Cereza

So, I had some success with my computer, and it was running a bit better with all the clutter removed. Then my boyfriend spilled half a glass of wine right on top of it. So that probably reduced its life expectancy a little. In any case, my scanners still not set up, so I took this little picture with Photo Booth, cos I don't have a camera. No, not even a camera phone.



I've started trying to paint... starting small... yes, the canvas really is that small... but its a canvas nonetheless. I've been worried about leaving the paints out, since this very young kitten might think they look tasty.



Her name is Cereza, apparently... thanks Sara!

Fun Week!

I ended up without a computer all week while I spent all my free time trying to erase everything and start from scratch with Snow Leopard, and it was frustrating, as can be predicted. Now this weekend, I'm home sick and feeling downright awful, trying to rest.

Anyway, I doodled this thing into the computer after watching a Clash documentary; its not supposed to be anyone specific. I've been really into rockumentaries lately, so that could be where I draw inspiration from for a little while... 'til something newer and more wicked this way comes.

Seems like the thing to do...

I'm wondering at this point whether or not I should just start painting again, since this digital painting thing just isn't working out for me. After a day at work, I've definitely felt like drawing and animating but... I don't want to look at a computer screen. So now I've got tons of messy pencil doodles but nothing clean and show-worthy. I also have a kitten.

Anyway, this seemed like the thing to do, and it no doubt does something positive for your motivation.



It's like those Facebook questionnaires. Everyone loves answering those questions, as if anyone actually reads through them.

4:30

I know this is a long time overdue. Not having a working external hard drive put this project in someone else's hands for a couple of months while I found a home for it.

Anyway, its my senior project from May, in all it's unfinished glory. I am still, believe it or not, working on actually finishing it. Slowly. My freelance has been taking up a lot of time lately while I learn to be more efficient at it. Until then, I can only do very tiny increments of personal work.

4:30 from Jamie Budden on Vimeo.

I dunno if anyone ever wondered why I called it 4:30. You're gonna find out anyway! It's from the Bible, 2 Kings, chapter 4, verse 30 which says something like,

"But the child's mother said, 'As long as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.' So the child arose and followed her."

School's Out

And for the first time in a semester, I could draw something that WASN'T my senior project! Which is still unfinished, but I really did get as much done as was physically possible and I'll probably post the work in progress soon. Anyway, I did some figure drawing to start off... gotta ease back into being an artist now that I'm not animating my project for 15 hours a day.

The beautiful and wonderful Sara King gave me some tips on drawing in Photoshop and I'm finally trying them out and I think she's a genius because these lines look way better than before.

Fast Forward

Guess what? The backgrounds are done. Those things that I was supposed to do a year ago? They're done now. It feels pretty good to say that... even if it's super late. Everything always takes 10 months longer than you think it will.

They're all delicately hand-crafted and there are enough of them to make over one second of 30 fps animation. The rough, stand in animation's almost done too. It'll either happen today or tomorrow.

I'd also like to thank everyone's who's been putting up with my high-stress state of being. It's hard, I know. I'll draw Bayonetta fan art soon, I promise.

Crash and Burn

Things were going okay for my senior project until the past couple of days. Since Wednesday we're showing for the first time this semester, I really wanted to get everything together in a structured, comprehensible format so that everyone could finally see what I'm doing.

So much for that. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. And now, I have no chance of having something worthy of showing. I feel so comfortable as a character animator, and I work best on paper. But as a film maker... I can't get my drawings on paper to the screen. It's a hurdle I just can't seem to get over. All attempts at compositing it failed. Now I don't have time to make it work.

This is what one of the shots would look like... had I been able to composite it.
I guess... until I figure out, that's all I have to show anyone. That and a big pile of animation paper with drawings that don't make sense by themselves on it. If you can think of a process that would work as far as putting it all together goes, I'm up for suggestions.

UPDATE: I think I figured it out! It only took half the week and now that I have it figured out it's 7pm the day before showing... so yeah, I still can't show a whole animatic, but at least now I know how to make one.

It happened...

that's right. Let the slaughter begin.

Now I Remember Why I Never Posted This...

I guess it didn't have a white backdrop... so I dropped it and forgot it. Well here it is anyway.


So I did that Hourly Comic. I swear I did! But the uploaded images are currently on my work's computer and I've yet to throw them up. Don't get too excited though. They're really not that good.

And the last order of business for this post is to link my boyfriend's new blog. We have all the same followers... so there's really no point. But maybe I'll gain one later that he doesn't have... y'never know. Anyway, you can find it here.