Term 1 Assignments

I'm finally posting the rest of my assignments from my first term at VFS.

This is a composite of most of my character design assignments. I'm gradually getting better at designing human characters, I think.

These drawings are from the visual storytelling class - one linear composition and one circular one. I was on some kind of rampaging monster kick during that one.

These drawings were to show characters in environments with a sense of depth.

This was for an assignment where we read a couple of pages from a book and then illustrated the scene with three tones.

Happy and sad compositions.

Analogous and complimentary color compositions.

The following videos are of the superhero assignment in my modeling class. We chose a superhero from a list of DC animated series model sheets, then modeled and rigged that character.

Laura Ambrosiano - Batman Turntable from VFS Modeling on Vimeo.

3d89laura Batman Motion Test from VFS Modeling on Vimeo.

Some VFS Assignments - Compositions and Celebrity Head Sculpt

What do zombies and Bill Hader's head have in common? Nothing really other than the fact that they were both VFS assignments.

As an introduction to Zbrush our first modeling assignment was to sculpt a celebrity's head from a sphere. I chose Bill Hader because I thought he had an interesting face with really funny expressions. Once I got used to the wonky camera controls, I really enjoyed Zbrush. Since this is sculpted from a sphere, the topology is pretty gross. It'll be neat to start importing geometry from Maya.




The zombies are from an assignment where we drew the same scene in sedate, alert, and dynamic compositions. It was close to Halloween so the teacher gave the project a Halloween theme.

Random Raptor

I was messing around in Maya one day and just impulsively started modeling a dinosaur head. Eventually it became an entire dinosaur. There's still a fair amount of refining to do on this guy I think, but I think the model is getting close to being done. Since he was something I just started impulsively for the sake of modeling practice, I don't have any particular project in mind for him. I guess I'll just keep messing with him, try to build a rig, and just see how things go.


Yeah, I know everyone and their dog makes velociraptors in Maya, but mine will be the cutest!

Terror Birds and an Angry Tiger

I sketched this terror bird the other day and liked it, so I scanned and put some color down on him. I should do a finished drawing of him at some point.


I saw this photograph and I really liked the expression, so I did a drawing based on it. Then I played around with some acrylic inks and colored pencil.

Some fluffy animals

I went through a couple sketchbooks and scanned the drawings that I liked. Here's a compilation of some of those drawings.
This drawing was requested by my friend Martin. Apparently my friend Caitlyn was telling him about how her family's cat freaks out whenever their puppy pokes her with his nose.

Bull Terrier Cerberus

I'm still trying to improve my digital painting skills, so I tried to make this without using any line. I've also been really into drawing creatures with bull-terrier profiles lately.

Go Back for Murder Logo/Poster

These are logo/poster designs for Los Alamos Little Theater's production of Go Back for Murder. They're designed to be simple to print and usable as both logos and poster designs.

Odd Illustration/Sketch Assortment

I've been really bad about posting, so here's an odd assortment of drawings that I've done lately.

I really need to get better at drawing caricatures of people. To practice I drew a bunch of people I knew. I'm also a huge dork for His Dark Materials, so I gave them all daemons.

This is my half of an art trade I did with my friend Josh. These are his characters, who I don't think have names yet.

And this is a piranha. The drawing is a sketch I did at the zoo. I'm not sure why I decided to color it. I was just in the mood to Photoshop paint something, I guess.

This is a creature I drew in my sketchbook that I particularly liked. I'm not particularly great at coming up with cool-sounding names, so I've just been calling it the Beartiger. I've been drawing a lot of creatures with big forearms and long claws lately. Also, while I was absorbed in trying to make interesting stripes, I accidentally drew a "ro" on his back leg. For some reason I didn't notice it until I was almost finished with all the color, so I just left it. It does bother me a bit, though. Oh well.



This creature is also submitted as a designer toy concept on Patch Together. If you're at all interested, please follow the link on the image and vote for it.

Ferrets

My brother's ferrets are really adorable, so I drew some caricatures of them.

Pony Club Coloring Book

These are drawings I did for a coloring book for United States Pony Clubs Inc. The coloring book will be handed out at the World Equestrian Games.

More Animals

Here are four more illustration's I've done for the Zoo. The Kansas City Zoo has full rights to these images.

Out of Reach - Senior Project

So this is my senior project. Well... I learned a lot from it. I guess I can say that at least. There are things I like and a lot of things I don't like. Overall it was a very worthwhile experience, though.

Out of Reach from Laura Ambrosiano on Vimeo.

Mythical Creatures

This was for an assignment where the prompt was "fact vs fiction". Since I'm a huge nerd, I decided to do my project about mythical creatures and their origins. I ended up in a big time crunch and had to finish this a lot faster than I would have liked, but I thought it came out pretty well considering.

Zoo Drawings

Here are the first three animal drawings I've done for the Kansas City Zoo.

2010 Reel

Laura Ambrosiano - Animation Reel 2010 from Laura Ambrosiano on Vimeo.

Finally updated my reel. There are still some issues, and hopefully a lot of this will change by the end of the semester, but I feel like this is at least a fair improvement.

Zoo Illustration Progress

I'm doing a series of drawings for the Kansas City Zoo and this is a little compilation of sketches and partially done drawings.

Senior FIlm Renders

Here are a couple of test renders from my film that's in progress. I've been rendering with Mental Ray using final gather and composited paint effects for the grass.