Family Portrait: Messy #2

My Family Portrait from Rebecca Rochon on Vimeo.


Summer Days Spent at my cottage in Ontario, Canada are the most wonderful days. I have grown up excited to relax and be with the family at my cottage whenever we could fit a trip into our busy schedules. It is definitely my favourite place on earth.

For this project, I decided to recreate a "snapshot" of my family in the great North, where we are all our happiest!

Here's the rough Sketch the scene was inspired by:

To make the puppets, I used watercolour paper and gouache to create a traditional puppet animation feel. I used bright vibrant neon colours, which unfortunately didn't scan as brightly as I intended, but I managed to alter the images in after effects enough to bring it back to their original colours.

I then used photoshop to animate my dog's mustache, my mom's hair and my own hair.

After that I composited and animated the entire scene in After Effects.

I really enjoyed working with puppets and will be exploring with them further in the near future (hopefully with some tigers and circus awesomeness)  I had a ton of trouble when I first attempted to traditionally animate the puppets under a camera because there was so much action to keep track of and it was super difficult to keep the layers in place. That's why I went digital, but I think I want to try and go completely traditional again with a simpler idea. 


Here are some pics of my family and I having fun at our cottage!

My Brother wake surfing (in case you didn't know of this sport and were confused why he isnt holding onto a rope in my piece)

Me and my Brother (and goofy Dad)

Mom and I soaking up the sun

 Dad behind the wheel

and of course, my adorable doggie Jack!

Skate: An Experimental Animation

Skate from Rebecca Rochon on Vimeo.

I just began my Experimental Animation class and it's time to (as the great philosopher Frizzle once said) "take chances, make mistakes, and GET MESSY!"

And messy I indeed became. In fact, our first project in this class was to create an "animation messy" wherein we had been assigned to animate in a "straight ahead method" of our choosing. We could animate with sand, wet paint on glass, or even chalk.

"I'm not an intelligent, talented animator like you Ms. Rochon!" you say, "What on earth is the 'straight ahead' method and furthermore an 'animation messy'!!!!???" you ask.

Intelligent? who me? TALENTED? awe shucks how nice of you to say so.

So, the 'straight ahead method' is basically another way of saying animating without much pre-planning. Usually, animators have to plan ahead every single drawing so that the animation can be timed and executed perfectly. Key moments and character positions will be drawn in first to get a rough idea of the scene and slowly more drawings are added in between those key drawings to smooth the action out.

For this project I animated without a ton of pre-planning. I had my basic idea but I did one drawing after another rather than locking down key moments and filling drawings in between them.

Figure Skating is a big part of my life. I began skating at the age of 8 after I found ballet too boring and continued to skate and compete until grade 11. Although I quit it awhile ago,  Figure Skating is not completely out of my life! I have my coaching license and coach here in Vancouver.

Skating really influences my animation because it taught me how to analyze and control my body movement (a helpful tool when animating). I had to create graceful arcs with every part of my body: my arms, to my wrists, my fingers etc.

Those arcs are going to be my focus for this project.

I was inspired by Norman Mclaren's "Pas de Deux".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bXWWz5Tv_I

Figure Skating is Ballet on ice, so this was a natural transition to make.

In fact, crazy enough here is a video from the 2005 world champions of the gorgeous Sasha Cohen skating to"Pas de Deux"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PddOi_Dmlc&feature=relmfu

Sasha Cohen is one of the most graceful skaters in my opinion, and watching her makes for incredible inspiration.

I will also be looking at the powerful and inspiring Canadian Olympic champion Joannie Rochette.

Here is her Olympic Performance, you can see her strength on the ice. This performance was only a few days after her mother's death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyzkQQms3rA&feature=related

Here are some skating sketches I did to try and lock down some key poses before I went to paint and create them with sand.

Here is what the sand art looks like before editing . In the video I inversed (swapped black and white) this image in order to a create consistency in my piece. 

 more poses...

I used paint, chalk, sand and paper cut outs to create "Skate". I thoroughly enjoyed using such tactile and traditional mediums. At first I was intimidated but as an animator I really enjoyed having an element of chance and freedom in my art making process. I really loved being able to use my muscle memory to create the animation rather than looking at specific reference footage. I felt like I was animating straight from the heart. Animators tend to plan and control their work down to every line. It was wonderful to let loose and let the medium tell a story. 

Brotherly Love

Today was awesome. I spent the day at a Blue Jays game with my brother, Dylan. I am so grateful to have a brother that I get along with. He is amazing and although we are separated by distance during the year, (He studies in Ontario and I in Vancouver) it always feels just like the good ol' days when we are reunited.

It was one of those days that I knew I would reflect on later when I missed my brother in Vancouver. 

Singing along to "You raise me up" By Josh Groban 

Ok time to be serious and focus on the road. 

Still havin' a chill ol' time

Go Jays!

Love you Dylan xoxo

They See me Strollin' They Hatin'...

Today, on our way back from one of our usual work nights at school, we spotted something unusual. A baby stroller just sitting there, abandoned on Granville Island.

So naturally, we shoved my friend Dora into it and posed for a few pictures.

Ma'am, isn't that baby a little big for that stroller?

"Wattsaamatta witchu?? I'm a baby!!"

Back in Van!

So I have returned to Vancouver... awhile ago actually...

I just have been favouring my time towards schoolwork and partying. Also, I usually write on this blog during boring lectures, but thankfully this semester's lectures aren't as boring as the last's. :) which is good for my mental health, but bad for my blog.. it also gives me less to complain about, which makes me sad as I enjoy complaining very much.

So what's been happening? Well I am doing well lately, thank you!

I am taking 3 classes that I thoroughly enjoy (digital imaging aka photoshop class- i will show u a couple examples of stuff I have been doing, animation-FINALLY!!!, and video essentials) They are all design-based courses so I feel a lot better now that I don't have to deal with people stripping down naked for their projects or slapping a ball of string on the table and calling it art (yes this all happened in my sculpture class last semester!). My courses are more "commercial" now and I feel a much better sense of belonging to this school then before.
Well thats all for now! sorry if that was boring. I will keep you posted with more exciting things later.

Back HOME!! or is it home?

I am finally back in Ontario, my hometown.

I have been meaning to write about my reunification with friends and family and familiar items, but I guess I have been too busy doing just that to write.

The best description of the experience I am having, and one that I have been hearing from my other friends, is that it feels weird to be home, like the last 4 months in Vancouver were just a dream. I keep having to bbm (Blackberry Messenger) or facebook my friends to reconfirm that they DO exist. This causes much fustration to my friends and family here;  I carry my blackberry around as though it is of equal value to my heart or lungs. I NEED it! :)

Because the majority of my friends in Vancouver are from other countries, and Vancouver itself seems very american/asian, I have not been feeling very Canadian. So, when I arrived home to Tim Horton's and my brothers hockey game, I felt extremely Canadian.

It has been really weird though, because although I clearly remember missing my friends and family and Ontario lifestyle, and felt like it was so far away, The second I returned home, it is like nothing happened. Everything went right back to normal. Even my parents... That part was sort of upsetting because I was expecting them to be extra nice, almost abnormally nice, and suppress every frustration they had with me because they missed me so much and didnt want me to be upset with them.. this was not the case. My mom still continues to nag me, with chores and responsibility.

I am certainly enjoying my break, but I am really starting to miss Vancouver and all of my friends there. Mostly the freedom and the art.

Here, I almost forget that I am an artist. I am just so lazy! It is hard to believe that I am even writing this right now! I wanted to read so much and do so many things but I am just NOT! im not doing anything.

I talked to my roomate the other day over the phone and she witnessed my first slip of the use of the term "home" when refrencing Vancouver. I said, "when are you going home again?" and right after I dramatically paused when I realized what I had just done... Where is my home? I am pretty sure it is in Vancouver now. But I would still say that this is my home as well.

That night when I went to bed, I couldn't help but look at my bedroom and think that this will never be my room again. I cant believe it. I have actually moved out. I guess I found this all easier before because I was blinded with the excitement of University, but it is actually very sad. I will never be able to be a kid again...

My Red Wine Project

This week for drawing class we were told to draw with something you wouldn't normally draw with, on something you wouldn't normally draw on.

I decided to paint with cheap red wine on a blouse :)

As a final touch I went to my local dry cleaners and asked them if they could remove the stain. They laughed and gave it a mock assessment before packaging it and returning it back to me in a clear package. 

A classmate modelling my 'design'