Author: Atia Newman
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Pre-production Ideas/Concepts
It makes no sense to learn a program or build a new workflow without first creating an idea that you want to implement it on. After all, a theory is no good unless it has been tested and proven in some way. And what better way to establish a good workflow than to throw it…
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Modeling and Shading
Practice is essential in the process of learning a new software. Now that I’ve been working in Blender more regularly, I am finding it easier to think like the software needs me to, and my internal Maya rumblings are being pushed further out of focus, so I can create with fewer hiccups. There are still…
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History’s Winners and Losers
If history is written by the “winners”, then where do the “losers” go to discover their past? Identity cannot be created/felt/experienced without a true understanding of one’s past, and if the past is brutally slanted against you, your only recourse is to internalize that loathing and damage yourself in every way possible. As a teenager,…
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That Blender Donut
I’ve been putzing around in Blender for a while but of course, it’s hard to get good at anything without practice. So, I decided to go out and find a few tutorials on the web to lead me through some basic exercises and really help me find the buttons. I found this great series by…
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Schedule
Getting through a pile of research in a pre-defined amount of time feels much like planning and completing a thesis project, but with more grown-up end results. After all, a sabbatical is designed to allow a faculty member to refresh their knowledge, develop new ideas and create in ways that cannot be done around the…
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Introducing Myself
Animator, professor, nerd-who-likes-to-learn-about-anything. I was a happy nerd in school, accepted by my peers, active in drama, debate, art contests, student government and (for a short time) track and field. I loved art, I loved physics, and I loved math. As a teenager planning my college applications, I agonized over which route to take: science,…
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First Impressions
Ah! Blender. Okay, so I’ve been looking at Blender for a week or so. Doing nothing major, just finding tools, discovering features and watching tutorials. The first thing I discovered: it was a big mistake to choose “industry” settings for short keys, because it seems to remove just about every short key that is not…
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Commander Safeguard Lives!
In this age of COVID-19, I suddenly remembered the commercial animated series, Commander Safeguard. He taught children (and adults) about the importance of hand-washing, and made people understand that even though germs were invisible, they could still wreak a lot of havoc in our lives. It has been years since I have been a part…
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Mughal Architecture
I seemed to have been quite obsessed with cultural research as a teen/young adult. I recently discovered a leather-bound book that contained my 4500 word dissertation for school, based on the architecture of the Mughal Empire. This was such an exciting project for me, I remember my mom and I traveled to Lahore (we live…
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The Dungeon Lords?!
Some of the craziest stuff comes out when you start digging through old hard drives! I have always been especially sad that I never realized the importance of cataloging my art until I moved to the US. It felt a lot like my entire career in Pakistan was wiped out because I never built demoreels…