This has been an active quarter and my poor blog has been neglected again. 😦 There is some good news, however. “Treasure Dogs” has been accepted to its first festival -The Roseville Animation Festival- and awaits notification on a number of others. I have also snagged a small position at DePaul as a Grader Assistant on undergrad classes and been accepted as a Graduate Student Ambassador for the animation programs. I’m rather proud of those because it means the school both trusts me and thinks I am good enough to represent them.
As for projects, I have been learning professional audio skills (including recording dialogue and foley) in Pro Tools, but unfortunately, I cannot share them here due to creator rights for the videos being used. It’s a shame really, because I’m pretty happy with some of what I’ve done. If anyone’s interested, I can share them privately.
My other *massive* project has been creating the stop-motion version of “Grandpa”. Yes, I have switched from CG to stop-motion, although I am using the CG assets as models to fabricate the puppets and props. I am custom building ball-and-socket armatures from kits (since I don’t really have access to a workshop) and sculpting the heads, hands and feet. They will then be made into molds and cast in silicone. The bodies will be covered and sculpted with foam, since they will be under clothing. This will help prevent the joints from getting gummed up and allow easy access for loosening or tightening. I also hope to give them ‘wigs’ of hair instead of silicone, although I still have to research how to do that. I am working towards animatable faces as opposed to replacement pieces, since there is no dialogue. Needless to say, all of this requires quite a bit of careful labor and reference, and I haven’t even started explaining the props yet!
I will post in-progress images of all of this nifty stop-motion stuff in the very near future, as I am sure at least some of you are curious. It truly is a labor of love, as this story has personal meaning to me. I will work at it until it gets to where I want it to be.
Thanks everyone and be back soon!
Creations, Thoughts and Musings 