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Arenanet Internship 2013 Entry

The year came around again and the Arenanet internship 'contest' started up again. I picked a different monster this time... and man I had a lot of fun. While sculpting and enjoying yourself is a learning experience in itself... I feel like I learn a lot more when more than my own goals are in mind- matching to an existing concept that isn't my own just carries a lot of weight and a different sort of attention to detail- I felt the same way when working at Fisher-Price and matching to products.

Anyway, here's this year's entry! No matter what happens... it's much better than last years- I'm happy to have learned so much.

=

S. Korea and Battle Arena!

Long time no see!

I finished my gig at Fisher Price in January... and decided to take a sort of working sabbatical! I'm now teaching English in South Korea and loving it! I'm having a great time with a temporary job change, and teaching full time rather than part time- an experience I had every summer at OSU-ACCAD for several years has been quite the experience. I'm going on six months into my excursion to the East now, and who knows what the future still has in store for me! I rather enjoy it here and I'd like to stick around...

Unfortunately I do not have a scanner, but once I find access, I hope to post some sketches from my travels in these last 6 months... including jumping around different regions of Korea, I also have been to Taipei, Kyoto, and Tokyo!

Anyway, back to business... One of the super secret projects I worked on at Fisher-Price has been released to the public! Now I can show my work on... Imaginext Battle Arena! It was a super fast project... but I have to say my favorite I worked on at Fisher-Price! I did a lot of concept work on it... modeled the set (though I can't take all the credit...I had to switch to animating before I was completely finished!), modeled some weapons, did some 2D and 3D animation on it as well! WHEW that went fast. Here's some examples of the concepts.

 

These concepts are for a short teaser trailer made by the Viz Lab for the new Imaginext playset- Battle Arena! Imagining the playset and figures in more... theatrical and dramatic circumstances was a lot of fun! Here's a link to the actual product: http://www.target.com/p/fisher-price-imaginext-battle-arena/-/A-14050572

 Some weapon designs. This was before the character figures were finalized, so we had no idea what the weapons were supposed to look like. Roman's weapons stayed they same but our viking character's hammer was replaced with something a little closer to product and these were discarded. Still got to model it though!

 Earrrrrrly concept for Axemin the viking!

And an earlier one for Roman- he didn't change a whole lot...

 Closer to the final concepts of Axemin and Roman.

I think we had only about a month on this project... it was an incredibly short time but our small team made so much content in that span...

I also made the images for the intro banners, and the flashback sequences- drawn, animated and composited. Here's a few favorite images.

I had to draw these before the product was finalized- I had to go back and forth to double check costume colors and the like! Many of them changed a lot... 

Aaaand here's the final!

Swingin'

Really getting back into the swing of zBrush. I feel like I'm on it all the time now!

Here's a parasaurolophus sketch I did, in an effort to get better before I try to get that wold ready for animation again. I want to get back to him, but I want to get better! I'd like to finish this guy up too. Crit is appreciated!

zSketching to relieve that stress!

It's been a little while! I've been busy moving and interviewing after finishing my temp position at Fisher Price. Can't wait until the toys are released and the films I worked on are released to the public! Oh, pesky NDAs!

In the meantime I've been doing a lot of drawing and job searching. Waiting to hear back after interviews is the worst!

Here's a quick zBrush sculpt I did to flex those sculpting muscles! I tried to jump back into zBrush and do some complex things, so I had to step back and go simple. I just felt too clumsy fumbling with the tools. Had a lot of fun relaxing and putting down my other projects (such as the wolf) to sit and LEARN, rather than force myself to make a 'portfolio piece'. The key is to relax, who knew!

This is a new character I've been working on. At he moment there's no plans for his 3D debut past fun zbrush sketches, but he is involved in a little project I'm working on. More can be seen on my new tumblr: http://dinoflamingo.tumlr.com

Wolf Update

Going has been slow but it's going! I hope to finish the low res version of him soon.

I did more drawings for facial, but I don't have a scanner here! Ah the trials of living minimal.

 Stepping back from it I'm seeing now that I need to sharpen a lot of edges. He's a little to squishy now. The drawing was full of jagged edges accentuating the swoop of his back, so I really want to play on straights vs curves.

 I'm getting to a point where I'm happy with edgeflow. Needs a little more tweaking here and there, but it's a lot better than before!

 I'm not to ohappy with those hands. I think I might pitch them out and make completely new ones!

Next to add will also be teeth. Give him a big toothy smile.

Girl and the Fox nominated for an Annie!

This update is a little late in the game, but it looks like a film I worked on at SCAD, The Girl and the Fox, has been nominated for an Annie Award for Best Short Subject! We are all so honored and excited to be considered for this. More details on Base14's website, right over here: http://base14.com/blog/archives/1758

I was one of the lead animators for Baru, the fox in the film- and I have to say that this film is what made me 100% certain that this is what I wanted to do with my life. It was a lot of hard work, but I don’t think I knew that enjoyed working- animating- this much until I worked with this amazing crew. Thanks Tyler J. Kupferer for letting me be a part of this incredible film! I met so many amazing people as part of the crew, and I will never forget the experience.

I will be at the Annie’s on the day of, I am so excited! My first black-tie affair!

Base14 Website 
The Girl and the Fox Official Website