Happy Holidays!

For the holidays, I was going to try and do a "12 Days of Christmas" series, ending on Christmas day, but because of finals and everything else, I ran out of time. Instead, I did a few sketches I liked enough to finish as paintings. Unfortunately, I still only had time to do one:

A nice wintery portrait of Christian, Kit and Christian's little sister, Evelyn. This was my first time with soft shading in photoshop, and I'm glad to say I think I understand how to do it now. The upside of this being the only picture I could finish is, I think it will be my last finished artwork for 2011. And with all the issues I went through this semester, this year in fact, I'm glad to have finished on a good note with this. 

I will be finishing the other sketches I planned on doing, of course. Hopefully before schoolwork piles on again. 

I also got some nice gifts this year:

A popcorn maker for my dorm 

How to Train Your Dragon: Gift of the Night Fury/Book of Dragons

The Lion King, Diamond Edition

A nice Moleskine sketchbook

Giftcards

A nice new watch

and an Iphone!

My relatives from my mother's side came up from Florida tonight and will be coming over tomorrow for a "second" Christmas dinner. We haven't had this many relatives together in quite some time, so it only adds to the good note this year's ending on. 

I wish this post could be longer, but between the holidays, and recovering from finals, my brain is gone! I wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!!

Animal Animations!

Our last assignment for the Fall Semester in Animation was to do different animal gaits (walk, trot/amble, canter, gallop). We could use different animals or the same for each gait. I chose different ones because I had several types of animal characters and wanted to practice. It really helped a ton with understanding each animal. 

This was a fun assignment to do. Unfortunately there were some exporting problems and everyone's animations were glitching and sticking between each loop. I did my best to smooth out the glitch but it's still there. I will try and find the problem and export it again if I have the time. For now though, I suppose they are tolerable enough to watch.

For the walk cycle, I chose to do a Lynx because I developed a recent character who shapeshifts into a Canada Lynx. I've grown fond of him quickly and the animal it's self so you'll be seeing plenty of Lynxes in my gallery an animations I'm sure.

My old friend, Trey, finally became animated. I was excited and pleased with how he turned out. Had some issues with the tail earlier but fixed it. Still could be a tad better in my opinion but it still came out just fine. The rest of him moves nicely (if you can look past the stupid glitch). 

I had animated a deer cantering, but that is sort of a work in progress. I have all the keys done but wasn't thrilled at how it looked. The head movement was good and the legs, but the body barely moved. I need to fix it. Once I do, though, I'll be putting it up here as well.

Finally, I did a horse galloping. Reference, for all these animations, is your best friend. Slow motion videos, pencil tests, pictures, anything. There's no shame in using a ton of reference. I loved this one. It was nice and smooth, but thanks to the technical difficulties, it looks choppy here. I apologize for that.