Neiman Marcus Love to Give Collection ~ Happy Holidays!

Hello and Happy Holidays one and all!

I have been very busy lately; just finished a large project that should be released soon!

In the meantime, here is one of the team at Janimation's latest creations for Neiman Marcus. It is a promotional video for their seasonal Love to Give Collection.



For this piece we worked with entirely still images and utilizing After Effects, made them appear to be animated in a stop motion style. I handled many of the finer details in the spot, including various 2D effects. I dealt with much of the roto work, and was in charge of keeping track of the hundreds of images that made up the sequences you see in the final piece.

Also, I would like to share on of my first motion graphics projects in After Effects from 2013. I had just begun tutorials, and had produced one or two logo treatments, when I was handed this piece to complete. It was a very enjoyable experience!



Thanks for stopping by!

Merry 4th Quarter to all!

~Julia

An Insurance Hero in Texas

Good Day Everyone!

The third Dillo Insurance spot that Janimation completed really pushed the envelope on the cartoony realism! 2 new amazing environments and a new character for the Dillo to  *briefly* interact with!





These spots are always so much fun to perfect the timing and spacing from both an animation standpoint and a layout/animatic perspective!

More projects coming soon!

TTFN Everybody!

~Julia

Gator Wrestling!

Howdy folks!

The latest spot in Janimation's ad campaign for Al Boenker Insurance can be viewed here! It features a new character that was quite a lot of fun to work with. :D



I was again responsible for Pre-Vis and Layout. Greg Punchatz and Mitch Lotierzo worked with  Face Robot to handle the lip-sync while I handled much of the the body animation of these two characters.

I learned quite a lot from this project. Mostly that Alligator Wrestling is not only something that humans do, but is considered a sporting event with some historical roots. I honestly had no idea, despite living in Florida for roughly 5 years!

Also, in pouring over reference, I learned that alligators and crocodiles are simultaneously goofy and terrifying at top running speed:

Croc Run Video Reference

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by. :)

~Julia

An Exploration of a Nano-tech Concept by Janimation

Hello and Welcome!

I am very happy to share with you today our latest release. It is a visual concept of the future of medicine using microscopic organic machines to break apart and then carry away tumors in brain tissue.



On this piece, my contribution was in the animatic and layout stages of production, as well as some swimming cycles and burrowing animations!

I am very happy to be a part of the fabulous team here at Janimation!

Still more work to come!

Till next time!

~Julia

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone is having a magical holiday season!

Not too much to report this time, Janimation is keeping me pretty busy with some amazing projects!

There is one project I completed at the beginning of this year that has yet to be featured on here. It is for the Al Boenker car insurance company!



There's also a blooper version!



Also, my Etsy Shop is finally live! I have been making several scarves after work, and am happy to report they are finally ready for purchase! The Shop is called SmilingGlasses and I invite everyone to take a peak!

SmilingGlasses Shop

Believe it or not, I've also joined the twitter-verse to post updates about the shop as well. My new twitter account is @Smiling_Glasses.

Merry 2014 everyone!

~Julia

Babies, Aliens and TP

Hello Everyone!

I apologize for not posting since March, quite a bit has been happening!

First I was officially hired on full time as an Animator at Janimation! It's really such a wonderful place to work, all of my co-workers are amazing, and we work on so many exciting projects. Everyday feels new and fresh, and I never know just what I'll be working on.

Next, The Alien Rage cinematic trailer was released last June. This project is a teaser for an new FPS by City Interactive. Quite a lot of love was put into this one, and I'm very happy I was able to contribute. The things that I helped bring to life through animation are the probe, time lapse elements, the giant mech and alien ships that tear up the place, and the hardcore looking guy with a giant gun at the end.




Next, a promotional video for White Cloud brand Bath Tissue. I made sure the packages stayed felt light and soft as it "bloomed" and floated through the clouds. It turned out very magical indeed.




Also, my best friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, little miss EmmaLee! I was sure to put my crocheting skills to work to make sure she would be warm this winter:

Emma's mommy loves ducks, so I thought this would be perfect.

Till next time!

-Julia

Animation Demo Reel 2013

Animation Demo Reel 2013 from Julia S. Bacak on Vimeo.

This is the latest animation demo reel from yours truly! Included are shots from the Dillo Insurance spot, NatureSweet Tomatoes, National Geographic's Quest for Survivial, and my Ringling College thesis film: Shady Institute.

Thanks to everyone at Janimation and Element X Creative!

Animal Animations!

One of my more recent animation projects at Janimation was just published by the client on YouTube!



As you can tell, we were influenced by Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. :) It was good timing too, because I had just gained a lot of experience with quadrupeds:


Quadruped Animation Cycles from Julia S. Bacak on Vimeo.

I had the honor of working with the team at Element X Creative to produce an ipad game for National Geographic called Quest for Survival. In the game, you play as a lion stalking and hunting various animals. These "prey" cycles were among many I animated in just one week!

You can find more info about the app here!
channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/big-cat-week/interactives/quest-for-survival-ipad-app/

Happy Holidays! 2012 Card

Hope everyone had a great holiday season and a very happy new year!

This year I again designed and printed custom cards, but ran out far too quickly again!

I present my LolCatz Card:

Also, a number of animation projects have been released on the web! Here's one done at Janimation for United Way!



I also helped clean up motion capture with animation intern Andy Green when id Software worked with Janimation to release the Doom 3 BFG edition! I hope to get some videos from that up very soon!

Shakespeare and Elephants

Hello everyone!

I completed this guy a little while ago. He is the first crochet project that I made for myself. Because I love Shakespeare.

Also, I found one of my animations published online this week. It's posted by the GOP youtube channel, so I imagine it is safe to share with everyone!

Whatever your political views, it was quite fun to animate this guy! Did you know elephants don't walk like most quadrupeds? Turns out (due to their mass I imagine) they spend most of their walk cycle on 3 legs. Thanks again Mr. Muybridge!

Naturesweet- Tim the Tomato

Hello there everybody!

I have officially begun work as a Freelance Animator for Janimation! I couldn't be happier! ^_^

And although I am unable to tell you what I'm currently working on, I will post the past work that I can here!

So far, I can only share this little number I did back when I was an Intern! You might recognize Tim the Tomato from Post magazine where he was featured on the cover in June 2012!



The animation is mine, while it was modeled and rigged by my co-worker Cris Fudge, and textured, lit and rendered by our creative director, Greg Punchatz.

I am also happy to share some sketchbook pages from when I was working on this project! Mostly I was trying to find strong poses or just having fun drawing this guy!

More to come... eventually!

Some Recent Sketches

...That I've been meaning to upload for a while now. There is a caricature of Rod Sterling, character designs for a flash animation I might complete one day, and some sketches I made while listening to the Wizard of Oz audiobook. Doing the same thing with the Count of Monte Cristo currently.

It's kind of nice having a long commute, as it is a chance to get caught up on my literature!

Metropolis (1927)

Above are sketches I made inspired by screenshots of my favorite silent film, Metropolis. From German director Fritz Lang and originally released in 1927, it is not only landmark in film history, inspiring everyone from Ridley Scott, Madonna and (unfortunately) the Nazi Party, but is a truly entertaining film.

If you have not seen this film, it is highly recommended.

Many black and white and silent films seem inaccessible to most movie lovers today, but some can transcend time and feel just as relevant as they did when they first premiered.  You know when you watch a highly suspenseful foreign film, you can forget that you are reading subtitles? By the stunning climax, Metropolis will have you on the edge of your seat; you'll forget that you are reading title cards. The shrieks of Maria, the desperate battle cries of the angry mob, and the maniacal laughter of our dear friend Rotwang will all ring in your ears, by merely SEEING them. The film's story, as well as the story of its inception, filming, reception, and rediscovery are all fascinating as well!

These sketches were a fun study of poses and expressions, so I hope to do some more of these with some more of my favorite films. ^_^

Old Sketches

This collection of sketches comes from many of my portable sketchbooks I've kept in my purse over the years! The trees were drawn at my summer job before I began work on my thesis film at Ringling.

Hooray!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's holidays were fabulous and a very merry 2012 to everyone!

Wish I could have sent my holiday cards out to everyone, but I ran out really really fast! O_o Next year I hope to order much much more. Thought I'd share the front with everyone though! Enjoy!

Shady Institute

Don't forget kids, my Ringling Thesis is on Vimeo! watch at any time!


Shady Institute from Julia S. Bacak on Vimeo.



http://vimeo.com/23137798

If you like, you can find my Storyboards, Pre-Visualization work, and much much more at

www.juliabacak.com

Hi there!!

Figured it was about time I started a blog like all the cool kids... so here I am!! Much more to come!!