Artie Waiting Project

Hey everyone!

Here's an animation I meant to post a while back. It was the second warm-up exercise we did with the Artie rig. The goal was to have Artie waiting for something--I decided I'd have him waiting for a message from the beyond...!

I wish we could have had more time to work on this--I'm pretty happy with how it did turn out in the end, though.

Enjoy!




Artie Waiting Project from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

Design Lab Paintings

Quick little ol' update--I just finished up my design lab paintings for my Drawing for Animators class, and thought I'd share it.

It was really fun rendering the designs--I ended up doing somewhat-realistic rendering for most of them except the last two (which are soft cel-shaded). I'll try and post some the the process work later. But for now, enjoy the final renders!

Silhouette Project Final+Process

Hey Everyone!

I'm excited to share my first CA project for this year--the Silhouette Test using the Artie rig! Feel free to check out the final below, as well as some of the process work if you're interested (I found this project to be really fun, so I decided to compile some of my stuff for others to check out). If you want to ask any questions about it/ want to critique, feel free to do so! C:



Artie Silhouette Project from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

Process Work:

With the start of this project, I was torn between doing something simple vs. something complex. I struggled with the idea of trying to do something simple, when I came to a sudden realization...I should just do something fun! Thus, after watching some old Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons, I got the idea of doing the classic rocket scenario. I knew in the end I would have to rig a rocket, but thanks to wonderful non-linear deformers rigging turned out to be very simple.

Of course, though, it did take up some time--something I had lost starting off on the first day of school! I ended up getting really sick two days before the pose test, so I was worried I wasn't going to be able to do my idea. Luckily though, I ended up feeling better enough to do the reference in time and execute with my idea.

Unfortunately, the reference video isn't the greatest of quality--however, I do have the drawovers I did with my reference, and I'll be happy to show and explain those. Forgive me for the chicken scratch that is my handwriting.

First pose needed to read clearly; made some space between my arms and my torso.

Originally only had two elbows out (which was pushed in this drawover, too). But I decided to go with only one arm in order to simplify the pose.

Extended arm out more to really separate it from the body.

Exaggerated the reach down (unfortunately, I never ended up using this pose...someone mentioned during a crit., that if a character was holding a match/lighter, the flame would be searing their thumb.) I ended up correcting it by keeping the elbow down.

Breaking joints!

Look back (taken out in the final).

I am on a chair going nowhere...

Break symmetry on hands

Keep arms seperate (though in the final, this ended up being changed).

One hand goes down before the other.

Keep arms out.

Place hand on hip in order to clarify pose (and make it more interesting).

Exaggerate the kick more (bring it back further).

Bend over slightly more when kicking.

Exaggerate push back (this is when the rocket hits).

I couldn't quite get into this pose, but I definitely wanted to exaggerate the force.

As a last note, I will also say for this animation that sound was incredibly important. The timing, the animation...a good amount of my ideas relied on sound for this project (i.e. rumbling the rocket, the sound of the lighter, the rocket fuze igniting). It's not hard to convey those things without sound, but in the end I believe good sound really does add more to an animation.

Welp, that's it for now. More posts to come soon!

Tigobo School Adventures: Pt. 2 + School Starts!

Welp, the summer's now over and school has started once again! It's crazy how fast time flies--I still can't believe I'm a junior now! But I'm incredibly excited to get started, and to keep updating this blog with cool stuff from both my summer adventures and future school projects.

Below is some of the figure work I did while at Tigobo School. I really loved being able to draw figures from inside the gallery--what was really nice about it was that the gallery viewed outside onto a street corner that provided me plenty of inspiration for characters and stories. And the best part? The people couldn't see us inside the gallery really well, so there was no artist/subject awkwardness that usually comes with drawing from life.

Recognize this guy? He's the man that inspired the character from my previous post on the blog. I absolutely loved his mannerisms--they reminded me a bit of Po from Kung Fu Panda, which was pretty cool.

Marker Portraits

Like said, one of the best things about the space at Tigobo was that it faced a street corner where plenty of people would come by. In particular, I really loved drawing this couple(?), because of the range of emotions the woman expressed throughout her conversation with the man. Originally, it had started off as a simple chat, but soon the woman ended up crying, the man having to comfort her before they could continue talking.

Some of my friends from Tigobo (Top: Sully; Bottom: Cedric), posing for a 10 min gesture.

Lastly, one of my awesome teachers, Reno, posing for 10-15 min gestures.

Tigobo School Adventures: Part 1

Hey Everyone!

In my last post I mentioned that I attended Tigobo's Intensive Collective Workshop for one month. While there, I studied storyboarding and visual development under the guidance of Reno Armanet and Flavie Darchen, as well as various guest artists. It was a really great experience, and as I post sketches, I'll be sharing more about my great experience with the school! :)

Below are some drawings from an assignment I did in the beginning of the workshop. The exercise was to draw people from the street who passed by the school, and to base a character around one of the life drawings. It was a cool experience for me, since most of the time I'd found it hard to find a place to do sketches of people where I wouldn't be disturbed by the environment around me (disruptions such as people coming up to me, asking questions about whether I'm drawing or not, asking whether I could draw their dog, etc.)

The person who I based this character on reminded me of Silent Bob from The Clerks (a movie I still have yet to see, but know the characters fairly well). I'll post the drawings I did of the guy later on after I get some figure work compiled together. Also, if anyone happens to know a good name for this guy, feel free to shout it out--the only names I can come up with are Joe, Stan, Frank, etc.

Run/ Walk Cycles & Summer Update

Hey Everyone!

It's been a while since I've updated (I feel like I say that for every post, but it's true!) Summer's been pretty busy--I've been animating as much as I can, as well as traveling. Lately I've been trying to get better at cycles...walk cycles, run cycles, flight cycles, etc. Below is a basic walk cycle using David O'Reilly's Taxi Fish rig, as well as a basic run cycle using my simple poly character from last sophomore year.

Taxi Fish Walk Cycle from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

Simple Poly Run Cycle from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

I have some really cool news, too: turns out I was accepted to Tigobo School's Intensive Collective Workshop for the summer! I'll be studying Visual Development and Scriptwriting for the month of July. And the coolest part? It's going to take place in Los Angeles, CA--in the heart of Downtown (in a safe street, though, for all you worry-worts out there).

I'm also participating in my favorite story artist's, Leo Matsuda's, Skill Share Class. He's teaching the Art of Storyboarding, and the project's theme is a story from your life. Check it out through the link below, and you'll be able to take the class for $10.00 instead of $20.00 (plus it gives me some credit, too). Happy Boarding!

Skill Share: Leo Matsuda's Learn the Art of Storyboarding

Pups, Portfolio, and Poetry...OH MY!

Geez o'pete, it's been forever since I last posted. But now that summer's here and that Operation: Sophomore Year has been successfully completed, I thought I'd give a tiny dump of work and business I did this last semester.

First off, here's an animatic that I did for my Concept II class. I really liked the teacher I had this semester--definitely full of spunk and enthusiasm (especially for the early mornings). I'm actually going to have him next semester for both my CA and Concept III class--with all luck I won't be too sick of him by the end of the semester. But enough about that--in the animatic below, we had to explore an editing and film concept (mine was parallelism). It was strange not having a strict protagonist/villain in my mind when creating this, but it was really cool being able to focus on the transitions and the two dogs separate lives. And despite the changes I would make now, I thought the process turned out to be a lot of fun.




Coeval Canines from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

I also managed to get a Story Portfolio together this semester and go through the process of applying for internships. It was tough trying to juggle both projects for classes and meeting deadlines for the internship applications, as well as extracurricular events and activities. And while I didn't get an internship this summer, I was happy that I managed to learn more about the process and hear from recruiters (I even had my portfolio informally reviewed by one of them)! Anyway, below is a link to my story portfolio--feel free to check it out! It even has some stuff that I haven't posted to the blog!

http://dodaport.blogspot.com/

Lastly, here's something a bit different. The semester before last I participated in a poetry workshop for fun. While a ton of projects/prompts were assigned, the class gave me a chance to be able to write for myself. During the class, I wrote a poem about the beach and the sea, which turned into being more about fate and relationships (pfft, like most poems aren't about that anyway, haha!). I'll admit that I felt kind of corny writing it, but it seemed to strike a cord with my classmates. Below is the final version...for now.

Parting

Fate is like the waves,

Pushing and pulling us;

Rising and breaking—a cycle

Bringing us together,

And farther apart.

The shells in the sand—

These are our moments collecting into

An insurmountable mass;

Forming a land of lost times,

Molding into mountains,

Of indistinguishable instances

When we’ve had to hello, and goodbye

Without meaning it.

Like anchors

Cast into the sea, we planned on

Sinking to where the beasts lie sleeping;

Staying stagnant, never moving.

Though the waters continued to whirl around us,

Though the boats tried to reel us in,

Though the moon marched in place from above,

We rusted,

Became one with those who live

Under the undertow.

For once, we wanted to feel like the center;

For once, we let time move through us.

-Rachel Doda