Small Victories...

More layouts for "Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti" I did today.

..and yes that horse is a snow sculpture...:D

Treehouse Layout

And here we go! Another Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti layout. I did a composite test last night with the Emma shot that I animated this quarter, and my goodness. It's looking really good. Can't wait to show everyone. I still have some minor issues to fix, so I should have the final version of that shot uploaded soon.

Finished Color Piece

Finally, I can showcase a finished illustration for "Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti." This is the very first image of the film.

Variety will come eventually...

If you've seen the animatic, you'll recognize these images from the opening sequence. I'm illustrating these images for my sequential art senior project class. I've been working on these all quarter so far, and I'm getting so close to finishing the drawing. I'm frantically finishing line art so that I can move on to color as soon as I can. Ugh! I have lot to color before the end of the quarter, but I've done three painting tests so far. I'm getting more comfortable with the coloring process so I don't think it will take too long. But then, again, things always take longer than expected. Always. It's going to be an interesting rest of the quarter.

Here's what the illustrations look like in the final scene. Any suggestions? I'm afraid they're getting too detailed, but I think they'll read fine when I translate them into color. 

First Finished Background Painting!

Finally! After several painted tests (I think I've done five or six now (probably should have done a few more) ) I have a finished "Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti" layout painting. Now I'll be painting for a long time, but that's okay. I'm having way to much fun. Below I posted the original storyboard and the line-art for this particular BG.

Storyboard

Refined Line-art

Tree House Background

Well, I've been learning a few things about layout design recently: if you do a lot of quick drawings, quick concept sketches, and quick trial versions of said layout, it makes the process of final rendering a lot quicker. I know it sounds like a very artistically basic thing that I every artist should probably know already, but I guess I didn't really challenge myself otherwise until I started working on this film. A lot of terrific experience as a result of working on this and other films.

That being said, here's the finished rendering of the tree house interios. I'm quite proud of it. I still want to go back and tweak a few things: throw off straights line and what not. I'm so excited to work on the final colored version of this background and then see the multi-planning too. 

Here's of the process work for the final render:

Here's the original storyboard

Here's a quick redo after doing some rough concept work:

And so you can see the individual layers, here's the finished rendered foreground...

...and the finished mid-ground.

All in all, I spent about 4 or 5 hours rendering the final version! Now for color...

Check out this post to see some of the preliminary design work.

Senior Project is kicking my BUTT!

Wow! This is turning out to be a really exhausting quarter so far. Between my 2D Character Animation II class, Senior Project, Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti, and a few other responsibilities, I'm just getting my butt kicked. That being said, I've built up a reservoir of new illustrations and animations that I can start posting. Yes I know it's February and I know it's incredibly sad that I'm only just now posting my first entry of the new year. Hopefully I can remedy this by posting some of the stuff I've been working on over the next few days :D

I'll start off with some backgrounds that I've been working on for Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti. I'm working on the tree house. I've had fun creating the house out of found object both inside and outside. The House itself is made out of scraps of metal, loosing boards, tiles, and and variety of construction equipment, while the interior furniture is made out of random household items. For example: the lamp is made out of old pictures frames, a cookie sheet, flower pot, copper piping, and a flashlight held tight with masking tape. The love-seat is constructed of luggage, books, folded towels, pillows, and tires for back support. So far I think it's coming along. I have final scenes drawn by Friday so wish me luck!

Also, take notice of the treehouse door design. There's a Yeti door with a little girl door built inside it! I'm very excited about the door that's actually shaped like Yeti. I'm not sure if it's intentional or not that I made him shaped like a bowling pin.

Lots of EMPY stuff coming your way this week (because I don't have time to do anything else T_T). Enjoy the new blog design!

McDonough Opening Sequence

Few! I've been working my buns off for over a week straight trying to get work done for finals. Unfortunately I still have about a week left of work to go before I can actually relax. But, amongst the sucktacularity of SCAD finals, I was able to finish the opening shot for "McDonough," my friend Kyle Stephens' senior film. The foreground layer is Kyle's stop motion set, and my matte paintings are in the background. The following sequence of images is a multi-planed Photoshop painting that Kyle is going to animate in After Effects. The camera is panning up the side of the building, while the city disappears into the bottom of the screen, and clouds open up to reveal the sun. I'm very please with how it turned out. Now I have to finish an animation for Monday and a three-page comic for Thursday. Thank the Lord I'm on the homeward stretch.

McDonough Backgrounds Part 2

Few! I've been working like a dog these past few days. Since Wednesday, I penciled a splash page for Speed Sketching (which I will post shortly), I rendered two backgrounds in flash for Les Harper over at Lightbox Animation Studios (which I will post once I get the approval (don't want to accidentally break any contracts)), I started the packing process for my dorm room (and made major progress (I had A LOT of junk)), and I finished this background for the director of the senior film I'm working on. Wow I'm tired, but only two weeks left. It's daunting how much work I still have to do. Oh well! Tis life at SCAD.

McDonough Backgrounds Part 1

Okay here we go. Here is the sketch and final rendering of one of several matte paintings I'm working on for my friend Kyle Stephens. I'll continue to post these paintings as I get them finished. We're getting down to the wire. Finals weeks is two weeks away.

Kyle's film McDonough is a stop-motion musical that is too fantastic to describe with words. It's going to be among the top senior films produced at SCAD this year. The film is based in the European town Edinburgh, which is great for me, being a huge fan of European architecture. Like I said, I'll have more to share soon enough. These have to be mostly done by Sunday. Ugh! Daunting.

Digging into the box of memories

I was digging through a old flash drive and found my renders from my Digital Form, Space, and Lighting class, my first experience with modeling, texturing, and lighting in Maya. I surprisingly had a ton of fun with this class. I wish I could take more digital classes like this.

Backgrounds for Short Film: Part 4

Wow! I got a lot more done than I thought I did! Here is the rest of my progress on my flash film. I also have one page rendered for my sequential art assignment due tomorrow, but I'll upload that when I have the entire assignment finished.

Backgrounds for Short Film: Part 3

Hooray! I just finished another background for my short film in Digital Cel Animation. The Difficult backgrounds are mostly completed thank goodness. Now I have to render some of the minor backgrounds so I can start on my animation.

Backgrounds for Short Film: Part 2

Whew! Another Long day of background creation. I have soooo much work to do, I really should move on to other things, but I'm having way to much fun creating these backgrounds. This one I think is even better than the previous. So hopefully by the time I'm finished with the film, I'll have some fantastic pieces for my portfolio.

Backgrounds for Short Film

I've been spending my day working on backgrounds for my short film. This first one took a while because I spent most of the time trying to figure out what I wanted. Overall I'm very pleased with the results. I wanted to try something new, and change up my style a little bit. I've always been a huge fan of the retro, flat style that seems to be very popular now in cartoons. I'm sure it will be outdated and cliche before long, but I think I'll take the time to enjoy it while I can.

This one isn't completely finished. I have to add trophies for the main character, and pictures in the frames.