Big Changes in Fall 2013

Well, the end of the Fall 2013 Semester came to a close last week, and I got to tell you, a lot happened this semester. The big change of the semester was that I changed majors from Animation/Illustration (A/I) to Radio-TV-Film (RVTF). I changed majors because I found out some things that affected my drawing ability that would cause me to not pass the portfolio review that I need to pass in order to take upper division animation courses. So this semester was a transition period that took me out of A/I and into RTVF!

I took an intro to visual development class, and I gotta say, I learned alot. We started out painting a pinecone traditionally and then painted a pinecone digitally which led into our final project which was two digital forest paintings.

Pinecone-Acrylic

Pinecone-Digital

Forest Painting 1-Digital

 

 

 

 

Forest Painting 2-Digital

I also took an Intro to 3D Animation course. We bounced balls and did character walks in that class using Maya, some 3D animation software. Here's a look at my final reel!

Being that this was the transition period, I also took a couple of RTVF classes, which are now requirements for my new major. The first class was an Intro to Production. The main project was to produce a four minute show. When we weren't producing, we were rotated in the different parts of the studio. Here's my Production!

Lastly, I took a film class called, The Art of Film. In this class, we learned the various techniques that film uses (i.e. sound, editing, storytelling techniques, etc.). Our last project was a group project where we had to create a one to three minute film without any edits. This is what our group came up with!

And that about sums up the Fall 2013 semester! Like I said I learned a ton of stuff and its kind of bittersweet now that it's over. But time to rest up and get ready for spring 2014. I'll try to post more next year. See you in 2014!

End of Spring 2013 Term

So the semester is wrapping up and here is my final project for my story class. First we had to pick one of two stories, do a storyboard then do an animatic. Here are the stories I had to choose:

A Sufi Story from the Middle East

The Sack

Mula came upon a frowning man walking along the road to town. "What's wrong?" he asked.

The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, "All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack."

"Too bad," said Mula, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man's hands and ran down the road with it.

Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking. Meanwhile, Mula quickly ran around the bend and placed the man's sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.

When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, "My sack! I thought I'd lost you!"

Watching through the bushes, Mula chuckled. "Well, that's one way to make someone happy!

A Tale from West Africa

One good meal Deserves Another

Anansi the Spider hated to share! When Turtle came to his house at mealtime, he said, "I can't give you food until you've washed your dusty feet!"

Turtle licked his lips when he saw the big plate of steaming food, but politely walked to the stream to wash. When he returned, the plate was empty. "Good meal," Anansi said, patting his full stomach.

"One good meal deserves another!" said Turtle. "Come to my house for dinner tomorrow." Turtle fixed a fine dinner at the bottom of the river. "Come on down and eat!" he said.

Anansi filled his jacket pockets with stones so that he would be weighted down enough to stay at the river's bottom and eat. "It's impolite to wear a jacket to dinner!" Turtle said, "Take it off!"

But when greedy Anansi took off his jacket, he floated back up to the surface of the water and hungrily watched Turtle eat his fill! 

This is a rough storyboard:

  

And here's the animatic:

                                   

 

Playing with Backgrounds of my Model

Which background do you prefer?

OR

Storyboard Using a Dramatic Scene

I had to create a storyboard using a dramatic scene. For this assignment I had to pick a two minute clip and draw as many boards I thought I needed to tell the story. My instructor told the class to primarily focus on emotional changes and camera angles. The clip I used was a scene from Dennis the Menace, a film made in 1993 starring Walter Matthau and Mason Gamble.

I'll first show you the scene:

And, without further ado, here are the boards; they read from left to right.

 

Live Action Storyboard

I'm having a blast in my storytelling/storyboarding class! Here's a project where I had to tell a story using photographs. A special thanks to my friends Henry and Danielle for helping me out! Enjoy!

Storyboards Using Cats Don't Dance

I know it has been a while since I posted a while. Life has been crazy at the moment, but I thought I would post a recent project. This semester, I'm in the process of adding a storytelling/storyboarding class. Our first assignment was to watch an animated film, then summarizing the film in 2-3 sentences, and lastly conveying the story with a maximum of 10 frames. I did the film Cats Don't Dance, an under-rated film that was released by Warner Bros. in 1997.