hi im lauren haught

follow my instagram @smokinghaughtarts

[laurenhaught]

F A L L I N G   W I T H   B L O O D   |UPDATE|

We have finally started animating! Here is a small gif of a run cycle I made for the animation. I recently moved over to Toon Boom and loving it, animating in it is so much fun and easy for me to work in. Character animation has been a blast to work with and learning how to animate four legged thing has been a fun challenge. After 12 years, its exciting to see my babies come to life!

[laurenhaught]

JUNIOR RESEARCH PROJECT  |UPDATE| 

So for my research project, I’ve decided to make an After Effect Puppet and animate a walk cycle! Part one of the project was to make the puppet. The first picture is of her, we will name her Shiny! I made Shiny in Illustrator, this actually the second prototype of her, since her other was a little wacky but hey it was my first time making a digital puppet! The second part of the project was to put her in After Effects and start animating. But before that I had to rig her which took a little more time than I bargained for, so we made the switch to have the second project to being rigging which is this!

As you see, she got a little sunburned when moving into After Effects but the good news is that she made it over to the switch of programs. For the rigging and animating the puppet, I am using the add-on Duik. Duik is free and it is awesome and very easy. Also thanks to my amazing professor I was given some tutorial videos that are moving the process along just fine. In the last two photos you can see the rig skeleton over and then where I had to parent the illustration to the rig. All in all, she moves! The next and final project is to animate her and make her move!    

[laurenhaught]

STORY SHOTS EXERCISE

An exercise from former Pixar creator, Emma Coats that takes a film and breaks it down in its simplest form by each shot to determine the type of shot it is and how it's working in the film. 

I decided to take the film Princess Mononoke and break down the scene in which the protagonist Ashitaka is going against a demon boar, Tatarigami. I was interested in the action of this scene and wanted to break down how Miyazaki frame this sequence. In the beginning, the shots are wider shots showing the characters and the environment around them. This also helps understand the larger scale the demon is to Ashitaka and the girls of the village. As the action picks up so do the shots, they become quicker and the camera starts moving in closer to the characters to show their emotions. A few will be close up and fast but right before the audience can get confused the camera takes a step back again to understand the path of actions of the characters and then the camera pulls back in for more action. By the end of the sequence once the board demon has been shot with an arrow to the head. The camera becomes more static still shots to indicate the fast pace action as stopped. Scenes also get heald a little longer almost like taking a depth breath. 

Princess Mononoke is one of my all-time favorite films so I’m happy that I was able to breakdown one scene and try to understand how and why it works!     

[laurenhaught]

F A L L I N G   W I T H   B L O O D   (WIP)

Here it is, my first introduction to my junior project! I’m making an opening for a story that I have had with me since I was 9 years old. Falling with Blood is a working title, but I’ll be tagging the project as it when updating about it. The story is about our main protagonist, Ichigo who was cast out by society when he was born due to his own curse, nevertheless, he strives to prove himself to everyone that he is worthy. He is actively tried to help the community that shunned him out, by fighting the villain Ikari who seeks to destroy them. Along with his misfit pack, he learns to fight for himself and discover the mysteries that cursed him in the first place. 

The next post will be introducing our characters and many more! I hope you enjoy!

[laurenhaught]

Assignment 02 : Wired for Story

I found Cron’s “Wired for Story” very eye-opening for storytelling. I’ve never been a good writer and I just assumed I wasn’t a good storyteller, so when she said you don’t have to write beautifully to tell a story. While that excites me, after reading this I have a lot to reflect on when writing a story. Something I tend to struggle at is being it simple, my mind is always a hot mess or so many thoughts are always racing that I feel like I have to word-vomit everything out. Cron gives good advice to break it down into simple steps and questions, and it’s something I wanna try to do for my Junior project. I have had a story for 12 years that seemed to 180 almost every day, so stepping back and taking those basic barebones might be an easier way for me to build a strong story that others could understand and enjoy. Another point she made that I never thought about is the plot not is what the story is about, but rather a story is how the plot affects the Protagonist. The two main important things are a good Protagonist, give them a problem that will affect and find a theme that you wanna say. That's another thing, the theme to me is a scary word and I don’t know why but after her writing I feel a little better. This reading took a lot of pressure off me. Hopefully, I can take her tips and tricks and put them in my work! Wish me luck!

[laurenhaught]

Weekly Blog Assignment One, Exercise Two

1. After Effect puppet

2. Animation over live-action video

3. Animal walk/run cycle

4. Fight scenes in animation

5. What makes a good anime opening?

6. Layering animation (editing)

7. How to effectively use Adobe Animate

8. How to form a well overarching story clearly

9. How to world build

10. Perspective in backgrounds

11. Special effects (in After Effect and animation)

[laurenhaught]

Weekly Blog Assignment One, Exercise One: “Family Tree”

After reading pages 1-41 from Austin’s Kleon’s Steal Like An Artist, I follow Kleon’s advice and made my own family tree of influence. I choose an animator that goes by the name SliverThePuppy. They are someone I’ve have followed since I was little who has inspired my style and my passion for animation. I got in contact to ask who some of their inspirations and then stared trailing those artist’s inspirations. It was very neat and eye-opening to me because in this family there are a lot of the same artists that I am also inspired by so that was a cool thing to find out. Maybe of these artists are animators but we have two writers into the mix along with a movie and art that inspired movies as well. So shoutout to Kleon for opening my third eye with this family tree.