More Sketching

A couple things in this post.  Apologies ahead of time...digitizing these images didn't work quite as well as in previous posts. I've been drawing on a large format sketch paper lately, which doesn't scan too well... considering the paper's at least 4 times larger than the scanner's surface area. These images were photographed and touched up instead...

First a few faces:

Next Up: Hadrosaurs! - a Cartoon Parasaurolophus and a Saurolophus Sketch:

I've also been doing some boarding and character studies for an animation idea that I've been thinking about recently...there are still a lot of story issues to address...as there are some elements that I really want to include but might ultimately have to get cut. It's also looking too similar to some previous work from a structural standpoint, so I'm going to try and rework that as well. 

 It's also unfortunate that I can't really get an animatic going just yet since my Wacom pen is dead... I'll have to wait until a later time when I can find some money to get a new one... 

-Evan B.

Random

Look what I dug up...I completely forgot about this...

-Evan B.

Backlog of Sketches

I've done a lot of scanning today so I can post a bunch of sketches I haven't yet had the chance to.

This first group is a bunch of images I sketched while in Washington D.C. last fall. Most of them were sketched at the National Museum of Natural History:

Coyote (Canis latrans)...

 Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) from the National Zoo...

Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis)...

African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana)...

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)

Bull Moose (Alces alces), and a quick Restoration of Dimetrodon grandis

Candid people sketching at a local D.C. Cafe...

And here are some misc. sketches I've also come across.

Life figure drawing from a long time ago:

Continued creature concepts from an independent passion project...

Dragon-like creature thing...

Cycloptic creature...

Vulture...

Frog...

Old-Man Blocky...

Hand Study...

Last summer I drew this because I randomly remembered the book, The Whingdingdilly, which I loved as a child. It inspired me to draw all sorts of strange chimeras when I was young...

My dog, Teddy, in his famous "Walrus" pose. He does this so much that we've started using walrus as a verb...

Furry Rhino-Monkey Creature. Don't ask...because I don't have an explanation. 

Experimenting with drawing different styles of "cartoony" people...

 More critters...a crocodylian and some sort of giant worm-thing...

Skeletal creature...not based on any specific animal...

Yet another creature design...

 Aliens of sorts...

A Lamenting Pig...

-Evan B.

Stock Rig Part 3

The Stock Rig I've been working on in my free time is "complete!" I got the motivation I needed this past weekend, and finished a full face/full body rig in much less time than I ever have before.

It required 30 blendshapes for the face and has IK/FK switching on all the limbs. Pretty basic stuff really...

I want to continually update this rig with more features as I go. I already know I'm going to add in a great deal of Squash and Stretch controls that I didn't get the chance to do just yet. If anyone has any suggestions for cool features they'd like to see, let me know.



I've also done some animation tests to see how it holds up. I want to keep doing short lip-sync/acting exercises like this regularly to help improve my animation skills.



And feel free to guess where the audio clip comes from.

-Evan

Spark of Inspiration

I've had a couple ideas in my head from watching various nature documentaries over the last couple months, and realized that concepts from some of them were similar enough to put together into a single story. This idea I have in mind continues the strategy of dramatizing a messed-up real world situation from nature, similar to what I did with First Step.

I would like to develop this idea into an animated short, hopefully when I have some better resources available, so it can be polished. Anyway, here's a concept sketch from it to keep you wondering. Some of you will probably see where this is going:

Inspiration:

Concept Sketch:

I have some great ideas in mind for this, and am excited to mold them into something great.

-Evan B.

3D Modeling Project of the Day

So today I decided to play with something different. With the big snow that's been hitting the east coast, I decided if and when I move to California, I may never get the chance to do a fun snow sculpture for a very long time. So with that in mind, I took a shovel, an ice cream scoop, and two and a half hours and built this in my yard. Some of the photos have been manipulated a bit so I could show off the details on the sculpt. Click the images for a high-res view. Enjoy!

Stock Rig Part 2

It's been a while since I posted anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't been up to anything. Most of my time recently has been spent travelling (for the Holidays), sending out job applications, and undergoing some independent study to help improve my understanding of higher-level mathematics, as well as programming (related to the job search).

Last post I mentioned the stock rig I've started to push my cartoony character rigging skills, as well as to have a custom rig to do acting exercises with. Overall, it's been incredibly nice to work on a cartoon again, as I'm still sort of recovering from the Thoracosaurus. Below you can see the full model of the stock rig. I decided to give him polygonal hair, to match an early sketch I did before I started building the guy. The hair is on a separate layer though, so different hairstyles can be swapped in and out as desired. This character doesn't have a name yet, so feel free to make suggestions if you wish.



I also have about an entire book and a half of sketches I still need to post, but the logistics of where my computer is compared to my scanner has been preventing me from doing it. Lots of cool things to come when I finally get them posted, though...everything from creatures and cartoon characters, to candid sketches of people as well as animals. Hopefully one of these days I can bring myself to post them.