More Yeti Color tests

The Friday Arts Project in Rock Hill, South Carolina is having a show called "Red & Green" (Tonight) Saturday, December 5th. I submitted a digital painting to the gallery- It's the beginning of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. It's red and green! (Those happen to be two of my favorite colors, if you didn't know that. And not just because I love Christmas.)


Come out and see us if you're in the area! It is rumored there will be fun people and yummy snacks.

Yeti Neutral Color Test

Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti Color Tests

Pixar at SCAD 2009

*my sketchbook is still in Savannah so the notes portion will have to be scanned in later. Sorry about that!

Molly and Emma's Pet Yeti

A friend of mine, Matt Doering, is creating a short film titled "Molly and Emma's Pet Yeti".
Here's a piece of felt art I created for his characters!

Pixar is coming to SCAD

Hark! Listen! Hear this!
Pixar is coming to SCAD!! If you missed out on last year's visit from Pixar, there's still time to rearrange your schedule, finish your homework, call your parents on the telephone, just DO WHAT EVER IT TAKES to get out to the Trustees Theatre at 8:00 on Thursday November 12! I will NOT accept any excuses- especially you SCAD animators who I know read my blog.

I mean, look at this list of presenters:
Robin McDonald- Sr. Recruiter/Technical
Pam Zissimos- Sr. Recruiter/Creative
Shawn Krause- Supervising Animator/Cars 2
Nigel Hardwidge- Supervising Technical Director/ Currently in Development
Mark Holmes- Art Director (Graphics)/ Currently in Development
Tim Best- Lead Technical Director (Lighting)/ Bear& The Bow



Of course I will be there, so check back to see how it went!


P.S. I promise I will post an update (or 10) of what I've been up to this quarter.. You'll just have to wait till finals are over. Then get ready for an avalanche of catching-up posts!! Yahoooooo!

Feature Detection Boy

Here is my homework for Psychology class. We had to explain how a neurological sensory system works. Mine was feature detection.

Illustration Friday- Wrapped

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday. The theme was "wrapped" so I wrapped one of my monsters in a towel!

Last Song photos from July 23

I took a break from animation and began browsing around on the internet, when lo and behold: I found some photos of myself and some extras from the Last Song.

Here we are finished with costuming, hair, and makeup and sit waiting for more directions.

I had forgotten about this photo completely. This lovely image of the back of my head was taken just after they had finished my wedding updo. She had just said, "Your hair is so pretty!" (complimenting both me and herself!) when someone came up and took the photo! I'm glad I got to see what it looked like back there because at the end of the day, I looked and felt like a mess so I never got to see what she had done.

(Photos courtesy of SavannahNow)

The end of filming Last Song

Yesterday was my last day on the set of the Last Song. They had us in the church that was built especially for Miley Cyrus and her cast on Tybee Island.

In order to not get in trouble for telling movie secrets and/or ruining movie magic endings, I won't tell you anything! Except for the sentences under the pictures. Which won't tell you much either.

Here is Tybee Island First Baptist Church.
Stuff happens there. And more stuff happens inside of there.

This is the side. Stuff happens in there, too. Just at a 3/4 angle.

I will say though, we were BAKING outside (and inside) on the shoot. We were called in at 5:30AM and left for home at 9:30PM. Not only was it the hottest day all summer (said one of the crew) but we were roasting under the biggest lights I've seen in my entire life. I watched the monitors whenever I got a chance to.. was able to ask a few questions when we weren't rolling.. and I'm dang excited to see all of it cut together. If they can make it look like we weren't dripping with sweat, I'm sure it will be pretty.

(Photos courtesy of here.)

Stop Motion Costuming for Bullets N' Bourbon

Recently I was asked to make costumes for a stop motion film entitled "Bullets N' Bourbon".
Here are some shots of the final costumes for the two cowboy characters. Making costumes was a blast! I'd love to do some more..

Look! He's even got a fly! Gasp!

There are many challenges with creating costumes for stop motion characters. With these characters, the armatures have a limited number of times they can be bent. Meaning: bending their arms and legs too much could mean that they could break in the middle of filming. So, to keep from bending the aluminum wires, I made the costumes in pieces that could be slid on and sewn up. With the cowboy skeleton, this turned out to be a great solution because his vertebrae tearing out of his back and the we could make it seem like this was part of who this character is.

I wish you could still see his dress shirt. Though, his vest is pretty awesome, too!

Here it is before we put it on him. It's as wide as four fingers!

Pants! And Chaps! And Fringe!
Keep your eyes and ears open. This Eric Wolford original animation will be so epictastic.

A Thank You for Hillary

I drew this for a friend who I worked with at Walt Disney World. Miss you!

Unexpected: A Miley Summer?

Good thing the job at the bakery didn't work out! The day after I left the bakery, I walked into casting for The Last Song and they immediately took my name, headshot, and contact info and said "Be at Tybee Island at 5:00pm tonight".

Here are a few photos via the internet of the set on which I was an extra.


We did numerous atmospheric shots while there was still daylight- crowded overhead establishing shots and shots of people getting cotton candy and holding tickets. Carnival games, too.

Later, my friend April and I had to sit on a Ferris wheel for almost three hours. Stopping and starting and stopping and starting. Fast, slow, fast, STOP! It got cold around 1am, then in a few hours they brought us down and gave us Subway sandwiches. That was a very long and stomach tossing night. Though, how often do you get to be an extra in a movie with Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, and Kelly Preston?!


On a different day, April and I had a call time on Tybee Island at 5:30am. We were to be in the audience of "Tybee's 10th annual volleyball championship." I thought this was funny because championships 1-9 never happened.

Throughout the day people kept giving us dasani's. I probably drank between 20-30 bottles of water- not because I was extremely thirsty, but because every time there was a cut they gave it to you anyways.

So naturally, I had to use the restroom.. I left and came back and when I sat down I noticed there were different people sitting behind my spot. I was watching (trying to figure out why they got switched out) between takes and realized that they were the 2nd team (stand-ins) for Miley Cyrus and her crew of pretty people. Neat!

After more standing and clapping and cheering at the Red Shorts team's victory, Greg Kinnear, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Ordway and Bobby Coleman were walking in front of me to sit in the bleachers to sit directly behind me. After a few rehearsals, adjustments were made and the camera director started playing "musical extras" and we got rotated around so the colors on screen wouldn't be competing with the heroes spotlight. I eventually got scooted to a place where I could be standing and watching the game, so I didn't get my close up. Not this time anyways!


That wasn't the last scene I was an extra for. Yesterday, they shot a "Southern Plantation Wedding" as the casting people called it when we were finding out what clothes to bring. We were told to wear southern dresses and pearls and bring big hats. Our call time was 5am.

The bus took us to Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah where we would sit for hair and makeup. They put all of the extras' hair up very fancy. When I got home that night at 8pm, I pulled out at least twenty bobby pins and one diamond studded pin. You would think I was sleepy, but nope! I went to Target and bought Coraline.

drawing at Tybee beach

Started as a gesture drawing, then I decided to color her. I'm pretty happy with it.

scad-lanta-mation Weekend Recap

Hello everyone! I just got back from Atlanta yesterday. (SCAD Atlanta to be more precise.. and SCADlanta to be more fun) The Society for Animation Studies 09 conference was pretty cool- there were a lot of interesting panels and I got a good few pages of notes. I also managed to doodle Friday's keynote speaker and author of Visual Digital Culture- Andrew Darley.

On top of getting to go to this conference, we decided to do spend some time doing Atlana related things. Friday night we went to a drive in theater to see Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. I enjoyed the way Ice Age 3 was animated- especially during one of the first scenes when Sid has just begun caring for the three eggs and when one gets loose, there's a long scene where he is chasing, rolling, running after, and doing everything else in his power to catch and hold on to these three eggs. Stylistically, I also thought the visual effects and lighting in the transitions during Buck's storytelling stints were beautiful. I was largely disappointed with the story. As for Night at the Museum... Woah! They did it again! Usually, I worry with sequels, but in my opinion, the second installment competes with the first. The story, visual effects, acting, comedy- all satasfactory in my opinion.

As soon as my buddy Nick sends me what photos he took, I'll make another post and fill you in on the rest of the weekend. But to give you something to look forward to, here's a hint: Jim Henson Muppets and Beluga Whales.

The Persistence of Animation: Atlanta Conference

T-minus 2 hours till my friends and I load up the car to go to Atlanta!

The Society for Animation Studies is holding this year's annual conference at SCAD Atlanta's campus this weekend. The Atlanta chapter of the Association International du Film d’Animation (International Animated Film Association), ASIFA will also be in attendance as well as the SCAD Savannah and Atlanta Animation departments and our (Savannah's) Cinema Studies department.

Our very own History of Animation professor, Charles daCosta will be speaking at the conference. Big thanks to him for being one of the coordinators of the weekend long event!

I'll have photos and sketchbook pages posted once I'm back in Savannah!

Courtney Brooke

Summer in Savannah

Spending the summer in Savannah for the first time has been great. I had a short stint at a bakery- in which I discovered that I love baking (or being around people who are) cinnamon rolls and cookies and 7 different types of breads and other things that smell nice, but also that I am 100% not cut out for food service and/or making sandwiches really fast.

I have started being mentored by an artist named William Armstrong who has his painting studio practically across the square from me. He has a history of working as art director in many films and designed sets for Meet Joe Black and The Legend of Bagger Vance. He says that not working at that bakery anymore should make me even more determined to get into a job where I can use my art. I agree.

I am taking one class at SCAD this summer- Animation II with Professor Brian Schindler. I definitely enjoy that class. I have already gained a good bit of experience with Maya, but it's the first time I've really been introduced to the time slider and key frames [for acting] apart from making camera movements. Professor Schindler has a lot of great stories of being in the film business, too- He's good at keeping us motivated.

I've been continually making art and I just got a new job at an antique store helping them fix up their website with some schmancy photographs. No time now, but I can't wait to show you what I've been working on!

CBV

Pocahontas background practice

I thought it would be a good use of time to practice making backgrounds for animation. So I chose a piece of art by an artist I admire and did a sort of "master copy" type thing. So, no this is not mine. I mean, I did this, but the colors and layout and stuff were done first by another, much more practiced artist.

Though, this little experiment taught me tons about digitally painting. Firstly, that even though it is digital, by NO means is it faster. This took three whole days more than I thought it would. Also, I am pretty sure I soaked up a lot about color saturation, lighting, deep space, and textures. Especially when it comes to trees.... and foliage. Sometimes abstract is the way to go, and other times, you really gotta define stuff (like the up front leaves).

Towards the end, I noticed that I had come up with a system. I would take what I saw and count it as "middle tone". Then, on one layer push the lights (yellows) -because they were never bright enough.... and then on another layer push the darks (reds-blacks). I think I have the tendency to hate using pure black- and I don't know quite yet if that's a good thing or if it will cripple me in the long run, but I'm pretty sure I didn't use any 100% black in the whole drawing.

My favorite part of the drawing was adding the pinks in last. It was SO satisfying.

P.S. Thanks, David!

gypsy idea

can't tell you anything about this yet- let's let it build...

think soda (I would have said "coke" because in the south, all sodas are coke. But I didn't want to confuse you)

SCAD Pearls - Commencement 2009

I got an email a few weeks before the end of the Spring 09 quarter saying this:

Would you like to participate in SCAD Commencement? Would you like to be a Pearl? To celebrate SCAD’s 30th anniversary, the university will present the “String of Pearls Parade” at Commencement in Savannah May 30. Interested volunteers must be available for rehearsal Friday, May 29, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. The performance takes place Saturday, May 30, prior to the processional of graduates. Residence hall extensions may be granted to volunteers.

It looks unoffending, right? So innocently worded? They even offered to extend living in the dorms for a WHOLE weekend! Instead of having to fight everyone in Weston Hall to move out by 5pm on Friday (and risk being fined $100) I had three entire days to get everything into the new Carriage House!

So what, you ask, does this "String of Pearls Parade" involve? My first thoughts were: "kind of like ballroom dancing class- classy." and "we are going to wear pearls and look cute in a graduation procession of some sort" This, plus moving out later (and I later found out that it included a free lunch and fifty bucks) equals I'M IN!!

Man oh man. Was I in for an exciting surprise!

I get there and my actress/dancer friend Adelle is there! Then she says something to the effect of "Oh I'm glad you're here so we can do (I heard 'get through') this together" As in, doing this alone is.. adventurous.

Turns out she'd been a SCAD Pearl before! And she kind of loved it! We went into a back room and changed into our costumes and Let. Me. Just. Say. I felt RIDICULOUS! The next couple of hours of rehearsal I went through several emotional phases..

1. Shame

2. Acceptance

3. "I'm going to dance my booty off for all it's worth!"

Moral of the story: The only one who looks silly in a crowd of people who are all silly, is the one who isn't being silly.
______________________________

And for you visual enjoyment, some actual photos from the actual graduation! Actually!
(c/o Adelle, Scad, Flickr, and the prnt scrn button)


This dressing room photo was taken "post-shame".


Right before our call time.
You can almost feel our butterflies coming through your computer screen!



Our costumes were collapsible for easy storing. How promiscuous!


LOOK AT ALL THOSE PEOPLE!
I'm so glad I quit caring that looked like a doofus! Honestly, I bet it looked pretty awesome from above, but I didn't find any above photographs.