BobbysBrane brought mummies back to life using Autodesk 3ds max and Morph-O-Matic

Independent animator Bobby Standridge relied on the award winning Morph-O-Matic to create a fan art animated video clip for the Nashville, Tennessee based band Here Come the Mummies and their song Freak Flag. We asked Bobby a few questions about his creation and why he chose Morph-O-Matic.

Can you tell us a bit more about what Here Come the Mummies is about, and who you are?

Bobby: Here Come the Mummies is a band I stumbled upon and fell in love with. I began my animation career by creating a music video for another band that I love (the animated video of Neil Peart performing YYZ by Rush) and it opened up a bunch of doors for me, so I figured, hey, let's try it again!

How long did you work on the project, and how many people where involved?

Bobby: I discovered the band almost a year ago and set to work on the video soon after. That's how big an impression they made on me. I probably spent a good 6 months on it. My company, Bobby's Brane, is a one man operation, so I had to wear each and every production hat for this thing.

Which software did you use to make the complete project?

Bobby: 3ds Max with several plugins including Morph-O-Matic, finalRender, finalToon, and BonesPro. I used iPiSoft's desktop mocap software with two Microsoft Kinects for the animation of the mummies and "before" girls, and Daz 3D's stock dance mocap files for the animation of the "after" girls, with the exception of the Michael Jackson dance medley, which I hand-keyframed. All elements were assembled in Adobe After Effects.

Why did you choose to use Morph-O-Matic over the build in morpher?

Bobby: The ability to isolate keyframes for any channel combination on the timeline eliminates much of the confusion that exists with morpher. The integration with my production pipeline was seamless.

What’s your favorite feature in MOM and why?

Bobby: Having a modeless dialog is a godsend for starters. I can switch from character to character with ease. The ability to export out the animation from one mummy and import it back in to all the others was extremely helpful too. I kept finding little ways that your product (Morph-O-Matic) makes the typically tedious facial animation process easier and dare I say… fun.
 

Once again, Di-O-Matic technologies helped artists bring unique CG characters to life, this time aiding Bobby Standridge (a.k.a. BobbysBrane) create facial animations for the multiple Characters in a music video for Here come the mummies' Freak Flag. Adding a peculiar group of 5000 year old mummies to our list of famous CG characters like Spiderman and Lara Croft that used Di-O-Matic products to come to life and entertain audiences worldwide.

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Morph-O-Matic is available at $249, for more info visit Morph-O-Matic's webpage or get the FREE trial here.