Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Fun

Im not liking my current AM shot any longer..... frustrated that I can't seem to get it this term... so today, I decided to give myself a little bit of a break (back to the AM assignment all day tomorrow) and animate a little dinosaur for fun.

My friend inspired me since he has to animate a bunch for work, I was kinda curious to see if I could do it too!

heres a baby t-rex. Kinda fun. Bobby mentioned it kinda looked like the baby rex's in Ice Age 3..... haha, love how I didnt notice that til he said it.

Anyway, this is a basic walk cycle, in stepped mode. First pass.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

FINAL!

Ok, so I am out of time on that Sword animation, but thanks to Joe I got some final comments and adjustments down yesterday, and was able to submit it today! Yay!

here is what I turned in:


Sunday, November 8, 2009

annnnnnd progress!

Check it out....

This has GOTTA be done this week.....

Update!

Alright, blocking done for this two character dialogue shot..

Take a look!






AND, to the advice of one of my mentors, I re-did all of my sword animation with another rig. Fortunately, I was able to re-do everything that I had already done in about a full day. Here is the update, and I am continuing to work on it now. Still missing that very final move at the end...... * working on putting that in *

Enjoy! Comments?


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Wow, behind again!

Ok, so Ive been really bad about this lately. Been insanely busy. Trying to hold onto like...3 or 4 random part-time jobs, while still in class, and doing some animation tests for a potential job. haha. So I work at:
Golds Gym
Freelance research for a project with Henninger Media Services
Freelance graphic design and photo editing (just did some JMU shirts for Homecoming :-D)
A local temp agency when they call me
And of course......Animation Mentor

CRAZY!

Lately I've been waiting to hear back from an interview that I did for an Animation Intern position at Pixeldust Studios in Bethesda, MD as well. A friend of mine works there, and I hope that works out! I interviewed right at their busy season though, so I should apparently be hearing back in a few days (its been weeks since I interviewed...but Ive been in touch with them). And on top of THAT, Im doing a sort-of Animation test for Bethesda Softworks...though they didn't specify what they were asking for it FOR. So Im hoping its for either an intern or a job opportunity... That would be freakin BAD ASS!!!

Anyways, I'll go ahead and post my most recent animations here. I finished up that first single dialogue shot, and Im now on to a two character dialogue shot. I think its going to be a bit rough, but right now this is just blocking week, so literally just getting into it. Ive been focusing mainly though on this Animation Test.... only since it could potentially mean big things. I spent the past two days working on the blocking....revising things, fixing poses.. I feel like its never really right...so Ive been in blocking for like, two weeks. haha.

Anyways, hopefully with the help of some awesome people Ive been showing it to, it'll be on its way. Im hoping to get out of blocking this week. Hopefully I have time for everything with my homework as well! Just a week of animating..... oh yea, and waking up at 3:45am to go open Golds Gym.. *sigh*.

Alright, so heres some animations:

Final Finished Dialogue Shot:
Note: theres a FACE CAM just for the words, and then the full shot right after it.




Annnd here is the blocking of this animation test so far. The assignment literally was:
Show a humanoid character draw a melee weapon, e.g. a sword, do a complete walk cycle with the weapon drawn, then perform a series of attacks with the weapon. Feel free to make the character heroic, stealthy, hulking, agile, or whatever you think will showcase well. Use an animation package of your choice.

So yea.. haha, needless to say, its challenging. Especially finding and making the correct video reference to aid the shot, so it looks right. Anyway, this is what I have gotten up to from todays work:





Enjoy!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Soooo Im a bit behind again....

Haha, I have a NEW web site! Still working on it, but its a start.....

www.katherinenaeher.com.

That's more focused on my work overall. Still taking some getting used to in editing it and getting it up on the web. <-- NOT web savvy... Anyway, Here is also my MOST recent Animation! I got an A- on it, which is AMAZING! Jay is a hard grader, but a fantastic mentor. Leaves really great comments, thorough for sure. Here it is! *note: The mouth is currently a "puppet" mouth, with only the capability to open and close...so ignore the face. Next term we are working on the dialogue specifically, so this term was only the body and acting.*

Thursday, August 20, 2009

updated reel

Thanks to miss Heather Elliott, I have a better reel! Take a look! Had to shrink it a bit because it was too large of a file for Blogger, but its here either way!


Can't wait to end up with more things to put into it and really work to make it more cohesive, but its just going to have to wait I think until I have some more stuff to use.


Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Annnd the winning clip IS....

Number 6! Jay seemed to like it best, and so did I. I think it has the best change, and I think its pretty entertaining. Plus, I ended up with a pretty good idea for it (thanks to a bit of guidance from Kamal ;-) thanks!).

So here is the first part of blocking it out.. I haven't gotten alll the way through yet.....



Friday, August 7, 2009

More ideas.......

Ok, so from last time, a lot of people liked 2, 4, and 5 the best, but I got a lot of comments about people feeling that, especially in two, I would end up with too many associations to the Joker from batman (who obviously spoke the lines), and to stay away from those pre-determined feelings about a line of dialogue. SO...4 and 5 got the highest votes over all...though I think 5 will have the same issue, and looked for some more.....

Take a look at 4 and 5 again, and then I have added now 5 more..

thoughts?


Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Ideas for the next assignment...

Hey! Check these 5 out and let me know what you think... Hopefully the sound plays.....

Need some advice for my next animation mentor assignment!


Demo Reel

Check it out! What Ive been workin on lately......





Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Awesome! Ice Age 3!

Check these out...

Saw Ice Age 3 last night, and REALLY enjoyed it. Much more than the second one. Got these links from some friends of mine, and I thought they were really really helpful. Gave some good insight into how an animator at a studio works on a scene for a feature film.. :-D

This first one is the "evolution" of this shot, from blocking to polish.




This next one is showing the video reference the animator created to use for his shots. haha, this one I find pretty hilarious. ;-)

Enjoy!


Long-awaited!

Hey everyone! Sorry its been so long, my schedule go mad-insane with work, I had a very short time to complete the rest of those animations!

Here is whats been going on:
-Finished all Animation for Fit Kidz
-Competed in my first Half Ironman Triathlon on Sunday..and BOY was that insane!
-Rendering is finishing up as we speak, should be done as of tomorrow at lunch
-I have a couple of them to post, but they have no sound, as that needs to be edited in later (sorry!)
-AM class is back up and running, we're into Introduction to Acting now. I will post a playblast of my current shot today :-)

And thats about it! Ive been living Animation lately, and its definitely kicking my butt! Nice to have some time to chill and not worry about tight deadlines.

Here are a couple of the animations from work:

NOTE: there is NO sound. Sorry everyone. But you can see how it looks at least! I will post finals once I have them...sound and all. But visually, this is it!




Annnnd another one!

(again, sorry no sound :-( )



Allrighty, and last but not least, here is the most recent playblasted pass of my newest AM class assignment :-) There is a lot of work to be done on this, and I am working on revising a lot of it now before I leave for the weekend, but take a look at the progress as of now at least! Enjoy!




And back to the homework.....

Check back in later everyone!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Animtion #3!

Alright, heres a bit of an update...not a lot of time for more than that, but take a look......

Still revising and working on it (the cat has little animation on him at this point, and there are some spots still in Stepped mode, so no worries, getting there!)


Sunday, June 21, 2009

Animation #2!

Ok, so its been about a day and a half, and this is what I was able to get down for the second animation......

Note:
There is a glitch with the dog's L arm in the opening section that was fixed, and some other small mods that have been done since this was put together. it just takes forever to playblast, so I posted what I had :-D



Saturday, June 20, 2009

WAHOO! Crankin along.....

UPDATE:

Now on to Animation #2...heres what I got ;-)

First part "complete"...Speedy coming in and asking Couch if he's had all his fruits and veggies for the day...

Speedy...
(ignore the resolution gate...my bad...)



Then Couch responding with the fact that he's eaten a whole lotta fruit flavored Candy! haha...




WAHOO!

On to the next 3/5 of the animation....

Im determined to have this one done tonight...so I can move on to the next episode!!!!

Check it OUT!!!!!!

Hey everyone, check out the first animation for the kids show that I have been working on!!

This took 4 days...hahaha...
Character re-design - Me
Modeling and character textures - Bobby
Rigging - Peter
Set design, model, texture, and lighting -Me
Voices - Spencer
Animation - Me!




7 more to go.....

Working on the "Snacks with Mom" one now! Let me know what you all think!!!!!!!!

Monday, June 15, 2009

the long awaited graphic design........

Mk...so for some reason I can't figure out how to turn off "underline" on this post...but anyway...
Here are some of my graphics!! Starting out with a couple things I did in Photoshop. This is a dragon that I drew out originally for my brother as a part of a tattoo design. Fire and Ice dragons. Needless to say this is as far as I have gotten thus far on the Fire side. It was kind of a test to see how I could make it work. Next comes intertwining the two of them once I finish up the individual dragons. Either way, here is a sketch that I started with, and then some progress on the body. The arms are not quite finished...but its definitely getting there :-)










































These next two are images that I did for a t-shirt contest for the Army 10 Miler in Washington, D.C. Needless to say, I did not win, but I was pretty damn proud of them! Both done 100% in Illustrator. First really complex designs I did in Illustrator as well.












Here is another project I did in Illustrator. This was one of the first that I did in an intro class. Its an iguana's face. I thought it was really neat, and I obviously took some liberties in the coloration, but I was really happy with how it came out.























On to one of my favorites :-D. Unfortunately, it was created at a difficult time in my life (a bad break up....could you guess?? haha), but I was really happy with the outcome. It consists of one digital photograph, and the rest was all done in Photoshop. Love it!




























Now here are a couple of just little fun ones that I did. These were done for my Triathlon Team in college. The first was a design for our pint glasses (Hey, alcohol is good for athletes...look it up! haha...), and the second is the design for our Nationals t-shirts my Senior year. We had a habit of creating the shirts off of the "popular movie" that summer, and at the time it happened to be the new Transformers Movie...which I was 100% OK with. I think it turned out pretty cool. I made the text by using the original Transformers text as reference, and I made some of my own modifications to the face. Pretty basic :-D Cool none the less....

























So, there ya go! Just some samples of my graphics work. I have some more, but that will have to come later. haha. These are some of the ones I was the most proud of.

Plenty more to come, along with ANIMATION! :-D

My two favorite things.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Last assignment of class 3!

Yes...........I am terrible at keeping up to date with this. I admit it. Im bad. Haha.

But now for an update! Life has been good! Busy, but good! our last video shoot for work is Thursday, and in between shoots Ive been full-on into Animation prep for the segments for our show.

In terms of homework, just now working on refining the final one for the end of the term. here is what I got so far:




So far, I have been getting really positive feedback on this, which makes me feel great! A lot of people think its the best one yet, and funny enough, it was the least difficult for me! One more week of work on it until the end of the term, so we will see where it ends up by the end!


Anyway, in the meantime, I have been searching for work in the area, pretty much whatever I can find. I think I am heading the graphics route, 2D that is, at least for now. I love that stuff, and I honestly would have been so happy to double major in both graphic design and animation, had the option been available, but I love both mediums nonetheless. So far I have found one place...gotten into the second round of the recruiting process, which is AWESOME.....so we'll see where that goes.

I think I am going to start posting some of my 2D stuff on here as well...so I might have to change the title a bit ;-) haha.

Anyway, keep checking back, and I will hopefully have some graphics up tonight (I know, I said that last time, but I really mean it this time :-P )

Friday, May 22, 2009

Life is insane!

Soo today is my birthday (23, yay!), and let me tell you, life has been insane. We've been shooting video for our show, and its been a great experience, but its DEFINITELY been busy! Trying to fit everything in, doing pretty much a video shoot every day (except Sunday, which I took to chill out totally), plus I got pretty sick for a week...and then badly sunburned from one of the shoots....ugh, no good. BUT, I got to watch the Washington Freedom Women's Soccer team practice (when I got burned..haha), build a "space ship super computer," meet Dominique Dawes (Olympic Gymnast), and pretty much just goof off and have a blast, with some work in there too. haha. Video shoots are awesome, but pretty exhausting as well. The people have been amazing, everyone is SO nice, which makes for some great times, and some hilarious inside jokes that our crew has ended up with. I love it! I have the best job ever :-D.

ANYWAY, on to the Animation! I know, I haven't been keeping up wth this at all. BUT, Im gona go ahead and post the latest finised animation with my grenade throw, and then later today once I get my blocking done for this new one (rope pull), I will post that as well. Ive been pulling up my grades in class too, which is AWESOME! Makes me feel so good about it because Ive had so much on my plate lately. YAY!

Take a look!!!!!




Blocking for the new one to come later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta get to WORK!

*You betta WORK!* <- one of MANY inside jokes...lol........

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Annndddddddd MORE!!

Trying to knock out this blocking since Im headed to Michigan tomorrow evening after work. Its been a bit nuts around here! Lots of early mornings and late nights...probably more so coming up...but oh well! At least Im doing stuff I enjoy, right? haha. Production Assistant work is pretty awesome.

Anyways, heres an update on the latest!




So after he sits up, its not over....Im going to have a flast of white or something, and then all the sudden his face is all charred up. haha. Trying to work that one out a little bit, but we'll see what I end up coming up with! Anyway, Im hoping I can get a little more work on this before I leave town tomorrow, but overall Im decently happy with the start of it!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

workin workin workin......

Tryin to get this stuff movin!

Check out the beginning of blocking out the new animation.........


Sunday, April 26, 2009

Wahoo

So since I didn't get a chance to upload all my files last time, Im going to do it for this assignment..

Haha, its harder to keep up with this thing than I thought sometimes! Lack of time kicks everything. Anyway, here is the "finished" monkey bars one so far, and my NEXT assignment is Stewie throwing a grenade...haha. Check out the story boards!





There you have it! Hopefully I can pull a decent grade on it....Im pretty happy with it. Its got some elements I don't like (the perfectionist side speaking), but time is of the essence. Haha. We shall see!

Anyway, heres the storyboards for the next one!





Sunday, April 19, 2009

Week 1 of new job...

Wow......

So I am now officially a Production Assistant on a potential kid's show! AWESOME! Its been insanity getting used to this. The commute is about an hour into the city, and it has been LONG hours so far. Killing my Half Iron Man training, and my homework time, sadly. Fortunately, its only week one, so I definitely have some adjusting to do. Working on that one...

Spent all week setting up casting calls for 12-14 year olds, taking phone calls, setting up the schedule, etc. It was quite intense. Friday alone was nuts....129 kids interviewed in 2.5 hours....CRAZY! Fun though, I have to say, this job is awesome, even though its kicking my butt. May is going to be insanly intense...video shoots every weekend...looks like I am working 7-day weeks (roughly) for all of May. HA! Niccceeeeeee.

Anyway, just pulled my first mostly all-nighter since college...haha. I had little to no time to put in a lot of work on the homework during the week, so I jumped into hyper-mode and 23 hours later (since yesterday starting at 8:00am)....its done. Haha, needless to say, running on about 3 hours of sleep, but SO glad its at the spot it is. I am happy with it thus far...it has a LONG way to go, most definitely, but at least it is out of blocking and into the refining stages.

ok, enough chatter....here it is thus far.....


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

ok ok...

Alright, so Im terrible with keeping up with this sometimes. There are definitely lulls in my postings, so I apologize, but I promise Im going to continue to keep posting my work.

Got a few things to put up here for the newest assignment......we're now into class 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!! crazyness! Already jumping in head first though.

The assignment this time was kind of cool...we had to pick what we wanted to do! We could choose between changing up the scenarios throughout the 3 assignments, or we could choose to make 3 animations that all relate together. I chose to make 3 that relate, and have the theme be "Stewie's boot camp." I thought that might be fun, and it was the one that I could come up with the most scenarios.

Starting off, I decided to have Stewie attempt his hand at some "monkey bars"....not sure what its called when you do it in boot camp, but either way, same deal. SO, here is my blocking so far. Still not done with the end of it, just working progressively, but Im pretty proud of it thus far for it being a very first pass, so I figured I would post it.

I will proceed to post the video reference, sketches, and my final portfolio from the end of last term as soon as I get a chance :-D





In the mean time, enjoy!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Annnnd an update...

Ok, so this may not look too much different from the last one, but Ive been working a lot with the last little front kick and some other small details. Got some comments last night after posting the previous one, and got to work finishing those this morning. I have one more week to work on finalizing it once I get Victor's comments, so we'll see what he has to say!

Anyway, here's the one I just turned in for this week:




Comment away!!!!!!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

so, its been a while....

Haha, my bad everyone, the past two weeks were a little nuts. A couple job interviews (which panned, out, btw, and I actually get a job where I get to ANIMATE, starting in April!! WAHOO!!), lots of work shifts, some unexpected work shifts, and then the Homework of course. So, I apologize for the lack of posting!!!

However, we are in the polishing stage of our latest Animation, mine being that Butterfly Kick!!!

TAKE A LOOK!




I am really REALLY proud of it so far. It has taken a lot of work, and honestly, I think it is my best so far in class, which is exactly how it should be!!! Still some little things to work out, but I have one more week. Im going to wait on some comments before I decide to change anything really, because the spots Im "unsure" of, I don't really know what to do with. Anyway, that is what I have been up to lately. Really hoping I can get higher than a B on this one. Victor is a hard grader, but I think it is making me that much better at my work, because Im forced to pay attention to all of those little things that make the animation look really good.

=D I'll post the Final Polish when I have gotten my comments back!!!!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Sketches, video ref, and more Blocking..

Here is the REST of what I was going to post last night. :-)

REFERENCE!!!!



Found this video on youtube, and it was FREAKIN perfect for what I was doing. Slow motion, breakdowns and everything, so thats been helping a lot. SO, I took that...and I did THIS!

SKETCHESSS!




Yea, I did a lot of them. 48 to be precise. Thought more was better than less I guess. The red leg is the right leg, so it was easier for me to follow...haha. Theres a lot of spinning, so I thought it might help to isolate one leg. Sorry the image is so small/blurry, I have a bunch of notes written there as I was sketching, but apparently they're going to be a little hard to read. Apologies! Either way, at least you can semi-see the sketches. So, that was my planning, not including all of the little notes I have on a few other pages of "things to remember" with this...lots of Arcs, in the feet, arms, head, etc. Its going to be a lot to map out and watch for, but I think its going to turn out well...at least I hope so!!

So, now that all of this is up...take a look at the blocking I've gotten done so far today...the jump is "done," and Im working on the landing now. Leave comments if you pleeeeeasee!!


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

BUTTERFLY KICK!

WAHOO! Ok, really excited and a little nervous about this next assignment. I have decided to take on the task of attempting a Butterfly Kick off of our pick list. I have the video reference and sketches all done, and now I have started blocking. Just tonight, I've gotten through part of it, so I wanted to go ahead and share it with those who are becoming loyal followers :-D.

I will post the video reference and sketches tomorrow, because its late, and I want to go to bed....but since I'm excited about this, I wanted to post the start of blocking ;-)




Keep in mind, I haven't even finished the landing and whatnot of it, but still, I wanted to put it up, because even though its SO rough...I think its going to look cool :-D I can't wait to get into the arcs and everything! Luckily, I'm spending all day on it tomorrow ;-).

Ok, bed time. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Been MIA

So its been a little while...my apologies! I've been a little busy. Ended up with some increased hours at the restaurant, along with my last animation project taking me quite a while to get figured out.

Not as happy with this one overall as I have been with the others, but I think theres still lots of improvement that can be made on it. Anyway, from the last video reference that I had up, I changed a lot of what my character ended up doing. Had a lot of trouble getting the scenario set up the way I wanted..I just couldn't decide anything on this one for some reason. Went through probably 4 scenarios before I picked one.

Anyway, here is a look at what I turned in as my *Final*. There will be revisions made based on my critique, so I will post those soon too.




ALSO, I meant a while ago to post some of my 2D work up here, I just haven't gotten around to it yet, but I promise I will!

I am going to go ahead an get into my Blocking for this weeks assignment...I chose to attempt a Butterfly Kick, so I have a feeling its going to be a bit of a challenge. Gotta get a jump on it since I worked all day yesterday!

Friday, January 30, 2009

Dancing fools and people falling off stools...

Ok, so I've been working on this animation on and off for a little bit. Took longer than anticipated because of the holidays and some family things going on (grandfather AND grandmother in and outta the hospital...no fun), but I have finally gotten it to a good point to start showing off!

Its this little dancing guy, and I figured one of the best dance songs that most people know was Fatboy Slim's "The Rockefeller Skank." It just has such a good beat, etc, and I thought it was fun. SO, take a look at where this is goin so far!




Also, I have gone ahead and made my video reference for class 4, I'm still kind of deciding exactly how the scenario is going to play out in the animation itself, but I decided to do either "jumping up and off a box," or "losing balance." OR, I might combine the two if I'm feeling ambitious :-).
Take a look at me jumping all over the place...haha....





Sketches and Blocking will be soon to follow. I have to have it done by Tuesday before I head out of town for a week, so it's going to be a weekend of homework for me! Fortunately, the kind of homework I enjoy ;-).

ALSO, got some really good feedback from Victor in class the other night, so check out the latest revision of Ballie going down the stairs!




I think I am just about to the point here I can call it as done as its going to get. Gotten some really nice comments so far.


Check back for more later!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

workin workin workin

Its been a little while since I posted, so here is a bit of an update! Been working on homework a lot, trying to get an idea currently for my new animation. Gotta pick a new one from my "pick list" to do for this week. Kind of excited to have a new one. It will be fun!

Anyway, I've been working on getting Ballie down the stairs, haha, and with lots of comments, so far, this is what I have. This my last go-around before its final. I'll get one more set of critiquing tonight through my Question and Answer (QnA) session before I have to turn it in, so hopefully I'm well on my way and can move on to this week's new pick list. Here is what I have so far!



So we'll see what happens after tonights comments. Got a lot of work to get done this week...hoping I can get motivated to get it all done before Tuesday! Gotta get new video reference, sketches, and actually complete my first blocking pass all by Tuesday. *whew* Then its up to Michigan for a week!!! WAHOO!

Back to work!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

First assignment :-)

Mk, SO, the first assignment here is to pick one of the things from a list of options to animate, and then shoot video reference, draw sketches, Block, and then animate. All the way through. Its over a 4 week period, which is nice, more time to refine things. I liked a bunch of the options, but I decided to pick walking down the stairs. I wanted the opportunity to see how well I would do with working the "weight" aspect of the animation, every time you hit the step below the first, making sure the weight is communicated. We'll see what happens!

SO, on to it, here is what I have so far:

Video reference (Thanks to Kyle :-))



I tried getting a bunch of different angles, front and back, side, at a 3/4 view, etc to help out during blocking. So far, I'm glad I did it! Its been extremely helpful.

Next, I had to do sketches, at least two pages worth. These turned out alright, some of them could have been better, but I was a bit rushed for time, so take a look...



Figured the front and side were most important. I have trouble drawing things in odd perspectives sometimes, so I thought these would be easiest to understand and to complete for me in the time I had.

Well, now that I have the reference materials posted, here is my FIRST round of blocking. This is literally, just putting down the poses. I still have a lot of blocking left to do. Check it out!




So far so good if you ask me. Got a long way to go, but its a start! Getting back to it. Posting more later :-)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Back in 2009!

Alright, so now that the holidays are all over, it is time for Class 2: The Psychology of Body Mechanics, with none other than VICTOR NAVONE! TOTALLY psyched. I think its going to be a good class. My first class was amazing, so social and helpful, always coming up with reference, helpful materials, web sites, and just hilarious overall. I hope this one follows suit, I'll be disappointed if it doesn't!

Well, I just tried uploading my final demo reel for Class 1 that I turned in, but it is WAY too big, so until I can get the size a little smaller, it'll have to wait. Its alright though, its just both halves of what I already posted smushed together. haha. Ah well...

I'm going to get started on this week's work before class tonight (11:30pm - 12:30am...kinda late this time), and I'll start posting video reference / sketches/ and blocking as I get it finished! Stop by and take a look!