The Wonderful Wizard of Oz iPad App

So the reason I haven't been able to post a lot of stuff I've done this semester because I've been so busy working on my app! It's been my own little side project that I've been working on with a few really talented people. I didn't want to post anything in progress until it was ready and Friday it was officially released on the iTunes store.

Discover a new kind of interactive story app for a new year! Inspired by Frank L. Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” this app contains revised text and all-new illustrations, along with the next generation of interactions that expand the possibilities of iPad storytelling.

Watch as this classic tale comes to life when Dorothy is whisked away from her flat, gray Kansas world into the colorful Land of Oz. When the images change from beautiful line drawings to breathtaking paper-cut illustrations early in the story, delightful animations and sounds will also appear. You can experience the magical Land of Oz along with Dorothy by tilting and shaking your iPad, or touching, pushing, and dragging objects around the page.

This is a truly immersive app, in which you become the storyteller by triggering interactions that further the story. With innovative interactions that take full advantage of the iPad’s capabilities, this app pushes the boundaries of what interactive storytelling can be!

Features:
• A 45-page app, with 35 pages of innovative interactions
• Revised story with newly written text
• All-new illustrations in two styles: 7 pages of masterful line artwork, and over 35 pages of full-color, paper-cut illustrations
• Interactions that relate to the plot, so that you further the story
• Illustrations with complex animations not previously seen in other iPad apps
• An array of fun sound effects to immerse you in Dorothy’s world

(Line drawings by Laura West)

Usually, I don't like to toot my own horn, but please check it out, download and rate it!

I've also shot some footage of the app and am getting it edited together for a short video. I'll post it soon.

Landscape Paintings 2

So the second half of the semester was more sporadic than the first in terms of landscape painting. I wound up going to North Carolina to visit my boyfriend for Thanksgiving and did some paintings out there. It was a thousand times harder than painting in California. It was super cold out and the landscape is just dense forest. I mean, DENSE forest or just open flat land. The fall color palette was beautiful, but because there was so much saturated color from the leaves it was hard to see the accurate values. Here are two paintings I did on the spot that turned out ok.



Towards the end of the class we were asked to take what we learned from landscape painting and do some stylizations. I wound up two paper sculptures.

Moonshine

I totally forgot to post about this when it came out! During my summer internship at DreamWorks I was volunteered by boss, Angela Lepito to help out Christophe Lautrette and Pierre-Olivier Vincent (POV). They had wanted me to adjust the cover of their book, Moonshine. They had some elements they wanted to delete and others they wanted to add or move around. This all sounded relatively do-able until I opened the files and found out they were flattened. I was so nervous about potentially not coming through for them that I immediately jumped into the project. Within an hour or two I contacted them to come check my work. POV came to look at it and expressed his surprise that I completed it so fast. The next day they only had a few minor changes. But it now appears as the final cover on the Moonshine book and if you look closely in the back you'll see my name mentioned in the special thanks section by Angela Lepito.

I also got do a some promo stuff for the book, like the postcard below. If you haven't checked out the book, definitely do.

Portfolio Website Launch

Finally made a new website since going to USC. Something I'm not embarrassed to show. Well at least not now....I thought the same thing about my old website I designed while at USC.

Check it out: www.jackiehuang.com

Landscape Paintings 1

This semester I'm taking another landscape painting class, but this time my instructor is Kathy Altieri. She's an amazing teacher. One of the best I've ever had. Not only is she knowledgeable, she's really encouraging. She'll always find something good in even your worst painting. Here are some of my favorite painting I've done in class so far. They're all in gouache with no digital touch-ups.

Eaton Canyon

Vasquez Rocks

Vasquez Rocks

Millard Canyon

Millard Canyon

Name Logo

I created a new logo for myself and then went on to quill it. It took me about 3 hours to draw it out and then another 12 to make it out of paper. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as refined as I had hoped. I think I might have to wind up fixing up the original drawing and just using that instead.

Dream-Con 2010

So one of the other major projects I got to work on during my internship at DreamWorks was this festival called, Dream-Con. It's kind of like comic-con where artists each get a table and sell their artwork but Dream-Con is a smaller function limited to studio workers only.

I wasn't able to post these until after the event occurred, which was this past Tuesday. So here are some of the posters I got to make for the event. The dates are all off but that's b/c it changed like 3x throughout the summer.

The Save-The-Date tags were actually made and hung on the doors of some workers to encourage participation. Name tags, sandwich boards, table tents and other various things were made that all fell into the same 'theme' I designed. Overall it was really fun to be able to do branding for this event.

Stork Paper Sculpture

On Monday, August 30th, one of my best friends from high school had her very first baby! So in honor of this occasion, I made her a paper sculpture as a baby gift.

DreamWorks Thank You Pop-Up

My summer was pretty busy and packed with lots of amazing experiences. One of the greatest parts about being an intern at DreamWorks animation was the ability to get to meet and speak with lots of artists. I had the fortune of being able to meet and share my portfolio with lots of people. Some included:

• Kathy Altieri (Production Designer)
• Sam Michalp (Art Director)
• Devin Crane (Character Designer)
• Shane Prigmore (Character Designer)
• Pete Maynez (Viz Dev)
• Jayee Bocar (Viz Dev)
• Cundo Rabaudi (Sculptor/Viz Dev)
• Chris Sanders (Director)

I got lots of amazing feedback and even impressed some people with my paper work. Overall, it was a great experience and encouraging. As a thank you to my fellow DreamWorkers, I created a special handmade pop-up card.

Yes, the even the envelopes were individually crafted.

The inside of the thank you card reads,
"Thanks for helping me reach new heights!"

Close up of the card and characters

Close up of the monkeys

What the top of the card looks like

I have to give a special thanks to my very good friend and artist, Laura West! I wouldn't have been able to make all that I needed (20 cards in total) if it wasn't for her willingness to stay up with me until 3am several nights and helping me cut out the pieces for the cards so I could assemble the pieces.

Lab-apalooza

So I had to wait for the event to pass before I could display any of my work. But I got to create a lot of stuff for our department's open house called Lab-apalooza. The theme and pieces are based on Lollapalooza and everything that was created had the same feel.

This was the poster I created for the event.

This is a flat view of a two sided invite I created. It was passed out by hand to all the executives in the studio. It got a lot of attention and is going to be submitted (along with photos of the event) to Fortune Magazine as part of DreamWorks Animation's application to qualify for one of the top 100 best companies to work for.

Below are some photos of the event.

Panoram

Co-worker, Tim with my signs in the background

Table set ups

Our department head, Randy wearing one of my spiffy name tags

Art Demos in the new art space

DreamWorks

It's been a while since I've posted stuff mainly b/c it's been crazy busy for me. Right now I'm doing another full time summer internship at DreamWorks Animation. This time in the Show Development/Research department. (Back in 2005, while at USC, I was in their Digital Training and Technical Development Department.) It's not an official art internship but I've been doing a lot of posters and graphic work for them. I'll ask my boss and see if he'll let me post some of the stuff I've done for them on my blog.




Besides that, I have a lot of side projects going on too. Currently, I'm working on another pop up book (8 spreads this time) as an independent study with my color teacher, Richard Keyes. It's schedule to be done sometime in August but I'm definitely behind because I'm just so tired after working all day. But I plan on catching up soon. So it will get done!

In addition to that, I'll also be doing a paper sculpture for one of my long time high school friend who's having her first baby in September. It's going to be for her son's nursery so check back for that in September.

I'll try to update with more work when I finally get new work done.

Farm in Winter

If you saw my previous post from Style class, we had to design a vegetable/fruit stand in middle America. So I did a pumpkin stand in the autumn and had wanted to also set it in the winter but didn't have time during the term. So here's the winter version and below it, the autumn one as reference.

Carrot Julius

Another thing I did this term was help a friend, Ian Abando, out with some editing work. He did storyboards for an idea he had called, The Carrot Julius, and then asked me to cut them for him into an animatic. So check out his story blog and the animatic!

Digital Landscape

Here are a few paintings we did in Digital Landscape. We painted at the LA Arboretum (in Arcadia) in gouache and then scanned the paintings to do touch ups in the computer labs. If there's one thing I've learned it's this: a better on-site paintings will yield a better digital painting.

One of my firsts (after the touch ups; I will spare you the before).

Before

After

Before

After

Style

In Style class we were given various artist to analyze and then create a picture based off the prompt. Then for our final, we had to create mock portfolio pages.

A fast food restuarant with a playground in the style of William Joyce.

A music school in San Francisco in the style of Mary Blair.

A vegetable/farm stand on the side of the road in middle America
in the style of 101 Dalmations.

Grandmother's house from Little Red Riding Hood
in the style of Eyvind Earle.