Hardcow Cow Turnarounds

I have been working on some character turnarounds for my Hardcore-Hardcow character.
Next up: a pig, a chicken, and a grab-bag of barn-yard citizens.

HARDCOW! Boards, Roughs, Clean Pass

Finals week was especially fun animating, cleaning, and coloring this lovely Hardcore-Hardcow idea I have had for awhile now. The project was for Animation III class, and it is something I plan on revamping, finishing, and reworking the rest of the summer. The bit was featured in the End-of-the-year 134th Annual Student Show at CCAD. Music credit go to locals Hollow Like Me (https://www.facebook.com/HollowLikeMe)! There's 32 seconds here of all that I managed to get done; the summer goal is to finish the thought and story to be a little more complete:
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Spring Break

Here's a little bit of what I have been working on this week of Spring Break. For Experimental Animation, I am doing a rotoscope project - which definitely involved me lip-syncing a small meow-rap by The Death Set. Animation III has me working on a scene from my short that involves an attitude-walk (a dance in this case) with an abrupt change at the end.
I also have a goal of trying to finish roughs for every scene of this cow short over break, so more is on the way!

Hardcow Storyboard Update & Rooster Crow Pass 2

New storyboard pass I have been meaning to get off my chest! I feel like it is long overdue, and I definitely feel that I can finally, genuinely get the ball rolling. It's funny, once I break it down like this, I see how simple the story really is - dancing cow dances through a barn and finds a dance opponent - I feel immensely better about tackling it.

Here's an update on the first scene as well as the twisty background/behind the barn from the beginning. It's come a long way since last time (last thumbnails: http://sarahmaeschmidt.blogspot.com/2013/01/in-class-cow-gesturesrough-storyboard.html; first attempt: http://sarahmaeschmidt.blogspot.com/2012/09/media-arts-seminar.html).

"Hardcow" Character Development

Animation III: Rooster Keys/Extremes/Notes

Animation III In-Class Sketches and Project Keyframes

Our first project - which will go toward our final/30 second short - is to animate an emotion-based action. I chose a scene featuring a pissed pig who challenges the protagonist cow, throwing down the boom-box before their throw-down battle.

Below are drawings from in-class last week, where we watched a Charlie Chaplain short and proposed random feelings/objects for our character to interact with. The drawings in red were done by others during a quick critique.

In-Class Cow Gestures/Rough Storyboard Thumbs

Winter Break Pt2: Character Study-Palooza

This break I made it a point to try and take a few days where I would just sit down and draw the same character as many times as I could. I decided to focus on characters I thought I already had put together fairly well from my childhood/early years as an artist - it was such a neat process to tap back into them again and push them further than I ever thought I would. The most interesting and rewarding thing was the fact that sketching them in this fashion really helped me see as more of a feasible, concrete characters that I can imagine with much more clarity. I came to new conclusions: the kitten with the laser cannon on his tail - his tail could be long enough for him to hold so he could aim his laser cannon. The cute creepy thing with the mask - why is he wearing a mask? Maybe he is actually a hideous freak with lots of lots of teeth? 

I also started drawing the Hardcow again, at the end of break - and this has continued into this first week of school. More big sketch posts of lots of cows/barnyard friends (for Animation III) and Space Puppies (for Layout and Timing) are on their way!