Hey fellow Roost-ers,
It’s been a weary week for me – I
had a major storyboarding assignment due on Thursday which I did not give
myself enough time to work on, and in the midst of this I’ve come down with
what I presume to be my nearly annual bout with strep throat. I’ve finally had
the chance to rest a little bit and I’m dearly hoping that Professor Hodge does
not upload our next boarding assignment anytime soon … or at least waits long enough
for me to spend a little bit of time here at the Roost with you (Don’t stand
too close, I may still be contagious).
Aside from
getting sick, I think this second semester of sophomore year has been off to a
good start – I’ve had a lot less homework than usual which has allowed me to put
all of my drawing time into learning storyboarding, a discipline I definitely
am enjoying. It’s what I wanted to do when I came to Lipscomb, and I still want
to make it a major part of my wheelhouse. To me, storyboarding feels like
glorified thumbnailing (and I like thumbnailing), and I enjoy the puzzle of
trying to tell a story in the most visually interesting way possible. I like
background art and 2D animation (but not necessarily the tedium that accompanies
them) and boarding lets me do both in a fraction of the time. It’s also given
me a whole new way to view and analyze movies – so as a result I have been thinking way too much about screen direction
recently. I’m pretty happy with the sequence I’ve been working on this week,
and you’ll likely get the chance to see it in a story portfolio or blog post
sometime soon.
I’ve also been
learning CG animation, which has been a lot more intuitive than I would have
thought. I really like how a lot of 2D principles (especially posing and
silhouette) directly transfer in to the CG realm. We’re working with Maya and so
I’m basically just editing curves and numbers – just fun left brain kind of
stuff, but still satisfying when the illusion of weight and motion comes through.
When not working
on homework I’ve been trying to be better about keeping up with personal work –
such as weekly fanart and zoo trips when Nashville receives freak 70 degree
days in the middle of the winter. I’m thinking about making a little short
piece of animation (10-20 seconds) which would incorporate a 2D animated
character and painted background. I don’t think I have enough time to do a
short, but doing even one shot sounds really fun right now. I’ve been watching
Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego, a show
with great production design and one I want to do some studies and fanart of
(SO. MUCH. RIM. LIGHTING). The writing has some issues and the two Boston kids
are SO ANNNOYING but globetrotting adventurers and Carmen’s slick outfit make
the show worth it. I’m also glad that Hilda,
which I would consider to be Netflix’s best animated kid’s show right now, won
every Annie it was nominated for. And Amanda Jolly won an Annie! It was a good
Annies this year.
And now for
some art: I had the chance to go to the Frist museum last night and do some
studies. The Frist has a really good exhibition this spring with French
painters like Van Gogh and Rosseau as well as hilarious pieces like Count Sandor’s Hunting Exploits and Portrait of an Extraordinary Musical Dog. A little something for everybody.
Henri Rousseau's Tropical Landscape
George Stubb's Tiger (Might need to turn up your brightness for this one)
a rare photo of the artist not wearing sandals
While I was there and doing these studies I was struck by the thought of how amazing
it was that Henri or Vincent stood and pondered over these exact canvases, these
specific brushstrokes. They had touched these particular places in space. Aedan
Peterson and I often talk about the differences between digital and traditional
work, and the advantages of both, but one thing that I do lament as animation
art becomes almost entirely digital is that we don’t have any original copies/works any more. We have .psd's that can be duplicated in a matter of seconds. Digital art is a medium devoid of
location and physicality. We can’t hold any piece of digital art in our hands (or
screens) and know that the artist slaved over this particular canvas, putting
his/her heart in to this specific point in space. We can't be there with them. We have many original Mary Blair paintings to
display and sell, but few Cory Loftis ones. This isn’t to say that digital art
is inferior because of this fact, but I think it gives cause to keep a
traditional workflow around, so that we don’t lose the experience of
interacting with original works of art.
That’s enough slightly-depressing philosophy for now. Here's another tiger.
For David DePasquale's Megatiger Kickstarter
And here’s a sketch of Fiona the Hippo, which did
surprisingly well on Instagram.
Thanks for everyone’s comments on my Dream List, I’m excited
about it and it’s seeming more likely that some of them might actually come to pass
in the near future!
Stay warm,
dh
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