Boxer

I've been inspired by Rachel Elm as of late. Yes, I'm on tumblr too. I post sometimes more fanart over there for peculiar things.

Jason Wu Starry Night dress

When I saw this Jason Wu dress from the Spring 2013 collection, I just had to draw it. I’m not the most fashion forward person, but I really liked how this dress evoked a starry sky.

Hopefully, I’m improving on my Photoshop painting skills!

That one walk cycle in Ponyo....

Author's note:
Before I nitpicking this one walk, I looked up the definition of nitpick. It is to be critical of inconsequential details. I feel this walk may only bother me. Ponyo is a beautiful movie that I truly do love. I understand Studio Ghibli has to work with a deadline and delegate shots as most important to least important. Also, I am dust compared to Ghibli's talented workers.

Ponyo or Ponyo on the Cliff is loosely based off The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. A human boy named Sōsuke finds a goldfish/human named Ponyo. She becomes personally attached to the little boy and uses magic to become human. Ponyo is a film I highly suggest watching at a theater. Please excuse the use of low quality gifs. I made these gifs to just convey the movement.

I watched this movie in 2009 when it came out in America.When you watch a movie, you are sort of in a trance. This one walk cycle took me out of the movie. I thought it was a bit strange this one walk cycle.

Sōsuke's Mom (Lisa) just bought a lot of groceries.

I have no problem with Sōsuke's walk. You can tell he is a young boy trying to catch up with his Mom while minding his ice cream. But, his Mom, Lisa, was the problem for me. Lisa is a powerful woman and seems to have huge strength. I have a feeling the animator wanted to show this but went a bit too far. I think if her stride was a foot length closer, it wouldn't give off this awkward feeling almost like she could fall over. I know such a slight fix seems like an unnecessary complaint. It just stands out when there are other carefully choreographed moments in this film.

The animator's decisions in this scene are amazing.

 I smile at the scene of Sōsuke being mindful while exiting the car. He slides out feet first and nudges the door with his elbow. When he walks away, his eyes are fixated on the bucket. I could definitely tell the animator was observant at the choices the character would make.

This is another example of a carefully choreographed scene. He shuffles his feet to prepare to enter the gap in the gate. His hair even brushes up against the background. You wouldn't believe how many movies don't easily line up the animation with the background or objects that characters are holding.

What I look like when I'm carrying a mug of hot cocoa.

The last example is looking at a walk cycle that works. Sōsuke still has a powerful stride that is similar to his Mom with the grocery bags. However, the distance between the stride is much more reasonable.

I would love to hear what other people think about Lisa's walk cycle and the other scenes mentioned in this post.

My next article will probably regard fun stuff I noticed while framing through Princess Mononoke.
I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!  

Stuff on my mind

I've been thinking about boosting my old blog.......yet again. I don't want to just wait until I have new art to post.

I have been mulling over whether to start posting about certain parts in movies I find interesting that others may not notice. I think it is very surprising and fun that a lot of my page views for this blog came from my Howl's Moving Castle analysis entry. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the comment section of that entry.

My next post will be acting and walking in two Miyazaki films, Ponyo and Princess Mononoke. I have to figure out to make gifs or just post multiple screenshots to further my point. This should be an adventure!

In other news...

I made a munny for The Plastic Experience at Next Gallery in Denver. The munny "They are out there." was decorated Woodland Scenics foliage, turf, and gravel. I made the house out of mat board. I wanted create a lonely abandoned house for the head, and crop circles for the body. Are the aliens partying in the little blue house? The world may never know.

Making of Sheep Days

I finally moved into a year long commitment with Burbank this summer. Four years at CalArts have move by so quickly. It seems just like yesterday when I was a nervous second time college freshman.

I wanted to share some pictures during the making of Sheep Days. The idea of a sewn film actually came from this animation of a running dog by Aubrey Longley-Cook, and my recent obsession over tambour beading. I did an initial test in Eric Dyer's Alternative animation class. It was a jumping sheep sewn on pillowcases. You can see some of the tests at the end of my stop-motion reel.

I mainly thought of only doing sewn animation as a test and not for my final film. My sheep test was such a big hit with faculty and peers that I was persuaded to give it a shot.
I originally planned a different story that was more epic and involved a wolf. Later, it was paired down to what you see now, the troubles of being a sewn sheep.

Each frame in my film was hand-sewn. I animated on paper first, then traced each frame on green fabric. The green fabric acted like a green screen for composting later.

Here is my desk during crunch time. It was not a pretty sight.

I used embroidery hoops to help keep the thread taut.

Before shooting, I ironed out the fabric to flatten the thread and reduce wrinkles that would mess up the green screen.

Sheep are getting run over everywhere!

I shot digital stills using the Oxberry and Dragon, which was a long life dream of mine. 

Then I composited the images in After Effects, which was actually the most stressful part for me.
I really enjoyed hand-sewn animation. It took me about an hour for each frame. My friend later told me that all of the textures in my film really took advantage of HD. I'm extremely glad that my film had a different texture. I have been striving for such a feeling for a long time. I also want to thank again my lovely hand model in the film Sara Quach and Amanda Candler for helping me out with sewing some scenes.

I hope you enjoy my film. It was a lot of fun to make!

Sheep Days

This is my fourth year film as a CalArts Character Animation student. The film is about the troubled life of a hand sewn sheep.

I was inspired by the dog embroidery animation of Aubrey-Long Cook. First, I animated on paper then traced the image on to fabric. I embroidered each frame on green fabric to be keyed out later. The footage was shot with Dragon on an Oxberry. Then, I composited the fabric backgrounds with the animation using After Effects.

I hope you enjoy the film. It was a lot of fun to make.

I'll post making of pictures soon.

My Stop-motion Reel 2012

Please visit my portfolio blog too!

http://eyu-animation.blogspot.com/