The Art and Adventures of Mike Yates

2012-01-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

The semester thus far has been keeping me busy. So the updates on here probably won't happen until after a few of the larger assignments are completed. But until that happens here are some sketchings

Lately, I have been drawing a lot of batgirl. I bet it would be cool to do a comic or board a sequence with her or with robin. Maybe sometime in the future.

2012-01-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

Cleaning up my hdd before the next semester begins and found some stuffs that I hadn't posted here already.

A few small assignments from concept class.

Notes I took on camera movement during Computer Animation I, in comic form.

Lizard King

2011-12-09T17:03:00.001-08:00

Story Game 5

2011-12-01T18:51:00.001-08:00

Here is the image for this one. http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicca_love/6394370825/. Not really 5 different shots for this one

Toasted

2011-10-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

So I just finished up my 2nd Computer animation project. This project for me had a lot of ups and downs but overall im satisfied with the end results. I really enjoy the process of creating every element of a world, and engineering each prop and character specifically to tell a story.

I knew what i wanted the story to be about early on but the 10sec limitations of the project made telling the story a bit challenging, but in a good way.

In the end i think i story boarded the story close to ten times trying to get the perfect pov to show the emotion That i wanted the audience to feel.

Story Game 4

2011-09-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

Photo for this one.

So this exercise was introduced to me by Emma Coats. The game is you take a photo then storyboard the next 5 shots if that photo were paused film.

CA

2011-09-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

2nd year has been waaaay more fun than first year. More work to come!

Ball Bounce from Michael Yates on Vimeo.

Sometimes I Paint

2011-08-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

Headed back to Ringling tomorrow to begin my 2nd year!

Shots IRL

2011-08-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been doing these little composition sketches that i like to call shots...IN REAL LIFE! They are lots of fun! And i really like FMA

2011-07-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

I havent posted any sketchbook work in a while...

Story Game #3

2011-07-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Did this one between classes today so bit rushed but here is the photo used.

2011-07-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a chance to attend a Figurative Illustration Workshop, run by my good friend Aaron Miller. It was a great experience and i hope to able to attend again.

This piece is one that I did in the class.

And this one i did once i got home.

Story Game: Take 2

2011-07-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here is another go at the story game. Photo.

Story Game

2011-07-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

So this exercise was introduced to me by Emma Coats. The game is you take a photo then storyboard the next 5 shots if that photo were paused film. Here is the Photo used

2011-07-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

Some Dreams can't come true....

Progress: A Slow Process

2011-07-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

So i havent been completely wasting time this summer. I have been slowly trying to learn maya before the start of 2nd year at Ringling. I had actually gotten to texturing but i keep running into problems with my terrible modeling and have been back tracking a lot.

Running into a bit of trouble with ncloth on the shirt.... crits are not only welcome but encouraged!

And here is a small comic excerpt. I got some cool inking brushes and have been having a blast with those.

The Wire

2011-06-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

So after hearing nothing but good things, I finally decided to watch the HBO series The Wire. It originally aired from 2002 to 2008 so im a bit late but glad i eventually decided to watch. I think what i found most appealing about the show is there is no clear cut villain. (at least not in the first season.) The show allows you to see the motivations of all the characters which allows you as a viewer to sympathize with people on both sides of the law.

The character development in the show is also something I noticed. Over the course of the series you begin to see character arcs from multiple characters which overlap each other. One character arc in particular that really resonated with me was that of, "Bodie." He goes from a scared kid to a respected member of a "family" in which he is willing to die for.

.....back to work

End of 1st Year

2011-06-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

My first year at Ringling ended earlier last month. It was a great experience and I am thankful to have gotten to learn so much and meet so many awesome people.

Right after finals i headed out west to San Francisco for a small vacation! It was amazing and I got to visit some really amazing places and meet even more amazing people.

I also had a chance to do a lot of sketching while there. I currently dont have a scanner so these phone pics will have to due for now.

So my goals for the summer are to get a few classes out of the way in summer school, learn a little bit of maya, and make a comic.

2011-04-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

Communication Design_Elemental Me

Elliot

2011-04-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

One of our recent assignments in Traditional animation was to design an animal then then animate it jumping. We were given the animal at random and I was lucky enough to select the platypus.

My designs initially were pretty boring

.

So i went and studied different character designs and designers to try to figure out what makes a successful and unique character.

In the end i feel like i could've selected a better design for the story i wanted to tell and for the animal in general. I did however like my overall story even though the animation isn't too great...

2011-02-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

Eagle Eye: Origin Story

2011-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

The other day during a traditional animation critique my professor said that they call him Gary "Eagle Eye" Schumer , and that is the reason he can see the smallest mistakes in our animation. I decided it was my responsibility to document the origin of this epic nick name.

Ka Kaaawww

Ha Haaa!!!

GWAAAAAAAK!

based on a true story from my head

2011-01-22T22:57:00.000-08:00

I'll always be hanging on.

2011-01-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

Second semester has begun here at Ringling, I am really enjoying my new classes especially traditional animation and intermediate figure. More posts coming soon...

Happy Holidays 2010

2010-12-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

2010-12-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

santas

my friend Maria

2010-10-25T12:55:00.001-07:00

sculpting>baked>primed

I just finished up the toy project for 3d design in which we had to create a toy and its packaging. I decided to do a collectible figurine of muffin lad, the character i created this summer. This is my third time ever sculpting, and i think im getting better.

2010-10-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

Recent sketchings of friends and people nearby. Hopefully ill have more finished work soon.

2010-10-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

self portrait in the style of another artist. I was going for James Jean....

2010-09-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

So Ringling has been pretty great wo far. Ive met some awesome people here and have been trying to learn as much as possible.

I think my favorite class right now is contexual figure. I dont really dislike any of them but some could be better.

Here are some sketches from orientation week i did. Im on to my third sketchbook now because there is just so much to draw here.

Here is a caricature of a friend i did for fun.

And some figure drawings from FEWS ranging from 2min to 25min.

2010-09-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

Dipsy sketch from this week with a little more time. The topic was Siren, but i made mine more a mermaid

2010-08-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

Playing with shapes and digital coloring.

2010-08-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

So i just started my first week of classes at Ringling. More to come on that later.

I decided to get some storyboarding practice in, so here is my orientation experience. (still getting better at digital line art so bear with me:)

The campus is really beautiful.

The move-in went over smoothly.

Orientation Activities were to help us incoming students make friends.

The Orientation Leaders were really enthusiastic.

We took turns sharing information about ourselves.

Eventually everyone started to loosen up.

Classes began on Monday!

Cafe Sketches

2010-07-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

2010-07-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

So for the past few months I've been developing this short, called "O'Darth's Bike Shop." Its about a dragon who owns a bike shop and one day he gets an unexpected visitor. I originally started this as a way to build a portfolio, but i decided it would be good practice to take it a bit further. Some of the project has already been posted, but ill put it here anyway just to have it all in one place.

Storyboards:

Here is the entire sequence of the short boarded.

Characters:

Here are some sketches of the main character in different key story moments, early in the stories development.

Main Character turnaround.

Here are some sketches I did when developing the girl character.

Sketches of story moments with the girl character. Her character tries to overcompensate for her small stature. She is always on her toes in an attempt to appear larger.

Turnaround

Environments:

I probably didn't give enough time to developing the environments so i still may go back and do more in this area.

This is the original layout drawing that shows what the shop looks like from the outside. It shows where the camera would be in this particular shot.

I later went back and redesigned the shops exterior, in this sketch.

Color script:

Here is my first concept piece i did when developing the story. I guess this could now be part of the color script.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Any critiques or suggestions are appreciated.

The Ineffective Hero

2010-07-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge over at the Character Design Bi-Weekly blog.

Pushing Shapes

2010-06-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Recent people watchings

2010-05-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

Today i had an interview at a local animation studio, for possible freelance work this summer. Here are a couple of pages from my portfolio that i showed them.

I am also contributing to character design blog here, check it out!

2010-04-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Watched Ghost Busters yesterday and figure from this week

2010-04-17T23:10:00.001-07:00

So this past week as been pretty eventful. On Tuesday i met Ringling alumna Lindsey Lydecker, as well as her coworker from Calabash Animation Eric Meister, whom both were great.

On Thursday i decided to go to figure drawing again for a comic themed costume session. The model was great but my drawing weren't as appealing.

And Saturday i went to c2e2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo). This was my first con as well as my first time riding the train. I normally drive to Chicago but i wanted to try something new, plus i was able to do some sketching on way there. The con itself was great! I saw a few of my art inspirations as well as a bunch of really awesome people id never heard of.

And i met Master Chief!!!

2010-04-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

Last week i found out that I received a DreamWorks Scholarship from Ringling, this will definitely help me to attend this fall. Also here are two recent pieces i did. I decided to use watercolor at figure drawing this week and this is what i got. And the second is from Chiustream contest, topic was Gothic dragon. I think it could've been better if it had more story telling elements.

I also finished the Illusion of Life this week and have move on to reading Drawn to Life.

2010-03-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

Just started watching Breaking Bad, its a show about a chem teacher turned meth dealer. The writing is pretty good. So i decided to do a character design of the main character.

Also finishing up The Illusion of Life! Cafe sketching about every other day and still figure drawing once a week.

Also i hate how this blog template clusters my pics, anyone know how to fix?

2010-03-05T12:57:00.000-08:00

So today i was sitting at my desk doing some digital work when one of the ninja turtles came to give me the mail, "hey dude, you got a package from that Ringling School," he said.

So none of this actually happened but i did get an acceptance package today! Oh and today is my 19th birthday.

The Days Go On...

2010-02-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

As of today i still have not received any admission decisions from any of the schools i applied to. I should have news from SCAD and Ringling within the next 2 or so weeks, and CalArts sometime in March. Ill update as soon as i know.

Ive been trying to keep as busy as possible during this waiting period. Ive been cafe sketching 3-5 times a week, figure drawing once a week, digital painting almost daily, as well as listening to podcasts relating to art and animation, reading, and ChiuStream every Friday.

ChiuStream is a live video stream done by Bobby Chiu of Imaginism Studios. It consists of Bobby Chiu selecting a topic, which participants have one hour to paint/draw. Out of the top three voted entries Chiu selects a winner. Every once in a while Chiu will interview another professional artist and hold a contest for them. The latest is with Imaginism Art director Kei Acedera. These streams normally have a longer deadline (a weekish) and a lot more participants.

The topic for this interview was to redesign the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I started this challenge off by doing a few sketches of normal every day house cats so i could have something to build on. I then tried drawing my version of the cat in various styles until i found something that i really liked. I then did the pencils (which were a bit more ambitious then the final) scanned in and painted on PS.

Also here are a list of some great podcasts on animation and art:

-The Animation Podcast (Disney)

-Spline Doctors (Pixar)

-Speaking of Animation (DreamWorks)

-Sidebar (Comics/Art)

-Chris Oatley's Artcast (I'm featured in this episode(16:42). The piece was done late last year so forgive my lack of a complete composition)

2010-01-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

Few sketches from this month. I should have more finished pieces in the future.

2010-01-13T18:41:00.001-08:00

So as of today i have finished applying for both Ringling and Calarts. I should be hearing back from both early March. Im really hoping i can go this year. Ive been spending hours each day searching and applying for scholarships. So if anyone knows of any good ones please let me know.

I have also been working on a few freelance projects. This is an album cover i did for a friend the final with text can be viewed here If anyone is interested in commisioning please shoot me an email at yyates05@ymail.com

And a personal piece.

2010-01-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

So lately ive been working more on my portfolio(due 1/15) as well as a few free lance things. But i leave time to work on some personal things.

During my cafe sketching ive been trying to make my drawings more simple and try to grab the essence of the scene instead of just copying it. So here is an evolution of drawings.

The Portfolio

2009-12-21T17:55:00.001-08:00

This is my portfolio for Ringling College of Art and Design -Computer Animation major. Still

working on getting it down to 10 pieces please leave a comment or critique.

The Journey Begins

2009-12-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone Im Michael and this will be my art blog. Im currently working on my porfolio for college where i plan to study animation. I will be posting my portfolio sometime this month so check back frequently