Lazy Update

So many things have happened in the last month. SO MANY. First off, I'm in Ottawa, far far away from what I called home. Lost in a city but not living quite in the center of the city that's full of bizarre bus routes. Might come down with a serious case of homesickness soon, but there's company that help me cope a bit.

Before I left Toronto, I did a few more felting projects. I did take pictures of them before, but now I have a new shiny phone I can sort of try it out. 

Here you have a souped up version of a rain doll, which is now a snowman. It comes with a jingle bell.

And a lovely Piplup, with a small stubby tail at the back.

Speaking of Ottawa I realize I blunder a lot. In the first two weeks I have already set off the smoke detector at 7 am, tried going into the wrong apartment (with the owner still inside and quizzically opening the door as I try desperately unlocking it), got on the wrong bus and instead of being half hour early ended up half hour late, overflowed soup in a pot TWICE, tried and failed miserably at eating an unripened avocado because I decided to put it in the fridge, and lost a sock.

Then there's all those teeny-tiny to not-so-teeny things that just summarizes me as a total klutz. Like forgetting my address while filling out important forms even when I was foretold to remember it and making double trips back to my apartment because I forgot my phone or laundry card.

One day I'll accidentally wear my clothes backwards. It's happened during high school before.

Food for Thought

Food for Thought from Cassandra Lau on Vimeo.

Yep, it's another 24 hour film from Sheep Deprived Productions. A long standing group of derpers who work on 24 hour films for about.... 3 years? 4? I guess 3. What if Sheep Deprived became studio who would work on only 24 hour films and hand you whatever they can think of at the end of the day? Fancy that. Might also be a horrible thing for a client though, but hey! It's kind of like one of those cheap mystery bags you find in toy stores.

So a little about the film... well it all speaks for itself. I did the beginning sequence, but it took a lot longer than I hoped it should. When you don't have enough sleep, it really messes with your sense of judgement. I had a difficult time knowing what works and what doesn't and what time it is and OH MY GAWD IT'S ALREADY 6PM HURRY HURRY. Also the starring chicken's name is Dan and the guy running on the train is Ross.

So really... which came first?

DIY stuff!

Well, now that film's done, I could do something else for a breather. I've always loved crafting things, and well, because I'm not that awesome at crafting, I tend to like buying kits to start. I like following instructions.

Zee first one I made is a rain doll. Woo needle felting! The story of how it went was... well. The kit didn't provide a felting needle. The instructions was also ridiculously vague. I had to look it up on Youtube. And then I realized I needed a felting needle. I thought I could do without one. I was very wrong. Spent 3 days stabbing a fluff ball with a pair of scissors.


So after buying a pack of felting needles, my mom requested me to make a Pikachu. Now, the kit only had three colors of wool. But luckily, while I bought the felting needles, I had the unfortunate impulse to buy more colored wool. The wool isn't the best in the world, so it came out hairy. Also that's a really odd request coming from my mom.

Unfortunately the pack of multicolored wool only had enough yellow to make a Pikachu of this size. It was slightly larger than a quail egg.

I also had a DIY kit to make a sewn bunny. I'm terrible at sewing. See that scarf? It's there for a reason.

Back to drawing! :'D

MY FIIILLMM!

It's up and running! Go check it out! Muhahaha.


Clipped! from Cassandra Lau on Vimeo.

Run little one, run! Run as fast as you can on those pudgy legs of yours!

Regarding my Disappearance

As you may or may not know, I haven't updated this blog since eons ago, or rather last Halloween. Y'know what, have a few backgrounds:

Well, truth be told, I'm working on my film. As fun as it is, we're on our last stretch of our project and it's taking quite a toil on my sanity.

(Yes that's actually a creepy screenshot that I took when I was filling the colors in preview mode on Harmony. I think it's trying to tell me something.)

Halloween

 Don't get too crazy!

(Life drawing, 5 mins)

Don't trust weird occult dating sites.

(Life drawing, not quite sure how long but probably 10-15 minutes?)

And last but not least, eat lots of candy.

Not much

Just another two pictures from the portal sketchbook. It's not as ambitious as the first one, haha.

By the way, the first one had envelopes and parcels you can open. I'm keeping the contents in it a surprise!

The Portal Project

Wow, haven't updated in ages... anyways...

Me and my intern-in-arms Victoria Chiu (visit her here) are doing a little project involving a sketchbook and portals. It's pretty fun!

It's a bit like Sketchtravel. We pass a small sketchbook between each other and we cut a hole on each page. Then interpret an item being passed through.

So after a night of ink and origami paper, this is what I ended up with. I don't really have a name for this, but "Sugar Hills"?

Find: A golden sheep, 8 cookies, 2 cupcakes, and a teaspoon.

(I'm going to be the next I-Spy illustrator! Ha ha just kidding)

In case you're wondering, the portal is the trap door on the top left of the page. Yes, it opens!

(Isn't my cluttered desk fantastic?)

So what's on the other side of the trap door you say? That's for you to find out!

Moulin Rouge

5 mins

10 mins

aaannnd 20 mins

Group stuff, yay!

So blogger has some really weird template for posting... I'm so confused. Anyways as you know my absence for posting is pretty much because of our team making the film and it was crunch time 24/7. But now it's summer I can post some group stuff I did for our film:

1st scene: Totally went for the ambitiousness and took up this explosion thing... Went through like 5 different versions and in the end I had to pass up the smoke effects to Reina... Yay for incompetence X'D Pretty much did everything except for the smoke animation. So compositing and backgrounds and all.


2nd scene: Just the animation, colored and cleaned. Ran into some hurdles figuring out her body behind the chair... and how her hand is on a different level... and some funny legs going on down there.


3rd scene: Haha it's the BG from the first scene all reused and repainted. Did everything, yay! :'D And I don't know why it's 10 seconds long! Some After Effects or Premier mistake I probably ran into! :D



Well in the end, I guess I can sum it up as... fun? It was stressful, and personally I thought I could have done better... Like everything else I did. Well it wasn't exactly fun... was it? I don't know, it's like the feeling after you beat a really really really hard video game marathon. Including some hating on yourself.

Inky Blots

Ink and color costumes.





Fresh Air





Poodles of 5 minutes



Angry? You bet I am.

Hurrumph.

You know, honestly, why can't I draw proper structure and proportions, eh?

But waiiitt!

I feel so narcissist... seriously who would draw themselves as a pseudo-Gorillaz band member? Other than the rest of our team (who are drawing themselves as Gorillaz band members for a presentation project... we called ourselves the GIFS, lol)

I'm not really the best looking one out of the band. I'm as boring as I look like in real life. *sigh* Gotta spice up my wardrobe someday.

And why am I... out of all the colors... BLOO?!

But seriously, I really like Gorillaz.

Terribly Delayed Stuff.

I'M DUMPIN DEM ALL. Draws from last year to January, I think.



1 min?



30 secs?






Plein Aiirrr (more like Plein Indoors from school campus)



?? 3 mins?



I was experimenting with colors but OHOHOHO I hate anatomy and proportions.


Now, allow me to smash my head into multiple walls in peace, thank you.

Car show

Car show... it's been way too long since I've set foot to downtown Toronto and home. I miss the place.

My dream car is probably a baby blue colored Volkswagen beetle.




NOT THIS LOL, but same color. (ink pen and digital)



Some sketchies! I saw a car that looked like an upside-down Cheshire cat.

Doh.

Dumping all my Life Drawing stuff, lololol. My head hurts too much to think...

Recreating a character:









Geishas










Cowboys

15 mins



5 mins



2 mins





Hopefully my days will get better.

Deciphering Korra

lol (yes that's all I can say to begin an entry)

My friend was showing a (apparently leaked?) tidbit of the upcoming Avatar series. Homg. It looks awesome man. Even though I've never really watched Avatar before (you guys can smack me with a brick if you want). I'd prefer to watch the new series since it's going to be short, and I prefer it that way :)

Anyways, this also gives me an excuse have first shot at studying an action sequence. I've always wanted to know the magical secrets behind the excitement of fighting! I know it was going to be a challenge... but I never expected to spend so much time on this. I ended up nitpicking all the compositions while referencing the film in a badly deformed screen ratio, not really a good thing.

There are so many things I liked about that short sequence. It made my thumbnails look really awesome.









Right, I also didn't notice Korra is emerging from the window in the last shot when I did this. Most of the shots were rather easy to figure out, but that ONE bit, the shot with Korra tossing the guy... WHAT WAS THAT SORT OF TRICKERY?! I don't get it. Was it one continuous shot? If it was how did they manage to animate the guy turn around to smash the door? And how did the background change from swooshy-swoosh back into a normal street? It wasn't a screen wipe! I feel so dimwitted! ARG someone enlighten me!

Also, in the beginning I was planning to just draw the camera moves, but in the end I dropped it because... well... the template. Duh. But that made me draw so many more panels. Guh.


Anyways, can't wait for the new series!

Might as well!

I never put up my life drawing stuff. Ever. Because they're terrible and make me claw my face out. Life drawing has always been my weakest subject, but I'm making an exception today.

I was messing around with markers.





30 sec






1 Min




5 Mins





Also, this rather old pastel drawing of a horse I did during Royal Winter Fair. Instead of buying chutney, I blew my money off pepperoni and now my cupboard smells like... well, pepperoni.

Oh yeah, critiques. Please. I really need them.