My Absence

My work is getting done, but I am a little behind. Not hugely, but blog posts seem like an after thought, so there hasn't been reason to post progress when not as much progress as I like is being made.

Yet, it's been more than a month, so an update seems important. Cookie is rigged, weight painted, and partially animated.

Only a small bit so far, but I'm working on it. He'll wake up soon and scitter and scurry around like any rat like creature should.

There's plenty of traditional art to show too - from 260 and from life drawing, but I'l have to photograph it.

Possibly the only decent part of this post is to show the music I'll be able to use for my reel, thanks to my friend Whitaker Fineberg and his band, Bad Television. You can listen to it here - http://badtelevision.bandcamp.com/track/hewasaskingforit

It was an odd moment where I realized there was a playing of "Merry had a Little Lamb" at the end of the track, which I'll have to cut out for the reel. You know though - if you knew Whit, you really wouldn't be surprised.

Colors!

Not much to say here, just an update to show my finished sculpt.

Character Design

Our third milestone was today, and I'm gladly up to date with both my 3D and traditional work. I'll be doing some changes for my sculpt though - so Cookie will wait for another post.

When I checked my schedule 2 weeks ago, I panicked. Sheridan has this understandable requirement of  a character design, with expressions, actions poses, and a six view rotation. The ones who got in were very cartoony, simple, and appealing. Something about the concepts of simple and appealing make my brain shut down. So I did what any artist naturally does - I sketched. And sketched. and sketched. I found some, let's say, valuable critiques from my best friend: "Not EVERYTHING needs huge paws" "Exaggerate it more.""Do a reptile!" "Give it a scarf."

Helpful as they were, none of it looked quite - good. I'm uncomfortable with giving things intentionally wrong anatomy. I want to do it intentionally and wonderfully, but I don't. Then, with no prior notice, Anna Hudzik ran in with a cape and rescued my poor, lifeless sketches. Or maybe she just sent me a link over Facebook with some character design tips. However, when she doesn't know you have character designs due, and you're sadly moping at home trying to muster something up, it sure feels like she's coming in to rescue your artwork. The tips were short, and simple ideas, but they helped so much. Simple shapes. Contrast and volume in those simple shapes. Movement curves. Still using references for those simple, cartoony characters.

So, here they are - nameless, as I hate naming.

This is a lazy, grumpy, mildly viscious, grotesque, but affectionate binturong. She's the type of creature to nap most of the day and stick her tongue in her nose, soon after attempting to attack something twice her size. Yet she's so forcefully affectionate once she likes you. Binturongs are these magical little things also known as Asian bearcats. Their name fits them well.

They truly are "bearcats", and really, what has more personality than a bearcat? It's one of those hybrid animal situations where nature reminds you that it already did that.

This little boy is a timid, hyper, and playful baby armadillo. Here, I tried more for a vomit-inducing cuteness, while the binturong was meant to be more of an adorable tyrant. 

This is my very proper, very fancy, intelligent gay alligator. He loves tea and books, and has very over-emotional reactions and a dainty and joyful walk cycle. I'm not going to lie, he was the most fun.

They took more work and planning than expected, but I'm oddly happy with them, and they gave me a bit more comfort working with simpler characters. For Sheridan I would have to do six view rotations and such, which wouldn't be a problem, but who knows if I'll use these guys or something else I come up with later in the year.

Cookie

I feel like I'm obligated to admit something now, rather than later. Many of my classmates will probably have blog posts that are short, sweet, and to the point. Regardless of whether I should have posts like that, I know I won't, because for better or for worse, I absolutely love to write.

I have a thing for rats. I know that most people who read that will probably shudder. But I really, really do. I love dogs as much as I love drawing, and I appreciate cats as well, but there's something special about my rats. It's that other people don't always like them. As characters, rats have the ability to be adorable, intelligent, terrifying, or repulsive. They can be underhanded villains or courageous heroes. Dogs and cats are partly defined by their typical personalities, but rats are a world of possibility.

So, that lead me to Cookie. An over sized, over glorified rodent. Last semester, I was given the daunting task of making a human character. If I wasn't given the option of anything four-legged or fuzzy, I had to take the next best thing - a child. I made a little girl, shy and timid, but imaginative and adventurous. She ran around diving off couches with a small plastic axe in one hand, and a terrified little rat named Cookie in the other. It was an affectionate, trembling, pint-sized creature, not too dissimilar from my rat when she's dragged around by my younger cousins.

That little girl, however, is tortured by nightmares. Each night she'd seek out the power of lucid dreaming, something that had taken on the face of a true magic in her world. The intention of the dream world is to be a bizarrely surreal mixture of things, with a tone that's a mildly uncomfortable mixture of cute and creepy. Perhaps I'll revisit it, and make a piece of concept art that could show the world better than I could ever explain it. For now though, the focus is on Cookie, and his drastically different appearance and personality in her little world. He's now a proud, fearless beast, with little notes of his real world personality.

For 260, all of my 3D focus is on him. Modeling, sculpting, painting, and weeks of animating. He looks like some odd concoction of lion, moose, and wolf - but once he moves, I want him to be nothing other than a rat. Hopping, scurrying, climbing, and squirming - I want to learn those quick, sudden movements just through pure observation. My first milestone is just the model, which went smooth enough for me to fear autodesk's future revenge.

The jaws as well - I decided to go with more canine/feline influenced teeth, because a rat's terrifyingly gruesome tooth (no, not teeth) just doesn't make much sense for a larger creature.

Hopefully, he'll be sculpted and painted soon enough. He's on schedule at the moment though.

The Zoo

When you're asked what you want to do for the rest of your life, there really are few options aside from panicking. However, there is one - a spontaneous wednesday morning trip to The Toledo Zoo. As for the rest of my life, for now, I want to get into Sheridan's animation program. The entirety of this blog will be work from a portfolio class where my work will exist for that reason alone. For any of you that know anything about Sheridan, you would understand why "From Life" is the only acceptable title. You would also understand why going to the zoo somehow counts as a productive activity.

Drawing at the zoo in the middle of winter is by far one of the best experiences I've ever had. Sure, it's cold, and your hands will hurt. Sure, I wanted to actually get things done, so I went alone. Sure, some of the animals aren't even out because of the temperature. But because of those things, the zoo was empty; absolutely deserted. You're free to draw the animals in any way you see fit. I sat cross-legged on the railing in the reptile house, on a giant rock next to the lion exhibit, and had my materials sprawled out on the carpet in front of the seals. So brave up the cold, and go. It's an awesome experience.

So here's my quick, scattered sketches from the day. If I learned anything, it's that as much as I love drawing animals, animals don't love to be drawn.

The polar bear was just like a model - he would lay with minimal movement, then change positions after a few minutes. I appreciated him, and his fluffy adorable nature.

The tiger was horrible. He was dead asleep. Then within a few seconds of drawing him, he woke up, and moved around unexpectedly. After a few minutes he went inside. Lots of animals loved to move, hide, and then just leave.

The elephants had an indoor and outdoor exhibit, but would move to the other one each time I followed them. Luckily, a super nice zoo keeper saw me trying to draw them, and called them in and fed them hay for a little while so they would stay put.

This was my scramble of drawings from the last half hour. Most of the time spent was running between exhibits with that giant portfolio, for those few minute gestures.

The lizards would actually stay still. The guy in the top left didn't move for a whole 20 minutes. It was amazing.

For future zoo trips (and there will be future zoo trips) I'll probably just put up a few of my drawings. For the first one, I wanted most of them up here, because I want to see my improvement as time goes on. Seriously though, go draw at the zoo. The animals never stop moving, and it's one of the hardest times you'll ever have drawing, but you won't regret it.