a motion wip and other things

Hello! Long time no see! :D
I am absolutely still alive- just a bit inactive on this blog. I wish I had more to put up about what I did last term but I felt that a lot of the work could have been done a lot better. It's the kind of work that you'll have to return to in about...a year haha.  However, this term, I'll be tackling story a lot (which is something my school lacks emphasis on) and I'm hopping to post things with more narrative and not just static backgrounds with boring characters.

I'm currently taking a motion design class and here are three rough frames out of the ten/eleven that I have. I really love how in the Amazing World of Gumball, they mesh 2d characters along with real/photographed backgrounds by applying natural lighting to the characters. So I thought I'd try it out myself. I went out and took a few photos of this tree by the road in Pasadena. I'm not a photographer but with a little photoshop magic, I was able to get something close to the desired look.

the assignment is to create some kind of narrative with 5-10 pictures or illustrations. There should be an exposition, climax, and resolution. This short story is about a little nerdy boy scout who really enjoys nature and most of all, insects. He walks by a leaf with a little caterpillar inching along the edge of it and stops to appreciate it. Without warning, this moment of admiration is disturbed by a size 10 sneaker harpooning itself at the leaf. The rest is to be continued!
--update 1/19/14
finally finished-just added some music. I'm seriously falling in love with this medium. I feel like they're just this much closer to really feeling like real/animated characters. It might sound foolish but the slow pans and close ups really give the illusion of real animation or movement going on haha. I apologize for the lack of creativity on the title. I really couldn't think of a good name. Besides that, I love after effects! There are too many possibilities-more than my brain can handle!

Caterpillar from Snow Cinder on Vimeo.
The wonderful harmonica music is by Benoist Busson. You can find more of his music on jamendo. I highly recommend that you go give the full version of "Believe" a listen.
This is just for a class project and not for distribution or public advertising.

So here are a few beat boards for storyboarding. There was a prompt and then we had to create a story around that prompt. I wish I made a story that wasn't so complex. It is about four characters, Nadine (a young 12 year old girl who cannot walk and is confined to a wheelchair), her father, Odis (who is a clock maker/ repairer), and Inga who is a mysterious old woman, and Nyx-the fairy living inside of the clock. Inga takes this old clock to be repaired at Odis' shop. The clock is supposed to be the most amazing clock ever designed so Nadine pleads to her father to put it in her room temporarily. Nadine is a very talented violinist and through her music, summons a clock fairy, Nyx to emerge from the clock.  Clock fairies will grant you three wishes and you must, in return, give three things up that are equal in value. The fairies use the clock to make a sort of trade. At this point, it already sounds very complicated so I'll just stop there haha.

Lastly, here is the late christmas/new year card I made for the family this year. I thought it would be interesting to create a ninja santa and krampus (japanese style).