My back hurts!

The first batch of projects are just now being finished up. So far, second year is just as busy as everyone says. Not to say it isn't manageable, and actually, it's a lot of fun!

This year, a lot more is being applied. We're no longer beginners, we've entered the professional world! As as such, I've been trying harder to put out better work, and i see some aspects of my skill improving... while others *cough* life drawing *cough* still remain less that grand. But this year we have a lot of capable teachers, so all should be well in the world soon enough.

So here I have the first animation of the year: the Wave, Boat, and Sack. I think the premise is pretty self-explanatory, but the project was mainly about water effects, and weight.



I think this turned out pretty well, tho' I believe it could have been better. There were various struggles at first, but most managed to be worked out in time for the due date. Personal opinion: not a bad start.

Here is our first painting assignment. Just a random layout. The rough portion dealt with black and white tonal rendering to lay out the mood of the piece (they're not posted here). Following this, we did a minimum of three colour studies followed by the final.





My painting skills seem to be the only thing that has improved over the summer, thanks to a single painting projects done in May (see previous post). So I can safely say do enjoy this, and I like the result!

Finally, here we have beat boards and a related character design done for storyboard class. We were given a poem and asked to tell a short story through narrative beats (ie. through as few panels as possible). This will function as a stepping stone for the following process of creating a full storyboard, which is in the process as we speak.




So far, so good. More projects are due in the near future. Expect more work in the near future.

Year 2

Thank God summer is finally over! It was a really sucky 4 months...

It feels good to get back into the swing of things and to be focused again!

But my skills have become rusty since I've done so little over the last few months, so hopefully I'll be back and awesome again very soon! Stay tuned for more stuff in the future.

Last Post of the Year!

Well this is it, the last of my work from my 1st year in animation. It was a good run! I most definately learned a lot about the work that I am getting myself into, and about the years ahead... and it is most definately something I want to be a part of. Over the next few years, I hope to improve just as much as I have over this year, and hopefully dish out a great 4th year film that really wows the audience... but I'm getting ahead of myself...

The last projects were standard fare. My final animation for the year, and my final painting project, which I did digitally in photoshop.


I got a lot of laughs out of this one, as you could probably tell. as good as it turned out, I couldn't really get into this project like I did the others, dispite that this one offered more freedom than the rest... end of the year lazyness, I guess.


Now honestly, I'm not happy with this turn out, but that was pretty much expected. I recently got a tablet, and since we were allowed to render the last painting digitally, I saw it as an invitation to experement a little. So seeing as this was my first photoshop project with a tablet, it was pretty much what anyone could expect. But I was given some helpful advice on how to use the tablet and photoshop. This is important since the industry pretty much uses digital background over traditional ones. I need to find tutorials, because this summer is going to be used to learn photoshop inside out!

Well that's all for this year... of school. Hope you enjoyed the work from my 1st year! :D

Stay tuned tho', summer's here and my goal is to practice techniques in art that I need improvement in. First and foremost: Photoshop, but I'm also planning to do some paintings and painting studies, caricatures (perhaps of you!), extra animations, and of course numerous sketches and colour renderings of some sketches! Also I'll post some of my life drawings up later too!

It' gonna be a busy summer! Hope to see ya here again soon!

A bundle of goodies for all y'all today! With the coming of the end of the year, everything is done in bulk, which is good! More art with fewer updates!

To start, our final character project is basically a rehash of previous projects, namely character posing and expression. This time however, we designed one character and then created a character package, a single sheet reference for the animator to use.

I like how this one turned out, besides being a better anthropomorphic than the last project, I think my clean up and posing were better this time around... not perfect of course, but adequate.

Our final painting projects are also due, and this time we had TWO paintings! O_O... It was more enjoyable than I'm letting on. :P

The first was a copy of a master's work. We could chose anything to use, so because backgrounds are his specially, I chose a Miyazaki background from Spirited Away! (also an AWESOME FILM!!!)

I REALLY like how this turned out. Probably because it was a complete copy, it left little room open for mistakes. Although some of the colours are off, and the shades really diluted, it's still one really kick-ass painting! Thank you Mr. Miyazaki!


This is the original from Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Behold it's pure AWESOMENESS!

Following this, we had to paint another background using the same painting style from the first, but this time it was your own rendition of another story, which we got to pick for a list. I chose the Hobbit and the interior of Bilbo's house. (partially because I could just watch Lord of the Rings to get an idea. :P) So here is the result.

I am rather displeased with the way this one turned out. Besides not really following the same painting method, I find I'm terrible at designing interiors. I was pretty hard, unlike the first one, to get textures, proper shades, and a direct light source. My biggest quarrel is with Gouache! It's really hard to use because of the water base and thinning out of the colours! UGH! Somehow it worked for the exterior, but not the interior...sigh...

Finally, we had caricaturing in life drawing last week. Surprisingly, I loved it! It was fun to draw some of our classmates, and because they're good sports, you could exaggerate without fear of disapproval... which is probably more than you could say about people at a fair or carnival... But anyway, here is what I got:

Scotty

Daniel

Keith

Kyle Wilson

Giovanni

Shen Ramu

Katarina Antonic

Kevin Williams

Eyassu Asalef

A lot of these turned out pretty well (or better than I hoped). All have their issues, but it's inspired me to practice caricaturing more, likely over the summer. So next year, I'll be much better at portrait and character! ;)

On a related note, I know I don't post may life drawings up here... it's because I suck at it :P But also because I'm too lazy to scan them... for now. Stay tuned, I'll post them over the summer.

More Animals!

Haven't updated in a while, probably 'cause work is slow. A lot to work on, but at least the due dates are stretched out a bit. Only two projects due every week... WHOOOOHOOO!

For now tho', I only have a few animal related new stuff. Enjoy!



Panda Walk Animation

Also, we went to the Toronto Zoo last week to draw animals. I got better results, I thought, than the Winter Fair trip last semester, but not by much... :S Oh well, I'm just not that good at drawing from life... especially when the animals won't sit still, and those damn kid are in you way! >_<

Oooo! Shiney Things!

Here's a still life we were asked to do! After weeks of boring studies, the sustained painting turned out better than I could have hoped for!

I've really been trying to develop my painting skills as of late, and it seems to be working... maybe it's confidence, I dunno! :P


It did help tho' that we were allowed to use whatever kind of paints we wanted. I chose Acrylic after failing miserably with Gouache (which is bad). However, I find Acrylic can be handled the same way as Gouache, but Acrylic likes to cooperate more!

ISLAND MAN FAIL!

One more thing to post, we did a story sequence for... um, story class. :P This was not made up by me, we were all given the same story, and we each go about it our own way. I dunno how well done mine is, but I at least put a lot of though into the narrative... like Maury wants us to!










EPIC FAIL!!!

... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Character Animations... totally worth the hours of Madness!

Midterm Projects are being completed, and it couldn't be any more relieving! Especially that the projects being due are the kind of projects we come to animation to do!

Here are the last couple things to be done before the break, the first being a character rotation, expression, and lip sync to the word "Meow." :P I did Hernán Cortés, a minor, but FUCKING AWESOME character from Road to El Dorado by Dreamworks (great movie, see it if you haven't).



*For you history buffs out there, in the movie and real life, Cortés was the leader of the Spanish army in the conquest of the Aztec Empire during the 1500s, which would lead to the eventual establishment of Mexico... 'cause I like facts! :P

Fun Stuff!

Also, here is the final coloured Pink Panther Pan Walk, as promised before.


Now we know how to draw a great character, have them act, and colour them into scenes... WHOOOOOOOOOOOT!!! :D

This is good for later, but for now: reading week = much needed sleep.

G'night all!... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The hat has been passed.

So the second of several finals is finished. Character sequence! This was fun, but very tedious... training for the business we're in I guess! :P

Not much else to say, obviously a nod to the Indiana Jones series... have ya seen it? If not... well, get on that shit son!





Almost midterm!... That was fast! :S

In a painting room not so far away...

So a lot of work is being assigned right now, but it somehow doesn't feel like much since it's all due week 7 (the week before the break). Only one project is done so far, and another will be done next week, the rest will be on mid-term week... ugh!

So for now, I don't have much to put up. Here is a painting of a sci-fi spacescape, which was actully a really fun project!



It had to have a transition from day and night, and look like it was from a far off planet.

I'll admit Star Wars was partially inspiration for this, but also I took elements from the first scene in Titan A.E. where the earth was destroyed (awesome scene!).

Regardless, I think I'm becoming a better painter! Whooohooo! :D

That's all for now, more to come soon!