012911_anatomy

I picked up Barcsay from the library earlier this week and I've started studying, not in the way that I have in the past, just drawing and trying to remember, but really looking and taking notes, trying to understand how things work. I really like how Barcsay has orthographic drawings and detailed things. More to share soon enough!

012511_color key

This is something I've learned recently. If ever I'm stuck on how to paint a particular background for a shot. I try painting it from the opposite direction. This doesn't mean it is uncomposed, it just seems to me that I tend to put all of the interest right in front of the "camera" so to speak, and everything behind it is rather simple. This is really great when I'm struggling to figure out how color is going to work in a scene, or something like that.
If I've learned anything from the Robo-san project, it's that nothing is simple, nothing is easy, unless you really make it so. You could paint a completely barren desert landscape and it could still be intensely complicated if you were really trying to construct a believable space.
eth.

011911_cloudy_background

More background painting. I love how good of practice they are for learning to create space through shifts in hue and value. Fun times.
eth.

011711_sketching...

I've been enjoying a little bit of freelance illustration here and there lately. This is just a sketch...a little "children's" book project.

011611_scene_6

Here's what I end up with...

eth.

011411_robosan_cave

Just a sketch for today. Nothing too fancy.

011311_cave_study

Doing this again because I can't be productive otherwise.

eth.

011211_sketches

I love my sketchbooks and this past year I was a little less than diligent with them. I very desperately want to change that. I've had my current sketchbook since last June and that's far to long for the 176 or so pages that are in there (front and back). I'm going to make an effort to keep studying and making sure I put my imagination down on paper for no purpose other than exercise again this year. It's something I've sorely missed. Here is a drawing of Rachel from earlier this month.
eth.

011111_storyboard to background

Today Stephen and I were working together on Robo-san stuff for 7 hours or so in my apartment as the snow came down outside all day long. Pizza, a friend and digital painting is always a good time, right? Right. So after finishing the texture map for the body of the rock monster I showed the arms of yesterday I got to working on Scene 6.

Scene 6 is a troublesome beast because I decided it'd be a great idea to have some radical perspective shifts in the animation. The nice thing about it is it's a more exciting shot than our previous idea and it allows for flexing of some cinematic animation muscle. And since that's the medium that Stephen and Ben are working in, it's good to push it any way we can. Gotta look good in the showreel, after all. The problem for me, as I said before lies in the perspective shift and I banged my head against the wall in black and white for a while before manning up and trying with color. I ended up trying to subdue the angle a little bit for a while before realizing that was a crap idea and going back to the storyboard version shown above as my reference. The background image is really going to be much, much larger than this, but I wanted an example to talk about.

After figuring out all of that nonsense, I think finishing it will go a lot faster. Whether slow or quick, I'll just be spending a while painting clouds tomorrow...so many clouds....


eth.

011011_texture.

So when you're working on a team, I've learned, you don't always get to do the absolutely most fun things in the world. One of those things (in my opinion) is texture maps. Though when I think about it, they're only not as fun as painting full paintings, like yesterday's cave study, because they're not a space, they're just a wall. Regardless, they're important and they give me an opportunity to practice my use of edge in a fairly monochromatic manner.

These are some rough samples of the UV mapping I'm doing for a character in the Robo-san project. I'm currently horrible at edges and I've been struggling to make the maps work. Luckily, I'm privy to the fact that this fellow (seen above) is on screen for all of 10 seconds at best, and you'll never see some parts of him. Still, I'd like to learn how to texture better. Any suggestions?
I'll show more interesting things tomorrow

010911

of challenge in painting caves.
Always takes forever to get back into the groove. I still struggle with color. Here's a study. I find a lot