Thundercats, HO!

I didn't get to watch Thundercats much as a kid, but my brothers did have a couple action figures. The cat-people were amazing to me, but my mother found cartoons to be brain-rotting and I couldn't discover their source till later in life. Now there is talk of a CG movie in lieu of other 80s cartoons becoming movies, and the talk has been buzzing for a while now... well, kinda. It's been pretty silent for a while actually. I hear Warner Bros has delayed its production, but thanks to the folks at MovieLine, we have four concept images!

This is a mostly personal blog, so I have decided that only one concept image will be displayed here. But not just any one concept image, no, but Lion-O himself. Why just one? I love characters, and Lion-O looks good. Perhaps I have a particular liking because his face is much like the face I tried to employ on my Caprean designs like Dallas and Jestir.

I hope that production continues on the movie. It's currently being said that Jerry O'Flaherty is directing the film, and he's credited as an art director from video games such as Gears of War and Command & Conquer: Renegade. An art director being a film director? Interesting. I really would like to see how this could turn out, especially with the pretty concept art they've released. (Yea, the movie could still suck, but if it can look pretty while doing it!)

Elementary Aviation Work

Thought I was going to delete this post, but not so much. So, here are some 'scans' of some progress work I just did for Elementary Aviation (so I can actually work on it now) and... yea...

Shuddup.

FINALLY!

I got Maya yesterday. Couldn't get it to work though, and it made me an angry panda. Today I got Sims 3, and the disc was scratched. Two softwares not working and frustrated with my job, I began to crumble.

Then it happened.

My dear Tim was trying to help me yesterday with Maya and to no avail. He attempted to help again tonight with Sims 3, but there were no quick solutions for me, and so he returned to the Maya issue. And resolved it. In two seconds. Done.

Freaking miracle.

And for some reason, having that fix just sent a wash of relief through me. Fine, Sims 3, be stupid, I have real work I need to do any way.


Back in action!

Waiting

I'm waiting for maya to come in so I can start working again. Ordered it, but it's on backorder. Don't know how long that's going to last, hopefully not too long.

So, until then, a character sketch I did recently



This is Fredericka. I can't tell you what she's for, but I can tell you that the image scanned a little crooked. I haven't really done concepts like this in a long while. She's... meh, ok, I wasn't trying to go for some super sexy gladiatrix, but she isn't terribly interesting to look at. It's a solid start to a process.

Seven Weeks Left

Till I go back to Savannah.

My re-doings of holiday t-shirt imprints at work have resulted in my privilege to redo the imprint design sheets we show customers at work. Not only do I get to reorganize the imprints on a sheet of paper in a fashion that I deem logical and easy to read, but I get to rework a few holiday imprints to better work for general occasions. Too bad this isn't available online, but it should give people more reason to stop by the store and take a peak at the imprints I reworked. (Sorry art department peeps, but an art student who ain't allowed to work with ya gots to do something. You guys still get to say you did the original design, I just made them more... usable. :D )

Summersnoozefest of '09

I've only been back in Michigan just shy of a week, but seriously, it's boring. I'm pretty broke so I cancelled my WoW subscription (temporarily hopefully), and the internet doesn't like to keep me online long enough to get a good game of Warcraft III finished with Tim. That's frustrating.

Back to work at the Teddy Bear Co. Not going to talk about that, it's very very boring and certain things drive me crazy. I like to keep myself occupied by finding random mundane things to do. Like going on our imprint computers and finding interesting and rarely used designs and tweaking them so they fit my needs (Like a "congratulations" design to a "bff" design or a mother's day design to a little boy's... or two little boys'... personalized bear design) and discovering in-store sewing kits and fixing up the bears with holes in them. But, this is not enough... still bored...

And then my Maya (3D software) has expired on my computer, so if I want to work on my senior film (like I originally planned) over the summer, I have to be a code-cracking ninja or cough up $200 for 14 more months of Maya which will probably be updated within the next five. Or completely outsource my work to volunteers. I think I'll come up with the money so I won't have anyone to blame but myself when my models don't work right.

At least I'm beginning to hear of signs that I still have friends nearby that I might be able to occupy some interesting time with. That would be nice.

I need a hair cut, i have a strange mullet O_o

Pitch Poster!

So, myself and a few others from SCAD had their senior project pitch posters selected for the SIGGRAPH issue of Animation Magazine. Had no idea it was even considered, but for some reason the old version of my poster was submitted, not my shiny new one. Oh well, I can't complain, it was submitted, and that's awesome! So go vote for me and my classmates!

http://www.animationmagazine.net/pitch_party_09_vote.html

I know, I know...

I know I was harassing my blog over the weekend about my film production blog, Elementary Aviation, but now it is for realskies done now. It has all the required content and everything. You know what else is awesome? My pitch books are also done, and they got picked up while I was in concept class yesterday. Now all that needs to happen is finish working on my modeling work, pack up my room, move it across town, have the bf graduate, and then relax for awhile.

But first, I'm going to level my death knight for a bit.

Um, Eeyore?

As per request of Mike/Gordo, I bring your attention to this site that you may or my not be already aware of. Awkward Family Photos

Up up and away!

If you haven't bookmarked or even checked out my new short film pitch blog, then do it now, because it is getting updated this weekend. I could update it right now, but I'm trying to get the posts in about the same order as the book that goes along with it (that if I'm talented enough I might include as a downloadable .pdf), so untill then , enjoy the layout and my pitch poster as seen above!


PS - I feel a bit like a sell out, but I have a twitter. Find it on right side of page -->

(goes to hide in shame)

I Feel Pretty

Hamster the Rhino would like to say hello.



"Hello"



And do you like the new addition to the sidebar? (I miss having real fish Q_Q)

So you want to make a character?

Well then, here's a tip- Actually make a character.

If you want to tell a story with the character, don't make "just a dude/girl/kid/etc". Think about the situation you're putting the character through, and ask yourself why they're going through it and how they react to it. Then elaborate. You'd be surprised how much easier it can be to give a character life when you give them backstory and purpose.

Now go.

New Blog! (UPDATED)

I'm not moving, I just set up the blog (in its barest form currently) for my undergraduate senior film.

Elementary Aviation


Not much there right now, but check back in a couple weeks.

UPDATE: The film and blog have a new name (Actually, the film has changed completely but you don't have to worry about that)
Keep up to date!

Not Animation...

But I had to post this.

Unicornasaurus

Jerk Wad

Got to see Coraline last night with a large group of people. It was kind of funny seeing the movie theater packed with fellow Animation students. All in all, the movie was amazing. I wish I had the patience to do stop-motion, the effect of it was beautiful. I randomly found an interview with the director, Henry Selick, this morning and he made an excellent comment on how the Other Mother had hand made this world for Coraline, so using the stop motion technique, that is all hand done, was a good compliment to that idea. I agree with that idea and it worked well. The only thing I disagree with is showing the film in 3D. I don't understand this 3D craze that is going on lately, half the people I talked to afterward said that it gave them a headache or was just uncomfortable for their eyes. My depth perception is off to begin with since I have uneven astigmatisms in my eyes, but I was even wearing my normal glasses under the 3D glasses and it was still obnoxious. (Maybe I need a new prescription?) But, that was the only thing I have to complain about, and it's not even that big a deal. Not all showings are in 3D, and when it comes out on DVD, that won't be in 3D either. So, if you're reading this and haven't seen Coraline yet, go see it. Now. Do it. Dooooooooo iiittttt.

Failasaurus Rex

Wish I had stuff to update with, but I am unable to at the moment because I have to go back and redo a lot of stuff that has been deemed not very good. If I make any good improvements I guess I'll post them, but until then just hope the lightbulb turns back on for me.

Turn in Day

I get back to school two weeks ago and I already had to turn in three animations. Curious?


For 2D, had two different head turns to do, using Mushu.



Had to do a quick simple one...



...and a more complicated on with anticipation.


As for 3D, we took the Andy rig and did a hop. Hopefully I'll find the time to redo this with proper weight and such, but in the mean time, if you see this and want to add critique, go right ahead!



Enjoy!

-Insert Clever Title Here-

This is mostly just to fill room between posts, since I don't see this as a posty-posty blog.
But let's face it, the software developers at Adobe and Autodesk are not being paid enough. Why? Because they manage to spit out new versions of their software way too often. I've been using Maya for just under two years and this is the fourth version I've encountered. (Maya 8, Maya 2008, Maya 2008 v.something, Maya 2009)
Seriously, slow down! And Adobe CS4!? We're still getting used to CS3 over here!

So. Moral of the story- if you're going to punch out so many versions of Maya and Adobe products... pay your people more. Or something. Or just slow down!

/youtube

Heh heh heh...

Youtube didn't need it compressed. And youtube keeps the videos bigger. So here it is! My final from 3D Character Setup and Animation with professor Brian Schindler at SCAD.

Now I'm just waiting for my professors to google their cohort and find my blog... again. :D

Tying Bottles of Eau de Cologne to Mah Cat's Tail

I tried posting my 3D character setup and animation final last week, but the file was WAAAYYYY too big for blogger's uploadermajig. So I have to compress it before I post it, and I've been too lazy to do it lately. And by lazy, I mean I was busy playing WoW and getting my tauren druid up to lvl 80, then discovering I was sucking at being a DPS feral druid and switched to BOOOMkin, but now I'm just bored with the game. So, in my boredom, my character sits undergeared in Dalaran, awaiting to get her fuzzy cow butt handed to her during this weekend's raid, while I decide that my time is better spent on...

redoing my other final.

Yea, that's right, I'm animating during my break. The Acting For Animators final was a total flop. I got an A on it, but I think it was an A for Attempt. So, I'm forgetting that horrid piece of pencil test disaster and going back into a different direction. I'm going to pound out a satisfactory animation using the newest Moom rig, using my final voice take (that I am not satisfied with either), and will hopefully get a good piece of dialogue animation out of that. From there I might use it as reference for yet another animation that will actually use the Sophie Rammeyer character I created for the project. (In the essence of "I like what I did here, so let's do it over here..." not for factual reference)

I have a mirror behind my computer on my home desk, so referencing the facial animation is going to be fairly easy... might make that a necessity for all my desks in the future... my desk is technically a vanity table...

So, enough blogging! On to animating!