The Furnace

CSU Summer Arts 2011 - Gluttire

2011-07-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

Gluttire - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKsUaVun1_w

Oh, yeah, speaking of Gluttire... completely forgot. Here's the animation I did in my two weeks at CSU Summer Arts. The rig is Morpheus Rig v1.0 from Josh Burton's site. I used Toon Boom for the 2D animation, and Liam Wade was kind enough to write music for this piece!

Morpheus Rig - http://www.joshburton.com/projects/morpheus.asp

Liam Wade - http://www.liamwade.com/

Animation of the Week #20110722

2011-07-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fsBd2ULTMI

Trying out Toon Boom for the first time since I did Gluttire at CSU Summer arts. Tried my hands at doing a simple walk in place. It's different with a Wacom, but I actually really like working digitally.

1866 Winchester

2011-06-09T03:42:00.001-07:00

Another project for my ANI 129A Advanced class. Maya 2011, Photoshop.

Zombie Apocalypse Bus

2011-06-09T03:26:00.000-07:00

Final project for my ANI 129A Advanced class. Maya 2012, Photoshop.

2011-05-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROCk-sulVF0

My reel for my intermediate animation class.

Zombie Apocalypse Bus WIP

2011-04-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Gustlin's Zombie Apocalypse Gun project.

Space Fighter Model

2011-03-17T21:33:00.001-07:00

One of several space fighters I'm modeling in Maya for Mark.

Jump Planning

2011-03-09T18:37:00.001-08:00

Some planning and reference for my jump animation to be done in my maya class.

Shooter Boot

2011-03-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

Boot for advanced maya class. Leather could have turned out a bit better, same with the stitching, but it's better than the previous iteration.

Castle Giurescu

2009-08-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Working on a Maya project... castle Giurescu from Hellboy #2 (the comic, not the movie).

Reversal

2008-12-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, while we're at it, here's my Reversal as well. It's a male monk, not a woman as some tend to believe.

Comics From 112A

2008-12-27T02:32:00.000-08:00

Haven't posted in a while, and had these on hand, so here are some of my comics from 112A. Enjoy!

We have computers to do this kind of thing for us nowadays...

2008-10-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

...but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. I certainly learned a lot about painting with acrylics. This is my rendering -- check it out:
The plates aren't as good as I wanted them to be, but I kinda ran out of time. Maybe next time. And there will be a next time -- the color rendering!

Timing is Everything

2008-10-08T01:25:00.000-07:00

(WARNING: LONG POST; SHORT VERSION AT THE BOTTOM)

Originally, I was going to just post more figure drawings, but I decided to go with something that is potentially much more useful:

So, ever since school began, I've had the mindset "Work smarter." For me, that means more efficiently. That is, spend less time goofing around and more consecutive minutes actually working.

I've experimented with several possible solutions, including a few versions of reward systems such as "Eat something delicious if you get your work done early," or "Play video game if you do a significant amount of work per day," etc.. I found that those work, at first, but I quickly begin to forget about it, since the reward is not immediate. There are other solutions to getting yourself to work more, but I find many of them to actually reward your time not goofing off as opposed to rewarding your time working (which are actually two different things, ie, you not goofing off could involve you just staring at your piece blankly, feeling like you're working).
So anyway, I'm trying something new, and it seems to be working out quite well. I'm using a timer.

My reasoning is that one thing you have a very hard doing when you draw or paint, or whatever, is quantifying the value of your work. And I just love quantities. I found that a visual feedback system for quantifying the amount of work I do is better than any reward system I've tried thus far. When using a timer, I see my progress as a number, and that, in a way, makes it more meaningful.

Also, if I keep the timer on ONLY when I'm working, and turn it off for breaks or if I notice I'm talking a lot more than working. This not only keeps an accurate track of the time I spent working on a project, but also reminds me that I should be working, and I look forward to increasing the amount of time, because in most cases, the quality of a project is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend on it.

For those of you who would like to either know how much time you actually spend working, or want a way to encourage you to do work, I would suggest this method. For those of you that have iPods, and those have built in timers with a lap feature (which is useful for day-to-day work) which work great. If not, a stopwatch could also be useful. Stopwatches are pretty cheap -- I think they start at around five dollars, which is a good investment if it means a higher grade on a project (and consequently, the class!).

Happy drawing, everyone!

SHORT VERSION:
I've tried several ways of improving my work efficiency. Many of them failed. However, I found that using a timer or stopwatch helps to keep you working. You see the time, and it quantifies your work, which is often hard to do (especially when working on a project over the course of several days).

By using a timer, you can get a more accurate picture of how you work. This makes it easier to improve and manage your time.

iPods have a built in stopwatch with a lap features (I found this useful for multiple days: 1 lap = 1 day). Other timing devices could be useful too, such as stopwatches (which start around $5).

Happy drawing!

It Figures

2008-09-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

So, I'm kind of embarassed to admit this, because I know a lot of people in The Program will be shaking their heads, but just a few weeks ago was the first time I went to figure drawing (this is my third semester in the program). The results were... well, pretty awesome. For anyone who hasn't gone or doesn't really feel like it does anything that special... you should really go. In just two sessions, my gestures and general figure drawing ability improved greatly. I feel that way anyway.

Of course, now I'm kind of scared because I feel like my drawings are about to look like crap again (that thing John talks about, where your drawing skills slowly surpass your critical skills, and then your critical ability shoots way up and you feel like killing yourself). Anyway, here's a couple that I liked.

Blog it up.

2008-09-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Woo. Blog. Okay. This is an experiment for me, 'cause I'm not very good at doing stuff like this. I always forget about it. Hopefully this will be better.

On this blog, I'm going to post my work from school and sketches, and write about stuff that just interests me or I find kind of cool... anyway, onward!