Oppenlander: Head Painting and Estefan

I just finished up my last class at BYU! Woot! It was head painting, and I didn't suck at it. Head painting is exactly what it sounds like, you basically paint a portrait everyday. It was not a class teaching me how to paint children's faces for parties, though if everything falls through maybe I'll have that as a back-up for my back-up. My primary back-up is bearded lady in a circus side show. Though despite my patience and loving care my beard is taking it's sweet time to grow in. But I have faith. One day I'll have sweet, sweet whiskers to stroke as I ponder life's mysteries. One day...

I showed my dad these, and his only comment was "they look sad." Specifically the top two. After he pointed it out that's all I can see. But you know what? That's just how their faces were, and they were sitting in a chair for 3 hours, so I forgive them for not looking super happy. But maybe the error lies with me. I could have probably altered some things to make them look happier. But I'm relatively new to head painting and my focus was "make it look like a face." And I think I've been succeeding with that. I guess the next step is "make them look not sad."

ALSO.

My student film Estefan won Siggraph's Student film Award! And that's super exciting! Because Siggraph is a world famous animation and computer graphics conference and is not easy to get into. BYU's had some other films get into the Electronic Theater (I think 4?), but Estefan's the first one to win. And I like winning. That might make me a terrible person, but winning feels awesome. Especially when its something you and your friends worked super hard on, like Estefan.

Another also, while looking for an image of Estefan to put up here (I know, I should have a bunch just lying around--especially since I wrote the thing. But I don't. And I'm lazy. And the internet is a thing I have access to) I found this article on animationmagazine.net about the Electronic theater and they had a bit on Estefan, and me!

When BYU student Lauren Oppenlander pitched the idea of “the world’s greatest hairdresser” faced with a bald female client, her fellow animation students were sold. As director Jeff Call remembers, “With her movements, Lauren brought this flamboyant character to life.”

That's really cool. My movements have power. Power of life! Mwahahahaha!

My parents are also pretty stoked about Estefan. To put that in perspective they have this painting of Estefan done by my friend Sam Bragg framed and hanging on our mantle. Because they feel like he is their grandbaby, a member of the family.