Arte a la Mexicana

It's up!!!!!!!!!

2011-06-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post this short I did last summer after work in about 10 days (talk about planing, lol) for the longest time, but I only had the old version. After a looong wait, I finally got the video with the new sound FX!! Thanks to the amazing people (Equis Cosa and Mauricio Nicoli) that totally re-made my crappy audio, lol. They did an oustandind job and it totally made the whole animation more enjoyable.

Hope you guys enjoy! I'll talk more about the whole thing in another post. Have a wonderful week everybody!

Demo reel!

2011-05-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

Finally!

Demo reel is up! I wanted it to be like an intro for a TV show and I was deeply inspired by the 50s. I did everything except for the rig of my character. Textures were painted in Photoshop and the software used was Maya.

I might be adding more things I'm working on right now, but this will do for now.

Enjoy my friends!

Demo Reel 2011 from Andrea Alcaraz on Vimeo.

Update!

2011-04-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, school has kept me extremely busy, but I'll be posting my DemoReel soon!
In the meantime... I got interviewed by Toon Boom last year and I completely forgot to post it. So if anyone wants to know a little bit more about myself, please follow this link :) :
http://www.toonboom.com/products/animatepro/userstories/story/?id=AndreaAlcaraz
Also, I have a new layout! Please check it out and let me know what you think!

:)

Phantom of the Opera

2011-04-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

The server was down at school today so I started watching movies. I remember I went to see the musical back home like 5 times. Absolutely beautiful. I like the movie, but being there live, its just amazing!

Owl

2011-04-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

Just getting some ideas! Owl: Acrylic Everything else: Photoshop

For my dad

2011-04-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" Isaiah 40:31

Graduation

2011-03-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Graduation is gonna be this summer! I hope my family can be with me that day.

WIP

2011-03-20T02:13:00.001-07:00

Remember my mom's inspired design? I decided to model it! Made a few changes to make it more interesting. No final textures yet, just threw a lambert and was playing with the look in PS. Im trying to get a painterly look. Sorry for the ugly background :(

Coming up next: riggiiiinnggggg, sigh.

Quick test

2011-03-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get a painterly style. I modeled this today and painted some textures in PS to see what I could do... gonna start playing with the Toon shader!

Mama inspired

2011-03-01T21:55:00.001-08:00

I think I'm gonna make adjustments to the drawing and make it into a 3D model.

Mom wants everybody to know she is NOT fat. (Happy? Oh, women always complaining).... :)

Naggy Wife

2011-02-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

Better upload my stuff before it gets erased from the hard drive!

Some 3d stuff

2011-02-23T12:37:00.001-08:00

I love Geishas

2011-02-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Having fun with shapes.

Little ones

2011-01-25T01:22:00.000-08:00

My part time job is awesome. I teach little kids ice skating. A lot of them are really hardcore about it and are AMAZING skaters. I tend to forget they are little kids until one of them falls down and starts crying.
So many stories to be told... (soon!)

Sadness

2011-01-25T00:18:00.000-08:00

I had planned to upload a bunch of stuff from last semester that I really loved, but our hard drives at school were cleaned and I couldnt back up anything :(. I guess its a lesson for me. Gonna scan tons of stuff very soon, meanwhile heres a quick sketch that I did trying to figure out new techniques to work faster and better. I think it's working pretty well for me so far. We'll see how it works with other stuff!

the doorman

2010-05-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Summer break is awesomeeeeeee!!! Hope everybody is enjoying it as much as I am!

You are a toy!!!!

2010-04-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Life Drawingssss

2010-04-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

Some digital life drawingsssss. Gotta admit it was kinda weird adjusting to the tablet for life drawing, but I liked trying it. Hope to do more soon!
And to keep it traditional, one with pastels.

Quetzalcoatl Model Sheets

2010-04-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

As promised, the model sheets :) The bottom design on the left side is the one I used as a reference for my maquette.

Hope you guys like it!

Sonya design

2010-04-14T22:20:00.001-07:00

She is the sweetest and nicest girl in the world, and I'm lucky enough to have her as my friend!

Quetzalcoatl Maquette

2010-04-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Maquette for my final character design. Wanted to get some ideas from my roots so I decided to design the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and Cortes, the conquistador!

I'll post the model sheets soon!!!

Hello Animation

2010-04-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Painterly style

2010-01-31T19:00:00.000-08:00

Ever been scared to take a drawing further? Thats me right now...

I've been trying to get a painterly style with photoshop, the big question is HOW? some brushes work, some don't. I guess I'll keep playing with it and see what I can do with this sketch....

Definitely nothing beats real paints...

By the way.. I love the super dynamic line of action of matadors!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T12:29:00.000-08:00

Welcoming 2010 with some of my school work from 2009!

Hope everybody had a wonderful year. For me it was a though one, but I know that everything happens for a reason and God won't let me down. School was crazy, specially this last semester, but I learned tons of new things. Im really grateful for all the special people, family and friends that help and encourage me everyday of my life.

I'm excited about this new year, knowing that it will bring new challenges, new learning and new opportunities!

Wish everyone a very happy 2010 and thank you for being part of my life!

Last life drawing of the year, about 2 hours long. We are used to shorter poses so it's nice drawing longer ones once in a while. Definitely will do more of these ones. Perfect for anatomy and lighting studies!

And also my last Toon Boom.

Hope you like it, and as always, any feedback is really appreciated!! Thank you!

Short

2009-12-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

I'm finally posting the short I worked on during the summer. It was for a contest in Mexico, encouraging people to recycle.

The animation was done in After Effects, unfortunately we didn't win the contest, but it was a great experience to actually work on the whole process of a short. It really helped me understand better how things work in the industry.

Really liked working on a short, definitely not my last one!

I apologize in advice that the video doesn't have subtitles, but I think the message is pretty clear :D So, no more words, here it is! Enjoy and comment!

Don Polo Malos Modos from Andrea Alcaraz on Vimeo.

Experimenting with pastels

2009-11-16T15:18:00.001-08:00

So, I bought this box of pastels a while ago, but didnt really use them. This Sunday went to TSA for some Life Drawing and decided to take them with me and experiment a bit. To be honest, I had no idea of what I was doing. Pretty much, I was just testing and trying to figure out how to use them. I'm not 100% happy with the results, but I think it's a good start.

And a portrait we did in Life Drawing today. Again, trying to experiment more with pastels and colored paper. I want to go over this one and push it further, but I'm afraid I might put a little too much and make it worse. (Sorry for the quiality of the pic)

Any feedback would be really appreciated!

Toon Boom

2009-10-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

Toon Boom is awesome!

First assignment with lip sync (kinda hard) and some acting.

Particulary love the male voice of my girly character, good stuff.

Teaser

2009-09-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. I'm back to school again, I must say I'm really excited with this new semester, seems like its gonna be tons of fun!

I've been working on a project about recycling during the summer. Here's a test I did for one of the scenes. It was made using after effects.

More info about the project coming soon!

Color Studies

2009-06-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

My injured sister has been getting tons of flowers lately. Flowers are beautiful, but hard to draw. After messing up a little the colors in my first attempt, I forced my self to do some color studies and pay attention to the different shadows, hues, values, etc. Still trying to get better at watercolors, and I also experimented a little with pastels. I noticed that as I kept going I started to get a little bit more the idea of how to use the different mediums. Gotta do more studies to get better!

Sketching places

2009-06-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't had the time to go sketching some buildings and places here in Mexico this summer, but I'm looking forward on going this coming weekend!

Didn't really finish these drawings but I kinda like them. I pretty much tried to experiment with watercolours (which didn't turned out that great).

First drawing: Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), Mexico City

Second drawing: Antiguo Colegio de Minería, Mexico City

Last drawing: Riverdale, Toronto

Old Sketchbook Drawings

2009-06-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketchbook drawings from my first year as an animation student.

Life drawings:

Random sketches:

Playing around with colors. I loved these giraffes until I put some sparkles on it and closed my sketchbook without letting it dry :(

Craziness

2009-04-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

It's gonna be a crazy end of the week.

I'm going back to Mexico City this weekend. I'm worried about the people, my friends, my family, my own health...the situation seems pretty bad right now, and they not only are dealing with the swine flu, but two days ago there was also a quake. I just hope I don't get the flu while I'm there. If I survive the first days at the zombie town, I'll make sure to post more of my artwork and make a vow to become a better artist :D. Seems fair.

Meanwhile, the pages I submitted for the yearbook.

Dr.Jekyll to Mr.Hyde transformation

2009-04-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

So here it is, the final character design assignment that took away days and hours of sleep. I kinda tried to go with a different style this time.

Dr. Jekyll is undergoing a bee-venom therapy (also called "apitherapy", you can look it up if don't believe me :D) to increase his brain power due to the high amount of energy and vitality you can get from the therapy. He doesn't like the feeling of being stung by a bee (and who actually does?), so he plays with the bee venom and DNA, but something goes wrong and he ends up turning into a crazy bee!!!

I actually got the idea of the bee from my mom. She literally loves this bee therapy and seems to actually work for her.

Hope you like it!

more digital paintings

2009-03-08T18:58:00.001-07:00

Another two assignments for digital tools.

"El mariachi loco"

Edgar Allan Poe

Digital Painting

2009-03-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

I never did digital painting before, and I never used a wacom tablet until this semester... so AWESOMEE!! It's kinda hard to get used to the surface of the tablet tho.. and not to mention that u have to be really good with lightning and color theory if u want your painting to look nice. Here is my first assignment for my digital tools class (the layout was provided, I only panted it).

Character Skeleton

2009-03-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Skeleton study for my character design class.

Trip back home

2009-03-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

Thought I might upload some pictures of my trip back home (Mexico City) for Christmas. It's really sad to see that most of the time we don't appreciate and enjoy what we have. But it was really cool to visit my city again from another perspective.

The picture below was taken in a flea market full of piñatas. During Christmas there's a tradition called "Posada"... long story short: u sing, eat, and break piñatas (I'm not gonna go trough details, I could never finish).

These other pictures were taken downtown. I never really paid attention before to the amazing architecture of these buildings. Most of them are about 400-500 hundred years old, really really gorgeous buildings.

These las two pictures are from "El Palacio de Bellas Artes" (Palace of Fine Arts). I have to say is one of the most beautiful buildings there. There are tons of little details that I started to notice after some time sketching.. Never really saw before all the sculptures and reliefs of beautiful human figures on the roof and sides of the building. Inside, you find murals by famous mexican painters like Diego Rivera, Siqueiros (personal favourite), Tamayo, etc. And the place is also an Opera House!

Old drawings

2009-03-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Some of my life drawings from Art Fundies.

Getting started

2009-03-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody.. so I'm kinda new with this thing, right now im just trying to figure out how things work, and how to change the design of the blog.

As soon as I find out, I'll start posting stuff!!