Thesis Production Log: Stardate 04012013

Hello internet denizen!

Pardon my french, but it's been one hell of a week. My brother and sister-in-law are now moved back "home" (from way too far away for far too long) for hospice care. On top of that, my spring break last week was relaxing, but not in the slightest bit productive. All that adds up to one very stressed out Beth.

But here I am to show you what I'm working on. I realized last week's blog I just said I was going to blog about my thesis project, but didn't actually say what it was. So here's the pitch:

A young teenage girl has three creatures she is self conscious about how creepy they are, so she dresses them up to take them out on walks. One day they escape from her, and she is forced to face what they really are, all the while learning that her creatures are no more fearful than anyone else's. Her creatures are based off of three fears: loss of sanity, sickness, and abandonment.

In order to illustrate my "mastery" of the digital arts, my thesis will include at least three characters from concept, 3D modeling, rigging, and proof of animation (the 4th, the girl, may be modeled, but I haven't decided if that's too broad of a scope yet). The aim is to be done with this in one year - April 2014.

So here are some preliminary character design sketches for the players:

Character concept for 13ish year old "Sarah". May or may not be basically a self portrait..... I may change her to not be so similar to me, I haven't decided yet. Also - I don't work at Pixar (YET), so I may not want to tackle modeling hair like that (YET) -- although I do it every day IRL.

Character concept for "Sanity" creature. Just realized I didn't upload a full body shot, but his gross coconut-crab-legs will be covered up with socks or leg warmers. He is my favorite so far and makes me laugh every time I draw him. People's first reaction is "he looks like Stitch", but when you compare him side-by-side, he actually looks a lot like Ed from Lion King, who has also always made me laugh. I'm thinking about giving him a human nose. He's about the size of a great dane.

Character concept for "Sickness" creature. This was the last one I solidified, I had a lot of viable ideas but nothing was really hitting me. And then I drew a walrus mouth with human teeth and I had it. He'll have a hat on to hide his gross tumor-laden, nearly detached eyes. (Inspired by a gross fish in a thai restaurant's fish tank that stared at me my whole meal once. Gross.) He also leaves slime like the slugs I grew up trying (and failing) to avoid stepping on. He's about the size of a small dog, and will either be carried in a baby carrier, or dragged behind Sarah.

Character concept for "Abandonment" creature. I also had a lot of trouble with this guy, but I really like how he turned out. His rib cage is exposed and empty (empty promises). He has no eyes so it's a little harder to connect emotionally (a little obvious?), and the human feet are just weird. Not sure if that's fur or feathers, but his neck is definitely snake - which totally grosses me out because I have a serious phobia of snakes (and spiders...I'm such a girl I can't handle it). This creature is about 1.5 times as tall as Sarah.

So that's where I'm headed so far. Tomorrow we have our character design class so things might change, or at least hopefully progress, significantly this week.

Thanks for your continued prayers for Ben, Lisa, and our family.