Cambient Productions

Life Happens

2012-01-29T22:33:00.000-08:00

I had the craziest day today, working on my molds for my film at Stephen Chiodo's studio.

Suffice to say I am something of an idiot. Is it a law of nature that the opposite of what yo think will happen will always happen?

I mixed the concrete and started pouring it on to my sculpture to create the first part of my mold, and then I waited.

and waited.

and waited

FOR LIKE HALF AN HOUR, MAN

AND NOTHING HAPPENED

I was like, holy balls, I fucked this up, oh shit oh shit oh shit

Stephen is going to get back here and he's going to be like

You're the worst student I've EVER mentored

And I was like, about to cry at his studio?!?!

So I started tearing the concrete off of my sculpture

and scratching it up and shit

and then

after I'd taken it all off

AFTER I'D TAKEN IT ALL OFF

IT SET

THE CONCRETE SET

so now I have a pile of dried concrete and a scratched sculpt.

Stephen doesn't think I'm an idiot, though!

He fixed it! It's all good now! I finished that part!

But I was like seriously having a panic attack, liiiiiike the worst thing ever.

I owe Stephen a cake.

I Think This Will be a Daily Thing

2012-01-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

Portlynn Tagavi taught me some COOL SHIT about Photoshop, today! RAAAAAD! Did you know you could change the ALL THE COLORS of something by messing around with some settings? Woah. Hideous color scheme instantly became bearable!!

Also, I went pretty thick with the line work, today. Probably drawing a leaf from the stylings of Ms. Sam King.

I might make these colored “pin-ups” a daily thing!

I've Seen Things

2012-01-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

...on the internet.

I think it’s fairly obvious that women are like five billion times more fun to draw than men. At least for me. hahahaha look at how terrible that dude looks! I even made his colors more flat on accident?!?! eeeyyahhhh.

She was hells bells fun to draw, though. BIG BOOTY HOLLAAAAAHHHHHH.

New Career

2012-01-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

These are not getting any better, but they're so much fun! I wish my job could just be to draw ladies with very little clothes.

Another One

2012-01-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Not as interesting as the first one, but it's gotten me moving!

Purple Lady

2012-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, when I'm in a rut, I'll draw something like this to get me moving again. Today I even decided to throw some color on the drawing, too!

Some Crepes

2012-01-21T22:58:00.000-08:00

I'll post some puppet stuff soon! I'm making final molds this week!

Hazzy

2012-01-12T23:23:00.001-08:00

Two skdoodles of my Hansel and Gretel particle-collider witch. She can't breathe oxygen.

She's supposed to be wearing some cross between a nun's habit and a haz-mat suit, but that made more sense in the earlier sketches.

Little Man

2011-12-16T00:27:00.000-08:00

Here's our final project from Musa's class!

I "directed" it and did the animation, Ellen animated the mouth on the condom shot, Kirsten was our lovely actress, and Florent and Grace managed cinematography/camera for the live-action.

Frustrating!

2011-12-15T02:22:00.001-08:00

A short clip of the video I'll be posting some time sooon.

I'm Just Gonna Go Ahead and Embarrass Myself

2011-12-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

THAT'S RIGHT! I MADE A SHITTY CG MODEL, AND I'M PROUD!

Look! It's got blend shapes! Here's what her BEAUTIFUL (//sarcasm) face looks like when all three of them are turned on at the same time (eye blink, brow furrow, and cheek inflate/purse lips)! Don't you wish you could wake up to THAT every morning?

And this is what she looks like, "relaxed". Very strongly resembling a deformed monkey, if I do say so myself.

HAHAHAHAHA, oh lordy lou, those feet. THOSE BEAUTIFUL FEET! Wait, you need to see them closer. They're priceless.

HHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Wait, am I only supposed to post stuff that makes me look good? Oh, well.

In all seriousness, though, I wish I coulda gotten this thing into Mudbox before making the blend shapes--Mudbox looks really fun! But there was some sort of error that no one seemed to be able to figure out...HA!

Webisode

2011-12-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here's the webisode Sam King and I made, hehehehehe.

War!

2011-12-10T15:49:00.001-08:00

Wait, why isn't THIS what kills him?

Poison

2011-12-07T15:04:00.001-08:00

Das wood nymph DIES! D:

Okay, I should seriously turn the smoothing on the Flash brush on, but I kind of like my shaky lines.

Lines on Trees

2011-12-07T12:45:00.001-08:00

I'm working on some stuff for Flash class with Sam King. This is my rendition of one of our shots; I'm trying to emulate her style, to some degree.

What is color.

Deal

2011-12-04T01:23:00.001-08:00

I don't even know what the balls this is.

Quickie

2011-12-02T10:01:00.001-08:00

Supa quick with lotsa mistakes.

A Little Bit of Inappropriateness Never Hurt Anyone

2011-12-02T09:57:00.001-08:00

Some of the boards from our group project. I'm saving the punch line for when it's done.

About a woman and her stop-motion boyfriend. These are the storyboards from our group project; I whipped these up about an hour before class.

Yes, the idea is PRETTY INAPPROPRIATE heh, but it's going to be fun to do. Also, the puppet fellow will be wearing boxers in the final short...I didn't know that when sketching these up. I'm going to be the animator! (The guy is the only thing which is animated; everything else is live action).

The dialogue in the funny part, but I'm not posting that 'till the short is done!

Nearly

2011-11-26T23:28:00.001-08:00

A doodle! Also. The sculpt for my puppet is almost done. Just needs feet and a face! He's going to be cast in foam, and covered in skin made of latex, which I'll be making afterward (which will make the texture of his skin: as you can see, this sculpt is looking pretty smooth).

Lady

2011-11-23T23:27:00.001-08:00

Meeeeeeh. Doodling in the very empty labs.

A Thing for A Thing

2011-11-12T01:18:00.001-08:00

Trying to be interesting.

Cold Day!

2011-11-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

HAHAHAHA

2011-10-30T02:41:00.000-07:00

WHAT IS COLOR. I DON'T KNOW. WHY ARE HER ARMS BROKEN? WHO KNOWS? NOBODY KNOWS, HURRAAAAAY!

Why did I pick fiiiire? Cripes. Okay, round two tomorrow.

WHOOOOAHHH

2011-10-28T17:34:00.001-07:00

LISA KEENE IS TEACHING US AMAZING THINGS! SOON, I WILL USE THESE THINGS TO MAKE NOT-CRAP!

Templates

2011-10-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

Please help me! Can you please rip me a new one and critique the ever-loving loo out of these? Especially the bird? Pleeease? I need to start machining the parts for both of these puppets this week (because my film is entirely stop-motion now what). Context: the bird starts out the film completely naked, and gains feathers as the film goes along by stealing colors from stuff. The bird is as tall as the girl’s boot (not practically, though, because that would be impossible, but for scale).

Mold

2011-10-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

I made a mold of the aforementioned sculpture! The sculpture was basically destroyed (well, the face was, at least), but the mold came out fairly well, for my first mold. As you can see, the bottom of the first half cracked off--I'm PRETTY sure that's a problem, but I think I can fix it.

On Tuesday I'll be making a latex copy with this mold! :D

Ladies and A Dude

2011-10-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Film ladies and a dude from life!

Four-Eyes

2011-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of my first ever sculpture! I think the face is pretty hideous, but I like how the body turned out :D

Random Boards

2011-10-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

These are some random storyboards I did for the project Sam King and I are working on. Most of them are not in sequential order, nor does this include all the boards which would be in-between the ones I am showing.

Rock Out

2011-10-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

The boards in the last post weren't in any sequence, however, these are. They're shitty drawings, but the sequence made me laugh :3

Hooplah

2011-10-12T13:10:00.001-07:00

I think I'm getting better at this.

Ouch

2011-10-11T00:45:00.000-07:00

Working on beat-boards for a project Sam King and I are doing together.

It’s about a wood nymph who is planted on the edge of a German battlefield in WWI, and sort-of goes mad due to ALL THAT WAR SHIT, so he moves to America and starts a hair band featuring decidedly inanimate potted plants, which he talks to. His interviewer is very indulgent of this, though the band is, in effect…just his vocals. The plants can’t play shit, man. They’re plants.

You're Holding That Oddly

2011-10-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

A quick "glamor" sketch of the current iteration of my film character that I did, before class.

Reaction

2011-10-04T19:41:00.001-07:00

A quick test, with nearly no inbetweens. Hopefully I'll polish it up a bit more, later, but for now I'll just go sit in that corner and question how the balls I ever got in to CalArts.

Feldgrau

2011-10-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

My assignments for flash class! Sam King and I are making a webisode...I will leave it to you to deduce exactly what about! XD

Weird E-Reader

2011-10-01T12:34:00.001-07:00

I did this on my e-reader, with my finger. It's fun to play around with!

And also, a storyboard:

A First for Everything

2011-09-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

It's not great/good, but it's my first time really modeling in Maya.

buuuhuhhhhhhhhh...

TALKIN'!

2011-09-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Sam King and I are working on a beautiful thing.

Shiny Thing

2011-09-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

Preview of a thing I am/was working on (this is just one section of the larger thing, but the rest of it is just blocked out in shades of purple). I was trying to go for something flat as far as the style of the drawing went...but I think it just looks weird. I will probably just leave it like this.

Also, I accidentally published an old draft earlier. If you got a weird panoramic sketch in your reader dashboard...just disregard it. That's actually from Freshman year!

Every Day I'm Boardin'

2011-09-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've officially begun storyboarding my film!

(These aren't in any particular order; they're just three random boards)

Derrrrr...

2011-09-15T17:23:00.001-07:00

I am under no obligation to post quality material.

Seems Familiar...

2011-09-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

I feel like I was inspired by SOMETHING for her facial structure and I can't for the life of me remember what...so please forgive me if it looks familiar D:

Edit: HOLY COW! I figured it out... Guess who was super, SUPER influenced by the amazing Portlynn Tagavi's beautiful babes without even realizing it?

Also, here is my class schedule for the semester:

In My Third Year

2011-09-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

I am trying to think about film stuff. The bird character is going to be in stop motion (I will post designs once I have them done), so I will post progress as I fabricate the puppet.

Tricks

2011-09-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Some not-as-newsies-but-all-rightsies!

Shabu Shabu

2011-08-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is a 'What I Wore Today', a la trend started by the one-and-only Miss Ford!

I got shabu shabu today with Sabrina! It was my first time ever. I should eat more vegetables.

I don't actually have a black eye.

Bag Head

2011-08-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right! It's MORE FIGURES!

The male, for some reason, had a bag on his head.

Sitting.

2011-08-17T16:14:00.001-07:00

Her shoulder is EATING HER FACE.

Rusty

2011-08-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

I miss figure drawing! This website is really great in the meantime, though: Pretend Figure Drawing!

Red-Line Prep

2011-08-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about my third-year film!

It might not have anything to do with science or lab-coats this year! I'm thinkin' birds!

Proper Ladies

2011-06-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

I made some cut-outs for a Tarts Party my friend, Angel, and I threw! I had to make these as quickly as possible, so a few handful of minutes each.

Pretend Productivity

2011-06-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Um. I'm trying to force myself to doodle at least a little bit every day. I feel really guilty admitting that, to be honest; as an animation student I'm OBVIOUSLY supposed to draw EVERY DAY, ALL THE TIME...but, I'll admit, friends, during the summer I'm decidedly lazy. Reading books is easier XD So I'm trying to force myself out of that.

I'm very excited to go back to California next week!

Dress

2011-05-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

A doodle because I haven't posted something in a few billion ages.

Here's the rough reference/inspiration for the dress: dress!

Tidbit

2011-05-08T01:52:00.000-07:00

A tiny animation bit I did for the opening of the Producers' Show this year. There are lots of little problems with the animation which I can see, but I'm overall pleased enough.

Something went terribly wrong with the camera while I was shooting, and when I went to import all of my high-resolution files into Aftereffects, they were all black from the top to half-way down--in short, completely useless. It turns out that something is wrong with the camera's shutter. So I just grabbed the low-res preview images from Dragon and used those, which is why this looks rather low-res.

Additionally, one of the lights I used to light the greenscreen was broken and so kept flickering. It made a nasty sound, too! It was odd. I will let the film cage know about the issue with the light and the camera on Monday.

Bakura the Rodent

2011-05-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

Vincent and I made a cute happen. It was his idea.

Just a Drop

2011-05-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

A little shot I did today for my Directing and Performance class. Lizzy gave me storyboards for this shot and I did likewise for hers :D

Lab Rat

2011-05-01T14:40:00.002-07:00

This is my second year film, made with Vincent Tang! I was responsible for initial story development, character, set and prop design, storyboarding, 50% of the stop motion animation and fabrication, creation of all the assets which were to be placed into Aftereffects, and facial animation.

A good amount of finished animation had to be cut from the final piece due to post-production time constraints, so that's disappointing.

Whatever

2011-04-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

Lab Rat Still

2011-04-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a still from our film! It is titled 'Lab Rat' and will be showing at the Open Show this Saturday, if you'll be around! I'll probably upload it and post it sometime after that :)

Films are Due in Less Than 48 Hours

2011-04-23T23:46:00.001-07:00

Oh hey, look, it's Doug Rattman.

Okay, back to work now.

Attempting to Matte!

2011-04-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Paint, that is. I tried doing some matte paintings for my film--see, V and I forgot to practically break the board and shoot it broken, so I'm attempting to paint a crack in there.

It's Too Late Into April for Wit

2011-04-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

I don't even know why I'm uploading these. THAT'S NOT REAL ANIMATION. No, wait, it is. It's just plain and simple, hehe.

VOLUME CHANGES FOR EEEEEEVERYONE!

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

Tie-Downs Forever

2011-04-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

I think I'm redeeming my one free pass for a not-so-excellent assignment with this one, heh. Here's my shot at a floppy walk. I started shooting on ones, but about after the third or fourth shot I switched over to twos because I realized that I only had an hour-and-a-half to shoot.

Also, this is how I actually animate, guys. Dragon, in stopping the live view, captures the truth XD

A Walk of Sorts

2011-04-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is a quick walk cycle I did for class. There was a bit of a planning failure as far as the positioning of the frame goes... I also really need to stop leaving the tie-downs in there :|

Flower Field!

2011-04-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

I was going to make something really detailed and pretty, but then I remembered I have the attention of a fruit fly and promptly lost focus. I'll probably pick it up later. This was supposed to be a celebration of that VINCENT IS GOING TO TAKE ME TO THE POPPY FIELD I AM SO EXCITED! He, however, most likely is not--due to his horrible allergies, he'll probably be miserable for the rest of the night thereafter.

BUT

I GET TO SEE THE POPPIES.

Also, I made an appearance in Vee's web-comic today! Check it out!

Mannequins

2011-03-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

Oh gods I haven't drawn in FOREVER. Yeah, I've been devoting my days to stop-motion and the rest of my time to staring at walls (what I do instead of sleeping) and reading books(...also what I do instead of sleeping). CLEARLY my schedule is far too busy for chicken-scratching as per usual :| I really like stop-motion.

Uhgggg. Okay, so I did these two scribbles today. They're of me engaging in my favorite pastime: poking V in the face while he's trying to do stuff on the computer. Trust me, he loves it.

I don't even want to talk about the arm on the first sketch.

Preview

2011-03-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

This one is one I did today. Guy is actually writing out the first half of Stone's theorem on one-parameter unitary groups--it's not just random crap! woo hoo. Also, this is just what the low-res render looks like; the actual high-quality RAW files aren't washed out or weird. There's a bit of lens flare, but that can be fixed in AE.

This is the last shot from the film.

Pushin' It...Again!

2011-03-21T01:29:00.000-07:00

Take two of the aforementioned assignment! Now with even more overexposure...ha!

Fuzziness

2011-03-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

I just really liked the shallow depth-of-field on this shot :D Also, I worked hard to set it up. I wish I had a tiny tripod! Buuuut, a metric TON of hot glue is just as secure. That set-up is like a ROCK.

Push It!

2011-03-15T02:57:00.000-07:00

The first take of a class assignment! I know there are loads of mistakes, but the second one will be better. Also, it will have faces. Hopefully.

Waitin'...

2011-03-07T20:40:00.000-08:00

...and waiting. Okay, maybe not waiting all that much. I completely failed at this assignment. He's not waiting NEARLY long enough, there's a whole lot of failing at overlapping action (head slams down and THEN the arm moves?), he's really unbalanced at the end, and I completely misunderstood Mr. Chiodo's instructions on 'touching the puppet'. He suggested that before we move the puppet its first increment, we should consider touching it and then taking a frame. I interpreted this to mean that I should touch my puppet every several frames of hold. NO NO NO, what was I thinking? aaah so much fabric jitter. It took me half an hour to do, though, so that's not too bad.

OR, if you want just the punch...

A Picnic on Mirage Isle

2011-03-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, they won't be naked forever: I'm not done yet.

They're In Loooove

2011-03-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

…what would you call that? Schizophrenic narcissism?

Puppet Heads!

2011-02-27T16:14:00.001-08:00

I made them! With hair! Their faces will be animated in Photoshooop :D

Little puppet! 6 1/2 inches tall. This one is mostly to V's credit

Move Along...!

2011-02-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

Just two fairly mediocre sketches from today which I particularly fancied :D

Costumes

2011-02-21T18:28:00.000-08:00

These are the two drawings I gave to my costume-maker.

Figure Sketches!

2011-02-18T19:51:00.000-08:00

October

2011-02-15T20:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I uploaded, so...here are two sketches from back in October that I found on my hard drive, while looking for something else.

Also, a pile of armature:

Tryin' So Hard, Baby

2011-02-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

Just for you.

Some of my figure drawings are kind-of gimpy!

Quick and Dirty

2011-02-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

Two super-fast style frames I threw together in a few minutes to show Fran. My film is mostly just large, white space and a sparse few props.

Now We're Not!

2011-01-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

Drawing is SO HARD! But so rewarding :D It's been a while since figure drawing, and it feels good to get back to it.

Now We're Naked!

2011-01-27T15:58:00.000-08:00

Noooo, It's Second Semester!

2011-01-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

Burn/dodge is a silly way to try and make pictures.

I caved and just used a regular brush to fill in the background color.

First-Year Film!

2011-01-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

My first year film from CalArts, done last year and FINALLY uploaded.

Basically, loads and loads of mistakes and horrible things, but I learned a lot from the process of making it, and hope that this year I will be able to make a much better film! I especially learned a great deal about planning stages of production—I gave myself a generous amount of time for pre-production, but literally a day for post and compositing (it shows)! So this year I will not do that XD

Formulaic

2010-12-17T21:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, maybe today is the day for slightly shameful uploads. I really like the first sketch, though! :D Here's another peek at my film idea(ish).

An Honest Attempt!

2010-12-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

I decided to give figure painting a shot a little bit this semester. I've never really painted, let alone painted from life, so this was a fun exploration. I painted only with oils. Please forgive these beginning attempts XD!

Mistakes

2010-12-15T15:34:00.000-08:00

Final project for Stop Motion Basics. I started it last night, and finished it this morning (about 4 or 5 hours of work), and definitely learned a lot from doing it. For one: plan my animation. Ack! I basically plopped the puppet down and started animating, so it feels very disjointed, and the composition makes NO sense--it's a complete MESSSSS. I kept trying to do manual camera moves, so that didn't help. Also, I learned that I should build better puppets in the future XD This fellow's back is almost IMPOSSIBLE to bend!
It was EXTREMELY fun to do, though!

Stop-Motion Puppet!

2010-12-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

My first stop-motion puppet! :D He's Mr. Scientist. I made everything, except for the clothes, which is modified from Prom Ken clothes, and the hair, which I tore off of a decorative Santa’s beard. The mini-remote is a gift, courtesy of Vincent.

Calm vs. Dynamic

2010-12-06T02:55:00.000-08:00

We had to do two rough thumbnails for this week's Layout assignment, following the idea of calm versus dynamic composition :D I decided to play around a little bit with the idea from my film. The top one is calm, while the bottom one is dynamic (though I hope that is clear on its own).

Quickie!

2010-11-19T23:50:00.000-08:00

A quick figure sketch from the other day. I ran out of time while working on her face >< and her right arm is too short, or at the very least, too thin...but I haven't updated in a while, and I like her legs!

Walk Cycle

2010-11-15T22:46:00.000-08:00

Password: oldgarbage
This is my first walk cycle test for Stop Motion Basics. After several failed attempts, I finally came up with this...it took me a bit less than an hour to do. FEH. It still doesn't look right, but by then I had run out of time.
I had a ton of fun, though :D My next test should also feature a fully foam-covered puppet.

Thingie

2010-11-06T14:02:00.001-07:00

This was my second shot at animating. I animated this morning, and borrowed some time from someone else to do so (thanks, Trevor!). I think it's just one of those weeks, haha, because I restarted this part-way through and it's still not good. Arughhhh! I was going to make a full walk cycle, but ran out of time.
-------------------------

(Just as a note...he's not supposed to be sexily dancing XD a friend of mine pointed out that possibility, haha. It's more supposed to be him trying to get up and failing oddly.)
This is my first horrible, horrible, horrible animation test with my armature XD I'm really shocked with myself because this is terrible! I signed up for more time tomorrow so I could attempt to put something together that's at least half-way presentable for class on Tuesday, because there's no way I want to show this to Mike.

Red Pencil

2010-11-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Quantum Mechanist and the General Relativist. I'm thinking of making the Relativist's arms much thinner, like the phantom sketch I have right beside him. Initial concepts! Horray!

Below is an exercise sketch from character design class which I liked.

Same Ol'

2010-10-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

You Silly Theorist!

2010-10-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Layout concept thing for my film that actually doesn't really have very much to do with my actual film, haha.
Let's pretend like it's not completely, totally lopsided, all right, guys?

Discarded storyboard!

Girlies!

2010-10-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Difficulties

2010-10-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Also, some design sketches:

Screeches and All That

2010-10-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

A quick animation for a Stop Motion Basics assignment.

I totally jacked the idea for a rack focus from Trevor Jones, no bones about it. His is infinitely better than mine, though.

Odd Sketch...

2010-10-16T00:30:00.001-07:00

...but I liked it.

Pffbt...

2010-10-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

So tired.

Here's some fun stuff.

Time to work on programming homework.

Playing Around

2010-10-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be fleshing these guys out plenty more in the coming weeks: they definitely seem to be the direction I'll be taking with my film this year...of course, not with these designs: they're terrible, and look practically the same. But, you know. Gotta start somewhere.

I'll post some rough layouts up once I finish them :)