Thursday Update

Only at CalArts can you walk out of the animation department at 11:30 at night, into the main gallary, and see a group of topless, hairy guys(with dreadlocks on both scalp and chin---not in a good way) playing hard metal, screaming at the top of their lungs----"Kick the Drunk" to a group of equally hairy, dreadlock covered people(male and female) as they stood there in a daze(I don't want to know what induced this eerily calm audience demeanor). It echoed through the department and pretty much the entire school---I'd be surprised if anyone on sub level didn't hear the racket. Anyways....

Traditional Animation was awesome tonight, we watched everyones' roller coasters and he gave us feedback. He enjoyed the personality and character in my animation, but the speed wasn't accurate in some parts---it was jumping from slow to suddenly very fast without going through just a fast speed(particularly on that first drop at least.) Otherwise we watched a lot of reference videos that demonstrated timing/spacing/character. Videos including a guy that has spent the past 25 years of his life perfecting the art of time-lapse camera techniques(REALLY awesome studies, though not a huge fan of the maggots devouring a mouse on a large screen), animals in Africa that became a little "tipsy" after eating this particular fruit that was past its' prime and apparently, when consumed, makes the victim pretty disorientated. The monkeys, elephants, and the giraffe were definately classic unsteady examples--the 60s silly cartoon sound effects only amplified the effect Other videos were motion captured elephants riding bikes VS. the Fantasia sequence with the gators and hippos to demonstrate conveying weight. He also showed a clip from Pocahontas and it was VERY clear who took the cake on a convincing portrayal of weight, spacing, timing, and character.;) There were a couple polar bear documentary clips- we also watched, foxes, coyotes, and then to show different character timing he showed THIS Disney Short. He also demonstrated the animation technique he uses and with pencil and paper- made a hippo jump,punch the air with its fist, and land. Really cool to watch, and in case you're wondering he uses a combination of straight-ahead and pose-to-pose. He doesn't necessarily go through and put in the key poses and then in-between; he'll draw the action like straight-ahead, but keep a clear direction in his mind and doesn't deviate from it. That hippo was looking pretty sweet for being rough and not more than 24 drawings. And yep, I'm animating a fish. Can do anything as long as the fish has a believable movement, an underwater feel, good timing, etc. Should be fun, my brain is already buzzing with ideas. =)

Alright well I need to work on that questionnaire some more and it's getting ridiculously late again so since I'm finally starting to get over my nasty cold I don't want to take a step backward because of lack of sleep(yes, despite my precautions and care I still got sick. It wasn't much fun being me for the past 3 days, but it's MUCH better now). Anyhow, tomorrow night----Mark Andrews!

On a Side note: managed to hunt down a WHOLE library of soundtracks related to the Haunted Mansion Ride in Disneyland, like the entire ride soundtrack, general music, sound effects, out-takes the voice overs did, and alternate versions of things. Ohhhhh the dialogue test possibilities involving Paul Frees(the guy who did the welcome voice for the ride "Welcome Foolish Mortals---to the haunted mansion!") and other perfect character voices.