Caricatures

Do you guys remember the NY Times article that featured the BYU animation program? A few of us were asked to draw caricatures of ourselves that were featured next to our photos. You can read the article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/magazine/when-hollywood-wants-good-clean-fun-it-goes-to-mormon-country.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This is the caricature I drew from the article. Still like my old one more. 

Here, have some other caricatures.

"Run, you clever boy."

On a happier note, I did pretty well at Salt Lake Comic Con Fan X! I can't wait for the September con! In the meantime, have some more Doctor Who art drew and sold.

Character Sketches

Hey folks! I've got some character designs for my 3-D animation class for you!

I'm kind of in love with toned paper right now.

Pencil, pen, crayon, Photoshop

(Almost) Fanart Friday

Okay, I'm jumping the gun a little. But I'm also going out of town on Friday, so there.

Good ol' Figment from the Epcot attraction, Journey into the Imagination! I did this for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary, and Figment is my grandma's favorite Disney character. 

A friend of mine let me borrow her Cardcaptor Sakura manga series, and I couldn't resist drawing Sakura. Boy, I watched that show and read that manga so much as a kid... I forgot how endearing and cute it is!

Holy cow, it was wonderful to pull out some traditional media. 

Prisma pencils. Copic markers

Figment belongs to Disney

Cardcaptor Sakura belongs to CLAMP

Story-ing

Earlier this year, I took Advanced Storyboarding at BYU, and our class was fortunate enough to meet Steve Hickner from DreamWorks. As part of a portfolio demo, he gave us a story prompt and we had to board it, and we also got class credit for it. Unfortunately, this happened during my bout of tendinitis, but I worked things out with my professor and did only a portion of what the project required without completely hurting myself. I'm so grateful that all of my professors were so understanding; I basically couldn't use my hand to its full capacity for two and a half months!

The prompt from Steve Hickner was a chick who's eaten too much bird seed somehow has to run away from a predator. Again, I didn't board the whole thing, but this is the chase/climax. 

BYU in the NY Times!

A couple months ago, the BYU Animation program had the awesome opportunity to be featured in an article in the New York Times! Students were even asked to participate in a photo shoot that would appear alongside the article. Best part? The New York Times wanted the students participating in the photo shoot to draw caricatures of themselves!

It was pretty unbelievable and fantastic, all of us being asked to do that. The photo shoot was a blast and we had an awesome time doing it! The article turned out great. I'm excited that our work gets to be seen on a national level like this. It raises awareness of our program and (hopefully) puts us on the map for animation studios, and shows that our program treats productions more like films than student projects.

The article can be found here. You can also see our fun photos and caricatures!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/magazine/when-hollywood-wants-good-clean-fun-it-goes-to-mormon-country.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I had originally done this caricature of myself for the article, but I wound up using another one instead. I think I like this one more, though.

And, while we're on the subject of caricatures, I did this one for a good friend of mine from my last internship in Disney World. 

I'm not a fan of giant heads with huge noses, or "normal" caricatures. 

Film Work

Whoa! Two posts within 24 hours! I'm on a roll!

This past semester, along dealing with tendinitis, I was also working on a new student film in the visual development department. It was a great experience, really seeing film-making in action and working with a terrific team. This project has easily been one of the best student projects I've ever worked on. Everyone's super dedicated and passionate, not to mention talented!

Prop design is a lot of fun. It's a neat challenge to put a particular personality into an inanimate object. 

Name That Tune...

As any veteran of Disney Parks knows, every single "area" of the Parks has its own theme music. From ride queues, ride entrances, Main Street, shops, hotel lobbies, firework shows, atmospheric music in the Epcot pavilions... Disney cares quite a lot about the immersive and imaginative power of music.

One of my walking routes around the Walt Disney World Resorts takes me around several of these "music areas": the Disney Vacation Club Preview Center - which has its own music loop, Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa - which has its own music loop, the arcade - which has its own various blips and noises, and the pool - which has dance music.

The trip starts off pleasantly, with something like "When You Wish Upon A Star," or "Beauty and the Beast" playing lightly over the speakers.

 

Then, slowly but surely, a jazzy instrumental number akin to Gershwin and the early 1900's comes into the mix.

 

As the arcade comes into view, so does Dance Dance Revolution classics come audible to the ears.

 

And everyone else is having a blast at the pool.

 

And then, a highly recognizable Sherman Brothers tune builds to a climax as the pleasant "When You Wish Upon A Star" or "Beauty and the Beast" descrescendos to an end.

 

Guess which song will be stuck in my head for the remainder of the day?

And yet, what's the first playlist I go to on my iPod? The Disney one. Loyalty never wavers. And yes, I will quote along with Mickey while listening to "Fantasmic!".

ALL THE PHOTOSHOP