Nate's Art Blog!

Moonshot!

2011-12-01T01:54:00.001-07:00

Hey! So, I posted this a while back, along side some other fun space images:

Well, here it is colored! Got a bit carried away :) And there's definitely a lens flare in there.

This project definitely showed me that I'll need a new Wacom soon. I've got a pretty old 3" x 4" Graphire3... it turns out it's pretty horrible at inking. I had to use Illustrator's Live Trace feature to create outlines from my base scan. It's definitely a cool feature with a ton of control, but of course, it's just not the same as pencil-in-hand. Or, rather, stylus in hand...

Cheers!

AM week 3! Second Pass!

2011-10-16T01:53:00.001-06:00

AAAaaaand week three brings us to a second pass, or "blocking plus" on Sailor Stewie! Still working on character, but the primary emphasis of this semester is body mechanics. Not too happy with the end, but changed up the grabbing of the cannonball a bit, and added a cartoon-scramble, which I'm fairly happy with...

Enjoy!

AM Class 3 Week 2!

2011-10-13T14:50:00.000-06:00

Well here we are at week 2 of class 3 at AnimationMentor! So excited to be back in AM after my leave of absence in Norway and Latvia!

Here is my blocking pass for my first shot of this semester, Sailor Stewie loads a cannon! Now time to get back to work...

A quick little sketch...

2011-08-17T19:20:00.003-06:00

So I took a semester off from AnimationMentor with all my travels this summer, and there's only four and a half weeks left until my Advanced Body Mechanics class!

So as such, I'll be doing various sketches such as this one to get warmed up and keep on practicing!

2011 Animation Reel

2011-08-06T19:45:00.002-06:00

Animation Mentor Class 2 vids!

2011-08-05T19:30:00.003-06:00

Here is a collection of the assignments from class 2 at Animation Mentor!

Final Assignment: A Ninja Heist!

...and the animated thumbnail sketches!

Balancing on a ball...

...and, again, the animated thumbnail sketches!

A simple side-step test...

And the first assignment!

Some of my Photography!

2011-08-02T09:34:00.001-06:00

So I have this awesome **film camera** called the Diana Mini that I picked up a bit ago. It lets you take multiple exposures and general messing-around-awesomeness. It gets some suprising results!

Greetings from Skjolden, Norway!

2011-06-27T15:38:00.001-06:00

Hey y'all! Just figured I'd drop a quick post before I head out to Riga, Latvia with my Navigator buds! We leave tomorrow morning taking planes, trains and automobiles! No net connections out there, so here's a couple pics and a quick lil sketch of my Latvian friend Arturus!

I'm the guy on the far right with the messy hair :D

Off to Norway and Latvia!

2011-06-06T00:55:00.003-06:00

Hey hey hey y'all! I'm off to the land of Norway and Latvia to serve with the Navigators doing some training and humanitarian work for 6 weeks! I'll be armed with a camera and a sketchbook, so watch out! See you in 6 weeks!

-Nathan
6/5/11

maybe it's time for an upgrade?

2011-05-18T22:11:00.000-06:00

Some people have netbooks, and nice little macbooks. I have THIS MASSIVE THING:

and it runs linux.

Quick Sketches at the Goat...

2011-05-15T04:08:00.000-06:00

She was very deep in thought and held very nicely still for me!

[edit: I can't believe I forgot these! A few more simple sketches, a couple of my favorites! 5/18/11]

One of my favorite things about the Laughing Goat is their mini-concerts every night by local and traveling musicians! The man in the top left was just FIXATED on this blues guitarist. Everyone else was socializing here and there, but this guy seriously did not move ONCE. He was completely lost in the music.

A quick animated storyboard...

2011-05-14T04:00:00.003-06:00

So these are some thumbnail sketches for the blocking phase of my 2nd assignment for class 2 of Animation Mentor... which makes this the most formal 2-D animation I've ever made! Pretty fun :)

AM Class 2 Shot 1 Final!

2011-05-13T03:45:00.000-06:00

Here's my final version of our first assignment at AnimationMentor! We used Ballie, a ball character with legs. In the previous class we built up to Ballie over 12 weeks, starting out with a bouncing ball, ultimately up to a walking Ballie character with personality! Now here's Ballie in a bit more complicated of a situation...

Just some people at the Laughing Goat

2011-05-12T03:35:00.000-06:00

My favorite coffee spot in Boulder is The Laughing Goat. Its the artsy, ritzy go-to joint, and there's always a lot of fascinating transients, whom I draw!

Sometimes I get caught when I'm drawing people at the Goat... which isn't that uncommon since it's a pretty small place. Both the girl on the left and the guy on the right caught me. The difference between the two is that the guy sat down at the table in front of me, and immediately noticed that I was staring at him... but he was too cool-looking for me to give up on the drawing so I just kept staring at him. He kept trying to avoid eye-contact, got all stiff, and finally got so uncomfortable that he got up and left. I feel a little bad about that.

I gotta color this one. This girl was the coolest passer-by ever.

------------------------

Some hand studies... gotta do more of these...

The guy on the left had these crazy crazy dreads and was REALLY getting into whatever he was writing. He was writing so furiously that I felt he was almost clawing his way out of some sort of hole...

Two random ones...

2011-05-11T03:30:00.000-06:00

So here are two random drawings. Below is a concept sketch of a makeshift-flying home for a group of traveling heroes.. it became a mix between Up and Adventures in Odyssey. And look! Here's a cowboy.

Once upon a full moon...

2011-05-10T03:04:00.000-06:00

I've been drawing a bunch of wolves lately on a project. I like how this one turned out!

...and a quick study of a dog's gallop...

some wierd stuff...

2011-05-09T02:58:00.000-06:00

I was enjoying my new thicker mechanical pencil and I just started drawing spans of lines that turned into muscle and then THIS happened. Some sort of statement about pop culture? The one on the right is definitely Gaga inspired.

The Revamp!

2011-05-08T01:35:00.000-06:00

Hey y'all! Man do I got a lot of work to show ya! Let's start off with some sketches of space stuff!

A collage of different ideas for idealistic future fantasy space people! I definitely was trying to go for Scott Pilgrim in the faces...

This one I gotta color...

...and this one too.

[Edit: I had to add one more:]

Evil balding epic mullet space man. Just imagine space metal music rocking in the background while his army of ships rises in the background, in slow motion of course.

11/10/10 !!!

2010-11-12T12:18:00.005-07:00

I can't believe it... As of 11/10 I am now a Student at Animation Mentor! I start in January! I don't know who my mentor is yet but I'll be definitely blogging about it like crazy!

I've graduated!!!!

2010-05-21T01:01:00.008-06:00

I graduated last week from the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Colorado at Boulder, with degrees in 3D Animation and Integrative Physiology, respectively. WOOO! Finally done! Feeling excited and nervous...

PS-- I've updated my Pre-vis/Layout Reel with new 2D Art and Modeling.

Pre-vis/Layout Reel, 2010

2010-04-20T18:25:00.012-06:00

Breakdown:

00:04-00:38 Previs Lead, 'Flight Sequence': Comparison of Animatic to Final Render

From A Complex Villainelle, Senior Class of 2010 Final Project (University of Colorado Denver)

Previs/Animatic Lead: Lead up a team of four other animation students to create the Animatic for the Flight Sequence as a proof-of-concept for the Director during Pre-Production, Spring 2009. Designed the "mini-story" of the flight sequence, animated, modeled and directed team. Storyboarding proved to be inadequate for conveying the needs of the Story team, so my team turned out this Animatic in a week, inspiring the rest of the class to quickly move from Storyboarding to Animatic ahead of schedule.

Software: Maya, After Effects, Mental Ray, Renderman, Fusion.

00:40-01:01 Animator, Various Shots from A Complex Villainelle

Modeled, Animated the Penguin (main male character) and Mary Poppins (model by Ellie Reznikov); the rest of the class (21 students) contributed to set/environment design, modeling, character design, lighting, texturing, and compositing.

Software: Maya, After Effects, Mental Ray, Renderman, Fusion.

01:05-01:47 Character Development and Modeling

The Penguin: Main character for A Complex Villainelle; character designed in committee, only drawings made by me are shown. Texturing and Shading by Callie Crabtree and Amber Vojensky.
Software: Maya, Renderman

The Geckuana: Personal Project, emphasis on displacement map created in Photoshop against UV grid.
Software: Maya, Photoshop, Renderman

Grandpa Rhino: Personal Project, emphasis on character design, wrinkle study, and edgeflow.
Software: Maya, Mudbox, Renderman

01:50-01:54 'Humbled', charcoal on paper
01:54-01:58 'The Christ', chalk and charcoal on paper
01:58-02:02 'Male Figure Study', charcoal on paper
02:02-02:06 'Noble', charcoal on paper
02:06-02:14 Male and Female figure studies

Update on Grandpa Rhino!

2010-04-07T20:21:00.008-06:00

Well I've gone back and finished the sculpt. Just gotta put it on my reel, but for now enjoy some pics! (Click to enlarge)

2009 Demo Reel

2009-04-16T18:13:00.019-06:00

2009 Demo Reel from Nathan Billington on Vimeo.

Breakdown:

Grandpa Rhino (0:04-0:55) A breakdown of my Grandpa Rhino character, personal project in progress. Showcases my sculpting, modeling and character design skills. Facial wrinkles are a combination of natural human wrinkles and those wrinkles present on the rhinoceros; hand-painted in Autodesk Mudbox. Basic animation is shown to demonstrate the base mesh’s ability to deform correctly for desired motion. Autodesk Maya, Mudbox, Adobe Photoshop.

The Geckuana (0:55-1:59) A breakdown of my Geckuana, a reptile that resembles the combination of a Gecko and Iguana. Personal Project, in progress. Showcases modeling and character design skills, as well as a hand-painted displacement map. The scales were all painted in Adobe Photoshop as a grayscale map, then used as a displacement map in Maya upon render. Created basic rig for short keyframed animation sequence. Autodesk Maya, Mudbox, Maxon BodyPaint, Adobe Photoshop.

Mechanical Arm (1:59-2:10) This was my first modelling assignment at CU Denver. Mechanical arm, original design, using NURBS modelling.

Aeta the Fox (2:10-2:38) This was my final for my Character class sophomore year. Showcases character design and fur via the Shave-and-a-haircut node.

1969 Chevelle SS (2:39-2:52) This was my second modelling assignment at CU Denver. Created blueprints off observations of several 69 Chevelle SS's due to lack of available blueprints.

Grandpa Rhino

2009-04-15T12:10:00.007-06:00

This is Grandpa Rhino. He is a retired, ex-adrenaline junky who enjoyed terrorizing Safari tourists back in the good old days. A work in progress, this model showcases my sculpting skills and character design skills. Click on images for a higher resolution. See him in motion on my Demo Reel.

Below is a collage of a few of the drawings that went into creating this character. I love how old and wrinkly the skin of a rhinoceros appears, so I sought to combine the wrinkle patterns of the rhinoceros and the human, given that their facial structures are different.

Wrinkles tell stories. Their size and relation to each other tell us if this person has frowned much in their life, or if they have smiled most of their life. The elastin in our skin loses its resilience over time, so regions of skin that are stretched more often will turn into wrinkles in old age.

I wanted Grandpa Rhino to be like a dangerous, crazy but loveable old man. This meant that he probably communicated a lot through his face (ie. laughing maniacally while charging some unlucky tourist). This meant a lot of wrinkles around the eyebrows and mouth; and his frequent smiles, even if sadist in nature, created a starburst of wrinkles at the lateral end of both eyes.

After learning the science of wrinkles, the rest of the character design relied on basic proportions to give Grandpa Rhino his personality.

This guy wants to spring to life. If the base geometry doesn't have good edge flow, the character won't deform well once animated. The edge flow of Grandpa's skin is laid out to compress the geometry where his muscles would pull the natural skin. Thus the eyes are laid out in a circular fashion so that he can blink and squint; edges from his mouth into his cheek and into the sagging skin around his jowls.

Watch my Demo Reel to see the guy in motion!

The Geckuana: A Lizard Mash-up

2009-04-14T14:27:00.009-06:00

This is the Geckuana, a mix of a Gecko (particularly the eyes and feet) and an Iguana. See it in motion on my demo reel; emphasis on Character Design and hand-brushed displacement map (the scales).

I loved making this guy.

After this initial drawing, Geckuana started out as a mix between a Gecko and a Lemur (credit), since their eyes are so similar. I was leaning towards the Iguana and the Horned Lizard when I stumbled upon the Blue Crested Lizard, a beautiful creature, which inspired the coloring. Fourteen versions later I settled on this goofy looking thing (indicated by a star):

Shots of the base mesh (note the edge flow):

The scales were challenging. I first tried making a stencil for Mudbox and applying the scales individually, but the result wasn't as uniform as you see in nature. Ultimately I ended up painting them all in Photoshop using my UV snapshot as a guide to warp groups of scales in place. More complex areas (armpits and other junctures) were done by hand:

This worked out real well until I got to the face. At that point I finally had to use a 3D paint program to draw in further guides as to where certain scales would go. And the result...

...worked surprisingly well. This method had a good level of control and a good level of automation to it as well. See it in motion on my Demo Reel.

Earlier Work...

2009-04-13T16:59:00.002-06:00

Fox and Fur!

Download Quicktime: HD (1280 x 720, 48.37 MB)

This was my final for my character class my sophomore year at the University of Colorado, Denver. I used Maya 8.5 and the Shave and a Haircut Node, original character. Also on my Demo Reel. Progression from concept to base mesh to the final renders:

1969 Chevelle SS

This was my second modelling assignment at CU Denver. Created blueprints off observations of several 69 Chevelle SS's due to lack of available blueprints.

Mechanical Arm

This was my first modelling assignment at CU Denver. Mechanical arm, original design, using NURBS modelling.