Sarah Lynne ReulDog Monster Transformation
Posted on December 11, 2013
For the past couple weeks I’ve been working on a scene from my thesis, where the dog that’s been swimming around in the lake during the lake monster auditions actually transforms into a monster. I’ve been working on the character animation for my directed study and on the effects for my fx final. I recorded the super-awesome sound effects to help with the timing.
Here’s the latest pass:
In the next week, I’ll be working on completing/cleaning up the effects, as well as adding some character details like the ears/horns, scales, gills, improving the tongue & teeth and making the hand wave at the end.
Here’s an earlier pass, where the water whirlpool twists up at an opposite slant (and where I was still thinking of doing a smoke effect):
And last but not least, the version of the scene that’s currently in my animatic… you can see that I’ve expanded on it quite a bit!
Demo Reel 2013
Posted on November 22, 2013
Quick post – I updated my demo reel!
There are some fx clips included that haven’t been shared before – I’ll try to get the exploratory designs for those posted within the next couple weeks.
Effects: Raging Fire
Posted on November 14, 2013
Another one from my effects class – this time, a raging fire. I studied a lot of forest fire videos for this, trying to get an idea of the energy forces that move the overall pattern. However, I got a little distracted by including a brief glimpse of a fire monster in the flames – can you see it?
My notes from the planning process:
Thesis Update: Animatic Revision
Posted on October 7, 2013
Another reworking of the animatic! This one’s close, I can feel it.
Just a few more changes on the slate that haven’t yet been incorporated:
– A title/opening scene aerial view of the town, with the camera slowly moving in
– Camera move on bandstand scene, continuing the slow zoom from aerial view
– Zoom on Gargantua (the biggest monster) as he walks out into lake
– *maybe* two more montage monsters. We’ll see.
When I do the layout pass, nailing down the perspective, I’ll also be pushing the poses as much as possible.
Earlier this week, had a fantastic recording session with Alison Potoma, the new voice of “Hazel”, the interviewer. Will be editing that sound & incorporating into the animatic within the next couple weeks, rerecording the other voices as necessary.
Once that’s all set, my colleague Zoe Yang, a Sound Production MFA student also at AAU, will be helping me with the score & foley. You can find some of her other work here on behance.
Thesis update: New Monsters
Posted on September 30, 2013
Working on an update of my animatic and I’m happy to say that an old idea has worked its way back into the film – a sort of quick montage of unsuccessful candidates. The new version of the animatic is coming soon, but in the meantime, here’s a sketch sheet of some new monster ideas:
effects: lighting a match
Posted on September 23, 2013
Things are a bit crazy around here, but classes are going pretty well so far this semester – a group directed study (where I’m working on my thesis) and a special effects class (all hand drawn). The first assignment for effects was to animate a matchstick lighting up – I was pretty happy with the result (and the process was fun, too!).
I’m keeping track of all video & image reference for my class on this pinterest page. Here’s a page of notes I took while studying ref & planning the animation:
Thesis update: Test scene in Flash
Posted on September 19, 2013
Last Spring I took a digital animation class and got to try out Flash for the first time. I have a few other assignments that I’ll be posting, but here’s a test scene for my thesis that I created as a final project for that course. I really like how Woofie, the dog, turned out. For Hazel, the main character, I think that the aesthetic of fully-hand drawn animation will work a lot better than the cut-out style lip-sync that I used here. I guess that’s why we do tests!
I’m pretty sure that I’ll be using TVPaint software for my thesis – it’s designed specifically for hand-drawn animation. However, I’d love to play around in Flash more using some characters designed specifically for the more puppet-like strengths of that program.
Head drawing class flashback 4: Wonky Self-Portrait
Posted on September 9, 2013
The assignment, of course, was meant to be a regular self portrait (not a semi-creepy weirdo version). I had super high hopes for it, as I’d been pretty happy with my other images throughout the semester and I’d done self-portraits before that had caught a likeness. Unfortunately, something went awry maybe 10 hours into the project… and no amount of layering on pastels could fix it. And of course, there was the ever-present problem of traditional mediums: no “undo” button. In any case, I followed the process outlined in “Head Drawing Class Flashback 1: “Girl with Dreadlocks”.
Started off ok – I think I caught a bit of a likeness here. Maybe a little wide… but I figured it could only get better with color.
Decided to go with a hot pink underlay. Here’s what it looked like when I first added pigment….
…and after I rubbed it in, with some additional reddish brown layers.
Here’s some more pigment added, with more of the shadows coming out.. and this is where I first noticed that the eyes are a little too far apart. Nothing that more pigment can’t fix, right?
Wrong. I just went crazy on that eye, and the eyebrow above it… who knows what happened there.
Ah well, better luck with the next 10-20 hour drawing!
Head drawing class flashback 3: “Man with Hat” (oil redux)
Posted on September 2, 2013
Remember the guy from last week’s post? Well, for another assignment in my head drawing class, we had to use another reference photo of him, but this time we had to “draw” with oil paints.
We were supposed to thin the paint out with turpentine, but I hated the smell so ended up using something else- mineral oil, I think? Anyway, the concept was to stroke the paint on and have it dry almost immediately, so that there was none of the blending that you’d usually get in an oil painting. The process sort of mimicked the method we were using for pastels – short, layered strokes that didn’t smear together, but ended up blending visually instead.
Just one process picture here – you can see that the underlayer colors are quite different. There’s no underdrawing at all – just started by laying in the paint.
…from the finished product:
Head Drawing Class Flashback 2: “Man With Hat”
Posted on August 26, 2013
A follow up to last week’s post – another pastel drawing process for “Man with Hat.” I know, I know, where do I come up with these titles?
Here’s the black underdrawing….
…and the smeary black chalk overlay…
… and then oops, apparently I forgot to photograph the other middle steps. Here’s the finished product:
I'm an illustrator and 2D animator who likes lots of stuff, including science, bright colors and figuring out how things work.
Sarah Lynne Reul 