In flight and on paper

So I put my blogspot up on Google Analytics and I've come to notice that my bounce rate for this site is 89.5% at 22 seconds a view... which is really bad. So I figured perhaps I should put up a new post... something that might be interesting to viewers. But then again I'm not sure that the same thing that is interesting to me is also interesting to the average web surfer. And since this blog is really dedicated to my art I guess that leaves me to post some of my art. Now whether it's interesting or not is still up in the air.

Now my problem is that I don't really have any new art to post. I have small little sketch that I drew in my sketch book last week. I wanted to ink her and color her in before I posted her, but perhaps I should do the before and after.


I want to ink the outline... then the colored pencils I'm using are water colored pencils. Which I am quite excited about using - because I really haven't had much opportunity to thus far. So once it's done I'll post the finished product.

As far as 3D goes I've been working on a 3D hummingbird. I haven't gotten as far on it as I wanted to by now, but oh well. Here are some screen grabs and the original turnaround sketch I'm going from. I want to finish modeling it, UV it then texture it realistically. The bird is being modeled in action so that it looks like it's flying. This bird will not be rigged and is specifically for demo reel purposes.




As you can see there isn't much there yet. I have barely touched his wings; right now they are simple extruded faces with a little bit of smoothing. I'm still debating if extruding the faces and modeling from there is what I want to do. Or if I want to model each feather and stick them in there for his wing instead. They are so thin I'm going to need to put a transparency map in there for the light to come through to show just how thin the wings are. I was planning to do it on the tail - so I might just go ahead and do it on the wings to match.

The particular hummingbird that I am modeling from is a Broad Billed Hummingbird and they are just beautiful little creatures.


I think I am going to have a great time working on the texture for my hummingbird. It should be a lot of fun. It's going to be a while before I am able to finish it as I seem to have a pretty full schedule of late. It's amazing how busy one can be even if they're not working.

On a completely separate note I have been helping some friends out with their haunted walk in the woods. It's like a haunted house/haunted corn maze, that type of thing but this is in the woods on their property. So I've been working on making different props and such for them. If I am able to get up there today I will take some picture of the process work and post them up here.

Some of my jewelry

Today I received an e-mail from Jewelry Making Supplies letting me know that my blog was being featured on their website! So I figured it's probably be a good idea if I posted some of my jewelry on here so that new and old visitors can see (and buy) some of my jewelry!

Thank you Jewelry Making Supplies for featuring me.

I have a shop on etsy.com that I post all of my new jewelry and other things that I make.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/raincrow

I wont post everything but I will post some of my favorites for you to check out. I will link them to my etsy shop if you want to look farther or purchase anything.

Autumn Diamond Lace Necklace

http://www.etsy.com/listing/51572786/autumn-diamond-lace-necklace



Black and Red on the Rocks Necklace

http://www.etsy.com/listing/49576951/black-and-red-on-the-rocks-necklace



Cobalt Blue and Pearl Mosaic Ring

http://www.etsy.com/listing/51854642/cobalt-blue-and-pearl-mosaic-ring



Forest and Pearled Diamond Earrings

http://www.etsy.com/listing/51078462/forest-and-pearled-diamond-earrings



Blue Coral Lace

http://www.etsy.com/listing/49049186/blue-coral-lace



Funky Town Bag Necklace

http://www.etsy.com/listing/49376387/funky-town-bag-necklace

Well that is a few of the things I have posted on my shop for your viewing pleasure. If you want to check out more please visit: http://www.etsy.com/shop/raincrow

Monkey see monkey tattoo

This one is a quick post. So my friend Michelle asked me to draw out a tattoo for her of some monkeys. The description goes as follows:

2 to 3 inches tall, one monkey that is white with a cream face and the other monkey that is light brown with a cream face. The white monkey sitting on a branch with the tail hanging down. The body profile and looking forward. The light brown monkey swinging below slightly forward while also facing forward. Lots off leaves and branches and such surrounding them.

After much procrastination I finally got a decent sketch ready for her. I wanted to take the image into Corel or Photoshop and clean it up and then perhaps do a colorful leafy background or whatever. However, since I haven't had a wacom pen (that's really the reason I procrastinated so long on it) I wasn't able to do that. So I hand inked the image so the tattoo artist would have something to work with and then s/he could take it from there and I turned it over to Michelle. I'm going to post what I gave to Michelle and then later (once my new wacom intous4 arrives) I will post the digital painting I do with this image. It'll be too late to get the final image tattooed on Michelle as I'm sure she's already gone to her tattoo artist for the final design. However it'll be a fun little project to do in my spare time.

My Red Panda model

I'm working on a project that originally got started while I was still at Ringling. It was my final project there; a small little project that could be whatever we wanted it to be. The intent was to pad our demo reels more. I chose to model a character that I designed my junior year as a possible thesis character. The story that she was designed for never passed, however I always loved her character design and just thought she was the cutest little thing. She is a red panda girl scout.

Here is a picture of the original character turn around. Click on it to enlarge. There is also a copy of the turnaround on my website http://jasmine-hope.com without the watermark all over it.



Even though school was finished and the project got turned in, there was still a ton of things I wanted to do with her model before I put it on my demo reel. So I started working on her yesterday. She still needs all of the patches on her vest and I am going to UV her. Once I get her UVed I will put her into Mudbox and have a run at her. I'm quite excited about this because I've never really had an opportunity to play with Mudbox.



I've been putting off doing anything in Mudbox and anything with texture because I haven't had a wacom pen since the end of school. Mine was stolen during senior render week. I rented one from the college, however that had to get turned back in at the end of school. So since then I've had a wacom tablet and no pen. The tablet mouse just doesn't cut it because there is no pressure sensitivity.



However, I am super excited to report that last night we purchased a Wacom4 wireless tablet package. It shipped today and I'm hoping beyond hope that it arrives this week - which probably means Saturday (crossing fingers). Once again I can do a whole bunch of different things digitally that I was not able to do without the pen. I can do digital paintings again! I am super happy about this.



So in the meantime I want to get her all setup and ready for Mudbox. I'll post an update once I have a chance to play with her in Mudbox!

Catching up since graduation

Wow it's been months since I've last updated this. I can see that I haven't posted my final thesis on here at all. So much to catch up on in this post. So much has happened since April 1st (my last post).

I have finished my thesis! That was a huge relief. Then it was scramble time for the recruiters. I got an interview with Sony which was very helpful. Ken Maruyama was extremely nice to speak with and he gave some wonderful suggestions to improve my lighting demo reel! So I bought the student version of Maya and Renderman for a year license and I hope to get a few more small projects done to up my demo reels.

I graduated on May 7th with a BFA in Computer Animation from the best school ever! Ringling College of Art & Design was an incredible experience. It's definitely not for the faint hearted. You have to be 120% in love with what you do to make it through there and an extremely hard worker. I'll tell you I feel like at this point in my life, if I can make it through Ringling's Computer Animation program I can do anything!

Since then I've come back home to Colorado for a little RnR and to recoop from the last 4 years at Ringling. My primary focus in life right now is job hunting. I so desire to work in film, however it would be incredible to work in video games as well! Right now I'd like to just get in anywhere and get my foot in the door so I can start gaining that wonderful thing called experience!

I've also completely redesigned my website and added more to the galleries pages and another demo reel. So I'll post the demo reels and perhaps tomorrow I'll post some gallery stuff!

My website: http://jasmine-hope.com

My Thesis; Don Pollo:

Alright and here is my Lighting Reel:

Here is my Modeling Reel:

And here is a generalized reel I put together for my website:

As far as my lighting reel goes I'm currently working on a project that Ken suggested I do, placing a modeled object into a photograph and making the lighting on that object photo realistic so you can't tell what is CG and what isn't.

To improve the modeling reel I want to re-render the turnarounds faster and I'll be adding a car model in there as soon as I'm finished with it. I'll post those as I update them, but it might be a while before that happens.

It seems that I have several projects going at once and I'm a little overwhelmed by it all right now but that's ok! They're getting done one at a time. I'm also working on a tattoo design for my friend Michelle. I'll post that when it's finished.

I also make jewelry! Yes I bead. I love to bead. I've beaded since I was a child and it is one thing I've missed so very much since going to Ringling. If you'd like to check out my store here is the link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/raincrow

Ok that seems to be all for now! Until next time "Just Keep Swimming"!

Revisiting my caricature model

Though thesis is due (we got an extension for the first time ever!), I need to take a mental break from everything that I've been working on for so long. So instead, I am working on my portfolio. Right this minute I am rendering out a model turn around for my demo reel of my self caricature. I'll share with you a few things I have never posted on here(not that there is a whole lot that has been posted on here before).

This is my caricature that I modeled my junior year here at Ringling for my lip sync assignment.



Just by revisiting this I can see how much I have improved in my modeling skills since then. Here is the character turnaround so you can get an idea of the original design.



And here is the painting I did in DFA for my caricature. The colors have been lightened a bit since the original painting. This was done in Corel.



Once this file gets done rendering out I'll throw some facial expressions up of my caricature so you can see her blend shapes!

Some Lighting Renders

Once again it's been a while since I've updated this. You'd think sense I am spending so much of my time in front of the computer that I would actually post something up here... but it just doesn't seem to happen.

Right now I'm trying to update my portfolio with some stills from my thesis film. Dreamworks will be here next week to look at portfolios and I want to be ready (plus they're due in to Career Services tomorrow). Since I am pulling images from my thesis I figured I could post them up here as well so you can have a taste of what my thesis will look like.

My thesis is due next Thursday morning at 9 am. It's exciting and a little nerve racking as well. There is always more that could be done but it's all got to end sometime... right?

Ok on to the images. Please keep in mind these are NOT final.







And one more for now, I will post more at a later date.



Alright now I've got to get back to work!

The fridge is done, light the candles!

Ok so I've been in the lab all day since 8:30 this morning working hard and it doesn't seem like I've gotten much done. Sometimes you just have those days right. I think it's due to fine tuning as opposed to modeling large ticket items. Oh wait, I did model my barn, however I'm not going to show that until I have some texture on it.

I'm about to go take my first meal break of the day (it's 5:12pm) and have some food. Then I'll be back in here till midnight!

Yesterday I finished my fridge. A few days ago I finished the table and chairs - now I just need to get some decorations on there... I'm still not quite sure what I want to put for the setting decoration in the middle of the table.

I wanted to share these cute candle holders. I came across a picture of some that were similar and liked them so much I decided I needed to create my own version for my environment. Too bad I don't have them in real life because I sure do like them!

Click on the image to see a larger version

A little bit of kitchen at the beginning of the semester

I realize it's been a long time since I've last posted anything on my thesis. I was hoping to keep this blog much more updated then I have been... but then again senior year has been extremely busy it's hard to make time to post things. Well it's the first day back to my last semester here at Ringling College before I graduate! I have to say it's been an amazing time here but I am excited to step forward into the next chapter of my life.

Ok so over break I've been working on the modeling of my environment. I had a lot of things simply blocked in during last semester simply because of lack of time. Modeling is something that I absolutely love to do and I find it super relaxing. Honestly, I was hoping to have more finished before school started back up, but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles, right? Anyway I just finished my stove. It is not textured at all and has simple lambert applied as texture. I have several more things that I want to get modeled in the kitchen before I can start to UV, another thing I really like to do and find relaxing.

I like the way the stove turned out and I am sure it will look so much better once it's been UVed and the textures have been applied to it.

Click on the images to see them larger.




I spent a day working on the window treatment and, as you can see, there is still a lot more work that needs to go into it. I have to figure out some type of dressing for the shelf above the window. Some type of country kitchen stuff! I need to get a sink modeled and put in. I also want to work some more on the curtains so they don't look so perfect. They need a little life breathed into them.

I was getting a bit frustrated at the lack of good reference I was able to find then a funny thing happened the day before I started working on the window, I got a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail for "Farm House Style". How perfect was that? It's really helped a lot to spur new ideas!



Ok so here is the overall kitchen. Like I said, there is a lot of work to be done. I plan to have a lot more clutter on the counters. I want it to look "lived in". So I am planning to get some type of dressing (dishes, candles, etc) on the table. General kitchen clutter on the counters and I want to put some dressing above the top cupboards. I need some door handles still as well.



Ok time for me to get back to work. Hope to be posting sooner rather then later!