Thesis Time!

I can't believe I'm a senior already! Time flies! I made a production schedule for thesis and all the other stuff I want to accomplish over the summer and it sure seems like busy times ahead!

It's so nice to be back at home visiting old friends and chilling with the parents though. I'll have to make sure to balance out my time so that I'm productive and also having tons of fun. After all, it's this is the last summer!

Soooo! I figure it's time for a thesis dump. These here are initial designs for my story. I'm in the process of exploring with new designs this week. I want my thesis to be a bit more stylized and unique looking. We'll see where I end up. I'd love to hear feedback or any opinions!

Octopi in the Sky!

Digital painting for drawing for animators class.

As a RA, I work for a man who loves cake...

Happy birthday Chris!

The World Out There

It's easy to forget that there's a whole world out there when we are so wrapped up in school work. I was reminiscing about my summer in China and now I can't sleep. I laugh to myself when I think about all the awkward, surprising, unpleasant, and amazing situations I was in. Traveling is such an eye-opener; it would be great to be able to backpack around after graduation....or someday.

Mainwhile, thought I'd post this picture I took on the bus one night. It was not an easy picture to take as there was no elbow room and the bus was shaking so badly I had to dig the camera out of my purse with one hand while holding on with the other hand. It's always packed like this before the bus lines stop for the night. Sweaty times!

Thesis should be like this.

"Oh no! I pooped!"

Origami Coolness in the midst of Blendshaping Madness

Robert showed these awesome videos to me. Thought I should share :)

It's a Beautiful Saturday!

We had our first full faculty crit yesterday and it went pretty well. The faculty sat in a long roll at the front of the classroom. It was like the American Idol panel of judges: you give a run through of your boards then they pick it apart. I brought Robert's recorder to record my critique but being nervous I couldn't get it to work before I went up. I noticed the timer wasn't changing so I thought it wasn't recording but in actuality I was just too nervous to wait for even a second. It was working fine the whole time. I'm just dumb. I used it to record Don, Nilah, and Jess's pitches instead.... yay me.

But anyway, lots of work to do but nothing unexpected. Here are some rough designs. The monster is still under construction. Also, here's a great song with a great music video. It makes me think about what a beautiful day today is! Enjoy everyone!

Distractions

My new Monsters Inc. poster takes some getting used to. When I brainstorm I tend to stare blankly into the wall. The difference now is that it stares right back at me---equally surprised.

Prepro Fun

Meet the man that inspired Dongjin's thesis story. Don't you just wanna watch her animation after seeing this guy?

After meeting with Nilah, Greg, and Dongjin for vidRef today I think we all decided that we have no idea what we are doing with our stories. Now some video reference quotes:

"NO! NO! You guys are doing this all wrong. This is how a sumo wrestler stumps his feet!"

"Just find your inner monster. Lets do that again, take it from...from..."
"Take it from the 'Urrrrrggghhhhh'?"

Good O' Times

The freshman had their first History of Animation test today. I miss the study sessions we used to have on Tuesday nights--talk about hard to keep on task!

Calm Before the Storm?

This weekend has been relatively mellow. UVs, Blendshapes, develop thesis more....I think that this is just a false sense of security before we are thrown into the deep end. I even had time for movies!

Calm before the storm or not, we'll soon find out. One week before full faculty crit! I'll post some thesis stuff once I have some visuals.

Meanwhile, some sketches over winterbreak. I was in the Albertville Outlet Mall. Mmm....shopping!

It's 'bout time!

It's been a while! For better or worse I will update my blog more often from now on. It's the 2nd semester of my Jr. year now and you know what that means---PREPRO!

We pitched our ideas for thesis on Tuesday. Two of my ideas were chosen and now I have to develop them further for a 2nd crit. Our first full faculty crit is in two weeks!

Well winter break went pretty well....I forgot how much I love to draw. It's so exciting to constantly look at other people's work and also see yourself improve. Although I have to say I don't miss the frozen tundra at all, it's lovely to be back in sunny Florida. Oh did I mention lots of sleeping and eating? Oh yeah....

(sketches coming up)

The Two Magruders

Not Your Ordinary Furniture

Saw these online randomly, thought they were pretty awesome! When I'm rich and famous, I'll have a whole house of cooky things like this.

Some Characters

Sequential Board for Concept

China Sketches

I'm Back!

Alright, alright, I've been back for a while. In fact, it's the fourth week of school....
I finally thought it's time to update. Thanks for all your nagging guys.

So I was in China for most of the summer. I lived with my cousin and took some art classes at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts. I can't begin to express what a valuable experience it was for me to live in my childhood city again and actually experience college life in China. I hung out with friends from kindergarten and met some interesting foreign travelers. It was odd for me really; I was both a native and a foreigner. It's just amazing to be back in a place of so much memory, personal history, and life.

Now for some highlights!

The Sichuan Earthquake happened one day after I got to Xi'an. The earthquake in Xi'an was minor but people were still pretty unsettled since this city never gets earthquakes.

In the middle of all the commotion I caught this cute scene.
There is so much character and charm everywhere you look.
In June I took a weekend trip to Beijing, this is at Wang Fu Jing Eatery Street.

And guess what! I ate scorpions!
The most empowering experience was climbing Hua Shan (Hua Mountain) two hours outside of Xi'an. Hua Shan is China's most steep mountain and known for its difficulty to climb. It took one night and a day without sleeping. We started climbing at 10pm, arrived at the peak at 5am for the sunrise, and climbed to other peaks, and came back down at 5pm. My feet dangling over....nothing!

Off to China

I'm leaving for China in a couple of hours! I may not have internet access so I'm not sure how often I'll be updating. One thing that is for sure is that I'll be doing tons of sketches while I'm over there. See you all in two months!

Cheers!