Rag Bunny, 70's Squid, and The Incredible Hulk

I love to crochet.  My sister taught me the basic single crochet about 2 years ago and I've been hooked ever since. So far I have made 2 full-length afghans (you could cover a whole couch in these things... they took me about 4-6 months to complete each one), a toilet paper cozy, the two puppets used in my 'Stached animation (which you can find on my animations page...wink wink watch it), and a variety of stuffed animals or amigurumi (the name given to dolls made through crochet). 

My favorite things to make are definitely the amigurumi.  I started out using patterns I found online to learn the different crochet stitches and how to make different shapes.  Now I've started to use these skills to create my own characters. Such as...

Rag Bunny
 

I made her a few months ago actually, but she's so cute I wanted to share her.  I based her off of a pattern I found online, but through happy accident made her longer than the pattern stated by crocheting in the back loops only, instead of doing single crochets (The actual pattern made for a much rounder bunny).  I like her better this way so yay! Also she's stuffed with rags (I didn't have any stuffing), thus "Rag Bunny".  The little scarf was also my idea.

 

70's Squid
 

Tribute to Doug

Today I learned of a great tragedy.  A friend and former SCAD-mate of mine, Doug B. Horak, passed away two days ago.  My time at SCAD was short, but while I was there I had many classes with Doug.  His talent was limitless and many of us, myself included, looked at his work as an inspiration to push ourselves a little more.  And so I am dedicating this post to Doug and his amazing work.

The following links showcase Doug's work, both for class and self-assigned projects. 

http://dbhorak.com/ His online portfolio

http://vimeo.com/43199237  "Viridian," the film he directed for 3D Collab.


We'll miss you, man. <3  

Israel Chiropractic College

Oh my word, it's been a freakishly long time since my last post.  I mean...wow.  I assure you, I have been busy! I recently finished a project that had to stay confidential until completion.

And that project was...

Designing the school logo for the first chiropractic college in Israel!

That's right, Israel Chiropractic College, projected to open in 2013, has officially gone public.  You can see the entire article HERE. 

It was such an honor to work on this project.  Thank you Dr. Yevgeniya Boyko for selecting me!

Caterpillar_Penguin

Alright! Caterpillar_Penguin is finally done. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have never animated in After Effects before. Okay, I've done some motion graphic-type stuff, but never any character animation. C_P is not a complex animation. It's a building block, a stepping stone while I figure out the strengths and weaknesses of 2.5D AE animations. Having said that, I also must say that I learned SO MUCH from this project. For those of you who are also new to this type of animation, let me share a bit of advice: After Effects lets you have multiple compositions within your project -- Use them! And plan the length of your actions accordingly. (Though it's generally better (and easier) to have to cut something shorter than not have enough to work with.) If you're creating things in other programs, export them as Illustrator or Photoshop files, if possible. They will come out cleaner and give you greater flexibility. And don't be afraid of the pin tool... it's pretty awesome when you get to know it.

I'm very excited to move onto a new project -- I've been plotting one in my head for the past day or so. Now that I know what I can and cannot do (or rather, what is simple and what is the really, really long way to do what should have been simple) I'm planning on moving onto more of a puppet-type animation. The working title is called "The Magician." Stay tuned for updates. =D

P.S.
You may have been wondering why I chose a caterpillar and a penguin for this project. I knew I wanted to play with the segmented body of the caterpillar and well, the penguin just kind of happened. Besides, the irregular is generally much more entertaining than the ordinary, don't you think?

P.S.S.
Yay, Vimeo is working wonderfully again! Hurray for smooth, non-glitchy videos. ^__^

Silver Needle Fashion Show: Fashionation

I started digging through some of my old graphic design work and found some pieces I had designed for Marist's Silver Needle Fashion Show during my junior year of undergrad. The theme was "Fashionation" which is why each image has a globe somewhere in it. These three were my favorite of the group. I think they came out rather well, so I figured I would share them with the masses. Nothing like a little blast from the past, right?

Catepillar Penguin Preview

Hello all! Wow, sorry for the delay in updates. Let's just say that 2012 hasn't exactly gotten off on the right foot. Things are calming down a bit now, I think, so I'm slowly trying to get myself back into the swing of things.

I do love my laptop and the privacy of being able to work in my room, but unfortunately Maya makes it cry in a sort of "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME??" type of way. But luckily this little ole' lappy CAN handle the Adobe Creative Suite, so I've decided to try and teach myself how to animate in After Effects. I've started a simple project and I've already learned so much. I had no idea how similar After Effects and Maya are! I mean, I've worked in AE many times, but usually it was for basic graphic movement or for editing animatics and the like (by the way, I've since learned that Premiere is much better for animatics). I never realized it had such 3D capabilities, a graph editor, the ability to add lights, cameras.... How did I not know this?? Excitement! Now I just need to figure out what I'm doing. ^__^;

This image shows the basic concept of the short I'm working on. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the puppet tool, cameras and lighting, and overall character animation. I'll post the final short whenever it's finished.