Talent Gone Awry

Lighting progress

2010-09-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back again! What I've been working on hasn't been animation, actually, but I thought I would try out some lighting (and texturing, too, it so happened). I used one of Jeremy Birn's lighting challenges, and intend to do a few more, perhaps. This is just a rough render of how I've got it so far, but the final gathering is probably a little too much and I need to smooth out those shadows. I just wanted to see some results after so much work, y'know? =P

Any of your comments or suggestions would be more than welcome and greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

Oh yeah - and I redesigned the blog again! What do y'all think? Green is awesome.

Fiddlin' around

2010-08-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hey gang! So it's been a quiet summer for me, as much as I had hoped otherwise...let's just say that I was taking a break after all that hard schoolwork. =P Now I'm spending more time at home, and making my desktop computer more comfortable. I was updating some user icons in various places when I discovered this computer's font library is lacking Century Gothic, which led to a several-hour-long font-downloading spree, which led to me wanting to flex my graphic design-y impulses.

So here's a completely-irrelevant-to-animation business card! Except that it says 'animation' on it. As much as I love my doggy...I don't know how fond I am of the card anymore. Plus it came out pretty dark. So maybe I will get this one printed as well someday.

It was fun to make, just started with my name and took off from there. I love playing with graphic design stuff. =3 Maybe I should've taken that in school instead...XD Also, thinking I should probably get a more professional-looking e-mail address. Why I have resisted thus far, I do not know.

Just thought I would share that I'm not dead...and, really, I will be working on my reel soon!

3D Demo Reel 2010

2010-05-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

FINISHED!

I actually plan to work more on this over the summer, as I have a BRAND SPANKIN' NEW computer to do it on. =D Would love to show more animation clips, maybe just grab some dialogue and the Max rig again, but I'm happy I got to create my own characters!

This will be on display at the Harbour Centre in Vancouver at our GRADSHOW tonight! From 5-9, we're welcoming reps from the industry, and Saturday will be our friends & family day, from 12-4. =D

Pretty Colours!*

2010-05-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

*Because this is all I heard from my classmates upon seeing them. XD

Thought I'd share these designs I printed up as posters for my grad booth. The top two were printed in a 13"x19" size and the long ones were 11.5"x40" banners. Whoo! Nice and big. Currently being displayed at the Harbour Centre downtown as we put them all up last Sunday, and they'll be there until this Saturday. I'm so nervous, but I also can't wait! Hopefully there will be a big studio presence on industry night. =3

I also made some 1.25" buttons, which I'm very pleased with. Might share those designs too, in a little bit. I want more and more to invest in my own button maker. XD

Posed Renders!

2010-04-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

Some renders! Posed ones! Finally.

Posed these out sort of panicky last Thursday in a rushed attempt to get something on my grad page. But I think I'm really happy with how everything is working. =D It was kind of a pain to get that sitting pose for the doggy, though, I basically had to just reshape the model in ZBrush, which was painful for a while. But hey, he's pretty cute. =3

EDIT: Realized the doggy's ears weren't in motion in his 'chasing tail' pose. Just a quick change!

Also, here is a painted (very roughly) version of the concept art I did for the hunter. Posted it on my deviantART but forgot to throw it up here. Thought I'd share. =3

2010-03-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

Just a quick doodle I knocked off tonight, just as some sort of concept stuff for my character design pack due next week, and I felt like sharing. Very Caesar-y, of course. I like it. =3

Project One/Two Progress - March 8

2010-03-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

Hmm, so it's been a while...

This is what has been sucking up my time: getting my third and final character done. She was already modeled, but I went in and tweaked and whole bunch of stuff, then spent FOREVER unwrapping and texturing. The hair was kind of fun to do, but again a little tedious. I know there are still some problems all over the place, plus I think I should go in and add a tongue and set of teeth, as with the monster. Speaking of which, I should post his updates...

Not even close to being on schedule. =( Still need to rig, and then set up my environment(s) - but I don't think the latter should take too much time. Then it's speed-animating! XD

Project One Progress - Feb 1

2010-02-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

Deadline for my first project!

Here's my monster model. He is pretty much complete except for a quick bump map and I realize he's missing a tongue and teeth. D'oh!

So I will be in the process of rigging him next. Unfortunately I am behind on what I wanted to have done, but I think I had set expectations for myself that were way too high. At least I'm not the only one. XD

Project One Progress - Jan 27

2010-01-27T15:06:00.000-08:00

Some more progress on my first project. This is the model for my terrible monster. I'm currently in the process of texturing him, but it's not complete enough to post here. The colours for his fur/scales/whatever, I'm thinking, are going to be something like a royal blue or deep violet, with lighter patches scattered in areas I haven't decided yet. The horns and spikes will be a very pale cream.

At this point, it doesn't look like I'm going to hit my deadline of March 1st to get this guy fully textured, as well as a human model that needs to be cleaned up, unwrapped and textured, and all three models rigged. It will have to carry over into my second project, I think...hopefully I can have them all DONE before the extended reading break. Perhaps I'll be able to work something out to be able to work on this stuff at home, too. That'd be great. =3

Project One Progress - Jan 21

2010-01-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

Some further progress of my puppy. =3 I think all the texturing is done. As you can see, I was a little unsure of myself on the last image and threw in some darker circles around his eyes. It looks like everything is working.

This model is meant to be in memory of my dog, Caesar, who I miss very much. I hope I can animate him accurately.

Project One Progress - Jan 11

2010-01-11T16:49:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show my progress so far, here in the second week of the spring term. Yay for doggies! I'm currently in the process of unwrapping him so he'll be ready for texturing on schedule. However, I still have a human model to touch up and a monster model to start...I just have to work hard to get it all done!

We've been assigned three self-motivated projects that will entail all the stuff we want to put in our individual demo reels. I'm looking at making a short little film, instead of a compilation of stuff. For my first project I intend to complete all three of my characters, including rigging. Hoo boy.

Christmas Treats

2009-12-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

My group project for the last 3 weeks of the term. It went really well! We won best film. ^^'

Merry Christmas! =D

A collaboration with Mike Jones, Lillian Lai, Josh Pan, Courtney Pearson, and Carlyle Wilson. They are all amazing, please check them out!

2009-12-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Finished!

I don't even know if I like it or not anymore. I've spent too much time looking at it. I think...it could be...better?

Here, fishy fishy fishy...

2009-11-25T08:39:00.000-08:00

My latest animation project. Well, more than animation: we had to model the fish, texture it (did the painting myself, yay!), rig it with a skeleton, and then animate it. The bubbles and ripple effects were extra and weren't necessary for the assignment, but I decided to throw 'em in. For whatever reason this video didn't upload to YouTube probably...but really, you only miss him swimming off screen, no big deal. XD

Animation, finally!

2009-11-19T22:55:00.000-08:00

My latest animation project! ...Still in progress. A dialogue assignment, my favourite. I love character animating. =3 I also love this quote from the Office (clip from What's the Scuttlebutt, awesome database of the Office sound clips), from Creed. He says the greatest things, he truly does.

Done with the lip sync, I think; will be cleaning up the rest next week. Oh, also, I used the very popular Max rig, for those that don't know.

Character doodles!

2009-10-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

Some thumbnails for my character design class. I still need a couple more but I had to give my hand a break from the drawing. I'm basing this character - or rather, the armor set - off of those seen in the Monster Hunter games. There are a few here that I'm pretty sure I won't be using, but others I quite like. Mostly, I enjoyed getting a chance to be creative with costume design. I hope nothing looks too much like what's in the games...

I SEE YOU

2009-10-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

This was done for our eyeball assignment. I created two textures for the iris - one using Photoshop filters, and the other one just painted in Photoshop. Plus the final render from Maya, with some pretty lighting. Wheeeee! This was fun. =)

Heads!

2009-09-22T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yay for heads! My base mesh in Maya is pretty bad - but only because I wanted to just keep it simple and do the rest in ZBrush. God I love that program. Here's how it turned out...

Jumpin' into digital

2009-09-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hai guys! =D

This year, I'm going to update more often. I'm going to update more often. I'm going to update more often...

First week's assignment: a hand! This was really fun. My original Maya hand (grey one) was kind of messed up, so when I transferred it to Zbrush I had lots to work on, especially with that thumb (it still doesn't look right...). But Zbrush is definitely REALLY AWESOME, and because I'm also awesome, I used the RGB matcap. Awesome, no?

I was fiddling with the Maya hand some more this morning, but got a little too caught up in that one index finger that the others got ignored by the time class started. Oops! It was supposed to just be the general form. XD

I am really enjoying the program so far. =3

DEMO REEL APRIL '09

2009-09-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

I-...it's finally here!

Yeah, I don't know what to say about this. I wish I'd had some better stuff come gradshow time. I love the Azumanga Daioh music, though. =)

Aroo

2009-04-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

A painting I did this week following a reference of my old dog, Caesar. I needed to fill my paintings page of my portfolio with more paintings, so after some fiddling around, I decided on this. It's quite a messy job, but I like it. I've dedicated artwork to my dog before, but this is the first one in colour. =3 I'm quite happy with it.

Caesar will be loved forever. <333

The Costume Club

2009-04-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

A lineup of characters I did for my portfolio. "The Costume Club" was an idea suggested by Colleen, so thanks to her for that, because my creativity is lacking, and I didn't go to writing school. I like the jaws on the sharky one.

HEEYA!

2009-04-20T09:17:00.001-07:00

A poster I made for my gradshow booth. I had the idea for this character in my head since my last life drawing session, and finally got it out on a Cintiq the other day. Tried a cel-shading technique as opposed to my previous painting works. I like it. That right arm looks really long, but I like it. =3

One more animation...

2009-04-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Eh heh, one more that I forgot about.

I hate this one. It took so much work to get done and it doesn't look as good as I'd like (but I think that happened for most people concerning this project). Still...first cleaned up Flash project. X3

Animation Update! Phase 5

2009-04-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

Last official assignment in my fourth term. Gasp! It's over! Except there's still so much work to do. x_x

This is a cartoony version of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh. I also threw Mr. Tadakichi in at the end, but YouTube cut him off. XD B'oh.

Animation Update! Phase 4

2009-04-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

Third animation in my fourth term. Overlap and follow-through; thus the person had to have baggy clothes and the dog had to be furry. These two are from my Okami model pack! =3 Although the doggy looks very different and is missing his scarf. I figured I had enough to animate as it was.

Animation Update! Phase 3

2009-04-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

My second animation from my fourth term. Two person dialogue. The quote is from some episode of The Office...I don't remember which. XD

Animation Update! Phase 2

2009-04-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

My last animation assignment of the third term (I didn't have very many good ones to upload). Dialogue! Buzz Lightyear! This one was fun to do. And it made me really want to watch Toy Story. I had to wait 'til Christmas to do so, at which point I only received the second one. XD I bought the first one about a week later. And yeah, it was pretty awesome (both were, really).

Animation Update! Phase 1

2009-04-08T14:02:00.001-07:00

So! YouTube finally worked and I have all my latest animations uploaded. =3 Huzzah! Here's my 'reaction to an object' animation from term three. One of the requirements was that it had to be at least 15 seconds.

Space Designs

2009-03-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Some more designs that I created for gradshow, as well as my digital application. Well, again, I don't know how much design prowess is here, as they're both very similar in shape, but...I like them anyway. The costumes were really fun to draw. I especially like the colouring on the left one. =D

Okami Designs

2009-03-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

A lineup created for my grad pages/disposable portfolio. Very inspired by the art of Okami. I had some other colour keys for the noblewoman that I really liked, but given the colours of the other two, I decided on this one. Surprise, surprise, I love the dog. Look, he has a scarf! =3

Doggy Doodles

2009-03-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

As I was working on our 'dog in the park' overlap and follow-through animation, I became really inspired to just doodle some doggies. Sketchbook Pro is a really nice program to use, I just love the nice lines you can get. The dog on the left is supposed to be my old dog Caesar, who used to just sleep during the day then get really excited when my mum came home, or my dad came by. The other is mostly just doodles...the three dogs on the bottom are dogs that I actually know. XD Roxy, in the middle, actually has a one-sided underbite.

Three Character Line-Up

2009-02-09T11:04:00.001-08:00

My latest painting project: three characters, potentially going towards our grad books. I don't think there's really any design prowess here, so I'm not sure if I want to use them in my design package or not. I just wanted to draw something I liked and paint it. But I think these characters are all definitely very boring. I like the left girl's colours, though. I think her paint job was the best; the other two I kind of rushed.

Digital Painting - Woo!

2009-01-31T14:48:00.000-08:00

So I'm love with my digital painting class. It's so fun! It's something I've always wanted to do but have always been intimidated by my lack of experience with painting and a tablet. But the Cintiqs make it so fun. This is our first character project. I quite enjoyed laying out the different colour keys, but this was the first I made and ended up settling on for the painting. I don't know why I keep revisiting my old anime style. Also, I'm completely aware that she's off-balance. I don't care. XD This project was about the painting, not the design.

Wh-wh-wh-whaaaaaaat?

2008-12-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

And furthermore: a LAYOUT update? But I hate layout!

So this was our final layout project; it could be any theme we wanted. My ideas were a japanese garden or a beach resort (the focus of which was the pool and bar, not so much the beach). This, as layout often does, really frustrated me, but I think restarting almost completely was definitely for the better. It still needs some tweaking, but I'm under so much pressure from other projects that I'm just going to have to leave it for now.

I'm amazed to say that I'm actually semi-proud of this. My best cleanup, for sure.

Hopefully some animations will be sure to follow this post. Not very happy with what's been done to date, but I'm working through those last few...

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Now playing: Modest Mouse - Parting Of The Sensory
via FoxyTunes

Fishers Dog and Man

2008-04-24T17:56:00.001-07:00

Final design model pack. I'm quite pleased with it - much more than last semester. I couldn't care less for the fisherman, but that doggy is so cute! Look at 'im! He's got a vest, and little booties! He's a helper doggy.

Oh, I love dogs.

Also happy with the boat, too, as I actually managed to draw it in perspective. But I should never name motors.

Invincible

2008-04-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

Final project for term 2. Probably my best so far, I really tried to vary the timing for once. Doesn't look as good as I'd have liked it to, but that's the procrastinator's curse.

Wow!

2008-04-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

So long since my last post. I'm so terrible at blogs.

Here's the two person dialogue. My own, terrible, rather unvaried voice talent there. And also, not very nice-looking animation. I don't think these kids look very UPA-styled to me.

Doggy!

2008-02-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

My final quad assignment. Of course I did a dog! ^^' They're too cute to pass up. I wish this had come out a little better...I think the first walk up the ramp looks a little funny, especially with the tail, but I'm particularly happy about the tail wag and the jump. =D Maybe the bone could've taken a little longer to fall, but it's hard to work when you don't have a shooting lab. So I guess I'm quite happy with this; I just wish I'd been able to start last Monday; this could've turned out so much better, I think. Oh well; next time I won't have to wait until I can get a hold of the right size paper. X3

Storyboard: Beanie Babies vs. Balthier

2008-02-05T22:53:00.001-08:00

So here's my storyboard for our film class. Hehe, I had a lot of fun with this, I don't care if we were supposed to use people. XD Maybe the sequel will be that all the toys at my desk will help Balthier out and seek vengeance on them darn cute puppies.

Final Animation Term 1

2008-01-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

Here was our final animation assignment. Colleen suggested Bender, and I think he worked out pretty well. The bounce at the end is just right (by pure coincidence) to make it seem like he is made of metal. =)

Glorious holiday time kept me from posting this sooner.

Final Design Project Term 1

2007-12-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

So here're my designs. I like the scarecrow the best; he definitely came out the best in the colour clean-up, I think, and I love his bashful pose the best. D'aww. X3

I can't believe how long it took to get all that colouring done...what a long Friday that wasn't supposed to be long at all. But it's over, it's finally over! Have a *great* holiday, you guys.

Nerfherder!

2007-12-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

Ahaha, here's my dialogue project. I wussed out and asked my boyfriend to record something for me, and we decided to satisfy our inner Star Wars geeks and go with this line. I have no idea what the hell a 'nerfherder' is, but that kid seems upset enough to resort to such vulgar language.

Sketchbook Dump (Part 2)

2007-11-21T22:45:00.001-08:00

Some more of the same load of sketches. All of the hands in the fourth image are my own. =P

Sketchbook Dump

2007-11-21T21:57:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the better pages of my sketchbook. I'll post my character designs in a little bit; I have to edit them a bit.

Piglet Returns

2007-11-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest animation, and my longest yet. Gawsh, I used so much paper! x_x And my hand was pretty cramped after all that hard work last Tuesday afternoon. And it's just 8 seconds long...oh, the poor trees.

I wish my animations had more personality. Everybody seems to capture their character so well. >_<

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Now playing: The Black Keys - The Lengths
via FoxyTunes

Slightly Less Old Flash

2007-11-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

I think I did this the same day as the bull animation; I was finished and just wanted to experiment. I love mythical creatures, particularly dragons, and wings are fun to draw. I thought I'd try animating one. I don't care so much that it moves around; there are about one or two cycles that I think work really well, the third or fourth ones or something. I think I'd like to animate a dragon walking when we do quadrupeds. =)

Old Flash

2007-11-13T16:17:00.000-08:00

An old animation, just working with drag and stuff...heh, I had fun with this. XD BONK.

Doodles!

2007-11-01T23:00:00.001-07:00

I took advantage of the lack of homework tonight (praise be to Colin!) and started messing around with my tablet. It doesn't happen too often. I hate coming back to my own Photoshop because it doesn't recognize keyboard shortcuts. >_<

So yeah, some hands. Used my own as a reference. Also, that wing? Yeah, I used myself as a reference for that one. That's also my Coke can. And I have a dragon. And Samus and Auron are just cool (used references for them, too =P).

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Now playing: The Police - Synchronicity I
via FoxyTunes

Aww

2007-10-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

So I decided I had to hop on the bandwagon and post a dog picture. He's so cute, I love showing him off. =3 Also, I love any excuse to procrastinate on my design homework. >_>

Image editing is one of my many loves.

Walks 2

2007-10-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

And the Pink Panther walk. I hate watching these in class because everyone else gets so creative with theirs. XD We're still learning, we're not allowed to show up everyone else!

I wanted to do a big dump of all our Flash experiments, but I exported them as .swf files, not .avis...I'll have to fix that tomorrow.

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Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Maybe Not
via FoxyTunes

Walks 1

2007-10-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Yay Piglet! =D Just a simple walk cycle; I was going to use Pooh but I decided his profile was too tricky to draw. v_v

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Now playing: Feist - My Moon My Man
via FoxyTunes

Let's jumpstart this thing

2007-10-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

So I felt like I should create an art blog. One that, hopefully, I'll update more than my pathetic deviantART page. (Huzzah, shameless plugs! XD) I'd like to scan in artwork too as well as animations, but I'll either have to use the school scanner or the one at my dad's place, as this one here doesn't like to co-operate. Harumph.

I sort of lost enthusiasm as I was drawing this but once I filmed and played it I regained some heart; it looked so much better when animated. I mean, it's not perfect (how could it be, being my first?), but it still makes me giddy watching it. Everyone else did much more amazing ones, though. =P