Here are some examples from my demo reel:
(Click the image to watch). 
It includes my work from animation II, this past spring.
Hard to believe the semester is over!

Also, a teaser for the Aria is now out!

In the reel I planned to have it looped. I'm actually rather ahead on my finals this semester, so I have plenty of time to focus on my animation revisions!  Since I don't have the program at home (yet)  I've been going back and developing some backgrounds in the meantime:

As I mentioned previously, I got my very first freelance job!  I was one of three students selected to help with a big announcement.  Basically my school is partnering with ToonBoom and the first to be deemed a Center of Excellence!  This is exciting news, and to top it off they announced a new scholarship for high school students to receive a full ride for the CCAD College Preview program.

Our job was to create 3 animations for the event.  We split the work so that I did the designs, Don and Andrea created the rigs, and then we each animated one character.

Here were some of my initial sketches:

And the final designs:
Overall, it was a lot of fun and pretty surreal meeting the people we made caricatures of today!

Our next assignment in animation II is a walk with personality.  Over the weekend, I was inspired by a tea house that I went to with friends.  The background will pan as she walks, and the chairs in the foreground will pass in front.

Here is my first pass:

I also made a self portrait for photo:

As the semester wraps up, I'll most likely make a 'reel' of my animations.  There are a few I really would like to go back and finish as well.  For now, here is my very first rig!


And multiplane background in progress:


Aria is wrapping up animation, and I'm really excited to see the final product!  I also got my very first freelance job, which I will talk about more soon.

Lastly, recent sketches:

I believe this is the longest I haven't posted on my blog, and it feels terrible.  Nonetheless, I have been getting a lot of work done! Animation on Aria is in full swing and it's very exciting. I can't wait to see the final outcome- especially with some of the effects I've gotten a chance to look at.  If you haven't been to the production blog, there are lots of fun sneak peeks!

In animation II, I completed my effects animation, but would still like to go back and refine it a bit more:

Our next project is rigging a character, which I am also really enjoying!  At first glance, the network in toonboom seemed intimidating, but I'm surprised how quickly I took to it. I brought back my little robot for this project:

(don't worry, he's going to have a face ;)

 I've also been sketching at the zoo and cafes as the weather has improved here:





Lastly, I've been updating my portfolio which will be up very soon!

In the upcoming weeks, I'll be helping to animate on the short- Aria!  Here is the production blog.  I'm really excited to work with this group!

I've also been helping manage the Weeklies sketch blog!
 

And in class I'm working on animating a ghost!  Here is some of the concept work:
I looked to fog for an effect and steam fog particularly interested me. The beginning of this video looks really wispy and ghostly so I decided to incorporate it.  Steam fog typically forms when cool air passes over a warm body of water. The scene will be set up with this character:

leaving after a late night swim when the ghost forms, only to disappear once light shines on it. 

I just finished the sketchbook I started over break!
Here are some recent pages:














A few friends and I were talking about doing a short this summer! One of the characters is a monster, and I started to base him off a bison.  After our group projects in design for media, I learned how much I really enjoy the pre-production process and how important it is to spend time on. For now, we are working individually and allowing ideas to sizzle in the back of our minds so that when we meetup over break, we can combine the best of our work!

He'll be popping up in my sketches more, so keep an eye out! ;D

Made some small revisions! However, I am still playing with how dramatic I want the ending to be. Animating to Nathan Lane's voice has been a lot of fun!

 

We were to go out and take "beautiful" cinematic shots.  I explored a forest hidden away in my neighborhood, and caught some shots of the robins!

Some adjustments after critique!

For our weight assignment, we are roughing keys.  Our character must pick up something with ease, and something with difficulty.  I chose to have my ballerina put on a tiara, and pause for a moment, gazing at herself.  Naturally, she now feels she can do anything and proceeds to pick up the heavy mirror.

Here is also an update on my mass assignment:

My character I'll be exploring in animation II! (post critique)

For animation II, we're designing characters that we'll be exploring throughout the semester!  With pixelovely, I drew gestures of ballerinas and thought it'd be fun to explore.  These sketches are just a loose start, but I'm liking the 'bean' shaped torso. I'll be watching some videos for inspiration, and getting more detailed over the weekend.  When I think of ballerinas, I think of them being light, articulate and swift- I want these movements to translate in my character.

And finally, I'll be helping to manage a blog for our sketch group! The Weeklies is a sister group to the Animation Student Collective.  We'll be meeting with others passionate about drawing, to sketch for an hour each week.  The goal is to have fun and improve our craft!

This week I played around with some digital work!





You can also view them on my daily tumblr.

My friend, Michelle, made one of these and encouraged me to as well.  It was a lot of fun!  January through May was mostly foundation studies work, but I also started animation I!  Over the summer I explored digital work and puppet making. Many of these are just snippets of other projects, which you can view here.

I took a trip to the zoo yesterday and sketched at the indoor exhibits:





I also took some photos:

I then started to gesture some of my characters in the poses; something I want to do more of:


Before break I also started sketching in a smaller book during class:


I also did some looser marker sketches that I'd go back and detail with a 005 micron:

For a fun warmup, my friends and I came up with a little sketching game.  We'd take turns listing three words at a time, and then all interpret the words into a character within 5 minutes.
Here are a few I did:

(crabby wet fisherman)

(lovely unicorn lawyer)

(paranoid lion doctor)

 It was a lot of fun and definitely something I'd like to try again!

Quick sketch as it was snowing:

I haven't sketched as much as I'd like, but I did get some time in.  Here are some pages:

(Hobbes taking a nap)

(Panera sketching)

(Sketching during 'Too Cute')

(Pixelovely's Animal Tool)

(quick gestures)

I really enjoyed sketching animals, I'm hoping to have time to go to the zoo before break's out :)

As we're getting back into our comic, I started to explore some color work.  I made a 'cheat sheet' using the character palettes, and then some color scripts:

 Color scripting is also something I'd really love to do for movies one day!

I also met with some old friends and we had a small gift exchange.  I drew each of their favorite characters:

(Link, Adventure Time, Captain America, Sora, Gengar, Portal)

So the past few breaks, I made the mistake of taking on too many personal projects at once.  This time, I'm going to simply make it my goal to spend a couple hours a day with my sketchbook. I have some fun ideas of new places to sketch at, too!

Since I've been sick, all I've drawn so far is Reubens. I'll be starting a new sketchbook tomorrow!

I've really enjoyed this class and the projects we've explored. A lot of these experiences and exploration of different processes are applicable to my future work.  I've always wanted to produce a webcomic, and what better way than with (and about) your friends!  We plan to continue it since we only had time for the intro.  I feel this project can also lead to a lot of other fun side projects. Jinny has been such a great partner.  She is very talented and reliable! I knew we'd be able to take on such a big project.  I'm really excited to see where it will go :)

The pages are now on our website!

We also developed a more stagnant animatic and finished the cover:

For my Zombie film course final, I was originally going to do a quick animation of a zombie awakening. This was all that I had finished, I'd love to go back and develop it more:


I also did a piece inspired on a trip I had to the grocery store.  The day after black thursday, I noticed the few people there walking very slowly- almost like zombies.  Everyone looked tired, as if they had been up shopping the night before.  A few people were even in pajamas.

Of the films we watched, Shaun of the Dead was one of my favorites.  Through comedy, it also made a social commentary on how we need to wake up and realize what's important. Like it's predecessor, Dawn of the Dead, it also represents how commercially driven we are.  It saddens me that thanksgiving is almost replaced by black Friday.