HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!

My friend Ashley is the only 23 year old I know who still gets CRAZY EXCITED about her birthday. Here's a little somthin' I whipped up to celebrate. :)

Working: Part I

So now that the year is sort of winding down I thought I'd do a bit of a recap, focusing on a few projects that I feel pretty dang lucky to be a part of the past few months.

BEST ONE TIRES

Credits: Animation - Sean Hall, Brian Thompson (and myself) 

Color - Sue Lakso

Audio - Kent Militzer

Finish - Ryan Wheeler

Agency: Ferguson Advertising

BestOne Tire 25 from CRASH+SUES on Vimeo.

Best One was a blast to do but posed some interesting challenges at the beginning. We had a lot of ground to cover with our little tire guy and only about 20 seconds to do it. In order to avoid just cutting to new locations we created transforming environments. It got us to the next location a lot quicker while adding visual interest to the spot.

Here are some of my early designs and sketches that got thrown into the mix. Sean took lead with the storyboards and shot planning while I dove into designing some of the elements that would make up our landscape. I was also able to take a crack at designing the two human characters that appear at the end of the spot. Brian came in a bit later, balancing the team out nicely with rigging, modeling and lighting. In the end I was able to help with a little bit of everything. It was definitely one of the biggest projects I've worked on and I LEARNED SO MUCH! I was proud that we were able show it off at the Minnesota Electronic Theater this year and I look forward to working on many more potential entries for next year. :)

Christmas Card

My parents ask me every year for a Christmas card they can send out to friends and family. This year I went with a Whoville theme. :)

Uh Oh

A few characters I've been playing around with. They have a unique relationship...

VOTE NO!

Don't limit the freedom to marry!

Crash+Sues Print Ad

A print ad appearing in The Show's 2012 book. A project that fell on my desk super last minute but was pretty fun to work on. Also last minute, I found out I was supposed to work with a horizontal 1/2 page space instead of a vertical 1/4 page space.  

The vertical is definitely the better (and my favorite) of the two so I figured I'd post this one.

Also, I'm no graphic designer. I tend to flail a lot when it comes to layout. Luckily my friend Tou was nice enough to give me a few pointers. Thanks buddy!

Franken-Me

Just gettin' in the Halloween spirit!

Fall Knit List

Trying to work on showing texture through line-work/color. Yay knitting! 

Skyrim - Lessa

Lessa, my vengeful Dunmer out to get the Empire. She gets mixed up with all the wrong crowds before eventually stumbling up to the Companions doorstep.

...My imagination goes crazy when I play this damn game.

Daily Doodles: Round One

              

Daily Doodles. The only requirement, draw something, ANYTHING, once a day. It's the little steps that count right?

Here are some of my favorites from the past few months.

Ready For Fall

Big sweaters and boots! Hurray!

LET'S DRAW!

Trying to make our bi-weekly sketch parties official. Er.. slightly more official.

Ok, fiiiiiine. I just wanted to make a poster.

An Update

Just the latest work.

I've updated the colors on Nike. It never really had the edge I wanted in the earlier version.

My family's dog recently passed away. She was young and my mom was especially heartbroken. Here's a picture I made for them. It also ended up in the AiMN Media Arts gallery show. My first ever gallery entry. I can't wait to try more!

Lin

Lets all just take a moment to appreciate how rare of a character Lin Bei Fong is. You don't see too many 50-year-old women kicking ass like she does in cartoons these days, well... pretty much EVER. I absolutely love how 'outside the norm' the Avatar series is. I'm looking forward to the season finale next weekend!

Peach Dress

What I wore the other day. 

Pokin' A Fish

Here are the characters I'm working on for a short film. I want to tell a story about a little girl and her dad. I want it to be lighthearted, fun and relate-able. Right now I'm playing around with the whole line-less look, trying to push contrast in size and shape. Not quite sure if I want to go the full animation route or something more limited. 

I'm lucky enough to have a really amazing dad, who gave me quite a scare last year when he was diagnosed with cancer. Luckily, we caught it early and were able to get rid of it before things got worse. But holy damn was it scary. I'm so glad everything turned out ok! I love my dad! :)

If I had a superpower...

Purple

Modern Harpy

Another sketch prompt: Supernatural Creatures.

I thought I'd take it in a more modern direction and make her an athlete. Some kind of sprinter/flyer? Oh, and I put her in Nike gear on purpose considering Nike (the winged goddess of victory) and harpies were both greek myths.

Kind of an 'out-there' idea but I like it. :)

Also, this idea was inspired by a daily doodle! Here's the original drawing.

I knew as soon as I finished I wanted to push the pose WAY further. 

Graduation, Crash+Sues, and Slime Monsters!

I suppose I should write a little bit more about my experiences over the past few months just to keep everyone up to date. My life has been changing so much lately! 

I've graduated! I'm no longer a student of AiMN! My class' portfolio show went well, I had the privilege to meet some great people, show off my work and (of course) get tons of hugs from my family. I think overall my experience at Ai was really positive. I think the trick is surrounding yourself with dedicated and passionate people; the friends I made there (and of course the rock-stars of the faculty) certainly pushed me to be better. I'm a firm believer that school is what you make it. If you give 110%, that's what you'll get back.

Through a mixture of timing, persistence and a bit of luck I managed to get brought in to Crash+Sues as a full-time, freelance animator. I felt like the luckiest person in the world, getting a phone call a few weeks before graduation from their producer asking if I was available. The whole experience felt unreal. I'll always be incredibly thankful for the opportunity.

But of course, when doing anything new and outside of your comfort zone, there's a certain amount of fear that needs overcoming in order to grow. I definitely felt that coming in to Crash+Sues. It was nice that I had interned there a year before, so I knew the building and the people. But coming on as a professional meant a whole new set of responsibilities that had to be tackled. It's true when they say you'll learn more in your first few weeks on the job than you do in your entire four years at school. It's a roller coaster ride, and like a roller coaster it's exciting and scary all at the same time.

And also fun!

I haven't felt this motivated in over a year. The new experiences and environment are exactly what I needed to remind myself why I loved animation so much in the first place. Being surrounded by the incredibly talented animators, editors, and producers there is humbling. I have so much to learn! It just makes me want to CREATE. 

Anyways, this little project was something I did in my spare time at Crash+Sues. I just wanted to make something with monsters and eventually it evolved into a fun little PSA about eating healthy. I liked the idea of this guy being talented enough to chew an apple into the Crash+Sues logo...

Burd

Monster!

An afternoon project during my downtime at work. I wanted to see what I could do with Photoshop's animation tools in a limited amount of time.

Weapon of Choice

2012

The other day I stumbled onto some old speed paintings I had done almost 2 years ago. I really liked the pose and feel of this one so I figured I'd update it. 

2010

Ron Swanson

The Rookie: Kitchen Background

Final

V2

V1

Well this particular background was definitely a good lesson in perspective. All I've gotta say is that I'm glad there are people around me that know it better than I! :)