I really like my story about the cat who makes belts out of roses. I like it so much that I drew an illustration to go with it.
I had imagined the cat as being more Disney styled, but I hadn't tried to draw anything in the sequential art/graffiti style in a while. I'm sure he still looks Disneyish though, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to draw completely in the graffiti style LOL.
1. brown bag 2. jeans 3. Florida 4. cake 5. jump
Once upon a time there was a little boy named James who lived in a brown bag. James parents had abandoned him when he was a five and relocated to Florida. Everyday since then, James would go out and beg for money. He hoped to save up enough cash to be able to go to Florida and find his parents. One day James put on his dirty jeans and started to leave when he noticed a slice of cake at the opening of his paper home. Since James was very poor he had never experienced cake before. After one bite he was filed with delight and jumped around for joy. The cake was so good that James forgot about finding his parents. Now he begs for money with the hope of someday buying a whole cake for himself.
Hey guys. I just finished watching this weeks AM lecture on the process of storytelling. I've become inspired by what I heard/saw and have decided to do an exercise. I'm going to list a few random words and put them together to make a story. I hope to do one of these each day to improve my story telling skills. Ok, here we go:
Belt, cat, french fries, rose, and carpet
Once upon a time there was a cat who loved roses. Everyday he would collect roses from his garden and fashion them in a belt. The cat took great pride in his rose belts and displayed them in his living room for everyone to see. But one day, the cat went to hang his latest creation only to find his previous belts were missing! He searched the area franticly, hoping to find a clue to the whereabouts of his prized possessions. During his search, the cat stumbled upon some french fries laying on his carpet.
The cat hadn't eaten any french fries in days so he knew that couldn't have been his. After pondering for a while, he left his house to search every fry selling location. The poor cat searched for weeks without success. He returned home a month later and cried. The cat didn't let his incident deter him from his love of roses or from creating his beautiful rose belts. Though he continues to practice his craft, the cat no longer displays his creations. Instead, he locks them up in a trunk at the foot of his bed, where they remain this very day.
Random sketches. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is very cute and just as addictive...
More drawings of that raccoon character. I think I might attempt to build him this week since we don't have that much work to do.
Who can guess what I watched today?
This is a character that I would like to use for my AnimationMentor short. Sadly, I don't really know how to create a functional rig in 3d. I always get stuck at the skinning stage. I can't texture, do fancy rigging things like stretchy ik, or model very well either. Lol, I'm a 100% animator. I'll give it a try though since I really like this character.
I've noticed that almost every comment I've received on various forum says that my scene is good overall. I'm not to sure about this "overall" thing, it sounds kind of bad...
Here's the final version of my last assignment from AnimationMentor's Advanced Acting class. I hope you guys like it!
Counseling Session H264 2.66mb
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jcofer20/theVacation.mov
Counseling Session sorenson 5.21mb
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jcofer20/theVacation2.mov
Here's another up-date. I'm almost done applying the crits that I've received. I've also just talked with my mentor and found out that he doesn't want me to change some of the things that people wanted me to change. Since he's the director, I'm going to follow his instruction even though those particular comments were quite helpful.
The Vacation h264 2.33mb
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jcofer20/c4week12Revision2.mov
The Vacation sorenson 5.38mb
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jcofer20/c4week12Revision.mov
Since this is the last week of class 4, my mentor gave everyone an overall critique. He told me that all of my assignments this term were great. He said in a studio setting my boss might get nervous since I struggled with Leo's walk so much. My mentor said that obviously I am able to get the work done, but the struggling part might scare some people. He recommends working more on physical animation and I really agree. I had planned on doing some physical shots during the next term anyway. My mentor also said that my workflow could use some ironing out, but he doubts that will be a problem since I'll have two more years at SCAD to finalize that.
I told him how adamant I am about getting into feature right out of school. He told me about how studios switch from looking only for experienced animators to looking for students. I didn't know that studios went back and forth like that, so timing will be a large factor. My mentor said based off of my work for this term and my rate of improvement, he's certain that I'll be able to reach my goal. It took a few seconds for his comment to sink in, but once it did I couldn't stop smiling, LOL. I'm so glad my work is paying off and Ethan's comment has boosted my drive even more! LOL, now I'm going to work even harder! It is extremely important that I get that Disney internship this coming summer so I'll have some experience for my resume. Hopefully that will make me more appealing to human resources when it's time for me to graduate.
Thanks to everyone who has given me crits so far! I really appreciate it, you guys are helping a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!! So far I've got 21 things to tweak based on critiques that I've received. I've worked on the scene today. Some things took longer than others, so I only got 7.5 of the things on my list done. That's still progress though, and some progress is much better than none. I hope to have 7 more things done by this time tomorrow. :D Here's an up-date:
The Vacation h264 2.33mb
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jcofer20/c4week12Revision2.mov
The Vacation sorenson 5.38mb
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jcofer...12Revision.mov
My assignment sucks! I seem to have skipped the part where I like my work for a day or two, and have gone straight to thinking it's garbage. I didn't get as much work done as I wanted to this weekend, since I was away from home. I'll be spending this week on it though and will submit a revision. I guess I might as well upload what I have so far. I wanted it to be a surprise but I need to get as much feedback as possible.
The Vacation
The Vacation(Linux Friendly)
All comments and critiques are greatly appreciated! :D
Hey guys. I just finished reconverting all of my animation and storing it on a new page for Linux users and whoever else is unable to view h264 Quicktime files. There's a link in the animation gallery on my portfolio website to the Linux page. Here's a quick link to it now.
Linux Animation
I just remembered that I had a Google Analytics account and signed on a few minutes ago. I noticed that I've been having some Linux users visiting my page. I want to apologize to them for using the H.264 compressor. I'll do my best to remember to upload a Sorenson version of my assignment next week. >_<
I received a wonderful phone call today from Gamestop. They told me that Zelda: Twilight Princess will be released on Nov. 15th for the Wii and on Dec. 31st for the GCN. I'm definitely getting the Wii version! I'll be sure to have my reserved copy transferred from the GCN to the Wii before Sept. 21st, as that's when their offer ends. I seriously can't wait! I'm guessing that the Wii will be released on the 15th as well. I remember hearing that Zelda will be one of it's launch titles. I hope Super Smash Brothers Brawl is a launch title as well! :D
By the way, I am aware of the fact that I haven't posted any work recently. That's because it's close to being finished and I don't want to spoil the surprise. You guys can expect a rendered version next week. I wanted to get it rendered before Sunday, but I will be away from home this weekend. My laptop will be coming with me of course, but ever since I got Maya 7 it sucked at rendering. I've been using my PC to render now, so I'll have to wait until I get back.
Hey everyone. The AM staff wants us to spread the word about the tuition for new students. They said that the tuition for new students for the Winter 2007 quarter will increase. To avoid this, students are encouraged to sign up for the winter 2007 quarter by October 25th. If you sign up before Oct. 25, you'll be able to pay the original tuition price. I don't know why they're raising the tuition, but I figured I'd let you guys know.
I just finished watching this week's video news at AnimationMentor, and now I'm super excited about class 5! Starting next quarter, class 5 students will be having story mentors to help them with their short film ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bobby said they're getting people from the story department of various studios to help us out with that. Next quarter's going to be awesome! I already have an idea for what I want my story to be, but I'm pretty sure it's too long. Now that I'll have a story mentor, I should be able to solve that much more easily. :D I can't wait!
-________________- I had to upload my assignment to the "late work" folder thanks to my wireless internet. Our work is due every Sunday at 12pm PST. I was uploading my work at 11:53am PST. I sat there on that same page waiting for my "your assignment has been uploaded successfully" message to come up. It was taking longer that usual for my work to upload. I figured it was because the file was 7mb. I looked down at my wireless card and the light was off! I kept getting the "local area connection has been unplugged" message every few seconds.
Because of that my assignment wasn't actually uploaded. It just kept me on that uploading page thinking that it was working. I also tried hitting the upload button again, but I kept getting a "document contains no data" message. -_- Now my straight A record is ruined thanks to my internet connection. People, do yourselves a favor and never get wireless internet.
My grandfather being sent to the hospital, a mysterious wound the size of my fist appearing on my dog, a birthday every other day, my sister fainting and throwing up at the art store, my house being at high risk of burning down, a loss of power, and being ignored by the power company. I wonder what else will come up to stand between me and my assignment????? >_<
