TYRANNOSAURUS!!!

Well summer's pretty much over, which means my schedule shall soon runneth over and prevent me from working on my film. The only thing that disappoints me is that we got literally NO testing done. Of course, that's not to say nothing got done. I managed to get 2 full storyboard sequences drawn, inked and toned, and the crew has been working hard as well. But for the first time, I'm learning what "development hell" means. Next opportunity, I must learn how to better lead my team and have them meet more often.

There are two main reasons I haven't given up on this thing. One is that, like Andrew Stanton advised, I have fallen for my story, am stoked about what it could mean for all of us if it's completed, and am dying to see it realized on the screen. The other is that I'm sure nothing about my idea is out of this crew's reach. The only crippling obstacle has been scheduling. But all that's irrelevant now. School's starting, so goodbye project...

And HELLOOOOOOOOOO POWER RANGER DESIGNS!! You'll be seeing a lot more o' these this semester! lol

Intro to Anatomy Final

AIGHT, I think enough time has passed since the last post, soooo...

This is the final project I submitted for my "Intro to Anatomy" class. It was well recieved, but not without it's critiques (of course). I actually agreed with all the suggestions, but am too lazy to utilize them, or even mention them further. The drawing's safe, so I may tweak it eventually (artist's famous last words...).

For this assignment I had to produce ORIGINAL reference photos. Which ALMOST meant a buddy and I were going "Spartan", wardrobe-wise, and doing some combat poses. My buddy, not wanting to show off his "less-than-Spartan" physique, called me back with 2 great amateur models, willing to work for booze and pizza. MAN, that was one wild night of body oils and alcohol....The photo shoot was pretty crazy too! *rimshot*

I took pics at different stages so people can see the process. I'd go into detail, but now that I look at it, it's pretty self-explanatory what was going on lol. Though, I'm afraid I may have taken Mike Mattesi's "flowing through the drawing" concept a little too far. Ah well. It DID help a lot, anyway. There's a brighter version of #3 where I used the flash, but the light flattened out the image so I canned that idea.

On a side note, "Persepolis" came in from Netflix. Hopefully I'll be seeing that one soon.

PTERODACTYL!!!

There's GOTTA be a better way to photoshop these drawings. The way I'm going at it now is painful, takes forever and has no foreseeable hope of accomplishing any kind of line quality. I traced over the rough drawing in ink, went into photoshop, traced it again and colored it. Didn't really try to color it WELL, but I tried not to embarrass myself. Someone's gotta let me in on the secret to cleaner lines and shading. And don't tell me the secret is, "work harder" lol!

This is that same image of Kimberly Hart from over a semester ago. I spent the entire day coloring it, stopping only for a 2 hour nap. I'd go further with it, but I'm not sure my crew would be so happy with me blowing all my time drawing Power Rangers. I guess it's more of a way to roll through "boarder's block"... I gave her 1 layer of shading, for the sake of it. One of the rules of civilian wardrobe among rangers is to work their colors into their outfits...genius...

And SURPRISE!!! My brand spanking new rendition of Jason Lee Scott! I made him look younger and therefore less bulky. However, I also tried not to lose sight of his Sentai "alpha dog" persona. Jason's the ideal leader. Humble, yet strong and without fear. Head based on a square (of course...). I might color him someday. I notice color really helps me get more of the character across. He has a normal sized head, which I seem to be gravitating towards in the later designs. I still haven't given up on the big-head idea with their "suited" designs.

Maya 1 Final

Let me tell you, if you knew the circumstances of these 15+ second clips, these babies would look a lot better. I was pretty desperate to get these done on time. I was surrounded by an upcoming Taekwondo tournament, an upcoming Yoshi's Jazz Club gig, and my current retail job (i know, i know). For a college student, same ol' same ol'...

They were completed a day before the due date, and took a good 6 months to figure out (with computers, I'm not the shiniest coin in the purse...). Pretty much all that time was spent in the modelling, texture-mapping, and rigging stages. 'Felt a lot better knowing 85% of my classmates were suffering the same wounds.

I'm actually pretty proud of the compositional choices I made with the lip sync. At the last second, I managed to make one of the 7 books I wasted time reading that semester work for me lol!*sigh* One of the main reasons I'm attempting an independent short film is an opportunity to use and demonstrate what I've learned at my own pace. Well, at least in this class I learned to animate fast. That's worth something.

Enjoy these two tests. As I watch them, I still can't believe they made it out of the storm.

Creature Test



"Norman" Dialogue Test

A Model Revisited...

There was this model, back in my anatomy class. Now, usually we artists have this thing where "we're all doctors" and "the model is just a breathing sculpture to draw from", but this one was reeeeeeeeeeally something. Such a "view" is rare for geeks like me lol...*sigh*. On the off-chance that you happen to get a particularly attractive model, you're under pressure not to 'eff the drawing up (it's worth noting that I can have a unique opinion on what "beauty" is)! It was pretty cool to see her stop by my bench to see my work, during a break. The 2nd drawing marked her last day working at the Academy (D'OH!).

This was, I think, the first 2 completed drawings I did since finishing the book, "FORCE: Dynamic Life Drawing For Animators" (HOORAY for blogs! And the freedom to post nude artwork on 'em!). I'm not so sure that I fully grasped all (or any...) of the concepts in the book, but I know my figure drawings got a darn-sight better since I finished it. I STILL don't see them as pro-level, but it's money well spent. I'll show some 2-5 minute ones, later.

Principles attempted: Thick-to-thin lines for hard/soft edges, basic shapes/forms, drawing through the figure, a half-assed attempt at "force" drawing, laws of curves, overlapping lines, etc.

Materials: (top) Recycled newsprint, HB charcoal pencil/ loose dark-black chalk for emphasis (hard surfaces). White chalk apparently can be used for highlights on tan/recycled papers. (bottom) White cotton paper, a lot harder to control. Same charcoal combination.

NOTE: I hate critiques. A lot. But I need 'em just like everyone else. Feel free lol.