light rain on a dark night

Photoshop

Inspired by the weather a few weeks ago.  This is the road by my apartment.

the devil drinks tea

Desert Sun

Photoshop

Dusty cat

The Diner at the Center of the Earth

A diner at the center of the earth.  That's what I started with for my final student film, which I will share here soon.  It'll be a little while to do some color correction and prepare the video for internet upload.
So, I finished my film, and it'll be screening in the Open Show here at Cal Arts on Saturday the 28th of April.
I have some phenomenal mentors and friends here and I could not have gotten to the finish line without them.  I'm just starting to get used to the reality that I go to school here, and now it's time for me to graduate.
In the meantime, here's this test thing I made last month:


This was a pre-visualization test that done for my fourth year film at Cal Arts. I just sort of threw this together one evening to stretch my After Effects muscles.
There is an intentional retro goofiness going on here.

Crunch Time!

Film due in a week! Aaahhhhhh!

Morning Coffee

Had this drawing lying around.  Threw some color on it to relax after working all morning.  It's major crunch time right now.  It's also the most beautiful weather outside this time of year, yet my classmates and I must hide away and work on our films.  Every now and then we might come up for air, and see the sunrise like this little guy.  

 

Story Portfolio Online!

I've got a brand new story portfolio up on it's very own blog.

You can head over to: http://mherrerastory.blogspot.com/  to have a look.  

Character Design Blog Interview

Well this is exciting.  The nice fella over at the character design blog interviewed me.  I'm so flattered to have been granted such an honor.  A big thank you to Randall Sly.  
Click here to take a look!
Cheers.

Diner Film Opening Titles

Started to composite some stuff in After Effects for the film...and then this happened...
Accidentally made these pretend opening titles. Just a bit of fun.
The music is from the Grim Fandango soundtrack, composed by Peter McConnel, and is owned by LucasArts. Not me.

Fourth year film

Here's a very obscure sneak peek at my fourth year film!  This is Ralph, and he works at a diner.  That's all I will say for now.  More tidbits coming soon.

Dog and Duck

Sharky

Faux Vintage Movie Posters

A few weeks ago, we had the Character Animation Gallery Show here at school.
I planned on doing a bunch of paintings, but ended up making a bunch of posters instead.  I had so much fun, I couldn't stop.  They are just silly faux movie posters, meant to have a vintage look.  I printed them out and roughed them up, and that's what you see here.

 Of course I had to make one a musical.

And here's a bad cell phone picture of my setup at the show.

Small Pig Boards

This is a segment I boarded from a group story project last semester.  This little pig is in search of some mud, and makes several attempts at finding a replacement.  This was my take on one of those attempts.

Phantom story sketch

Maggie Smith Sculpture

I did this for sculpture class on a whim.  I had to sculpt something, and having just started watching Downton Abbey I thought it would be fun to try and capture Maggie's likeness.  Also, she is one of my favorite actresses of all time.

I had hoped to get a more caricatured result than this.  It was fun nonetheless.  The whole thing is about 9 inches tall or so.

Robin Hood doodles

Months ago, I bought a 1932 copy of Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert.  I finally started reading it and it's fantastic.  I could hardly put it down last night, but I did manage to do a few sketches while reading.  I splashed on some color in photoshop.

Moon over Griffith

Tried to capture the view of Griffith Park last night, as seen walking down the road from the observatory.
The Hollywood sign wasn't lit up for some reason.

Wealthy Widow

Digging through drawings from last year.  For a Hansel and Gretel assignment; here is one of the ideas I had for the witch.

Baby Owl

Searched baby owl on google...

Maggie Smith Sketch

Sketch for a possible sculpt. Can't wait to try.

This pig built his house of sticks

From my three little pigs project.  He is a Physical Education teacher at the local high school.

Raoul

Raoul from Phantom.  It's so hard not to make him super boring.

La Carlotta

A few explorations of the character of Carlotta.

Christine and the Phantom

Space Vampire

Little Ghost

Setting Sail into the new year

At a favorite local coffee shop back home:

Happy Holidays world!

I really haven't made a holiday card before.  Seeing as I'm at the point in my life where I actually know a lot of people, I slapped one together.  Have a splendid holiday everyone!