Garth's Blog

First test render

2012-02-09T16:15:00.003-05:00

First test scene for film. James' textures didn't render properly, but this is fixed now. Anyway, please full screen. The final product will be significantly brighter once some light begins to bounce off surfaces from final gathering. So far, I like how the lights reacting with the room!

Some life drawings from today

2012-02-05T20:22:00.002-05:00

These are some life drawings I did today. It's been too long since I've life drawn. Also, chalk is difficult. So so difficult.

Stone man escaping

2012-01-08T20:02:00.002-05:00

Guess I'm doing a sketch a day? Things just seem to be working out this way. I don't often get the rough to look at all like the finished product but this time they're pretty similar. I love vibrancy.

3D Film done in a day

2012-01-08T10:44:00.002-05:00

I just realized I forgot to post this hear. This was really just a breather from working on my film, half way through last semester. Funny that a 'break' for me is other forms of work that just aren't directly linked to current projects. Regardless, I don't even consider this work, as it was so fun. It is the story of betrayal... so so sad.

Quick sketch/paint

2012-01-08T00:32:00.003-05:00

I love making a shape then finding a character in it. There's something unique about trying to deal with the cards dealt, and trying to make the best of it. Granted I had the intention to make some kind of character beforehand, but really just start making the shapes first. That said... this result was very strange. I'm slightly addicted to angular appeals.

More zombie propaganda

2012-01-07T22:58:00.003-05:00

This is just a poster on the wall of my character's room. Making posters is fun, I'll probably make some more.

Old TV prop - because new ones designs are boring

2011-12-04T01:41:00.003-05:00

Just a quick TV prop rotation, finished texturing for the most part. This was finished a while ago just forgot to post it. I'm really happy with how the design worked out.

Let there be emotion

2011-12-04T00:47:00.003-05:00

And suddenly, he can feel.

So nice to get even just the beginning of the emotional look I want to! How rewarding. 12 hour rigging saturday, well spent. This is no longer merely about the proper deformation and muscle movements but rather the challenge. Rigging may be far less artistic but it's a really interesting process nonetheless. Still definitely a love, hate relationship, but when it works, life is good.

First 3d Animation Test of Character

2011-12-02T11:08:00.002-05:00

So this was just a test to see how it'd be to have him pick up something. His rig is not complete yet. It kind of feels like he's aware of this himself, he's like "Cooome on, where's the rest of my rig?!"

One thing everyone should experience is the act of rigging a character while you're animating him. It's a new kind of pain!

Minigun RENDA so far.

2011-12-02T02:36:00.005-05:00

Minigun render with some untweaked gross shaders on it. Enjoy the realism of this while it lasts because this model will be pulled apart to appear to be a bit more stylized realism aka cooler looking. This is for my thesis film about zombies. Hence the general ominous darkness of these lights!

Now for the technical stuff:

Done in Maya 2012

Under 10k polys I think about 8k

Textures not final, nor is the model itself.

Approx 4-5 hours.

Arnoldo Picasso

2011-11-11T01:05:00.003-05:00

Very random experimentation broad about by doodling angles. Then I remembered bodybuilders were interesting to draw. So strange... so strange. 1 more is coming hence the white space, will update soon. This was actually incredibly fun to do. I should have done this kind of thing before.

Film... poster? thing?

2011-10-24T23:10:00.003-04:00

Not sure why this happend. But it did. Also i need a better title. This is for the film I'm producing this year in 3d.

Stoneman WIP... too much Diablo 3 anticipation

2011-08-21T01:37:00.004-04:00

Just cuz I haven't posted anything in a while. As the title suggests, anticipating Diablo 3 greatly. Half way through this started reminding me of the ancients in Diablo 2. Not finished yet, hopefully this one is actually finished. For those looking to get better at digital painting, painting once every couple months is not a desirable method for getting any better whatsoever. If you want to get better do the opposite of this (I would imagine).

Also, I miss life drawing. Especially from the nude model. I'm not a big fan of clothing.. not sure why. It feels like I'm always just simplifying so much to point that it's like guessing. I like the rhythm and pure structure of nude models. I feel like i can figure out the structure of the person much more efficiently than the chaos that is folds and drapery.

Also, i better actually finish this one. Otherwise it will be stuck in this digital space forever collecting dust pixels. That is, unless i suddenly hate it by tomorrow morning. A common symptom.

Theme for the day: Hairy, royalty, cowboy

2011-06-21T01:11:00.005-04:00

This is what my brain processed.

Looking at this again, I now feel the words should have been: homeless shaman warrior...

An appropriately saturated homage to a childhood filled with dinosaurs

2011-06-20T01:02:00.004-04:00

...and rabbits? Mostly dinosaurs.

Layout for Film. Forgot this blog existed...

2011-04-07T01:42:00.003-04:00

Just a layout inside of an old stone house up in the mountains. For 3rd Year Film. Copyright Garthen.

Latest Animation - Action Analysis

2010-12-20T01:16:00.004-05:00

Finally done! This took forever, as I'm sure everyone knows. Done in Tvpaint Animation Pro, my new best friend. Even added a drop shadow... looks kind of strange but thats okay.
Oh and I posted the background too.

Some interior layouts

2010-11-28T01:55:00.003-05:00

This is a layout I've been working on for our film kitchen interior. It's meant to be a night scene. Done in photoshop. Feel like it's need something to it but i'm not sure what. Suggestions welcome. For some reason it's underlining my text...

Current 3D head project

2010-11-22T19:14:00.002-05:00

Current Zbrush project. WIP!! He's a big British bouncer. That was my first impression at least.

Another farmhouse layout mark II

2010-11-22T00:24:00.002-05:00

Just some more layouts... nothing solid yet. Still searching for potential film material. I feel like i'll be searching forever.

Rough Action Analysis Test

2010-11-18T02:01:00.003-05:00

Rought Action Analysis Test from Garth Laidlaw on Vimeo.

Title says it all. And yes i know i need to keep it on model better!! Crits welcome :)

Another farmhouse layout

2010-11-14T23:55:00.002-05:00

Another farmhouse layout/colour idea for film. We'll see what it ends up looking like...
Done with pencil and Corel Painter.

Colour concept for film

2010-11-12T00:20:00.007-05:00

[EDIT] I realized that for the sake of a colour concept, I prefer the version without the lines.

Just a quick colour concept for film. Brainstorming ideas of a farm in the Swiss alps area. Very early concept stage, just experimenting with colours. Drawing goats sucks..

3d Model in ZBrush

2010-11-08T19:01:00.003-05:00

So this is my first Zbrush sculpt, there'll hopefully be more to come. I love the program and can't wait to learn more. This is some random alien guy, need I say more?

Just because I haven't posted in a long long time.

2010-10-14T11:23:00.004-04:00

Sketchbook portrait from lifedrawing. GUESS WHO?? So i haven't posted in a while. I was in the process of creating another, slightly more professional blog, but then school started. At this point in time im currently trying to realize what i want to specialize in. it seems to be a never ending process because i like a lot of different things. Currently im dabbling in 3d a lot more. Its an interesting medium, like learning a whole new art form. Also, i think i've decided i want to do videogames. So... we'll see how this goes.

Layout WIP

2010-05-14T00:11:00.003-04:00

Some digital painting practice... just a work in progress! Final will be posted soon.

Speed paint layout

2010-04-25T02:54:00.001-04:00

This was a pretty quick speed paint. Which is something new for me. Approx. 2 hours. Brushes are fuuun.

LAaaaaaaaaayyyyooooouttttt progress post

2010-04-20T18:59:00.004-04:00

So this is a layout I made for our final layout assignment and also the final painting in digital painting class. HOWEVER, this is only a progress post as ... I do not like how the digital painting is turning out. I may hand this in, but I'll probably redo it soon after. I foresee lots of trials for finishing this digital painting, but it will be posted! Oh also there's a spacecraft flying through this scene, I should probably post that soon too...

(ALSO: can you spot the easter egg?)

2010-04-09T00:26:00.002-04:00

Untitled from Garth Laidlaw on Vimeo.

Alright, time for a mega animation update because ive been lazy with this. However, i've found a more efficient way to post animations. A lot of these were rushed and i intend to either fix them or more likely redo them entirely when i develop a way to freeze time. Don't worry, it's coming.. i know it.

Random sketch

2010-03-26T00:41:00.001-04:00

This is a random sketch that is much needed in the midst of doing lots of schoolwork. Need to relax a bit for a change! I needed to draw something Jim Rayner-ish, except more post apocalyptic. Doing this ... made me realize i need to start going to extra drapery life drawing because i just get so confused when attempted to draw baggy drapery. Especially in a realistic, video game type style... it's difficult. I might digi paint it? I don't know, we'll see if i can get better at it so its not embarrassing!

Digi Layout Painting progress and final maybe (but probably not)

2010-02-07T12:01:00.001-05:00

These are some layouts I painted in photoshop. I'm probably still going to make a lot of changes so I won't say too much yet. Also, coloured versions are coming soon. ...in a theatre near you.

Recent Character Designs

2010-02-03T19:50:00.001-05:00

Just handed in this character project today. I'm not good at animals, but here they are nonetheless.

Also...

2010-02-02T01:50:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post the original mech sketch. Did it in lecture one day. A lot of 'wonky' (as Dale would have said) perspective here, but it was just an experiment. Also Avatar was cool, so mechs ahoy.

P.S. Also, mech got a 3 kill streak so has UAV. Don't argue...

Layout: "Videogame Withdrawal"!

2010-02-02T01:32:00.001-05:00

So I haven't played video games in quite some time and am beginning to feel it! So this is my new experiment with photoshop. I just wanted to try using lots of images and textures and whatnot because I've NEVER actually tried to incorporate these aspects into photoshop. Now that we've started our digital painting class I feel like i should play around with photoshop to its full potential. I've always only just tried digital painting using default brushes and whatnot and ... it's kind of difficult in my opinion! Others seem to gather images to use to aid with detail work and it looks kind of cool. Just thought I'd try it! Also i haven't updated for a long time soo... yeah. However we may strike soon? So hopefully I'll have more time to update lol, let's just hope that doesn't happen though. Alright too much writing. the end

Digital rough of traditional painting

2009-12-12T23:07:00.001-05:00

I have not posted for a loooooong time. So i felt like i have to put something up, and since the semester is ending soon, there will probably lots of updates soon enough. This is just a rough digital painting in photoshop for what im about to attempt painting in Gouache tonight. We'll see how this goes... Whenever i do the rough colours in a digital medium i feel like something is lost or gained in the translation to traditional means, let's just hope it's the latter. Anyway, this is too much writing so.. im done.

Oh and yes the lighting and perspective doesn't make any sense! thats why this is rough :D

Update for the sake of an update

2009-11-05T23:21:00.000-05:00

So I haven't updated as much as I should have this year, so here's something I'm currently working on for storyboarding class. These two beavers are my characters for the story, and it should be interesting! I'll post more in the near future.. i hope.

First Painting of Year 2

2009-10-13T18:59:00.001-04:00

This is the first painting project of second year, meant to be an exterior of some kind. The open ended guidelines allowed for a very wide range of flexibility in terms of what we wanted to paint. I chose to do a futuristic kind of.. sci-fi thing. It's a little blurry when zoomed in, the paper was bigger than my scanner so i might repost when i get it back.

Open life class

2009-08-20T19:45:00.000-04:00

These were all done at my open life class i took early this summer. Various time frames. The two of the girls were 20s i think. The other two were over an hour. The black and white one i actually drew everything because i didnt know what else to do!! After life drawing in animation, an hour or so pose is basically eternity. With the coloured close up it wasn't so bad because colour actually takes quite a while i found. I'm still trying to find my other decent ones from this class. So far though, mega-update over.

Another summer update (chalk painting class)

2009-08-20T18:58:00.000-04:00

Alright this is a three parter, i'll break it down:

1) Self portrait of kid - Was about 20 min i think. Can't remember. also in chalk pastel. it was fun, quite a speed paint in some ways. some awkward proportional things going on there..

2)Dancer from life - This one was a while, a hour and bit perhaps. Also in chalk pastel, and from life, except i added the background colours. I like this one, interesting angle and such.

3) Portrait of my grandma - This one took a while. The likeness once again isn't there in my opinion. The art teacher said the shadows were too strong, and i definitely think that this is part of the problem. Should be softer. Nonetheless, these are early days of my chalk painting experience, so these errors are slightly more justified haha.

DEFINITELY not a self portrait

2009-08-20T18:47:00.000-04:00

This is my (NOT)self portrait. It's done in chalk, and i don't think it looks like me at all (even though it shouldn't since it's totally not a self portrait). It was definitely fun, done from a mirror, so i dunno. getting a likeness was the hardest part, i still don't even know how i'd go about it differently next time. anyway, this is the first part of a pretty mega-summer-update. stay tuned.

summer update...finally

2009-07-27T21:33:00.000-04:00

Alright so I started a new cool art course in Elora, and I thought I'd post the stuff i did the first day. Soon i'll also post my work from the last life drawing course i did, i.. have been avoiding that for too long.

As for these, the first was just an exercise to get tone, and I used the reference provided. I'm not sure how to properly reference it.. posting it should be enough but anyway...it is of a famous dancer named Merce Cunningham. It was cut out from an art book of some kind. How's that for vague.

The girl was done to experiment with colours using chalk, my new found medium.

Life drawings from first year, and a couple recent ones.,

2009-05-07T11:24:00.000-04:00

Alright, I decided to finally post some of my life drawing, considering it's one of the things we focus on so much at sheridan. Most of these are from my last portfolio, my most successful one. The two 20 minute ones are from a class im taking right now in Guelph. I will post more soon!

Last painting: Our character in an environment.

2009-04-24T00:45:00.000-04:00

So this is my last painting. Done digitally. I need to learn how to paint digitally. Not really sure where to start. Suggestions would be fantastic. This kind of flat, simple, painting really just isn't my style and just doesn't really feel right. Hopefully during the summer i can get more used to digital painting.

Character Cut Out Project..finally finished.

2009-04-08T11:33:00.000-04:00

This is Galaga. He's...something. I clearly wasn't as focused on the character as i was the functions of the project itself. It was horrible getting to the point where i could move the character, but once i did i actually thought it was pretty fun. There some weird patches here and there, and the tail...well, i tried.

Character Designs

2009-04-08T02:00:00.001-04:00

Alright so im too tired to say much.. but the process of getting to this character was a very long and confusing journey, full of lots of twists and unexpected results. I'm not a big fan of the quality of scans, and next time (next year) I think i'll just begin it in photoshop from the ground up. Since we hand these projects in digitally i should probably get used to just using photoshop. Saves paper too..

Still Life final painting.

2009-03-12T18:12:00.000-04:00

This is my final still life painting for.. painting class. It was fun, and after a disastrous beginning to an oil painting the night before, I'm feeling better about this one. This is partly due to the lack of fumes, as it's done in gouache. In my basement there isn't much ventilation so the oil solvents wreaked.

On the technical side of things, i feel like i understand drapery a lot more, especially since i don't think my drapery made any sense in my previous paintings. I think it's something that you just have to spend a little more time on trying to get right, as it can be quite complicated. I did this painting kind of backwards, in that i did the foreground first (green shirt), then my blue shirt, and then the objects, and finally finished up with the background colours. Art teachers would not be impressed.

Character Design Sequence Project

2009-03-11T16:40:00.000-04:00

Alright so this is my latest character design assignment. We had to make a character, and make a short story basically. Kind of like a comic strip but with a static camera angle. It was really fun, but i've come to expect no less from doing character designs. I like doing muscly characters, but i think i should do something different for my next character. maybe a fat one...
oops it's in reverse order.. damn. view from the bottom! close your eyes until!

Head Rotation of Hades

2009-03-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

This is my head rotation, expression change, and lip sync. Not much to say about this, it was quite the learning experience, and I'm happy with how the 'meow' turned out.

2009-02-25T23:15:00.000-05:00

A third still life for painting. Another fun one, and something different which was nice. Our teacher hung some cloth on the wall then lit a candle, and turned off the lights so we could try to capture the lighting effects on the drapery. Quite a difficult thing to do in an hour and a half. Nonetheless i'm happy with how much i learned during this exercise.

Pink Panther Finale

2009-02-24T17:14:00.000-05:00

I finally finished this project that took too long. My full background didn't even end up showing up but nonetheless, here it is. Also, WOW does blogger make this look bad or what. Talk about quality drop lol.

Another still life.

2009-02-19T19:35:00.000-05:00

This is the second week of our still life painting assignments. It's fun, however I think I need to try painting things.. that aren't metal, as its all i seem to be able to render accurately.

A still life in animation! As rare as a wealthy art student.

2009-02-11T18:01:00.000-05:00

This is a still life we did in gouache today. I actually really enjoyed it. I've been posting a lot lately, maybe a bit too much. But.. posting is fun. I feel like i should paint from life more, as there is few better ways to get used to using realistic, convincing colours.

Latest Painting Project

2009-02-10T23:42:00.001-05:00

These are my latest paintings, it's for a sci-fi kind of world, with a day and night theme. It was fun but i spent to much time on thumbnails. Done in gouache as usual. Looking back at these i realize that 1) they look better as smaller thumbnails, and 2) they each seem to be different styles. I suppose that's a good thing, as I still consider myself to be in a very basic stage of learning. The first (daytime) seems more watercolour-esque, with some drybrush techniques, whereas the second is pretty much flat, opaque usage, which i guess makes more sense for night time. I did each painting at a separate time so this could be why, after all, painting can be influenced by so many things.

ANIMATIONS FINALLY

2009-02-09T20:19:00.000-05:00

2009-01-25T23:38:00.000-05:00

Sunday night sketching! I had some fun with my prismacolour markers which i wish i could use more. I underestimated their use apparently, as i found them useful for blocking in fast silhouettes. I'm thinking of using this gorilla, or one similar to this for our Character Design Sequence project. Not sure what story to make with him yet though. Ideas would be cool =)

2008-12-10T23:13:00.000-05:00

Character expression sheet. I spent the most time on this than my other character design assignments because of not-as-high-as-I-hoped-for marks and it turned out a lot better i think. Also, his name is Chief Grand Cherokee (name courtesy of Abe).

2008-12-10T23:03:00.000-05:00

Bone drawings, self explanatory.

2008-12-10T22:41:00.000-05:00

These are the last 2 painting assignments we've gotten. One was just to create a landscape, and the other was to create an image based on a Utopia and Distopia, or opposites.

object drawings

2008-11-03T18:12:00.000-05:00

These are the first three object drawings i've done for perspective. 17 more to go..

Character design stuff

2008-11-03T18:09:00.001-05:00

First character design assignment was a character rotation and the second was character posing. I think that this is definitely my weakest class but im hoping to get better.

Comic book guy

2008-11-03T18:06:00.001-05:00

Here's a drawing i did in gr 11 and now a drawing i did now of the same character. Some errors there but it was fun.

Lots of zombies

2008-11-03T17:51:00.001-05:00

One zombie i did in photoshop for fun, and its not finished but there it is so far. the other drawings were zombified versions of my housemates.

Hands and Feet Project

2008-11-03T17:21:00.000-05:00

These are my hand and feet drawings for life drawing.

A bunch of projects i've done so far in animation.

2008-11-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

This was the first assignment we did for Digital Tools class. We just had to make a name slate in photoshop, and colour stuff. Also, i finished colouring the letters but apparently didn't save it. Oh well.

First Layout Project

2008-10-23T12:07:00.000-04:00

These are my first layout paintings. Done in gouache. This is my first post and im still trying to understand this whole thing. It put them in reverse order for some reason. The purpose of this assignment was to explore values, and techniques of gouache painting. The first one we did, was a flat, opaque black white version of our composition, then the next was the same but with a gradient, then the next was to be more 3-D-esque. The last one was to be in colour, and could be done in any of the previous 3 techniques. This site says that i'm spelling gouache wrong but i'm definitely not..