Computer Animation!!

We've had two assignments so far and I have to say this is by far my favorite class. I'm not sure if modeling will be for me but the animation part is loads of fun. The first assignment was to animate two balls, one living and one nonliving, bouncing/rolling around in some kind of environment.




The second was to tell a story in ten seconds with primitive objects (known at Ringling as "Primitive Theater"). This one was a lot more interesting and I learned a ridiculous amount of stuff about setting up a scene, interacting characters and, most importantly timing. People tell you stuff here all the time about creating thinking characters - considering the characters' inner monologues and allowing them to register with the audience...but all that advice is really just so many words 'till you get to test it out for yourself. And test I did.

Elvis

One of our assignments for Traditonal Animation this semester was to make an exaggerated version of a quadruped walk cycle. We got to design the character, and could use any animal as long as it had some sort of grounding in real-world anatomy. My origional idea was to make a really heavy pig that really had to pull its wait up and forward to get around. Unfortunately the animation gods had other plans, and I had to settle for something a little less crazy, but as usual it was a learing experience.

In the end I ended up with something kinda like the guy above - he seemed like he had a pretty good sense of weight and that he was really bouncy, almost like he was walking to music. So I pushed that a little more and adjusted the character to fit...and thus was born, "Elvis"

Figure Stuff

Some drawings from my figure class this semester. I feel like I'm improving incredibly fast this year, probably because my teacher Marianne Chapel has been so helpful. She basically adjusted everything about the way I used to draw the figure down to the way I was holding the pencil, and it feels like it really paid off, especially for my drawing work outside of class.

Character Model Sheet

Model sheet a put together for my Traditional animation class. Our asignment was to design and turn a character that we would eventually animate delivering some sort of dialogue. I'm not especially thrilled with how the character turned out, but I feel like a learned alot from looking at everyone else's designs, and from my teacher's comments. On the plus side, even though the character alone could be more interesting, I think he'll be fun to animate because he's nice and simple, and he fits the dialogue really well.

From Morel Orel (delivered by the dad as he greets his family on a crisp winter morning)
"EVERYONE GET DRESSED, WE'RE GOING CHRISTMAS CAROLLING!!"

Shinbones

Did this for my concept class at Ringling. We were given a strange version of the classic "Gift of the Magi" story and had to create a rough image for the moment where the male character goes, "I sold my x for you y." In this case x was "shinbones," and y was "cuticle frames." I was confused too. In my version of the story, the two are serial killers and get the "shinbones" and "cuticle frames" they sell from their fallen victims.

Summer Toons

Some doodles from over the summer, inspired by some of the work at the Avalanche Software Art Blog.

More Portaits

I was watching the day the Earth Stood Still, and sort of lost interest, so I decided to draw a bit. This first is a portrait of Christopher Moore, an author whose stories I really enjoy despite their complete lack of redeeming social value. The second is some random political guy. Both took about an hour and a half.

Sketches

I did a few digital Sketches over the course of the summer of models, actor, writers, or whoever else I could turn up on Google Images and DA. The first two sketches are of models from DA. The third is a caricature of Steven King.

Ultravisitor

This was the next big project I did after the portraits. The alien robot guy was inspired by Ultravisitor and album by Squarepusher. If Squrepusher had asked me to design the album cover for him and I'd managed to maintain consciousness long enough to nod "yes," this is what it would have looked like. Also if you haven't heard of Squarepusher and like drum and bass (or just good music in general) I'd recommend you check him out.
I did this after reading some excerpts from Andrew Loomis's Successful Drawing. I was having a lot of trouble coming up with lighting on my own and that book was incredibly helpful. This took about 9 hours and was completely from imagination.