Always Creating Animation

Happy Ne....w Ye....aarr? A lot late??

2011-02-07T08:30:00.005-06:00

Hey Ppls.

I don't usually use this as a place to chit-chat (did I spell that right?) about my life, at least I don't think I have (*flips back thru the old blogs* ooops.) Well, I wanted to say that 2010 is gone and over with and I really wanted to wish all a great 2011. (I know I told ya happy holiday's but never said anything about the new year.) I've been doing some online reading and just have taken a good look at my life during 2010. A lot of things sucked and a lot of things rocked. 2011 will be 100% better. 1 important thing... I'm going to make an effort to hangout with friends more. It's been a freakin year since I've seen Megz and almost 7 months since I've seen Douggie. Not to mention, I don't hang with Tim and Molly half as much anymore. So, that's a big one on my list. I'm sure you all know the most important thing on my list, though, ANIMATION! :) Animation and naps... lol. I apologize if I am ramboling (so didn't spell that right) I got 2 hours of sleep last night and now I'm at work, freezing in the dark. lol. Lazyness kicked in and I didn't turn on the lights. I totally want to just take a nap. Someone come and wake me up in 30 min, would ya? lol. No, I don't sleep at work. No. I work really hard. *tries not to laugh* awww someone will fire me.... one day ;) Anyways - noticed my bud Megz (or Megs Z as my brother calls her, based on the way I spell her name 'Megz') has a vlog on youtube. doc217 She has a series going on about Books she's reviewing. Only three total videos yet, and very few subscribers... so go check it out if you like to read, then fav, subscribe, like and comment. lol. (no I'm not promoting her vlog not at all!) Yea sooooo that's all I can think of cause I am really ramboling. (again with the bad spelling! Yuck!)

Oh, I'm currently in the works of cleaning up my files and computer. I have to get a few pieces of software, but I plan on starting to do some test animation. We shall see. I always promise something animated here and never follow thru. :( I have been keeping up with the sketch Journal! That's something to smile about! yay! How's that going for anyone whose tried it??

Ok ppls, have an AWESOME 2011 and remember to "Be Excellent to each other!" Love Kt

(quote taken from "Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure" Photo taken from Google Images and "Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure" Courtesy of Orion Pictures 1989. )

Back on track!

2011-01-31T17:17:00.002-06:00

Alrighty! I actually completed something on this list!! lol. I now have a Windows 7 machine sitting in my apt! lol. Thank you Tim!! Hopefully in the near future the animation table will not be far behind. I guess, for anyone who wants to know, Tim got his hands on Dragon Stop Motion. Which is what we will be using for this project we are currently working on.
Alright, today this is going to be really really short. ;)

Have an animated day!
Kt

One drawing every day...

2011-01-18T22:15:00.000-06:00

A new habit I have started, as of 2011... one drawing a day. I picked up a journal towards the end of last year, and it has inspired me to keep creativity in my life. One important thing for anyone who is creative - never let go of those dreams. Even if that means spending only 5 minutes a day drawing a picture that I'll never go back and look at again. Each drawing is an outlet for me, a chance to break free from everything going on and just be myself. My goal for 2011 - fill the entire book. So far, I'm right on track. They may not be the best drawings I've ever done, but they mean a lot to me. I don't think everyone needs to run out and purchase a drawing journal, but I do think making a sketch, dating it, and signing it makes your work more important to yourself. And it will help you fine tune your artwork. Not to mention, it's fun to go back after a year's worth of drawing and see what has come from it. I get rid of sooooooo much stress, just by drawing. :-) My advice, one drawing a day for 365 days a year. Try it. (not to mention, my sketch journal only cost $15 from a local bookstore. See what you can find for cheap or see what you can make!)

Good luck! (even if you cannot draw - or think you cannot draw - try it. I bet your skills will get better over the year!! Or if not - try scrap booking, or cutout art or painting, or whatever you might find to your liking! No need to stick to a book form!!)

Hugs all!
kt

WOw, I'm bad at this...

2011-01-12T13:48:00.000-06:00

Alright, big FAIL for me. I haven't been doing anything I say I am going to in this blog. lol. I have yet to update my computer to Win 7. Things got crazy and I was searching around for another place to live... but ended up staying right where I was at. Long story short... now there is no more time for excuses! I never did get a chance to make that awesome cake. We went with boring cupcakes instead. I'm hoping next marathon will be better for cake design. (Zombies!) As for animation..... I've got awesome news.....
Christmas 2011 I should have a full length Stop Motion Christmas Special ANIMATED!! Wooot Woot! My buddy Tim and I have finally had too much at work that during our breaks and stuff we plan on working on a stop motion film. Kind of a tribute to the old classics. Should be fun. However, in the process of that, I have to upgrade my computer, and build my animation table! lol. So, it's a win-win situation! Hopefully I will have some stuff to post up here about this film soon. We are currently in Pre-production mode and just blocking out a script. We've hit a couple re-writes, but all is good. Once I have something more solid to share, I will. For now, I think I'll leave you with this drawing Tim did on the dry erase board at work.

Copyright Tim Kane
Maybe he means something, maybe he doesn't.... lets see if I can post anything sooner than next year to let you guys know! (If anyone even reads this besides me!)

Windows 7????

2010-11-21T12:58:00.000-06:00

Hey all!

I think it's finally time for a big change. Yes, I'm upgrading my computer to windows 7. I've been living in win xp land for so long, now things are becoming a problem. :{ I was doing some research on some video editing software and found that the really good stuff doesn't work on 32bit old computers. I need to upgrade to 64bit to get all the bonuses I really like. Not to mention the animation programs are starting to bog down my system. I've tried to fight it for so long, but I think it's time. That is currently what is keeping me away from my animations... that and work, the holiday's, crashing hard drives (right after I uninstall my fav programs - only to learn I lost the original installers I had! They were on those external hdds. booo!) and just general life. I've been working on a couple projects and am still thinking about that animation table. With the holiday's just around the corner, there hasn't been much time for shopping. And of course now with upgrading to windows 7, the table gets further behind. I think I'm going to have to pick up a new graphics card and some more ram. :( It's called being broke for the holidays!! lol.

I don't think I've really talked about it here much, but in the past 2 years Tim and I have been making a corporate animated Christmas card for work. It usually eats up my Nov and Dec. This year, since the company got bought out, we don't get the joys to make the card. Sad, yes, but also a good thing. (Corporate Animated Christmas Cards should NEVER exist. Art people and business people just don't mix.)

Don't worry though, the creative loss isn't going to be felt too much. Currently, Tim, Molly, Justin and I are planning 4 Movie marathons for the winter season!! Awesome, right??!!! The first one coming up is "The Disney you never knew." This is going to include all the banned war cartoons, old black and white shorts (yay Alice!) and the lesser known movies (Black Hole, Dragonslayer and a few others) The awesome news about this means *trumpets sound* we get to bake more 3D cakes!! This time around Tim is going to help me out. This Disney marathon, I'm thinking my favorite "Chernabog." Remember the big scary demon from the original Fantasia film?? yeah, him.

I'm thinking, since it's so close to Christmas, of giving him a santa hat. lol. I'll be sure to post pictures here and on my facebook page to show the making of this guy. It's going to be epic!

And in non animation related news, I got a new car this month. Yeah an unexpected thing, but a very welcomed thing. ;} See, I was driving a car sold to me by my parents. It was a Sebring Chrysler Convertible... very awesome car, in it's prime. Mine was over 10 years old. The car was costing me more money to own it, then it would to sell it. Don't get me wrong, come summer time I will miss it, but for now I think I'm completely happy. I won't miss the leaky roof, the smelly trunk, not being able to leave anything in the trunk for fear of it drowning, the broken visor, having to get out of the car and walk around to let out the passenger, the broken air conditioning, the heat that only worked on high, the one speed wipers that didn't really work, the engine that sounded like a rubber band motor, the leaky new tires, the soon doomed power steering, the paint peeling trunk, the heavy trunk that keeps closing on top of you and the list goes on and on. Funny, but not so funny. The drive-in crew will have to deal with the fact that the convertible is now gone. Instead now I have a pretty dark blue Hyundai Sonata SE 2011. Very pretty and much more like me.

As for the rest of my life, I just found out I could delete followers from twitter. That makes me very happy in an evil sort of way. It allows me to put a close on a chapter of my life that was starting to become one 500 page run-on sentence. So, I'm in a really great mood. I think for the rest of today, I'm going to work on part of my Brothers Christmas gift. The only info I can post here about it - it's made from Clay, and after Christmas, I can share some pictures of it!
Hugs to all and Happy Holidays!!!
Katie

10/18/2010

2010-10-18T10:46:00.000-05:00

Hi all.

Sorry things have basically gotten forgotten here. I thought I was going to be working on my demo again, and that failed... camera guy and green screen guy were busy that weekend and - well - none of us ever got free. I will say that life has hit me fast! I moved out of my parents house about two years ago, have been working a full time (boring) job that takes up most of any free time, and when none of that is going on, I usually am helping out, or hanging out with friends.

(Me hiding in the mail room and my good friend and co-worker, Tim - lets say
we always find some downtime at work - but we do seriously work real hard.....sometimes ;)

(The drive in crew!! Missing: Tim - taking the photo and Justin who couldn't make it. In the other picture: Me and Doug.)

I've been helping my good friend Doug with his org. S.T.I.T.C.H. I have been designing t-shirts, walking for pride and equality and all that good stuff. I'm a straight supporter! I am currently working on a video from a couple of months ago, about a pride parade Doug and S.T.I.T.C.H. was apart of. [I promise Doug!!] For more info you can click the photo below to go to the website!!
More importantly (and what I think you came here to read about) I have not been doing any animation. LAME! I know!! Inspiration has not hit me. I've been talking with Tim and Justin (who oddly isn't pictured up by friends... hmmm... must change that...) I think I'm going back to the basics. I'm going to create a Stop Motion table, like we had back in college. (of course with the help of Tim) I need to remember the smallest movements in order to allow myself time to sit at the computer and animate. This will allow me to get back to the basics of animation - and get me out of an office chair and away from a computer screen. (I spend far too much time in front of the computer and none of it is animating!) I will (hopefully soon) be adding pictures of that up here and on my facebook page as well.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/katie.gephart

and while I'm here.... http://twitter.com/kt9887

and just incase you forgot: http://www.youtube.com/user/chewy9887

So for now, I leave you with some creative things I've been doing (and a new blog design made by me!)
Hugs to all!
Kt

[Order of photos: Lord Sauron's Helmet cake, R2D2 Oreo Cake, Smiley Pumpkin, Luke the Puppy Pumpkin, Jack the Doggy Pumpkin, Giraffe cake and close up of the Giraffe cake.]

Current Update July 2009

2009-07-07T09:01:00.000-05:00

Hi ppls!!

Yes, I have been completely lacking in my 3D animation for this site. I apologize. HOWEVER, I do have some news. I am currently re-vamping my Demo Reel. This coming weekend, I will be shooting some green screen footage for it. Completely all new animations! As soon as it is done, it will be posted here shortly after!!

On a more sad note, Geocities is going to be closed for good, come this October. Which is really bad news for me, cause i use it as storage for this blogg. So, you will probably see lots of holes in this blog. If I have time in the future, I'll see what I can do about it. As for now, its more important for me to finish the demo reel =)

Have a good day!
Kt

I haven't forgot this place!

2008-07-18T12:32:00.000-05:00

Wow! Times have been busy. I've been building a couple of websites that have taken lots of my time and I got a new full time job that has really required a lot of my attention and unfortunatly, doesn't really involve anything creative. :(
I have been (for quite a while now, been working on this mouse. I've decided to stray from the ways I was taught to model a character (taking it all as one piece out of a single block) and have been modeling each piece seperate. I find that I can reach details I wouldn't normally be able to reach. I'll just have to either booleen the pieces together or just sew the edges together by removing some faces. Easy stuff. Now if I could only find the time to work on him! I apologize, these are screen shots taken straight from maya. I didn't even try to smooth himor nothing. Sowwy!

Well, I'll keep you posted if I update anything on him, or just use maya in general!
Katie

For Halacy

2008-04-16T16:34:00.000-05:00

Halacy,

Sorry this has taken me so long, nothing will let me use such a large file. I still have to add the 3d background, but that will only take me alittle while when I get home from work. you can download this movie, in avi form, as a zip file here: movie1.zip (If you right click on that link you can click "save target as" and then you can open the zip folder). You can also download the same movie, as .swf version, (using the same method as before)as a zip file here:movi1.zip

The cd/dvd you sent me was blank, so I am still using the old sound file. I did recently get an email from dave with a new sound file on it, but since I was already synced to that file, I stuck with it. Hope this is closer to what you want. I know I need to do another set on the girl and on him. Was there anything else you wanted for this shot? (besides the 3d background?) Wasn't there something with cups? Talk to you later! Katie ----- See Katie's Animation blogg! http://katiegephart.blogspot.com/

More Modeling...

2008-03-10T03:15:00.000-05:00

Been helping some friends out with some of their projects... I was playing with the lighting on this one... and I really like it. =) Makes me want to go get a salad... =)

Riddle Me This...

2008-02-04T17:38:00.000-06:00

I was going through my brothers dvd collection and saw that he had the pack of Batman dvds... the set.... so I decided to make this short little animation. Enjoy!
P.S. I used Generi and maya 8!

Katie Gephart 3D Animation Demo Reel

2008-01-23T22:29:00.000-06:00

Hey! Here is my updated demo reel. I just wanted to post the penguin video, but decided to post my whole demo reel. Sorry for a lot of repeats (if you've viewed any of my other posts). I hope you like it! Pass my website/ blogg to anyone you might know who is looking to hire a junior 3D character animtor! lol. =)

Penguin 2

2008-01-07T20:04:00.000-06:00

Hey! I'm still working on my little penguin. He's starting to walk! YAY!!! I'm really glad paint weights is over. They're not perfect, but the best I've ever done. I'm so proud of myself =). I've hit a brick wall though, I've got writers block. Usually coming up with story ideas is something I can do fairly easily, however, this time not so easy. I've got a cheesy idea in mind, but think this little guy is destined for something greater. Maybe I'll create the cheesy idea and then be able to come up with something a little bit better? Hopefully. Anyways, I was going through my stuff and found some photos and a few shorts with blendshapes I think you all might enjoy.
Have a good one!

Original Sketch!

Heh, playing with a background idea Snow in the day time and night!

Blendshapes 1

Puffy Cheeks Blendshapes

Tail Blendshapes

Penguin

2008-01-02T20:00:00.000-06:00

This is something that I've been working on. I've created this little guy from scratch. He's currently rigged and textured, but I am still working on the paint weights. I cannot ever seem to get those correct. I've also given him some blendshapes, verses a face rig. I'm still new to the whole face rig thing, I love to animate with them, but I've never actually made one - well, correctly anyways. lol. I hope to get him up and animated soon. I'll keep you posted.

Even though it's late

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Gone 3D Modeling

2007-12-09T15:46:00.000-06:00

Sorry I've been away for so long. Everything's just been really busy, however, I do have some new stuff to show. I've been modeling a lot lately. Not really sure why. I don't like to uv map and I am terrible with lighting lol. Enjoy! (as always, created in maya and edited with photoshop)

"Why is the Rum Always Gone?"

2007-09-09T13:55:00.000-05:00

Another Animation by Me, Katie Gephart. Using Generi the Character, Maya 8, and a Clip from the Movie Pirates of the Carribbean. (Other sonds provided by me =)

"Listen..."

2007-08-24T17:48:00.000-05:00

Here's another Ghostbusters animation I, Katie, animated. =) I used Generi once again. I must say... I am liking him a little bit better for lipsync. But lowman is still one of my favorites. Enjoy!

"Back Off Man, I'm a Scientist."

2007-08-21T15:35:00.001-05:00

A classic quote from the movie Ghostbusters, animated by me: Katie Gephart. Using the great character Generi by Andrew Silke http://andrewsilke.com/generi_rig/generi_rig.html
And also using Maya 8.

How the Chocolate Bunny was Created.

2007-08-19T02:14:00.000-05:00

http://chewy9887.deviantart.com/art/Chocolate-Bunny-62691674

Nice hat

2007-08-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

In the process of trying to get my Ghostbusters "Slimed Me" Animation to work, I created this silly images using the paint effects.

Ghostbusters

2007-08-08T13:48:00.001-05:00

ok, I've gotten my hands on some Ghostbusters quotes and I've been working on some animations with LowMan. I would love to have a finished animation to post here, but I am still trying to figure out how to get slime to move, glob, and generally look like slime withou being something I modeled too. Does that make sense? Anyways, Here is what I currently have without the slime.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/61781074

Character: LowMan
Sound: Ghostbusters the Movie
Animation: Katie Gephart

Sister Blog

2007-05-06T01:28:00.000-05:00

Just so you all know....this is what I like to call my finished blog. Here is where I post only my work. To see more in detail posts and more different little animations by me (like my stop motion project) go to my "Work in progress" blog at: http://kgephart.blogspot.com

Dr. Evil

2007-05-06T01:06:00.000-05:00

Done in maya 7 with LowMan. =)

What is He Selling?

2007-05-05T09:29:00.000-05:00

Just something I made with LowMan and Maya8.

Cool Jump

2007-05-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

Something I animated using LowMan and Maya