Lucky Moon: Nanne

I think this drawing is actually from 2007, but don't quote me on that. Here's Nanne Radley, a side character from an epic werewolf/vampire adventure (hey, everyone needs one in their repertoire) called "Half-Light" (formally known as "Lucky Moon".) Little hodunk IL towns hold more than corn fields and beans. A normal, modern world by day, a place where creatures of nightmares lurk by night, Half-Light drags out the most frightening aspects of life and turns them upside down. This story explores issues of trust, abuse, possession, and independence.

More related to Nanne: Nanne doesn't get enough love, in my opinion. Hence the picture. He's a hot-headed half-breed who seems to only settle when he's focused on the job. What does he do, you may ask? Well, anything Ulrich tells him to- which often involves scoping out territory and knocking off anyone who gets in the way. He's in no way the brains of the operation, but he can follow orders with such cruel efficiency it can put his leaders to shame.

Durian and Rob IP

This is in-progress work. It shows what my under drawings look like before I do some ink or coloring over them. Mostly just focusing on figuring out where the lines go rather than worrying about line weight or shading quite yet. I'm posting it up for interest sake and also because I don't think I'm going to end up finishing this one. I just don't know what to do with it.

The characters are Durian and Rob (in that order) from the story "Touching Down." I'm writing it with a friend of mine. Lots of fun to be had. The story is a slice of life kind of thing. Two mascots from rival high schools meet across the football field and become friends without ever seeing each other face to face. They decide to meet after the game, and much chaos and fun ensues afterward. "Touching Down" questions what it means to be friends, how much you need to know a person to consider that person a friend, and what happens when lines are drawn and crossed.

Emma Character Update

Here's an update on my thesis work. It's just a screen cap right out of Maya. I've been having a couple render issues that I think I've finally worked out, so I'll post up a turnaround at some point and it'll be cool.

A strange thing happens when converting things from 2D to 3D. Sometimes if something looks good on paper, it might not look good in 3D, so once it's in the computer, you've got to adjust your proportions again to make it feel more natural. Emma's been cutified, in my opinion. I'm satisfied with how she turned out.

In this jpeg, she's hanging out with her many many blendshapes.

Wanted: Pantie Thief

Yeaaaah. Let's try not to ask too many questions, shall we? I swear I had something relevant to say at one point. Oh well, maybe it will come back to me later.

Misc MSW Stuffs

Here's some miscellaneous pictures done for My Sylvan Weed. Mostly just some character exploration things done last year when I was plotting out the idea. Some of this is total crap now that I look back on it, but I guess that just comes with the territory of learning. I'll post it up anyway just for archival and entertainment value. It's not like anyone actually views this stuff anyway. ~_^

Caffeine Induced High

So I have this thing that when I've had a lot of caffeine, I just love to ride the elevator.

No, seriously. All those buttons to look at and the people in the little box with you and the up and down and the little drop you get in your stomach if the speed is just right. It's like weeee and all the while you're talking to someone.

Thirty second conversations. Small talk. I'm only good at it when I've had no sleep and too much caffeine to keep me going. On a normal day, I'm too direct for proper smalltalk. I always feel there has to be a point to communication. Almost as if something in my mind is saying "what is the concept statement of this conversation?" or "What is my subject line?" or "Do I have a thesis statement?" All of which are the same question, but slightly different in their own right.

But with a good amount of caffeine (or a small dose of alcohol) I become very sociable. I love to talk to people and relate to them and all that wonderful human connection stuff; sometimes it just takes a little step forward to get the ball rolling. On a normal day, I'm very focused. Too focused to bother with smalltalk- to the point that even when I want to smalltalk someone in the elevator, I find it overwhelmingly difficult. Not so when on a caffeine high. There's so much in the world to discuss, and not all of it is heavy.

So there was something more relevant I was going to say. This wasn't exactly the point of my post, but by this point I've forgotten the true intention of my being here. I think I had some kind of comment to make about JS Facial or something. If I remember, I'll mention it later.

<3

Latest Animatic and some

Here's my latest animatic. I've already got notes for improvement, so give this five more minutes and it wont look quite the same. Major difference since the last time you saw it though, eh?

I really need to get the rest of my stuffs updated to the blog. I'll work on that over the next couple of days.

On a different note! I have a job at the school. I'm a render wrangler for IT. Basically, I try to solve rendering problems. Helping out my fellow students, etc. I'm not very good at it so far, but what I am good at is doing research and logically thinking my way through problems, so essentially right now I'm writing tutorials and wiki articles for the school wiki. Putting my strengths to good use informing the masses. Good stuff. I tend to spend the money as fast as I make it though. There's nothing in particular that I want to save up for right now, so I've been expanding my graphic novel collection. Extremely satisfying, mmyup!

Lucky Moon: Rom

Rooooom. Romly. Romly Rusco, to be more precise. Rom is another side character from Half-Light who works with Ulrich's team. Ulrich's team consists of Ulrich, Seath, Peter, Rom, and Nanne (ranking in that order.) Rom is a fun-loving, mischief-making, tail-chasing go-to guy. He handles a lot of Ulrich's odd jobs, usually working with Nanne in the field on the dangerous missions. Rom and Peter are best friends who knew each other before they met Ulrich, so when Ulrich won over Rom's heart to the evil side, Peter had no option but to follow afterward. Peter and Rom are a package deal.

Aaaaaand We're Back!

Back in business? Mayhaps. Honestly, I'm a major writer, but not much of a blogger. Probably because I tend to email everyone who's close to me, so there's not much more point to posting up information elsewhere...

And then senior year came.

Blogging positive for job hunting, y/n? Don't know. I'm going to have a website set up n'all, so I guess that'll take care of those needs. Sometimes people link to their blogs. I'm still not certain what I'll be using this particular blog for, but for now, I think I'll just write random stuffs and post up work as it comes along. Links and shiznit.

So, so, not that anyone's reading this, but something exciting happened recently. I was nominated to be a Student Ambassador! A Student Ambassador essentially greets people and gives tours of the campus and all, so it doesn't sound all that wonderful, but (call me a nerd) I actually really like all that kinda stuff. I was a part of Smile Staff sophomore year, and aside from helping everyone move into their dorms, I also got to give tours of the campus and meet a lot of new people. I like people. They're fun.

So yeah, I don't know who nominated me, but I've got a couple suspicions. I'll be going to an informational meeting on Tuesday. Right before CA class- I hope we get out on time.

Aaaanyway, it's official, I'll be working on Emma's Flight for my senior thesis. I noticed that I didn't post up anything for Ocean's 2, which is my other thesis proposal. I'll have to do that because a lot of fun drawings came out of that story. Ocean's 2 features two hungry seagulls that pull off a classic Ocean's 11 heist to get the breadbasket off a restaurant table. It's a comedy, dialog and acting heavy. It passed as well, just sosyaknow, so I got to choose between Emma's Flight and Ocean's 2, and I went with Emma's Flight.

My love for my thesis borders on obsession. It's all about ripping it apart and putting it back together again. Since I've last posted anything anywhere or made mention of it on this blog, I've done... approximately seven more passes? Something like that. And every time it gets better and better. Steve Hickner, a director from Dreamworks, came to our full-faculty critique, and he really liked my story. It was so exciting. I'm so pumped for this year. A LOT of work (oh god, where do I begin?) but I think I can do it. I think I can pull it off. One step at a time.

We've got another full faculty critique coming up in three or four weeks. This is hardly enough time to get everything done. We essentially need to have first pass done for our entire project by then, and a lot of us don't even have sets yet (myself included. But don't worry, I've got that part under control. I've got an ace up my sleeve.)

Oh man, and for Portfolio class we've started work on cover letter stuffs. Tammy said that we should reach for the stars and write a cover letter for our absolute number one job. Anything in the world we wanted. I thought long and hard, and I decided upon writing a cover letter for a Story Artist position at Pixar. Last year I was too chicken to even go for it, but this time around, I'm going to go all out for it. I've got a motto that I apply to life: "If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right." So I'm going to make a story portfolio and brush up all my work really nice so that I have something to show Pixar. The worst that can happen is they say 'no' and I'll just take them up on the challenge and submit again in a year.

So yeah. Good stuff. Fun fun. Much love <3

-TZC

Lifeboat Economics

BAND: Lifeboat Economics

ALBUM: Wisdom Lingers

Man, this is so super fun. I've done a couple others; I'll add those to the end of this post. This one is my favorite though. It's really easy and really fun, here's what you do:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.