Fast square root tricks:

2D:
If dy > dx, approximated distance is
0.41 dx + 0.941246 dy
(If dy < dx, swap these values.) The difference from the exact distance is between -6% and +3%; more than 85% of all possible differences are between −3% to +3%.

3D:
in decreasing length dx, dy, dz
0.9398 dx + 0.3893 dy + 0.2987 dz
This has a max error of 6.0%, quite accurate, and can
be computed quickly with only shifts and adds (no
multiplies).

Portable Applications

aka green softwares...
here is a web site collect and host some green applications
most of them are well maintained:

PortableApps.com

enjoy it...

Ragdoll physics

Here are some resources about ragdoll physics:
I'll keep updating this list when I find anything new.

Paper:
Thomas Jakobsen
Advanced Character Physics

Forum:
Angular constraints

Maya plugin:
Nima

Some simple water simulation

http://homepage1.nifty.com/kaneko/water3.htm
http://www.codecolony.de/opengl.htm
Here are some water simulation demos and source code.
Should be easy to implement.

Folding, Unfolding

A car folding and unfolding demo for Intel Claytronics technology. This technology would become real product in 20 years.

Maya, AfterEffects

Telepresence

A Claytronics doctor forming in the patient's house, and a patient forming from a platform in the hospital. So the doctor can do simple diagnosis without actually going to the patient's place.

Maya, AfterEffects

Car Sculpting

Sculpting a claytronics car
Maya, AfterEffects

Sexy

Improv 3D Assignment
To be thought sexy

First Aid Kit Forming

A claytronics first aid kit forming from a platform.
Cloth simulation with Maya syFlex plugin.

Heavy Smoke

Heavy smoke created by Maya Fluid effects.

Car Scaling

Scaling a claytronic car. The hands and the car are CG objects.

Generic Car

Lighting and rendering test with Maya MentalRay

Eye Surgery Storyboard

A little girl and her mother is seeing a doctor.


She is going to have a eye operation.


He opens and enlarges a claytronic eye.


And rotates the eye.


He melts down the top of the eye model


And starts working on the claytronic eye.


The eye mask does correspondent operation on the real eye






Operation finished, and the light turns off.


Look through the ward window. She is recovering


She take off her bandage


Her eye opens


The first time in her life, she sees her mother’s face

Girl Tying

Liquid Forming Test

Maya, SyFlex Plugin, After Effects

Mothkey

Early Zbrush model

Ball Jump

Calligraphy Intro

3D Cube

Pseudo-3d experiment

Boot Camp

Turn on your microphone.
Yell to the rookie and make them scared!

Cupid Matching

Drag and drop the arrows to match their status.

3D Flower

Project Improv

Jurassic Park

Car Forming

Claytronics car forming and melting effects matched with physical sets.

Claytronics Melting

A claytronics object forming and melting effects created with syFlex cloth simulation.

Quick Tour

Demo reel
High-end Modeling
Rigging
Special Effects

Featured Works:

Zhang Ziyi Bust
Facial rig
Lip Syncing

The Hand
Hand rig
Special effects

Bullet Wound Angel
Skin and hair shader

Ruined City
Procedural mapping
Cloud effects

Experiments

Calytronics Balloon
Maya Dynamics

To Be Thought...
Character Animation

Demo Reel 2006

*** This is not my latest reel, latest reel here ***

Download Full Version >>
Shot Breakdown(PDF) >>

BULLET WOUND ANGEL
Model
Modeled in Zbrush. UV unwrapped in Maya. Rendered in Zbrush using custom skin and hair shaders. Polycount: 600,000.

Rig
Rigged in Maya, using full-body procedural animation and dynamics with IK and FK controls for keyframe animation. User interface controls the animation and real-time dynamics through mathematic expressions.

Procedural walk cycle
Walk cycle is driven solely by mathematic expressions and MEL scripts. Uses 17 major factors chosen from human walk cycle studies to generate a natural motion.

THE HAND
Model
Modeled with Zbrush using Zspheres. Generated displacement map and normal map in Zbrush. Rendered with HDR image-based lighting and global illumination in Maya MentalRay. Polycount: 5000.

Rig
Rigged in Maya and has a character control panel integrated in Maya interface. Bound with a wrap deformer, using influence objects and blend shapes to create natural muscle deformation.

Scripting
Physical rendering effects are created using MEL scripts. User interface is made using driven keys, utility nodes, expressions.

RUINED CITY
Model
Modeled, animated and rendered in Maya. Color, bump and displacement maps are procedurally generated, giving more detail than file textures allow. Polycount: 5000.

Rig
The flying turtle and pterodactyl are rigged in Maya and bound using smooth skinning with driven keys, utility nodes, expressions and MEL scripts.

ZHANG ZIYI
Model
Modeled with Maya and Zbrush, UV unwrapped and rigged in Maya, rendered in Maya MentalRay with custom SSS skin shaders, HDR image-based lighting and global illumination. Polycount: 20,000.

Rig
Smooth skin, wire deformation, cluster controls and blend shapes for muscle deformation on the face. Bound a subdivision object to a polygon object with a wrap deformer. User interface is made using driven keys, utility nodes, expressions and MEL scripts. Animators have 4 ways of controlling this character:

• Proxy panel
  Enables animators to click on the floating interface and move the corresponding parts.
• Mouth shape control boxes
  Deform the mouth shape, based on vowels or consonants. Particularly helpful when lip-synching.
• Pose palette
  Several prepositioned poses for quick animating. 16 pre-made poses are included.
• Blend shapes
  Traditional blend shape sliders. 8 phonemes and 8 advanced shapes are included.

SAUSAGE MAN
Character was designed with the theme of a sausage. Modeled, painted, and rendered in Zbrush
with a custom SSS meat shader. Used pose-to-pose technique to reposition in Zbrush. Polycount: 60,000.

WHALE MAN
Modeled with Maya and Zbrush, and rendered with in MentalRay using a displacement map and normal map generated from Zbrush. Used an expression to simulate hand-held camera effects. Polycount: 4000.

NEW BEETLE
Modeled in Maya, and rendered in MentalRay with HDR image-based lighting and global illumination. Rendered in layers to match the motion and lighting conditions of live footage. Polycount: 10,000.

3D Clock

Samurai vs Ninja

Just click and kill...
My highest score is 20 kills...

Claytronics Balloon

The Typing of the Mad

Try click or drag on me...

Keepsake

Full version >>

On a floating kingdom in the sky lives a young princess with her loving robot nanny, Nanna. One day, the kingdom is plunged into war as the robots revolt against humankind. The princess and Nanna are torn apart by the warring factions. The robots capture the Princess, and as the final step in their annihilation of mankind, proceed to carry out her execution. As the executioner prepares to strike, Nanna emerges from the crowd desperately trying to reach the Princess. The Princess is killed before Nanna can reach her. Five hundred years go by, and the island in the sky has become a silent graveyard. One robot is brought back to sudden life by a lightning strike, and a long forgotten past is revealed.

Art Season

Aquerius

Blue Dragon

School Girl

Adobe Illustrator
1 Day

Warrior

Keepsake - Robot

Watch Turntable >>

Keepsake - Princess

Watch Turntable >>

Main character in Keepsake, a student interactive animation project. Shown in front of 500 Carnegie Mellon students.

Sausage Man

Character designed after assigned the theme of sausage. Modeled, painted, and rendered in Zbrush with custom SSS meat shader. Used pose-to-pose technique to reposition in Zbrush.

New Beetle

Matchmoving and compositing exercise
Generated explosion in Maya

Software:
Maya, Shake

Whale Man

ZBrush to Maya pipeline test
Modeled in Zbrush with Zspheres. Rendered in Maya with normal mapping and displacement mapping.

Screen Shots:

Claytronics Logo

ETC 2006 Student Project - Claytronics
Create visual demonstration for Pittsburgh Intel Lab for their latest technology.

It is a simple logo I made in one night. And it is also my first time using RenderMan for rendering. I tried the raytracing, deep shadow, environment light, and depth of field features.

Working time: 30 minutes
Rendering time: 15 minutes

To Be Thought...

Improv 3D project assignment. The goal of this animation is to make this character to be thought beautiful.

Ruined City

Modeled, animated and rendered in Maya. Color, bump and displacement maps are generated by procedures to represent more details than file textures. Cloud effects were created using Maya Fluid. Used render layer to render 7 different passes and composite in Shake.

The Hand

Full Movie >>

Model:

Modeled with Zbrush using Zspheres. UV unwrapped and converted to subD object in Maya. Generated displacement map and normal map to represent finer details. Rendered with HDR image based lighting and global illumination in MentalRay.

Rig:

Rigged in Maya and has a character control panel integrated in Maya interface. Bound with wrap deformer and combined influence objects and blend shapes to create natural muscle deformation.

Bullet Wound Angel

MODEL:
Modeled with Zbrush, UV unwrapped, and rigged in Maya, and rendered in Zbrush with custom skin and hair shaders.

DYNAMIC RIG:
Rigged in Maya and uses full-body procedural animation and dynamics with IK and FK controls. User interface was designed for easy control and real-time preview and repositioning. It generates natural flying animation and gives animators plenty of controls.

Dynamics is driven by mathematic expressions. No Maya Dynamics or file cache needed.

Watch Demo 1 >>

PROCEDURAL WALKCYCLE:
The walk cycle is driven solely by mathematic expressions. User interface was designed to have artist friendly control and real-time preview and repositioning ability. Uses 17 major factors chosen from human walk cycle studies to generate natural walk cycle.

Watch Demo >>

Screen Shots:

Zhang Ziyi Bust

Turntable >>
Wireframe >>

3D objects compose with real photo, and change different expressions on the model. The face is modeled and rendered in ZBrush.

The original picture come from a screenshot of House of Flying Daggers.