Dig. Fig.

Figure study in photoshop.

Peekipikapukapuoo - God of sea shells

Mr. Porter

Coin Collect

It's officially summer for me!  I spent the day digging through old files.  This is one of my early explorations composing in Garage Band, using Magic 8 Bit plugin.
Just something inspired by the games I grew up with.  I'll animate something to go with this some day.

Producers Show Intro

The Producers Show is an anual screening of select films from the Character Animation program.  Many industry professionals are invited and it's quite a big reception.  This years show was at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.  

Traditionally, the senior class is entrusted with creating the intro for the show.  I've looked forward to helping out with this since I was a freshman.

These are some suggestions I did for the intro this year.  

A lot of the fourth and third year students contributed time and animation to get this done in just a few days.  Great job everybody!  Big thanks for Trevor Jones for doing all of the final compositing and making it all come together.  I got to design the characters and Trevor turned them into puppets in After Effects.  I also animated the story pitch shot!

Here's the final intro in all of its glory.    

DINER

DINER (Rough Cut) from Michael Herrera on Vimeo.
My fourth year film at Cal Arts.
This version is missing a few shots, has no sound track, and has a temp music track.
Final version to be uploaded in the coming weeks.
Thanks to all of my friends, family, and instructors.
The music used is "Blue Hawaii" from the "All-Star Hawaiian Band".

some mall sketches

A few observations sketches from last semester:

Windows

I'm playing around with the sets for a play I haven't written yet.

Photoshop

Fantasyland 1964

I sat down to doodle in photoshop, just to relax, and unwind with no particular goal.  This is what happened...

Photoshop

I love all things vintage, especially vintage Disney.
As time goes on, aesthetics change, culture changes, and thus Disneyland grows and changes.   Disneyland acts as a sort of cultural weathervane.  Though the skeleton of the park remains the same, the ideas on the surface evolve and take new shapes as the audience grows and evolves.  The idea of Fantasyland is simple, but the look was certainly different in the 60's.  The publics perceptions and expectations grow, and today, Fantasyland looks completely different.  I still love the fresh and contemporary simplicity of the 50's and 60's Disneyland.

Pele sketch

I sketched this between poses in figure drawing class.  I was going to do a painting of her for our gallery show at school, but decided against it.  Perhaps some day.

A princess

I tried to do some more realistic color on this one.  It's not in my nature, but it's good to practice I suppose.

Pencil/Marker/Photoshop

And now... for something completely different

I've had traditional sculpting classes for a few years now.  I love to sculpt, and it's always very relaxing for me.  This semester, I've been taking a Z-Brush course.  I've never had a good experience with animating in CG, or modeling, but Z-Brush is so much fun.  It's so beautifully designed and you can pretty much work as fast as you can think.
Any who, here's a thing:

I'm not sure what it is but I don't think it's too friendly.

Space Girl - work in progress

pencil / photoshop

Trying to figure out a larger composition with her.  Just figuring out the color scheme.

Looking

Photoshop

Pink star

Cleaning out my cubicle at school. Found this.