The Blue Balloon

This was another one of my projects from school. I had second thoughts about posting this since looking back, I don't like it very much. My coloring looks terrible, not quite as much as I would've wanted it to be but I'm putting it up anyway because it serves as a reminder for me to work harder. Maybe someday I'll draw and finish this for real.

Pathways Film

So, here it is. The animated thesis by me and my groupmates. Enjoy.

Grumpy, Grouchy, Grumbling Guillermo

Hello everyone! Before I post my thesis video, I thought it would be nice to share this project since it's the first animated film project I got to be a part of. This was one of the projects in our Animation Principles class, where we started out with 5-6 groups. I was with Irish, Sab, Abby and Cathy. After a while three of the other groups dropped their project and the members were distributed to help out with the surviving groups.

This film, which we titled "Grumpy, Grouchy, Grumbling Guillermo," tells the story of a lonely man and the dog that changed his life. It's a cliche story but turned out cute, nonetheless. I could say I helped design the characters but Irish made most of the concepts. She also helped Cathy and Abby with the layouts and backgrounds. Abby created the cutout components. Sab worked as the director/producer duo.

As much as I'd love to show you the video, I don't have any links now. I don't know if any of my teammates will upload it but when someone does, I will update the link. The animation took two semesters, almost a year to make but we finished it close to November last year. We entered the film in the local Animahenasyon (animation festival) and flew to Bicol to stay over at the venue. In our group, only Irish didn't travel to the convention.

I met a lot of animators like Ms. Grace Dimaranaan (owner of Top Peg studio), plenty of local illustrators and other people from the industry like Mark Bambico (creator of the local animated series, Barkada Trip) and Ms. Lina Valdez, owner of Pinoy Animation Magazine. We also met foreign animators like Hasaan Muthalib from Malaysia and delightedly, Mr., from Gobelins, the French animation school we all so admire.

It was a wonderful experience, even though we had to stay another night due to a storm. Unfortunately, we didn't win the student division but that was okay. We made a lot of new friends and met new people in the industry. I remember feeling super motivated that week and relieving the memory gets me excited for drawing again. I hope I will have another opportunity to work on another project like this next time.

Thesis Snippets

Thank God we made it! Yes, my batchmates and I have made it through thesis and finally graduated! Goodness, I could really use a break. These are the backgrounds I liked most out of all I worked on. Maybe over my vacation trip I'll come up with more interesting drawings. :)

there was a time when I felt that the film was actually a mirror of my real life. The character is graduation as am I. haha.

okay, I don't really like this one but it's the ending scene so I thought it should be here to complete the set.

Note to Self: Keep Practicing!

Ever since school started, I haven't been able to draw much personal stuff. What makes it feel bad is the fact that my younger classmates can conceptualize and draw CLEAN, FULL BODY CHARACTER DESIGNS IN ONE HOUR. (although, it's just concepts, not rendered yet at least.) I realize I still have a lot lacking in my skills and I really must practice and I mean, A LOT OF PRACTICE!

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of quick sketches (mostly of people at school). Here's one of my friend, Abby, and my professor, Alfred Borres. While drawing on Cintiq and Photoshop is nice, I can't really stay long. It makes my eyes hurt staring too long on the computer and I'm just really terrible at it, okay. I hope I don't have to get glasses.

Also, my friends have opened up their own blogs. Hooray! They have amaaaaazing artwork! Please visit their blogs as well and show them some love.

• Irish Chua - http://bunjangles.blogspot.com/ (this is my dear fluffers, who is super talented and all kinds of wonderful!)
• Keno Legaspi - http://ushketch.blogspot.com/
• Daniel Rodrigo - http://deesketch.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much! :D

Digital Methodology

Some more artworks and illustrations from my digital methodology class. I'm not sure if I should upload these weird photomanipulations...because they're weird? I wanted to rant about how the professor in my class seems like he doesn't know much about the class he's teaching but that would be bad form. Instead, let me tell you how self-studying and self-discipline does wonders. But I feel it would be more efficient if someone showed me how..yet the greatest masters of any profession persevered through all their mistakes and personally honed their skills.

Anyway, it's my first time doing photo manipulations. While it has its fun, it's not entirely fulfilling. It would be more interesting for me if I were learning how to edit those cool movie posters and stuff.

more school projects

projects for Art Direction.. I need work on my colors and painting. I don't feel like I've been doing original work lately.. It's mostly been based on my professors' examples and practices for the class. Am I that lazy and uncreative?! I have to do something about that......

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas, everyone! And Happy New Year to all of you. 

Interiors and Orcs

Anyway, I present to you a series of what's been done at my 3D Classes. This interior was a class project. The elements were individually created by my classmates. I merely arranged them and added lights and stuff.

I modeled and textured this orc and lizard models in Autodesk Mudbox. Mudbox is pretty fun to use, kinda like clay modeling. But I heard Z-brush is better and more streamlined. I might have a look at that.

I really love the texture brush

Dragonisms

Some sketches we did during Art Direction aka character design class. I love drawing dragons. They're the coolest things ever. I want to draw more of these. I remember reading a book back some years ago about drawing dragons...I should've bought it but I didn't have enough money. Maybe I should go look for it again. This one I'm throwing in because the inverted colors are just cool!

 

 

Oh, and because it's almost the end of November, here's a song-poem I made on a whim, because I love writing about any possible topic.

"THE ARTIST'S CAROL"

I can't believe it's November...soon it'll be December.

Christmas is just around the corner and I've run out of rhymes to whisper

The school year's almost over; my second sem's halfway through

Soon I'll graduate from school,

and have time to finish my comic long overdue.

more class projects

Some bunch of 3D projects and digital paintings I did for school. This was mostly a self-study class. I was expecting to be taught how to use photoshop but instead, I ended up studying and doing everything by myself. It's fun but I still prefer traditional mediums when it comes to the painterly feel. Something about the paper-and-pencil texture, which I can't produce yet in Photoshop. Some people have found that technique though and I wish they'd share how. Trade secret I suppose. hahaha!

The Cinderella Project

Our project for scriptwriting class was create a retelling/revisioning "Cinderella." My version goes along the genre of steampunk, and in this world Cinderella is an aspiring inventor who creates cool mechanical things. Cinderella desires to create a machine that will help her fellow countrymen have a better life. The annual harvest fair comes around and Cinderella decides to take a shot and enter a gadgets competition. Where it goes from there, well, I'm working on it. Below are salvaged previews..I'm particularly fond of the ink designs which is why I posted it. Maybe I'll actually work on this project someday.

3D Textures

Here are some of my 3D lighting and texturing projects. My professor provided the models, I only worked on the lighting and textures. I've taken a liking to textures and lighting..better than modeling, at least.

2nd Term Finals

plate for perspective class more manga concepts I'd say this term was more productive than last term. In terms of submissions, at least. I gotta get back my other artwork! I'm glad to be able to submit something, even if it's dumb anime-inspired art and my amateur paintings.

The Apple Man

Steve Jobs. pencil on board. Life drawing finals.

Character Designs

drawing character expressions drawing trees concepts for personal manga.

Dear Me!

I have a pair of deer from my Life Drawing 2 classes. These are the only drawings I have at the moment, because the rest are always done in class and submitted to the professor.