Yeb Kamin

Update: Back to school and ready for the last year on earth

2012-01-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

Well I am back and hitting the ground running as I get started on my LAST SEMESTER at Calarts. I got a lot done in the past couple days so there is a lot to update you on.

It is my goal to have some form of employment by the time I graduate and I have already completed the first step towards that: assembling a reel. I worked for a couple hours yesterday and was able to put together this:

I have also been busy trying to get caught up on my film. I tackled the first scene and got it all textured check it out!

And I started life drawing again today:

Also Like me on facebook!!!

Film Progress: Aspen trees

2011-11-21T15:42:00.000-08:00

I made my aspen trees for my film this year in maya and I'm messing around with the lighting and shading.

Here are the thumbnails i did to figure out the construction. I just made 4 hero trees and just moved and altered them around.

I can do stuff traditionally too!!!!

2011-11-20T01:28:00.000-08:00

I picked up Scott C.'s new book at CTN this weekend and it inspired me to try doing some tradition stuff again. I made my thanksgiving card for this year. I love drawing zombies because it gives me an excuse to draw blood... I don't have a problem...

2011-11-16T17:01:00.001-08:00

My portfolio I put together for CTN what do you think?

Film: Cg Draw over.

2011-11-12T18:14:00.000-08:00

I was having trouble figuring out the clothing and hair for the character from my film. So I took it into photoshop and did a draw over on it. I'm going to do more passes on it, but I thought I would post what I have so far.

Life of pi: Orange Juice and the Hyena

2011-11-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

Some sketches i did for some characters from my life of pi project in Lisa Keene's class.

Halloween costume

2011-11-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

I decided to just go as myself this year. I'll post some making of stuff soon.

Lord of the Flies book cover

2011-10-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

We had an assignment to make a book cover. I decided to make a cover for Lord of the Flies. It's based on a seen where one of the older kids walks through a sandcastle built by one of the little kids. What do you think?

2 moods

2011-10-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

Another John Klassen assignment. We had to do one drawing and get two moods out of it by changing the lighting.

Costume

2011-10-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

so much foam!

2011-10-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

After the critique in class i did some adjustments to the Jon klassen assignment. Here is what i ended up with.

David Oreilly is coming to Calarts

2011-10-19T12:13:00.000-07:00

and i made the poster!

Jon Klassen Assignment

2011-10-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

This week we had to make an illustration that in corporate textures. I took some photos around calarts of interesting textures and got this one from some paint streaks in the cubes.

I got this texture online at cgtextures.com

And i made this texture by taking one of the bad poster prints from this week and rubbing it in the cigarette garden outside.

Life of pi: Richard Parker Head

2011-10-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Because I'm retaking Lisa Keene's VisDev class, I get to choose whatever project i want to work on in the class. I chose to do development for an animated version of Life of Pi. The story is about a boy who ends up stuck in a life raft with a bangle tiger in the middle of the pacific ocean. The tigers name is Richard Parker. I'm basing the style of the project on the illustrations of Charley Harper. So this is my first attempt at Richard Parker:

Here is an explanation of how I got to this idea:

Film update: Style test

2011-10-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Just doing some style tests for my film. These were done in Photoshop and not cg but this is what i am hoping to make my cg film look like this year.

2011-10-05T10:50:00.000-07:00


This was my assignment for Jon klassen's illustration class

Possible change

2011-09-21T22:36:00.001-07:00

I was coming up with my character design for the modeling class and i liked her so much that i am now considering changing my film idea to be about her. I need to figure out what the story is but i think this big horned ape guy might have something to do with it.

Goat and Panther in the jungle

2011-09-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

So I'm not in Dan Hansen's Layout class but I am going to try and do the assignments So i can build up portfolio work. Here is the first assignment. The prompt was a Panther or a goat in the jungle.

doodle a day: Mullet Jesus

2011-08-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

It's sunday so i'm doing a church bulleton doodle. It's Mullet Jesus! Buisness in front, savior in the back.

Doodle a day: The Tank

2011-08-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

Every zombie survival squad needs a tank.

Zombie survivor

2011-08-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

So it's time to give these zombies a run for there money or a possible meal. So today i drew the first of the survivor group. He needs a name though, if you have suggestions leave them in the comments.

Doodle a day: Zombie Kid Chainsaw

2011-08-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should just change the project to zombie a day. Anyway here is todays doodle. This Zombie is inspired by the chainsaw zombie from the first level of Resident evil four. He always freaked me out when i was a kid.

doodle a day: Another Kid Zombie

2011-08-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here is today's doodle: Another Zombie kid enjoying an afternoon snack.

doodle a day: Albuquerque Film Festival

2011-08-21T22:31:00.001-07:00

No one sat next too me at the awards ceremony. So i doodled on my hand a picture of me doodling on my hand at the awards show. Apparently the me on my hand is left handed.

Doodle a day: Flash Gordon

2011-08-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

It's Flash Gordon!

doodle a day: Kid Zombie

2011-08-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this makes up for yesterday's doodle.

Doodle a day: tired

2011-08-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

So i'm kind of phoning in todays doodle. I'm in the midst of some jobs and festival stuff and so I was more low on energy than usual today.

Anyway, I started watching madmen today and i am totally hooked!

Doodle a day: Rock hound

2011-08-16T22:28:00.000-07:00

I was a bit of a rock hound when i was little.

doodle a day: Chair

2011-08-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to work on my environments.

Prints

2011-08-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

We did monotypes for our final assignment in my print making class, these are the two I made.

I made this print using a combination of line etch and aquatint techniques on a copper plate. I think it's a metaphor for relationships or something like that.

I realize that I haven't been drawing that much this summer and so I'm now making it a goal to do one doodle a day at least for the remaining time until school starts. Here is the first one:

What I printed so far.

2011-08-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

Prints

2011-07-24T08:25:00.001-07:00

Summers going well, but AHHHH I shouldn't have taken on so much. I have had almost no time to work on my film. Got to get back to work.
Here is a little bit of an art update. I will upload more soon.
Making this into a print:

Track Pad head bang

2011-06-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

I drew these with the track pad on my computer.

Teacher Portraits: Astronomy

2011-06-28T19:52:00.001-07:00

Lady Gaga Album

2011-06-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

Here is my fake lady gaga album cover.

Album Covers

2011-06-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Made some album covers today. Just for fun.

Printmaking

2011-06-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

Taking a summer class on printmaking at the community college over the summer. Here is what I've been working on so far.

SIFF was awesome

2011-05-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

I went up to Seattle this weekend to see my film play at the Seattle International Film Festival. My Film was well received by the audience. They had me do a Q and A. And I met some young film makers there as well. I hung out with Doug for most of the weekend. His brother brought us out on his row boat that he crossed the Atlantic in! Here are pictures from the whole weekend.
Got the most amazing donuts here

Last life drawing session of the year

2011-05-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

Festival Time

2011-04-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

Getting everything ready this week for festival time. I came up with this for the DVD cover. What do you think?

And we are done!

2011-04-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

I'm done with my film! Congratulations to everyone for finishing! I can't wait to see this year's show! It's going to kick ass. I'm trying to work on my grammar and capitalization in these posts; I'm trying to make my blog more professional. We'll see how this experiment turns out. Overall I am very happy with my film this year. I showed it to my mom already. It made her cry.

I am already getting back to work and taking on projects I've been putting off for after film time.

This is a commission I'm working on for Jennifer in the Character animation office. She said she wanted a street walking cheetah with a capital G in reference to a My Chemical Romance song. It's going to be hand painted eventually but I mocked it up in the computer first. Anyway this is what i got. I will be posting my film as soon as it is shown at the open show.
Now that I'm done with films i have a lot more time on my hands to take on commissions so if you have something you want me to make for you don't hesitate to ask!

2011-04-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

I updated my portfolio! Go check it out

http://trevorjonesportfolio.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post.html

FIlm update: Screen caps

2011-04-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

FIlm update: Screen caps

2011-04-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

Making a lot of progress on my film this year! look at all the blacked out scenes!

still a ways to go, but at least i'm on schedule and not so far behind.

Here are some new screen caps from the shots i have finished.

FIlm update: Screen caps

2011-04-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some screen caps from my current film! 11 scenes and still a way to go still got a ways to go

Another Portfolio Page

2011-04-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

So I had my job fair yesterday, and Disney suggested I put some tradition life drawings in there so that they new I could actually draw. So I made this page and I actually like the way it turned out.

Posters

2011-04-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked much about it, but this semester I was in charge of designing the posters for the guest lecturers here at Calarts every Friday. I decided to post some of my favorites from the year here including the one i just did for the Futurama panel, our last lecture of the year!

Film Update: completed scenes

2011-04-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some screen caps from the scenes of 2d animation i have finished so far.
the black stuff is ink from an octopus dissipating in the water
this expression made me laugh

Film update: Backgrounds

2011-03-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

Film update: Backgrounds

2011-03-28T23:33:00.000-07:00

a couple new bGs

2011-03-27T03:20:00.000-07:00

Another page for the hansel and gredel project. This is my Witch character.

2011-03-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

This is a page i did for my Hansel and Grendel project, it is the witch's cabin.

2011-03-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Coming this Friday to the palace is Eric Goldberg! As a way to advertise for the event i made this poster of him as, one of his many characters, the Genie.

I went to disneyland today with my brother. He is in LA with his choir. Disney was fun and it was good to see one of my siblings. I went to the concert afterward witch was held before an ash Wednesday service. While i was in the service i got an idea for this comic.

film update: set change

2011-03-04T23:21:00.000-08:00

I changed up the set today. One of my lights burnt out and i can't get replacements over the weekend so i'm going to play it safe and just light the scene tomorrow. I am already ahead of where i thought i would be and i wasn't planning on animating tonight anyway.

Swim Cycle

2011-02-22T09:08:00.001-08:00

2011-02-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

I did a 24 work-a-thon at cap. and finished my set. (well close) I still need to put up the picture in the center. Anyway here it is.

2011-02-18T00:14:00.000-08:00

So I'm converting a lot of those books from the old set into boxes of supplies. Here are the three supply boxes i made. The picture of the native American and the Chinese Junk are both copy right free, clip art, but everything else is mine. I was trying to go with a retro look on all of them so I took the color palettes from old matchbooks.

Life drawings

2011-02-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

Set Painting

2011-02-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

2011-02-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

This is the color script for my film! A color script is a way of tracking the tone and color through your film.

Life Drawing class

2011-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Life Drawings from life drawing class. I tried drawing only with my brush pen today and i like some of the stuff i was able to get. I think I'm starting to discover how to draw the feet.

Angler fish

2011-02-07T18:30:00.001-08:00

Designed some angler fish for my film. Still working on it but wanted to post what i had so far.

Film is finally online

2011-02-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

This is my 2nd year film. It's pretty much done making the rounds at festivals so I can finally post it online. Tell me what you think

Film update: Backgrounds

2011-02-01T13:25:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the backgrounds for my film this year

and here are two of them animated:

lets get down to brass tacks

2011-01-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

So i'm back at school and drawing again. I'm going to try and get back to updating my blog at least once a week. I just had my first day of classes today and my first life drawing session this semester. I'm going to try and get better at drawing anatomy, so these works will be focused in that area.

I've also been working on pieces for the character animation show. Here are two paintings i did on scrap wood from the wood shop.

Feeling Nostalgic

2010-12-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

So in the midst of Megavideo making me take a break from my weeds marathon, i decided to look up all the places i used to live on google street view. Take a walk down memory lane.

Here is our house in Florida. I got to say the tipped over trash cans are a nice touch.

View Larger Map

This is our home in Hawaii Kai. It took me forever to find this because i thought our street name started with a "k"

View Larger Map

our home in pearcity was on the base so this is as close as i could get
View Larger Map

Bonus! here is my old elementary school. Notice the fine use of parking spaces.

View Larger Map

comic

2010-12-14T14:49:00.001-08:00

New animation and sad news

2010-12-13T13:12:00.000-08:00

My grandfather passed away shortly after that last post. Here is the animation i was working on last night for finals.

Not having a plesent day...

2010-11-20T00:12:00.000-08:00

My granddad is sick and I may have just talked to him for the last time. I just ask you to keep him in your thoughts and prayers in this time. Anyway I did get some work done today on my comic I'm doing for graphic novel class. It doesn't have any of the text panels in yet but this is pretty much it.

2010-11-07T21:19:00.001-08:00

Stopmotion

2010-10-10T01:58:00.001-07:00

Character Design: Silver

2010-10-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

Stop Motion

2010-10-02T22:47:00.000-07:00

So I got into stop motion finally! But because i missed the first two weeks i had to catch up on my assignments. So here they are!

Update

2010-09-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Here is just a general doodle update. I've been drawing a lot lately with my brush markers. They are really fun and they have great line quality and color. I love drawing with them. It might be my new favorite drawing utensil.

I turned the Guru Drawing into an album Cover! Check it out

Character Design Assignment 01 Bears at a bus-stop

2010-09-16T23:15:00.000-07:00

So here is my first assignment from character design. Its some bears at a bus-stop. I drew a lot of head shapes in the beginning so i could get a feel for what looks bear like and what doesn't.

Side note: for the third year in a row i did not get into the stop motion class. I was beat out by a bunch of first year experimental students! Grrrrrr.....

Oh yeah and my birthday is coming up soon! the big 2 1! What should i do to celebrate?

A whole new year, a whole new cube...

2010-09-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

So i'm back for my third year at calarts. I know, i know... It still says year 2 up top but i couldn't make a new banner yet because the labs are still getting a make over. So what is new since i last posted? Well the Sasquatch and the Girl is being recognized this weekend at the South Dakota Film Festival as the best student film! It is pretty sweet! We had class signups the other day... boy was that a mess. Basically what happened was they worked really hard to streamline the process this year but forgot to tell anyone that they were streamlining it! AHHH!! I am also a TA this year! That means i will now be taking on 4 jobs this year plus making a film. But hey at least i got first pick of the cubes. Speaking of which lets check in on that.
Great street name!

I like the location

The size is great... but that color....ew

I think we can take care of that...

That is much better! What do you think? Still more updates to come! It's good to be back!

Omg in distressing news, Sarah got hit by a car on her bike today! She is ok, mostly just badly scraped up, and a little shaken up. Please keep her in your thought and prayers! If you want to send her a note you can post it on her blog or her facebook. I am sure she would love to hear from you:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592827861&ref=ts
http://rosered91.blogspot.com/

Albuquerque Film Festival: The rest of the fest

2010-08-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

The Music Video Panel

the guy farthest to the right with the hat on, won for best music video at the festival. In case you missed it here it is :

Albuquerque Film Festival: Day one photos

2010-08-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

Just to calrify

2010-08-25T09:22:00.001-07:00

I am now using twitter in addition to updating the blog. :)

Some changes

2010-08-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to try and use twitter now. I know, I know, I've turned to the dark side. But I'm hoping it will help me keep you up to date more easily. I'm going to Albuquerque film festival and I'm going to use that week as a test run to see if this new system works. I have put my twitter feed at the top of the page so you can easily follow me. Anyway just thought of trying something new.

OMG SO SORRY

2010-07-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN BLOGGING THIS WHOLE TIME! AHHHH.....

So where did i leave off? omg i haven't posted since i found out about the producers show! Man we have a lot of catching up!

The producer's show was awesome!!
I had and awesome time. and all the films were great. Here are some of my favorite films from this year or at least the ones i could find.

That's all i can find now but I'll edit the post when i find more. I'm not posting my film up here yet because I'm right now trying submit to all the festivals. Speaking of which i got into some film festivals already, including the Albuquerque film festival which i will be going there next week. I also got into the South Dakota festival and the International Fest of Contemporary Animation & Media-Art LINOLEUM 2010 (that's in Russia!). The summer has been going great. I got an internship at Shadow machine in the set department. It was really cool! i got to build props, dress sets, and revamp sets. It was great and some of my stuff actually made it on to the show! I'll be sure to post the stuff i did as soon as the show airs. I've also been working at six flags as a face painter! booya!

Holy Crap

2010-05-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not updating the blog as much this year, but i was very hard at work on my film. It looks like the work payed off because, I GOT INTO THE PRODUCER'S SHOW!!! I will post the film as soon as i can but i am doing some final tweaks to the version I'm posting online and submitting to festivals. This week is crazy with all the prepairing for everything going on next week. I got a hair cut the other day and trimmed my beard. Today i got my show cards printed out at wallmart. Check them out:

I woke up this morning and...

2010-04-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

I saw i was featured on cartoon hang over!!!! Check it out!

Superheroes

2010-04-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

I only have two scenes left to do on my film so i decided to get some portfolio work out today. I took a couple of characters from that super hero line up i did a while ago and posed them out. They turned out a lot better then i expected. I just wish i had done more stuff like this sooner. I am absolutely in love with this brush i made to do this. It is amazing.

Character and Set Design: The Blue Dinner

2010-04-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Assignment this week in Maki was to design a diner, inside and out, and design it's inhabitants.

After making the diner i figured i would go to this diner. See if you can spot me in the line up!

I realize i have not posted in a while

2010-03-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

So i haven't been finding the time to be keeping up to date with my posting so i will make this quick
Rick Maki (I'm not sure if i am spelling that right) Was not impressed with our elephants last week so he made us do it all over again. Here is what i ended up with this week. I'm a lot more pleased with the result.

First i did some research on elephants and fencing

Then i did some sketches of elephants doing some of the poses i liked from the fencing photos

Then i did this!

I think i did a lot better then last time but we'll see what maki has to say about it.

Still waiting to hear back from a couple people about acceptance or rejection from calarts. It's getting pretty late so i'm getting pretty anxious.

Film Progress: Composer DONE, Final Score DONE, Actor DONE, Narration BOOM ROASTED...I mean DONE, Animation 1 min and 11 secs DONE.

Superheros

2010-03-11T01:25:00.000-08:00

I've been sketching Superheroes lately. I think i'm going to make more and put them in my portfolio.

2010-02-25T22:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a why since i last posted. I've been working on a lot of different things all at once! Trying to get scholarships to gather and internships and trying to finish a film. AHHHHH!!

This was the character design assignment from last week. We had to have a kid in 1958 turning on a tv and something comes out of the screen to scare him. I looked up the tv shows that were on at the time, and i saw Alfred Hitchcock was on and i couldn't think of anything scarier then him floating out of my tv.

This was this week's character design assignment. We had to redesign Silver from Treasure planet and his sidekick.

This one was my favorite of all of the passes i did on it. I figured the stove would be french and uptight to contrast Silver's hearty pirate personality.

Assignment: A scene with three characters at a carnival ring toss.

Story assignment: Have your character go through a gate but stretch the timing out over the course of 50 panels or more.

Brickfish Social Media: Wet City Lights

2010-02-17T22:25:00.000-08:00

Brickfish Social Media: Wet City Lights

Please vote!!! I could use your support!

So you want to get into Calarts huh?

2010-02-14T00:39:00.000-08:00

We are now in the second semester of my second year, and already the pressure is on to complete our films fill our scholarship applications and get our portfolios and resumes sent out for internships. I've been experiencing a lot of growth this year as an artist and I have a lot more experience with the school. I think it's time i give back a little to the Calarts hopefuls. I'm going to start a list. A list of what you might ask? Well a list of stuff that i wish someone had told me before i came here. So many things about my first year experience could have gone been way better if i had known these things. I will update this list as things come to me but here is the start

1) Get a way to make your own coffee:
Hands down the most useful gift i received this Christmas was a french press coffee mug. You are going to need coffee to power through the long nights and sometimes to get through the day (if you aren't addicted to the stuff now you will be). But the school cafeteria is only open from 8-7 and the coffee machine downstairs costs a dollar a cup. Both of these sources for Joe are not that strong either. Getting a system so you can brew your own coffee is, in the end, cheaper, tastier, and more caffeintastic.

2) For your first year don't worry about making a GREAT film. Just make a film.
I can't tell you how many people come in here with epics in mind for there first year. How many have it in their head that they are going to get into the producers show every year. They get caught up in the details of story and designs and other details and then they don't finish a film. Or they do finish a film but because they chose to cram an epic into 90 secs it seems rushed. Your freshman year is about making a film. Just pick something that you can complete, and have fun with. Don't worry about getting into the producers show. Worry about making a film.

3) Sketch
Make time to sketch. It's as simple as that

4) Make a portfolio folder
As you do homework assignments and draw on your own, make sure you have a place to put the assignments that you want to put in your job portfolio where they won't get ruined. My advice would be to scan them and put them in a folder on your computer. That way you are not frantically running all over the place trying to find where you put that character design assignment from January.

5) Don't pull an "all-nighter"
There is a difference between working hard and working efficiently. A lot of people use the "all-nighter" as bragging rights to show how much they worked, and how passionate they are. DON'T FALL INTO THIS TRAP. You don't need to pull "all-nighter"s to get work done, in fact they can do more harm then good. How efficient do you work when you are tired. I knew people that would pull all-nighter's but then they would either not have much of anything done in the morning, or they would have to redo what it was they worked on. Get sleep! It is your friend. It's healthy. Besides the mornings are the best times to work because no one is here.

6) Schedule in breaks:
This kinda goes with the number 5, but you can't be working all the time. Put times in your schedule where you force yourself to take a break. but schedule it. This makes it so you know that there is a time for work and a time for relaxing and prevents you from mixing the two. With this you can work more efficiently and also reduce your stress.

7) Take an English 101 class
Get your English 101 credit done with before you get here. Don't listen to Calarts about taking "writing arts" here. It is not as valuable as they will make it seem. It is a pain in the butt to have to write a paper every week and work on your film.

8) To get anything done with the administration you'll need to ask more then three times.

That's it for now, I'll add more as i think of things.

One Day Sculpture

2010-02-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

We tried something new in sculpture class this week and made sculptures using Wed Clay. Wed clay was the stuff i used when i was in elementary and middle school and so it was very cool to go back to it. The Last stuff i remember sculpting with it was a ceramic pot and some pieces for the nativity scene at my house. Wed clay is usually finished by putting it in a kiln but can also air dry so you need to get out your idea pretty fast. We did these sculptures in one class session and it was really fun. The clay was great to work with and really allowed us to get organic forms. I'm really happy with the way the anatomy turned out! And my mom (a prof in anatomy at UNM) thought it was really good too, but she also now thinks i'm possessed by a demon myself, because of the character i made. Come on mom it's just a sculpture!

2010-02-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

This was the latest assignment for Character Design Class. We had to have a oval talking to a square character trying to convince him about something.

This piece is a my interpretation of the Joker, one of the best villains ever. I wanted to put my own spin on it, and i think it turned out pretty good

My film is going good. I'm a little bit behind but i'm catching up fast. I got my dialogue down to 2 min and thirty sec and i'm now timing out my animatic (taking a break right now to update the blog). I also have the first puppet done and i've done some test animation with him. It looks pretty good and animating him goes pretty fast. I'll try and upload the test sometime soon.

Character Designs: Tea Party & Victorian (1875) Costume

2010-01-31T19:15:00.000-08:00

These are the latest character designs from my class. The first assignment was to do a costume design for a male and female in 1875. Victorian Costume (1875)

Research

Tea Party:

Research

The Gallery show, life drawing and glen Keane

2010-01-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

The gallery show was awesome. here are some photos from the evening and some of my favorite stuff in the show.

One of the shirts i had up in the gallery got stolen!!! If you see the yetti wandering around, I would like it back.

I tried life drawing with my tablet this week i really like how it turned out:

Oh and Glen Keane; the animator behind such characters as Ariel, the Beast, Tarzan, and Pocahontas; was our first lecture for the year. It was great. It was a comforting to see that he draws just as rough as i do! He showed us some animation tests that he did for Rapunzel. It looks really cool. I talked to Glen Keane after wards and he asked me how my year was going, and i cannot believe i forgot to mention that i got Russell Means to do the narration for my film this year! I'm not very good with small talk...oh well. I got a picture with him though.

Oh and did i mention glen is Billy in family circus?

Back for just a weekend and i already have so much to talk about

2010-01-19T17:06:00.000-08:00

Well the break is over and now i'm back to work ready to take on another semester. I started of the year diving head first into my film and recorded the narration for my film. Oh yeah and I got Russell Means to be the narrator!! It was really awesome and he was a super cool guy. His voice is really cool and hearing him say the words I wrote got me re energized about my film.

While i was doing this i had to put together my gallery space for this years character animation Gallery show. I made some hand painted shirts for the show that i'm actually selling for thirty bucks each. If you want one just drop me a message and i'll hold it for you. The dinosaur one has already been claimed though.

Did you catch the mark andrews reference?

Did these Star Trek Caricatures too

Here is my work in the Batman show that is going on in the main gallery too!

Almost back to Calarts

2010-01-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

Just reconnected with a friend from the CEC days. Here is the project we worked on for our final.

oh and i did this caricature of Ira Glass from this american life! It turned out pretty good

2009-12-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

Making a film is a frustrating process. Right now i am in a three way rut of production. I haven't been able to lock down character designs. My script is still to long but i don't know what to cut and I'm still not sure how the hell i'm going to animate it. The only positive step my film seems to have taken over the break is that i got my voice actor secured and have a day which he has agreed to record the narration. I'm not going to say who it is until i got his voice on my computer but he's pretty big. I didn't even imagine i would get him to do it. You can make guesses if you want (my family can't though because they already know). So hopefully this will all go through without a problem (knock on wood). In other news my break is going great so far, I got some pretty cool stuff for christmas and tomorrow i'm going skiing.

Princes and the Frog Screening

2009-12-14T17:47:00.001-08:00

I went to Disney today to see a free Calarts animation, exclusive showing of Princes and the Frog and I have to say the film is not that bad. In fact it's pretty good! Now before i go into the details of what i thought about the movie i want to say GO SEE THIS FILM! It is really good and deserves your money. Ok critique time. Just a warning: I would not continue to read if you haven't seen the film yet as it might ruin the viewing experience for you.

Princess and the Frog was a huge undertaking for Disney. They had the first African American princess, the return of 2d animation, and the return of the Disney musical all riding on this film. First of all i have to say that they did a great job at addressing the issues of race and class in the film. The world did not loose it's believability, as it is set in the southern United States in the 1920's, but subtle enough that it did not divert the focus of the story. The whole thing was handled very well.

The cast of characters (as with most Ron and John films) are amazing and all contribute something to the story. The villain, Dr. Facilier, is amazing and the actor who did his voice, Keith David, did some of the best voice acting in the whole film! i just wish i could see more of him. He has about as much screen-time as Ursula did in the Little Mermaid so that might give you an idea. Louis, the alligator, was great t0o and contributed to most of the major laughs in the film. My only problem is that i wish we actually got to see the scene were his dream of playing in the band is fulfilled.

The songs are amazing and i definitely will pick up the soundtrack. My only problem is with the lyrics. The songs that were in the other Disney musicals work because they move the plot forward and lyrics sound like they could be lines of dialog - so the transition to the music seems seamless. The songs have a narrative to them. But with these songs the lyrics don't contribute much beyond the song itself. The best and worst examples of this are the two voodoo songs. Dr. Facilier's song is great because what goes on in the song carries the scene. The interactions between the characters is played out in the song. With Mama Odie', the voodoo priestess's, song, the whole point of the song is in the chorus while the rest of it just feels like she is reiterating the same point.

One thing that bothered me about the animation was that there were inconsistencies with the squash and stretch rules of the world, and i don't think it worked. The best example i can think of is the scene with the three frog hunters. The biggest one is not squishy at all and has no give when he gets hit on the head but then immediately after you see the main guy get hit on the head and he has a lot of squash and stretch. Because it is right after you see the other guy, you think that the main frog hunter just had his scull smashed in.

The animation was great and it was a breath of fresh air to see them experiment with different styles, like in the restaurant sequence. I am hoping that they will continue this experimentation in future projects and hopefully release a film that is not in the "disney style".

GO SEE IT!!!

The Q and A was great! Ron and John talked a little bit about what it was like getting into directing at such a young age and what it is like working together. They also discussed how they made the film feel authentic and other interesting stuff. And disney gave us all free posters!

2009 Christmas

2009-12-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ok now this is a creative costume

2009-12-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

This is Kirsten Lepore in her kirboard cat costume

KIRboard Cat from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Kirsten is a MFA student at Calarts. Go Check out her website at http://www.kirstenlepore.com/.