I've been meaning to keep up with this blog and update it regularly... however, the world always finds some way (or several, in this case) to stick its righteous foot up my ass for yet another time. Maya this, draw that, render this! Not saying that I don't enjoy these things, cause Lord knows I do, but I would at least like some room to blog every now and again!
So, an update on things. For those who don't know, my MacBook Pro has been shot to hell and for the moment, I am computer-less. So I have to spend a lot more time at school nowadays instead of doing work and procrastinating from the comfort of my home. No iTunes means I can't update my iPod (which I can't even find at the moment), and this saddens me because that new London Elektricity album, Yikes!, is the bee's knees and needs to be overplayed on my iPod on a daily basis. Also, apparently Musiq released an album yesterday... I used to be all about my R&B until my main go-to artists started falling off the spectrum. It's sad when I don't want to listen to John Legend...
But I digress. Besides the whole computer-less-ness and the music-less-ness that I'm clearly suffering from, life goes well. Working on all A's from my classes come mid-term, and that goal is definitely within reach. Frickin' Art History is the biggest piece of cake I've had since 2D Design; all it is is a "write this, watch this" type of deal, and while it can be boring, the A's on the essays speak for themselves.
2D Animation Principles (or Flipbook 101, as I call it when people ask, "what is it?") is fun and challenging at the same time. Well, minus the pendulum and ball bounce, those were as easy as some easy thing. But these walk cycles are tedious, but worth it in the end. Sometimes I think about considering to maybe switch over to Animation instead of GAD, but then I'm like, "NO! Too much drawing!" (LOL). Inbetweeners go through hell and back just to make an animation look good, and I'm not trying to have gray hairs by the time I'm 30. I mean, I'll probably to Flash anims on the side once I'm proficient enough to do so, but full-on animations won't be my forte, I can see that well enough.
3D Modeling is a tricky class to put a finger on. At first, I thought I'd be overwhelmed by everything that Maya has to offer, and that though only compounded when it came to me doing my first project in the class, modeling a locomotive. You should see how in-depth that thing is! I have no choice but to get an A because I'm a stickler for detail and stuff like that. Anyways, after modeling this train, I actually see that I'm going to enjoy Maya a lot, especially the modeling aspect, because Maya is so extensive and broad! It's like having limitless creativity in your fingertips, and all you have to do is imagine it and you can make it.
Background and Character Design is the tip of the iceberg for me when it comes to my classes. It's like they took my Drawing for Animation class, cut the sculpture clean out of it, required more extensive drawing (which, truthfully, I needed to start doing anyway) and replaced the teacher with someone more down-to-earth. I personally bought a brand new sketchbook just for this class (and for personal sketching, of course) and I plan to have at least half of it full before the end of this quarter. My character for the class turned out very well; I earned a B+ for the first project overall, which is definitely not bad! After hearing Mr. Bell critique my work, I now better understand my flaws when it comes to drawing. I'm gonna have to lay off of the anime for a while (even more than I already was, because I'm pulling too much from it). I try not to use anime as an overbearing influence for my drawings anyway, unlike a lot of new people that walk into the school thinking that they're gods of art. Here are the scans of my artwork, in case you haven't seen 'em on my Facebook:
 |
| Joshua Baker (aka Wingman) color turnaround. Personally think it looks better in person. |
 |
| Costumes. |
 |
| Facial expressions. |
I think Wingman turned out just awesome! Next, I have to work on his "object," which will probably be some sort of glider-backpack thing. I'll most likely be posting sketches within the next few days and the finished blueprint will be due Tuesday, so I'll scan and post it next week!
Also, I'm working on a web comic, something I've been meaning to do since before I even got here at the school. For those of you who even remember back that far, ScamMan is making his return! For those of you that haven't been with me that long... prepare yourself. Hilarity ensues.
Well that be all for this week's installment of The Wonderful Symposium of the Flaming Popsicle! Tune in next week when we kill a dead rubber chicken! So long and God bless!
