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

Gearbox's Battleborn Announcement Trailer Released (and I helped!)

One of my favorite developers Gearbox Software just released a new announcement trailer for their upcoming game Battleborn. It sounds very ambitious and if I know them, it'll feature gameplay that will hack my brain and keep me playing for hours on end.

Best part is, I helped! :) Janimation created the awesome universe explosion featured at the end of the trailer, and I contributed by organizing assets used to create it, randomizing trees, and creating that single dying star that survives.

You can watch the trailer here, and lookout for this next month's Game Informer which will feature a cover story on the game!

Game Informer
http://www.gameinformer.com/p/battleborn.aspx

Official Site
http://www.battleborn.com/

Are you excited? I'm excited! :D



Also, The next Dillo Insurance spot has been playing on our local televisions for a while and I am quite happy to finally share it with you all. This was produced a while ago, and one of the first projects where I helped build an animatic, and then worked on the edit through animation the animation process! As well as handle all the animation too. Building the animatics, layout and edits was quite the learning experience but also quite a lot of fun!



And speaking of the Pre-Vis process, I had the great pleasure to help with some Pre-Vis animations for a live action spot for Mrs. Baird's Bread. Our live action crew took it from there and it was really neat to see how it turned out!



Coming Soon: More Dillo and Al Boenker spots!

Ta ta for now!

~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!

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!

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!

More Art Sketches! And a Self Portrait!

Above is this year's self portrait for my DeviantArt account, some animal sketches pulled from my sketchbook and done in pen, and some character design work I sketched very quickly in Photoshop!

Enjoy~ <3

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!

Spanish Conquistador 3D Character

Spanish Conquistador 3D Character from Julia S. Bacak on Vimeo.


A character I modeled and surfaced as a means to train myself in Autodesk Softimage while I was an intern at the wonderful Janimation in Dallas, Texas.

I designed him too! Check out my process!!