Elementals

The elemental is the essence of nature, combining the energies of earth, fire, and water. She can control these elements and bend them to her will, capable of hurling fireballs, healing and strengthening herself, causing massive earthquakes, and controlling the weather. These creatures are loners by nature, and with their fiery, unpredictable behaviors it's probably better that way. Though their appearance is rare, they are rumored to surface when a threat worthy of their wrath challenges the natural world.

Here's some process:

The Defiant

I finished a character portrait of the forest wizard guy from the previous post. The name of his race is the Defiant, and he is the embodiment of the darker side of nature: fear, decay, plague, etc. He is the evil face of the natural forces combating the technological zealots called the Lexia, brought forth from the bowels of the earth in response to the rapid contamination of the world. They are capable of manipulating our darkest instincts, and can spread disease rapidly, as well as hold dominion over the vile creatures that inhabit the earth.

Here is a bit of my process as I painted this portrait:

Quick preliminary sketch

Big shapes of color to establish light and tone

Clean-up the edges and more in depth rendering with texture before adding the overall texture that enhances the mood I want.

Complete!

Here is the finished painting of my previous post. This may be a bit of a stretch for Illustration Friday, but these two forces are competing for conflicting cravings: one who hungers for natural resources for personal gain, and one who craves to protect those resources.

It always excites me to tackle a project that is different from anything else I've previously done. And, it also turns out that I kind of like the mood and tone of this piece, and will probably explore it further in the future. This doesn't mean that I'm going to be giving up working towards a career in animation, though. Sometimes you just have to face the facts, and right now the fact is there are more jobs available in games than in film, so I'm just adapting my work accordingly =)

New Genre of Working

Work in Progress concepts

So now that I'm applying for all kinds of jobs, especially in the game area, I realized that I seriously need to come up with some work that's geared more for that type of design. From what I've seen, especially with this next generation of consoles, is that realism is becoming ever more important, and that's something that my portfolio really doesn't have.

What I've decided to do is to come up with a concept for a game, and do a body of work illustrating the characters, props, and concepts dealing with that. I've already begun working on this, and came up with a sort of hybrid RTS and MMO type game, complete with 6 races of characters, and have begun working of the design of 2 of them: a cyborg-type human and a forest spirit. Working in this way is actually not very different than coming up with model sheets for an animated character. Very blue-print like. However, the style of drawing is very alien to my hand and it is taking a while to get used to, but I've discovered I kind of like it. Hopefully, I'll finish the big illustration today nd get to work on some of the other characters.

Ascension

Ascension from gunslingers19 on Vimeo.

A year of my life went into this project =) Here it is finally, with sound, color, compositing, and effects! I screened today around 2:30 and it was very well received with only minor criticisms. Thaks to everyone who came out to support me!! It really made my day =D

4th Color Pass

Color Pass 4 from gunslingers19 on Vimeo.

Here's the product of another sleepless week. I've gotten mostly through the bird phase of her life....2 more weeks to go!

RIT GEt Viral Film Contest

Hey everyone! I just entered one of my animations in a RIT film contest on facebook. In order to vote, you have to go here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/posted.php?id=136442345386 and join the facebook group. After that, look for my film, Pablo, and click the "like" button that's right next to the "comment" button. Thank you!

2nd Color Edit

Ascension Color Pass 2 from gunslingers19 on Vimeo.

A few more shots of completed color added to my senior film, "Ascension."

Some more backgrounds!

Some more backgrounds from my thesis. =)

Backgrounds for Ascension

I think background and layout work is one of my favorite parts about animation production. The feeling you get when you see your world come to life in color an mood is pretty sweet. These are just a few screen grabs of backgrounds that I've been working on. Let me know what you think!

Some colorrrr

Ascension_ColorPass1 from gunslingers19 on Vimeo.

Finally getting down to some coloring business. Here are the first four shots. I have more, just didn't have time to composite them all for my thesis advising meeting today. Feels good to see some finished things =)

Now for Sale!

I've created an account on Etsy, and have posted some of my illustrations on there. So now, if any of you guys get the itch to buy some of my paintings, they are available! There's a link to the shop just off to the right in the sidebar, so click on it and peruse the items! You know you want to...

Illustration Friday: Intricate

This weeks Illustration Friday topic was intricate. Detailed paintings are not something that I'm used to doing, so for this illustration I tried to vamp up the detail level to make it as intricate as I could. Also, ballet is something I consider to be a very intricate art form, with all of its subtleties in pose and emotion and form. It's very beautiful, and this little girl dreams of becoming a ballerina capable of such things.

Thesis: Rough Cut

Ascension from gunslingers19 on Vimeo.

I've been working on this project, sort of , since last May. The past 10 weeks have been incredibly intense, getting the hundreds...possible thousands...of drawings done, composited, and then composing the musical score for the film. I'll spend next quarter refining some details and the sound, as well as coloring the 1,956 frames of animation in this film. HAHA! Good times.

And yet a little closer...

Another Ascension Animatic from gunslingers19 on Vimeo.

Woooo! Well things are starting to come together a bit. The timing is a bit fast for some things still, and man, am I wishing my set wasn't such an amorphous and flowing world; what I wouldn't give for a simple hold that doesn't require a cycle! The biggest thing missing, however, is the color. Color is so very important to this film and without it I'm afraid the whole point is lost. I'll have to come up with some way of showing that throughout screenings. Now back to in-betweening and coming up with cycling backgrounds!

Murals!

This is what I was able to get of the mural i painted in Colorado for my aunt. It was extremely difficult to paint this cuz of the small space I had to work in. Their house was built on a hill, so one half of the house went into the side of the hill. Instead of having the 2 bedrooms on the submerged floors be dark without windows, the dug holes down into the hill to the base of the rooms and lined the walls with cement so that at least some sunlight could get in. The downside...now you have windows facing a cement wall 2.5 feet from the window. So they asked me to paint a mountain scene, and, with 2.5 feet of space, acrylics, some very large spunge brushes and a ladder, I was able to paint this 9ft x 8ft mural.

Fire and Rescue!

A Christmas present for a friend of mine who is a volunteer fireman. Also, my dad was a paid member of the Houston Fire Department in Texas for 20 years and was through most of my childhood. Fireman do much more than help little kitties, of course: they put their lives on the line ever day to help people and are completely legendary in that respect. Keep up the great work guys!

Selections from "Ascension"the book

Last quarter I was in a book illustration class and decided to use my Animation thesis concept for the story idea. These are a few 2-page spreads from the 34 page book, which hopefully will be all printed out and put together by the end of the winter quarter.

"Ascension" 1st Pass Animatic

Untitled from gunslingers19 on Vimeo.

Timing out animatics always sort of freaks me out cuz I find it hard to anticipate how much time a still image will take when it moves. So, usually the boards end up blowing by too fast (especially since I'm a bit wary of holding out something too long. In any case, here is the first pass of Ascension.

Adventures of Stardude and the Evil Head

Way back in the day me and my friend....I think it was 4th grade, came up with these two characters who were eternal adversaries and were always thwarting each others plans. The Stardudes were beings from space trying to protect the stupid humans from having their souls sucked out by the Floating Head and turned into zombies. The Floating Head was a sorcerer whose body was disintegrated by the Stardudes energy, but his head, which was all that was left of him, was reanimated by the lingering effects of his last spell. Now he's sucking the lives out of all he can in order to become more powerful so he can steal the energy of the Stardudes themselves. Around junior high, we thought it would be fun to make a list of each of their different powers. Here they are!

Drawings from a 5th Grade Sketchbook

So, while looking for an inspirational drawing for a friend of mine, I happened to come upon my 5th grade math spiral amidst my stacks of drawings. This confused me, but when I looked through it I realized why we had kept it: The pages were full of crazy doodles and sketches and, surprisingly, a lot of sequential drawings. Maybe I was always meant to be an animator?? In any case....I think we know why math was never my strongest subject......

More Watercolor of the Lake

I really enjoy painting water with watercolor, as funny as that sounds. It's so flowing and organic and just feels good to paint. I'm generally stuck with painting whatever it is that's in my backyard, and it's getting a little hard to find subjects. So, I painted this pole that was sticking up by the bulkhead in my backyard. I'm fairly pleased with the way this turned out, though I do need to practice the broader expanses of ripples and water near the top.

Summer Doodleshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif

I generally use the summer vacation to practice my drawing and art skills. Now that I've taken a few different painting classes and found a nice set of Prismacolor markers laying around my house, I have a few new mediums to explore! So here are my explorations thus far.

Thesis Rough Color Script

These are the main colors for my thesis as of now. They will be very likely to change as I really get into my project, but they a nice exercise in simple shapes and illustration.