Wow..

I love how my last post was expressing that I haven't posted in 6 months, and yet here I am, my next post, almost a year later! Well I must say I've been quite busy. I've moved twice! Graduated from school, worked a bunch of fun new jobs and here I am. I really can't believe I've abandoned my blog for so long! I've adopted new 'blogs' while I was gone though, my tumblr page  and my facebook page both featuring my artwork.

Here's an example of what I've been working on....

Check out my facebook page to check out everything I've been working on the past few months :)

Six Months?!!?

Holy moly has it really been six months?! That just goes to show how bad I am at keeping up with a journal. Alright so let's see what I've been up to for the past while...

First off I am THRILLED to say that not only did I graduate from my Digital Animation program, but that I did so with honors :D /soproud.

Secondly I am now a month into a summer animation program learning more the 2D side of things and its been really great. I can't stress enough how important life drawing is. It's drastically changed the way I look at things and my drawing style. I must remind myself to continue with it after this ends.

Aside from that I've started up a fun Etsy page selling glass magnets which you can check out here .. http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/MaxinesMagnets

Hopefully I can get back into the groove of blogging again and post more frequent updates. But for now here's a link to some of my artwork

http://maxine-d.tumblr.com/

A new year

A new year is upon us. We made it through the storm of the December 2012 apocalypse and through boxing day madness :) . My new year kicks off my third and final semester of school. It's quite intimidating knowing that in a mere few months ill be finished. These past months have been a blur and I've learned so much, not just in school but alot about myself. It's been a journey of self discovery and really learning some hard life lessons.

I'm hoping to continue growing and learning as much as I can. Call me crazy but I may just go back and do some more schooling. Although I don't think I've taken as many bubble baths in my life as I have in the past few months.

This year i'm hoping to get into yoga. I started tonight and boy do my muscles ache. I don't want to say it's my "new years resolution" to do yoga because we all know resolutions about staying fit don't have a high chance of lasting. Instead i'm doing yoga to help clear my busy mind and strengthen my body and soul.

As always I've been painting, and have actually finished five pieces this year! I'm hoping to pump out some really beautiful pieces that I'll be able to show. But for now i'm focused on doing it to make me happy. I love getting into that state of mind where it's just you and the canvas using the paint to portray whatever you need it to.

Well it's officially 3 am and I have to be up at 830 for class.

Until next time.

Long over due for a post

I hope everyone is having an awesome school year. As you most know i've been taking digital animation and i'm now 7 months in. It's amazing how quickly time goes. In just 5 more months I'll be graduated! Its almost hard to believe. I do admit the stress of school is starting to wear at me as i'm sure it does for most people.

In recent months so much has changed I suppose this is how it feels to step into adulthood. Everything seems a bit overwhelming and stressful. My anxiety has been rearing its ugly face more frequently which hasn't been easy to deal with. Of course it's due to all these new changes and unknown territory and I just have to remember that everything will work out, and to have a little faith in the universe.

So in light of that I think it's important to remember the little things in life that make you happy.

Here's a short list of mine
The sound of high heels in a hallway
The fresh air after a storm
Puppies
Fresh bed sheets
The sound of rain
A clean kitchen
Finding joy in unexpected places
Star gazing on a clear night

I hope everyone remembers to stop and take a deep breath now and again, and remember what makes you smile.

<3

Back to school

Ahh it feels so nice to get my creativity flowing again! I'm back to school after a two week break and boy can I say I'm ready to get back to work!! What I'm most excited about is creating concept art for one of my classes. I decided to go with Disney princesses that have to fight for themselves. It's really fun re-imagining characters I grew up on. Then once we have a good concept we will be creating them in Maya as 3D characters! So here's one of the characters I'm currently in the middle of painting in photoshop.

What Happened on Christmas Eve

So I just found this old story I wrote when I was eleven and I thought I would share it with you. I mean who doesn't enjoy reminiscing and having the opportunity to see how you viewed things when you were young. Please mind the format and such, I mean give an eleven year old a break ;)

Also note that Narnia was my favorite book series...

What Happened on Christmas Eve

Once on Christmas eve, many years ago I lay quietly on the couch.

Soon there was noises coming from outside. The noises sounded like voices but not quite. So I lay down thinking it was people talking to each other. BANG! WHOW! "Oh my goodness what was that?" I whispered scared.

I got up a little later hearing something again. Except this time it sounded like people arguing. Then I got up enough courage and went up to the door and opened it. AHH! A beam of light flashed quickly at me. I blinked. It was gone! All that was there were two animals. A horse that had wings and one ferocious lion. I was half way closing the door and then the lion talked. His voice was deep, loud, and clear. He exclaimed, "Don't go, come with us."

"Where?" I asked puzzled.

"Tooo the noorth poole oof coourse," whinnied the horse quite loudly.

"Why?" I asked, not understanding.

"You can ask questions on the way," replied the lion. I hopped on the lions furry back, holding on to the lions golden mane.

"What are your names anyway?" I asked curiously.

"My name is Aslan and his name is Strawberry," answered the lion.

"Why are we going to the North Pole?" I asked.

"Wee arre gooing tooo the Noorth Poole chuz Santa is gooing tooo give the first presents," neighed the horse.

"Why are you both here?" I questioned.

"We are here because if I get tired Strawberry will take over and we weren't allowed two, so we came to pick you up instead."

I looked up and saw people above me. I saw my friend Lauren. I yelled, "Lauren down here!" She saw me.

"Hello!" She hollered back.

"Meet you at the North Pole, bye."

"Not so loud," Aslan growled.

We where there. It wasn't very dark outside because of all the lights.

I got off Aslan and said "Thank you very much."

He said "No problem."

"Bye," I shouted.

"Bye," They both crowed back.

"Now for the first gift of Christmas," Santa explained. You there, come pick the first gifts of Christmas."

"Me?" Someone behind me asked.

"No, the person in front of you," said Santa.

"Me?" I pointed to myself.

"Yes you, come pick your first gifts of Christmas, come on I don't have all year," said Santa impatiently.

"O.K," I muttered. I went up in Santas sled thinking what I wanted. I thought real hard when I was sitting down in Santas sled. Then I asked "How many presents am I allowed?"

"Two," he explained.

"I want the two animals that picked me up please."

"O.K I will say that's one present."

"And I want powers so that I can go into books that I want, with people still thinking I'm there and only books I read to myself please."

"O.K" he smiled, "but only you can see the animals alive and to everyone else they will be glass, they will never be able to break and if they do they just go back together and if they get thrown away they will come back. I hope you like your gifts, Bye."

"Ho Ho Ho," he laughed "Merry Christmas."

I was home again. That was one of my favorite days ever!

"Wake up everybody," yelled my Mom.

"O.K o.k we're awake." There were lots of presents under the tree.

After we opened all the presents I found the two presents under the tree for me. I opened them quickly. They were two glass ornaments just like Santa explained. One ferocious lion and one horse with wings just like the ones I met outside. I loved the books that I got to see inside of :)

The End.

I hope you all enjoyed reading that as much as I did

Busy Bee

I suppose my blog is long overdue for an update. Let's see.. Well I've been super busy with school that's for sure. I'm almost at the end of my first semester and can now start breathing a bit easier. I have three classes left before the semester ends and get a short break before we start back up full time again. Classes have been tough but well worth it and quite enjoyable. I've had my ups and downs that's for sure. I think the toughest part has been learning to use all the new programs, but I have slowly become more and more comfortable with them. I'm still unsure if I want to become an animator or a modeler, as those are the main choices students make during their time in the program.

During this semester we have been using Maya, SoftImage, Mudbox, Zbrush, and Toonboom. I must say I'm the least comfortable using Maya. There's just so much to the program and I always seem to get lost. I do hope I become more familiar using it, as it is the main program we use.

We have learned many things about animation and programs. With SoftImage we have modeled a science lab, animated a character and learned how to weight an object. With Maya we have modeled an environment, created a head and a hand and learned how to texture and unwrap different models.


Here's an example of a scene I had to light, texture, model, and animate
http://xmaxinex.deviantart.com/gallery/38550537