update!

Real updates coming soon, including a reel of my work from last semester (the good, the bad, and the horrendously ugly), updates to my links, and......well I guess that's it.

Until then, here's a WIP: the first assignment for BFA for the spring (my final) semester!

First pass blocking:




Blocking revision:



I'm still going to go in and add more details to his actions and get it all ready to move into a first pass state. If you don't know (but hopefully figured out), he's a salesman (of the door-to-door kind...I'll add a slight environment and maybe give him some clothing props to help sell him later) selling a vacuum that sucks, and I don't mean it does what it's supposed to do. He tries to demonstrate it and the switch breaks off. After a brief moment of shock, he jumps back into his pitch hoping the customer didn't notice the fault.

And they all lived happily ever after.
The end.

Meet the Animator

It's stupid, but here it is...



Also, since I don't think I ever posted it...here's my e-card from 118 Flash last semester...




and finally, since I'm on an update...here's a work in progress for advanced maya...a 3d sack pantomime...starting to get back into practice (I never shoulda fallen out) with maya animating..



I still need to add a little to the end and of course polish it all up...I'm trying to push my animation and try a more exaggerated style than I usually do...I could probably push it even more though.

Coming soon......maybe

well if you don't know, we have a 90 second film to do introducing ourselves as one of the first BFA assignments. It's a cool and fun little idea (I was always anticipating making one for KAFI as well, but they got rid of that). So, being a big fan of Valve's Team Fortress 2 character videos "Meet the..." series (which, if you haven't seen, are some very good and entertaining character animation shorts and I highly recommend you check them out)...it started out that I'd almost directly parody one or two of them and just twist it to suit my needs, but now the only real thing I'm borrowing from that series is the titlescreen, the very basic concept of the films, and the song. So, as it's due on Friday, depending how it comes out once I shoot and edit it, I may post it up here in the very near future...otherwise, all you have to go on is this sweet little title card made by Jon Mendez.

untitled unupdated update title

So with family interference in the first part of summer and working on the film for the second part, I haven't gotten around to doing my personal animation work, and here we are, approaching the next semester...and I am gonna get hell for not being an intern on ACME, and I haven't done anything I planned to do (work-wise) besides this film. But oh well! I'm gonna be having 3d animation work up the wazoo this semester cause of 129b AND BFA with Rex Grignon. But hopefully I'll find some time to make something post-worthy somewhat sorta in the relatively near future to come...

this semester's Animations

Since all I've been posting are crappy drawings/paintings, I figured I'd post the work I actually intend on focusing on: animation. Ok well technically, none of these were originally done this semester (except the montage pieces) but all this work is revised/cleaned up animation (and in the case of the BTR scene, quite revised and fairly improved). Top one is my "final" BTR Grav room scene, I have final in quotes because I may still revise it based on pro advice, but I have some plans this summer to lead me in the right direction and possibly help make the revision easier to execute. In case you're wondering, the plan is to go back to basics and use a very simple rig of just a ball with legs and a hide-able tail to try to get some good simple character actions (walks, runs, jumps, whatever), and more importantly, work out a process for animating in Maya. The second video is my montage pieces for the film, and the bottom is my Flash cleaned up section of my sack pantomime from 114. I'm still considering spending a portion of the summer to devote to cleaning the rest of the film so I can have a fully cleaned and colored pantomime.

if you feel like comparing to old versions, my original BTR scene is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17sZG41MAkk
and my full original sack pantomime is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9yMouwbbTo

ok, back to work.

Poem drawing

Dumb little drawing for a vizdev poem design assignment based on a Shel Silverstein poem. Working on landscape painting for class. That is all.

VisDeath

So it's my own fault for putting off visdev for a week while Ruben was out cause his wife had the baby and worked on other stuff instead...and now am rushing at the last minute to get it all together...whatever...sure I'm having some fun doing this assignment and (I think...haha) I'm learning a lot. But anyways, here's what I just finished so far...I still have to redo 3 comps and then I'm done (no problem! .......hahahaha...hahaha....haha...ha... *cough*) ...I didn't make character sheets yet, but they're no different than the mini versions in the prop sheet or in the previous post. More to come once I get those comps done...if I like them when they come out..

"never-to-be-finished Candy" painting and other stuff

So the first night in the LA trip (if you don't know, a group of SJSU students went to LA for a studio tour), we all met up at the hotel....most of us just hung out and worked or crashed. I plopped down on the chair next to the bed, pulled out my DS, and proceeded to try my hand at painting again. Candace was taking a nap on the bed in front of me, so why not paint her? I got a layin quickly and started from the legs and worked my way up....but when I reached the hand and head she woke up and went back to work........and so, because the moment has passed, this painting will never be finished. I like replaying the painting so I can see it all come together stroke by stroke. I dunno if it's any good, but it's more practice and I like qualities of it better than the porch painting.


And since returning from LA, I've been cranking away at vizdev homework...don't have much to say about it...I've never really painted in Photoshop before, and my comps are super simple...I've gone back and am redesigning the props and redid the scientist to try to push proportions and interest, etc...I'll have a painted version of the prop by next week (cause everything's due by then), but anyways, here they are just for the hell of it: one comp before redesign, and the slight redesign of the scientist and the machine.

Colours!

So I got the r4ds chip for my DS and downloaded the homebrew painting program "Colours!" for the DS and finally got around to doing a super quick painting. It's from the couch in my uncle's place looking out across the porch. Trying to get used to the program as well as still learning to paint...hah... it's a fun and convenient little tool.

costumage

It came down to the wire to get 4 costume variations for 2 characters done yesterday before class...I like some of the ideas that came out of it, and Ruben told me to push my scientist's design more...didn't really say anything about my General. I should have asked but I was freakin starving. Anyways, here's what I got for the General's costume variations. The easier part for tomorrow is one pass on an asymmetrical balanced value design for each character's costume...the harder part is redrawing my entire schematic... I don't want to go back to the schematic! hahaha...

just an update, since I haven't posted in a while..

So yea...I've been a bit busy since my last post, working on, finishing, and editing BTR, then swamped with vizdev and now flash as well...but since I haven't posted anything in a while, here's some of my current character variations for my vizdev assignment. The top one's a military scientist working on human regeneration who lost 3 of his limbs when the lab he was working at previously was attacked, now he's working at an underground lab. He reports to a gruff, overbearing General who wants fast results (character number two). Anyways, without going into too much more, I think I'm going with scientist number 3 (the second from the right) and the middle General. I still could use a name for them...haven't really spent any time trying to think of one. The story takes place about 30 years in the future over in the area of Russia. Any suggestions on name...or design elements...let me know! I have to go do costume variations now...

DIP (doodle in progress)

Wow three days in a row, I've been doodlin! It's past 4am and I should be sleeping so I can head down to Marin around noon for lunch, but I started doodlin this, and really wanted to make a quick painting pass on it as well. I also wanted to play around with possibilities for what the young of the creature looks like.

I'm thinking more reptilian now (I think I prefer terrestrial egg laying). I'm also thinking that this species also spends time caring for its young rather than leaving them to fend for themselves at birth...so the young are floating nearby, watching mom or dad hunt below the surface, also watching and learning how to swim. Up to a certain age, the young would be too buoyant to be able to dive and swim underwater (like a baby otter). The forearms are even less developed in the young, being proportionally shorter almost like those of a T-rex or raptor, and on land, would move around more on their hind legs til they reach a certain stage of their life when their forelegs have grown longer. This also means the young rely much more on a kicking action with their hind legs to swim...like a duck. The adult shows how helpful the webbed feet are in maneuvering underwater and making quick turns. If they need to swim in a relatively straight path and want to go faster speeds, they tuck in their legs to make themselves more streamlined and swim with a side to side motion (see a gator, croc or marine iguana), and make minor steering with its forelegs. Anyways, it's 4:30am...enough dorking out for now.

I'll probably make another better painting pass and clean up some linework once I get back up to Roseville Thursday evening..as I'm going down to SJ Weds for our BTR meeting....but I may just work on my animation for that project rather than painting....or I'll do both and alternate projects! So if any of my BTR groupmates are reading this...see you Wednesday! Everyone else, see most of you soon once the semester starts!

more creature doodl'in

So it's 3:40am, and I'm still up watching a Monk marathon and wound up doodling another version of the creature, and I'm starting to try to think of a name for it. It still feels a mix of an amphibian and a reptile...guess I could do some research and actually discover the differences in the classes, but leaning towards amphibian because its webbed feet would suggest a partially aquatic life, and I feel like it would have a thick/coarse skin rather than scales (I don't know if that's a real difference between classes, but it seems like it). I was watching "Before the Dinosaurs" a day or two ago on Discovery or Animal Planet and there were some big beefy amphibians that were like giant alligators...but were classified as amphibians...so...yea.

I've been thinking more about the creature's physiology. As I said before, it has webbed feet to help propel itself in water along with the use of its tail. The noticeable difference in muscle mass between the fore and rear legs would suggest much more reliance on power of the rear legs, and that it should be able to jump fairly large distances like a frog. It also has similar stubby toes to a frog and may be able to grip normally slippery surfaces with small suction cups on the toes. But I've also considered that it might have sets of small claws on the toes used for grip as well as digging and defensive/offensive purposes. I have not quite decided what kind of habitat it would exist in, and if it's an omnivore or a carnivore (definitely not an herbivore), or if it's a day or night hunter, among some other considerations.

By the way, I accept all critique/comments/suggestions on anything.... my draughtsmanship (or lack of), painting ability (or lack of), anatomy, etc, etc, etc. I'm just finally doing something to practice and have a little fun. I'm no painter...I just (do my best) to make stuff move.

doodleoodleoodle

So I've been getting a little restless during break and itching to work on something. After numerous doodles which I deleted after a few minutes, I finally came up with something I at least kept and felt like doing a quick paint of...and this is it. Some wierd amphibious creature. I started playing around with background info on it in my head, but haven't nailed anything down, other than its amphibious nature because of its webbed feet. It could also be a reptile since it has some reptilian characteristics in its head, and its long tail can be used in swimming like an alligator or crocodile's. Other than that, nothing much... and if we don't have our BTR meeting soon, I may be restless enough to expand on this creature....we'll see. hah.

edit: I finally also updated my links somewhat...most likely will add more people and sites eventually.

4 months (a whole semester) later, finally an update!

So it's been a semester of blood, sweat, and near-tears...two animation classes, plus working as cleanup on an outside project proved to be quite a lot to handle....and yet I don't have very much to show for it in terms of animations to show off. I don't care for my cat tests or final film from 115, don't think I can show what I cleaned up for the outside project since it's for Nickelodeon...so I believe they control it. I think some of my maya tests have potential, so I'll be working on one or two..but mostly I'm happy with how my final film came out. It still needs quite a bit of work, which I'll be doing during this break.

The whole concept to the film is that the rig (character) finds himself in a room and heads for the marked exit, but is foiled in his attempt, which begins a sequence of similar events. Mine was the 5th room in the film so he's become a little skiddish. Anyways, here it is!

little sketch

proof! (that's for Candy) ..just a quick sketch of the fountain outside Marin Brewing Co. in Larkspur.

work in progress...

read the His Dark Materials series and decided to do a little drawing of Iorek Byrnison...there's more to the drawing, but it's still being worked on...actually he's prolly gonna get worked on more as well if I feel like it once I "complete" the rest of the image. anyways, he's got a super simple armor plating cause I didn't get around to do some in-depth research on armor (plus he's supposed to have simple armor in the story, though he appears to have real complex pieces in the movie poster). gotta love Sketchbook pro!

whoops!

I just realized last night my page was having a hell of a time loading because of those damned animated gif's I have posted of my maya work, so I removed those. sorry about the lag created by those!

Finally, something to be proud of...

First off, it's about time I updated. Second, it's about time I have something I'm happy with that I've made.
It's my sack pantomime from 114. For the most part, it's a roughed out first pass...the only thing that had a second or third pass was the run cycle. Everything was done straight ahead even though I keyed out almost the entire film (keying helped figure out poses when I went to animate, but I wound up either changing the action slightly or adjusting the pose in the process of animating.) So I know there's issues like the sack sliding down the screen when he's sitting, or the kite inching towards the sack after it falls to the ground the second time...and volumes of course. I may get around to fixing it up, and maybe doing some cleanup so I have a more presentable animation (like for my reel), but maybe not til a bit later in the summer. I didn't choose the song until I had finished animating the sack and was in the process of finishing up the string and kite, and imagine my surprise when I put the music to it and found the lyrics and emotion of it link up with the action almost perfectly. It went over quite well at our finals "festival" where we viewed all the animation classes' finals...much better than I expected. Anyway, enough babbling. Enjoy, and I plan to have more stuff to post from this point on (at least until the semester starts again...haha)

final tidepool

well I'm tired, so here's my final version of the tidepool as far as completing it for the class. I'm still gonna work on it over break. I like it, and I think I may have taken it about as far as my current skill will allow me, so I'll be workin on some other painting exercises and then return to this.