Katie Wendt

Revisiting my Degree Project from RISD

2012-02-01T21:19:00.003-05:00

It's been almost two years since I finished my Degree Project at RISD, and I thought I'd drag it out and talk about its few accumulated glories.

In the Beginning from Katie Wendt on Vimeo.

I was very lucky to have it featured on Cartoon Brew, one of the leading blogs in the animation industry today. It was also screened by Arts Guild New Jersey in multiple locations as part of an animated shorts showcase, along with making it into the Animation Block Party 2011 screening in NYC.

I also received very kind invitations from festival directors to submit to the Insight Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, and Florida Film Festival, among others. A lack of time and confidence kept me from submitting, but I'm very grateful for the invitations, which were incredibly graciously given.

I was also approached about having 'In the Beginning' included in an American Animation Showcase, which screens at American embassies around the world, and would have involved my traveling with the showcase and discussing my project with both diplomats at other artists. Unfortunately, the Department of State had the final say in the pieces chosen for the showcase, and my piece was declined due to its religious content, which could potentially cause problems in countries whose policy isn't to take religion lightly. This was another offer which, while I was disappointed that I could not be involved, was extremely flattering, and I'm glad that a showcase exists even if my piece couldn't be included in it.

I plan to create another animated short sometime in the near future; one of my graphic novel projects, Cupcake Captive, will probably turn into an animated short. My work will continue to explore and deconstruct preconceived notions of what makes us "different" from one another, and reconstruct it into similarities between us. Through my work I will always seek to encourage people to understand those who they feel most alienated from, and to approach the uncomfortable and the unknown with an open mind and willingness to learn about their world and their selves--to seek both the facts of life, and the truth of life.

Some cleaned up Aztec characters

2012-01-14T23:01:00.003-05:00

I've thankfully been making a lot of progress on my Aztec graphic novel's plot and design.

A guy right now only known as 'Gambling Problem'. We first meet him betting a year of his life on a ball game.

The twins are still in the plot, but not as prominently featured since the cast is looking more and more like an ensemble. I forgot to put their ear-plugs in, oops.

Hopefully design will go faster now that I've got the style more solidly laid down. These are pretty basic currently and will be embellished before they're completely finished.

It's Callie and Mark

2011-12-15T04:32:00.004-05:00

Callie looked weird alone, so I drew Mark in there. They belong together. Also, mo' color.

CALLIE + MARK 4EVER

Sketchbook stuff: Aztecs, Cupcake Captive, zoo animals

2011-10-09T13:55:00.002-04:00

Many Aztec miscellaneous things. Mostly faces. Some of these people are just random citizens, others are main character ideas. Moctezuma is in there, as well as one Spanish guy, some hand gestures for Cortes' translator Malintzin, and so on.

Cupcake Captive costumes and character designs. There were going to be ninjas who were misused porn stars, but I'm not sure they're going to fit into the story anymore. It's also kind of a cheesy idea.

And some animals around the St. Louis Zoo

Sketchbook stuff coming soon

2011-09-28T23:13:00.002-04:00

I did a big sketchbook scan this evening and have a lot of Cupcake Captive and Aztec stuff to post, but for now, here's some subway/subway-inspired people:

Even more Ugly Americans: 'Wail Street' storyboards

2011-09-26T11:42:00.005-04:00

I only did storyboard revision for this episode, and the shots were ultimately replaced by Mark's Life Improve-matorium fantasy. Originally, Mark was going to be tempted by a perfect suburban family life with Callie, but it made sense to replace it with something a little less intimate, in the grand scheme of the show. But it was also adorable, I didn't want to let the designs of the little Mark and Callie kiddies die, so here they are.

Also, I had a great time in Ottawa at the Animation Festival with the Augenblick crew, and it was great seeing old friends again. See you around NYC or next year in Ottawa, everyone!

More Ugly Americans

2011-07-19T23:56:00.005-04:00

Several more animatic stills from Ugly Americans episode 'Ride Me to Hell'.

It kind of got lost in the editing process but Twayne was supposed to be REALLY drunk.

"Here's to the ladies!"

And then the rest of my work for the week got chopped out. Callie leaves the party and calls Mark to voice her worries over replacing her dad and 'taking the snake'. Mark is in Hollywood, in Heather Locklear's dressing room, getting ready to perform in Grimes' "ending" as Jimmy.

Callie calls Mark from the coatroom.

Mark picks up in L.A.

"Tomorrow I'm gonna have to swallow a giant snake, which is gonna totally suck."

Mark tries to encourage Callie, but the conversation is cut short by Grimes.

Ugly Americans Animatics

2011-07-18T10:37:00.005-04:00

Storyboard/Animatics from Ugly Americans episode 'Ride Me to Hell'

Mark encourages Callie about her presentation.

Cut. "Go play that game of catch that I never could."

"While I was touching my penis just now, you were touching my heart."

Randall's boxed in as a porno director.

Originally Callie made an angry exit.

And then Randall tenderly held Mark.

Aldermach gets ready to show Callie what taking over for him as CEO of Hell entails. This entire sequence was supposed to be a parody of a scene in Poltergeist II where Craig T. Nelson coughs up some kind of worm monster.

More Poltergeist II inspiration.

More Poltergeist II.

Aldermach shrinks when he coughs up the demon snake.

"To replace me you're gonna have to swallow this thing."

Driving to L.A. (also known as Hell apparently). A rare background design of mine.

Cut: A moment of pure disdain for the common hipster in downtown L.A. Another background design of mine, but it was not to be.

You can see my thumbnails in a couple of the images. Ohhh welllll.
More to come soon.

What's goin' on

2011-03-12T16:30:00.005-05:00

I've been working on season 2 of Ugly Americans at Augenblick Studios lately, after getting the chance to work on season 1B last year. The new episodes will air on Comedy Central in June. YOU should consider watching, the new episodes are already shaping up to be pretty crazy.

In my non-employed time I've been working on some personal projects, including my Aztec graphic novel and another smaller comic project that is, for the time being, called Cupcake Captive, about a pornstar who decides to become a samurai.

Here's some Cupcake Captive stuff.

I'm hoping that Cupcake Captive gets me warmed up for my Aztec project, which is going to include a larger cast of main characters now instead of focusing only on the twins. They're still in there though.

The twins, around the time of the main plot and younger.

Here are some secondary and main cast characters. At the top left there's some deity impersonators, and the guys with feathers on their heads are musicians. Bottom left is two different possibilities for Malinche, Cortes' translator and mistress.

And some characters who might eventually be specific people but right now are mostly just miscellaneous possibilities, except for the guy with the beard, who might eventually be Bernal Diaz, one of Cortes' conquistadors who wrote an eyewitness account of the invasion. The guys with all the padding are ball players, who I'm planning on making pretty similar to high school football jocks. There's a weirdly analogous aspect to the Aztec ballgames and high school football, with the prep school competing against the 'public' school.

And here are just some people from the subway. Note that most of them are turned away from me. That's because I'm creepy and only draw people when they aren't watching me.

My Christmas Present to You: COOKIES

2010-12-18T14:45:00.005-05:00

I made cookies today to send to friends and loved ones, and the post office closed an hour early so I didn't get to send them. DANG! So instead I'm going to post the super-fancy photo-illustrated recipe.

These are very lamely and nerdily inspired by all of the research I've been doing on Aztecs lately. They're chocolate-chip sandwich cookies with a little bit of chipotle powder in them so they're a little spicy, and the frosting to sandwich them is honey-vanilla-cinnamon buttercream. These are also good without the frosting if it's not your thing.

INGREDIENTS & INSTRUCTIONS

Cookies:
1 1/2 c. + 1 Tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8-1/4 tsp. ground chipotle (for less spice use cayenne pepper or more ginger)
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened slightly
1/2 c. brown suger, packed
1/4 c. honey
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
~7 oz. chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate mini-chunks)
~1/4 c. granulated sugar

In a medium bowl (save your big bowl) combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, chipotle, cocoa, and baking powder.

In your big bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until it's evenly mixed and fluffy. Add the honey and vanilla and beat until combined.

In a small bowl (or even a shot glass or something), dissolve the baking soda in 1 1/2 tsp. boiling water. I just microwave some water in a coffee mug for 2-3 minutes to get it pretty hot.

Beat half of the flour mix into the butter mix, then beat in the baking soda mix, then beat in the rest of the flour mix. If the mix is going to be too dry and crumbly to roll into balls, add a little more soft or melted butter.

Add the chocolate chips and refrigerate the dough for about half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Roll the dough into 1"-2" balls depending on how big you want your cookies to be. Roll the balls in the granulated sugar and flatten slightly on the baking sheets. Because I wanted to make them sandwich cookies I made smaller, flatter cookies.

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. When the surface starts to crack it's a good indicator to take them out. Let them cool before frosting them.

Frosting:
1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened
2 1/2 c. powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
3 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. cinnamon
1-2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream all of the ingredients together.

To put the frosting on, I cut the corner off of a sandwich baggie to use it as a bootleg piper. Twist the open end of the baggie tightly closed and go to town.

MERRY CHRISTMAS/HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Graphic novel development stuff

2010-10-03T22:53:00.006-04:00

I've been working on two graphic novel projects. The one that I've been thinking about since Freshman year, but is currently on hold, is set in India around the War of 1812 and based loosely (very loosely) on the Kalki Purana, a Hindu religious text.

The protagonist and love interest as youths.

The antagonist as a little girl and during the main storyline.

And the other one that I'm working harder on right now is set in the Aztec capital during the Spanish invasion by Cortes and the conquistadors around 1518-1522.

The protagonists are going to be twin girls. Typically when twins were born, the younger one was killed as twins were considered a health hazard for the parents. The twins' mother dies in childbirth and their father has the second twin spared after her death.

The twins' parents on their wedding night.

Their parents a little later on--the twins' birth and their father (waiting to hear about the birth and a little older).

A couple of developmental sketches of the twins themselves, but I don't know if they'll end up looking like this. Lots of different ages represented.

One of the twins wants to participate in politics and the other wants to participate in religion. The political twin has plans to marry a noble and the religious twin plans to be sacrificed as a human representative of the goddess she's a priestess to, Xochiquetzal, the goddess of music, poetry, and everything pleasant. She wants to be sacrificed to join her former companion, a boy who is sacrificed as the god Xochipilli.

Here's Xochipilli.

This is a friend of the religious twin's--she also works as a priestess for Xochiquetzal. Xochiquetzal's priestesses act as consorts to victorious warriors and ball players, who were not allowed to be married due to their professions. They dyed their hair purple, wore yellow makeup, red mouth stain, and chewed gum. This girl's name is Nenextli, 'little doll'.

Here are some more harlots (as they were referred to by the Spanish).

The priestesses of Xochiquetzal were distinguishable from common prostitutes by the turquoise lip plug and ear plugs that they wore, a sign of a higher class citizen.

Some miscellaneous character sketches. A ballplayer, midwife, and Xochipilli's silhouette. To the right of them is a profile of Moctezuma/Montezuma's nephew who wants to take his place as ruler, Cacamatzin. Also, two young girls (I guess?), and one of Moctezuma/Montezuma's daughters that's given to Cortes as a gift.

I'm excited to keep working on the Aztec project right now. Right now the plan is to tell the story in three volumes, with volume I taking place during the year preceding the Spanish arrival in the Mexican capital city, volume II taking place during their stay and the imprisonment of Moctezuma, and volume III taking place during the siege and period following the Spanish conquest. My goal is to capture a feeling of the Spanish as invaders rather than discoverers, and to explore what it would be like to have your established life, with a charted past and supposedly foreseeable and planned future, destroyed and changed so drastically. I also want to try and make a culture and way of life that feels distant and esoteric to us as modern people feel more human and relate-able than we tend to think of it.

My Degree Project

2010-10-03T01:53:00.001-04:00

I was going to wait to make it public but I don't think it will make much of a difference either way at this point. Thanks for watching!

Degree project, summertime, and beyond

2010-08-09T21:39:00.004-04:00

I have not updated my blog in a long time. When I said a trailer for my degree project was coming soon, I lied. Straight up.

But good things are happening. I survived the rest of the year at RISD, finished my degree project a week late, and went on to have a super time at the FAV Senior Show.

I have to hide behind Tara's wonder.

And then I graduated, hallelujah.

And I was lucky enough to immediately start work at Augenblick Studios after graduating, mostly as a storyboard revisionist but I had fun picking up extra background and prop work. I'm happily starting up again, in a new position, in about a week.

'In the Beginning' was also selected to screen in this year's Animation Block Party! It was a huge honor to be in a festival with so many talented artists and amazing submissions, and it will ease the pain of my rejection from Ottawa. Congratulations to Barbara for winning best student piece!! I had to edit this post because I forgot to add that a couple of very very kind people have also been nice enough to mention 'In the Beginning' in their blogs and write-ups of the festival. Adam Ansorge has a nice rundown of the festival, and Chris Robadue saw it at the RISD FAV Senior Show, and had some excellent things to say about other projects in the Senior Show as well.

Guess what? I took a 3D CGI class last fall.

It was pretty painful.

A project from Digital Illustration, and an advertisement for the catering company that my mom and her friend run, all in one. 2 different business card/postcard options. If you need something catered around St. Louis, MO, now you know where to go.

Some 'In the Beginning' stuff.

And I did this as a preliminary thing for album art for the Walk-It-Offs, but it won't make the final cut.

That's all for now, homiez.

Degree Project and more

2010-05-17T17:51:00.004-04:00

Promotional stills for my degree project, IN THE BEGINNING, which with credits has a runtime of 5 minutes and 15 seconds. Trailer coming soon.

THE RISD FILM/ANIMATION/VIDEO SENIOR SHOW IS WED-SAT, MAY 19-22!

AND, check out DJT at sickdamage.com.

Work that is not Degree Project

2010-04-26T22:38:00.004-04:00

First attempts at using Corel Painter: Rihanna and Jon Stewart

Queen of Hearts playing card in Illustrator:

Illustrating. . . digitally

2010-03-24T19:30:00.005-04:00

Self portrait as a fictional character

Super informative infographic about dachshunds

Why yes these were both homework assignments how could you tell

bidness cards

A portrait

2010-03-01T23:26:00.002-05:00

It's Tara!

Even more DP work

2010-01-25T23:51:00.004-05:00

I know I just posted for my DP but I have to show some of the background characters because they turned out better than I expected.

More DP work

2010-01-11T10:40:00.003-05:00

More degree project work:

OH AND--

Album Art - Out of his Element

2009-12-14T23:47:00.004-05:00

Album art sketch for a friend from high school, Andrew Linn.

Degree Project has begun

2009-11-11T15:05:00.002-05:00

DP work DP work DP work

Concept sketches and palettes. More sketches, colors, background tests, etc. to follow.

Self Portrait, goodbye summer

2009-09-21T20:20:00.003-04:00

Goodbye, summer.

I had a super summer interning at Augenblick Studios and working at Clambake Animation.

It's the end of the schoolyear

2009-05-19T15:53:00.003-04:00

And what have I done with my life?

AND

Process stuff for my character design final.

First sketch

More sketching

Still more, with some outlines now

And then a lighting test

And then I decided my digital inking was crap so I did it in pen

And then I colored it. Hopefully I'll color it in real media. . . . someday

Studio Internships

2009-05-15T19:40:00.001-04:00

I've been offered internships at both Augenblick Studios and Clambake Animation for the summer, and I'm in the process of nailing both down.

It may be a lot to take on but hopefully I'll manage it.

Some sketchbook work

2009-05-08T20:27:00.001-04:00

Some sketchbook stuff

Roger Williams Zoo, Providence

Sketches of that protagonist from a week ago

Things

More character design

2009-05-08T20:03:00.001-04:00

More protagonist/antagonist work.

Protagonist based on Black Hmong culture mostly. Antagonist on nothing in particular. Kind of wanted to reinterpret a ghost but that's about it.

Personal Protagonist and Antagonist

2009-04-30T11:24:00.001-04:00

More character design. My personal protagonist and antagonist based on my life experiences/traditions/etc.

The protagonist was based mostly on Maasai clothing and jewelry. I basically just made the headpiece up after looking at a bunch of Pacific Northwestern and Plains Indian masks/costumes/etc. The antagonist is based in a bunch of African and a little Oceanic culture. The tongue mask is inspired by a Balinese Rangda mask.

Sketch for the antagonist design:

I'll update with sketches for the protagonist later today when I get to a scanner.

Owlie

2009-04-28T00:00:00.001-04:00

Hello owl

Character design for character animation class

Culture-based character design

2009-04-23T22:11:00.002-04:00

Character design - a character based on a culture, but not just a member of that culture.

I chose royal Cambodian Khmer dance traditions.

Gibbon animation exercise

2009-04-18T20:15:00.000-04:00

We went to the zoo last Monday for character animation. This was the exercise I got out of it.

I like how it turned out; usually I keyframe but this was freeeestyle. Hand-animated in Flash, on 2's.

Titan A.E. redesign project

2009-04-10T22:07:00.004-04:00

The Titan A.E. redesign project
Group members:Heather Kahn, Kim Weiner, Magnolia Porter, and me.

Titan A.E. is a mediocre-to-awful animated sci-fi movie that had potential for interesting themes and issues, but failed to connect to audiences due to bad storytelling and generic character design. We attempted to craft more interesting and engaging characters with more potential for good storytelling.

Sorry about the crappy pictures, I just took some photos of our presentation board. I'll post the nice digital files eventually.

Main cast:
Cale - protagonist, 20-year-old space station mechanic
Group design, my drawing + ink, Magnolia color

Original.
We wanted Cale to look a little younger and more awkward, less like a male model.

Akima - female lead, Korso's pilot
Group design, my drawing + ink, Heather color

Original.
Made Akima's ethnic group more ambiguous, wanted to make her feel like a gypsy connected to Earth, but still a believable pilot.

Korso - Works to find the Titan with Cale, ex-military, working with Drej
Group design, my drawing + ink, Kim

Original.
Korso became a bitter Vietnam-style vet, decorated but scarred by his military experience. A believable "fallen hero".

Drej - pure energy, hivemind with queen figure, want to destroy humans
Kim's personal design + color

(Couldn't find an original that showed them very well.)
Wanted to make the Drej look less manufactured, focus more on the queen and hivemind aspect to make them creepy instead of just inanimate energy.

Supporting cast (crew of Korso's ship)
Gune - map-reader, scientist, comic relief; works with the protagonists
Heather's personal design + color

Original.
Made him less generic. Gave him more hands to work on multiple tasks at once, a long neck to extend up to peer into people's faces. Gave him a birdy face to allow for a more fidgity demeanor.

Preed - Korso's first mate, traitor
Magnolia's personal design + color

Original.
Added a transformative quality to him, making him appear nonthreatening until his point of turning traitor.

Stith - weapons and muscle; works with the protagonists
My personal design + color

Original.
Gave her more upper-body strength and a powerful, stout set of legs to keep her grounded. Turned her into more of a protective figure.

This was a great learning experience about working in groups--our group was great and I think we all played our strengths well, I'm proud of us.

Warm and Cool character design

2009-04-07T13:30:00.001-04:00

Another character design assignment, this time an appealing character using an entirely cool palette and an unappealing character using an entirely warm palette. Warm character is undergoing revisions, which I'll post soon.

Sketchin with gas, sketchin with gas

2009-04-01T22:16:00.001-04:00

Sketchbook pages
Providence Place Mall:

Random:

St. Louis Zoo:

Character Design nightmare

2009-03-19T21:23:00.002-04:00

This week's character design assignment was another 2 character sheets, one with a character that is entirely angular and asymmetrical but appealing, and another character, symmetrical and made entirely of organic rounded lines, but unappealing.

My angular character was 'almost there' and my organic character got it. Hooray!
I'm not going to post my angular character thumbnail but if you need to see it (you don't) it's here.

Combined tarantula, scorpion, crab, and venus flytrap + nasty boobs/eggs on crotch to get a horrible nightmare crab mom effect.

Animation!

2009-03-19T12:13:00.000-04:00

My animation is all at my youtube page, but I'll embed some for the sake of having it here:

This video is also linked at a few blogs which amazes me:

Line Boil

Occasional Manatee

GeekSexy

And some other youtube stuff I have created:

(I told Genndy Tartakovsky to look this up on youtube when he visited RISD, am I a big nerd, or the biggest nerd?)

Character Design this week

2009-03-12T00:48:00.001-04:00

This week's assignment was to design two characters that represent a trait that you admire in others and a trait that you don't. Some guidelines were flat color, animation-friendly (simple), and meaning through form rather than acting or props. I chose 'perceptive' and 'violent'.

Character Design this year

2009-03-10T15:21:00.001-04:00

For Character Animation with Dan Sousa:

For Character Creation with Shanth Enjeti:

Assignment: Best character design you can come up with in a week

Second assignment: Your best and worst traits (patient and judgmental)

Where are they now?

2009-03-10T15:08:00.001-04:00

Stuff from this year, in chronological order from oldest to newest.

And some Wintersession stuff, in Nupastel with some Winsor Newton and vine charcoal

(life drawing, 3 1/2 hours)

The Tenth - Graphic Novel chapter

2009-03-10T14:54:00.001-04:00

This was my Sophomore year wintersession project, the first ten or most significant/explanatory ten pages of a graphic novel.

India ink on Bristol board.

Based very loosely on the Kalki Purana, a Hindu religious text.

A couple of sophomore year things

2009-03-10T14:42:00.001-04:00

A blast from last year

Each Uisge, Scottish Water Demon - Photoshop

Headphones - Photoshop

Paint and whatever else we could find within the apartment (stickers, metal, marbles, glitter, glow in the dark stars, a toothbrush, plastic flowers) (collaboration with Ashley Z)

Freshman year creations

2009-03-10T14:29:00.001-04:00

Freshman year is always fun

Scarab beetle - Brass wire

Rocky Coast - Prismacolor markers and colored pencils on a file folder

Interior Space - Graphite

Cigs - Prismacolor and Micron

O Brave New World Box - Magazines and modge podge

And now, some older sketchbook stuff

2009-03-10T14:15:00.001-04:00

Prismacolors and Microns

Some paintings

2009-03-10T13:16:00.001-04:00

Watercolors!

Fabulous.

Hello internet

2009-03-08T13:02:00.000-04:00

Here's my blog, for the world to see, finally. Hopefully someday I'll be able to afford a website but until then, enjoy.