sBethers

Last day at the CTL

2010-05-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

Crazy last semester of college, but I finished! I'm now graduated and busy job searching. Today was my last day at my current job, the Center for Teaching and learning. I got to finish up a texture for a virtual chemistry lab and do some labels. I'm going to miss that place. If any of you BYU animation students are looking for the best job on campus for our major, try there. :)

Anyway, this is a burner for the chem lab. I did the texture and Chris Little did the model.

Izzy Lighting

2010-03-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

So I've gotten three shots from Izzy almost finaled for lighting. But we don't have many lighters here to get feedback from, so if anyone has some ideas on plusing this scene that'd be great! And that's open to non-lighters too--I know you painters and 2D art people especially have to think a lot about lighting.

Thanks guys! :)

Lighting Demo Reel

2010-03-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

2010 Lighting Demo Reel from Stacey Bethers on Vimeo.

Lighting specific reel. So it's been a lot harder getting this reel together. Lighting is my favorite part of production but unfortunately it comes towards the end of everything. Aka--in two months I'd have a lot of lit shots to choose from with animation. But right now it's a lot of stills. Thanks for all of the comments on my last reel they were way helpful!

2010 Generalist Demo Reel

2010-03-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

So this is my not specialized reel. It's got shading, lighting, compositing, modeling and 2D art. But I have sent variations on it to a couple studios. It's a bit lengthy, so if you have any thoughts on parts of it I should cut out entirely or speed up--let me know! Or even anything I should work on adding to it. Thanks! (Sorry it takes so long to load)

2010 3D Artist Reel from Stacey Bethers on Vimeo.

Paintings

2010-01-03T23:12:00.000-08:00

So last semester I got to try my hand at oil painting. It's a really fun medium--though crazy expensive... Thankfully I could tell my work improved a lot. (Maybe I should have posted a before and after painting to emphasize just how bad I started. But I don't really want to be reminded.) Here are two of the paintings I ended up actually liking. One more is coming along, but I'll post that when it's done.

Lamp Texture

2009-09-12T15:24:00.001-07:00

Been working on a short film called DreamGiver. It's been really fun to push myself on the more realistic textures. This is going to be a beautiful film--I'm really excited about it. Especially when we get to lighting it...

Pixar Internship

2009-08-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I'm back from Pixar now. A bit sad--but this'll be a fun last school year so not bad. :) I'm waiting for them to get back to me about what work I can post from the summer, but till then here are some photos! The first one is a lighting class photo with JC, our mentor, and Andy, our TA. Way fun group.

Radio

2009-06-02T13:31:00.001-07:00

Roxy Lighting

2009-06-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Soooo... Haven't posted forever so here's what I've been doing for the last long while--X-ing lighting, trouble-shooting, rendering, and more X-ing. But I'm not letting it drive me crazy, I have to still like working on the computer for my internship... Then I can crash and paint for a while. That's the master plan.

This is Roxy, the evil seductress of our senior film...

Dreamgiver Textures

2009-04-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

All I seem to be doing lately is render. So to assuage some of the boredom... I put this together! These took a while as there were 50+ books to do. (Only did about 15 variations but it was still a lot.)

Also if you'd like to see my newest demo reel go to my other site--

staceybethers--portfolio.blogspot.com

Any feedback would be welcome, always trying to do better.

X-ing Press Image

2009-03-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

So this was a beast to render. Not this resized version. The enormous one that wasn't even done in time to be printed. Anyway, I did the lighting and rendering. No model or shader credit in my book this time. I crashed at least nine computers trying to get it and then ended up having to render slivers of it at a time to get anything.

Izzy Knit

2009-03-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

Was playing around with textures and thought this looked cute.

"Turtles Can Fly" and Movies can Hurt

2008-12-04T23:07:00.000-08:00

So I saw a film called "Turtles Can Fly" a while back and ended up having to write a paper on it. Really I never wanted to think about it again, but when I do all of my pent up feelings about it explode. So I'm going to write about the most painful experience I've ever had watching a film...

"Turtles Can Fly" is an unconventional but painful, politically subtle war expose. It follows an orphan named Satellite as he goes about life along the border between Iraq and Turkey in an area called Kurdistan. A natural leader and genuinely likeable protagonist, Satellite organizes a huge gang of orphans and other children in order to make money and survive in a world torn upside down by war. Frankly, even though "Turtles Can Fly" was well done and beautifully handled for the majority of the time, it made me sick. After seeing that film I sat sobbing, heartsick and repulsed to the core of my being. Maybe that means the director achieved his objective. I saw a new face to war and I’ll never be the same — but I feel like I was manipulated into getting there. The director crossed a line.

I would do anything to erase a single scene from this film from my memory. When the prophet gives talks on pornography and how some images once seen will never leave us — the images they’re talking about don’t hold a candle to the horrible scene I had to watch. It’s burned into my brain. The image of the little boy looking frightened and calling for his mommy, his dad, anyone. The girl who should have been protecting him, picking him up, looking into his angelic tear stricken face. The little boy’s tortured expression easing at the sight of one who he trusts. He doesn’t understand that the day before the girl had left him in the middle of a mine field to die. He has no idea she sees him and is filled with hate because he reminds her of that night. The night her family was killed and she left in a broken pile, raped with horrifying memories that will haunt her forever. The boy doesn’t understand as she ties a rope around his little body and sets him awkwardly on the ground. He’s at the pond where he let the turtles they found go free. She’s beside him, pushing the large rock tied to his waist closer and closer to the water. The little boy’s wide, innocent eyes blink before the boulder crashes into the pond and everything goes black. Cut to the girl slipping out of her sandals and stepping off of a cliff.

That scene haunts me. And I’ll never be able to forget it. I don’t care the cause merits that kind of emotional response — there is no reason to create that type of pain for your viewer. No one with any shred of human decency could sit through that without falling to pieces inside. So what — because I’m a sensitive human who cares about children and can’t even think about this scene without crying—now I’m going to agree with the film maker’s view point? Yes, war is horrible in ways as a sheltered American, I cannot truly imagine. But I have not been moved an inch closer to the director’s cause—rather, I’ve gone the opposite direction. To have created child characters for the audience to come to love and care for and then rip those children’s lives apart with suicide, murder and atrocity after atrocity, I can label it as nothing other than manipulation. And it makes me sick.

And yet my film analysis trained mind betrays my heart and asks if the film accomplished its purpose. If the director’s intention is to cut to the heart of a human atrocity and reveal it for the painful, senseless reality that it is — can he cross that line? Why not? In war, far worse scenes play out. Why should we be sheltered from the worst when it actually exists? If a director wants the world to see what horrible realities are truly happening and provoke his viewers into trying to change something, can he cross all lines no matter how painful? Was using children to elicit such a strong response a cheap trick or was it a genuine reflection on haunting realities?

I’m not sure what I think anymore. But it hurts.

Animal Scales of a Sort

2008-11-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

Not sure where this came from but I had fun making it! Actually, it was a doodle from Joe's class so maybe it's not so weird after all.

Gesture Collection

2008-10-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

These are from the summer, I was compiling some favorites for my demo reel and thought I'd post them.

Robo Textures

2008-10-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

So 3 projects have been planned to all hit me at the same time. I'm still reeling... But happy with the one that I've completed so far. (I'm not finished--it needs some spec, displacement and bump mapping, but that can be added later...)

So the UVs took seven and a half hours one day. Then I threw the textures together yesterday. (No, they're not painted. I took some photo reference of a well used cookie sheet of mine and manipulated it for each of the different sections.)

It's a killer robot. Really.

Modeling

2008-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've been working a bit more on modeling lately which has actually been pretty awesome. It's like sculpting on the computer. For the most part anyway. These snapshots are from different work and school related projects.

Onion Study

2008-09-10T16:54:00.001-07:00

So I'm going to be getting to know a certain onion for the next long while. So if I look like I'm about to cry you'll all have to be understanding and supportive...

Crazybirds

2008-09-08T23:14:00.000-07:00

This is a cropped version of my first project for Joe Olsen's class. We had to combine three references and a theme... I'm not sure if I really understood the assignment but I had a lot of fun making it! Scaaary birds.

Bird Quickdraw Fix

2008-09-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Alright, so this was my real try at some extreme exaggeration. I had seen a various artists pick shapes and then fit the bird inside them--I just decided I liked the silhouettes so much that I stuck with them.

Side Project

2008-08-29T10:00:00.001-07:00

This is part of a project for a contest. Yes, I enjoy anime and indulge in the style occasionally... I liked how she turned out.

Next Quickdraw...

2008-08-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Topic: Geisha
Style: One hue, can change value and saturation

This one was pretty fun, and I followed the rules for the most part... Right at the end I decided to throw on a sponge filter though. Mmmm. I love photoshop.

Another Quick Draw

2008-08-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

Greek Mythology was the topic and the plan was to emmulate a pretty awesome style found at this talented artist's blog: Heidi Smith

And I'll get those behind the scenes Kung fu Panda pictures up soon Eric!

Monkey Concept

2008-08-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

Working on some different styles for a project at work. This one is probably too artsy but I liked it the best.

What I've been doing all summer.

2008-08-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

These are some frames from G_11, G_12, G_13, and G_14. Kites is a really neat project to be working on! I lit and rendered each of these scenes and composited all but G_12. Rendering and compositing wasn't as hard as I expected it to be which was awesome. Anyway, hopefully we can get the film completely pulled together soon!

Quick Draw @ Work

2008-07-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

This was a 40 minute adventure. The first of its kind with many more to come!

Animation Memories from 2008...

2008-06-10T12:05:00.001-07:00

Sadly we were missing some faces... But if ya don't show up to class you're bound to miss something good. (Current evidence being Gesture Drawing 101. Don't even bother putting on the headphones. You'll end up wishing you hadn't.) Anyway... I love these pictures. Animation and photography should mix more often. Sometimes it leads to some pretty fantastic results.

Gesture Drawings

2008-05-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the drawings from class that actually worked. Out of 20-30 drawings I get maybe one or two I like well enough... Maybe that's an exaggeration. But that's what it feels like. And I have lost my painted sketchbook and am feeling slightly devastated. So if anyone happens to see it wandering the halls of the hfac, let me know will ya?

2D FX Project

2008-05-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if there's anyway to get these to loop... And you don't get much of the effect if they don't go for more than a second.

New Sketchbook!

2008-05-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

I was pretty jealous of everyone's sketchbooks (Well Jake's in particular)... So I created my own cover. Hopefully it'll trick me into actually carrying my sketchbook around everywhere because I like it. That's the plan anyway. Yeah. This project also made me realize I don't hate acrylics as much as I thought I did. It just takes patience . LOTS of patience.

New Markers!

2008-03-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to try out my new copic markers! And I've been converted. They remind me of watercolors--though I was a little frustrated because the sky in each of these turned out a little too dark. If anyone knows how to make a lighter, more smooth gradient I'd be forever grateful.

These are all studies of Geneva Steel for my lighting project. Felt like a spy or something sneaking back across the street to take pictures and draw every couple of hours... Pretty fun.

Dragon Maquette

2008-03-16T11:12:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty happy with how this one came out. Though I wish I could lengthen his neck now... The scale detail work really helped helped it look more like a dragon. Oddly enough it had looked more like a sheep than a dragon before... (At least his expression did.)

Bronze

2008-03-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

This is my first project for my sculpture class. For an intro class, I was surprised we started with bronze--but it was really awesome. We did the actual sculpting with wax first, adding air tubes and channels for the bronze to flow through. Then we dipped it in slurry (plaster of some sort) and sand to create a shell... Then melted the wax out of the plaster mold... And then poured the bronze. And then we weren't even done. But it was worth the time in the end. Though I have to say working with molten metal was intense. The teacher was going on about how we shouldn't be surprised if someone got their eyebrows singed off and that sort of thing. I thought he was joking then, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Missionary Sketch

2008-03-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

They look a bit young. But then again--missionaries don't feel as old as they used to any more. One of my close friends just left on his mission today and he was already set apart so I couldn't even give him a hug. Sad, but I guess the Lord can have him for a while. *laughs* Hope that wasn't too blasphemous.

46 Hours Later

2008-03-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

So I finished my first maquette! It was more frustrating and more gratifying than I could have imagined. Really the only thing I would have changed are the eyes. Definitely have more respect for Hoffman's work now.

This is a detective type character that I've been thinking about developing for a while. No, he doesn't have a name... Yet. It'll come eventually. The dragon maquette is going to be the problem now. I definitely feel done--but have yet to finish him. It's so cool though! Life consuming, but pretty amazing when it all starts coming together.

Snowpot

2008-02-21T20:07:00.001-08:00

I was trying to go for a cold winter's night look--and I like how it turned out for the most part. *laughs* It's the one project I've done for Brent's class that's worked out. The occulsion pass was probably my favorite part! (Thanks again Mike!)

So I finally got a blog.

2008-02-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

But I haven't figured out how to customize it yet... Hmmm. I'll work on that one. Anyway, till then I'll put up some of my sketchbook stuff. Lots of catchup stuff as it's taken so long to finally get a blog.