UP!

Exploding Paper!

2009-10-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

That's what my animation class whom I will hopefully be working with to make a small station bump for the MDCTV calls this technique.

This short though was made completely on my own though. Oddly enough it was for my color & comp class though. In which, my prof for that class seems to embrace animation more than other profs I've had (which is awesome). The "limitations" for this was basic shapes. The actual assignment wasn't an animation at all though, but she leaves that door open if we wish to go through.

Assignment: [Using four shapes create compositions where the original form is not known by cutting it and rearranging. Then do the same thing but where the original shape is obvious].

I tried to interpret that into animation using the materials requested and came up with a generic story, and rather drawn out storyboard that produced this:

Shapes from Iggy K on Vimeo.

Maya and Art

2009-10-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

I'm actually kind of blown away about the amount of stuff I've learned about art from Maya. Maybe learned is not the correct word, affirmed? maybe. Just a couple of weeks prior to this semester, the fact that lighting was important finally started to settle in. Now though, it's obvious (mental ray).

I asked my prof what separates those cheap 3D commercials on TV from a Pixar render and he told me it all really comes down to the textures and the lighting. Maya says:

In the real world, objects are seen in specific ways based on the following:

The materials they are made of.
Their surface textures.
How they are lit and reflect light.
The environment surrounding them.

Which of course, now that I read it, makes sense. In maya you can even tweak about a thousand setting on light that harken to stuff I've seen illustrators talk about like "Rim lighting", "Lambertian reflectance", which blows my mind because I've never really been told about this by anyone, but then I come here and it's all there.

I know in art: "Draw/Paint what you see", but...I like to go better by what Michael Mentler over at Conceptart.org's forums (and I think I've mentioned it here) says:

"Draw what you know you see not what you think you see"

Anyway, the first house is based on a reference image we imported from an architect student's model at our school. The clouds were actually made in class using the 3d texturing for them from spheres.

The 2nd and 3rd are from our Maya Book, where we just had to model all that stuff and mess with shaders and the uv axis. Our prof also went a bit further and made us put in texture on the chimney.

The last couple were not modeled by us. They came with Maya. We just rendered it from that gray lambert base to a better lit up scene with fancy colors using the mental ray and its caustic settings, global illumination (which ties with photography sooo much), shadows, reflectivity and bunch of other settings I'm still not quite sure how they work. The helmets were modeled by us though, we got the ref image on the planes from Maya though.

Mo, mo, mo, mo paintings Morandi!

2009-10-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

Updated some of the black and white paintings and added another in. We also started working in color! Very exciting, but as any book on painting will tell you: overwhelming.

To try and solve that problem my prof had a colleague come in and do a presentation he had for his own class the night before. It was a brief discussion on Giorgio Morandi and his very limited palette and rather unique approach to painting. This discussion turned out to be far more influential on me than I had ever thought.

In terms of composition, value, saturation, the hues, the approach, and the mindset, Morandi did everything I thought was maybe a little too eccentric. His composition was often smack in the middle with a lot of attention to negative space, his palette was earthy and not "vibrant", most of the brushstrokes were just laid on without too much care (or so I think), yet...the paintings worked.

I'm detailing this because for most of the color paintings the class was limited to Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, and White. We were also told to try and paint in the style of this Morandi character. It was very different, but oh so great.

Later on we did get to use other colors though, especially for the portrait.

Weak Sketch

2009-10-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

I am sooo behind sketches, so no point really in trying to catch up (unless I want to post in a couple of months...which I don't), I digress:

Maya!

2009-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

After many delays, a class finally got filled up this Fall semester for Animation I. Which is really just learning Maya, since we're not learning principles of animation or anything theory of the ilk that you would find in a Stanchfield or Frank & Ollie book.

I am actually surprised to see that Maya is really not that hard of a program (so far). Once you get some hotkeys down, learn what some buttons do, how to navigate, it is very manageable. We started the class following those video tutorials that pops out when you first load Maya. We then moved on to constructing a temple following the first project Maya 2008 comes with which can be found here (If you have maya 2008 open, just hit F1 and it should open up on your default browser):

http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2008help/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm

My results are below:

The thing in the middle is just some object our teacher made up when he was showing us how to extrude objects, manipulate points using their vertex, scaling, translating, and other basic functions.

This last assignment was to research a temple and build it. I went with my favorite Greek goddess: The Temple of Athena Nike

We have started working out of AutoDesk's Foundation book right now which is pretty cool since you get to model and animate things from Sony's "Surf's up".

That's about it for now, bummed out there won't be any rigging or animation until next semester, but...it does make sense.

Sketch & Paint

2009-09-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

Taking a painting class at the local CC, it's pretty darn awesome. Since the prof likes to have things done quickly and as efficiently as possible we use mainly an "alla prima" type technique. Which...I always kind of disliked because a lot of the "alla prima" paintings I saw always looked similar and got to looking more like a "style" than a technique and I always thought it was a way too easy process.

I've quickly learned though that it is indeed a technique and not a style and isn't necessarily "easy". Think a lot of it also had to do with the fact that my first demo was given in technique akin to the Flemish technique used around the the early 1600s. By that I mean, instead of going through seven different layers of paint, it was simply an imprimatura layer, maybe a dead layer, and finally the body layer. Guess I just grew fond of building the painting up in a systematic layer approach.

All of the paintings are done with black and white Utrecht oil paint mixed on a wooden palette with turp as a diluent on a 16x20 canvaboard using some boars hair brushes.

I also got myself one of those brown sketchbooks. I find it tougher than the regular white sheets and also made sure it was wired and not hardbound. Hardbounds are Headaches.

Crow Quill

2009-08-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Just couldn't resist trying out a dip pen. Grabbed a Speedball pen set that came with the standard pen and the crow quill. Matched it with a small jar of Higgins ink, and it's been working a treat. The Higgins ink doesn't bleed through the page like the fountain pen I had tried did.

The best part about the crow quill is that it forces you to be a little more confident with your strokes. There is not going back and forth with a nib (I'm pretty sure this is why writing in cursive was all the rage before the ball point came to be). If you try going back with the nib, you'll either pierce the paper, or stutter the nib making ink splash all over the paper. It also encourages you to make longer strokes, depending on the nib of course. Provided you're using a nib that releases more ink (the longer more flexible type), the long strokes just start to feel like they have a more sense of weight and unity; a pleasure to use.

Still getting used to the wrist movements needed to complete those long strokes, I think it may be because I'm used to moving fast and rather haphazardly with the pencil and regular pens.

Mostly Bridgman here. The only other thing are just some still life sketches.

Muybridge: Plate 43

2009-08-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

Didn't make this so much for the video. I like Muybridge studies mostly for their gestural qualities, even more for the models in them. They have very fit figures with lean muscle, not the buff steroid-like build, so you can really take a good look at the different muscles and even bones on the model.

The only drawback is the poor reproductions of these plates. So...it's not the best quality, but when the gesture hits the right angle, the lighting exposes all the forms very well.

Again, not directly a video for the sake of animation. Just a video for the sake of a video. It was also in part of curiosity, wanted to see how these figures would move. I've done some before, but never really "animated" it.

Untitled from Iggy K on Vimeo.

Fruits and Bridgman

2009-08-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

Started messing around with pastels again. It's been quite a while since I did it on my own terms (not school) and it's as fun as it was before. Trying to apply the bits of knowledge I have acquired from art history, master paintings, forums, blogs...and it's helluva lot of fun.

The fruits are done from life, everything else is Bridgman. Did try out the crow quill pen, well, something like it, and it bleeds terribly through the page, so...I will just have to do with other mediums.

Studies in Ink

2009-08-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

Computer's acting a bit funny. Reformatted and still acting quite odd. Disk Drive also doing strange things, so I can't really do more studies from Acland. Bridgman is still great though, copying his stuff and trying to see if the info will click.

Thinking of switching the medium I'm using though. Been using those Sakura Micro pens, most of these are in 02 black. They work a treat for the first couple of strokes, but...the tip starts to wear out (quickly) to where you can only do those very important gestural strokes by holding the pen in a stabbing position until its utter demise when the tip disappears completely.

Looking through a few blogs and forums, looks like a crow quill pen is in order.

Teacup Figure

2009-08-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

The last of my figure drawings, the former is a reflective object assignment.

4(18x24)

2009-08-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

Posted this over at Conceptart and got some great help. A lot of it, as I was kinda of expecting had to do with the lighting. The first image is the overall piece, it's rather large, and was quite an experience trying to draw it out the first time around (a lot of fishing wire and tape was involved). The second is a detail of the first. The last is an earlier stage of the head.

The thing isn't done, but I think I should move on. the only thing that really got any lighting was the face, everything else has that fake rendering I have developed into a habit which I'm trying to break as of now.

Make up

2009-08-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

Have four weeks to do it with sketches, it starts...now:

Perspective & Set

2009-08-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

First couple of images were for an arch. communications class. We used a pretty interesting way to set this up called the "Office Method" using a 30/degree triangle (30 because, 30 is our actual cone of vision), and plotting all the usual points (TH,RVP,LVP, SP) and going on from there. One of the interesting things my arch prof said (when questioned about vanishing points, parallel lines, and cones of vision):

I swear to you, the only reason you guys see anything is because of light.

This really struck a chord now that everyday I am convinced more and more that any piece without taking lighting into considerations, be it an sculpture, a painting, and especially architecture, is not doing justice to itself; it can be significantly better (I think).

The other stuff is an architectural set done for another class. Many hours into that and it did teach me a couple of things regarding the reality of structures such as set backs, zoning, walls, material, aesthetic in different areas of the house and how it relays an emotion a feeling, how different passages and doors and windows set the mood for an area and bunch more.

Which, I find important especially now that I've started flipping through this book, The Skillful Huntsman , that goes over the importance of being able to settle you creations and environments in reality, because if it's too fantastic, it will lose all credibility and no one will accept it. Which...is the same thing Da Vinci mentioned in one of his notebooks:

You know that you cannot invent animals without limbs, each of which, in itself, must resemble those of some other animal. Hence if you wish to make an animal, imagined by you, appear natural - let us say a Dragon - take for its head that of a mastiff or hound, with the eyes of a cat, the ears of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the brow of a lion, the temples of an old cock, the neck of water tortoise.

Looking at his dragon sketch - it's awesome.

Yes, I still am kinda put off by architecture, mostly because it takes up time from drawing/painting, etc., but...it is damn interesting.

Developments

2009-07-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Have a painting and color & comp course coming this fall. Downloaded Coro's Alla Prima and Manley/ZhangLu's Digital Painting , to get me some help come fall and the latter to maybe start working digital (both totally worth the money so far). Also looking forward to MassiveBlack's animation demo, hopefully it comes out soon.

Almost there

2009-07-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

Just one more week and I'm done for my summer semester, yes. Rather bummed that I won't have figure anymore, but I'm relieved my architecture class is ending. Architecture's great, but...ya make one line where it's not supposed to go and another draft is warranted. Which is a pain considering one can be two hours in on a drawing, of meticulous measuring, finger slips- do it again.

On the plus side, we got a new prof for one of my architecture classes and he's very into the tech side of the industry. Which is great because I subscribe to the philosophy of his that if something needs to be done perfectly, if the lines need to be drawn cleanly, lettering "perfect", and it needs to be done fast, why not just use a machine? So we have, we've been using this app called Revit, does the same drawings that take me a couple of hours in a few minutes...and it looks better.

Anyway here's what I have:

We had a sub professor this day, told us to draw with our left hand, it's actually easy when standing, much harder when sitting. He also told us to cut it up into six pieces.

Same prof as above, told us to only use vertical and horizontal lines.

Also same prof, told us to stay on the same page for five poses.

Same substitute professor from the beginning. Had us turn our easels so our backs are to the model and draw her using memory with help from an occasional glance back. Eh.

Extras

2009-07-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

Pieces from figure drawing:

This last one was for an assignment where we have to make it 4 times as big as an 18x24 sheet. My prof told me it was boring, I agreed, so I did another one. Well... I'm doing it. it's not quite done, but it is at least a bit more interesting than this one.

Painting failure

2009-07-12T19:49:00.001-07:00

If all goes well, I'll be taking a painting class this fall. I've never taken a painting class before and never got instruction other than a demo my highschool teacher did my sophomore year. I have made progress since then (will be posting my first oil- just for laughs), but... I'm still struggling with it.

I was told to put off painting by a Calarts rep at NPD, but damn if I'm gonna stop painting. It really is something therapeutic (when it's going well), and it's just awesome experimenting with different mediums and techniques.

Not sure where I went wrong with this (probably the foundation), but... here it is so far:

I'm planning to work more on it, maybe glaze over some of the foundation hues and values, not sure. Anyway, I put this animation type thing together since I snapped many stills every time the megilp dried on me:

Painting Layers from Iggy K on Vimeo.

Failing studies

2009-07-12T19:43:00.001-07:00

I've really fallen behind my sketchbook studies, this all I have. Hopefully I'll be able to make up ground when I'm on break:

Figure Drawing

2009-07-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

I like this class. I like it a lot.

Got some help from a friend here about paying attention to the shadows more than the outline; better put: get off the outlines.

I'm also starting to realize, or at least acknowledge the play between an object's edge and what surrounds that object. After some help I'm also trying to better the values in my drawings by understanding (trying to) the quote:

"your lightest dark is darker than your darkest light"

I've heard it before, but never really understood, now I'm starting to. This advent actually makes drawing a whole lot harder, since...shading, even up to now merely consists of trying to get my values just enough so I can tell what the object is, but not really the placement in space related to other objects.

Still got about four weeks I believe in figure drawing, here's eight weeks:

One thing about this one (the one above) I actually didn't do all of it. Our substitute prof had us shift five times counter clock-wise from easel to easel for five minutes and work on our neighbors drawing. So...I just set up the drawing, everything else was darkened and the face especially was detailed by someone else.

Pardon the fade on some of these, when I had my car accident, I guess the impact was so violent that it unsettled some of the vine charcoal. I now have fixative.

The Grind

2009-07-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted for many reasons, but notably however, I was recently involved in an accident that it really is a miracle I am alive and even more, well. My ol' '93 camry got totaled and I got charged for damaging a tree. I hit no one else, did not break a bone in my body; got out with scrapes, a severely damaged lip which is now healing from stitching, and a few bruises.

I have no idea how it happened as I was unconscious up until I was being pushed about into the hospital. I think it was mostly due to lack of sleep and a meager banana for breakfast. Anyway, and to my...not dismay, maybe shock- or just surprise; life goes on. Homework is still due, Conan still puts on his show, the Marlins still play their baseball, nothing stops.

I am posting up some assignments from my architecture classes. I don't like architecture. It's not fulfilling, It actually depresses me, I'm only doing it because a withdrawal looks bad on a transcript and I don't want a bad grade in the class.

It's one thing to dream up a building, to invent the facade, set in marvelous windows and doors, but it's quite another to make it actually work. To make sure everything lines up well, make sure the contractor can read it, make sure you have the right materials, and make sure everything is just perfect.

Have learned quite a couple of things though, most useful though was 1 point perspective using the grid, 2 point perspective using the office method, orthographic projections, and elevations.

I digress:

Have the plan for this plan-oblique somewhere

1 point perspective of the plan at the bottom

Isometric of the plan below

Vellum is obscenely expensive

Flotsam

2009-06-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Couple of stuff I found rummaging through my room (Most of it not finished), I'm pretty sure the third one is from this semester (ack):

Moving on

2009-06-14T17:11:00.000-07:00

Some of these are from my personal studies, some were for class. I have recently come into acquisition of gray scale Pitt Pens, as well as basic colors. They're really nice pens, especially considering the price. I've always wanted Copics, but it's a bit too rich for my blood. These Pitt Pens still achieve kind of the same wash effect. My only gripe on them is they only come in limited hues.

Protip #1: when your Pitt Pen tip gets a little too "brushy", grab a some tweezers, pull the tip out from the trunk; new tip at the other end! Just push it back in with the new tip facing out.

Protip #2: Utrecht brand sketchbooks (even the hardbounds) are not that great for studies in pen, no matter what that label tells you.

Whoa!

2009-06-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted because I am a week behind schedule in my sketchbook. See, I try to do at least an hour and a half a day of dedicated studies. If for some reason I can't (stuff happens), then I make it up the next day. I have accumulated a total of nine sessions, which are now seven. So I owe 10.5 hours to myself. I wanted to wait until I was caught up, but...if I do that then blogging everything was going to take way too long.

Anyway, I am now taking two architecture classes (which I'm having difficulty trying to find any delight in, both of them), a figure drawing class (which is bliss), and some math which is always great fun.

Let's start with the figure drawing (brought to you in part by: Batch Processing - making life easier since PS5) :

Haven't posted because I am a week behind schedule in my sketchbook. See, I try to do at least an hour and a half a day of studies. If for some reason I can't (stuff happens), then I make it up the next day. I have accumulated a total of nine sessions, which are now seven. So I owe 10.5 hours to myself. I wanted to wait until I was caught up, but...if I do that then blogging everything was going to take way too long.

Anyway, I am now taking two architecture classes (which I'm having difficulty trying to like- both), a figure drawing class (which is bliss), and some math which is always great fun.

Let's start with the figure drawing (brought to you in part by: batch scripting) :

Hultgren Studies

2009-05-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

Pressing forward...