Author: larisaskai

I’m… alive?

| larisaskai

Wow, blog… long time, no see! It has been a whirlwind of adventures since last I checked in!

The later half of 2013 had been a busy time at my part time job which, I am sad to say, no longer exists. But I do have to say that working at a small toy store brought out my fun side quite well and has shown me the best and worst of sociological trends in parenting and how adults treat children. Which is a topic for another day….

Anyway, in my off time, I have been trying to maintain, even improving, on my animation skills. I found a few lists online suggesting what kind of actions an animator should work on. I compiled them and started to mix and match actions and scenarios, working on several at a time. With this latest exercise, I went with standing up, sitting down, and changing emotions.

It was an interesting exercise. Something new, something challenging. I will definitely partake in more of these.

In the lines of doing more of things, I’m hoping that this year I can expand and solidify my knowledge on processes within the animation pipeline that I did not get a chance to fully explore like texturing and modeling… things I should know how to do and do them pretty well.

And with that, I leave with a reworked demo reel because deep down… I still want to do animation and I am going to still persist in my life quest.

Persistence

| larisaskai

I’m going to be a little truthful in this post. Right now I feel a bit frustrated. It has been a little bit over a year since I finished my Graduate program and I’m nowhere near to what I want to be doing (3D Animation). Not for a lack of trying, of course. And that frustration has slowly seeped into my creativity quite a bit. I’m sure a ton of artists go through this phase where they end up doubting their abilities, nothing is “good,” rather, everything they make is “okay” at best no matter how hard they try.

But the thing is, I keep on trying. Whether it’s “okay,” “good,” “a complete failure,” or even “spectacular,” I keep on trying. Something’s bound to come out good, right?

So there’s been a lot of soul-searching going on. And the bottom line is this: I think I’m a fairly good animator that if thrown in the world of film, tv, or games, I would do well despite my lack of “professional” experience. (Okay, fine. I haven’t released at least three AAA games or put out a top grossing film.) I don’t want to give up on this dream. And if people don’t want to see that side of me and put it into consideration, then that’s their loss, right? I work hard. I want to make good animation. And I believe I can do it.

Speaking of dreams, I’ve started some things that I’ve always wanted to do. I recently got into digital painting (see: the Doozer image up above), which I’m still getting used to because of paintbrush vs. tablet way of doing things. AND I’m learning languages like French and brushing up on my Spanish because they’ve been on my to-do list for a long time.

So here’s to good stuff coming in the future.

Website 2.0 & Quadruped Animation

| larisaskai

This is my triumphant return to doing stuff on the computer! Yay!

Recovery is slow from my eye surgery but when I first could deal with sitting at the computer, I jumped on the chance to start planning for projects and get together all that needs to be done. First, I decided to revamp my website. New graphics, new designs, new layouts, create minor adjustments and carry all of that across everything else.

Secondly, I decided to try my hand at quadruped animation. Easier said than done! Found it a trifle difficult to find a quadruped rig. I originally wanted to animate a cat, but couldn’t find any free ones. Settled for a 4-legged creature that reminded me of a cat. I figured that I could study a few cat videos and apply their physics, their movements, to the creature.

The whole process was interesting. It was a good challenge between keeping track of so many elements (four legs, hips, “shoulders,” head), remembering to apply weight and counterweight, adding in nuances in timing, making the tail believable, applying anticipation to the jump… You get the idea. There was a lot to keep track of. 
I am actually very content with what I achieved with this creature jumping. Not bad for a first time with a quadruped animated like this. 

Short hiatus

| larisaskai

Alright, kids. I know I haven’t posted in a while. A lot of things had been circling around where my attention was needed more, rather than attention to my side projects. The biggest being an impending eye surgery (corneal transplant). The rest of it… family politics. Leaving it at that. Haha. So my side projects will resume at the end of the month. Health and stability first!

365 Daily Photo Recap – Week 5

| larisaskai

Week 5! Although I wanted to post last night and right in the middle of writing this post, I had come down with one of those 24hr. flu viruses (still recovering). So here we go! Flickr set!

365 Project - Day 030
“Newspaper”
365 Project - Day 029
“Architecture”
365 Project - Day 031
“Music”
365 Project - Day 032
“Collection”
365 Project - Day 033
“Orange”
365 Project - Day 034
“Lines”
365 Project - Day 035
“Song”

Drawing: 365 Daily Project – Rule changes

| larisaskai

Judging from this past month and a half, I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to change my rules for my daily drawing project.

Rules as they were:

  1. Set the timer for 30 min. and go for it!
  2. Themes are broken down to either drawing from a book, using imagination, still life, or even doodles.
  3. There will be days where a session will be skipped due to time, work, real life commitment. In that case, double up on the next day.
Rules changed:
  1. Draw something. Anything. But not “half-assed.” Something decent.
  2. Theme: Try to stick to a weekly theme, but don’t feel obligated to stay in the theme.
  3. No skipping days. Otherwise it will confuse you.
I realized that due to my schedule constantly changing due to my part-time job, things get constantly shifted around. I constantly wish that my drawing time can be saved until I come home from work at 11pm or so, but I get way too exhausted from being on my feet for 8 hours straight and try to be on top of my game helping people out while keeping a non-weary smile on my face. (By the way, I work at an independently owned toy store) 
Long story short: something needed to be changed. I realized that at work, I have these moments, maybe a minute or even ten minutes where I can squeeze in a doodle or a thought on paper. And I started doing that. My hope is that if this will clear up some time (and worry) I can add time to animation now.