{"id":130,"date":"2022-10-25T21:04:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T01:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/imgd3500-b22\/?p=130"},"modified":"2023-03-21T18:25:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T22:25:56","slug":"introductions-kerri-thornton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/imgd3500-b22\/kthornton\/introductions-kerri-thornton\/","title":{"rendered":"Introductions: Kerri Thornton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[If you were also in Interactive Electronic Arts in A term, you’ll probably recognize a lot of the text here… Many parts are the same, the main difference being that it just got *longer* because I have an inability to be concise<\/em>.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hi! My name is Kerri, and I\u2019m from Virginia \u2013 kind of. I was born here in Massachusetts, then moved to Indiana, and then to Virginia. And now I’ve circled back to MA again! I\u2019m a junior IMGD major with an *unofficial* concentration in visual arts, and someday I\u2019d like to make (character?) art for games. Or animated \/ kids\u2019 shows. Or books. Or ads. Or anything! I love both 2d and 3d animation (though I\u2019m definitely still learning\u2026), so it would be super cool to get to do either of those in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I\u2019ve always loved arts and crafts, I didn\u2019t really start drawing until the first few months of the pandemic. I started off on random pieces of computer paper, graduated to an actual sketchbook, and eventually found a cheap tablet and stylus I could plug into my computer \u2013 proceeding to spend the entire summer of 2020 inside using it. Since then, I’ve been doing my best to improve and have taken classes including but not limited to: Essentials of Art, Figure Drawing, Digital Imaging and Computer Art, 2D Animation I and II, 3D Animation I and II, 3D Modeling I (and this term, II), and Environmental Modeling. I definitely have more experience with digital art than traditional — the permanence of pen and paper terrifies me, and so the “undo” button is something I absolutely do not take for granted! As far as what I want to improve about my art skills, I have a whole laundry list: making poses more dynamic, matching and using color, making stylized backgrounds for characters that aren’t just ~abstract shapes~, perspective, compositional layout, anatomy of course… the list goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I mainly enjoy making animal \/ anthropomorphic characters, I do draw humans and was recently asked to make all the art for a friend\u2019s \u201canti-dating sim\u201d video game this past summer. The game isn’t finished yet, but I’m hoping to finish the rest of the art up over winter break! That was the first “out of school” game I did the art for, but I’ve worked on others for classes like Game Development Process (we made a murder mystery visual novel in RenPy) and Digital Game Design I (we made an pixel-esque easter egg hunt game using Professor Moriarty’s game engine, Perlenspiel<\/a>, based on the many restrictions for the project; that game can be found here<\/a> and the code and credits for assets we did not make can be found by changing the “.html” to “.js” in the URL, or by clicking here<\/a>). Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience working on 3D games — the closest I’ve come to that is in 3D Animation II, where we made various walk\/run\/etc. animation cycles in Maya and hooked them up to player controls in Unreal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to drawing\/animating, I also still enjoy arts and crafts and such like needle-felting, macrame, making miniatures (if you make anything miniature oh my god please show me<\/em>), making earrings out of weird objects, photography, painting, and rudimentary sewing (in order to make hammocks for my three rats, Petunia, Penelope, and Valerie — I love talking about them so feel free to ask any questions if you’re curious!). I also enjoy making anything I can think of out of random stuff I have around the house, though that\u2019s a much less structured hobby. Inspiration-wise, I\u2019ve always been drawn to kids\u2019 cartoons (shows like She-Ra and The Owl House are some of my favorites). I also love the company Fred<\/a> and The Klutz Book of Inventions<\/a>; there\u2019s just something about weird novelty items that *vaguely* help with everyday tasks (but mostly just make them more entertaining) that I love, and which have always made me want to create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that I’ve finished rambling, here is some of the work that I’ve done! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2D character art:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From Art Fight 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My own character, Devin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Friend with their plush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From Art Fight 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I don’t own the characters with green or red backgrounds — I drew them for Art Fight<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Country — angry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Emo — baseline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hipster — blush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Party — baseline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sport — baseline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Characters for the previously mentioned “anti-dating sim” my friend is making<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3D animation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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