Spring Break Update

It's been a while! I've been very busy with school, work, health, and home life. I got to go to New York City to see my favorite singer, Ed Sheeran! But I've been working very hard at school as far as juggling my gen ed classes and my animation and illustration classes. I also was able to get my hands on a Nintendo Switch and let me tell you, "The Breath of the Wild" is a beautifully perfect and inspiring game. I was also stuck inside my house for a couple days with that enormous snow storm! A lot has been going on, but when spring break ends, I have to kick into maximum overdrive! I've finished modeling and texturing my characters as well as giving them skeletons. Right now I'm in the skinning process (which I'll admit is my least favorite part), but nothing is more rewarding than seeing your character that you created move like it's supposed to! While it is a painful process, it will be very worth it in the end. Here are some quick renders of my characters from my 3 minute film, "Beyond the Sea".

Here is Michael with his sweater and his jacket. His face and eyes were hand painted in Photoshop. When the models are completely rigged I'm going to upload the topology and texture sheets. 

This is the Siren, shes completely painted in Photoshop. I will upload topology and texture sheets when she is finished as well. 

In my digital painting class, we've finally finished up learning basic exercises and still life's, so now we are moving to our first real project which I am extremely excited about.  Environment design! I absolutely love environment design almost as much as I love character design. I had a few ideas for my painting but I finally came to a decision that I wanted to include my best friend Maddy in it. Maddy is a psychic, so I wanted to make a sort of realistic yet mystical environment. I came up with a nice value thumbnail for what I wanted, then spent this morning figuring out what colors I wanted to use. 

I'm very excited to start the actual painting, and start blocking in the colors. I'm currently waiting for advice and the stamp of approval from my professor so I can get started. I absolutely love the design aspect of illustration. I would give anything to be a lead concept artist, character or environment artist. That is the dream. This semester is going great and I'm super excited to create some great work to finish it with!

-Katlynn

Grisaille Digital Painting: Learned Phobias

For this project we were challenged to create a digital grisaille still life painting. I chose to use my own objects and used an antique clown doll that used to belong to my dad, and an origami that my friend made for me.

Journal 3: 1/30/17 Gotten Up From The Sickness

Guess who got a really bad cold and spent a few days dying? This gal! Had to to take a weekend to rest up (and play Resident Evil 7). But in all seriousness, yes I was very sick. I even tried to go to work on Thursday, and I nearly vomited at the end of my shift and had to lay still in bed the rest of the night, So I can't say I didn't try! But man, Resident Evil 7 is incredible. I invested in the Collectors Edition. You see, I don't buy new games often, but when I do, I usually get the collectors edition, especially if it comes with an art book, (this one didn't to my dismay, nor did it come with a season pass) but it did come with a wondrous music box sculpted like the main house, which is quite wonderful. A game like Resident Evil 7 is just the kind of game I dream one day to create or work on. Truly disgusting and disturbing elements to make it the perfect horror game. Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to enjoy it on Playstation VR if I ever get the money. Before I had to go to work on Saturday, I threw together a quick sketch (soon to be gouache painting) of Lucas. I quite enjoy his sense of humor.

I can't wait to add in the shine of his pale rotting skin to really give off the intensely creepy vibe he gives off. It's gonna be fantastic.

Before I got sick however, I did finally apply to all my internships and I am anxiously checking my email every day, job posting every day as well. I've convinced myself that whatever is supposed to happen, will happen and it will be the right thing. I know if I don't get one this year, I will get one when I transfer to a university. Universities have been on my mind a lot lately. I've been having dreams about it, I've been staring at my Champlain College Poster endlessly and thinking about all the wonderful people I'll meet and opportunities I'll get. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a small taste this summer with an internship. 

As far as my progress with my 3 minute film, "Beyond The Sea", it's going great! I've finished the turnaround drawings for the Evil Siren  and I've even finished sculpting Michael without his jacket!

Tomorrow, I'm gonna spruce him up a bit more and sculpt him with his rain jacket for when he goes outside. Hopefully I will be able to begin the siren tomorrow as well. I've set a goal for myself that I'm going to have these characters completely modeled, rigged, skinned, and textured by the end of February. I think its a reasonable goal. I'm excited to bring my characters to life

-Katlynn 

Journal 2: 1/19/17: Weekend is Here!

I got through my first week of my fourth semester and I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I am so excited! I finished my storyboard animatic and I'm incredibly proud of it. I'm going to spend this weekend applying to a ton of internships and work on my character turn around's for my 3 minute film. 

I'm very excited to start sculpting my characters and bringing them to life. Today in Digital Painting, we did an exercise from ctrl paint on shading in black and white (Brushes 2). This was mine. 

We are going to be creating a Grisaille Still Life, I've chosen to do the clown doll that used to belong to my father

I got the idea when we were talking about clown phobias in psychology today; and I'm very sick of cups and wooden cubes from my oil painting class. This weekend is going to wonderful, I'm looking forward to getting lots of work done and dying my hair back to brown. The pink isn't working out for me, I'm getting to old and stressed to dye my hair efficiently. I'll just make some paintings of girls with colored hair that I aspire to become....

-Katlynn

"Beyond The Sea" Storyboard Animatic

My storyboard for my 3 minute film that will be created this semester has been brought to life in a storyboard animatic! I will be using this animation as reference when creating my film this semester. I did the voice acting and all the sound effects were downloaded from sound bible. The video can be viewed here. 

Journal Entry 1: 1/18/17: New Semester

Well I got through the first day of my fourth semester pretty beautifully, I should say. This semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have class from 8 am to 5 pm, starting with Professional Practices for the Animator (This class is all about creating our 3 minute film, to be finished by the end of the semester), followed by Psychology 101, ending the day with Digital Painting. In my 8 am animation class, we were informed that we will be presenting our stories for our 3 minute films to the class on Thursday. So today I will be finishing up my storyboard animatic, cleaning up the drawings, as well as recording and adding sound along with finding the right music. It will be posted in my portfolio when it is finished, but here are some of the drawings I have so far

I'm also celebrating that I have finally finished all the coding and creation of this blog! Yes, everything is finally in its place and coded to the greatest of my abilities. I have also finished my resume as well. Right now I have pink dye sitting in my hair to celebrate the occasion, and while it sets in, I will be applying to as many internships as I possibly can hoping that one will see all the amazing potential I have to offer, so I can finally spend a summer doing what I love most, and learning under the masters. I'm so excited to start this new chapter in my life! 

-Katlynn

Old West Storyboard.

For this project we were given a script and told to create a storyboard for said script along with a shot list. The process and full storyboard can be viewed here