Jen's Art Journal

Sketchy Observations...

2011-01-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

I decided to start up a new post-CalArts blog. From here on out, all updates will happen over there:

http://sketchyobservations.blogspot.com/

Mainly centered on keeping my sketchbook busy and working to improve how I draw. So zoo trips, my usual people-watching, and the occasional landscape study type posts. Basically anything that takes place after/in-between work-hours. :)

Onto the next frontier....

The Big Wrap Up!

2010-12-18T22:17:00.001-08:00

As of Friday, December 17, 2011 at 12pm(after a nice 3 hour session of lifedrawing) I’m a CalArts’ Character Animation graduate! I can hardly believe that the date actually came. This past semester rocketed by and suddenly I’m dazed, but done. Talking with friends we got onto the topic of “No more…”---like “No more attendance rules.” “No more required classes.” “No more grades!?!?”, “No more night classes. My nights are suddenly going to be fairly open--which means I need a hobby outside animating, stat! haha” and it was bizarre waking up this morning and realizing what’s no longer going to be apart of my usual routine. Which is fairly scary to think about, however that's overpowered by how thrilled I am about what’s awaiting me in 2011---I’m looking forward to a nice chunk of downtime, but in January I get to jump back to animating full-time and I’m beyond jazzed about the upcoming workload.

CalArts has definitely become a second home to me, and I couldn’t have asked for a better 3.5 years here. From crazy scavenger hunts that ran until 1 in the morning, the inside jokes("TIMING!", "Tiny hands!"), to the super stressful final weekend before that year’s film was due, to the absolutely amazing summer at Pixar, to all the extremely exciting recent events over the past couple of weeks. Memorable is a very small word to say the least. The people I’ve met are quite the spectrum of characters, and on the whole, they’re all outstanding guys/gals. Wouldn’t have learned so much without my classmates or faculty being there by my side through both the good and rough times. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything and feel very fortunate to be apart of the department. It’s crazy to think about how much I’ve come, not just within my time at the school, but really in the past 6 years (7 in March.)--- since deciding that being a veterinarian was no longer my dream job, but animation was(though drawing was always my favorite pastime since about preschool). Touring CalArts for the very first time 6 years ago during my high school’s spring break sealed the deal, and now here I am with a BFA and hopefully a very long career in the animation industry!

(This is from my first year camp-out for cubes(2007!)! Aww! Such a long time ago. Lookit our wittle freshmen faces! Back in my day, no tents. haha)

I’m really going to miss all my classmates (under and upperclassmen!), I know I’m going to feel the distance the second I start hearing about class sign-ups, and that first week of classes. Always fun times. I wish everyone the very best of luck on their films and this upcoming second semester! I’m looking forward to Open Show already. And yes, I’ll be visiting as often as possible. Also, I will be attending my actual graduation ceremony in May so I do get to walk with my fellow fourth years who are about to head out into the world and kick some butt. :)

As for what awaits me now that school has ended--I have some very exciting news. In January, I’ll be joining the animation department at DreamWorks in Glendale! Starting to pack up my cube/apartment and will be making the big move after spending Christmas with my family. Excited doesn’t really begin to sum up how I feel!

So a tremendous thank you to everyone who has helped me over the years---all my family, and friends(new and old). And a thank you to everyone who follows this blog and has supported me since I started this shortly after my acceptance to CalArts. I think I might be ending this particular blog since its focus is on CalArts, but I’ll switch over to a new one that I’ll update with all kinds of daily life tidbits---like my misadventures when I try to use my Garmin to find a nearby u-haul store, or how I almost ran into a sliding glass door tonight while checking on laundry! The sort of stuff not covered in a classroom. haha. Entertaining drawings will be involved though, otherwise I'd just have to join Twitter....okay, well, over and out!

(How the department looked yesterday, post-Holiday department party.Woo! Fourth floor!)

P.S. Here's my final assignment for Fourth Year Animation Class(not sure why the audio's all weird, might try uploading it again later. Playback seems to be acting up). Had almost too much fun working on this--especially on the tied-up guy.

P.S.S. Doodled this while waiting for files to transfer. My own lil "Monstrous Nightmare" getting into the spirit of things.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-25T22:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Very happy the break is here and I'm currently back home for a few days! I've been in crunch-time for the past 2 weeks animating away--and up until yesterday, my apartment definitely reflected the craziness that took place. But with CTN 2010 over with, and this past weeks' incredibly exciting events slowly wrapping up, I'm definitely resuming "normal" life. Being back home, eating a very delicious Thanksgiving meal, and spending time with family and friends has already restored some of my sanity. At this point, I'm going to finally post some work:

The above is a collection of work, both done at school and a couple assignments I did during my animation internship at Pixar.

And this test I wasn't able to finish in time to add to my reel that I showed at CTN, but since it's now in the can, I'm sharing it now.

Stay tuned, graduating in 21 days and I've got some major decisions to make in the next few days regarding the quickly approaching future.

Thumbnail sized update

2010-10-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

47 days left for this semester....crazy! Not too much to add from my previous post. I'm holding back on posting any animation assignments until the end of Nov. or so for a couple personal reasons, but they'll pop up eventually. Anyways, just to keep things slightly alive 'round here, have some thumbnails since that's about all I have time for nowadays when it comes to drawing (I still have lifedrawing of course, but outside of that....):
A doodle for my new assignment I'm working on. Sadly, the cheese head is no more and has been replaced with some stuff more along the lines of hockey. Tomorrow I'm going to try redirecting the shot back into this type of direction because it veered terribly off course over the past week that I've been working on it. My mood basically matches this drawing when I watch the playback.
This isn't recent, it's from a couple months ago, but while I was looking back in my sketchbook this popped out and I thought I'd share. Still amuses me. Mwhahaha.....
And then a full page of silly doodles of my lil trooper, Kiwi. Just for fun, though I certainly hope to animate the buzzard at some point.

An update of the traditional kind...

2010-10-09T20:50:00.001-07:00

Wow, been a little while since I updated. The semester is well under way and I'm juggling the usual work load. I've been too busy to even venture over to the zoo since classes started. It's hard to believe it's already October and the big deadline coming up fast is December---since after that, I'm done with school. So I have a lot to wrap up before then! For now, enjoy my first assignment from 4th year animation class(we finished this a couple weeks ago and we're onto bigger and better looking things):

It was actually a real treat to animate this lil flour sack in 2D. The last time I did that was last January...then it was onto my film, and aside from a couple days of animating in Flash, the rest of the time I was working in Maya. Obviously the summer was spent in the realm o' CG, so I was eager to try the traditional way again. It was pretty nice being able to just draw out a pose rather than having to pose out a sometimes stubborn rig. Just a fun test to get things rolling again...and now back to my current project(coming to a blog near you, by next weekend!):

First Week!

2010-09-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

(My final class sign-up! At the time of this photo, I was standing by the character animation table. Photo also taken about 15 minutes before this place was packed! Very happy I got to "beat the rush.")

My class schedule for my last semester, a couple things are changing on here(lifedrawing will be all day now, instead of just morning), but this is basically it:

Acting for Animators	Duncan, Robert	Th 4pm to 6pm
Advanced Life Drawing: The Figure	Lebow, David	T 9am to 12 Noon
2D Character Animation IV	Ty, Ted	T Th 7pm to 10pm
Film Workshop III/IV	Kurtz, Bob	W 7pm to 10pm
Storyboard IV	Lence, Robert	M 1pm to 4pm

Being Wednesday, I've now had most of these classes. The only one that's relatively "unknown" is Acting for Animators, which I've been trying to take for the past two years, but it's usually at the same time as another class, so I'm thrilled my schedule is open enough that I can take it. Overall, going to be a sweet final semester! Feeling pretty stoked about the classes/teachers and am ready to start breaking in my new cube:

Cube 65, top floor North Side! It was really tempting to stay with the same cube from last year, but in the end I decided to stick with my fellow fourth years. Not much else to report, I'll be trying to keep up zoo drawing as well, but that's taking a bit of a backseat this year, in order to give myself as much time as possible to really animate my heart out before December's graduation date. Anyways, first week is off and running!

Year 4 is GO

2010-09-12T22:19:00.000-07:00

(Just leaving the Bay Area headed for SoCal as the sun came up.)

I'm almost done unpacking everything and getting settled into Valencia again. Last week was my very last round of class and cube sign-ups(cube 65! North Side, fourth floor, baby!). Crazy as always! Anyways, tomorrow year four kicks off and in honor of that, I decided to finally change my blog banner since the other one has been up since the end of my first year--not quite sure if this one is less of an eyesore...A little shout-out of my film characters from CalArts---Pilot the cat, Otis the croc, and Bot the alien crab-like robot.

I'll update tomorrow night with class schedule details, and some pics from the past week--just need to add a few more home-like touches to le cube, like my animation disc. Okay, over and out!

The Mullet Rockin' Summer of Pixar!

2010-08-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

The summer is coming to a close and before school kicks off in a few weeks, I thought I’d make a little post about the opportunity I had of being one of the summer ‘10 animation interns at Pixar, which is sadly wrapping up on Friday---though the interns are definitely going out with a bang(more like a lip-synced high note? ha).

It was definitely an all-around amazing experience, and also some of the most challenging weeks I’ve faced and tried my best to fight through. Film crunch-time was a pretty good warm-up for this summer. My expectations were pretty high prior to the internship and now at the end, they’ve definitely been surpassed in the best ways imaginable. It’s impossible to describe exactly what it’s like working under the Pixar crew. Every time I’d walk down the pathway and open the front door, I was always pretty dazed that I was even there. A lot of “pinch me” moments that’s for sure. We’d have regular intern dailies where we’d show our latest pass at an assignment and get thoroughly critiqued, which was always one of my favorite activities even if I got a little uneasy about watching an assignment of mine play on the big screen(the problems are always magnetized times 100 when being viewed on anything other than a computer monitor. Can’t. Hide. Anything. But at the same time, saw things from a completely new angle. ). Everyone has a very precise and critical eye—usually 1-2 viewings and they’d zero in on what was/wasn’t working and what could be done to make the shot better---whether technically or if a problem was coming from an acting standpoint. It was always an inspiring reminder of how much I’ve got to work on—I will say that my eye is that much sharper than it was in June. I learned truckloads from being fully immersed in the animation department environment; the wide-range of studio lectures were also a great daily-dose of knowledge. It was pretty incredible being in a studio environment for the first time and meeting the animators who have animated so many of my favorite/inspiring scenes(this certainly happens at CalArts, but it still made this internship very special getting to constantly visit with people on such a personal basis). Andrew, Adam, my mentor Don, and the entire team of mentors were always a motivating, hilarious tour de force that helped make this experience so memorable. My daily schedule certainly included many hours behind my ol’ computer screen working on a really nice range of assignments. However, the Bosses of the animation interns definitely found ways to schedule in the fun and I definitely have some hilarious memories—of the 80’s hard rock variety. :) The epic dodgeball game that took place last week which basically turned the atrium into an all out battlefield, is something I won't forget. It’s really hard to believe that it’s ending on Friday, just feels like last week was Day One. I’m sure I’ll be a little studio-sick(the industry equivalent of home-sick? I don’t know. Just made it up.) for a good while afterwards. The other interns as well have been a great bunch(“What is it!?!?!”) and I'll miss hanging out with them(story, TD, etc. Not just the anim crew) I’m certainly excited to be returning to CalArts though and couldn’t be happier that I got to spend my summer in the trenches of Pixar animating away! Certainly can’t say I’m rusty like in the past. Haha. So it looks like I’m now an official fourth year and I have just one semester left---graduating in December! Woo hoo, coming up pretty fast! Anyways, farewell NorCal, and hello again, SoCal….

Shark Week Wrap Up

2010-08-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

The last round up of sharks:
Day 5 was the porbeagle shark. Such a cutie.

Day 6 was the ever popular Great White Shark. The bottom two are enjoying the Jaws' theme--whether humming it to himself or cranking up the tune on the headphones. Dun, dun! Dun. Dun....

Day 7 is the basking shark. Certainly gives the OMG cat on YouTube a run for its money.

And then, not sure, but I think tomorrow is a free-for-all, but I'm going to be swamped with work so I'm posting my contribution now:

SHARKTOPUS! I mean, the great white is great and all, but come-on.....

I personally prefer my sharktopi(?) a little on the wimpy side.

So that wraps up Shark Week....sad to see it go, but it was a blast to participate it. :)

No frills about it...

2010-08-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

It be Frill Shark day...

"Stella!!!"or "Bacon!!!"

Honestly, the only purpose for this creature of the deep to exists is to be the fuel of nightmares. guuhhh.

Zebra Shark

2010-08-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

Day 3 brings us to the Zebra Shark. They have such little mouths---bet they'd make excellent whistlers.

Apologies for the blurriness. My scanner is somewhere beyond the sea--aka. in an LA storage unit til Sept.... So handheld camera it is!

Shark Week Bites Back!

2010-08-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! Shark Week is back on Discovery and that means drawin' time! Kristen has started up the awe-some daily shark theme, so I'm setting down the mouse and dusting off the pencils to doodle up some sharklings:
The ever interesting Sand Tiger Shark was Day One. Teeth only a dentist could love.
And then Day Two is the Port Jackson Shark. Apparently you can buy one of these guys for yourself---if you have $800 laying around.

I'll be back later in the week with more.

Updates from inside the walls....

2010-06-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

Not sure where this leads??? There's a clue somewhere....(it's brightly colored)

Giant Luxo!

Right now the main lobby at Pixar is currently featuring a life size version of Ken's Dreamhouse for various Toy Story 3 events. I didn't get a shot of the back of this, but it's pretty awesome. Always get a little thrill just from walking in the front entrace. So cool!

Week 2 just wrapped up and I've already had an incredible time. Time is flying by, but it feels like I've been here a lot longer than 2 measly weeks. I'm learning so much, literally at Pixar 10-11 hours a day--actually going in tomorrow to finish up my assignment before Monday's big critique. But I'm lovin' it, my fellow interns and mentors make for excellent company in the trenches of animating. Going to be a fun next couple of months! Alright, over and out!

P.S. Saw Toy Story 3 last night and I really enjoyed it. Lots of laughs and some very sweet moments with the characters. Definitely sad to see it end, but I thought Pixar couldn't have done a better job of wrapping everything up. Congrats to everyone who worked on it!

Barker beauties???

2010-06-02T23:28:00.001-07:00

I spent some quality time at the mall foodcourt today and did some drawing. Finished a sketchbook and I got to witness some lovely locals--it's a win-win situation!

Getting back on the drawing wagon...

2010-05-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Some quick thumbnails involving a tipsy elephant. Trying to figure him out a little more since I'd love to animate him in Sept.

(Sorry about the blurry drawings..I'm scanner-less and my camera's focus was being really finicky. )

3rd Year Wrap-up--To Infinity and Beyond

2010-05-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow summer officially begins--just moved everything into storage today and in the morning, I off for the summer!

A quick snap-shot of how chaotic my cube looked while I boxed everything up. Always a sad time when everyone is packing up, the cubes very quickly become a ghost town and it's hard to think that just a month ago everyone had just finished their films! My 3rd year at CalArts has been, quite frankly, a pretty kick-ass awesome year. I've learned an incredible amount since September and can hardly believe how fast the time has rocketed by! It feels like I was unpacking just last week! Anyways, it has been a wild ride, but every minute has definitely been worth it. I hope everyone has a great/relaxing summer and see ya in September!

A little under 2 weeks remain until I take-off for my internship at:

I'm so excited to start! (though definitely getting a little nervous about it. The first day jitters are quickly setting in.)

2010 Producer's Show!

2010-05-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

2010 CalArts Character Animation Producers' Show opening from CalArts Character Animation on Vimeo.

The above is the opening for this year's Producer's Show! A very loving little shout-out to the staff who represent the Character Animation department. :)

This year's showcase of films.

This past Thursday night was the annual Producer's Show. It was an amazing night and I'm still floored every time I watch everyone's films. This year my parents were able to fly down and attend the show as well! They loved the showcase and it was really special having them there--my Mom has been my "fan" from the beginning, which involved me discovering the joy of drawing while using a red crayon on a very white carpet in the living room--so, thanks for all the support guys and again, very sorry about that, Mom.

My Mom and I outside the theater, my Step-Dad was taking the photo. Later, we took a picture together once we had settled into our seats.

Anyways, it was a very memorable night and I met a lot of great artists throughout the show. While I was really nervous about the crowd's reaction, my film seemed to screen very well in front of the crowd and I really appreciate all of the positive feedback I've received over the past few days. :)

To conclude, here's a link to all the student films made this year that have been posted online:
http://vimeo.com/channels/calartscharanimfilms2010
Definitely make sure to check it out if you haven't already. It has been a really phenomenal film-year!

Film Talk

2010-05-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Going to do a couple blog posts instead of trying to cram everything into one. So first up, just a quick write-up of my experience making my third year film, "Bothered Bot."

I started out the school year with several ideas, I even had developed a film idea over the summer, but something always came up that made me shelve one idea and start anew---usually being, "This is way too epic. No." By November I had narrowed it down to two film ideas.
One simple 2D film idea involving this little elephant:

And then an entirely different 3D film idea based on this odd-ball robot/alien guy that I had doodled one day in an afternoon class:

I was boarding/pitching both for a couple weeks. I wasn't too concerned about the medium, I love animating whether it's Maya or pencil/paper, and I was jazzed for both film ideas. It really wasn't until I got some very sound advice from my 3rd year animation teacher, Scott Wright, that I made the official jump to only focus on the 3D Bot film. Another factor involved attending CTN-X and realizing that if I wanted a full-time job animating somewhere in the industry, I really needed more 3D work. At that time my reel consisted of traditional work. So what better way to bulk up my reel then making a 3D film where I'd only be animating in the computer.

Winter break was the final test for this film. If I couldn't get all the Maya-prep work, like modeling/texturing/rigging done before Dec. 31st, then I'd go back to the elephant idea. So on the day after Christmas, I battled my way through modeling the character, ship, and environment. Then followed that immediately up with a couple days of intense rigging madness. By the time I came back to school at the beginning of January I was already doing a couple animation tests to make sure the robot rig would operate properly once I started actual film animation. The above images show a little progression in his design, the Bot on the left is the "old" look before I showed him to a couple friends for feedback. Pretty cold looking and not quite there yet. The Bot on the right is the final design, not a huge re-do, but just tweaking a few aspects of him and he suddenly became a lot more likeable.

From the couple of quick animation tests, I fixed several issues with Bot rig version 1.0---a lot of bugs with those legs of his, but within another week I had version 2.0 up and literally running. Onto animating the film! Woo!

Out of 3 films I've made at CalArts, this was definitely my favorite one to animate. Despite the occasional rough-patch, like the PC labs being down an entire day for maintence(happened a couple times), or just having a really bad animation day(also happened a handful of times), I had an incredible time working on it(which was the majority of the time). That Bot was a blast to animate and a lot of scenes just fell into place so easily. I also had a close group of classmates/teachers right by my side to give me constant, very honest feedback(even on a frame-by-frame basis, which was amazingly awesome!) That group helped me really push my animation.

A quick screenshot of the graph editor from a scene in my film. This was taken before I started tidying up some of the animation---actually a small chunk was removed to keep the scene from "dying" in the middle. This scene had a build-up of tension/action and mid-way through it kind of stopped, but not anymore. Also, this doesn't include the facial animation(aka. the eye).

Anyways, that pretty much covers it. Like I said before, I really enjoyed working on it and after awhile, I almost didn't like the idea of "finishing" it--or at least no longer animating. Spending several hours a day just moving the lil Bot around was quite fun. No all-nighters, though things got a little nutty towards the end and I was pulling some really nasty hours trying to composite everything together in After Effects:

That's an example of what a scene looked like when I initially brought it into After Effects. Elements like the bg, shadows, reflections on the environment, additional camera moves, sky, special effects like snow, etc were all added in once I had the robot/battery animation working. This one scene(when the icicles are falling around the robot while he's desperately trying to pick-up the battery) took about 5 hours to put together. Most of the time, scenes took maybe 15-30 minutes to put together, just a handful almost did me in.

Okay, the next post will be a Producer's Show/Job fair wrap-up....

Open Show 2010/Bothered Bot/Producer's Show!

2010-05-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

After many months of constant work and putting in some crazy hours, my third year film, "Bothered Bot" screened last night at CalArts' annual Open Show!This was taken roughly 2 hours before the start of the show. Huge screen, and by 2 pm, just about every seat was filled(by 4 pm people were sitting on the floor in the back/on the sides). This year was a little shorter than in the past, the first half ran from 2-7 and then there was a break before we started watching again from 10-12am. My film seemed to go well, got a couple chuckles when I hoped I would--sadly somehow when projecting the film, the colors were a little too saturated and my poor robot went from red to a sickly magenta/neon pink combo, so I spent most of my time agonizing over that. But it was still surreal seeing it on the big screen. Anyways, the Open Show this year was amazing, the films from the department were extremely strong! I'm very proud of all my classmates. So many favorite films, once I track some of them down I'm going to post them on here. So congrats everyone, we certainly put on one heck of a show! :)

I didn't get to bed until 1:30 a.m. so I slept in this morning, and eventually made my way to CalArts around 10:30ish.... and was greeted with a huge surprise. I made it into the Producer's Show! This year's posting was really fast(usually have to wait until Tuesday!), so it's still sinking in. I didn't have my camera with me so I'll try being cheesy and take a picture of the list a little later. Seeing that "Bothered Bot" is my last film at CalArts(graduating in Dec, so I need to focus on job-hunting), this latest news is something that's very special to me. Anyways, since it has finally made its Open Show debut...I've put it online, enjoy:

Bothered Bot from Jennifer Harlow on Vimeo.

Bothered Bot! It's in the can!

2010-04-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

After an absolutely insane weekend--yesterday at about 3:15pm(45 min. before the deadline) I turned in my film! And now that I suddenly have actual free-time, this blog is definitely in need of an update! It was pretty intense over the past few days, no all-nighters, but I was feeling pretty fatigued yesterday after 4 days of 3-4 hours of sleep a night. However, it was absolutely worth it and now my third year film is done! Since yesterday, I've been nit-picking it to death, and have gone through a roller coaster of emotions, but after a full-night's sleep and some serious time away from the computer screen, I watched it a couple of times and can actually say that overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I achieved the one thing I set out to do---give myself as much time as possible to just animate. I definitely feel like I was able to give many scenes a lot of attention which I really haven't been able to do before. It has always been painful to be so short on time that I can't revisit a scene and fix the animation. And because I've been able to animate/re-animate a number of scenes, I actually had a ton of fun on this film. Never really felt like "work" until the absolute end...when I was suddenly on a schedule of working from 8 in the morning until 3 or even 4 am the next day to get everything done in time(no animating obviously. Just post-production and duking it out in the battlefield that was After Effects). Oddly enough, this morning, after sleeping a glorious 9 hours, the last few days really only feel like one, big, looooong, day--all the chaotic events, are just a blur to me. I'm still trying to get my days straight. haha. Anyways, I'll be posting my film online sometime over the weekend(probably Sunday because Saturday is going to be jam-packed with Open Show style fun) and until then, here's quick cellphone snapped, photo of my computer screen as I wrapped up my film yesterday afternoon:

The top blue line is the video while all that bottom craziness indicates where all the sound is. Not on screen is the soundtrack which was just one line below all that stuff.

At this time though, I really wanted to acknowledge everyone that was right there by my side helping me throughout this year. I can't thank everyone enough for all their input and invaluable contributions. This film wouldn't have come together without them. Having my friends, teachers, and even my family swoop in and save the day was amazing. Another good thing were the people who'd give me a good kick in the butt to make sure every scene lived up to its own potential. Always felt very motivated/inspired after a critique. I'm not too sure how many of these guys read this blog, but regardless, here's the list of everyone who made sure this film could, "be all it can be":

Thank you everyone!

Alright, I'm off to go catch-up on life for a little bit before I start focusing on a portfolio/demo reel for the upcoming Job Fair.

Coming into the home-stretch!

2010-04-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have flown by and everyone is suddenly facing the terrifying prospect that--10 whole days remain until films are due! Time to break out the IV's of caffeine, kiss sleep goodbye, and hunker down for this last stretch! Probably have "Final Countdown" on a constant loop as well. :P

Last weekend was my final pass on animation. The one aspect I'm very happy about is how much I've been able to refine the animation. It has been really nice being able to finish large segments of the film, receive tons of great feedback from classmates/teachers, and then go back and actually have the time to address the changes. However, with the deadline coming up fast I had to put my foot down at some point and "lock" all animation/camera work---still need to tweak a few things, but the latest version of my film is leagues stronger then 4 weeks ago. Presently, I'm getting ready for post-production and getting all of my scenes ready for the magical realm of After Effects. I should be finished with compositing by Thursday/Friday and next weekend is all about the sound effects/soundtrack---and that Monday, I turn-in the finished product by 4pm(omg. Sooooo close!)!Knock on wood though. While some areas of this film have gone rather smoothly, I've certainly hit some obstacles and encountered some just plain weird events that have probably taken a few years off my life---like file corruption, computers crashing, losing several hours of work(happened last Saturday!), etc. Being this close to the finish line, I'm very paranoid, but at the same time, numb to the whole computer crashing on me biz. But overall, this year's Crunch-time is an improvement over the craziness of last year. Not having an epic film has certainly helped reduce the chaos. Any who, here's a photo from my day:

So how does this relate to a 2d film? Well, it kind of doesn't. Some major changes occurred over Winter Break--and the number one change is, this year it's a 3D film for me. Not a hybrid like last year. 98% of it is all Maya--some of the special effects were done in Flash(the final 2%). Most of my classmates know about the change, but I haven't posted too much, so I'll just announce it now and get into more details about what brought about this change after April 26th. Anyways, the above image is how I spent my morning--- I took over 4 computers(yep. PC lab) and for the good part of today, rendered out the majority of my film. Okay, back to work, still have a couple hours left before I go to bed.

Past few weeks....

2010-03-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

It's Spring Break and this year it's especially nice because I've been home for a couple days--which never happened before because I was drowning in film-work(this year isn't too different, just that things have been falling into place so I'm right on schedule). Certainly wish I was staying longer, but this was a very welcome break. Tomorrow I start the usual 2-day drive back to Valencia. Film is moving along, certainly in a much better spot than I was last year. Animation is pretty much done and, oddly enough, I'm pretty happy with it(there are certain scenes I can still watch and not want to toss out!)--last week I actually completed my first "pass" on the entire film, and I'm now going back and making changes based on all the fantastic feedback I've received--this involves a little bit of new animation, but I think at the end of next week that should be "in the can!" Very excited to see it coming together, it's a big relief to see people respond the way I hoped they would to what's happening with the robot character. Sorry no sneak peeks quite yet---with 31 days left there's lots to do!

Updates with CalArts' in general: the past few weeks have been jam packed with amazing guest lectures. This whole semester has contained quite a number of really inspiring talks(Glen Keane, Brad Bird!). It's incredibly easy to fall into a "film marathon" after artists like James Baxter, Mark Henn, or Andrew Gordon(Pixar Spline Doctor!) visit. Hearing them talk about their approach to animating has been very helpful and keeps me from falling into some bad animation habits from last year. We've also had a visit from Andres Deja which he discussed how he developed characters like Jafar, Scar, Lilo, and most recently, Madame Odie from Princess and the Frog. There have been a couple more lectures as well and hopefully after films, I'll find some time to catch-up on posting the notes. Last Thursday night, the department was very lucky---a visit from Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who just finished directing the new Dreamworks' film, "How to Train your Dragon!" They talked about their careers, starting with their schooling to how they handled directing Lilo and Stitch. Very interesting talk and both of them approached their new film Dragons with what they learned from their previous films. I'm very excited to see the film on Friday.
Then, to wrap up last week, Ewan McGregor visited CalArts and gave a wonderful talk. While I'm still pretty new to his work(I'm currently making an effort to watch the various films he's been involved with---most recently: Shallow Grave. It was creepy, but very good), it was amazing hearing him talk about his way of thinking when it comes to acting/developing a new character. One of the things I picked up on is how passionate he is about acting, how much he enjoys injecting aspects of his own life into a character to help make them more believable. However, he's always very conscious about how his performance affects the other actors, how this one scene will fit into the bigger picture, how the camera affects his movements, etc. I definitely can appreciate what he discussed and overall, he was a completely cool, very entertaining, and thoughtful person. Definitely hope he comes back soon.
(I did not take this picture. I found this via the Film/Video website, so all credit is to them. Just thought I'd share it here.)
Anyways, to wrap things up here are some videos relating to the recent guest lecture with Chris and Dean:

The first one is the scene Chris Sanders storyboarded--Mufasa's ghost coming back to Simba:

This is a scene that Dean DeBlois storyboarded that really helped set the bar for the rest of Mulan:

And then a clip from Lilo and Stitch that involves both Andreas Deja(who animated the little girl, Lilo),Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. It's a deleted scene, but it's such a beautiful little moment with the characters, that I had to post it, "Bedtime Story":

And of course, just incase someone hasn't seen this. The trailer for How to Train your Dragon. Friday can't come soon enough!

Ringing in the March Madness

2010-03-04T22:44:00.000-08:00

Crunching away on le film. Should be wrapping up animation in the next few weeks and then onto the next challenge: compositing/post-production. But I'll battle my way through that when the time comes. So to keep things active, here are some studies:
Last Tuesday or Wednesday morning I was driving to school and at the very last redlight before reaching campus, this glorious sight entered the cross-walk. After seeing a lot of characters around Valencia...this lady takes the cake. Those are indeed small dogs in her "stroller"--I counted about 7-8 heads bouncing around inside. All these heads/bodies were shooting all over the tiny space. The image that immediately popped into my head was one of those preschool corn poppers that kids push around and the balls bounce around.
Yes, that toy. Not a single pooch was still, they were literally bouncing off the walls. As I'm drawing her all I can think about is her routine---she's obviously out for walk, probably every morning(though I've never seen her before), but what about the dogs? Does she rotate them for every day of the week? Or does the one lucky pooch get the leash while the rest are vacuum-packed into the stroller? Anyways, had to share, I smile every time I see this just because of how bizarre this was. Valencia folk are on the complete opposite end of the "character scale" when compared to Medford folk--so basically, this woman made my year. haha
And then yesterday I made a point of stepping away from my film and focusing on something completely different. Zoo drawing! I was pretty stunned that the African Wild Dogs were out and about--I've never seen them before so I was spent a good deal of time watching those guys. Also the Chacoan look like they're straight out of a Miyazaki film, they have such interesting shapes/proportions. Going out yesterday definitely made me realize how rusty I've gotten, so I need to try and get back into the routine of zoo drawing again---3+ weeks of just film-work really takes its toil on ya. But I really wasn't too focused on drawing, just needed a breather from film-life. Though the film itself is going really well, I'm not burnt-out and I'm crazy inspired every morning when I sit down and start working on an old or new scene. But I know it's very good to step away every once in a while so I made a point of doing that yesterday. And now, back to the grind....

Brad Bird Guest Lecture

2010-02-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, CalArts was extremely lucky/fortunate enough to have Brad Bird visit!My notes are unfortunately pretty short, but that doesn't mean the lecture was anything but awesome! The majority of his lecture focused on various openings from his films and listening to him describe what worked, what didn't--basically how the final opening in films like Iron Giant and Ratatouille came to be. Anyways, onto what I did write down:

A quick history, Brad was apart of the first character animation class at CalArts, he later worked at Disney for a little bit before moving onto directing the first episode for, "Family Dog." He later became involved with other TV shows like The Simpsons and later directed Iron Giant before heading over to Pixar to direct The Incredibles and Ratatouille. And on a very fun note, he's the voice of Edna "E" from The Incredibles, darling!

"Breaking the rules of film making are really only broken by those who have a full understanding of them." One of the advantages of CalArts is being able to make films, gain knowledge of these rules and hopefully break them in a way that's successful. An example he shared was about Family Dog. In TV, it was the norm to have pretty standard cuts, flat eye-line, etc. An example being Flinstones---standard establishing shot of the location, and when a character talks you cut to them, then cut back to the listener's response. Just cutting back and forth, not pushing the perspective of the shot, or even leaving the camera on the listener as the other character talks. This was mostly due to budget and time restraints of course. TV shows definitely didn't have the budget feature films did. When Family Dog got under way, Brad and his team essentially "broke these commonly used rules," wanting to push the idea that animation can be like live-action. That shots can be long and uninterrupted and have crazy camera angles, but still within the limited budget/time of TV. He also continued to use elements like skewed angles, shadows, etc. during the time he worked on The Simpsons.

Brad then went onto talking about his experiences directing feature films and the kinds of things he learned. When developing an idea and something he learned from TV is the importance to explore quickly, commit early(don't change your mind, be open, but don't count on changing your mind), be specific(what do we see, and in CG what do we need to build to avoid over-building a set).
Going into detail on the "What do we see? And how much do we need to build for a CG world?" notion. This applied when Brad started on The Incredibles, he figured out the level of detail in a shot by asking,"how good does it have to be?" Does this shot fly-by the camera, or is there a long, slow pan where the audience will see every last pixel? This way the crew avoids putting in more than what will be on the screen. By identifying "How good does this have to be?" you focus the energy and maximize your time and resources. The scene Brad shared was actually the segment I posted earlier---Dash's race against the villains. He showed the animatic of this part and the boards were gorgeous. All the thinking about detail and how the camera would be handled had all been thought out in the boards so the CG set-builders could go in and only build what the camera/audience would see. I really wish the animatic of that section would appear on a DVD or something, it was amazing to see because as far as timing(some of the shots changed ever-so slightly in the final), camera moves, series of events--it was all right there.

Next was Openings. How it's crucial to create the strongest opening possible for a film. The comparison Brad gave was how film is a strange medium, like cement. Cement is wet for about 20 minutes and in that time, it's fairly flexible and can be sculpted in various ways. After 20 minutes it's solid and can't be manipulated any further or it all falls to pieces. Now in the context of film, audiences are willing to give about 20 minutes of their focus towards whatever the film's world has to offer. Those first 20 minutes, the audience goes for anything, however once that time has passed--if you add more(overwhelm) or "break" a pre-established idea the audience gets mad/frustrated and hates the movie.

The opening to Ratatouille was shown and everything you need to know about this film and the "rules of this particular world" were established. At this point I stopped taking notes, Brad was talking over the film and it was easier to watch/listen then watch/listen and try to write it all down. Basically, we establish that Remy loves cooking/good-food, his relationship with his family, how different he is from the other rats, and humans are extremely dangerous and are out to kill rats(Granny with the gun).

After discussing the openings to both Iron Giant and Ratatouille(showing the various versions etc.), Brad quickly discussed a unique challenge on a certain part of Ratatouille---how, in the medium of animation, do you create spontaneity? Everything is meticulously planned/controlled when it comes to creating animation...so how do you inject those fun, in the heat of the moment, type of scenes? This type of creativity was needed in a particular scene from Ratatouille---when Linguini is being controlled by Remy for the first time in the kitchen. Creating the "Special Order" and the duo starts to experiment. Linguini is weaving around the room, freaking out his co-workers, and grabbing various ingredients that Remy is picking out. The best way to handle this is to throw the system, itself, off-balance.

The conventional way to start a scene is script, then go into storyboards, record dialog, edit the dialog, plan the layouts, animate everything, and then you have the final. With trying to create spontaneity---the scene started with storyboards(mainly figuring out the action of the character(s)), write up the script improvised as a reaction to the boards, record the dialog, edit the dialog, go into rough animation, then layout(camera), edit it together, go back in and now refine the animation based on the camera, and then arriving with final scene. It was very cool seeing this particular scene come together with this new approach, and ultimately the scene really benefited from it. Very interesting and something I might try with my current short film(as far as camera work...I don't have any dialog or script.)

And to wrap everything up a Q&A(just the parts I could catch)---I also just put some key quotes that stuck out to me the most that came up during the session.

Q: Artists who arn't quite sure what they're good at yet, or interested in so many aspects but haven't figure out their niche quite yet in the industry:
A: Don't stress it. Proceed with whatever interests you, "just eat it all up and see what you want seconds on and that'll guide you with where you want to go". Along the way, it's important to catalog all kinds of experiences/influences--not just from film, but from real-life(someone doing something interesting in the grocery store. etc).

"Animators need to bring stuff from their own lives(looking at old work, new work, theater, paintings, sculpture, etc.)---anything that fires you up should be good fodder for animation." You're keeping it fresh by bringing in these "outside" influences.

Q: How much of the script do you write yourself?
A: All of it. A couple lines might be added based on feedback.But for the most part it was on my own(Ratatouille being a bit of an exception since it was developed before Brad came on board).

Q: Was Edna ever a super-hero and if so what was her super power?
A: And yes, he answered in E's voice, "Her super-power is self-evident, darling. To look fabulous...all da time."

"One of the problems that animators have is that they get so focused on making the movement beautiful that they don't focus on making it specific. " Everyone has an individual way of responding to an emotion/movement....that's the kind of thinking an character animator needs to keep with them. "How do they move and how is it specific?"

"Try to organize the information in a scene/story, so you're revealing it at the best possible point to reveal it." He used the example of poker, or even the idea of a stripper. You don't what to give away everything/show your whole hand right at the beginning. You want to give the audience opportunities to ask questions(and what DO I want them to ask), keep them interested, etc. before giving it all away. You don't want to just dazzle people just in the opening and explain everything right away. The audience gets the thrill, but then they're done.

Anyways, that just about wraps it up. To end I'll share some "Family Dog," enjoy:

The pilot for Family Dog(take note of the unique camera shots on top of so many things that make this so brilliantly entertaining). Part 1:

Part 2(look for the one scene where the camera appears to be rotating 360 degrees in the living room. Going from the dog, to the clock, to the door. Brad shared this scene with us--that's all one looonnnggg sheet of paper!):

On an different note: I've gotten a couple requests about posting videos or something from a previous lecture. Unfortunately, as great as it'd be to be able to re-watch the various lectures I've attended, I just carry a notebook with me and write as fast as I can. :) Sorry.

Coming up for some air...

2010-02-11T23:09:00.000-08:00

In the heat of animating. I have about 4-5 seconds left on a really juicy, acting shot in my film(estimated length of the scene is about 25 seconds!)--a shot that I've been dying to animate since the very beginning of the film, after this one I've got one more lengthy acting bit(a very fun scene of a dazzed/confused character fumbling around, trying to get his bearings again. About 20 seconds as well.) and then it's a lot of fast-paced action movements(scurrying, falling, and fast reactions). The scenes that have been animated arn't quite done yet, they're in various stages of "completion"---all of them need another pass to fix some things that have been pointed out to me over the past week. Shouldn't be more than a couple days of work. It's very cool seeing the character finally coming to "life"---it makes watching the scenes that are still only storyboards(aka. very still/dead), really really hard to watch. Just want to see it all moving!

Over the past week I re-visited the story of my film and have managed to tack on an additional 40 seconds of film-time. At least the setup for the entire film reads a lot clearer and the big buildup towards the climax is a lot stronger than the previous story-version. Generally everyone I showed the animatic to, who had never seen my story before, were completely confused within the first 15 seconds of the film...so definitely had to do some re-boarding, but it all seems to come across now. Yay! Yesterday I got the final "green-light" to leave the story alone and just animate. Which I'm more than happy to do. Anyways, just posting to comment that I'm alive and for the most part, kickin'--I'm just making my way through the usual film-crunch time(73 days....).

A nice bit of inspiration to kick off what should be an all around "incredible" weekend--film-wise and otherwise. ;) Less vagueness and hopefully more details to come by Monday:

More Zoo Studies

2010-02-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

Weather finally cleared up last week and it meant only one thing, zoo trip!

Itchy bears, really cool orangutan(need to draw them more, they're very interesting characters.), and some of the birds.

The tiger was standing up and gnawing on the bamboo around his enclosure while the lions enjoyed the sun---the lioness was in such an elegant pose, paws crossed, just staring down any people who walked by. The male lion however was all sprawled out in a not-so-elegant pose--definitely a fun contrast between the two.

Whittle and Spit

2010-01-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

Inbetween film work I've been going back and working on some assignments from last semester. This is one of them, I've tied it down a bit and worked on some of the issues it was having a couple weeks ago.

Glen Keane Guest Lecture

2010-01-22T23:14:00.001-08:00

Just got out of the lecture and my head is spinning from the past few hours. So because I'm a little too tired to actually go animate(which I'm dying to do after watching Glen animate), here are my notes/summary of the night:

A quick introduction for those who might be new to the name, Glen Keane. He attended CalArts before there was even a Character Animation department--at that time it was Film Graphics under the Experimental Animation department---and has spent the past 35+ years animating at Disney. He has been the supervising animator on characters like Ratigan(Great Mouse Detective), Ariel(from the Little Mermaid), Aladdin himself, The Beast(from Beauty and the Beast), Tarzan himself, John Silver(the cyborg from Treasure Planet), etc. There are so many scenes that he's worked on that have had a very big impact on me. Some of the first pencil tests that I found online were his and that really opened my eyes to the notion of pursuing animation as a career(along with a couple other incredibly talented artists).

Tonight, he came and drew/animated for us. My notes are primarily when he'd emphasize a point or just say something I wanted to remember while I animate on my own film. So here are these points and I'll do my best to put them in context:
"Push boundaries or you're not taking advantage of being an animator." Essentially, don't settle for what has been done before, or "safe." These are drawings, you can animate your wildest fantasies----you're not bound by any rules of real-life reality(or even live-action film), and as an artist you're able to "become" a savage beast, or a princess with 70 feet of hair! These characters can inhabit any habitat whether inside a wall, or in some deep region of the Twilight Zone. So shoot for the moon!
"The more action is related to the emotion, the more interesting it becomes." Always think of a way to put a more interesting perspective on an emotion. Glen had us shout out various emotions, then actions, and he randomly combined a few to create far more interesting descriptions. One of the example he drew out was, "fear"--well it's very easy to just go with a run of the mill pose--sweat, teeth chattering, eyes bugged out, shoulders hunched up to the ears. Usually something everyone has seen before. However, when "Eating" is added, in this case, "Fear of Eating"---you get a very character specific scenario...Glen drew a guy cringing at the very idea of actually eating a scorpion that was on the end of his fork. Much more fun to watch right? So find ways to link an action with an emotion and the animation will benefit greatly. Another one that Glen drew out(just one drawing that summed up the whole idea) was, anguished dancing which was hilarious---just think of Seinfeld and Elaine's spaz-like dancing and you come close to what was drawn out.

A very key point that came up, and is something that definitely applies towards this year's film is: Setup a goal and hold it back from the audience for as long as possible. Let it be known what the character(s) is after and just milk every second before they achieve their desire. The example Glen shared was a scene from Avatar---when Jake is trying to tame/fly those flying creatures. First Jake has to find the beast, keep it from killing him, connect his hair to control it, and then actually fly. That whole scene is prolonging the ultimate goal of that final flight scene between Jake and the creature--the goal is clearly established, but every task is difficult, nothing is easy and it makes the audience feel very satisfied once Jake succesfully achieves his first flight. Another example that I found that I think fits this idea is from ol' Wile Coyote(aka. Road-Runnerus Digestus):

Just a short segment from the full piece, but the artists are just playing with that gag. It's a little different then the scene in Avatar. Everyone knows the roadrunner will never be caught, however everyone knows that the coyote's attempts at catching that roadrunner always fail. The coyote doesn't just plummet straight to the ground like he does in some other gags, but instead has a very round about way of falling--and that whole time you know what's coming, all the setup is there---the rocks, the ground that's coming up(though off-screen until the very end, you know it has to appear), etc. Very fun to watch and think about.

At this point Glen sat down at the animation desk with a huge ream of animation paper and started animating. He was still following the point I mentioned above about prolonging the goal. In this case, it was a baby going from a seated position to learning how to stand. He worked out what poses would really hit home for the audience---to really feel the baby's struggle. Absolutely amazing to watch.

Anyways, that pretty much covers the night. I'm still soaking in everything he talked about. It was a fantastic way to start the weekend---myself and I'm sure the rest of the department will be spending tomorrow hunkered down and animating like crazy! Thank you again to Glen for the lecture and to everyone who helped make tonight so memorable. :)

First Week Report!

2010-01-20T22:09:00.000-08:00

Well the second semester is under way, so far it has been a bit bumpy and exceedingly wet(several storms have been hitting the SoCal area since Sunday and will continue until the weekend.) This is my schedule, which I couldn't be happier with.

Advanced Animation III	Wright, Scott	T Th 7pm to 10pm
Film Workshop	Kelly, Morgan	M 7pm to 10pm
Directing for Animators	Petkov, Rumen	F 9:30am to 12 Noon

This year the department is trying something new with the third and fourth year classes, we're getting credit for our films(which was never done before). That's what the "Film Workshop" class will be focused on. The whole point is to have more time for our films. Also, we're getting a lot of one-on-one time with the faculty/visiting industry people. I'm getting the feeling that this semester is going to serve quite the jolt to my animation. Both Scott(who I had last semester and already did a really great job of kicking the classes' animation butt) and Morgan are animators and the department is working on scheduling other artists from the industry to sit down and critique our work. Character designers, story artist, animators, etc. Seems to be a really great plan, hopefully will mean an awesome semester for everyone.

I've been working out a schedule, getting a list together of the scenes in my film, etc. and during an average week(weekly zoo trip included)--I'll be spending about 40-45 hours per week just on my film. I'll be starting official film animation this weekend...34 scenes to do. 96 days remain until it's all due(April 26th by 4pm to be exact)--I'm aiming to have a first pass on all my animation done by mid-March so I can spend the rest of the time going back and finessing certain scenes. Anyways, it's going to be an intense semester, but I'm ready to dive back into the madness.

Also, to kick off the semester in style and really get everyone into "animation mode" Glen Keane is scheduled for a visit this Friday night! Here are some of my favorite pencil tests that I love to watch:
An animation test of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast:

Glen Keane - rough penciltest - BEAST from Alex Petreski on Vimeo.

And a surprising find---a pencil test from Treasure Planet that was also animated by Glen Keane:

Real quickly--going to share this scene from Rescuers Down Under, which was(at least some parts, I don't think he did the whole thing) story boarded by Glen and then the eagle was Glen's character on this film:

Calm before the storm....

2010-01-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

With a new semester about to start, a zoo trip was in order to get back in the groove of things....

Winter Break Summary

2010-01-04T22:42:00.000-08:00

Winter Break is wrapping up and I should probably make a post(though it's a long one. Lots of words ahead. Ye be warned.). I start the 600+ mile drive back to Valencia on Thursday and should be right back to working in my cube by the weekend. Being back home has been amazingly relaxing, and I can't believe how ridiculously fast the time has gone by. However, while I'm back home, I haven't taken too much of a hiatus from le film and had a little "lockdown" this past week to make sure I got some work done. I literally had nothing before Christmas, and then starting on the 26th I hunkered down. As of last night at about midnight, I can officially say I'm ready to animate! Which I'm very jazzed about. I still have several other film-related tidbits to attend to, but those can wait til March.

That's some of the work I've done towards the film. Trying to get some color ideas worked out(super simple, nothing "flashy"--and I have no idea what this looks like on other monitors. My Macbook can sometimes be wacky with color.) But like I said, I'll give these types of things more attention in March. Also, as you can tell, that stringy green-bean isn't an elephant. I had a change of film ideas towards the end of November....and I've gone with a completely different character/environment. I actually was developing/boarding this idea and the elephant idea at the same time--and ultimately I chose(with the help of some great critiquers) this lil story. It' s even simpler then the elephant idea and the animatic is coming in at a delightful 2 minutes--with plenty of room for animation. And I can't wait to start moving this lil guy around. Enough film-talk--with only 104 days remaining that's all I'll be talking about in the coming months....

So, just a quick re-cap on last semester. Fall '09 was a very full semester--while I didn't have that many classes and technically I didn't have as much homework as first year or even second year, this semester definitely kept me working some long hours. It has really been more about pushing myself and trying to conquer a lot of artistic hurdles. I've always struggled with drawing in general, and then when it came to animating just about everything was up for a re-do. This year I made sure to leave lots of time for my animation assignments and kept trying to always push-it more--sometimes spending an entire weekend just animating and breaking it apart trying to improve it. Thanks to my animation teacher this year, I definitely feel like I've improved since Sept. which makes me even more eager to get started on my film and apply everything I've learned to this year's moving-picture.
This past semester has also just been interesting from a film standpoint. I've boarded a lot of possible ideas. During the summer I had one floating around, but dropped that one once I realized it was getting out of hand. In late September I had that epic film idea I posted about earlier---obviously after realizing what I was getting into, I had to shelve it and start from scratch in early November. Which eventually led to developing this new idea with the "stickly green-bean" character. In the previous two years, I had a pretty final film idea by the end of the summer. So I certainly had my moments of panic whenever I thought about how "behind" I was compared to the previous years. One thing I do have to comment on is how everyone around me has really had a hand with helping me stick with the goal of "SIMPLE film, with every focus being on the character animation".....both faculty and friends have pitched in and it's really this group that has made this year really awesome/enjoyable--definitely helped keep my head when I would have to start from scratch. So a big thank you to those guys. :)
Otherwise, not much else to say. The semester had its fair share of ups and downs, but overall it was a darn-good time and I'm certainly looking forward to returning for round 2. Just am still dazed at how fast the time is whizzing by, it's very slowly sinking in that I'm graduating. And at the rate this year has gone, it'll be much sooner that I thought...

Well that's pretty much it. A good part of Winter Break has been spent up in my room getting all this film work sorted out. But I did get out, spend lots of time with friends and family, and even do a little drawing at the mall. I also saw Avatar with some friends---as a quick review, I went in with not exactly the highest of expectations and came out of the theater very entranced by the film. While the story has certainly been told before(*cough* Pocahontas. Fern Gully. Atlantis...I like how I went right for animated films. ha *cough*), the visuals set a new bar. The motion capture was really seamless and showed, how in the right hands, it really can avoid uncanny valley(Peter Jackson/WETA team are also fantastic at this. Gollum/King Kong are reigning kings of good mo-cap). Also, the way James Cameron used the camera in 3D was very eye-opening. So fairly cheesy dialog, pretty "safe" storyline, and kind-of stereotypical characters aside....it's a really enjoyable film. I certainly would be up for seeing it again and encourage anyone to go see it.

Can't make a blog post about being home without including Annie. She and Kiwi were my two sidekicks while I was in film lock-down last week. The picture above is literally what she looks like from where I work. This is also the most flattering angle--she looks about 5-10 pounds lighter in this photo. Kiwi and Annie will also be contributing their voices to my film. I got a nice videocamera/recorder for Christmas and have taped a few trademark noises these two are known for making, they'll probably be mixed quite a bit in the final sound track...but they're there.

This photo just makes me laugh. It was taken on the very first day I was back. I had gone outside to grab the last bags from my car and as I rounded the corner to go upstairs, this greeted me. A very classic Annie sighting.
Well, this post is long enough. I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday/Merry Christmas and are off to a good New Year. Until the new semester starts...ta ta for now.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T00:29:00.001-08:00

A plaid-wearing Mrs. Clause, someone dressed in reindeer antlers(they were kind of small to begin with.), aaaannnndddd an elf in a official Hooters' shirt(yes, the shirt had more on the back, but I ultimately chose to depict him from the "front"). I couldn't ask for more...as you can see, I've been spending some quality time at the food court. So since I probably won't be making a post before then, here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Extra bonus of holiday shoppers:

Catching up.....

2009-12-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

The final roundup of LAX sketches. I had a little over an hour before my plane boarded---after drawing for awhile I started playing the game of "Who looks like they're going to Oregon?"....and turns out the two plaid-wearing guys were. On my return flight from Oregon to LAX, the guy in the pink shirt was also on that same flight too--along with his friend Danny who was sportin' a Three Stooges t-shirt for the early morning trip(it was about 5:30 in the morning when I drew him).

And then on Black Friday I hit up the ol' mall foodcourt to draw the true Oregonians. Lots of interesting characters and I can't wait to start drawing the holiday crowds in just a matter of days! The fall semester at CalArts has pretty much ended...things are starting to really calm down so now I'm focusing on taking care of last minute business and packing up. I'll be driving home this time so no more airport drawings....but plenty of foodcourt time planned. Anyways, I thought I'd finally share the two dialog tests that have been taking up most of my time---

I've included my first pass, and then the final pass for both tests. Now, there's a long list of things I'll be fixing on both the cow and beaver, but for now, this is where they stand. When I come back in school in January I'll be addressing the issues these have. But I really enjoyed working on them and overall, feel like I learned a ton--not only from these two, but from the whole semester. I'll get into that more when I post up my actual "End of the Semester" report--but I'm going to do that once I've arrived in Oregon. For now, off to wrap some presents and get ready for tonight's Character Animation Holiday Party. :)

Mini-Crunch time

2009-12-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

So since my last post several things took place--I was lucky enough to attend CTN for one. I'll probably be elaborating on most of my recent activities during Winter Break---for now, it's definitely mini-crunch time and I'm spending my day either animating or wrapping up my story/animatic for my film. To keep things semi-lively around here I'll be updating with the drawings I did over Thanksgiving break. I took a plane back home and it was wonderful spending some time back in ol' Oregon. Had a really great time catching up with friends and enjoying some very delcious food with family. Cannot wait until Winter Break, I'm craving the "Southern Oregon scene" a lot right now.

All these people were in LAX. The black and white drawing of the guy on the ukulele with the woman/baby has a very cute story. Baby was crying and this stranger sitting near-by pulled out his ukulele and started playing---little baby was completely fascinated. The rest of the group were certainly entertaining--like the "Bedazzled Babe" as I've dubbed her, she was decked out in a gem-studded jean jacket, complete with a glistening belt. She was headed to Vancouver, so lookout Canada. And then just a study I did on the plane flying up North.

I'm currently figuring out the design for my next dialogue homework in traditional animation. It involves a baby beaver and I can't wait to start animating--he's going to probably change a bit in the next week or so, but he'll be somewhere in the neighborhood of the top beaver's look. I do have a previous dialogue test--but I just need to fix a few things before I'm ready to scan/upload it here. Should have it up by Thursday. Anyways, that's all for now, I've got a few guest lectures to catch-up on--Pete Sohn, who directed Partly Cloudy, visited on Friday and gave one very awesome lecture, so those notes will be up ASAP.

Walk cycle

2009-11-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

This past week was all about the classic walk-cycle. So I went back to a character I had developed over the summer(a minion who had just been called away from a relaxing day at the spa by his boss.)....anyways, while the story has been put on the shelf, this charming fellow was too much fun to pass up. Sorry about the flickering paper, I did quite the job of chewing up the paper as I fixed certain areas of his cycle. Lots of furious rolling while trying to make sure things were flowing correctly.

James Gurney Guest Lecture

2009-11-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

On 10/9/09 James Gurney visited CalArts. Overall, it was a very enjoyable and inspiring lecture . Anyways, here are my notes from that night:

Today, most artists strive to convey what they actually see, but as James put it, “What do you do to draw what you can’t see?”

Going back into the history of art, Greek mythology was a popular subject for the masters. Both students and teachers relied on models and rough sketches transferred on tracing paper to move around to create the appropriate arrangement. How James is able to achieve a believable world is based on the same practices, preliminary sketches, photo reference, models, etc.

The first step is always research. This is the most entertaining part of the process. Often when basing the painting off of a fossil, behavioral questions come up and help influence the final piece. Figuring out the shape vocabulary helps define the drawing of an animal. Looking at modern day animals also help. Here's a perfect example. Many different studies/sketches are done before the final. Here the composition is also taken into consideration—how to lead the eye around the painting. At this time, James gave a very interesting lecture on how we view a painting. Here’s a great article on his blog(one of hundreds).

Next, he talked about the use of actually building marquettes of the characters/sets he’s about the paint. By doing this he’s able to capture the nuances of lighting which help to really sell the believability. Cast shadows are also easier to figure out this way. I found another blog post in which he goes into great depth about it.

For pieces featuring human characters, he casts people to the appropriate parts. “Find people who are similar to the person you want to paint.” Get into the character and take control of the forms. We have to be in their shoes—to identify with them. This process leads to a more convincing painting. Photography is great. Especially for subjects that are moving. Go beyond what looks cool. Draw from life but push certain aspects. A great example can be seen right here.

And then here are some key phrases that I jotted down:

Students shouldn’t be married to the first idea. Don’t be happy with the first try.

Be knowledgeable of story---know the structure of story. Also important to understand how to work as a team and collaborate.

The best colors to choose for a painting can be found in food ads because they always have to be appealing.

Got to keep reworking a drawing until it works. Get all the bugs out. When the reject pile is taller than the final pile (accepted work), you’re on the right track.

Anyways, it was a very interesting talk and if anyone is curious, he has a new book out called, “Imaginative Realism” that that goes into great detail about his process--it's also a great read for any aviary artist:

Kiwi, though more of a digital artist, enjoys it too. :)

Flour Sack vs. Jack in the Box...

2009-11-14T20:33:00.000-08:00

My recent assignment for traditional animation. Initially we just worked on a flour sack changing emotions. I went with a flour sack playing with a jack in the box, when suddenly things don't go according to plan. The following weekend was overlapping action with either a tail or a cape----so cape it was.

I'm amused by the fact that after my previous test(the elephant on the diving board), I wanted to move away from "flour sack body"....and the following test was an actual flour sack. Very nice timing. haha

November Already!

2009-11-13T22:06:00.000-08:00

I've been super busy over the past few weeks. Mainly spending my time on animation homework(tomorrow night I should hopefully be posting what I've been working on), and then battling away with film business. Just a bit burnt out on film related stuff, so I'm taking a couple days to focus on other things before diving back in. It has been turning into one of those situations where I get way too focused on stupid, tiny details and lose sight of the bigger picture---this always winds up with sacrificing good acting choices for my characters, and very poor camera shots in my storyboards. The looming fact that this semester ends in literally 34 days has only made me "freak-out" more and not take the time to really think about what I'm boarding. To sum it up, it's a very "safe" film right now, it works and it's generally entertaining, but it doesn't push the boundaries of anything---so I'm going to fix that over the next few weeks.

Over the next few nights I'll be posting up my notes from the guest lectures and uploading what artwork/animation I've done since Peter Pan. For now, a page of big cats and zebra!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T22:08:00.001-07:00

A little Happy Halloween from the zoo's snow leopard cubs--they were going to town on some pumpkins. Absolutely adorable and the action took place a little over a foot away! When they got tired of mauling the pumpkin they quickly turned on each other, or better yet, dear ol' Mom.

(that's literally the distance away, no zoom. Just holding my arm out.)

Last night was the annual CalArts' Halloween party. Had a very good time with friends and everyone dressed in some pretty craazy costumes. The theme this year was "Insane Asylum" and the decorations were pretty appropriate. haha. I stayed from about 9:30 until 1:30 in the morning. Here's a quick photo of the main dance area:

The next morning I came into the cubes and was greeted with Admiral Ackbar and the head of a Star Wars' At-St(I had to look this name up, so I'm not THAT deep into the nerdom. haha). Both were costumes worn the previous night(The At-St was beyond awesome! Complete with silly string blasters)....And a group of students went to the trouble of creating a duct-tape casting of someone's body and then clothing it. It was Mel Gibson earlier in the week, hopefully Ackbar is around longer to warn everyone of any traps!

"It's a traaaaap!"

Psst...this'll catch everyone up:

Tiny Update

2009-10-26T23:07:00.000-07:00

Still alive. Very hectic schedule last week and now battling my way over a small cold. So, a real update like guest lecture notes(James Gurney and a bit from Shane Acker's lecture on "9") coming soon. To tide things over here are some animation tests:

A pretty sloppy animated turn around of Peter Pan. We had a choice between Pan and Fred Flintstone...while I learned a ton on it, I definitely wish the end result was less floaty(watch that mouth! And feather, and eyebrows! All fantastically inconsistent and I didn't catch these things until it was too late. I doubt I'll revisit this.)

We had to have a character dive off of a diving board. Could be any character and it was suggested(....Kristen....haha) I try out my elephant character. This is due tomorrow(sneak peek for everyone in Scott's class), and am definitely aiming on a more solid elephant next time 'round. He's verging on the infamous flour-sack body--like those deer in Snow White.
Anyways, this is as good a time as any to introduce my WIP film character for this year, Quint. I had been developing a story involving little Quint, but on Wednesday I had a muchly appreciated reality check from my current production teacher, so I'm shelving that idea and moving on. I say appreciated because it would have been really frustrating to find this sort of feedback out in, let's say, May, so now, while it's still early in the game--I'm turning back and starting a new. Still in love with the original story though, just would have really been too much for me to take on this year, especially with how I want to really focus on animation. The previous story honestly wouldn't have allowed me to revisit any scenes and as was pointed out to me--I'd have to rush through a lot of footage and in the end, the quality would suffer. No way I'd be able to push the animation. Falling back on bad habits, like during crunch-time last year, wouldn't help me at all. Definitely a good reminder after my previous two years...thinking back on those films is what really helped me decide, "Yeah, not falling into that same trap this year." Plus, I quickly put some of my storyboards in the computer and started timing them out---just 40% of the film came to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I stopped there....Yep, that doesn't exactly play into my goal of having a film that's only 2 minutes long--with credits. Now to think of a super simple, chalk full of character-driven film! Hmm....

P.S.

And then Disney deer a few years later:

Leaf me alone

2009-10-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

My leaf assignment that was due tonight. Though mine went the route of "triangle" type leaf. Oh well--like I said, Leaf me alone. :P Now it's onto a head rotation, time to decide between Peter Pan or Fred Flintstone...hmmm

Also, I updated my folding box video on the previous post with a much higher quality.

Every year Third Years tackle the infamous "Third Year Reviews" where, you go into a room with 3-5 faculty members and they look at a portfolio of the work you've done over the past 2.5ish years. Films, animation tests, color charts...all of it, judge your progress in the program, and essentially see if you're on track for graduating. Well next week is my year's turn. Stress is definitely building and nobody knows for sure what to expect. Tuesday the 20th is my day(at 11 am to be exact), so in the meantime I'm gathering all my work from 1st, 2nd, and so far 3rd year and hoping for the best. Looking back at my stuff from first year has been entertaining and depressing at the same time---and that feeling has continued into the work I made during second year. Fun times. Anyhow, the first big rainstorm has hit SoCal and it has been really refreshing. Love waking up to this type of weather---just like home.

What's in the box!?!?!

2009-10-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday the assignment was to animate a box folding and unfolding...in perspective(made my head hurt, that's for sure)! This was particularly entertaining since I spent the majority of my summer at a UPS store where folding boxes was a bit of an important job. And now, back to the current animation assignment for the weekend--a falling leaf.

Zoo-rrific

2009-10-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

Drawings from today. Tried a couple new things like toned paper and then drawing with just straight watercolor. Toned paper--doing that again fo' sure....drawing with just straight watercolor(just tried it on the colorful birds)--not so much. Oh well---win some, lose some. Anyways, there was a power outage tonight on campus, it just came back on about 10 minutes ago, but unfortunately class has already been cancelled. Power outages at CalArts are pretty entertaining...too bad this one was fairly short(7-8:30).

Swinging and Bouncing the time away...

2009-10-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

Just some pictures from last week's zoo trip. Check out the fangs on the lemur--that's pretty cool(the kind of fuzzy stuff ontop of the lemur is the fence).

And then here's a quick recap of animation hw(the quality isn't that great, both blogspot and my own video software has kind of chewed this up a bit). First was the usual bouncing ball and then later we did a swinging pendulum. My spacing isn't perfect--both suffer from gaps and are poppy. Oh well, now I know what to watch out for so this week's homework won't suffer the same fate.

Little bit of this and that...

2009-10-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Zoo day was yesterday---85 degrees was definitely an improvement over last week's 100+ sweat-fest. Anyways, artwork ahoy:

Next week's goal: Draw with a pen that's actually water-proof. The second I added watercolors---BAM, the lines just went every which way.

Traditional Animation class has officially kicked off. We have a new teacher now, a mister Scott Wright who's kicking us into serious boot camp and giving us two assignments a week to catch up on the lost time(first class was this past Tuesday night.) I just finished animating the classic ball bounce(just up and down) and then on top of that, we had to draw two key poses with a character illustrating Squash and Stretch. Well naturally I went to the one subject who is the epitome of these terms(particularly squash):

Annie, aka. Ms. Boulder...when it came to stretch I had to do a couple passes:

Pass 1....it works, but I thought it could be pushed more.

Still could go further I'm sure, but this certainly gets the point across. If I remember to bring my camera, I'll post the ball thing later.

All I have to do is Dream...

2009-09-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yet another week over with. I'm just trucking along, working on homework, keeping up on drawing outside of school, and going through the never-ending story battle for this year's film. On Wednesday, my friend Jenessa and I went to the LA zoo to draw. We didn't stay too long, the heat was too much and when it's about 106 at 1:30 pm, with very little shade---it's time to retreat to the air-conditioned car and head back to school. lol Jenessa posted her awesome zoo drawings on her blog, and here are my doodles from the day:

At 11am it was still breakfast time for the gibbons. They were going--bananas---over the goodie bags the handlers left behind:

There's a newcomer as well. For the past couple of visits the snow leopards have been impossible to spot---well they finally came out and here's the reason why:

CUBS! Two of them. Absolutely adorable little fuzzballs. They were still pretty awkward as they clambered around the rocks while big ol' Mom slept-in. I'm pretty frustrated that these pictures came out so blurry. I had to really zoom in for the camera to actually focus on the cub instead of the fence. Oh well, try again next Wednesday.

And some other pictures taken the same day:

The chimps were chillin in the shaded area right next to the glass.

On Friday my parents visited! We spent the afternoon touring around the school/area AND then that evening---attended an awesome lecture by the one and only Mark Andrews! He spent the time drawing storyboards--which was pretty mind-blowing. He would bust out big camera moves(3 point perspective for the heck of it! gah!), characters doing the greatest things, etc. while cracking jokes, making his own sound-effects/soundtrack, and answering all of our questions. I'll post my notes a little later. But anyways, it was a great night and my parents really enjoyed watching MANDREWS at work.
Saturday was spent in Pasadena with the parents. We drove around the area to see the neighborhood, had some lunch, did some shopping at this store that had the craziest things, and then hit this place called, "Dots" which was a small shop dedicated to selling the most decadent cupcakes.

YUM! We all had the Hostess one and it was like an actual hostess cupcake only on steroids. It was sooooo good(especially that lovely creamy filling). So hey, if you're in the Pasadena area anytime soon, be sure to check out "Dots."

Otherwise, I'm working on a film idea. I was sitting in my cube on Tuesday and *pop* film idea. So I'm slowly developing it---it has its fair share of problems right now...but hopefully by next weekend I should have a decent pass done so I can pitch it around. For now, all I'll say is that it takes place in Africa again...but completely different animals and much simpler storyline of course. haha Alright, well time for me to cook up some dinner and then go bust out a walk-cycle for my CG class.

First Official Week of Junior Year

2009-09-19T22:56:00.000-07:00

Woo! The first week of classes has ended....pretty crazy one, as I'm sure my fellow 3rd years can agree with. Anyways, here are my first impressions of my schedule this year:

Advanced Computer Animation: Pretty open class. The teacher is encouraging us to do actual short films instead of your usual collection of animation exercises(bouncing ball, walk cycles, etc.). Short being only a couple of seconds(I personally never plan on going over 30 seconds). I'm looking forward to what I'll be accomplishing in this class---first though, I need some ideas! I've been in such a creative rut this week....very frustrating!

Advanced Story Development: The teacher is so great. Lots of energy and is bringing a different take on story compared to my previous story classes. The first night we spent boarding out ideas inspired by a variety of music he played on his computer, then we pinned the drawings up in the room and we each pitched out boards. Laughs. Galore. The future classes also seem like they'll be really helpful with getting me to think more "creatively" about story ideas. One class that's coming up is based around Bumper Sticker slogans, while another is all about coming up with as many cliches as you can think of and putting a new spin on them. Awe-some!

Advanced Life Drawing: My teacher Corny Cole literally walked into the room, turned to all 35 of us and told us the phrase he's very well-known for, "DRAW, GODDAMMIT!" He then elaborated, "We're doing gestures today---10 seconds, 5 minutes, whatever....now go!" And away we went---my gestures were absolutely grotesque and I felt very rusty on the 30 second or less gestures, but it felt great getting back into it all. Plus Corny's commentary during class was highly entertaining. Sadly, can't remember too much of what he said, but this Tuesday I'll try and remember some gems of his. haha

Advanced Traditional Animation: I'm not going to elaborate on this one. So, I guess, T.B.A?

Post Production: Simply put, so fully awesome. The teacher Chris Sonnenberg will be doing a lot of one-on-one and will be teaching us based on our individual needs for finishing our films this year. Right now we'll be working on every aspect of making a film---boarding, designing, color keys, making work-books, animatics, recording sound, etc. He wants us to experience every last step in the giant work pipe-line of producing an animated film. He'll also be going frame-by-frame on two of the projects he helped on(to show us how he approaches the "pipe-line" himself): Enchanted's opening 2D section of the film and the opening of Kung Fu Panda. Definitely looking forward to his class, but at the same time--I need to get crackin' on a film idea. Lots of loose ideas, but nothing whatsoever that's solid, interesting, and something I want to work on all year.

Directing for Animators: Another quite frankly, awesome class/teacher. The teacher is a huge library of knowledge, his background covers areas like directing independent films in Bulgeria to shows like the old Johnny Bravo/Dexter's Lab/Cow and Chicken era. I can definitely see why my classmates highly recommend this class and I'm really happy to taking it. He's assigning us mainly storyboarding homework and already the first in-class project has me hitting the ground running. I'm looking forward to his critique next Friday.

So those are my classes this year. Inbetween all that, I'm one of the department's Teacher Assistants this year and on Wednesday or Thursdays, depending on various circumstances, I'm out and drawing at the zoo. Should be a very interesting first semester...so now, off to rack my brain some more about this elusive third year film idea. Hmmm....

P.S. Here's the Kung Fu Panda segment in its HD glory.
3 months--about 6 people working on it.

This Past Week....

2009-09-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

Classes begin tomorrow! I'm very excited to start, but still can't get over the "I'm a 3rd. year." feeling. It's especially weird now that the new freshmen have been running around...ahh! I need to kick myself into gear and get working--before I know it I'll be a 4th year and then going out into the big grown-up working world. Anyways, last Wednesday the department greeted the new freshmen--myself and some of the other upperclassmen descended into the main hallway and welcomed the very bright and cheery faces.

A photographer was above us and snapped this picture(I grabbed this photo from the CalArts' online photo site I just found). The upperclassmen are, for the most part, on the sides while the incoming freshmen are all in the middle(I'm on the right side, a couple rows back in the white.) Here we go guys!

After the hallway greeting, everyone filed into the Palace to overhear the freshmen meeting. All those heads are freshmen(minus the two people closest to the camera, they're two of the third year animation teachers).

Friday was the busiest day of the week. Arrived at 6:30 in the morning for cube sign-ups which started at 8 a.m. Surprisingly enough, a couple other people were there doing the same thing. 9 a.m. was the ever chaotic class sign-ups.

I got all the classes I signed up for and am really happy with my schedule:

POST PRODUCTION	Sonnenberg, Chris	W 7pm to 10pm
ADVANCED LIFE DRAWING	Cole, Cornelius	T 9am to 4pm
ADVANCED LIFE DRAWING (JUNIORS)	Hormozi, Marjan	Th 9am to 4pm
ADVANCED TRADITIONAL ANIMATION III	Cedeno, Mike	T Th 7pm to 10pm
ADVANCED STORY DEVELOPMENT	Fulp, David	M 7pm to 10pm
ADV COMPUTER ANIMATION JUNIORS	Griffith, Greg	M 1pm to 4pm & T 4pm to 7pm
DIRECTING FOR ANIMATORS	Petkov, Roumen	F 9:30am to 12 Noon

Tuesdays will definitely be the hardest(classes literally back to back from 9 a.m. until 10 at night!)And yep, I'm taking two life-drawing classes---gotta work on my draftsmanship this year, along with a plethora of other things.

Over the weekend I've been busy turning my new cube(number 25 to be precise), which is gigantic--it's like 3-4 times bigger than both of my previous cubicals---from this:

To this:

The colors got all messed up in this photo. The next photo does the cube a lot more justice color-wise:

I went the extra-mile and actually painted the walls--so much better than white.

Well, that's all for now. Next post will be all about the new classes.

End of Summer 2009 Report

2009-09-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

So I basically fell off the face of the Internets and have been spending the past couple of weeks making the most of the remaining summer. However, I still occasionally had time to draw:
My last batch of characters from Southern Oregon. Starting with the lady decked out in a charming watermelon-print dress and literally ending with the guy on the bottom right with a baseball cap that was precariously balanced on his large scalp. The cap didn't touch his forehead and looked like one breath of wind would knock it right off.
To the Oregon drawing crew: He was occupying The Black Sheep. Hopefully you guys will see him again. :)

I also visited the local fair that took place shortly before I had to move back for school. 102 degree weather made conditions tough, but overall it was a good time. I love me some carnies, cankles, and cows.

And so I've since packed up my car and made the long 680+ mile trip back down to Valencia to begin a whole new school year. Ever wonder what dawn looks like while driving down Interstate 5 in California?

Now you know. Last Monday I had to hit the road early after spending the night at my Grandma's house. I left at 4:30 in the morning(still dark)....not planning on doing that again anytime soon. Way too early to be conscious. At 10:30 am I arrived in Valencia, met up with my roommates, and we all started moving into our new apartment. This was adventure too, living on the third floor with no elevator made moving very difficult--particularly when it came to the things we moved from storage like the couch and various boxes that weighed way too much--it was also 99 degrees and hazy from the fires far south of us(driving and moving all in one day! I was dead to the world by 9 pm). Anyways, that's all done with and we're all settled in.
Now time to welcome the local Valencia peeps. I spent some time at the local mall and spotted a couple characters. However, the female subject on the bottom right was not anywhere near the mall---only 5 people(myself included) know her story and her impact on our group's outing. All's I'll say is she was a Grade-A cougar, and that's the "classiest" summary I can think of for her. The End.
Today, myself and a couple friends headed over to the LA zoo to get back into drawing. School doesn't officially start until next Monday(14th) so we're trying our best to get back into the frantic pace of CalArts. Anyways, fun drawing day--very nice weather(upper 80's and no smoke!), animals were a little more active than the last time I visited, and we even saw some chimpanzees go on a rampage! Basically the one dominate chimp decided to put another chimp in its place by tackling it(on the lower left area of the chimp drawings...that's basically what they did). Both went tumbling into one of the area's pits(several feet!) during the climax of the brawl. They came hollering and screaming back up, the dominate male strutting around and swinging his arms all manly-like. He even went so far as to pick up a piece of cucumber and hurl it over the exhibit's walls and into the crowd of human onlookers---no one was hit, myself and my friends were about 10 feet away from the cucumber's impact(it exploded and chunks of it went flying in every direction). Very, very entertaining and nothing could ever top that temper tantrum.

Anyways, tomorrow the character animation freshmen have their orientation in the department and I'm looking forward to peeking in on all the new faces(it's really surreal to think back on those first few days on campus...just feels like a month ago I was moving into the dorms and getting ready for my first year. Time is flyin' by.). Well, I sign-up for classes and a cube this Friday. Just from looking at the online schedule, this year should be pretty intense, but can't wait to get started---bring on Year 3!

Miyazaki Lecture

2009-08-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Here are my notes from The Marc Davis Celebration of Animation: Hayao Miyazaki event that took place on July 28, 2009.

John Lasseter moderated and the night was setup likewise: Play 2-3 clips from Miyazaki’s films, and ask various questions ranging from his early life to specific film-related information. I’m going to post it in a similar manner, with the question that was asked followed by the answer Miyazaki gave.

How did you get into animation?
I went a university to gain time to study drawing. I received bare minimum grades just so I could draw more.

What was your first job out of school?
I was 22 years old and my first job was an in-betweener on Wanwan chushingura(Bark, Bark.) However, I still wanted to be a manga artist. I would spend my time during the day working on the film and had thought I could work on my own projects at night. However, when trying to work on my manga work, I’d fall asleep immediately after work.

What was the first project you storyboarded?
I worked on a variety of TV series. I made the transition when I suggested that I could redraw the storyboards better than the initial pass, so I was moved into that department.

Here Hayao Miyazaki went into a discussion about drawing. Not exactly related to the question, but this certainly helped shape his career:

I realized that no matter how many times I drew something, the thing I couldn’t draw—I couldn’t draw. I would spend hours drawing after my other coworkers had left. After my first film I worked on was released I realized I needed to learn how to draw. I wouldn’t even see Wanwan chushingura or Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon. I was still focused on becoming an animator and not even thinking about a job as a director. I grew more concerned with making the drawings more interesting. At the time I didn’t know about the other aspects of filmmaking---just drawing.

What was your first directing job?
It was Lupin the 3rd. I convinced the managers that I could direct it. Four and a half months were given to complete it. During that time, the energy on the team was at its peak. Those days, everyone wanted to be directors and our system was flexible enough to allow for me to move up.

How was Studio Ghibli founded?
After Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, we realized we needed a studio. I realized the people who invested money into films were very conservative. They were not trying new things, so I set out to try and get the money to try and release these new ideas. At first, a building was rented and the staff would come together for a project, and then scatter after production.

(This is the only video I could find of this particular sequence. It has been slightly edited...and the title is definitely not what Miyazaki had in mind...)
What was the inspiration behind Spirited Away?
Make a really frightening movie. I wanted to focus on girls that aren’t apathetic (uncaring) and dwelled on various folktales that all had a similar story about appearances that deceived (like the market the parents eat at towards the beginning.) I modeled a lot of the characters on people I knew/know(especially the main female character along with her Dad.)

You depict your characters eating in such a way that I’m hungry while watching it. Why is eating included in your films?
It’s simple, I like to eat.

Do you set out to depict in your films a concern towards the human impact on the environment?
It’s not that nature is a growing concern in my films. It’s all around us. I exaggerate elements like smog, rain, etc. to help portray them properly as the landscapes we are used to living in. Saving the environment should be a concern in real life, not film.

How do you set out to create believable “magic”/supernatural—it all seems to have a logic to it.

If it’s going that well, then it is natural. But I often worry about the believability. Reading about fairytales helps inspire me because they’re rooted in the flow of human civilization.

Was the legend of Totoro based on something?

My intention was the show my appreciation of nature, not to focus on the creatures. I started out with just fragments. The first being at a bus stop and a strange creature was there. And the second involved a child seeing a transparent creature. These two fragments remained in my head for 10 years before I found a way to connect them together. The solution was to involve two main characters---an older and a younger sister. However, this idea didn’t get approval very quickly.

I thought about the actual Totoro creatures as these large beings, that you couldn’t tell if it’s smart, stupid, or if it’s really even there. To achieve this, I told the animators to not have the creatures looking at anything specific.

The catbus just came up. I was drawing randomly and it just came out on the page. The bus stop scene was inspired by the idea of a ghost bus where ghosts came on and off. This was also fueled by Japanese folklore about a ghost cat(he didn’t go into specifics about the tale.). These were all starting points.

Why do your villains still have appeal/character?
When I create them, I start liking them, so they don’t become very evil. You’re investing so much into them that they should be lovable. I tend to believe that villains work harder then the heroes. Making an evil character with a hole in their heart, etc. is depressing and hard to draw. I believe animators emote while drawing. A lot of animators smile while drawing a happy character, or look incredibly angry while drawing a mad character. I feel it’s better to have a smiling face than a grimacing one.

Can you describe the storyboarding process in Japan?
The system is much looser than in the U.S. The director draws it himself before the rest of the crew become involved. Also the division of labor isn’t as exact. I feel one should be flexible in the way one works.

How often does the staging change from story to animation?
It happens occasionally, however I try not to tell others to fix it. I try not to burden others with the changes. I prefer to redraw it myself. The problem is, if an order is made then they have to spend time thinking about it because they don’t have as clear of a vision. It’s best for the person who knows how to do it, to draw it himself, it prevents any further interruptions in the process.

Then came questions from the audience:

What were you interested in when you were 11 years old?
I spent a lot of time just imagining things. I was a physically weak child, but read a lot. I always wanted to be a strong hero.

What advice can you give to growing artists?
Don’t do something that you’ve seen before. But if you’ve forgotten what you’ve seen, then do it.

What do you think the future holds for hand drawn animation?
As long as there are people doing it—it will continue to exist. Pencils and computers are just tools to make our stories. There’s always a use for a tool like a pencil.

Can you tell us about the use of computers and the change that took place at Ghibli?
Early on we had this illusion about the computer---that they’d do the tedious drawings we didn’t want to do. The computer actually made it even more tiresome for us in the end. The computer can draw with a certain exactitude. To create a seamless blend between the work the computer did versus human, the animators must also be able to draw that well, but those that couldn’t draw at that kind of level ended up getting worse due to the challenge. The crew began to only think like the computer and we needed to just see what we saw with our eyes. I now tell my animators to not worry about the amount of drawings they produce—we are still saving money by not having to buy another computer. However, we do use the computer for camerawork.

How did you create the water effects in Ponyo?
I found that the ocean is more believable when drawn with wavy lines, just so long as it’s moving. If you stop the continuous movement then the scene dies and all the flaws/weaknesses became very apparent. Overall, the main thing was to draw like a child, but keep it moving.

What keeps bringing you out of retirement?
The first time I announced I would retire was after my first film, but just to my wife. Now that I’ve said it so much, no one believes me---I think I’ll just stay quiet on the matter.

Back to the Locals....

2009-08-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

No more sharks--it's back to Oregon's finest..including more "Tales from the UPS Store!"
On Monday, at no later than 11 in the morning a woman comes staggering up to the counter and while gesturing wildly asks, " WHERE'S THE LIQUOR STORE?" She then leans forward, intently listening to my co-worker's directions to the liquor store that's just across the street. Silence. Slowly followed by, "WHERE'S THE LIQUOR STORE?! I know it's around here somewhere!" Once more directions are given...this time not only my manger tells her again, but he's also joined by two of the customers who are nearby. She mutters something, kind of spins around and clumsily makes her way out of the store. We(3 other customers, my two managers, and myself) were all stunned for a good minute after she left, and then the wild stories of that woman's morning were concocted followed by much laughter.

The bottom drawing focuses on another part of my job. At the end of the day, I have to take the day's non-UPS mail that people have dropped off over to a local USPS sorting facility. The building alone is eerie(all front windows are covered with plaster, the only entrance is on the far right side..that type of place), but what's inside really completes the atmosphere. This guy is the definition of creepy. He doesn't say much, but his Gollum-esque, soul piercing stare scares the beejesus out of my managers and I...and on Tuesday, I was given the challenge of caricaturing him. So with sunglasses on my face, I march in, deliver the three bins of mail, and memorize Mister Creeper. The next task: Figure out his name. A name-tag has not been spotted so this could be challenging. Only change I'd make would be to his cheeks/jaw. Just a tad too chubby.

Today, I hit downtown Ashland! I staked out a busy spot and started sketching. Counting down from number 6:
6) A very cute couple(spotted very far away, so I only caught their matching wardrobe). Though I personally would have put the pink shirt/purple long-sleeved combo on the woman...but apparently real men wear pink nowadays.
5) Some guy who walked by, sort of resembled Bill Clinton...but with a giant British flag on his bulbous belly.
4)I've dubbed her shirt "Intergalatic Butterflies"--those are not polka-dots...they're stars. If I had drawn her full front it would have been a solar system with bright yellow butterflies fluttering around the stars.
3)That combination of colors has been burned into my retinas. Wow
2)Riddle me this---what do you do when you love leopard print, but can't wear the clothing all the time? Tattoo it into the flesh on your upper arms! And why stick to traditional colors--go bright red! Well, this guy did just that. Unfortuately the quality of the picture ate up a lot of the colors, but I swear the prints are there. The rest of him, bandanna, goofy smile and all were the icing on this wild cake.
And number 1) Impossible for me to take this guy completely in on the first glance. I watched him for awhile as he literally walked along the street inspecting various car bumpers. Not looking into the windows or anything...he'd step off the curb, intently stare at the front bumper, and then move on. Maybe he has a collection of license plates in his garbage bag and was hunting for more? Or the bag/backpack just contain more pairs of black stockings like the ones he was wearing under his cargo shorts.

Also, I'll be typing up the Miyazaki lecture notes this weekend...until then, over and out.

The Last of Shark Week

2009-08-09T23:14:00.001-07:00

The final roundup of sharks. Today was a free-for-all:
So I dove right into these three. Top to bottom: Frilled Shark, Unicorn shark, and the Lemon shark.

The week has ended and so it's time to move on. But no need for a long face....gotta go out with a bang---like the Great Drunken Shark!
Just don't try arguing with 'em...my money would always be on the shark. And yes, that's a tiny jelly fish(Squishy!) the shark is incoherently babbling to.

It's only fitting to end with this. Sorry, no embedded clip, the user disabled it.

Shark Week--Elephant Shark/Great White

2009-08-08T23:22:00.001-07:00

Friday: The comical looking Elephant Shark or Australian Ghost Shark.

Friday: The infamous Great White Shark! They're such torpedoes, but with, "lifeless, black eyes---like a doll's eyes. Doesn't seem to be livin'."(See if you can guess where I got that lil' quote from. Might need a bigger boat to find out.)

Shark Week--Mako/Hammer

2009-08-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

Mister Mako Shark for Wednesday.---"Baaaah"

And then Thursday is Hammerhead day...and I couldn't resist making a play on "Stop! Hammertime," so there you have it.

And I spent last night doing some super quick studies from a certain trilogy.

Hate this top one, but I'm posting it nonetheless. It is a little more recognizable then this bottom one though...

I like this one a tad more. Taken from this scene:

Gandalf: [pointing to a tunnel] There!
Merry: He remembered!
Gandalf: No, but the air doesn't smell so foul here. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose.

Sketchy Sharkies

2009-08-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

Kristen has issued a challenge in honor of Discovery Channel's Shark Week to draw a species of shark a day. Here be my sharks:

Monday was Oceanic White Tip(no color on these):
Today(Tuesday) was Goblin Shark--and I went off in a different direction with this character. Instead of terrifying creature of the deep, he's...a little more "book-smart"---

Still warming up on Shark 101, but I have until Sunday to get a handle on these guys.

Roadtrip Report

2009-08-01T14:46:00.001-07:00

A summary of my week in photos. I had an absolute blast and honestly felt like this one week lasted a whole month. I visited a bunch of friends from school along with family, toured around places like Pixar(incredibly awesome! I probably had the widest, silliest grin on my face while walking around.), LA zoo, the Getty Museum, and even attended the Hayao Miyazaki lecture in downtown LA. I also have some excerpts from my 600 + mile drive back to Oregon....that 680 in Northern California was nasty. 40 minutes to travel a whopping 8 miles? No thank you. Also, Kiwi didn't come with me on my trip so he was exceedingly estatic when I returned. Anyways, not too much else to say...I do have some sketchbook pages to share though:

My Aunt(who lives in Woodside, aka. the place where I woke up to squirrels scurrying up redwoods with giant ears of corn in their tiny mouths--photographic evidence can be seen above.) and I spent a Saturday running around San Francisco before driving over to Half-Moon Bay, where I proceeded to draw until my fingers were literally numb from the cold(it was maybe 65 there?)
On Monday, a large group of CalArtians and myself spent the day at the LA Zoo. Despite the heat(easily 95 degrees), and the insane amount of bees--we had a great time. The only really active animals were the Sifaka, everyone else was chillin' in the shade.

I do plan on typing up the notes I took at the Miyazaki lecture, so until then, here's a video.

The lecture started off by playing several trailers to his films, one being Totoro. This movie was a pretty iconic part of my childhood, along with my brother's. We watched this film several times during the summer...still one of my favorite films by Miyazaki.

Another Installment of Food Courties....

2009-07-22T19:20:00.001-07:00

A combo of some dog park gestures and the fine folk of the food court: This next one has a special story. I come into the food court, pick a very empty table, sit down, and proceed to draw. Give or take five minutes and out of nowhere this very crazy lady comes up to me and insists I move because I'm in her seat....I really just want to draw so I get up and move a whopping 4 tables down and resume drawing---though I start to watch her out of the corner of my eye. She proceeds to walk over to a nearby Orange Julius to order something and that's my cue to start drawing--the final selling point, aside from the outfit, was the fat oozing over the handles of her walker, making her look like she was wedged in there good and tight(I wouldn't have drawn her otherwise, but after her assault, she was immediately put into the territory of 'no mercy'). So enjoy and watch out--she's a looney one.

These two mark the "closing chapter in one sketchbook, while another one begins." The woman on the left who is munching away on nachos was the final drawing in the sketchbook I started in June. Miss Tanline is the first drawing in my newly started sketchbook. That tanline was blazingly bright against the rest of her skin....she was on the other side of the food court and I could definately make out that swimsuit line. Yikes(and it's soooo skimpy! What in the world kind of swimsuit was she wearing...eww)

Alright, well this is the last of the mall updates. Tomorrow I leave for a little week long vacation(roadtrip!)--though drawing is definately on the itinerary, see ya'll in August!

Muggle Mall

2009-07-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Had some time to kill before a showing of Half-Blood Prince. So off to the food court to draw me some muggles!

Here's the classic Hallmark couple! The margaritas also circled around to her front--I've actually renamed her, "Miss Margarita-ville" The wife did all the ordering while her husband really just stood there and chewed his giant toothpick....no kind of spell could have conjured up a more unique pair.

Oh yeah, and the movie itself was alright--much better than some of the previous ones. Still felt incredibly rushed and the ending was quite frankly a letdown, but some scenes(like the cave, and when Harry is under the influence of the luck potion) were awesome. The Burrow on fire didn't sit well with me(unless I'm wrong...that didn't even HAPPEN in the book) and that time could have been better spent. I did like how the special effects blended in with the film, didn't really call attention and distract from anything else on screen. Good characters--Malfoy, Snape, and Slughorn were superb and stole the show.Didn't really care about all the 16 year old relationship drama....again, could have been time better spent on let us say, memories of Voldemort, but what can ya do...I'm still looking forward to the next installment.

Happy Harry Potter Day, ya'll!

2009-07-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

For hilarity's sake I decided to visit an old topic I used to draw...
Not done when I was 10 years old; nor 11. These were drawn between the ages of 15-17 years old....yeah. Lots of terribly funny things wrong with these doodles, unfortunately I can't find an actual "portrait" of Potter, oh well. Anyhow, a couple of years later and here's ol' HP drawn just over an hour ago:
Blazin' broomsticks, butterbeer, and all that wizardry stuff. Probably be another 4 years before I revisit, "The Boy Who Lived."

Tales from the USPS Line...Chap.1

2009-07-13T22:18:00.001-07:00

I was recently hired at a local UPS store. That's going all dandy....well, part of my job is to drive over to the downtown Postal Office and pick up the store's mail because it also handles regular mail. Today was special because myself and one of my managers had to wait in line to buy some packs of "Forever Stamps." The line we're in is ridiculously long, with only one employee working behind the counter. We've been slowly moving forward for the past 15 minutes when my manager leans over and whispers in a very excited tone, "Oh my god, there's quite the character behind us. When you can, look at the guy in the black scooter." Of course there's about 4 people between ourselves and the guy in the scooter, so I glance over and only see a white mane. My manager has now pulled out his iPhone in an attempt to photograph this character...but trying to not look like he's trying to take a picture. Well 3 failed attempts at getting a good shot later, we're called up to the counter to make our stamp purchase. As we're walking by the line of people and up to the counter, I finally get a good look at what's attached to the white mane:
We left the store in a fit of giggles, puzzling over this character. This is day 5 on the job....can't wait for what's next. The in-store stories have pretty much supplied me with film ideas for the next 100 years.

For all the Smooth Criminals...

2009-07-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

My Mom has been asking if I could draw Michael Jackson...since I know her favorite video of his is, "Smooth Criminal" I went and did some super-quick gesture studies based on the actual video. That leaning move, while I know the secret behind it, is still pretty mind-blowing.

Did these later on...since "Beat it" and "Bad" are favorites of mine(though Weird Al's renditions make these particularly iconic).

Sorry for the poor quality, can't get the best lighting at 11 at night.

Sketchy Updates

2009-07-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

The last of the horse gestures. The show ended last Sunday---with surprisingly enough, calf roping.

Another round of the latest mall locals. Included here is "Eagle flying over mountain range" shirt guy. Though he would have slayed me if he had worn the--Three Wolf Moon shirt that's sweeping the nation. However, I'm sure it'll be in his closet shortly...maybe by the next full moon?

Saturday was the Fourth of July and my Mom and I scooted over to the Ashland Parade.

My vantage point. Nice huge quality so not a single detail is missed. Unfortunately, my "Most Patriotic Person" award cannot be bestowed this year. Not a single person passed by that could top last year's winner. Oh well, here are some honorable mentions:

Yes, there's a little old woman clutching a Bible. And yes, she's wearing a lime-green regular bike helmet. She was apart of the parade---and right behind her was a blazing red sign that read, "Jesus." Really nothing else to say about that.

Animal Antics

2009-06-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

My parents went on a little vacation and I was in-charge of looking after the house. However, I was not alone, I had the quirky pets with me--mainly Annie the boulder of a cat(Kiwi too, but he's pretty much my shadow.) Here are some silly drawings to sum up what it's like to be the only living thing Annie has contact with:

Annie is still on her 6a.m. feeding schedule, however, unless something is seriously wrong with me...I'm never up at this hour, so she had to endure the traumatic experience of waiting for an additional two hours before her belly could be satisfied(I also never heard her 6 a.m. cries, but the second my alarm went off, she was at my door.). Drawing number 3 represents what greeted me when I opened my door every morning---a bawling baby. Drawing 2 is her expecting her food as it's about to be lowered to an adequate feasting level. Drawing 1 is what she does when my Mom is usually around. Starting at about 3 in the afternoon, Annie plants her butt right in-front of the door leading to the garage and stares intently at the bottom of the door, anticipating that glorious moment when my Mom walks in and feeds her. Even though I'm walking around in the same area, Annie does not care--I'm clearly not a reliable source of crunchies. The last drawing on the page, is just a silly example of the kinds of judgmental looks Annie likes to give me.

In between her feedings, Annie occupies herself with two things---hanging out in my room and throwing me dirty looks--My desk faces away from my bed. Annie likes to make a "nest" in the sheets of my bed and whenever I turn around, I get this look. The drawing on the left also illustrates her "I hate your taste in music" glare. Activity number two is play-time: She loves to roughhouse and if you pin her on the ground she goes nuts. She'll flip over and do this type of pose---eyes completely the size of saucers, arms spread far out, and her tail is flying.

The night before my parents came back Annie was chilling on my bed. I had my headphones on and drawing. Suddenly I see a grey blur out of the corner of my eye and Annie has frozen in place at my door. I had the door open a crack so she could come and go as she pleased. She was standing inches from the crack looking like the world was ending just outside. I hate it when she does this because then I think there's a stranger in the house or something(it's like 11 at night, with no one else at home). Obviously, I took my headphones off, no commotion,..just silence, but that didn't help my nerves--in the end, it was just another "Spook attack" where Annie reacts to literally nothing. She also does intense staring contests with empty carpets and blank spaces on walls--when I usually sneak up behind her and poke her, sending her straight up in the air and upon her landing, her tail is 100% poof. So I guess this is her payback?

Yesterday I got wind that the yearly Rooster Crowing contest was taking place and of course I had to attend. Unfortunately, the sketching was terrible--both conditions(cramped spaces between lots of sweaty people, a couple of whom didn't know about the invention of deodorant.) and just my own drawing-mojo. So I didn't stay very long.

Not only were roosters encouraged to crow, but there was a human rooster crowing contest. Whoever sounded closest to a rooster, won. Kids and adults alike participated. And not just uttering, "Cock-a-doodle-doo" people were going all out.

My drawings....like I said, cramped drawing position+95 degree heat+bad drawing day in general='s a poor representation of what took place yesterday. Definitely didn't do them justice. Oh well...

The obligatory rooster photo. This one was called, "Lil Guy" and he was lil. Not taller than the distance between your elbow and wrist. His whole body went into his squeaky crow. Kind of adorable.

Beach Bum

2009-06-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up and took a impromptu trip to the local Oregon coast. Beautiful drive, weather was absolutely perfect...all in all, very relaxing day. Only hitch is that I'm now sporting a very nasty sunburn because I didn't think I'd need sunscreen. No complaints...it was kind of worth it:
Some pictures:

Nice lil river I found as I drove along the 199.

This Pelican now has a story. So, I'm drawing and suddenly a girl around 13-15 bellows, "IT'S THE PICKLE GUY! LOOK! HI PICKLE GUY!" I immediately assumed she mistook this innocent pelican for the iconic Vlasic STORK...it was funny at first, but her fangirling grew very annoying after 10 minutes.

Here are the two studies I did while at Harris Beach State Park:

Drawn and colored on the spot--which grew pretty hard when the wind was starting to whip sand across the still wet pages.

A horse show has been in town and I've been going as often as I can since I rarely draw horses. Here's just a quick collage...I've got about 20 + pages in my sketchbook FILLED with these types of things. Still need more practice...

Summer Sketch-a-thon

2009-06-18T13:02:00.001-07:00

More highlights from my newly started sketchbook. I've been frequenting the mall food court of course, but also venturing out into the dog park....

^------Click on the thumbnails to really see every last glorious detail.

And then I combined the rest of my mall peeps:

Look Kristen! See I told you I spotted a side-ponytail! OMG!

They all have a memorable story, but I think these pictures sum them up pretty nicely.

And then some dog park gestures along with some kid drawings(done at the mall at a child play area several blocks away from the dog park.):

My Wednesday Morning

2009-06-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

This morning was fun---woke up at 7 am to take my car down to get it looked at(weird rattling sound). Figured it should only take 15 minutes(I had an appointment after all), I was soon informed that-- "I might be able to look at this in like 30 minutes...I'll call you whenever I'm done." So I walk across the street to the local(and very popular on this particular blog) mall food court! To my absolute delight(seriously--it's 8:30 am, nothing else that's within walking distance is open, and I'm stranded) the "mall walkers" were up and making their counter clockwise cycles around the interior perimeter of the building. I settle down at a table and start drawing. Here are some highlights that made my morning(and none of them are actually 'mall-walking'):

The thing that interested me most about her. As she waited for her husband(in an equally red shirt/jean outfit) to come back from Subway-- She was so composed on top, but from the waist down---her legs just spilled out. The definition of a "mullet" came to mind--business in the front, party in the back. haha

It's now 9:30 am and some of the various food joints have started opening up. Wendy's was one of the last. Not 5 minutes after opening--3 people are headed that way, including this character:

He was gradually hobbling over with his money firmly clutched in his hand. Don't let his appearance fool you, by the time I looked back up again--he had made his order and was nowhere to be seen.

And bringin' up the rear is this 'Dale Jr.' He was making pitstops at various food stands(no orders, just talking). It was fascinating because his mouth was going 100 mph and the rest of him seemed to go into suspended animation. Not much going on from the chin down. He seemed to have a routine of doing a lap around the mall and then stopping at a food-stand. Because after this stop he headed back out on the "track" and about 10 minutes later I spotted him pulling into Starbucks(time for a fill-up in his silver canister?). His shirt and hat just screamed Nascar fan. The back of his shirt read, "Dale Jr. " followed by an "88"

Oh Mall Food-Court how I missed thee. :) Many more quality drawing times are planned for this summer, you can be sure of that...

Oh yeah, and I was back behind the wheel of a now rattle-free car around 11 am!

Summer '09

2009-06-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I packed up the car and headed back to Oregon!

Welcome to the Rogue Valley! What a sight after being gone so long. This view was immediately followed up by my welcoming committee:

Annie--aka. the Crater. She hates looking at me when I've got the camera pointed at her.

...and that's why she has earned the title of "Crater."

So now I'm all settled in and catching up with friends and family. Not quite sure how updates are going to be, but they'll be pretty sparse--I'm already working on new film ideas, and starting to break-in my home-made animation desk. Behold:

I dug up an old easel that I was about to donate when, "Hey! I wonder if my disc would fit on this" popped into my head. A moment of modifying and ta-da! My little setup is complete. Kiwi makes for a great in-betweener, model, and most importantly---animation coach. He's all about correcting my mistakes and isn't afraid to chew up a bad drawing. haha

I just saw Pixar's new film, "Up" on Friday---overall, a very enjoyable film. Absolutely loved Dug and Kevin. Pixar did a great job at pushing your emotions---every laugh was followed up by a tear. Lots of beautiful animation--I left the theater pretty inspired. Anyways, go see it and for now, back to the disc....just a couple boards to go!

Final Week!

2009-05-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is now my final week at CalArts/Valencia, CA in general--on Friday I hop in my car and make the 12 hour drive back to Oregon. I've been up to several things since the last post--here's a quick summary:

On Thursday night the now annual Scavenger Hunt took place. Started at 10:30 at night until close to 2 in the morning. A pretty fun/epic night. Anyways, here's the main event--the release of the hundreds of bouncy balls onto the crowd below(took place in the Main Gallery for anyone who cares):

Video stopped because I needed to start collecting said bouncy balls. The team I was on collected about 106 of these.

The next day(Friday) was the 2009 CalArts' Graduation. My classmates and I attended to support our 4th year friends as they recieved their diplomas. Good luck class of 2009! I know I'll definately miss seeing you guys around the labs, cubes, and campus. And of course a huge Congratulations--you made it! Now get out there and rock the world! :)

Here's a shot of the courtyard where everyone gathered.

The weekend was spent packing up the cube and getting everything in order for the summer. My little cube is back to bare-walls/shelves...I know I'm going to really miss the whole "cube environment", but September is going to be here before I know it--and until then I have a ton of work to do like animating more, drawing more, and doing anything to address my weak-areas and improve(spacing, your day will come! haha)---oh yeah, and start brainstorming a whole new film idea.

Today(Monday), my friend Kristen and I headed on down to the La Brea Tar-pits to study the fossils. I've never been to the tar-pits before, so I was looking forward to the visit:

Statues of mammoths in one of the actual tar-pits(there are several tar-pits throughout the park). Apparently the mother mammoth is the one trapped in the asphalt as the baby and father watch on. There's a nice little museum just behind me where we spent the greater part of our trip. On a side-note: ever smelled the air around a road-construction site? The tar-pits smelled exactly like that--tar/asphalt.

HUUUUGE mammoth. Had to stand quite a ways back to get him entirely in the frame.

RAWR! Fear my saber-teeth! I don't think he flossed very much with those pearly-whites.

They had saber-tooth tigers all over the place. Some behind glass, others posed on pedestals. One of my favorite beasties.

A Short-faced bear. Really fascinating proportions--though definately creepy. These animals are larger than polar bears/grizzly bears! The following image gives you an idea of what this guy would look like with muscle/skin, etc.

I think the displays that really caught my attention were the ones that really gave you an idea of just how vast/rich the tarpits really are. Below are a couple of examples:

The Dire Wolf:

One of the posed skeletons on display. Right across from:

This. I took a picture of the sign--it'll do a better job describing the above image, than I can:

Next up, are Golden Eagles:

And of course, a picture of the sign next to the display:

Really fascinating. Apparently the archeologists recently uncovered more fossils buried in one of the pits(2006 or so)--a sign said that over the next 5 years about 3.5 million specimens will be unearthed! That's mind-blowing to me! They've already discovered a full mammoth buried within the tar...his name is "Zed" and should be fully complete within those 5 years.

An example of the station that the archeologists work at. Reminds me of the cubes with the only difference being more sun/fresh-air. haha

Of course after taking oodles of photos and geeking out about the various displays, Kristen and I dug out the sketchbooks and started drawing some of the skeletons. Here are just a couple---I took my time on these and before I knew it, it was 5pm and the museum was closing.

Anyways, had a great time and will be planning another drawing expedition for sure!

LA zoo trip

2009-05-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, my friends and I visited to LA zoo to study the animals. I definately need to make this zoo a regular sketch-spot next year....here are a couple of the sketches, not great by any standard, but I have to start somewhere:

Side-commentary: While drawing the ring-tailed lemurs(the gray ones with the black/white tails), I overheard a grand total of 5 or so references to Dreamwork's Madagascar from different families. King Julian is very popular with both the parents and kids.

In-between drawing I'd occasionally pull out my camera--I have more drawings than photos:

The baby giraffe that now lives in the zoo. Absolutely an adorable lil guy.

And a nice big ol' alligator grin to wrap up this post.

2009 Producer's Show!

2009-05-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last night was the annual Producer's Show and it was quite the event! Arrived at the theater around 7:20, and got very nice seats with a group of my friends. The freshmen class this year had the task of of putting the show together and packing up all the equipment after the show and getting it back to CalArts---my class did this last year and it was kind of nice not having to do this(though the freshmen class did a great job this year!) By the time the lights dimmed, the place was packed! Lots of big names attended from all over---every studio I can think of was there...Mark Andrews from Pixar came wearing his kilt, and I sat just 2 rows away from James Baxter! The show kicked off at 8pm with the award ceremony---Eliza Ivanova won the "Woody Award" for her film, "Piece of Cake" and David Ochs won the Peer's Pick Award for his film, "Who's Hungry?" Then the rest of the films played. It was a really great show, lots of entertaining films--a particular favorite of mine was, "Los Estrandados" by Derek Evanick. Hopefully all the films will be posted online soon.
Around 10, the show concluded and everyone headed for the courtyard to eat, drink, and be merry. Time to socialize and really wrap up the year in style. Everyone mingled, got to catch up with classmates I hadn't seen for the past couple of weeks, say hello to the teachers who attended, and I also had a chance to talk with some people from both Disney and Pixar. Everyone seemed to have a great time---unfortunately, Pixar's Castaways party was canceled this year so around midnight, groups of us headed off to various locations to continue the partying. My group decided to make our way over to Timmy Nolan's Tavern right down the street. After some mis-adventures with directions and the correct spelling of the place, we arrived around 1 and met up with our crew. More mingling to be had, Pixar was also at the Tavern and between everyone we had overtaken the small place. At 2 the bar closed, but since the night was still young(haha, not really I was starting to get a little worn-out, but I couldn't miss hanging out with my buddies), the CalArts' group headed over the Bob's Big Boy restaurant. By 3:30 we were all tuckered out and ready to head on back to Valencia. Overall, it was an extremely fun night and a great way to wrap up my second year. Everyone agreed that it's so weird we're halfway done---it really feels like just 3 months ago I was starting my 2nd year. Certainly have learned a lot and can't imagine what the next couple of years are going to hold!

This weekend should be a real treat! Tonight we're having a lecture by wildlife artist Deborah Ross and then tomorrow(Saturday), she's hosting a animal drawing workshop at the LA zoo! Can't wait to get drawing--I've been pretty bad this past week, but hopefully tomorrow should get the gears spinning again!

What the theatre looked like around 7:30. By 8, every seat was filled.

This year's program. Sorry for the blurriness.

Milt Kahl Tribute

2009-05-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Inbetween the busy film/portfolio work there was a really special event that took place---The Milt Kahl Tribute. The night involved a panel discussion featuring both family, friends, and co-workers. In-between the discussions various clips were played---the first theme were animals animated by Milt Kahl and the second half were human characters. Another segment that was particularly eye-opening was a closer look at drawings done by the master himself---hosted by Andreas Deja, it was fascinating and I enjoyed it a lot. It's absolutely amazing how much influence Milt had. He would often go over other animator's drawings and help strengthen poses, designs, attitudes, etc. His range of talent is staggering--before the event, I didn't know exactly how much influence Milt Kahl had on just about everything at Disney, and by the end of Deja's lecture, I was floored. Anyways, I felt extremely lucky to have been able to attend the event. Here are a couple scenes that were shown:

These first 3 show Milt Kahl's ability to take the same animal(a tiger) and translate the animal in a variety of ways:

The tiger in this short. From 2:30 until about the 6 minute mark was all we watched.

We watched the segment from when Tigger first pounces on Pooh up until he scares himself under the table.

And of course, Shere Khan the tiger. His scene starts around 2:35.

An example of an animal that he helped flesh-out was Bambi:

Development sketches by Marc Davis.

To this design.

It would be a shame to not include some of the humans that Milt Kahl animated. Here are a couple other clips:

He helped drastically change Pinocchio's design from the original:

To the now well-known design that was officially used. One scene that has always stuck out to me is the part when Pinocchio starts turning into a donkey(from 3:08 until 3:20)--absolutely beautiful. And we were treated to seeing the drawings that Milt drew for this scene.

Naturally couldn't end without showing a Medusa clip. Another really amazing scene:

Watched from the beginning until 1:30. Andreas shared thumbnails, rejected drawings, and the rough animation before showing the final, colored version. Very eye-opening and these were among many other clips shared along with the very entertaining discussions between the panelists. Anyways, just want to post about this event before too long---now off to class!

Job Fair

2009-05-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

So today was the infamous "Portfolios in Review" aka. Job Fair day. Went straight from "film crunch-time" to "portfolio crunch-time." Many battles with the printers, photoshop, and scanners---good times indeed. Today I was on campus shortly after 7am to help setup, check students in, and lay my portfolio out. Here are a couple of photos of the morning:

Everyone getting ready. Lots of very impressive portfolios, always incredibly inspiring to walk around and see the work. Great job to everyone!

My layout this year. I put my work online---right here.

Around 12:30 the lists for company callbacks were posted. This is when companies hold interviews with students they're interested in. I received one callback from Disney Feature Animation for 2D animation! I had an interview with them at 3:30 and it seemed to go pretty well--they provided me with a lot of helpful feedback and I now have a good idea of what sort of areas I should work on for next year. Anyways, that's how today went and now the school year is pretty much over with---Producer's Show is Thursday night, and while my film didn't make it in, it'll still be a very fun night. Well, time to get back to relaxing and taking it easy after the past extremely stressful couple of weeks---can't believe my second year is coming to an end! I just turned in my last critical studies paper of the year---Scary how fast time can fly.

Captured 2009

2009-04-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 2009 Character Animation Open Show...and what a show it was! So much fun and a lot of very fantastic films premiered. In total about 7 hours of material! It's going to be a very difficult job of deciding which films will be chosen for the upcoming Producer's Show. Here are some photos:

Some of the crowd--this was about 30 minutes before the show actually started.

The very impressive 20 foot screen the films were projected on. You could see every last pixel--coupled with surround sound---very awesome experience though I was intimidated to have my stuff shown on such a grand scale(so used to just tiny Final Cut Pro computer preview size!)

And finally, a photo of Martha Baxton introducing the show! Woo hoo!
So a great Open Show--didn't finish until close to 1 am. So congrats CalArts' students, we made it!

And now with Open Show out of the way---without further ado, here's my 2nd year film, "Captured!"

Started in June of 2008 and wasn't officially completed until April 20th, 2009. Overall a very eye-opening experience--lots of good times and a fair amount of not so good times. Again an extra special thank you to everyone who helped me get to the finish line and putting up with my relentless revisions, 3D battles, and constant questions. Since the credits are hard to read, here's a list of the people who were right there with me:

John Aquino, Andrew Bac, Kristen Campbell, Shane Corn, Marina Gardner, Dan Hansen, Leo Hobaica, Ben Huff, Jim Hull, Miles Inada, Nicole Josephian, Mike Jones, Michael Rianda, Stephen Silver, Jeff Zikry, and of course my fabulous family.

Here's a photo to give you an idea of how many drawings went into the making of this film:

This is only about 85%--the other scenes were already put away and I didn't get a chance to include them in this photo. This is primarily all of Otis' introduction up until he crawls off screen to chase the gazelle. There are a couple of scenes of the gazelle when he's in the cave, but the really big clips represent all the magazine involved scenes. The pink line indicates the actual stack. The bit below the line is a dialogue assignment and reject drawings I would erase so I could use the paper again.

Alright well now it's time to start putting a portfolio together for the upcoming Job Fair....

Captured is in the Can!

2009-04-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

As of 3:27p.m. today, my second year film titled, Captured was turned in....and boy what an adventure that was. Pulled some insane hours(I've gotten about 5 hours of sleep over the past two days) I didn't finish compositing my scenes until 3 am Monday morning. Came to the shocking discovery that my film's running time was verging on 5 minutes, thankfully my roommates came through(they were up working on their own films at this hour as well) and helped point out areas I could shorten and from 3-5a.m. got my time around 4 minutes. Around this time I heard birds starting to sing outside and decided to get a tiny amount of sleep---plus my inner-critic wasn't helping and I was quickly losing motivation to even finish---so once these thoughts were getting out of hand, I called it a night. Woke up at 8:30, felt a little more refreshed/hopeful, and started working on my soundtrack/sound effects. Overall, that went pretty smoothly, just very stressful when dealing with 4 minutes of full-on sound and trying to get everything together by 5pm. Managed to wrap up everything around 2---rendered the beast in its entirety and came onto campus where I witnessed the true image of crunch-time----roughly 60+ people scrambling in a room meant for 15(this is just one lab...the other lab had about 40 people in a room meant for 40)......oh the sights, sounds, and smells to behold---it was also about 90 degrees in the lab due to the large population of people. Servers were crashing, people were running between the two labs, any conversations were always very short--focused on film progress---and then died after that into facial expressions of panic mixed with severe sleep deprivation.....such good times. And now just a short couple of hours later---the campus is a ghost-town. Everyone is out livin' it up after working so hard(also probably sleeping for the next 24 hours)....Saturday is the Open Show and I can't wait---8 hours of animation, shennanigans, etc. Congratulations to everyone--the glimpses of films were really inspiring, seems like the hard work has paid off---should be one rockin' show.

So my epic film is out of my hands now...this has been in the works since last June, so it's such a huge reward seeing this come together after months of constant work---very glad I didn't pay attention to my 3am inner-critic---lol. I'm working on getting a YouTube version up so I can post it all come Sunday---so until then here are some more screenshots and now I'm off to bed to catch up on some sorely missed shut-eye:

Home Stretch

2009-04-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

3 days left! Today is my final day tying down my last 50 drawings of my film! By 8 pm tonight everything will be scanned and ready for After Effects! Really excited to see this finally coming together after months of work and only seeing it in pieces instead of a whole scene with everything moving together.

Well back to work, but before I go here are some quick Otis stills...

Should look familiar....here's the final drawing based on that rejected one I posted a while ago.

This one is one of my favorite drawings of the film...I have a couple others, but this one has lived up to what I set out to convey. Gee whiz, I wonder what has caught his attention....
For laughs---here's the corresponding storyboard for the above image:

Drawn back in like October.

Assuming everything goes smoothly(meaning the computer is working with me---not against me), by 5pm Monday I should have a complete film!

The Easter Birdie

2009-04-12T01:07:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd hop online and wish my friends and family a very Happy Easter with my very own Easter Birdie:

Someone isn't very pleased with this wardrobe malfunction. A little shout-out to the family members who've been sending me Easter cards...definately appreciated--thanks guys! :) Sorry for the photo-booth quality. Super busy wrapping things up and I lack immediate access to a scanner.

Film status as of right now:
This past week a story issue came up while looking over my completed scenes. This resulted in a new scene being added to my to-do list...actually about 4 new scenes(they're short though). I spent today animating/cleaning these new additions up and am very happy with them.
I now have 4 other scenes(approximately 200+ drawings) to clean-up(hoping to get 2 of these done tomorrow).
4 more scenes to alpha-channel. About 8 scenes to scan into the computer. And over a dozen left to put together in After Effects. I should(fingers crossed) be editing my music/sound effects by Thursday night!

8 days to go and now it's officially time for the---

Cube 20

2009-04-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

I was kindly reminded the other day that I've never posted what my cube looks like. Well the time has come. Want to know how to stay motivated and not tempted to slack or doze off?
Fill every corner with anything imaginable! I rotate the artwork out every couple of months, but otherwise this is it. Ranges from Disney/Pixar stuff, pirates/Johnny Depp, drawings my friends have done, childhood stuff, college bears(SOU/RCC represent!), the sticky notes are scene-notes that I need to address in the next week, there's also Warner Bros. artwork, etc. Not every cube is like this, but this kind of environment keeps me fired up. Okay, time to get back to working on that lion scene that's sitting on my disc.

Attempt at keeping the dust at bay...

2009-04-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

18 days left! Seriously a lot of "I just need another week!" related thoughts. Here's an update:

Animated about 20 scenes over spring break. That has left me with 1 that needs to be done(just opening a door and going inside). However, I've got a lengthy list of fixes that I need to address on all the other scenes(Just got a page of notes on 3 of these scenes). Good news though: Far from discouraged or extremely intimidated---I'm ecstatic over such fixes and can't wait to address them all over the weekend and wrap this up.
Scenes in the Computer: 7 scenes scanned. 5 have been alpha-channeled(removing the background, thus making the character completely white.). I need to alpha-channel about 20 scenes out of 43---it's now down to 15 scenes---and this part is REALLY quick and easy so I'm not too worried over this part. Scanning too---very quick and mindless.
2 layouts to draw. Several need to be shaded, but this'll probably be 4 hours of work--tops. I got the rest of my layouts wrapped up in one afternoon.
Clean-up: This is what's haunting me. I'm probably going to have nightmares about this. I still have a stack thicker than one's fist to clean-up. I'm going to pulling some nutty hours(no all-nighters, just 8am-1am hours....) to get this stuff polished by Sunday. This area is stressing me out the most because my scenes are rougher than rough and do not read until I do another pass on them(going from vague floating circles to the actual on model characters). So I've got to clean like the wind and whip this stuff out. I was doing really well on Sunday, got 5 scenes cleaned(about 15-20 seconds worth) and ready to scan. Today was horrible....Spent 7 hours in my cube cleaning up and got maybe 30 individual drawings done. I'm really happy with those 30, but it's only halfway into that one scene....I was hoping to have about 8-9 scenes cleaned-up today. Really can't afford anymore days like today. Character spinning in perspective=painfully hard to keep consistent.

That's my update for now. Time for bed, I've got a long, hopefully extremely productive day ahead.

P.S. The drawing above is a reject drawing of Otis. About a million and one things wrong with the particular jumble of lines. The re-worked drawing is much better and what'll be in the final film.

Of Monteray Bay and things....

2009-03-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd do something other than film work...oh, like I don't know---updating the blog!

Last week consisted of hitting another "motivation" wall concerning film progress. It wasn't so much as I wasn't motivated to work. I got up early, sat down in my cube, grabbed a sheet of paper, and then my mind would go 'blank.' Couldn't get an idea of how a scene should go, or every drawing was atrocious and went directly in the trash. This happened from Saturday until Thursday and it was pretty frustrating and I got a little stressed out that I didn't get my amount of footage done. However, the wall cleared on Friday and I busted out the first 5 scenes of my film---so at least that helped get me back on track. Good times. With 26 days remaining, here's hoping that weird block stays away. I've got 14 scenes left to completely animate, then I'm going back and polishing a few before I move into compositing all my work together, and editing the music/sound effects too. Going to be a pretty intense time-frame...thankfully it's Spring Break so I'm taking advantage of a week of no classes and animating as many scenes as I can.

Anyways, on Saturday I went on my mini-break and drove up to the Bay Area to visit family and then on Sunday my parents and I drove over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the day. Those two days were fantastic and I really enjoyed seeing everyone and getting a heaping amount of down-time. So here's a quick recap of the visit to the Aquarium:

Naturally, I brought my sketchbook along and spent some time sketching:

Sea-dragons are one of my favorite sea-creatures. They're not too well-known, but I'm always fascinated with them. Also Lionfish are another odd-favorite(though Monterey didn't have any of these guys).

The otters were by-far, my favorite guys to sketch, so much energy! They were bouncing off the walls, tackling each other, hammering food/toys around the exhibit, etc.

And then here are just a couple photos---I sadly don't have time to edit the rest:

And here's one quick video, that may or may not have had its audio edited. ;)

On Monday I hopped in the car and started making my way back to Valencia. Well leave it to me to get a little off course. I ended up driving down highway 1 because I missed my turn earlier on(I was only supposed to be on this highway for like 5 minutes...this turned into 3 hours. whoops). However, the drive was gorgeous AND I met quite the character. After realizing my navigational error and discovering my phone service was MIA, I decided to stop at the next gas station and get directions. Well this particular gas station was apparently a pit stop in the twilight zone because I met a guy that could have been Quint's(a character from Jaws) close relative...I walk up to the counter to witness a guy turning around from picking at the drapery behind him. He's got a bent paper-clip in his hand and to really peek my interest, part of a cactus. I mutter my question relating to getting back on the 5. And while poking around at the cactus with his paper-clip, answered very slowly, "AHAHAHA, you're a long way from there! You're 'bout as far West as 'yew' can get. Yup far West. You're on the spine, 'yew' are. 'Yew' want ter be in the heart...not on 'der' spine." And then went back to his cactus...

I kind of just stared at him, uttered, "Thanks" and headed for my car. Not exactly the help I was looking for and made the resolution to just keep driving until I got phone service again---I wasn't in a hurry to find out if any more locals could top this character. So if you're ever in the Big Sur area along highway 1...keep an eye for this guy, he's quite the conversationist.

Well that was my weekend trip, now back to the film and get this wrapped up in the next few weeks.

Gestural Update

2009-03-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, a whole week has shot by since I last updated this blog....yikes. Things are getting so intense around here that it honestly feels like maybe two days have passed since the last post. Probably going to get really quiet on here cause it's coming into the home-stretch.

Progress so far:
1:45 animated at this moment and I've got about 4 weeks left. Still aiming for April 4th as my "all animation DONE. Move onto post-production" deadline.

Last week my story teacher invited his friend, Dave Pimentel to come give a gesture drawing workshop. One word summary: awesome. Learned a ton and made me realize I need to gesture draw more. Tools used: mostly permanent marker and then the occasional blue-pencil mixed with brush-pen. Anyways, here's a snippet of what I did:

We didn't have an actual model, so everyone took turns posing in the middle of the room. 2-5 minute gestures. I'd give names as to who I included here, but I'll let them figure it out. Definitely a great workshop.

March Madness Underway

2009-03-05T09:25:00.001-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I looked out of my cube and saw this full-on rainbow! See if you can also spot the very faint second rainbow. A sign that there's still hope in-between the madness of crunch-time! haha. Though right now, it's certainly easy to wish I was somewhere over that rainbow(and I'm definitely not the only one.)

Film update: I broke the 1 minute mark on Monday! Though, with 46 days remaining this isn't the greatest---wish I was over 2 minutes by now(my animatic is verging on 3 minutes). Oh well, hoping to conquer another 30 seconds or so over the weekend. Still balancing the animation homework(3D mostly, just need to clean-up Gideon at this point). So here's what the film looks like so far:

Each clip represents a scene. I have several 8-12 second scenes. Pretty crazy. Still need to clean-up some of these scenes and scan all of it. Backgrounds have been drawn in, just need to shade them.

Used an average 01 micron for size comparison. Still have a ways to grow, so this stack will soon overwhelm that little pen in the next couple of weeks. Aiming to wrap up animation by April 4th so I can do all post-production(sound, compositing, music, etc.) until the deadline(April 20th).

Alright, time to go back to work!

WIP Gideon Dialog

2009-02-26T11:29:00.001-08:00

Here he finally is---at least for now. Still need to do the rest of his mouth sync after "tell me" and do one giant clean-up job, among fixing some issues with him(couple spots where his limbs kind of "float," like at the end.)...but it's coming along and I'm still happy with it. This video is kind of off sync, the compression caused a slight delay between picture and sound.

I've also included the various stages Gideon has gone through. The first part was the second pass at him, I forgot to include the first pass where he actually falls onto the table...after some feedback I changed the action to falling and catching himself. The second stage was figuring out all the technical mechanics of drunken movement...I did about 3 other passes prior to this one...not as easy as one would think. I'll post those very ugly stages next week, along with the very first pass. The one that is shown here, is actually what I used in the next pass. Third part is where I'm at now...still a couple things to fix, but the mechanics are working a lot better. Anyways, anyone for a drink? I could use one just about now. :P hahaha

54 days left!

2009-02-24T23:31:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago, I took some of the gazelle silhouettes and developed them a little further. Not yet final, still have some work to be done on this set. It's all I can post right now, I'm knee-deep in film animation, classes are going strong, and my animation homework isn't quite ready yet---having a marathon work-day on that project tomorrow.

On Friday, John Kahrs visited school and gave an "animator's look at Peter Pan" lecture. He discussed why Disney's Peter Pan is a film worth looking at--it's a time when the animators were well-practiced in the techniques, but still finding innovative ways for the characters to move about. This was the big scene where a lot of great gems can be found:

We started watching the segment from 40 seconds until the 7 minute mark.

Paying attention to the different creative ways Peter flies(happens throughout the rest of the movie), where the animators "break the 2D feeling of characters on screen" by having diagonal moves to give that sense of depth(at 2:30 with Pan coming down the rocks), how brilliantly clear everything is--even though the characters are baffled by the series of events(changing voices, frantic actions, etc.)--as the audience, we have no problem following along. We know where everyone is, everything is planned and laid out very well before the action really kicks up. John Kahrs shared some of the storyboards for this scene(when Peter is flying around taunting Hook/Smee) and it's all right there. The designs of the characters are also distinct--everybody has a different shape, but still fit within the same world. Each character stands apart and is easily identified. Smee's reaction after he believes he shot Captain Hook(4:35ish). That expression completely encompasses that feeling of "OH GOD! I screwed up big time!" And scrambles---this film is the perfect study of character scrambles...when Hook is in mid-air and frantically runs back to the cliff(5:20)--so amazing. Really a fun clip to study and a good thing to keep in the back of my head as I continue battling on with my film---with a measly 54 days left.

This post inspired by Vons

2009-02-18T22:59:00.001-08:00

Stopped by Vons to buy some dinner items because "impending Film deadline" means I usually have an empty fridge(but I'm good for another week, Mom! :) ), but apparently I would be treated to yet another episode of "Memorable Moments while Checking-Out." And this one is memorable enough that I had to draw it out and even color it. I would have boarded it out, but I lack the necessary time to do it justice.

So I grab said dinner items and head for the express lane. Nobody in front of me. Cashier informs me of my total and I prepare to pay. At this point, my ears catch the sound of wheels squealing into the express lane. I don't pay them any attention. I get my debit card out and continue on. I swipe my card and the wheels churn again. Enter my code and with each beep of the machine...a motorized scooter inches closer to me. At this point, I am trying very hard to not turn my head. I'm also trying to keep a straight face as this scooter makes a snail's pace attempt at "running me out the door." This impatient scooter is just within the corner of my eye and I can vaguely make out a little old lady, layered in winter coats like it's ready to snow(it's about 45 degrees out) , and her head is bent low with her eyes focusing on her steering handle. Cashier hands me my receipt, and as I grab my bags I notice that from the time she entered the lane until I was leaving...this speedy scooter had managed to scoot literally within inches of me. I grab my bags and make a bee-line for the doors holding back a good laugh, while I imprinted this moment in my memory-bank.

Just about made my evening. I didn't get a chance to see what she was purchasing. She was very grumpy and basically growled at the cashier. I wonder where she's off to now....

Film Updates: Since my last post I've roughed out 30 seconds of my film. Which has been a surprise...now I face the time-consuming job of cleaning up all 30 seconds(not intentional floating crocodile body parts won't cut it.) and continuing on with the other scenes. But it's going smoothly and I'm very pleased with my longer 8-12 second scenes.

Friday the 13th...

2009-02-13T22:15:00.000-08:00

...at CalArts has been pretty "business as usual." Woke up early for a day of life-drawing, came back to the apartment to relax a bit after a week of highs and lows, and then went to a guest lecture of a video of Glen Keane. He gave a lecture at Disney in December and tonight that video was screened in the Palace(no in-person visit this time). I'll do a quick write up of that in a minute. The rest of my week has contained a moment of triumph, quickly followed by the panic-inducing realization that there's literally 65 days left until The Film is turned in. I have only one scene that I'm actually happy with---out of like 43(I've roughed in 5 other scenes, but I'm disgusted by them and a redo is definately called for). I also need to set aside about 10 or so days for compositing/sound. It's highly amusing to look back at my "Film Status" this time last year(I was pretty much half-way DONE by now)---so I'm nightmarishly behind compared to then. Going into crunch mode tomorrow and will try to not second guess myself like I have been for the past few weeks. Definitely becoming overly critical of my work, to the point where I'm not progressing and focusing too much on the "stupid, tiny details no one is going to notice."---gotta find a balance again and stop that ASAP. I've also got two unrelated dialog assignments for 3D and 2D that need some TLC in-between film-time....should be a very interesting 65 days indeed. Bring. It. ON!

So, the Glen Keane Video Lecture:
The video focused on Glen Keane's Top 3 points that he feels the animation team at Disney and any animator should really work on. It was a 45 minute video, pretty short so my notes are pretty brief.

1) Seeing more clearly--or observing.
I searched online, but couldn't find this comic-strip Glen Keane used to illustrate this point. He shared a comic his father, Bill Keane(of "Family Circus") drew illustrating how you can identify a person's profession by how they read a newspaper...examples included a waiter, car mechanic, jewelry dealer, etc. Really creative and amusing depictions.
In order to "see more clearly" one must always keep a record of their observations, whether you draw or write it down--directly from life, movies, TV, thoughts, etc. It's how one is able to bring a fresh depiction of a potentially cliche situation.

2) Think more creatively.
You see something more to an idea than what is first presented. Find that little thing that's even a little different. Present your own unique perspective to an idea/situation. Being able to trust your gut, and rethink a problem. When a frustrating obstacle pops-up--step-back and approach it from a new stand-point. An example that was used involved Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Oddly enough, I found the clip that was shared:

The choice came down to either, actually showing Mickey chop the broom up, or depict the scene with shadows(the final outcome). Even after completing animation on the first idea, the team in charge was willing to toss it all away and go with the stronger idea. An example of going with the gut feeling over production schedules.

3) Rediscover the rhythm of Disney Animation.
During the classic Disney Days, rhythm really was top-dog. What is rhythm? Rhythm is the repetition of beats or patterns. With every movement--there's a laying down of a beat, which needs to be built upon and kept consistent. Rhythm adds a vital spark/punch to an overall scene or individual movement. It's also in everything...real-life has rhythm, an example he shared is the ocean and the repetition of beats the waves make as they come ashore. There's even a natural rhythm to the human body---the spine and the femur curve(not dead-center or straight). When adding rhythm keep the designs clear and simple, add a tilt and a drawing or series of drawings instantly have a better sense of this rhythm. During the days of the Nine Old Men and the Silly Symphonies a scenes' timing was determined by sound. Metronomes used to dwell on every desk to help give the artist(storyboard, layout, and animation alike) a sense of what an actual beat felt like(whether a second or a milli-second). Some examples included various scenes from Peter Pan(the entire film is great, but pay attention to Father. He's really worth a look) and then the charming Mickey short, The Little Whirlwind(which isn't online at the moment).

And as always, design informs the movement(animation). Form follows function and anatomy comes second to the movement(which can be a challenge in this age of CG rigs). Well that's all for notes...and I'm off to bed. A full and promising 3-day weekend is ahead-- I'm aiming to kick it all off at the bright n' early hour of 9 am!

Past few days...

2009-02-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

Since Wednesday I've been up to quite a bit.

Thursday started off animating Gideon some more, followed by an afternoon of conquering a major hurdle with my film---a very huge breakthrough that took a lot of weight/stress off my mind. Not out of the woods quite yet, but seeing this lil piece of the puzzle finally coming together is a huge delight. That evening was then followed up with a visit from Disney. Disney has started sending people from various departments(story and animation so far) to directly help students---incredibly intimidating, but extraordinarily helpful and a very good learning experience. I signed up for the animation meeting---so on Thursday, I stood in front of 5 animators(3 from Pixar*they came last minute. Not planned.* and 2 from Disney) along with fellow classmates, etc. and shared some of my work with them(couple of Daffy tests, the broomstick test and the last dialogue with him, and then the WIP Gideon). Overall, it seemed to go pretty well. They focused on Gideon most of all and even in the WIP stage, it was well received. I'll post this test probably this week, just need to fix a couple of things with the mechanics of it.

On Friday night, Dan Holland returned to CalArts to present a guest lecture on character design. He had also come last year, but it was just as interesting a year later.This time, since Wall-E is now released he gave a very insightful glimpse into the early development of Wall-E's world. Very inspiring concept work. An example was all of the effort that went into the ship that initially drops Eve off(sadly can't find the scene on YouTube). He presented dozens of drawings demonstrating how they answered every, "how does this work?" you could imagine for ever part of that ship. Every thing on screen had to live up to the, "How does this work?" question. From building it, to how it fits in with the rest of the machine, etc. Super meticulous, but very cool.

The rest of my time has been spent on film work, fixing Gideon stuff, and oddly enough venturing off campus for a "night on the town." Saturday night was spent in Hollywood and Universal City Walk for many good laughs with some great friends. It was really nice to just get away, not stress about films, and enjoy the colorful LA scene(holy cow.....the characters!) Sunday night a small group of us headed over to the local theater and watched the very impressive, Coraline. I've been dying to see this film for years, so this was a real-treat. The team at Laika did a beautiful job---the visuals were literally eye-candy...especially loved the neighbors' designs. Stop-motion is a daunting task, but the film make it look effortless. It did get particularly creepy and dark at the end, certainly would have given me nightmares as a kid, but I wouldn't have created this film any other way. The characters were always entertaining and Ashland, Oregon was represented very well. Made me a tad home-sick, though brief, it was pretty cool to see a section of downtown Ashland on the big-screen. haha. So, fantastic job Laika! I hope this film gets all the attention it deserves.

Well, another week is about to start up. Aiming to make more headway on my film and get some more scenes wrapped up. Still a little thrown off that it's even February.

Meet the "Other Otis" who was drawn shortly after tonight's viewing. Very quickly done, but it's all in the name of fun.

Gideon Progress

2009-02-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

Starting to really focus on my dialogue scene with Gideon from Pinocchio. Here are a couple drawings from it...

This is an example of my breakdowns...and an idea of how rough he can get--though he's now become the occasional lone circle with cross-hairs. lol This drawing isn't used anymore(thus the green "X" in the corner). Not enough time to linger so I had to cut it...still a fav of mine though.

Stopping here---I'm not going to spoil the rest quite yet.:)

Film Silhouettes

2009-02-01T18:28:00.001-08:00

My two main characters! Otis of course and now the gazelle, course it's a mystery as to which design I settled on for the gazelle. However, audience participation is now available---I need a herd of gazelle for my main character to hang with.....a couple of these gazelle silhouettes will become that herd--but which ones??? So feel free to comment with your favorites and depending on various circumstances, that choice might be animated.

Oliver Twist Line-Up

2009-01-31T00:26:00.001-08:00

My depictions of three assigned characters from Oliver Twist:

Fagin

Artful Dodger

And lil Oliver himself. Started by basing my design after the actor Freddie Highmore.
And now in color!

We were given handouts with descriptions of each character and of course Google was a dear friend while I drew these up. Overall, while Oliver and Fagin's designs were well-received(things to tone-down like Oliver's ginormous ears and Fagin's over the top insanity--like he could just errupt into incoherent ramblings at any given moment, which isn't his character at all)...Dodger definitely was stronger(just needed to watch how I handled his coat---too bath-robeish---and draw his hat more in the style of that era. Too 70's on his rim). Absolutely a very fun project...the amount of work that was pinned up on the walls was staggering---the critique lasted until 11:15 at night and we started at 7!

Amadeus

2009-01-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

I needed some motivation, so I started watching one of my favorite movies---every time I watch it, my appreciation grows. Just these first 10 minutes were enough to get me out of a weird rut---particularly once Salieri is talking to the Priest and playing the tunes for him, such brilliant acting.

And I'm off...

2009-01-25T17:42:00.000-08:00

Today marks the first day of animation! From 10-5:30 I was fully animating 1 of 42 scenes for my film! Really exciting to see one of two characters finally moving! So Scene 13 is done, time for the others and 84 very quickly dwindling days until the film is turned in. I'm both thrilled and panic-stricken about this....but can't think about that impending deadline....just gotta keep this ball rolling(or in this particular scene--boundin').

Character Design Workshop

2009-01-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

Last night was the first part of a two week workshop with the extremely talented duo of character designers: Shane Prigmore and Shannon Tindle! Both of them are CalArts' alum(1999 I believe) and have worked on a diverse number of projects. All mediums too. Overall, the key emphasis was designing for performance--whether 2D, 3D, or stop-motion. Being able to capture the essence of a character--getting the whole story---within one drawing of that character. How a character's design will drive his/her movements. At the beginning of the night, this quote by Don Graham helps define what a character designer needs to do, "All we are doing in film, art, animation, etc. is trying to tell the viewer why the characters, sets, etc. are different than anything they've seen before." By answering the following questions you're on the right track towards a film that does set it apart from the rest of the pack--What's specific about this character? What kind of nuances fit his/her personality? What statements(both subtle and not) are you making? Basically not defaulting on a cliche idea. If you're stuck on how to answer these kinds of questions--research! Research keeps a design from becoming stale. Research helps you define what's inspiring you to bring this character to life. Also, embrace your limitations--the best outcomes usually come from constrictions! Simply stated, "limitations created the original three Star Wars, while a lack of limitations created Phantom Menace." Along with talking...the duo shared piles of artwork with us from various films that they've worked on, in particular Coraline. Absolutely beautiful work! They also shared some very entertaining stories about gag ideas that are in the actual film. Very excited to see this film--just about 2 weeks and it's out! Along with artwork, they brought along video clips to explain the concept of designing for performance:

First up was Daft Punk's Around the World:

Here they created the characters based on the instruments. Letting the sound drive the design. For example, the higher-pitch water sound inspired the 20's swimsuit girls..while the beating drum-line created the bandaged people(beatings=injuries=bandages).

Another design principle that came up was shape. Song of the South was one of the first examples. Brer Fox, Rabbit, and Bear are all based on their own unique shape(Triangle, circle, square). And how the characters were designed by animators so the characters' performance was always in mind. Keep an eye on the particular scene after Brer Fox grabs Brer Rabbit--absolutely brilliant work:

One of the Kings of character design for performance is Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Not only are the main 3 characters(Ichabod, Katrina, and Brom) again based on key shapes(triangles, circles, and rounded squares), but each of them move in their own unique way!

Here's Katrina. I couldn't track down the English translation, but the animation/character itself doesn't need the vocals. Just see how unique she moves.

And then all 3 characters together as Brom and Ichabod fight for Katrina's affections---great little short. I recommend watching the entire thing(it's all over YouTube):

The lecture started to focus on CG and how design is still vital even in this medium. To start off, Bert's Physical was shared:

Now, while they're obviously not CG they are completely believable and entertaining without relying on 3D features like hundreds of facial controls, realistic hair/cloth, crazy cameras, etc. They are just going from profiles to front views! Just from relying on the timing, tilts of the heads, character driven moments, and vocals--these guys come to life!

Coming to CG---Finding Nemo is the 3D equivalent of puppets. Fish are just big blobs with a few flailing fins, and big faces. Not a lot of extra features to rely on. This following clip includes a lot of great scenes, but pay attention between 5:30-6:40...esp. 6:10-6:40:

Finally, the importance of "casting" a film. Both in animation and in live-action, casting is vital. In live-action it's all about who fits the part(both physically and verbally). In animation it's very close---the character designers and animators needs to physically fit the part while an actor fits verbally. It might be easier to understand after these two examples---

Polar Express...just really the first 40 seconds when the boy reacts to a HUGE train magically stopping at his house:

versus "A Christmas Story"--there are many many scenes from this film that are very memorable(leg lamp, the dogs at the end, etc). But for my family--it really has to be this part:

Both involve kids, but which one really considered the casting? Which one really acted the part well and really embodied a particular character? I probably don't need to answer that. Anyways, that's the first week. We are also doing a character design assignment for next week so until then I'll be attempting to design a couple of characters from the given assignment based on, "Oliver Twist." Can't wait to see what everyone does!

My Thursday...

2009-01-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

...in pictures. I decided to document my entire day, so without further ado--my pretty busy Thursday!

7:33 am: Time to wake up!

8:30 am: Leaving the apartment.View from the stairs.

8:40 am: Hello cube!

What I'm currently working on. Eventually Mister Gideon(the cat from Pinocchio) here, will be talking in a couple o' weeks---right now I'm refining his main keys.

12:30 pm: Lunch break.

1:00 pm: In the Windows' lab for class.

6:15 pm: Dinner and Daily Show back at the apartment.

7:00 pm: James Baxter guest lecture! That giant white area is projecting the scene he was animating for us(it was a rabbit hopping up onto a tree branch---incredible work! From beginning to end).

9:45 pm: Character Animation Gallery Show opening! The rest of the images are from the rest of the night and should give you an idea of how crazy things were.

Around 11 the caricature area was setup and anyone could sit-down and draw.

Bands played.

1:00 am: Came back to the apartment. The party was still going strong when I left....

1:19 AM: Time for bed!

So that was my Thursday in a nutshell! Pretty fun day! And now I need to head back down to lifedrawing...

Sam Lowry

2009-01-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

Okay, seriously...has anybody seen this Lowry? Sergio has been asking this for over a month now!

So here's my final version...certainly an improvement from my WIP posting. I'll probably keep tweaking this guy for my end of the year demo reel--like that pause after his first Lowry. Still bugging me...still floating too much! But I'm ready to move onto the next assignment: Two person dialogue. Should be an epic battle I'm sure.

An example of the thumbnails I based my final lip sync off of. The last page that I included is what I settled on. I tried to explore just about every possibility for his acting. Even then, after all this planning his acting continued to change once I got into Maya---whether to accommodate the rigs' limitations(and there were plenty of them) or the sound clip really didn't call for that many gestures, etc.