Josh Burton

Game Dev : {Animator, Rigger, Designer, Coder, Tool Maker, Artist} | {Stumbling after Jesus }
{ cgmTools | MRS | @cgMonastery }

#maya #python #rigging

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

(New reel focused on animation-specific work, built from recent feedback)

Looking for New Remote Opportunities – Full-Time or Contract

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

I just published For the love of MetaHuman…ity….(part1) https://t.co/TXes3RC2SZ

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling - Model/Textures update!

Have a new batch of texture work on the latest model from my buddy Derek LeBrun. If you're looking for some modeling help, he's great: https://t.co/JCNHNPQFV8

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling - Tracking split
Another thing I’ve wanted to hit for a while. Up till now I’ve had one target proxy that the head, body and eyes use. This worked well enough till now. Iteration makes it better.

- New Eye, Head, Body proxy target split to better layer twist and direction
- Each proxy target has its own speed it can move at. Body has a delay on target changing.
- Body and head can be offset on translate y
- Plan on tuning this for tired to be much slower and playful quicker
- Yellow > eyes, blue > head, magenta > body

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling and other Updates
I start a new full time gig next week so I've been scrambling the last few weeks to wrap up some freelance and hand offs to new artists, seeing family, and teaching dragon as much as I can before I start.

One of my focuses has been reworking point to point movement. For hovering and short distances I still have our dynamics driven movement but I wasn't happy with how that worked for point to point so...Cursor and I have been working on that.

- New curve based movement Familiar Route system
- Some different logic and setups to fly around and align or align behind landing points
- Initial pass on turn in the air so he's not just rotating in place
- Refactoring lift off to its own state
- Still in the make-it-work step. Hoping to get to the make it better one

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

I just published Dragonling — New Workflows https://t.co/5FbEMQax7F

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

@LuigiL1985 Enjoy your work, brother. Keep shining.

[Cook & Tips® @cookingtipster]

Simplifying arm and leg anatomy into simple shapes.
by Todd Ulrich

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling - Hand Perches!
This was one of the first things my buddy pitched me on the project and I finally had the systems and experience to take a stab at it.

[Pitch — If you hold your wrist still, dragon will come perch there]

- Gesture-driven perch call | Dragon perches when wrist/hand orientation is valid and hand is held stable long enough.
- Config-driven activation/release thresholds | All key tuning (alignment dots, hold time, motion stability, toss release thresholds, cooldowns) lives in FamiliarPerchConfig.
- Separate hand vs controller wiring | Hand/controller have distinct orientation helpers and optional distinct perch target nodes.
- Runtime helper guidance | Optional world-up guide line appears only when user is near alignment and holding still; line grows with hold progress.
- Release behavior supports toss feel | Release can trigger from toss-away / abrupt-stop rules with buffered velocity support and cooldowns.
- Mode visuals + active node support | Optional mode-specific visuals and active-state node toggle based on active profile/perch state.

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Awesome to see the iteration. Camera choice transforms the experience.

[Sluggerfly @SluggerflyDev]

This is what it took to make Super Meat Boy 3D work.

We went through a lot of different gameplay and camera setups before finally landing on something that feels right.

Here’s a look at some of them 👇

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

I just published Dragonling — Go to Sleep little Dragon https://t.co/GTIb59wzth

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling - Sleep Sprint Update

- Anims - Perch sleep enter/out, fly lean, split yawn from sleepy flight, fixed compression
- Shoots weak fireballs now when tired, they cost energy
- Arm perch toss improvements
- Flight body/head tracking improvements
- Design - refuses some orders when exhausted, refined other behavior splits

Medium post soon.

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

@Meta - do you really need to update a Quest 3S headset more than 5 times a day?

As a dev, it breaks iteration flow and the hand sets stop rendering correctly when it needs an update. Maybe there's a good reason for it but it's hard to guess.

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling | Perch Sleep Enter/Exit Spline pass
Quick passes on those two block ins. Back in engine tomorrow.

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling - Sleep Sprint

Been busy for a couple weeks with freelance and other stuff. Glad to be back with Dragon for a bit.

- This sprint is focused on getting sleep fully ready
- Blocking for sleep enter and exit from perch
- Split my yawn from the base flying sleepy cycle

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

I just published Dragonling — Fire and Food https://t.co/PcXxsMLpMW

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling | Feeding
Been busy but closed out my Fire and Food sprint. Working on a medium post.

- Multiple ways to feed - hand, toss, throw, more
- New IK setup to track the spine/head to food and better track when air tracking
- Face override layer setup that increased range of expression over same animations (no head, mouth open blend as it gets closer to food, more)
- Some major refactors improving systems (focus, movement)

Next up is sprinting sleep to alpha readiness.

[Josh Burton @jjbrambles]

Dragonling - Fire Improvements

Juggling some freelance this week but making some progress.
- Fire animation hooked up
- Ended up with a two mask (additive) setup until I can do more fire animations (will do perch, sitting, etc) but the neck up mask works.
- Refactored target tracking and worked through some more hiccups