Well, Semester 1 is over and done with. We learned so much cool stuff, it was a struggle but so much fun. Yes, it is overwhelming at times, but luckily the course material is all so interesting.

The Semester 1 final project is basically to produce a CG picture of your choice. You can try to reproduce something you found or come up with your own concept. Of course it all needs to be approved, but it’s pretty wide open to whatever you want.

In a character design workshop with Zoe Evamy I decided to try creating a cartoony scene featuring a boogeyman with a sack full of children on his back. There is a hole in the sack and unbeknownst to the boogeyman, one of the children is escaping down a dark street. Thanks to all the help I had from instructors and classmates, I think it turned out pretty well. I don’t think it’s amazing, but I finished it on time and achieved the concept I was going for.

Here are some of the concept sketches and reference I used:

(this image grabbed from a Google Images search)

Here is my final image:

Semester 1 projects

Here are a couple more assignments that I worked on earlier in the semester.  BTW, all models are provided by the instructors unless I say otherwise. This is Hank, and in Digital Imaging class we got some more practice with textures and various maps. I was trying to make Hank look like he was wearing some owl-ish war paint. I think I succeeded on his face, but not so much on the wings. Digital Imaging class is a good mix of technical and creative work, lots of fun! Hopefully you can see the textures, this preview looks a little small.

Here is a walk cycle I did in 3D animation class. I really enjoyed working on this, and am pretty happy with the way it turned out. Up until this point in class we had mostly worked on constraints of various kinds, so it was fun to finally get this robot really moving.

Here is a Vimeo link that should be a bit bigger: http://vimeo.com/29818408

A little more about the school itself in case anyone is interested: the small class sizes are awesome (12 student max). It gives each student a chance to actually build a relationship with the instructors and nothing beats the one-on-one feedback you can get each class. During the summer break, a few of us in the class were having trouble with rigging so we asked Scott if he could come to the class and help us out. And Boom! We got an instant 45-minute bonus lecture that cleared things up. So helpful!