04-18-2013: Adventures in Stop Motion!

This quarter I am embarking upon my first forays into stop motion animation! Honestly, I don't know what took me so long.

Directed by Robert Vilushis, the film is about a small fairy man who lives in the woods. He runs a magical forge with which he smiths seeds into tools for his farm. Three critters assist him; a praying mantis, a pill bug, and a slug. He's built various tools to help the animals - he made a shell for the slug, turning it into a snail. The snail shell has been my major sculptural contribution so far.

Sarah Mannino, our lead puppet artist, sculpted the
body of our slug - I helped make the mold to cast him.

The shell was designed to look like acorns, sawed in half,
hammered flat, and nailed together like shingles.
Collecting reference was fun.

Sarah was kind enough to sculpt the
base shape of the shell for me. Super time saver!

Here's my basic plan for the details, with real acorns
and another of the seed-smith's tools for reference.

After approval from the director, I fleshed the
design out a bit more and brought it into relief.

Agh! I forgot to take pictures of it before it went off to mold-making.
But here it is afterwards, a little worn, but still holding some details.

And here's the mold! 

I'm pretty thrilled - it looks like the silicone caught a lot of the detail.

Stay tuned! I'll post the plastic versions once they've been poured.

3-28-2013: Zbrush Zbrush Zbrush

My challenge to myself this week has been learning Zbrush! I decided that, even though my thesis film is going to be 2D, a digital maquette of my character might be helpful to keep the animators (myself included!) on-model. Here's the character turn (there are some errors I'll need to fix, the position of the arms, for example):

With the help of some Lynda.com and Pixelogic tutorials, and my great friend Kintan Chauhan, I've made a great deal of progress in the last few days! Though it started out a little rough, ha ha.

Seriously?

Ew...

Here's where it is now!

Getting a little more comfortable here! Woo!

For those who might not know, the rough spots on her shoulders are what "Zclay" looks like before it's been smoothed out. I'm loving this program! And the tools I've learned so far are only the tip of the iceberg. Huzzah!

3-27-2013: Jen's Fantastic Voyage

Here's a lil' thing I wrote up back in November, after Fall quarter, but somehow forgot to post. Figured it deserves some internet space. The course was "Constructive Human Anatomy," and was taught by Paul Hudson. I highly recommend studying with him if you get the chance! A brilliant mind and incredibly talented.


"Okay, so, less about cleaning out blood clots, and more about exploring human musculoskeletal physiology, but fantastic nonetheless!

I had an incredible course at SCAD this past quarter. It left me more intelligent about the human body, but also changed the way I observe and interpret the world we inhabit. I also got to dig back into some clay! It was exciting to remember how happy and comfortable I am working with my hands.

We began by looking at the head, torso and pelvis into basic shapes. We made these out of clay, and drew them from life until we were well acquainted with them. Then, both with conte and clay, we cut away and added volumes until our eggs, soupcans and teacups actually started resembling something you might see on a human form.

At the same time, we were learning the names and shapes of the major bones and processes in the body, and conceptualizing a pose, shooting reference, and building an armature for our own personal muscle study in both clay and conte. By midterm, we had base head, torso, pelvis and scapula shapes on our ecroges, and had drawn them from 6 different angles.

After midterm, we started on musculature. In class, we worked with partners to place muscles on a neutral-posed skeleton. At home, we added the same muscles to our ecroges. We covered the neck, back, chest, stomach and upper arms in class, but we taught ourselves and each other about the forearms, buttocks, and legs at home. I think that was my favorite part of the course. It was a good reminder that learning is not just for the classroom, but a continuous, invigorating and powerful process - and one that can be shared with your peers!

I'm very proud of what I was able to accomplish in the ten weeks of this class, but it's definitely just the beginning. I'm definitely going to keep refining my ecroge, but I've also got a bunch of projects floating around my mind! Very exciting times!

Thanks, as always, for reading. Love you guys!

Best,

Jen"

MUCH to update!!

SO! Excellent news abounds!

First off - I've graduated from Montclair State University with a BFA in Animation/Illustration! Hooray!

I've found temporary summer work - that might prove to be a lucrative long term investment. I'm life guarding again! It entails oodles of fresh air and requires me to stay in shape. Also, I hear there are lots of beaches and pools down at Savannah that might need guards... Which leads me to my next bit of excellent news!

I got into the Animation MFA at SCAD! They gave me a bit of money, too - huzzah! Now begins the housing/roommate/scholarship/grant/work study search. I'm so excited!!

FINALLY - the bit of news I'm MOST excited about - oh, no no, it's too good. I'll have to make a new post for it!

But here are some sculpture tidbit's I've been playing with. My uncle and aunt, Jim and Tay, gifted me with some taxidermy eyes that Jim used to sculpt with. What great inspiration! Also, my beagle, Savannah, is adorable. Just a quick gesture.