Premise

I wanted to animate a horse, nay, a flying horse, but I figured everybody's seen a flying horse. The idea then shifted to a flying goat. So. My premise is a goat that tries to fly after an egret along a stream in the mountains. (He has a small set of wings.) The two come across a cliff, and the goat decides he's ready to jump it.

Possible ending A: He's successful in flying! ... for about a second or two. He plummets downwards, the bird glances around, hoping no one saw, and flies off.

Possible ending B: He's successful in flying! Seriously, this time. He happily glides around ... and gets hit by a plane. Bird glances around, hoping no one saw, and flies off.


A sketch I did while trying to figure out what my premise should be. Goat with wings <3

Favorite artwork

Post 4: Pick a favorite piece out of your own artwork.

Er, favorite artwork ... that's going to be difficult to choose. This is particularly so because the passing of time creates new favorites and sheds light on the errors of older pieces. There's also the challenge of comparing multiple types of media.

Surprisingly, I have narrowed it down to one particular piece - but alas, I have no copy of it on hand to show you. It's a piece I did for Animation Layout and Character Design. Having had the class under Professor Troy Gustafson, we were required to create a layout based upon a location within the historical district. Being my ambitious self, I took on doing a layout with a view of River Street - and all the brick, cobble stone, water, and foliage located there as well. Rendering that was painstaking, but well worth it. I was proud enough of it that I hauled it home during Christmas break to show my family, and it is still residing there - in my bedroom in NY. ^_^;

So.... as I do not have that work to show to you, I will be pulling up a few others that I have strongly favored.



As you can see from the date of 12/19/04, this wolf portrait is an old piece, but despite that, I haven't found much error with it in the years since I drew it. My only disappointment is that I drew it from another image - a photograph of a wolf that was the cover to a Zoobooks magazine, I believe.


Griffin Print
This one is a print of a linoleum carving I worked on while in community college (sometime between Winter 05 - Spring 06). It was actually the second time I had done a carving of a griffin against a mountain scene - the first one was about twice the size, and had been carved in wood with an x-acto blade in high school. Despite doing the same subject a second time, I still opted to make it as detailed as possible -- and I'm glad I did.



I'm aware that this is an unusual choice for a favorite piece. I have my reasons, however. In September 07, I joined the staff of a virtual pet site called Rescreatu. The paint bucket was the first item I drew that went live on the site. I also crafted it with 3 point perspective, and it marks the point where I grew fond of drawing with perspective.
(and if you're interested enough to look the site up and join, feel free to give me referral points by using this link: Rescreatu)


Dolphins
I painted this as a present for my brother this past Christmas. I like watercolor paint and dolphins, need I say more? ^__^


One of many Neopets comics
I suppose I should give some credit to Neopets at some point, huh? It was in sketching and drawing comics to submit to the site that I ended up refining my skills enough to switch to an art major. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a bold line style as well.

Gallions (another Neopet piece
This one I like because I came very close to matching Neopet's style, and it's in color pencil (one of my favorite mediums).


Gyro
I did this one for my layout and character design class as well. It may not be the most detailed piece, but I think I like it because of the personality I envision for this little guy.


And for my last piece (Congrats to those who have read through this long entry XD), a work in progress that I think I'll be quite happy with when I'm finished:
Adagu City Map
This will hopefully be a map image for the Rescreatu site. I'm drawing it in Photoshop, though I hope to add interactive parts to it with Flash at a later point in time.

Post 3 - Animation for the final?

To be honest, I don't know what kind of animation I want to do for the final yet. I've worked in flash before, so I'm considering working in a different manner than I have previously. If you want an example, here's the animation I did for the Savanijam 24 hour animation competition:




I'm not sure whether I want to try symbol animation, or try a cleaner version of pose-to-pose animation. In particular, I like Adam Phillip's layouts for his Brakenwood animations (see animation under www.biteycastle.com , or the following video) and I would like to emulate that style.

Post 2 - Favorite Animation

I told you in my first post, I don't like picking favorites. Each one is special in their one way. However, for the point of this post, I'll stick with The Lion King.



Disney movie animation in general has a clean, crisp look to it that I like, and I particularly favor stories that focus around animal characters (when trying to choose my career path back in senior year of high school, I was torn between animation and zoology, which should tell you that I love animals that much). I suppose I can't nail down specifics about why it's my favorite; it's more or less the culmination of all of it's components. It has a good story, is beautifully portrayed, does a good job of developing the traits and displaying the personal struggles of the characters, has a culturally rich and exotic soundtrack, and altogether does what an animation should do - create the suspension of disbelief that these are real characters with real trials, and move us emotionally.

First Post - The Favorites I Don't Have (And the naming of my blog)

Hurrah, the start of my production blog. I feel like being silly and giving it an name and persona. This blog shall be named ... Alexander Reginald Francis, or ARF for short. He shall be a wolf pup. ^__^ *watches as everyone slowly backs away* What? I'm not crazy, really...

1. Name - Samantha Anne de Graffenried
3. Hometown - Mahopac, NY
4. Write a culturally interesting fact about that place (not geographic or demographic) Mahopac used to be a vacation area for people from New York City, and has a fair number of small lakes and reservoirs. I live next to a lake where it's rumored that there's a sunken ferryboat. BTW - NYC drinking water? There's a lot of geese that swim in it. Just to let you know. (For those people who claim that NYC water tastes good...)
5. What is/was your Major? - Animation
6. If you are a grad student where did you take your major? - Not a grad student
7. If you are a double major what is your other area of study? - I'm not, but if I were, I might major in sequential.
8. What other courses are you taking this quarter? - I have 20th century art history and 2D Effects animation.
9. What is your favorite meal? - A home-cooked meal that I don't have to do any work for.
10. What is your favorite song? - I don't really have a favorite, persay. It changes too often.
11. What is your favorite website? - Rescreatu and Neopets
12. What is your favorite game on the web? Um... the ones on Neopets?
13. What is your favorite web animation? - I... don't have a favorite? Come to think of it, I don't browse web animation much. I should do that more often.
14. What is your favorite drink? - milk
15. What is your favorite animation character? - There's too many to choose from! Um... one of my unusual favorites is Marahute, from The Rescuers Down Under.
16. What is your favorite video game? - Pokemon, any version of the games
17. Do you like reading? Yes, but I haven't had much time to read recently ;__;
18. What is your favorite book? - Did I mention I don't like choosing favorites? I never do these quiz things because of it. I favor fantasy settings or murder mysteries.
19. What is your favorite magazine? - I don't read magazines. I don't really have the time to. It would probably be National Geographic if I did, though.
20. What is your favorite TV Show? I rarely watch tv any more , but I'd have to say that currently, I enjoy Monk.
21.What is your favorite animated Movie? - The Lion King
22. What is your favorite Anime Movie? - Princess Mononoke
23. What is your favorite movie? - I... have no idea.
24. Who is your favorite director? - I don't have a favorite director...
25. Who do you admire the most? - My big brother, the experienced animators that I've been fortunate to work with, my friend Danielle Paulet, my friend Cat Trazowski