2D Animatic with Royalty Free clip

Here's another animatic. Just changed the music out with royalty free music, by Kevin MacLeod, Danse Macbre - Finale Kevin MacLeod.

2D Animatic02

Here is the latest animatic for 2D class.
The music in here is Lost in Las Vegas by Two Steps from Hell. I own no rights, the music will be replaced by something else royalty free, I'm just using the music for a placeholder and to get the feel for the short.

3D Bust Character 2

Have continued working on my Bust character. As it stands right now, I believe he is near completion, still a few tweeks here and there that it'll need, but overall, it's about done. The top two pictures is topology of the character, which has been a huge challenge. The bottom picture is an example of what it looks like smoothen out.

Next thing to work on is the animatic for that will feature this character.

2D short Characters

Been working on character concepts. I have a total of 5 to 7 characters, 3 or 4 will be students, 2 or 3 professors. I based these people off professors, classmates, and friends (unrelated to school). After a while I started just having fun making caricatures haha.

3D Bust Character

Here is the progress being made on my Bust character. I think I'm finally getting the topology right, which I've been struggling with for a while, because of the oversized mouth.

New 2D Animatic

here is my new 2D animatic. Not much new, apart for 2 new pieces of dialogue.

2D Character Concepts

These are some character concepts for my 2D project:

These were my preliminary designs. I liked the left one, everyone else likes the right one.

I was told that I should thing about changing the character to more resemble myself or myself as the character. A lot of time I can see things playing in my head. This one, I honestly can't see it, can't see it working. Although, Max and classmates liked the idea. So, I might play around with the idea later on.
So, I tried to incorporate elements of both into my next sketches. The difference was mostly in the face, so I differentiate that a bit.

These designs, I tried playing the proportion of the character.

An animatic with temporary voices coming soon.

2D Animatic, Flash Short

This is my roughly keyed out animatic.

here is a rough piece i did in Flash. First animation. So far, I'm finding Flash very frustrating.

2D1 Animatic

Here is my animatic that I have so far for 2D 1 class. I'm currently working on a more keyed out animatic, I just need to time it out.

2D1 Storyboard, Klein (Flash Character), Bust (Maya)

So to start off with, we met with the client(s) last week and it seems like everyone likes the idea, just ironing out the kinks with the story. Underneath is a storyboard for the project (going from top left, down)

Description of the story: It starts off with myself in the university's animation room; I'm animating my character, Johnny the Ferret. The ferret comes to life and decides to be mischievous, he grabs the pencil as it starts to pull out. Johnny sticks his head out of the desk with a "How do you do." He jumps out and runs over the animation tables with myself chasing him. Everyone takes this as a normal thing and and doesn't seem bothered by this event taking place; the instructor just shakes his head, like 'here we go again.'
Johnny runs by two students talking, right outside the room. I run out and the one points in the direction Johnny went and the other says "Hello." I run by with a hey and a thanks. Johnny runs up to a set of double doors and an instructor opens up the door, but quickly gets out of the way as Johnny zips by. I run by and continue chasing him down the hall. The instructor informs me that he likes the run cycle (reference to animation.)
I run past a window and in the reflection is Johnny. I stop and act like "huh..." I play with my reflection for a bit (A person behind the window working on a paper looks up for a second and continues working.). I pull him out of the glass and tucks him under my arm and carry him back to the class room, with his little feet shaking to get free.


Lately, I've been learning Flash and designed this character to be used in a short story.

I had a really hard time designing this character. From an early age I learned how to draw Donald Duck and everytime I tried to this duck, it kept looking like Donald. I think I got far enough away from that character. Originally I was planning on doing an elaborate short lasting a couple minuets, but then I heard that we were only going to have a couple more weeks left to work on it. So I abandoned that idea was working on a different story, but decided to hold off on that idea for the time being. I just took this character and simplified the story. This character took about six hours to make.


The other thing I've been working on is modeling a character in maya.

The character is a bust that I'm planning on using for a personal short film that I have been working from time to time. The problem I have with this character is face topology. Because of the gigantic mouth,  the topology is a becoming a huge challenge. This is the topology I have at the moment (bottom), but I know I'm going to have to edit this mode, but I first need to figure out how the typology needs to be arranged.

2D 1 Entry 2

So, here's another thought, expanding on entry 1. We just heard from our client on what he wants us to emphasize in our animation clips: an in-depth learning, an individual attention, and a like-minded community. I went into one of my "creativity-trance" type modes and came up with the following.

What if... I (character) is animating in the animation room in the school. Johnny (ferret character) comes to life in the real world. I chase him out of the room, while my class mates don't take much notice and the professor is shaking his head as if saying, 'here they go again.' I chase him down the hall, passing by some animation classmates, don't take much notice, except for saying hello. One of professors holds the door open as we continue outside, and shouts out some tips on how to handle a run away character. I continue chasing him, until I run into a mirror, I look around for him, but don't see him. I look in the mirror and see my reflection as Johnny.

I feel this now ties in an individual attention and a like-minded community that the client is after.

2D 1 Entry01

Talking about my 2D 1 class, we're assigned to make a short animated clip about our experiences as an animator at my university.

My thoughts are that I would like to incorporate my ferret character and a character of myself in the clip. I (in the story), would be animating Johnny (my ferret character) late at night. The lights would go out and and come back on, only Johnny wouldn't be on the paper, but in the real world as a living creature. I would chase him around (content of chase is undetermined) and fall off a cliff. As everything seems hopeless for me, Johnny would reach out and grab my hand, pulling me back up (Transition). I would wake up at my animating table, and Johnny is back to animated charcter on the paper sleeping. As the sun starts coming up, Johnny wakes up and waves at me. End of story.

An alternative thought - ...instead of the lights going out and Johnny appearing in my world, Johnny comes to life on the paper and reaches out and grabs me and pulls me into his world....

New Semester

So, a lot of things have been happening lately. I just got back from California, I ran the 2012 Disneyland Half Marathon. The race started in 5:45 am on Sunday. made a new PR, 2:03; would have got under two hours if it wasn't for the bracelet (Disney gave me to signal my elegibility for another medal on top of the one that they already hand out) didn't get caught on my bib at 4.5 and couldn't get it unattached. Probably spent 5 minutes walking trying to unhook them, but it never happened, so I had to run for 8.6 miles, with my arm locked in to my bib. Other than that, it was very fun, as always.

Getting back to animation, this has been my first week back to school. I'm taking a class that requires to produce a short animation clip about my life at my university. So, expect to be seeing regular updates on the project, currently in pre-production.

High Bar and Sea Witch Maquette

This is what I've been working on so far, a High Bar routine. Haven't really done too much work, lot of things have happened this week and am going to be busy the rest of the week. Then I start my last year of college.

I finished the Sea Witch Maquette. Finished up on the arms/hands, the head and the rock, baked and painted.

Back Flip & High Bar Animation

Returning back to animation, I finished working on the back flip.

This is a rough key animation for a high bar routine. I'm noticing there's a lot of intricate detail in just being able to gain enough speed to get over the bar, and I haven't even got to any of the flips or the dismount yet. This is the project I'm going to be working on for a while now.

Also, I should be baking my Sea Witch Maquette tomorrow and hopefully be able to paint it, either tomorrow or the next day.

Maquettes

Taking a small break from animation. I started on my sculpting skill, making maquettes and clay busts.

This is the maquette I just finished. It's a character that I some what developed in my 3DII class. The character looks as if it was from Alice in Wonderland, but actually it's based on the the Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen. The maquette itself is based on only one drawing, a concept drawing. Not, the side, front, back etc. views. It made the process a little more interesting.

This is the maquette I'm still working on. Again, it's a character that I developed in 3DII class. The character is based off the Sea Witch in Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. And this also based off only one concept drawing. Probably shouldn't be making this a habit, but I thinks it's looking pretty good.

This the bust I've been working on for a while. It's suppose to be Lucille Ball, but it's not coming across; eyes are way too small, mouth is a little big. I'm finding out, eyes are probably the hardest aspect in sculpting.





The clay is Van-Akeen clay, an oil-based. If I ever got really good at this, I'd start investing in WED clay. Supposably, it's the clay that Disney's Imagineers used to sculpt animatronics. The clay is part oil and part water-based, so it gives enough time to work with it, until it eventually dries up. Good for something you want to sculpt that you intend to keep and not destroy later on.

Walk Cycle and Back Flip Animation

While I was watching the Olympics, specifically the gymnastics, I decided to work on a few animations based off of those events. Been working on a back flip. Next, I'll be working on High Bar routine.

Finished up working on the tail for my Ferret's Walk Cycle.

Walk Cycle Animation

Recently, while I've been watching the Olympics, I've been working on my character doing a walk cycle. This is the progress so far, I just need to add the tail

3D work

Hey everyone,
I've added some of my 3D still up, including 3D character model sheets:

3D I Class: Final project, A digital still life, all assembled in Maya

3D II Class: Final project, a character model sheet of the Sea Witch from the Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid. Is a combination of woman and a shark.

3D II Class: Final Project, a character model sheet of the Troll from Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen.

Digital Environment Class: Final Project, a still shot of Benjamin Franklin's office. The entire semester was dedicated to this project. I'll soon put up a video clip showing more of the office.

Traditional Art

Hey everyone,

So, these some drawings, paintings, and digital paintings that I've done:

Painting Class: Still life using the Zorn Palette.

Intro to Drawing Class: A one day Still Life Exercise. White chalk on black paper.

Intermediate Drawing: Pen and Ink portrait of a wolf.

Figure Drawing Class: Black and White charcoal hand on mid-tone paper.

Intermediate Drawing: Final Project, B&W charcoal portrait of Marylin Monroe on mid-tone paper

Personal Art: Pencil drawing of Angelina Jolie. A piece I did a few years back.

Digital Painting: A Photoshop painting I did for Calvary Chapel.

Vector Graphics Class: A postcard I created using Illustrator, celebrating Independence Day.

Vector Graphics Class: Used Illustrator to create a vector portrait of the Mad Hatter from Alice In Wonderland. (I own no rights to the character or the movie)

Hey, this is Rick Jones. I've decided to start keeping a blog to show some of the artwork that I'm doing for school and on my own time.

You can expect to see: 2D and 3D work, Character Designs, Paintings, and Drawings.