Reflections

Introduction

During the Reflection’s unit at Freestyle, I slowed down and reflected.

In English, I reflected upon my life and my future. Culminated with the final draft of my personal statement. An essay which I hope fully reflects my personality, experience and potential.

In Digital media, we took the reflection a bit more literally. Creating a mandala, starting with a template that reflected our Illustrator pen strokes radially. We also learned how to animate in Adobe After affects, creating a video demonstrating our core values.

In Animation class we began to learn 3D modeling softwares, namely Autodesk Maya and Z-Brush. One would not think there would be much time for reflecting when slaving away at a detailed model, but due to the symmetry of the objects we were creating (such as skulls, faces)

This unit was most definitely more relaxing than others. I most definitely deepened my understanding of myself. Learning that I care deeply about communities like freestyle, and my frisbee team, where people collaborate and celebrate their diverse skills. All of the products of this unit enabled me to take a more objective view on my life, and become more comfortable and skillful at presenting myself to others.

Core Values Video

Mandala

Mandala Black and White / Mandala Colored

The original inspiration for the mandala was my last name, Husky. I share it with a much beloved, and very photogenic breed of dog. I drew a big goofy husky on the outside, and began to work inwards. I drew a bone, a collar, objects that I associate with dogs. These objects reminded me of my friends dogs who my family would dog sit sometimes. My friends dogs were very naughty and spoiled. They got hundreds of new toys, that would get shredded within a week. These naughty goofy dogs bring me to the center of my mandala the original dog. Nash. Nash was a black labrador retriver, and he was the gentlest, kindest most tolerant dog ever. He dealt with all my baby to 8 year old shenanigans with patience, like a furry big brother. My family never adopted another dog, because we could never replace Nash. My mandala started as a silly play on my name, and became more about honoring my dog.

I made this mandala to honor my good dog, Nash, and to consider the funny nature of naughty pets. In the center, we have a portrait of Nash. Surrounded by things I associate with him, an old floppy frisbee and ball throwy stick. A road and some grass to remember the walks we went on. As we move towards the outside, I put objects I associate with other dogs. The stretchy leash. The shiny collar. The fancy dog food. On the outside is a naughty husky. It is my last name, and represents the dog most people think I would have. Fun fact (your reward for reading to the end of this artist statement) : my parents once joked that they considered naming me “Alaskan” and my brother “Siberian” put it together with Husky and… at least I assume this was a joke, but I’ll never really know….

Engraved Mandala

Mandala Reveal Video

Mandala Behind the Scenes

First we created templates in illustrator to reflect our art radially, with different ammounts of slices.

Working in illustrator to draw and color my lil’ puppies.

Working in After Affects to make a “Build Reveal Video”.

Reflection

I really enjoyed this project. It ended up becoming more reminiscent than I thought. First of all, creating radially reflected art reminded me of a program called silk that I loved to play with in elementary school. Reflected art is such a joy, because it looks good no matter what you do. But I did spend quite a while fussing over each stroke, I still don’t quite understand how to draw nice neat strokes in illustrator. Additionally, since I themed my mandala about dogs, I had to think back to 9 year old self to remember what it was like to have a dog. It’s funny how silly things like a chewed-on floppy frisbee, can make you feel like you’ve lost something.

College Personal Essay

Whooomp here it is! My personal statement. The last precious drops of juice squeezed out of my senior year rasin-brain. Did I do a good job? I don’t know! I’m never gonna read it again. Enjoy!

Text

MP3

Animation

In animation this year, we are tackling 3D modeling, and how it can be used in animation. But before we can animate anything, we needed to learn the basics of modeling and sculpting. We use Autodesk’s Maya for modeling the overall shape, then import those models into Z-Brush to sculpt them. We practiced Maya by modeling fire hydrants, a table, and a temple. Then we practiced Z-Brush by sculpting a skull and then a head.

Fire Hydrant

We learned how to make basic shapes using the extrude tool, and smooth them. We made multiple fire hydrants to show the process of beveling and smoothing edges.

Table

I made a table! Wanted to give it a bit of a whimsical look, with the diamond backed chairs and the flowers. Maybe not my best model, as I still had a lot to learn.

Temple

By far the most elaborate scene we created, the temple scene in Maya wasn’t as difficult as you might think. We abused the copy paste tools to create repeating architectural elements, like the pillars, stairs or arches. I think the skills we learned in the temple scene will be useful for creating backgrounds for our narrative.

Skull

Sculpted a human skull in Z-Brush to learn this program. Rather than importing a Maya model, we simply started with a sphere and sculpted out all the structure. I added some cracks and stuff, think it turned out pretty spooky.

Head

I made a rooster head in Z-Brush, much like the skull starting initially from a sphere. I tried to stylize a bit, hope he looks cute!

Weapon

I made a Shield! May be a bit hard to tell from this angle, but it was meant to be a shield. I decorated it with wings and an eye in Z-Brush. Definitely inspired by biblically accurate angels.

Character

This is my character! Their name is Sir. Gallina, and they are a brave and glorious knight. Many were surprised to see Sir. Gallina’s face, “I thought he was a chicken!” they would say. Sir. Gallina takes great offense being called a chicken, as they have never run without good reason from a fight. Rumors regarding Sir. Gallina’s association with certain Gallus gallus domesticus however, have yet to be looked into.