Portfolio Site

I'm taking Web + Screen this semester and it's proving to be a very interesting class. We're learning html and css right now and will be learning javascript and action script for Flash later on in the semester. We had the choice to make whatever kind of website we wanted and I chose to update my portfolio site for this project. Here's what the home page design looks like:

Animation Tests

I have been working on some animation tests of my chicken running so I can finesse the weight painting of the rig. I also wanted to settle on a character run to help convey his personality. My first test was a bit too general and not quite what I wanted.

For my second test, I added a slight hop to give it character. I like how it came out, but need to work out a few of the details. I'll do that once I start the actual animation though.... which should be next week! So excited!

Short Film Animatic

So I meant to post this up a month ago, but time got away from me as usual. I'm in the process of making a short film for my Advanced 3D class using the featherless chicken I modeled last semester as my main character. I'm nearly ready to animate now having built the set and extra character. Just have to finishing mapping out the UV's and I'll be on to the fun part!

Here is a rough storyboard of my short film. The basic story is that this featherless chicken escapes from the barn. The farmer chases the chicken for a good portion of the short. When the farmer finally catches up the chicken, he puts a sweater on the chicken. My prof was telling me that when chickens get stressed out, they lose their feathers and there are little old ladies in England who knit sweaters for those chickens so they can stay warm while they re-grow their feathers. I thought it would be fun to tie that into my story.

And now here is a very rough animatic. The timing is so off and I've changed a few things, but you can get the general idea of what will happen.

Carl

Here's a sketch of Carl Fredricksen from Pixar's latest movie, Up. He was pretty fun to draw. A bit challenging though since he has odd proportions and a square head. Even though he rarely has a smile on his face, I chose to draw him with on anyway. I actually drew it for my friend, Chris' birthday. I colored it and wrote a little note on it.

Dug!

After a bit of a posting hiatus, I thought I'd share a sketch I drew of Dug for an Art Jam over at the Pixar Plant forums. I'm doing a collaboration with another member. I was in charge of drawing and now she will ink and color the piece. I'm excited to see how it turns out. And in case you are wondering, that is a Nemo chew toy in his mouth. Nothing against Nemo. Just wanted to add another Pixar creature to the piece. :)



Also, I've been painting a wall for a former high school teacher. She has this random white brick wall in her basement and my job is to make it look like the brick wall of Wrigley Field. The brick is done (updated since the photo on the left was taken though) and I am in the process of painting in the vines; not as dense as the actual wall is. The picture on the right (cell phone photo) shows the back side of the wall without the numbers of the field. More detail as been added to the vines since it was taken. I plan on taking decent photos of the wall once it is complete

Last Project

I now present my last final project for the Spring 09 semester! We could do anything we wanted for our Ideation final. I'm a quiet, reserved person who keeps most of her feelings on the inside. I tend to remain quite composed, so I decided is was high time that something should be done about that! Inspired by my room mate, Jenn's, silly antics with the Photobooth application on our macbooks, I decided to do a stop motion with pictures of me making a variety of faces. My brother gave me the song suggestion, which worked really well. It was a fun project to make. A bit weird though since it's a bunch of pictures of me being weird. Not used to being so exposed. But that was the point of this project too. :)

The Arctic Shoulder

My first animated short film is finished!! I had so much fun creating this. Animated with classic Disney tunes in the background and danced around. Usually Amber was animating next to me, so that was pretty fun. Although it got frustrating at times, especially using the support rig to get the penguins off the ground, I learned a lot through the process. Mostly about timing, but also a lot about implying 'dialogue' through expressions/emotion. Since I am most interested in character animation, this was a good task for me! After nearly two months of working on it, I'm glad the short is finished, but I will miss the class!