moved to Tumblr

Whelp, blogger was great while it lasted. I've moved on over to tumblr for now.

I have a shared account with Boris, posting up doodles and whatever else.
For now I'll keep this blog here as is.

If you've got a tumblr and want to keep up with my work, click the link below:

doodlemates.tumblr.com

some designs

Gone for a year and I've forgotten how to actually post :|
Been busy at work so I haven't gotten around to drawing too much.

But I did manage to do these designs earlier this year. Second page is a bit more recent.

update

Wow it's been a while since I've been active on here. A bit of an update. I've been animating at a studio in Toronto which has been great thus far. I had left my design job and started this animation job several months ago, so there was a few weeks of unemployment in there. Since I hadn't animated for a while already I wanted to do something quick and simple to get back into it before starting work. I managed to get this thing done. Nothing impressive but it got me doing something at least.

Squirrely test from Amanda Zima on Vimeo.

This is the Squirrely rig by Josh Burton. The controls were somewhat limited, especially having used iAnimate rigs before this, but it wasn't bad and was still fun to work with. I had intended there to be a third shot but never got around to it. Work has been super busy lately, doing overtime, but I'll be trying to work on some more personal tests. Not sure when the next time I post on here will be. Here's hoping it's not another half a year O_o

facial dialogue

Here's the last assignment I completed from ianimate.net.
It's super subtle, so might not be everyone's cup of tea, but was a really good learning experience. This is a mod of one of iAnimate's rigs, Josie (made by the talented Angelo). Boris moded her for me from a drawing I did and I learned to texture! (credits also to Boris for the bg elements and help with lighting). My awesome instructor Ted Ty was great and I'm so glad I got to learn from him. So Boris and I have stopped with iAnimate as of April because we started working full time! I'm working in Toronto designing on a new preschool show. It's a nice change and I'm learning a lot (and drawing everyday). I feel that I need to do some animation on my own time though cause I'm going to start really missing it.

some girls

Still busy with iAnimate these days, doing dialogue now. Not sure if I'll be posting the final stuff just yet on here, but here's a screenshot of the 1st dialogue assignment. It was fun to add textures and lighting. All the freckles and blush really makes the character feel much more alive when I compare it to earlier versions. Still a uber noob with all the technical stuff in Maya, but hopefully I'll learn it some more, it comes in handy! (The rig is a mod of Josie, one of the iAnimate rigs, btw!)

These Flash-like characters aren't for anything, but I liked how they turned out. It's fun to play with styles sometimes, doing something completely different than what you normally do.

And this girl, whom I've temporarily (but maybe permanently) named Alys (Alice). There's an idea behind her, but who knows if it'll ever get developed further. I thought she was pretty cute and I'm totally excited to see Brave, so it's somewhat inspired by it (time period/medieval, archery maybe..).

Boris and I have just started playing with the Draw Something app, if anyone wants to add us our joint account is: boranda

girls

Just a couple of design ideas, not sure if anything will come of them. but they were fun to doodle.


The one on the right was sort of inspired by an existing character in a film, hehe.

Evil queen expressions

These were the last drawings I did in 2011, I was away for 2 weeks before the new year so I didn't get to draw after this. The next block of iAnimate has started up so I'll be concentrating on 3d stuff again (with maybe a little 2d mixed in). I'd like to keep drawing but it depends on how busy I'll be. It was fun while it lasted, haha!

spirits

Some ideas for a personal test. The idea is in the same spirit as Boris' ghost character. I think I'm pretty happy with the one on the left, so the final might be a slight variation of her. I also like the firey one, but she no longer applies to the idea.

Chase Modelsheets

Okay bigger than usual post! I had the turnaround done earlier already but I wanted to wait to post it all together. This was fun! I could tell that I started to draw him differently already by the end of it all. But apparently it's normal for that to happen when developing a character..I guess if I had drawn him a lot more before doing the turnaround it all would have been a bit more consistent, but oh well! For some of the poses I used images from google as ref, but tried to change it a bit anyway. I also used Rhino House for in motion dog ref. It's a really neat site, lots of great videos.

Chase colours

So Chase was definitely designed as a German Shepherd, but I thought it would be fun to see what he would look like disguised as different breeds. I think they all work :D

Working away at a model sheet, will post soon.

kid designs

Just some kid designs 8)

Shadow turnaround

Just a turnaround for Shadow. It's not perfect, but it'll do I think.

Super quick doodle

I started a blog to give some tips and help for the entry portfolio for people looking to get into Sheridan's Animation Program. I've only started it not too long ago and it's gone on hold as of right now while I'm busy and try to find some time to work on it (I'll have it posted and linked once it's gotten more on it).
There's a part of the blog where I redraw my portfolio pieces that got me into Sheridan and last night I was inspired to redraw my character that I used for the turn around and expressions.

It felt good just to draw something for fun, no stress!
Anyway, his name is Arrow and he's a bush baby (or something). I didn't look at any animal ref this time around (and I probably didn't for the first time around either, hah!) so excuse him if he doesn't really look like one. Just trying to show a simple structured character while keeping it appealing.


This horrendous thing under here is my original from 2006 that I applied with. What is going on with those circles!? lol! I guess my understanding of structure wasn't quite there yet.



Anyway just thought I'd share this. Have a Happy Halloween!

Titeuf scenes

I have been soooo busy as of late, I haven't done any personal drawing in a little while. Still working away at iAnimate, learning and having fun c:

I had meant to post this while ago, some of you have probably already seen it since Boris posted it on his blog already, but it's Boris' and my scenes from Titeuf: Le Film, compiled together. I think we worked on this the summer of 2010. I don't even remember it feels like so long ago already :S This was the first feature we got to animate on, lots of fun, lots of stress though since we had 2 jobs at the time! Never again, plz.



Sorry for the lousy update, really want to draw some stuff soon and post it! :p

Chase & Shadow

Some poses and expressions for the Egyptian cat, which I've called Shadow.
Although I liked the Anubis-like dog I drew before, I felt that it's much too similar to the cat, so I wanted something a little different for the dog, so while doodling I drew up this German Shepherd, and I think I like him! He is named Chase :) I'll hopefully get around to doing a model sheet for him too.