about
Ever since Erica Penk saw the movie Toy Story she wanted to explore animation and voice her own characters which set her down a path toward film and realtime technology. Although both artistic and technical, she focused more on the technical side of the industry initially.
Erica Penk started Ericana Productions to explore the power of storytelling and the arts for inner healing, especially with teenage girls. The name Ericana (rhymes with Americana) is a combination of the names Erica and Ana, which means gracious and merciful ruler. She does not claim to be Mary Poppins or perfect in every way, but whether she is working with teens, teaching Unreal Engine, visualizing a scene, editing, acting, singing, dancing, or recording voiceover, she strives to lead from a place of grace and mercy with the help of the Holy One.
Latest Posts
from my blog
CWVFF 2024
This week at the Christian Worldview Film Festival I’ll be giving two talks: Intro to Virtual Production and How to Pitch your next Big Story with Unreal Engine. I will share how the L-rd has helped me navigate the entertainment industry and will hopefully break the misconception that virtual production is only for big budget Mandalorian style filmmaking.
UE4 Sequencer: Spawnables v. Possessables
Picking up from the previous Sequencer lesson, I add a new asset to the ongoing animation sequence: the spawnable. By the end of this lesson you’ll have a deeper understanding of good Sequencer practices and some new tools to add to your arsenal.
Intro to UE4 Sequencer
I start off by giving you a sneak peak of the finished animation from this lesson. After setting up the project, I go over Sequencer terminology, user interface, and basic concepts while forcing you to think about your project pipeline. Then I take you through the animation example, beginning with a review on basic viewport navigation and ending with a fully rendered animation sequence.