Drastic Custom My Little Pony Epona!

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Christina

I just realized that I never created a blog post for My Little Epona!  She is a drastically repositioned 3rd generation my little pony. This was also my first project requiring a base! I’m very happy with the way she turned out! The only problem I’m having is that some areas are getting shiny/glossy and I think it is due to one of the previous layers of sealer not being dry before I started the next.  I don’t think this would qualify as “sticky” because it does not feel sticky to the touch.  Since her completion about 3 months ago, she’s been safely on my shelf to make sure nothing else goes wrong with the finish. It looks like the worst of it is probably out at this point and is ready for fixing.  I’m pretty sure a few cotes of Dullcote will fix those areas and get her ready for the market again.  Although, I’ve grown very attached and may just keep her for myself and create a new one. Anyway, here she is!

Since these photos were taken, I realized I forgot her face marking! :O It has since been added and I’ll be sure to add an  updated photo when she’s all fixed up again.  You can see her full album from start to finish here on my facebook page. She was also featured as “Custom of the Week” on Rebecca Enzor’s Blog! If you’re interested in purchasing Epona feel free to shoot me an email :)

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Interviewed by Animation Insider

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Christina

Months back I was contacted by Mike from Animation Insider. It’s a nifty little website with interviews with all sorts of animators and filmmakers. He asked if I wanted to answer a few questions for an interview so I said sure!  The interview is now available for viewing at www.animationinsider.com.  I feel so special. Enjoy :)

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How To Paint A Breyer Tutorial– Part 2 (White Markings)

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Christina

Ok, it’s been a long while since I first posted on this dude. But I did promise to get the white markings up in Part 2…so here they are. There are a few things I would have done differently as a whole on this guy now that I look back but here’s the rest of the steps for this guy. Hopefully it will help someone out :)

I’m just going to post the process step by step pics here…it’s pretty self explanatory. Just be sure to buff every so many layers. You don’t have to seal between every layer with acrylics but you can if you want to “save” your work while you go. Another quick tip, always be sure to follow the direction of the hair growth. This will keep your patterns and paint marks accurate.

So here goes:

First Color of Acrylic

Layer 1

Layer2

Layer 3

Layer 4

Next Color Acrylic

Layer 5

Layer 5 (Close-up)

Now go back to the first white and continue to alternate layers until you get to a solidity and mapping pattern you are happy with

Close-up of completed layers

Other side of horse with completed white pattern

Bonus round!

Colors used for the muzzle markings/mottling and feather detail (Burnt Umber, Yellow Ocre, Pink)

First blend in some pink at the end of the muzzle. Then paint your dark

Next take a VERY thin layer of the pink mixed with some white to lighten it up and paint over all the spots.

Now take your brown again and darken up the center any spots according to your reference.

And Viola! Markings are done!

Hope this basic tutorial helps. Any ideas for future tutorials, please feel free to comment, email me, or post on my facebook page. Thanks a bunch!

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A Re-Visit To The Past, “Feretz” Style

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Christina

I haven’t posted in awhile because I’ve been incredibly busy between taking care of PetKaboodle.com during the holiday season as well as some freelance animation jobs here and there.  Still crazy busy so I’ll make this quick.

A friend of mine (Mr. Elliot Cowan) had posted a film from one of his students.  It was their foundation year film and it got me thinking…where did all of my films go?

Of my four years in college learning traditional animation at SVA, I made 3 films. A second year narration film (assigned to us by the great Don Duga), third year film (assigned by the lovely Yvette Kaplan) and a final thesis film (mentored by Yvette and Candy Kugel).  So…I did some searching around at home and found my third year film! (As an added bonus it wasn’t on VHS which made getting it into the computer world alot easier).  My first ever film is still only on VHS…but I’m glad because it is pretty lame.

Anyway, I still find that I enjoy this third year film very much..even though I have to laugh at some of the “newb” animation and character design.  I would love to re-make this film sometime just to see how much I have improved over the 7 or so years in the professional field of animation. (Would also like to finish the whole song as I had planned from the start…ha!).

Well, enough blabbing…I now present to you, my 3rd year animation film! Prepare for giggles :D (P.S.  just ignore the 2 minutes of black at the end after the end credit videos….oops! No wonder the file was so darn big! Lol!)

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Ottawa International Film Festival Short Signal Films

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Christina

Here are a few of the short signal films I worked on for the Ottawa International Film Festival. These films were played in between screenings, etc.

For this first one, starting at 00;17 to 00;23, I animated this traditionally in Flash using the festival’s mascot character then composited in After Effects. The segment was later colored by another artist.

This one’s pretty much the same but extended a bit more. Starting at 00;17 to 00;28 this time.  There was more to this segment where the woman grabs him and throws him out of frame…but I don’t think that made it in the final.

For this third one, from 00;00 to 00;21, I traditionally animated the main character using flash. Then composited over the live footage using After Effects. The segment was later colored by another artist.

I only created some faces for this one but thought it was pretty neat the way it looked all finished.

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Interview With Howard Beckerman

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Christina

I came across a  really nice interview/doc. of one of my College professors. He was a great mentor. What we liked to call “old fashioned”, but in a good way. He truly taught the basics and fundamentals of what animation really was. By doing this, it helps understand why and how animation is important today.  By having this knowledge, we know how to apply these tactics in today’s modern world of animation in order to create great characters and story.  Plus, he let us all watch the first South Park movie in his History of Animation Class….so it’s all good! :D

Part 1:

Part 2:

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Meet “Pumpkin”, My Halloween Swap Project!

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Christina

I finished my swap project a little while ago and was waiting for my partner to receive it before posting anything. I know they saw it, so I just can’t hold it in any longer! Here she is!

Meet Pumpkin! The Black & Orange Halloween Dapple Overo Horse! My partner preferred realistic colored horse, but it’s Halloween! This was as realistic as I was going! Lol! She’s a drastic custom from the Breyer Stablemate American Saddlebred Mold.

Some progress pics:


Also as part of the swap, we had to include a state souvenir and some sweet goodies so here’s the complete pic!

For the state souvenir, I accompanied Pumpkin on her first trip to NYC and made a book of all the photos we took. I also included the train tickets, museum tickets, etc from that day. Here are all the photos of her fun time in the Big Apple!

This was a really fun swap and I’m looking forward to many more!! Can’t wait till the next! :D

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My Demo Reel Is DONE!!! Woo Hoo!

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Christina

I’m so excited to announce that my new demo reel is finally complete! After 3 full 15 hour days of staring at the computer, finding all the files files, re-rendering clips, and finding music and making sounds,  I did it! I feel so great that I finally got this out of the way. I can now move on to finishing up my website and getting my resume out there once again! I’m back on the map!

I’m really happy with how it came out. Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Monkeying Around!

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Christina

It’s been a little while since I posted.  I’ve been crazy busy trying to get things in order to get my website back up and running and demo reel-a-rollin’.  I just finished putting together this little clip.

Back in the beginning of summer, I took a day to paint my niece’s wall before she arrived into the world.  The request… Monkeys!  What could be more fun then monkeys!? So one day on the train ride home from work, I sketched out a little idea.

How to blow up this idea, I had no clue since I do not own a projector thingie. So it had to be free hand on the wall as well. For that I used white crayola chalk to get the general shapes in place, then pencil to pencil in the details before painting.  Ran off to Benjiman Moore to grab a couple of brown samples and grabbed a few craft paints from my supplies for the details. Just add a day of family fun,  sillyness amd 4 hours of video footage to edit and here’s what you get:

Unfortunately we didn’t think of filming till after I already started painting. O well…less footage to edit. Overall the full painting took one day (about 8-10 hours) to complete.

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Custom My Little Pony – “Gothic Cheer” Done & For Sale!

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Christina

Just finished my very first custom My Little Pony! I’ve been wanting to try this for a LONG time now. Originally I was going to use my old collection of about 40 or so for “bait” but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that to the memories. So…I gave each one a bath and brush and off they went to eBay individually. I only kept 9 of my favorite adults and 5 of my favorite babies.

©2011 C.Riley

©2011 C.Riley

I traded a few Newer MIB ones I had for a double amount of bodies to work with.  For this first custom I just wanted to see where my paintbrush would take me. So I just went with the flow. I sealed her designs in high gloss acrylic varnish. Only the design areas are glossy, the rest of the body is the original pink finish.  I think she turned out pretty neat! I didn’t have any doll hair on hand so I decided to re-hair her with a red children’s cheerleading pom pom that I had lying around. It made really fun hair! Anytime you move the pony or touch her hair, it makes a fun swishy sound…lol

She is currently for sale on eBay HERE. You can learn more details about her and see more images on her eBay page.

©2011 C.Riley

Thanks for looking! :)

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