Sincerely, sleep deprived

Midterms have finally hit! aaaand as usual, I'm slightly drowning in my ocean of classwork/internship/work/everything.

pulling all-nighters...

But I've still managed to dig up some really cool stuff in motionographer.com that is a great example of the style I want for my thesis. The animator/artist, Juliette Oberndorfer is french and I don't speak french, so I don't really understand how she did it exactly, but it looks like she modeled her characters in 3D and used it with 2D background and props- and it looks fantastic! I also love her style and colors in the film. I'm still trying to pinpoint the style that I want for my thesis, but given the fact that my story isn't even completely down yet it's clear that I still have a long way to go.

Kendall also linked me to this really cool new project that Moonbot Studios (the creator of the The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore) is making. It's a game called Golem, and I'm really digging the organic look of their monster that looks kind of like Milo. Here's some eye candy:

this makes me really miss Europe (Golem is based in Prague)

I reaaaaaally like this drawing

And I was greeted at 6am this morning with this beautiful sunlight through the trees. The lighting and colors and morning air were so lovely I had to take a picture of it - maybe this is God's way of making me feel better about being sleep deprived :)

Zombies and Field Trips to the Museum

So this weekend was president's day weekend! Yay for having a Monday off, I decided to pick up the Walking Dead again-which was probably a bad idea because now it's hard to stop watching :3 Who knew the zombie apocalypse could be so entertaining?

But anyways, I also spent some time in the Museum of Natural history trying to figure out how to draw animals. It was a rough start but I think I got a little better overtime: hopefully this can turn into a routine things so I can have a strong portfolio by April.

first attempt- my goats ended up looking like humaniods...

thought of the veggie-tales song heehee

starting to get the hang of it

I also found some cool images and references that I need to go back and study for Noemi/the overall style and environment for the thesis. Here are a handful of the bajillion pictures I dug up in my treasure hunt.

aren't these gorgeous? most of these are references from Gustav Klimt, Gauguin, and and some Art Nouveau/art deco stuff. 

trying to flesh out potential ideas for Noemi

too bad all the overalls for girls are decked in hearts and pink and flowers

Where's Noemi?

Guys guess what? I found myself a producer! Kendall Haney, one of my friends who interned with me over the summer at Dreamworks Animation, will be producing my film! Hooray for Dreamworks buddies :D

On another note, I've been trying to crank out some character designs for Noemi, a stop-motion doll I made last semester, who originally looked something like this:

so since Milo is so complex and detailed, I decided that my thesis Noemi needed a little more work on her character design. Here's what I have so far:

This was just a random bunch of sketches that I did in hopes to find the character I was looking for: I ended up really liking this little girl (shown below), who is kind of inspired by a young version of my little sister Ruby- she definitely had that kind of expression all the time:

and here are some more sketches trying to recapture that slight sassiness in Noemi with different expressions, although I don't think I quite nailed it, so that will have to be something I work on throughout the semester

So, let's play a game of finding Noemi :)

And here are some videos that I just found that totally blew my mind - definitely not the direction I want to go for Noemi and Milo, but I still love the art style and the symbolism is fantastic.

Meeting Genndy Tartakovsky

This past week I had the privilege of meeting Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory, and the director of Hotel Transylvania at the USC cinema school. My friends and I who attended the session left the room even more on fire for animation because the passion within this man was so powerful.

Genndy grew up in the Russia, where he was first exposed to cartoons and fell in love with the art of the moving image. Ever since then, he consistently pursued animation in every way possible: he practiced drawing constantly, watched more cartoons, enrolled in animation class, and refused to take “no” for an answer. Perhaps the most inspiring aspect to Genndy is his perseverance and incredible motivation. Even though he was not naturally born a great artist, his love for animation and cartoons drove him to practice three times as hard as anyone else. (He's actually an animating machine.) Although his art is still not the top in the industry, Genndy has discovered how to use his own talents- charisma, innovative ideas, and passion- to motivate and lead the artists who work for him.

Daniel, Clay, Genndy and I- childhood heroes!

and just to refresh everyone's memories of Dexter and Samurai Jack, here are some of my favorite clips that he showed. This man is actually a genius

Being able to meet Genndy in person was a fantastic because as a child, I grew up on cartoons such as Dexter’s laboratory and Samurai Jack. Genndy’s sense of unique design (such as Aku and the heavily stylized landscapes in Samurai Jack), fantastic stories, and hard working ethic came through so powerfully during the seminar that it encouraged me to try harder, not give up, and look in unexpected places for story ideas. Definitely someone who pushes you to "think outside of the box" and never to take no for an answer :)

Picture References!

So earlier this week I decided to go on a little photo hunt and see if I could find any inspiration for my thesis, here is the result of my treasure hunt!

the skies were GORGEOUS during the weekend- I wish my camera could capture all the colors correctly

Loving the colors in these shots

my beautiful ex-roommate gave me this lovely rose for valentine's day!! :D 

anddd I just really liked how the sunlight streamed through the trees at the dreamworks campus/kind of cheating but I still can't get over the cute houses in Florence! #homesickforitaly

and finally here's a cute picture of a tangled concept art that I found on facebook. Disney never ceases to inspire me