Thesis

So I haven't died, I promise. Not quite yet. I am still working towards my Master's degree in Animation and New Media here at NC State. I am buried in work between a full load of graduate level classes, working 20 hours a week at Intellimedia doing video games, writing my paper thesis, and then working on my thesis project! Not much longer left until something gives...or me :)

I love what I am doing...animating, modeling, texturing,...anything in 3D! Even flexing my rigging fingers some.

Meet Joe, the main character in my short. I modeled him, texured him, rigged him using an automatic rigger by J. Baskin, and am animating him too. Anyways, I just wanted to show the world my new guy.

Cheers, ya'll!

Work stuff

Game Animals from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

Dog from Game from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

Here are some of the models and animations from the game I have been working on at Intellimedia. I modeled, textured, and animated these guys. I did not do the rigging, though I did paint the weights for deformation.

They are really low poly for the game, so it was interesting to animate such limited rigs and geometry. It has certainly been a new way of thinking about 3D for me.

Zoom Raleigh Opening

Click here to see ZOOMRaleigh!

Come check out ZoomRaleigh in downtown Raleigh, near the Raleigh Times at the corner of Fayetteville and Hargett streets. Open now and until December 31, 2009.

For ZoomRaleigh, I made all the 3D elements. I modeled the buildings and did the animations in Maya 2009. After completing a true to landscape model of downtown Raleigh, I made camera animations that circled the city. I then passed these along to the other awesome people who worked on the project, Melissa Church and Lee Cherry, who did the interactive elements and coding. Our art director for all of this was Patrick Fitzgerald, who oversees the Advanced Media Lab of North Carolina State University.

Check out one of the camera "zooms" below:

Final Look Test from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

Advanced Media Lab

More about the project:

Zoom Raleigh is a rich interactive interface that has been installed in the window of the Urban Design Center right on Fayetteville Street. Further refining and developing 3D interfaces for exploring urban spaces. This project is the culmination of that work along with the refinement of large touch-screen interfaces.

Zoom Raleigh is co-sponsored by the Raleigh City Museum, City of Raleigh Planning Department, American Image Graphics, and Empire Properties.

Zoom Raleigh has incorporated multi-media montages, archival materials, historic photos, and interviews with Raleigh leaders like Greg Hatem. The result is a massive interactive screen that sits behind glass that entices passers-by to reach out and play with the interface. Part art, and part technical feat, the work both educates the public and reinforces the technology culture of Raleigh.

Zoom Raleigh as a 3D interactive digital installation allows viewers to interact with digital media related to the history of the arts, architecture and culture of Raleigh, NC. Featuring an interactive 3D visualization of downtown Raleigh, viewers can manipulate the digital model by rotating the city itself, selecting buildings of interest and interacting with narrated slideshows of historical photographs and text specific to selected sites.

Exploiting experimental touch and hand gesture recognition technology developed by students and staff a the Advanced Media Lab at NC State University, College of Design, this system utilizes camera recognition, back screen projection and large-scale store-front windows as display screens. Zoom Raleigh represents a new generation in inexpensive human/computer interaction platforms that can be operated in interior/exterior urban environments.

Show Reel 2009

Show Reel 2009 from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

My fresh demo reel for July 2009.

Caveball!

Caveball! from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

My newest animation. Made from scratch over one month. All modeling and animations by me. Rigged characters from J. Baskin at 3dcentral.com, though modified in appearance.

Sock Gnomes from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

A project from my current animation class.


Block Animations from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

Animation Exercises from NCSU.



Kriplyana from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

Kriplyana is the Eskimo word for blue snow at sunrise.


Fly Away from Stacie McGowan on Vimeo.

My senior film from Savannah College of Art and Design.
"A girl who longs to "fly away" from the drudgery of everyday life has to make a decision to take a leap of faith or stay trapped in her life forever."

Life Drawings

Two minute/ three minute poses. Made on tablet PC.






Five minute gestures.

Flash Experiments

This is from the Fall of 2008, I was experimenting with one of my simple characters in Flash and making a seamless background that could go on forever. I just like the colors, even it is just a simple walk cycle. This is from a larger interactive Flash project in which I made a "book" that read to the user and could teach words with sounds and animations.

Fat Cowboys With Wiggly Arms

Well, I keep messing around with this and I'm not really making any more progress really, so I thought I'd share this. It's one of my first attempts at a more painterly style, usually I like outlines and fills.

This is my most recent lighting project from Digital Lighting and Rendering. We had to light a still life we were given, though I added the walls and tablecloth. I'm happy with this image overall, the composition turned out well and the lighting is impressionistic like I wanted.

It's Here!!

(image from Jerry's Blog)

Well, its finally out! The new Planet Heroes episode with some of my shots is online. I had an awesome time interning at Fisher-Price, mostly thanks to the wonderful guys I worked with. They did an awesome job on everything and it turned out so cool because of them. Great job!

Here is the link to view the trailer/ full episode
Here Comes the Sun!

Dog Run

So here is the final for my run cycle of a four legged animal. I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out, though I wish the feet had more options for control.

Final Flash Animation

My final flash animation I made for class. I like the way it turned out overall, but of course I'd always like to change things after they're done! Mine from concept to finish.

My First Project in Flash

Flora Textured

The current status of my main character, Flora. I've started texturing my UVMaps in Photoshop.

3D Model

High Res version of my main character for my senior film.

Zoo Day!

So I went to the Atlanta Zoo today. There were so many people I could only get a few gesture drawings in.

I got to sit with the gorillas for a long time. It was a very busy exhibit. I got a lot of gesture drawing in, though none more than a minute or so.

Character Design: Ruby May Maquette

Maquette of Ruby. I can't seem to get a good photo of the maquette after numerous tries. This is the best shot. She was modeled on an armature I made and sculpted using Super Sculpy. Hand painted. The pearls and fuzz on the slippers were store bought. Otherwise I made it.

Character Design: Ruby May

Meet Ruby May! Ruby is a kinda cranky old gal, but has a good heart. Her pet cats live in her large amount of hair, which is her pride and joy.

Character Design

Ruby May's side view.

Character Design

Ruby May's pet cats.