Inktober - Red necked Grebe

So growing up my parents owned a small cabin on Diamond lake, and we would go and stay there during the summer. While there I would sit and listen to the loons out on the lake and enjoy the general nature all around me. A few years ago, we were again out on the lake when my Uncle Stan pulled out his phone and identified what I always thought was a loon was actually a Red Necked Grebe. Crazy what those phones can do ;)

In honor of my childhood adventures in the Grebe's homeland of Diamond Lake, I created this drawing and Yay for #inktober.  :)

Inktober #4 - Pacific NorthWest Quail

So when I was younger we had a vacant lot right next to my house which was a perfect habitat for these little guys. They would be so fun to watch as they ran around in little to large groups. I even had the chance to save some of their chicks when they got stuck in the staircase to our basement.

 The lot was bought up and a home was built on it now, so I don't see them as often, but they're still pretty special little birds. Yippee the Pacific Northwest Quail!

Inktober #3 - Belted King Fisher

I've always been inspired by the coloring of the King Fisher; this one is only in black and white but it was still fun to see the design and unique look  :)

Inktober #2 - Gold Finch

I love the State that I'm from; so I thought to honor it by doing our State Bird the Golden Finch. This cute little guys was super fun to draw.

Day 1 Inktober

This year, I'm going to try to focus on birds; they'll have to be quick drawings but I'm hoping I'll keep with it and do one each day of Inktober. Happy Drawing!

IF: Vacation

I was looking at everyone else's submissions and a lot of people associated beaches with vacation. As I thought about it I realized, yes the beach is a great vacation but for some the beach isn't the ideal vacation. When I think of the beach I think of sand getting everywhere and sunburns. But I think that a great vacation is a peaceful time reading a book. Each of our ideas of vacation is different but it is still a time to relax and not have to worry about life.

I wanted to illustrate this idea that sometimes you might feel a little singled out in your idea of vacation but it is still just a vacation and you should enjoy it.

So Happy start of the Summer Vacation, whatever that might entail, have a good one.

Term 5 Recap

Hello Everyone,
So it is the end of term 5, going onto term 6 which is the final term. Yeah, I'm excited but scared and sad but happy... a lot of emotions. I just finished registering my schedule in my calendar and I'm going through an emotional roller coaster. But we'll get on that in term 6; lets focus on Term 5.

The main focus of term 5 was my Demo Real, getting it as complete as I can get it before the end of term which is Christmas Break. I knew that after the break it would take a bit of time to get back in the swing of things so yeah I worked myself to the ground to get where I'm at but it was worth it. I'm not going to show any of the animation just because I would like to refine parts of it more but I will show some test renders from each shot:

I think they are looking good so far and I'm excited to see the rendered animation in action; if only I can get the renderfarm to not fail on me...

Also during this term we had our last acting for animators class and the main focus was lipsync and subtext. It was of course an awesome class and really fun to see everyone's work. We got to use the new VFS rig which was rocky at first then after a while I got accustomed to the lag and the necessity of playblasts just to check on some things.

The Sound clip is from Step Brothers, I've never seen the movie but that is actually to my benefit for that fact that I'm not bias toward one way of acting. I was able to explore different ideas of subtext and just have fun with it. Hope you enjoy!

All in all, it was a busy but awesome term and I'm so excited for next term even though it is a bitter sweet feeling.

till next term