Digital Self Portrait

Finished...

Black and White

Color

      So I finished this :). I've been going through some personal stuff so being able to focus on this piece and just try my best on it helped a little.

Here's my reference

Thanks for reading,
      MELANIE S MESCHER

Senior Pictures: Jennifer Davenport

Yes I did Senior pictures...

     During Thanksgiving break my family and I went to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit my aunt. While there I took my younger cousins Senior Pictures. I just finished editing all the ones we narrowed it down (from the 850 pictures). So have a look!

 Model: Jennifer Davenport

    Each of the twelve photos have about three different variations. With text or without, bw or color you get the idea. I just picked my favorite of each photo.

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

Business Cards

Option 1 or Option 2?

      So I decided to make some business cards. The reason being, I have been asked a lot about the work I do in school and how to find my work. Now I can just hand out business cards and people will be able to find me. I have two different looks I'm working with. A fun care free look like my blog or a more professional look with the film strip. The first option, shows more of my personality and is more artsy, while the second option is colder and shows my model skills which is what I want to get into. Thoughts?

Option 1

Front Side

Back Side

 Option 2

Front Side

Back Side

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

Self Portrait

Work in Progress...

       Yes this is kind of crappy, but it's a work in progress. I only worked on it for about an hour and a half. Just thought I'd preview it.


Thanks for reading,
     MELANIE S MESCHER

Quick Starry Night Sketch

I'm just your average imitator...

     I haven't posted in a while so i thought I would just post this random final I had to do for 19th Century Art. Enjoy.

I did this in copic marker while waiting for my Reel video to render out.

Thanks for reading,

    MELANIE S MESCHER

Zombie Virus Stages

The Stages of the Zombie Virus...

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

     So for time reasons I switched my final for my Zombie class. Instead of an illustration of kick ass women zombie killers, I decided to do a more medical approach and do different stage of the zombie virus. I took 3 different pictures of my model Brianna Parish. I used photoshop to manipulate the pictures and create the different stages of the virus.

Thanks for reading,

      MELANIE S MESCHER

D4M Final: Reel Animation -Post 5-

A "Reelly" Good Animation.

A "Reelly" Good Animation, is my final for my design for media class. This was my first 3D animation, and I think I did pretty good for a first attempt. Enjoy.

A "Reelly" Good Animation from Melanie Mescher on Vimeo.

         My sound effects are a little spotty, because I did not have a real reel to use. I ended up using a frying pan to create these noises, they are pretty good for what I used. Anyway this is my last big final I had to create. 

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

Keyhole Documentary

Second Final Finished...

       Hopefully it is smooth sailing from here. I only have about 6 more things to do before I can officially say my finals are over and begin a well deserved break from school. Also this will be the last project I do about the bar for AWHILE! I do not know what it was about this semester, but I did a lot of projects on the bar.

Keyhole Pizza Documentary from Melanie Mescher on Vimeo.

A short documentary on a small town bar, Keyhole Pizza which is located at 6621 St. Rt. 66, Fort Loramie, OH 45845. Keyhole was opened 30 years ago, by owners Bob and Azile Mescher. The bar is locally famous for their pizza, and has made pizza for about 27 years. The Keyhole is a great place to relax have pizza, be with friends, and have a beer or a few. 

        Overall, I am pretty happy with the results of this video. I wish I could reshoot some of the scenes, but I only had a small window of opportunity to shoot. Some of the audio for the interviews are a little spotty, and I wish more people would of allowed me to film them. So I hope you enjoy this insight into the Keyhole.


Thanks for reading,
     MELANIE S MESCHER

Scene to blow up -Post 4-

First final finished...

Owl Smash from Melanie Mescher on Vimeo.

      Yes, I finished a final! The easiest one yes, but I don't have to worry about it anymore. I wish I had been able to render it out in high quality with final gather on, but this render already took 12 hours to render. So enjoy.

Thanks for reading,

    MELANIE S MESCHER

Scene to Blow up -Post 3-

Lighting finished...

     I decided to light my room before I began shattering windows and animating the final. I really like the light coming through the window, and the bay window itself. I'm not a big fan of the lamp or the floor, but I don't think these will be able to be seen in the final render.

      Alright so getting close to having one final finished, now only a few to go so keep a look out. 

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

D4M Final: Reel Animation -Post 4-

Getting to the nitty gritty...

      I fixed the kerning of the text in my name for the final shots, and also started to play around with color in the lights. In the previous renders I thought everything was too grey, so I added some purples greens and oranges to all the different lights.

       Before I began animating I decided to do some key poses sketches. I know I had the storyboard, but i wanted a more in-depth storyboard for my own purposes.

       I also began animating through the shots, it really needs sound effects in my opinion. With sound it'll have so much more life. Originally I was going to have this be a 10 second animation, but it is turning into a 30+ second short. So far it is 15 seconds long and I am about half way through. If it was faster like I had planned the film strip would loose all the character he has.

Reel: Progress Video from Melanie Mescher on Vimeo.

       I still have quite a bit to do, so this next week will just be concentrating on getting the animation done. I will use the time after tuesday to do post editing such as sound and anything else the piece needs.

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

   

Scene to Blow Up -Post 2-

Texturing and modeling done...

    All I have left for the scene is to add lighting, and then begin to destroy it. A mystery item is going to be thrown through the window and cause some havoc. So don't sit on the edge of your seat waiting for it, because well it won't be done for a week...

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

 

Project Yoakam Completed!

Murphy, CCAD, and You...

      After long anticipation, Murphy, CCAD, and You is completed! It was a great group effort and we have a lot of time in this project. So I hope you enjoy it, I know I did!

Murphy, CCAD, and You from Kevin Harkness on Vimeo.

Project Yoakam Blog

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

Keyhole Documentary

Some random shots from filming...

      For my Video 1 class final we have to do a documentary on anything we wanted to. I decided since I know so much about the Keyhole that is what I would do my documentary on. All weekend I filmed at the bar, and decided to post some Karaoke fun as a preview. I have clips from 3 different performers, so I hope you enjoy them.

I apologize for the poor quality of video.

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

Scene to Blow up -Post 1-

Yes it will go boom...

    Yes I will be blowing this up. For my final in computer animation I have to blow up a scene. Instead of using my Bar model, I decided to use a whole new scene because my bar model is so complex. Here is the simple room model I came up with.

     I still have to model a few chairs, and the surprise that is going to come barreling through the window. 

Thanks for reading, 

     MELANIE S MESCHER

Family Tree

Something simple and appley...

     For my anthropology class we were required to create a family tree. I'm not too close to a lot of my family so I kept mine very simple with just first cousins. A lot of my cousins are 25+ years old and are married and have kids so I tried to used different elements to describe different type of family member, i.e. apples as cousins.

    This was a very quick piece, but even so it was good photoshop practice. I am however very proud of my decaying apple and leaves.

Thanks for reading,
    MELANIE S MESCHER

D4M Final: Reel Animation -Post 3-

I Have Everything "Reelized"...

     So this week I concentrated on figuring out the texture and beginning to rig my film strip for animating. I also played around with lighting and creating the text for my name.  

When I was texturing the film strip, I kept running into a problem with the transparency. I couldn't get the alpha to work in the transparency plug-in in the Mia Material X, because in this material the alpha needs to be plugged into the Cutout Opacity. When I figured this out I didn't have any problems with the transparency. 

This is before I figured out the problem

This is after I figured out the texture

    After I figured out the texture I began rigging the film strip. I decided I am going to use the rigging for the first half of the short and then use blend objects for the part when the film strip turns into an "s" shape.

Thanks for reading,

     MELANIE S MESCHER

D4M Final: Reel Animation -Post 2-

Finished Modeling...

      This week I finished modeling the film canister, and played around with the film strip texture. How I went about modeling the canister was working from a a plane rather than a box like I normally do. 

Finished plane of the canister shape

Another Progress shot

Canister with cleaned up geometry

   

        I'm feeling really good about this model, this reminded me just how much I do enjoy modeling. I'm exited for this whole project and to start experimenting with blend shapes, rigging, and just 3D animating in general.

Thanks for reading,

    MELANIE S MESCHER