Animating in Color- Second Year Animation

My first animation in color..finally! This was the second assignment for my digital compositing class. I was fairly happy with the results for a first time. The rough drawings were done by hand, then they were inked and colored in photoshop. After, I put it together using AfterEffects.

For this assignment, I used one of my characters, Ali, for this. I originally wanted to put audio to it but really ran out of time =s. I might in the future though and repost. The hard part is done =P. But for now, here is the first fully colored animation I've done!

New York Comic Con 2010/2011

Why 2010 AND 2011? Because I realized I had some neat pictures from last year that haven't been shared yet! Last year was more of a learning experience, although I did have a bit more luck last year meeting artists and famous people than I did this year.

In 2010 I got to meet one of the directors of the Secret of Kells, Tomm Moore. What a nice guy, let me tell you. He literally sat down with our group and drew with us. I got a nice sketch from him in one of my older sketchbooks! When he pointed out the Irish spelling of my name I admit..I got excited. =3 

That same year, I also met the character designer for Kim Possible, Stephen Silver, got a sketch from him as well (you can see him working on it above) and got one of his sketchbooks. It had a LOT of good tips and notes in there as well as amazing gesture drawings and designs. 

Here are some other cool photos from Comic Con 2010:

This year was also fun, even though I had missed two events I REALLY wanted to do: the Adventure Time/Regular Show panel and getting Pendleton Ward's autograph. That led to a bit of a disappointing end to the Con. However, I really can't complain too much. I still had a lot of fun, got in for free for working at my school's booth the first 3 days and got inspired. Met an artist I had some common ground with too which is always awesome. I think next year I will consider getting a booth with some friends. Make some connections and some profit all at once! 

I got some really neat stuff at this Con too, including a free "Comic Con 2011" Finn figurine:

I went a bit overboard with getting stuff but was it worth it? Absolutely. Above is a My Little Pony "steampunked" t-shirt, a small print of Marceline and Princess Bubblegum made by an amazing artist. She also did the little Marceline, Applejack and Marshall Lee buttons above too. I also invested in a Kung Fu Panda 2 artbook. HAVE NOT seen the second movie but I plan to when it's out on DVD. The artbook's amazing though. Definitely worth buying. 

These are some of the costumes/outfits that were on display at one of the vendors. I put these up here too because I was looking for outfits that were a bit more interesting than I designed my characters in. I probably won't change any of the Starcrossed outfits because they are just common kids. This is more for another idea I've been working on again recently involving shapeshifters. I want them to look more unique than the average human being because they are. So I took pictures of these outfits and stalked the store's website for ideas and got a lot of inspiration for some of the characters. 

This was something I was going to print and handout to people for free just to see if I can get my name out there. That plan fell through, however, in a way that's ok. One of my friends made a point that it could advertise that all I do is My Little Pony art, which isn't true. So, if I get a booth next year I'll do a few more characters and sell some prints of this and the others. Apparantly you can do that IF you drew it. I'll probably do some Adventure Time and Regular Show fanart to sell as well as my own original characters. 

This was a sketch of Marceline I was going to have Pendleton Ward sign. I was also gonna ask if he could do his impression of Lumpy Space Princess to record. Next time! 

Traditional Painting Process

This is a bit older but still good. This was the second to last project assignment for my Drawing II class. And I got pictures of the whole process from start to finish! Well...my friend, Corie, helped actually. 

1. I made up 3 concept sketches to choose from for the final piece. My favorites were the first two but compositionally speaking, the first one worked the best.

2. I blocked in some color quick on a small sheet of canvas to plan out how the colors would be laid out. 

3. Next step was putting a grid on both the sketch and the board to make sure it's redrawn in proportion.

4. Then I went in with a softer pencil to get the thin edges of the detail in the background darker. I had to spray with fixative to make sure it didn't smudge into the paint. 

(Close up of the process of getting the detail in)

5. I then went in with a thin paint brush and a dark bluish color to really make the background details pop.

6. And here is the final piece! For the background, I had to make the oil paint as thin as possible and just glaze over it 2-3 times, then took some paint away from the amusement park with a q-tip. That way, I didn't cover up the park completely and it ended up giving it that "far away" look as well. 

Art Trades

So I have seen a lot of people do Art Trades lately and I really would love to get into that also. I did get to do one art trade with one of my SVA friends. She did a nice picture of Christian and his Siberian fox, Aria. In exchange I made a picture of her character, Julitz and my character, Niko in a more cartoony style:

I picked up this style when I began animating Niko for class assignments (seen below). Though it isn't my usual style, it's still fun to do from time to time. The picture I did for her is actually a bunch of inside jokes rolled up into one. The quote it was inspired from was "We can't stop here...this is bat county" Which, for those who don't know, is from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Strange movie but very funny! Instead of putting them in bat country though, they're in "Rat" country. Why? Because during school, I had a few dorm visits from a little mouse I ended up naming Remy.

Happy Birthday Trey!

Well..extremely belated birthday! Actually Trey's birthday was July 10th but due to getting busy and being distracted it didn't get done on time at all. Ah well. It is done and I'm pretty pleased with it. This is a characature of myself presenting Trey with his shiny new collar I finally designed for him! I made July 10th his birthday because that was my dog's birthday (who would've been a whopping 16 if he was still around!)

Also, on a side note, I've really been getting the hang of cell shading ;) Still practicing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREY! <3

More Animations!

I really should've put these up a while ago. Woops! Some more animations I did my first year:

A dog walk cycle we FINALLY got to do! I was waiting for this assignment the entire year. I was happy with the outcome. The assignment was only to use 8 drawings (16 frames) but being the perfectionist I am...I added inbetweens as well. =P

This was my segment from our class Anijam. Each of us did a few seconds of animation and the next person had to pick up from there and continue it. I was the third one to go for this.

Happy 4th of July and Belated Canada Day!!

Happy 4th of July and Belated Canada Day everyone!!

This is a sketch I did for the holiday of my riding my pony, Rafferty and my friend from Canada riding her horse, Indy. I was hoping to have it all colored and finished up by then but I got too busy. I will still finishe it up and put it on here. =) Every day is a good day to celebrate America.

I hope you all enjoy the fireworks and celebration!