Odd Men

Mad Men meets The Fairly OddParents.

Astro

As you can probably tell, it's been a while since I've last updated.  Last semester buried me in school work, but I managed to survive with the help of friends. 


This semester I plan to start a pet photography business in College Station.  It only made sense to do so - I had been taking pictures for AGS (Aggie Guide-dogs and Service-dogs) for the past three years, I take a lot of animal pictures, and of course, I enjoy it.  I needed some practice, so I decided to ask my old friend, Christina, if I could take pictures of her new Siberian Husky puppy, Astro.  We went to our elementary school for the shoot.


Astro's personality was apparent from the start - even at 7 weeks old.  He's independent, stubborn, and curious.  He gave me a good fight to snag pictures of him.  I do not expect puppies to have a long attention span, so I had to be exceedingly patient with him (as he with me).  The playground was his stage, and he performed brilliantly.  

http://www.texasblueyedhuskies.com/

Circuitree

As usual, school work has completely engulfed me.  Thankfully, I am managing to keep up with the work, but I am on the urge of falling at any moment.  Oscar, Rhiannon, and I finished our Circuitree project a week and a half ago.  I figured it was appropriate to share the finished product on my personal blog.  For our project, I designed, modeled, rigged, and animated the worm virus in Maya.  To read more about the project, you can check out my blog for my studio:

http://amyrichardsportfolio.blogspot.com/

worm texture

rig composed of spline IK chain with additional bones

Demo of Project

Immersive Environment Design

Task: Design an immersive environment with a body interface
Theme: Visible/Invisible
Project: Projection to HMD 


Concept: User logs into computer and runs a program.  The program contains a virus.  The user will run an anti-virus software.  The user now takes the form of the anti-virus software, more importantly Spybot.  The user is plunged into a forest-like maze where the user is left to disinfect the environment and find the source of the virus.  



This is my first studio project of the semester for VIST 405.  My partners are Oscar Camorlinga and Rhiannon Martinez.  Our original idea was to have a Trojan virus. After thorough discussion, we decided to change the Trojan virus to a Worm.  The Trojan, though easily recognizable, is stereotypical, obvious, and cliche.  It is often used as a symbol of computer viruses.  The Worm is more suitable for our environment.  Here is a concept sketch of the Worm:

Max

For several years, I have painted or drawn portraits of family and friend's dogs, usually those beloved pets who have recently passed.  My best friend, Bethany, lost her German Shepherd, Max, last month.  I figured it was time to do a portrait of Max as a late birthday present for Bethany.

The best reference of Max was a 4X6 inch picture provided from Bethany's family, so I was unable to enlarge the painting an extensive amount (8X10).  This was my first watercolor painting.  Though I am a rookie, I would like to experiment with watercolor in the near future.  

Ink Boy

When I studied abroad in Germany this past spring, I worked on my final studio project with Oscar.  Our project was to create a portal to another world.  The purpose of the project was mainly to get compositing experience.  Oscar and I plan to finish the project in the fall.  Here is a short description, a few frames of our animation, along with the unfinished animation:

Live action: Our character aimlessly walks amongst a path while observing everything but the ground he walks on.  On the path, he falls into a ink puddle (portal). 

Animation: He is then transformed into Ink Boy!  Ink Boy enters a world of blank canvas where he is left to discover. 

Several of my friends and I played with the idea of ordering a customized Ink Boy plush, but it was too expensive.  Last night, I received a package from Oscar.  He handmade an Ink Boy plush!  It was quite a rewarding feeling to actually see and have my own character as a tangible object.  He stands at about 9 inches and has beans in each of his limbs, providing a good weight to the plush.  

88 Keys

I started this project three years ago.  Typical of me, I immediately got distracted and fell into another project.  I recently found the Vans in my closet and decided it was time to finish.  It isn't perfect, but finally complete.  My infatuation for the piano is immense, I couldn't help myself.