holy frijoles

I haven't updated in 7 months!! I was so burnt out last term~ I kind of spent my summer having a life and enjoyed it. I realized that I lost touch with other aspects of my life while I was busy art-ing away in my basement and keeping the social life to a minimum. I quite enjoyed it :)

anyhow- this term has been rather trying- I can't pull all nighters like I used to or work 18 hours a day anymore. I guess I kind of fell out of love with art for a short moment and that was kind of scary. But I'm kind of on an inspirational streak this week and I'm cranking out some new stuff~I'm kind of liking it.

here's a sneak peak at some of the characters I made from the book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

more to come! good night (morning)!!

pandora's box

hey guys~here's a few screencaps of my exposition as a work in progress. This actually started out as a different scene which was more static and didn't really inspire the audience to feel anything for the character. Here is just a loose sketch of each panel I'll be doing for my final.

Ryu steps out of a shady love motel, exhaling a puff of smoke as he tucks his hand in his pocket. On his wrists, arm, and even neck, there are rope burns snaking in and out from his white salary man's shirt. 

Ryu returns home in the wee hours of the morning. At around 5am, his wife, Yuka wakes up to use the restroom. She turns to her husband, and notices bruises on his shoulders. Squinting, as she inspects the injury closer, she notices the little tracks in it. An expression of worry is cast across her face, concerned about what kind of people her husband is involved with.

Yuka brushes it off, not wanting to be confronted with the truth. The next day, when Yuka hangs the clothes out to dry, she finds a matchbook in Ryu's shirt pocket. She turns it over in her hand to find that it is from Pandora's S&M Hotel. With this evidence, Yuka is determined to find out exactly what her husband is up to.

The next night her husband is out, she follows him to the hotel. She finds out that her husband is not only having an affair with a hooker but enjoys BDSM. 

Disgisted Yuka, takes a second to recollect herself from the most unexpected discover she could have ever made. She walks to the front desk of motel and pays off a more buxom, meaty, and amazonian woman to add some spice to her husband's sexual escapade. 

so here's my process for the first panel which actually went through a lot of changes- especially the composition.

I used a texture for the wall which can be found here by WokDesign. Arg I have to say that although this might not be as difficult or as complicated as some of the other things I've made, I definitely had my struggles with it. I still think I can push it more-- but how much is too much? All of the neon light fixtures and textures really make me think of courage the cowardly dog. The color palette is definitely from that show too haha

Heist

so the assignment was to create a scene including five characters that are planning or executing a heist. I wanted to do cops robbing a donut shop. I tried working in a different way--I kind of like the outcome...my values still get too washed out-must practice value grouping!! D:< anyhow...here's a screenshot of my process~~

 

 Here's an update on the image- I'm not completely satisfied with it yet-- ugh values values values and expression!! this is about 80-85% done~I'm definitely gonna spruce it up later on

Roverandom - continuous updates

jeez 3 posts in one day haha
I've been lagging behind on posting some stuff I've been doing for visual development class taught by Dominic Domingo. I was really nervous about taking this class- especially hearing about the workload. But...it's been six weeks and I can only say good things about it. I feel like I learned things that should have been taught the moment I entered Art Center. Story driven design is still something I feel I struggle with because I'm stuck with the reasoning of "because it looks cool and fits the image" in my head. Major lesson of the day: Do your research especially when you're making some kind of cultural reference!!

Down below, I've painted props from Roverandom. From top right to bottom left, Man-in-the-Moon's telescope, Artaxerxe's pen wand, Man-in-the-Moon's dragon warding potion spell bottle, Little Boy Number Two's bedside table, and Man-in-the-moon's phoenix firework rocket. I thought we had to do it in this realistic style but if I were to do it again, I would make it more flat for 2d style animation. Working from grayscale is something new for me--so I'm still trying to figure out how to make the colors a little brighter with more impact--all of these seem to fall under the same value when you squint your eyes.

Also, I have to say, I really enjoy all my classmates. This might seem a bit rude but in all my years at art center, I don't think I've ever come across so many friendly people in the same classroom. I only wish I could have encountered this kind of environment earlier on at school. I spent a long time doubting myself and my abilities-even now. For me, the unintended first step of every project is to freak out and tell myself that I can't do it. It's like easing your way into a jacuzzi haha. I never really thought any of my work was worth glancing at because I cared too much about how much better someone else's execution was. I was too busy building a monster that didn't need to exist in the first place haha. I really appreciate how vocal everyone is and how humble they are about their work. I like that our instructor shows us ways to appreciate something new or hidden in everyone's piece~ it's refreshing and I hope to carry that with me down the road!

I will put up moar props and scans soon!

my ode to kimbra

There aren't enough words in the English language to express how much I love this talented woman. Kimbra is such a delight to listen to and is probably the only other thing I play on a loop in my car besides the soundtrack for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Her performance of "Settle Down" for Spotify was what won me over. I know that I can die happy if she just see her in concert and witness her majestic, weird, hand move dancing in person. I've decided to do my midterm final on her song settle down-- particularly on the verse that talks about Angela Vickers who I suppose is some scantily clad woman about to encroach on Kimbra's man. Hahah I was really drawn to this verse because it speaks about jealousy which is something I have definitely identified with in the past. Whether it was a friend or boyfriend or whatever, jealousy just mauls you in the face when your hormones are going crazy as a teenager.

so anyhow~here's my storyboard for it-- I will have to change up the beginning because the words go too fast for any of it to be clearly legible.

I was really inspired by graphics from the 1950s and neon signs from that era as well. Hmm now that I look at it, it definitely needs some kind of build up to the color stage of the animation-I do like the ending (even if I used a lot of grays that are too cool and warm to match each other.) and it resonates more with the direction i want to take it so hopefully I can give the graphics a little more of a push this week. When I went to CTN last year-- Lorelay Bove suggested that tagging colors to certain characters can really help you with your color scheme- so I tagged the main character with green to represent envy, blue for the boyfriend/husband guy to represent someone who is innocent, impressionable, and red/pink for the Tramp because that is a color we usually identify as evil, romantic, and sexy. I'll post my animatic up once I re-board the first few parts of it!

Horris' Horrific Hex

Hey guys! I have been banging out lots of work since term started and so far, things are going well.

So this is for a class called Story in a Picture by Richard Keyes and we're supposed to make a three part story having to do with a random image he gives each of us in class. Kind of like the triptych I made a while back. So the image I got was this--

which is obviously a horse in an apartment. Honestly some of the pictures that people got looked like they were taken from 9gag. I never put much thought to what stories could be behind those kinds of pictures but I think this is a great exercise that every artist should try out. For me, it was impossible to think up something that was serious or heart wrenching with this image.

so this is the story of Horris, who, by society, would be considered a geek/nerd/outcast/ etc. She is completely obsessed with the most popularest, dreamiest, hunkiest, and handsomest guy in school, Brad Dimpleton. However, Horris takes obsession to the next level. She has gone to great lengths to collect mementos of Brad like locks of his hair, toenails, used tissues, empty waterbottles, and even his jacket. Months of collecting and Horris has all the ingredients required to concoct a love potion. Horris' second obsession is witchcraft and attempts to create her first spell as a 'certified' witch ( obtained from www.instituteofwitches.com). She consumes the potion and something goes wrong. As she stands in front of the mirror, her nose protrudes further and further before her and she stares herself in the mirror. Bit by bit, Horris slowly transforms into a horse and is forced to live a life in the spotlight that she never asked for.

 

 above are just a few color comps. I tried to work in a different way than I usually-it wasn't really effective until I got to the second batch of color roughs. I'm really hoping to find a better way of doing these this term.

here's a wip of what I have so far-- I'm working slightly different than I usually do but I'm kind of liking the results~ more later! :)

finito!
----
here's panel numero dos!

sorry--no progress shots for this one-- I just had lots to do this week >_< but I'm hoping to revise this one soon!

So I compiled the three images and made an animatic out of it with a little after effects magic! Here's just a rough animation--I'll fix it up later on. This assignment was tons of fun! :)

Horris' Horrendous Hex from Snow Cinder on Vimeo.

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).