• We are STAs
    • Diya Nair
    • Haley Ma
    • Kate Shih
    • Kyra Lee
    • Leilani Cabello
    • Lila Mali
    • Marissa Devivar
    • Nicholas Peasley
    • Raaga Srimadh
    • Shanda Horm
    • Shriya Atreya
    • Thang Truong
  • We were STAs
  • STA Presentation
    • STA Presentation 2017
    • STA Presentation 2016
  • Testimonials
  • Resources
  • Home

STA Blog

Valerie Lopez

Valerie Lopez

Rus 407

September 1, 2017 By Valerie Lopez

Request: Work on U8_3 and U8_6.

U8:3 Scene Description: It’s Christmas (russian christmas). in the courtyard of a church there is a nativity scene. Oleg, Polina, Grigorij, Tatusja are all standing in front of it and there’s snow all around.

U8_6 :

Polina and Oleg are working in garden outside their house to plant a tree. Abir is holding the sapling steady as Oleg is packing it into the ground using a garden spade and Polina is watering it with a watering can

Filed Under: 2016 - 2017

Russian 406

September 1, 2017 By Valerie Lopez

Request:

  • Manage over the production of 45 illustrations for Rus 406
  • Create characters, illustrate, color,etc
  • Create a canvas graphic for the home page

Professor: Heather Rice

Process:

I managed over the creation of all 45 illustrations for Rus 406. I worked with the other STA’s on the team and helped them with any questions or concerns they had to make sure we kept everything looking consistent. I kept updated on our progress by creating a contact sheet which I updated every week. This is the contact sheet:

These are the characters I created and the illustrations I worked on my own. It doesn’t seem like I did a lot but I couldn’t put all of the illustrations that I helped in because by the end of the project, most illustrations were a huge collaboration with each STA. These are the ones I can say I worked on from scratch to finish with the exception of Polina having been made by Bethany.

 

Finally I created the canvas graphic. I have initially made a version in the birch forest since that was my favorite scene to draw and I thought I could do a lot with the background. Bethany was creating the firebird and I read that in Russian folklore that the feather is an object of a difficult quest. I thought it would be interesting if Oleg was holding the feather up and Professor Rice and her TA Molly could be looking up at the feather next to him. I had them sitting on the floor so that I could set Oleg onto the rock and keep them kind of at eye level. In Russia however, it is considered very bad for people to sit on the ground since it is dirty. So by Mike and the Professor’s suggestion I had them sit on a blanket. I took the blanket from one of the living room scenes. Then the professor requested the time of day to be daybreak so i adjusted the lighting for this.  I also created a second version with them on the couch.

Filed Under: 2016 - 2017

Russian Magnets

June 19, 2017 By Valerie Lopez

Magnets to be used in Kitchen set Design

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Theatre Maker Set Design

June 19, 2017 By Valerie Lopez

Recreate a Set Design like the one below:

My Set Design so far. I still need to adjust the colors as the columns get further away since they blend too much with each other.
Still need to work on the composition and probably take out some of the details from the set design

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Russian 406 Update

June 19, 2017 By Valerie Lopez

Hipster Hedgehog:

After I completed Oleg’s character sheet , I gave him the hipster accessories that the professor Requested for him.

Moving Forward with the illustrations, I started with one of the illustrations and established the way the illustrations would be colored in.

I then created these photoshop files of the illustrations for each scene so that the Jaclyn and Chloe may be able to color them in. The characters are also roughed into the poses I think they should be in. I made each photoshop file filed with references and suggestions to guide the others when they open it.

This an example of a typical photoshop file with a completed illustration

My Process

Make a Rough version of what I want to draw. Typically takes me an hour to an hour and a half depending on the complexity of the illustration and the amount of research I need to do before hand.

 

Clean up the illustration and add some detail

 

Add some suggestions for the others to follow in terms of coloring.

These are the completed illustrations so far but will need to be roughed out a bit more towards the end.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Russian Hedgehog

February 24, 2017 By Valerie Lopez

Request: Make a hedgehog for a Russian class. This hedgehog will be animated during the online videos so make the hedgehog animatable with separate layers for each limb.

Professor: Heather Rice

Process:

When first starting this project the plan was to have the style be of a 50’s cartoon animation. These were the different roughs I created:

Then the style changed and tried making a draft that looked like a russian doll

but this version would have been hard to animate and it looked more like a mouse than a hedgehog so i moved onto another draft.

Then I decided to try defining this last draft a bit more. I wanted to make the hedgehog look wooden so I added a wood texture. I got the inspiration to make his wooden spikes into triangles like the top of the St. Basil’s cathedral in russia.

So this is what I came up with

I added this version in a mockup with the professor and the powerpoint borders

I got the approval for this version of the hedgehog and now I’ll continue to refine this version.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 10
  • Next Page »

link to LAITS home page

Video STA Home

© 2025 Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services | Production Credits