Merry Christmas to All!!!

Look closely.... you might recognize someone... :)

So these last few weeks I have been pondering what does Christmas really mean to me? And just why, oh WHY, do I love it so much? And besides what it means in accordance to my faith, it may be simple, but I think I figured out why.... which is what made me think of this idear for my custom Christmas card this year.

Christmas, to me, is full of hope, laughter, grace and peace.... it's a time of year when people will extend a bit more grace than normal, where people will smile a bit wider, and when families can gather together, regardless of difference. Being a rather destitute student these days, and living most of the year away from most of my special peeps.... the best thing I could honestly ask for for Christmas is just what I got - to laugh and dance and eat and have coffee and sing and be surrounded by the ones I love, my friends and family.

So here's a very quick sketch of some of my closest friends and family who have been supporting and loving me no matter what, and just being able to see them during this time is Christmas enough for me!

Thanks Guys, love you and Merry Happy Christmas to one and all!!!

A Finito Action Analysis!

Okay, well, not FINISHED-finished... but it is completed in terms of what was required for the assignment... and lemme tell ya, THAT'S a miracle in itself!

The third scene, where the "Ann" character is side-stepping the old lady, is the completely finished one; cleaned-up, painted, complete with ground shadow and two-tone shadow on "Ann".

And amazingly enough, after working 13 weeks on this puppy, I'd still like to finish the rest of it! I am happy with the way it turned out [thanks to everyone who helped! - see the credits].. PHEW that was alotta work! [Pardon the low-res for web, it will be much clearer on my reel!]

And now it's time to jingle all the way to a holly jolly Christmas!

A rendered Elf

So here's my final render of my Thinking Character assignment - my first character animation in Maya. It was so fun!

And just in time for Christmas :)
Enjoy!

Saaaaannnntttaaaaa!! I know him!!

Here's a still image from the final render I did of my first Maya character animation assignment, it was entitled 'A Thinking Character'.

I had SO much fun with this, I can't wait to do another one! This can definitely do with more tweaking [I could tweak 'til the cows come home], but this will do for a first pass for my revised reel over Christmas break.

Stay tuned for the rendered movie with audio.

Ann, now in technicolor!

So these last few weeks have been a whirlwind, but I am finally getting assignments done and handed in... I am getting closer to finishing my Action Analysis yay!! Either way, I will be on a plane heading to Winnipeg come Friday evening, no matter what the cost!

After much trial with various applications, I decided to take the traditional route and clean up my side-step scene [the only scene needed to be final] by hand. I couldn't get my lines right any other way.... however, I will be interested to use my Modbook for that when/if it actually comes!!!!

Here's one of the poses of Ann, technicolor style. I shall post the finished scene whence it's completed!

Teaser Poster for Group Film

This was such a fun assignment for me! We had to design a poster for our group film... I went with a teaser sort of poster.

The rough sketch [below] is rough alright! But the final is exactly what I had in my head from the beginning, so the rough sketch was just something I did super quick for hand-in purposes. The final is SO much better... yay Photoshop!

I even matched the right fonts for the bottom credits and the quote at the top... and I made up our own rating. I can't hold back the graphic designer within.

An oxy-moron?

I must give props to DQ for that title... he thought of that name for our group film, and kept bringing it up - however, I agree it is quite clever!

Tomorrow is our group character design is due - but our individual take on it. The assignment is to take a pose of the main character from our group storyboard [props to Brock for a great pose!], clean it up with our own style-ish additions, and colour the pose.

Here's my version of our oxy-moron! [I tried to do an Emslie-ish line, but it ain't easy by hand! I don't know how ya do it, Pete!]

Layout lolligagging

So I fiiiiiiiinnnnaaaallllly spent some time cleaning up my Action Analysis layouts, and putting some colour to them. It's funny how your style can develop so much more once you start adding colour... I had it in my head all along, but it's fun when you can finally see it taking shape. I wanted it to be more of a graphic-y offset to the final clean-up characters.

Here's a few colour options I am playing with... only a week and a half to finish this puppy!! Well, and everything else. I can't decide which colour option I like best, but I keep being drawn to the blue-ish one. Any votes?

More festive paint!

So apparently I sold a few of my painted cards at the store, [yay!] so tonight when Tams and I went out for supper, we chatted about some more idears for Christmas cards, and I did a few quick sketches.

We had so many fun ideas once we got talking! I love Christmas!!

So tonight I took a painting break after working on the never-ending-action-analysis-is-this-term-ever-gonna-end-oh-my-
goodness-gracious-sakes-alive!

Well, happy and merry to all... :)