized my UV layouts. Now the flow of particles have a more random flow. I composited the particles over a beauty pass of the teapot and the results are pretty cool.

I realized today that ReelSmart Motion Blur is the magic bullet that will make my project look sweet. Im thinking of using the particle's motion vectors to drive the motion blur of the beauty pass. The results will be a wispy photo realistic animation.

Not completely there yet, as you can see, some of the motion vectors get out of whack and blur the entire image. Personally I think those blurred out frames are cool, but they can be distracting. I will work on giving each particle a unique color so that RSMB will have an easier time reading the motion of the particles.

Also the particles are way too small on the teapot top, the spout, and handle. I will need to work out the UV situation for those parts.

Thanks for reading, comments are always appreciated!

spiraling teapot

2007-10-16T08:44:00.000-04:00

If I can achieve the effect on a teapot, I can achieve it on a train. Although I think it looks cool, I am not completely there yet. I'm hoping Parthiban will come up with a nice procedural shader. I also want to add some emitting particles and composite this with a beauty render.

finished my thesis

2007-10-13T01:20:00.000-04:00

My Sister had her 22nd Bday party. There were lots of Tootsie Rolls, (nobody likes them) so I decided to turn them into clay. Then I thought of making a stop motion animation.

So me and my friend Youngsun got to work. It only took us about 30 minutes to do it. Im so glad I got my thesis done~

I bought myself a locomotive

2007-10-12T09:47:00.000-04:00

for $65 i bought myself a steam engine on turbosquid. Its amazing what you can get for your money these days right?

Although I felt like a sellout, I feel it will be better for me in the long run. $65 saved me probably 3 weeks worth of work. At this point TIME is at stake.

I can now focus on my spiraling technique and camera angles rather than trying to reinvent the wheels of a train. - a valuable lesson learned from the Dreamworks video conference with Marty Havran.

Although I have the technique all sorted out in my head, its not completely there yet. I am a bit discouraged with my results, but I know that once I get the technicals down I will feel a whole lot lighter.

here is what i have so far:

I also found this inspiring piece done by framestore:

it works!

2007-10-10T09:45:00.000-04:00

The UV Technique worked like a charm! Now I wonder if I can emit particles from the white dots...

I also have to come up with a nice repeatable procedural map that will look sweet.

Another spiraling solution

2007-10-09T22:56:00.001-04:00

So I talked to Adam tonight about getting the particles to flow around a path. He suggested that I do everything in nurbs and use a per-particle attribute that flows along the u and v coordinates.

Honestly I hate nurbs... I know they arent that bad to work with, its just I dont feel comfortable with them. Frustrated, I kept thinking of more solutions...

Then it hit me! UV's!

With a spiraling polygon, I can layout the UV's so that line up in a perfectly vertical strip. Kind of like a film strip.
By animating a procedural texture map of dots in the vertical direction along the vertical UV's, the effect will be dots flowing along a spiraling surface.

I will do a test tonight! Thanks Adam Burr!

Thesis- spiraling out models

2007-09-29T15:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a huge step forward in the technical arena of my project. I figured out a work-flow to create spiraling paths around all of my models. I faced a number of challenges in getting it to all work out, but in the end I was able to get a working "spiraled out" model from 3ds max into maya.

A huge step forward indeed, however, my next challenge will be working on an efficient particle system that will follow along these spiraling paths. The video below was the best I could do with the particles. The only problem that I have with it is that the particles die at a rapid rate, making the overall effect flicker too much. I emailed Adam Burr, my particles and dynamics professor with my particle woes. Hopefully he will get back to me with a solution.

Below is a demo of what was achieved yesterday:

My first challenge was, creating a spiraling edgeloop. thanks to "Bridge," a new modeling feature, this makes changing looping topology into spiraling topology very easy. Simply take delete a row of polygons, and bridge connections off by one row. you get a spiraling topology. Although the edge-loop spirals around the model, the problem is you dont really get a smooth helix. This was a challenge I will talk about overcoming later.

My second challenge was working between 3d Studio Max and Maya. If Autodesk had their programs working together, this would be so painless. But the reality is, the workflow between the two has some limitations.

Why would I be working in 2 different 3d packages? Dont they do the same thing? Great Question! Yes, they both can achieve the same things, however, for the specific technique I am trying to achieve both programs have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Lets take modeling for example. Although bridge can be achieved in both 3ds max and Maya, due to Max's modifier based approach, editing polygons has more flexibility in 3ds max than it does in Maya. Also, taking edge loops from a model and converting them into paths in 3ds max is a painless process. It is literally a one button operation. this process in Maya on the other hand is a bit more complicated and rather messy and tedious.

On the other hand, I need Maya for its particles and dynamcs, and rebuilding curve tools. The jagged curve witness above can be simply fixed with maya's "rebuild curve " tool.

But working in 2 programs faces me with yet another challenge of bringing in paths from 3ds Max to Maya. The Autodesk FBX format, a new file format that both max and maya can read, only works with geometry and converts paths into tessellated geometry. I tried a number of formats including, .obj, .dxf, and even .ai files which are used for illustrator all with no luck. Finally I read something online about .iges files, and when i tried this file type, the spiraled path successfully imported. The only drawback is that it imports the entire path scaled up and facing a different axis. Also, I've had problems importing the geometry in iges. These are all bugs I need to work out.

Thesis- just saw something really inspirational

2007-09-27T10:30:00.000-04:00

Stumbled across this animated piece on CG talk. Josie's Lalaland By Eb Hu

The colors the glows, I love how everything is in motion. Everything was done in After Effects.

This is definately going to be an inspiration for my thesis.

Thesis Previs- A Realization

2007-09-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

So after today's thesis previs session I came to the realization that the millions of little fish have to go. Although they are cool, they distract from the overall message.

The world is in constant motion. Everything in the entire universe is in motion. Even a seemingly stagnant chalkboard has on it millions of tiny little particles moving around at the subatomic level.
Objects have energy.

The title "The World is a Steam Engine" is a statement to this concept of everything in the world has motion.

After modeling objects in 3d for a while I saw the world differently. A good model has something called "Edge Flow." The way the polygons naturally flow around the contours of a shape will make a good model. I began seeing the world in wireframe. I would see lines that flowed with the contour of objects. where there were holes in an object I saw "edge-loops".

Last year I purchased a book called Character Modelling 2 published by Ballistic. A Featured modeller Timur Baysal introduced me to a new way of seeing edge flow.

He Said:
Some people use a deceiving term they call "edgeloop" for this process, which i find misleading. The edge-flow as i like to call it describes really both the design of your geometry as well as the way it wants to deform. Those edges really don't have to loop- you really don't want to look for where and when they might loop. Its most important to observe if they describe the proper form. I often end up with something that might be called an "edgespiral"- the techno-art -geek within me finds this really entertaining.

The "edge-spiral" is what intrigued me. With a spiral motion, edges can go on and on and on. As opposed to an "edge-loop" that end when closed.

I trained myself to see the world in wire-frame spirals, rather than wireframe loops. As a resul I began to see a different energy in objects. As if there was a stream of particles spiraling along the surfaces of objects.

With zbrush 3.0 's new re-topology tool, making spirals on geometry is much more feasible to do. Since I am a man who loves tedious work that results in something beautiful in the end, retopologizing geometry is something I love to do. This is something I also plan on becoming a master at after my thesis.

A spiral can be used as a path for particles. And I will be using retopologizing tools to achieve these edge-spirals on complex models like a steam engine.

The money shot will be a completed steam engine composed of tiny little spiraling particles.

Thesis - The World is a Steam Engine

2007-09-26T09:05:00.000-04:00

Thesis Statement

The world is made up of millions of tiny fish. Schools of fish build the world as we know it by spiraling along the surfaces of objects.

Synopsis

You know those things that float around in your eye? Those are actually millions of tiny fish drawing the world as we know it. Everything from the people, trees, city, continents, and the world are nothing more than little goldfish.

The story takes place inside one floating eye dot. Inside this dot, schools of fish swim in spiraling patterns to create a train. Chugging along its tracks, the locomotive composed of tiny little fish passes a landscape of hills and trees which are also composed of these fish. The train’s blast pipe produces steam made up of fish. The steam of fish forms into people walking around a New York City block. The entire city, the entire state of New York, the United States, and the entire continent are all made up of these miniscule goldfish. From a distance, Earth is no more than just one of the many dots that float around in an eye.

Outline

Scene 01- Floating Eye Dots	it begins with a white screen. a narrator's voice "You know those floatie things in your eye?" Small transparent dots begin appearing on the screen. "Those are actually millions of tiny little goldfish." zoom in on one of the dots to reveal a swarm of fish. Begin Music
Scene 02- Title	The fish all swim in a flock and begin spelling out the title "The World is a Steam Engine"
Scene 03- The Steam Engine	The fish then begin to spiral, to create the front wheel of a locomotive train. Another swarm of fish start "spiraling out" the body of the train, and finally to the steam.
Scene 04- The World as we Know it	The fish steam shapes into people walking. Zooming out, we see that fish are drawing the city, country, and the world. As we zoom out on the world, it turns into one of the floatie things that you see in your eye.
Scene 05- A Dot Among Many	A large fish swims on screen and approaches the world/floatie thing. It opens its big mouth and gobbles it down.

Demo Reel 2007

2007-09-24T10:24:00.002-04:00

high res Quicktime- 2007_demoreel_Koichi_Nakai.mov 25 mb
Resume PDF - 2007_resume_Koichi_Nakai.pdf

particles and dynamics splash

2007-09-18T19:14:00.000-04:00

The World is a Steam Engine- Previs

2007-09-13T15:25:00.000-04:00

The World is a Steam Engine

Thesis Previsualization- Y35.4005.003 - Fall 2007
Instructor: Myles Tanaka
Student: Koichi Nakai

Email: nakaikoi@gmail.com

New York University
The Center for Advanced Digital Applications

Thesis Statement
The world is made up of millions of tiny fish. Schools of fish build the world as we know it by spiraling along the surfaces of objects.

Synopsis
You know those things that float around in your eye? Those are actually millions of tiny fish drawing the world as we know it. Everything from the people, trees, city, continents, and the world are nothing more than little goldfish.

Outline

Scene 01- Floating Eye Dots	it begins with a white screen. a narrator's voice "You know those floatie things in your eye?" Small transparent dots begin appearing on the screen. "Those are actually millions of tiny little goldfish." zoom in on one of the dots to reveal a swarm of fish. Begin Music
Scene 02- Title	The fish all swim in a flock and begin spelling out the title "The World is a Steam Engine"
Scene 03- The Steam Engine	The fish then begin to spiral, to create the front wheel of a locomotive train. Another swarm of fish start "spiraling out" the body of the train, and finally to the steam.
Scene 04- The World as we Know it	The fish steam shapes into people walking. Zooming out, we see that fish are drawing the city, country, and the world. As we zoom out on the world, it turns into one of the floatie things that you see in your eye.
Scene 05- A Dot Among Many	A large fish swims on screen and approaches the world/floatie thing. It opens its big mouth and gobbles it down.

particles and dynamics fountain WIP 01

2007-09-11T18:55:00.000-04:00

particle test with a teapot

2007-09-10T09:26:00.000-04:00

Here is a technique Im working on for my thesis... All of these particles are done with trapcode particular.

Carousel Wind

2007-09-09T09:31:00.000-04:00

Here is the WIP for music video I am working on with Stefan des Lauriers. You can see the whole production at the project website: http://carouselwind.blogspot.com/

Sky Reachers

2007-06-26T10:19:00.000-04:00

This summer I am pushing myself to work with Zbrush 3- a powerful illustration program. Sky Reachers is an experimental sketch done in zbrush 3 and After Effects. It took me less than 3 hours to complete. This work wasnt planned or preconceived, I just kind of went with the flow.

Enjoy,
Nakaikoi
(Koichi Nakai)

WIP sullivan lane

2007-05-16T23:21:00.000-04:00

so I've decided that for my thesis, I will do a music video for Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. The song is called Sullivan Lane. Here is a sketch that I've done in Zbrush and Photoshop. Took me about 3 hours. Many more sketches to come!

nakaikoi- final image

2007-05-12T17:29:00.000-04:00

About this Work
While on the bus coming home from the city, I had a dream of me riding on a flying Koi fish. This is what the scene looked like... a colorful summer night near a water tower. Ever since this dream, I strangely have been fascinated by water towers and Koi .

The whole nakaikoi thing...
my last name, "Nakai" means "inside" in japanese. My first name "Koichi" has the word "Koi" in it. "Chi" can also mean energy. I guess you can figure it all out from these translations. My wife tells me that I look like a fish... I dont know what she is talking about. I am a fish! hwa hwa hwa hwa

WIP

maya 2 final WIP 01

2007-04-19T17:11:00.000-04:00

modelled and riggedthe fish and added some dynamics

Lighting and Rendering WIP-02

2007-04-19T17:05:00.000-04:00

i locked down the scene, added some lights, now its time to work on the textures and shaders

matte painting wip 02

2007-04-10T15:33:00.002-04:00

maya 2- character WIP

2007-04-10T15:33:00.001-04:00

This was a challenge for my Maya 2 class with Neums. I tried to see how much of a character I could complete within 2 days. Modelled, Layed out the UVs, created blend shapes, added dynamics, and made a face rig in 12 hours.

painting and compositing matte painting- WIP

2007-04-10T15:33:00.000-04:00

Vis Lit Final- styleframe

2007-04-09T01:39:00.000-04:00

lighting & rendering - WIP 01

2007-04-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

lighting & rendering- styleframe

2007-04-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

painting and compositing-work in progress

2007-04-07T17:12:00.000-04:00

I modeled the bridge in 3d... need to add more details like street lights.

Blue Thermos - 2006

2007-03-30T16:21:00.005-04:00

Blue Thermos is a song I wrote about investing your artistic time and energy for a greater cause. The music video was rotoscoped by hand frame by frame over live video footage. I used a Wacom Tablet to trace over a series of stills in Photoshop. It was a tedious effort that took about a month to do while finishing up my last semester at Seton Hall University.

I feel it was all worth it in the end. It landed me my first job at a small multimedia firm called Thingee Digital. The piece also got me into New York University's Center for Advanced Digital Applications (CADA) where I will produce even greater works.

painting and compositing-original photo

2007-03-27T09:10:00.000-04:00

I took this photo in NJ on top of a mountain.

painting and compositing-styleframe

2007-03-26T22:50:00.000-04:00

Here is my idea. Basically a giant sky bridge that is built over the city.