Life Drawing Day 1

Ok, instead of using artsyposes.com I used a different site that suit my needs a little better.

Theres a life drawing tool at pixelovely.com that worked out perfectly. I drew for an hour. The first few were 30 seconds each, the last few were from 1 - 2 mintues each.

I want to practice doing the layout for the body faster and better. I still feel a little rusty, but it felt nice to draw like that again.

I'll do another practice again tonight and post more pictures tomorrow.

Life drawing

I've decided to start life drawing more regularly. There are a number of places I could go to do life drawing but since I lack the transportation I can't go to them.

I found a website that offers life drawing model and a timer to practice life drawing skills. It should work for the time being, but I would really like to go to actual life drawing events soon.

http://www.artsyposes.com/

I'm going to post what I've drawn tomorrow.

My portfolio site is up and running!!

So, I haven't posted in a while because I've been really busy finishing my portfolio and other things so that I could graduate. I've finally been approved so I can now take the time to post here more often.

Here's the portfolio site: http://www.reginefran.blogspot.com

There you can find:

• My reel


• A gallery of my art work


• My contact info and resume


• My flatbook

My business card (so far)

So, the theme I want to go with for my packaging is a simple bouncing ball. I think when people see it, they'll get that I'm an animator. I want to make it colorful and cute as well.

I've gone through a few different phases of it, but I've come up with one that I like.

I used a 5 color theme, and a really cute font from Dafont.com The one I chose was "Adelfy" free version.

Here's a preview:



It might change depending on what my professor says, but I like this one.

I have to fix it so it's the proper size and the bleed lines and everything is correct before I go to get it printed.

I'm leaning toward a 14pt. semi gloss for it. I think it'll be great.

Portfolio requirements

So, I've gotten the requirements to pass from my teacher.

1. The demo reel, it must be at least 1:30 with an animated intro and credits
2. The dvd covers, and dvd labels. I need at least 20
3. My business cards
4. My demo reel website (I'm going to use wordpress)
5. A flat book, with at least 8 pages


So yeah, I think I can pull all that off before midterm evaluation. I have one animation to finish and the others need editing. But since I don't have any other classes, I should be able to finish it all.

I'm doing, dvd covers and labels this weekend.

smoker work in progress....still.

Ok, so I've been trying to add a cough after her inhale, but to me it looks like she's eating something. I think I'm going to change it so she's drinking something instead. It wouldn't be too hard actually, I just need to finish the animation, and replace the cigarette with a straw in a cup.

Since it doesn't look like she's enjoying the drink, I'll make it an energy drink. Although I love them, they don't always go down so well...

But yeah.

Since I already did the smoke effect, I'll still use it somehow. I'm thinking of adding a little cup of tea below it, and just make it an effects animation.

New blog design!

So, I've redone my blog again. This time its a lot more personal. I made the header and the background myself!

It started with this little sketch of myself:



I took that and colored it in Flash. I added a simple background and title.

To keep with the design I made a background that matched the knit hat in the sketch.

Smoke effect

So, I've been tinkering around with effects lately, I need smoke for one of my pieces, and after a few test I finally got a result I liked.

Here it is.

Smoke fx from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Monster Walk Cycle

So here's yet another walk cycle I've completed. About this time I'm pretty much sick of doing them, thankfully I only have one more to upload. I'm going to put all three together in one piece for my demo reel, but for now they are separate.

I have the same stagger issue I had with the other walk cycles with this one. Does anyone have any tips to fix this?

Monster Walk Cycle 1 from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Pregnant puppet walk cycle

Here's the pregnant character's walk cycle. I keep having issues with exporting, so it staggers at bit at the end. I'll fix that soon.

Pregnant puppet walk from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Finished Lip Sync

So here's the finished version of my lip sync with my human and robot characters. The clip is from the movie "Wedding Crashers". I had a lot of fun with this one.

Finished Lip Sync (I'll Find You) from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Update!

So, I passed my evaluation! That means I only have one class left to take, portfolio, then I graduate!

So, I have a few things I need to fix and one project I need to complete before I finish my demo reel.

I'll start posting individual pieces of them on my vimeo account tomorrow.

I'm also in the process of refining my resume and looking for internships with local animation studios. It has been pretty hard so far, but I'm going to look into getting help when school starts October 3rd.

Smoker wip

So, I added another piece to my senior project work about a week ago. I'm probably working on this as I speak (or type...). This is what I have so far that is uploaded on Vimeo.

Since this has uploaded I've exaggerated her inhale. I really like it, I just need to finish her torso, hand motion, and add in my smoke.

Smoker Pencil Test 1 from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Flamingo Flight Cycle

So, after attempting to do a four legged walk cycle and completely failing at it, I still didn't want to give up the idea of animating an animal for my demo reel. One of my teachers suggested that I try my hand at animating a bird.

I picked a flamingo because they look so interesting. Plus I thought it would be fun to explore different ways to color it.

I tried using a bitmap fills or actual feathers that I turned pink on Photoshop, but it didn't look quite right. I was about to just give up and just use flat color when I was inspired to do something different after I finally saw "Sita Sings the Blues".

The movie was made using flash, and I really liked how Nina Paley made all the characters and environments look so interesting. She used flat colors for somethings, but they always had some sort of interesting detail.

After even more trail and error I finally found something that worked pretty well for my puppet.



I made the body, legs, and head puppet parts and animated the wings and neck myself.

I'll post the actual scene on my vimeo later.

Pregnant puppet

So, a long while ago, I designed two characters for a lip sync, but after calculating how much time it would take to actually animate the scene, I changed my mind. But I had already made the puppet for one of them; and since I totally loved how it turned out, I decided to keep it in and make a walk cycle out of it.

I'll start out with a sketch of her (I have the another one, but my scanner is acting wonky today...)



At first I tried to draw normally, but I didn't quite like it. I kept it like that for a while until I got a little inspiration from Netflix of all places. After I drew the first pregnant woman I went home and watched some old tv on Netflix. One of the reccomended shows for me was a show called "Shorties Watchin' Shorties" from Augenblick Studios. I really liked the design of the characters, so I tried to emulate what I saw. In the show, the characters had thick outlines, and round bodies bean-like bodies. They also had sort of a flatness to them, that I liked.

Here's the puppet after I finished with the ink and color:



I'm working on the details of her walk now, I really want to emphasize secondary motion with this one.

I'll try to upload what I have on my vimeo later.

MAJOR UPDATE!

I feel like I haven't updated my blog in FOREVER, so its about time that I should.

Since May, a lot has happened:

1. Passed my senior project 1 evaluation and now I'm in senior project 2
2. My evaluation for senior project 2 is in about two weeks, so yeah.
3. I've done a ton of work, that I'm going to post more about!
4. I've also cut a few pieces too, I'll explain why.
5. I'm actually going to try to update this blog more, at least 2 or 3 times a month.


Ok, I'll start posting up some new work this weekend

Mongoose!

So I only have like 2 weeks left to work on my senior project work, and everything is actually working out more or less. I only have 3 more things to do and I'll have everything done for evaluation.

I'm making the puppet for my 4 legged walk today in class, as well as finishing my skip today. I'm making a mongoose.

Here's the sketches:

Lip Sync 1 test

So I've been working on a lip sync between my Robot and Fred Shirt. This is what it looks like thus far. ( I have made some improvments since this one, which I'll upload later. )

Sync Test 1 (I'll find you) from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Complete Puppet

I started working on the puppet for this character today:





I finished the puppet in flash today. (I'm getting a little faster at it!)

Here it is:



I like how it turned out. Its so cute!

Fred Shirt

So I designed a character that could be a companion for my robot character. With the whole space theme in mind I went with a cheap parody of a star trek stereotype; the red shirt.



I named him Fred Shirt:

UPDATE

Ok, so I got my midterm evaluation a few days ago. It wasn't so great, my teacher was looking for completed work, I only have works in progress. But what I had, he liked, with the exception of my fat guy walk. And I have to say I agree with him. After thinking it over I came to the following conclusions.

1. I'm discontinuing my work on the fat guy walk.

2. I'm doing the rest of my work as cut animations, I'm faster and better at it than traditional 2d. I love traditional, but I work at a snails pace at it. That I think I still need practice. Its senior project time, I have to put my best foot forward.

3. I'm working a little more with my robot character and her counterpart. I didn't start off making a narrative, but it kinda turned into one.

4. I'm going to use my fat character as a cut animation; I spent all that time working on the animation, I might as well get some use out of it.


Anyway, I'll continue to update my blog with what I've been working on. Until then, feedback is always welcome.

Almost finished run cycle for robo-woman

Bionic Run from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Here's what I have so far. I've added a fun sound effect. I'm working on making her head and torso move side to side as she runs right now.

Robot Girl run cycle wip

Here's what it looks like so far:

Robo Girl Run Cycle test from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

Right now I only have her keys and breakdowns, so it isn't as smooth as I would like. I'm sorry she's so small as well, when finished her puppet, it was way too big for the stage, so I shrunk it for my test.

Feedback would be great!

Robot Lady Puppet vol-1

Here's what I've done in class the last hour. I'll work more on her tomorrow. I don't like her arms quite yet. I also think I want another magnet, maybe a little more narrow.




Any Suggestions?

Robot character-more sketches!

I've started making the puppet for my cut animation robot. Here's the sketch I'm using.



I changed her chest cones to head lights because they look strange, and she's going to be a multifunctional robot, she should have lights somewhere, lol.

More work on Fat Walk

Fat Man Walk WIP from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

I started cleaning up the rough animation and fixing rough patches yesterday.
I uploaded this to viemo yesterday too, but now I'm finally getting to post it.

Really Rough Animation for Fat Walk

Here at my vimeo account!

Untitled from Regine Francois on Vimeo.

I did this last week, and I've made a lot of progress on the animation for this (Will post it after it uploads to Vimeo!) But here is the rough animation for the fat man's walk.

I'm going to loop his walk cycle once I fix a few things and add secondary motion to his belly.

Robot Character

This is a sketch of the robot character I want to use for my cut animation walk cycle. She's a robot with magnets for hands. I don't have a name for her yet, but I will soon.

Right now I'm thinking I want her to run on screen and jump since my first animation is a regular walk cycle. I think it'll show a little range.

I have more sketches for her I did this weekend, I'll post them later.

Another turn around sketch!

I'm doing a little sequence with this character, I'm naming her something cute like "Poppy Seed" since she has a little flower on her dress.

It was fun to draw her, I can't wait to ink and animate her. The next character I make will probably be a robot for my cut animation walk cycle section.

Fat guy inked

As promised, here is my fat male character inked.



I used a combination of the pen tool and the brush tool. I like how it turned out.

Fat character ink

Just finished doing the inking on the 3/4 pose of my fat character. I used the brush tool instead of the pen tool. I'm not sure about the line weights though. I'm a little new at using the brush tool, but I wanted to see if using the brush tool with pressure made a difference in how the character looked.



Feedback would be great!!

Character for fat walk cycle

So I went home yesterday after class and started working on sketches for a fat character for a walk cycle.

Here are some body sketches, I picked the one with the check mark above it.




Here are some face sketches:




And here's the sketch of my turn around:




Tomorrow I'm going to clean this up in flash and begin working on the rough animation for his walk cycle!

Feedback would be great!!

shop sequence storyboard and character sketch

So here's the story board I drew up for the shopping sequence and a sketch of the character from my notebook.


PAGE 1



PAGE 2



PAGE 3



CHARACTER SKETCH




So, for the rest of the week I'll be sketching and making model sheets for all of the characters I'll be using.

Feedback would be appreicated.

Start Senior Project 1 Work!!

My schedule is going to be pretty busy.

The things I'll be doing is:

1. A short shopping sequence line test
2. A lip sync sequence line test
3. A fat character walk cycle line test
4. A fat character walk cycle ink and paint
5. A cut animation walk cycle

I have about 3 months or so to finish all of this, and I will (somehow.)

I've got it all planned out. This week I will finish storyboards and character models.


I've already gotten started with the shopping sequence. It will be an animation of a little girl walking in the city, she passes a shop window with a sign on it. It is an ad for a big sale. The girl will do a facial take, then it will show the girl skipping away with shopping bags.