Tuesday, May 27, 2008

When You Wish Upon A Star...

Hey guys,

I got an amazing phone call today during class that left me stunned and unable to focus for the remainder of the lecture. It looks like I won't be sitting at home this summer after all. Instead I'll be spending the summer at this wonderful place of magic and amazement...













Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe it!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Not Going So Well

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been plugging away at my senior project. I have to start over on some shots and I need to add some more. I also still need to finish what I already have. I'm having a hard time believing my acting choices. Everyday I have to move on to a different shot and I'm having difficulty with remembering the specific emotion(s) for each shot. Now everything feels like a big amorphous blob and none of my performances feel sincere as the result. I feel like every drawing that I makes suck and that my project as a whole is failing.

Lol, in short, I'm not feeling very positive about my work. Oh, I can give you an update on my internship status. It looks like I'll be going home over the break. I've been rejected from every place I've applied to so far except Disney. I was supposed to hear back from them today at the latest, but I haven't heard anything. I'm going to go ahead and assume their answer is no.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Progress

Hey guys,

I finally have enough shots roughed out to put together a rough version of my senior project. It still doesn't have all of the shots yet. Last time I mentioned the fact that the story has been revised. I'm still working on ideas for how the story should end. So far I'm going to have him start to put on the ring and then hesitate. Larry will realize he's finally made it outside and will enjoy how nice it is by running off into the distance in a gleeful manner.


Monday, May 05, 2008

Animation is Concentration

That is so true. I've been so caught up with trying to get my senior project done as quickly as possible that I seem to have forgotten that. I've been really unhappy with my work all quarter and now I know why. I've been focusing on drawing as fast as I can rather than really thinking about what I was doing. I even brought my ipod to Monty a couple of times and listened to music while I worked, which is something I usually never do. Big mistake! I think that made my problem even worse. The beat from the music was distracting from my imagined timing of my shots and displaced me from my work even more.

Sure I planned my shots and had my usual trouble with keeping things simple, but I wasn't 100% completely THINKING about each and every drawing. As the result my work has been crappy. The sad thing is, I know what needs to go into each of my poses, but I've been so distracted and flustered by having to finish all of the animation this quarter that I haven't been able to sit down and think clearly about it. This weekend I pulled out my copy of the Animator's Survival Kit and was once again amazed by the amount of information that it contains.

I've read the book from cover to cover many times, but every time I open it I realize something new I believe this is because my level of animation understanding has improved and now I really get what Richard Williams is talking about. Pretty much everything that
I learned at AM is in that book, it's just that now I really and truly understand what's being said.

I've also been inspired to try to slow down and spend even more time planning. I was looking at the example drawings from Milt Khal's strut and was really inspired by how much information he included in each drawing. There's no way my drawings had that many levels of intricacy, and I resolved to sit and make extremely detailed plans about what each drawing will have. I figure the more time I spend on that, the less time I'll spend fixing things and my work is much more likely to come out the way I want it on the first try.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Senior Project Update

Hey everyone,

I finally have a title for my senior project. It will be called Letting Go. The main character is no longer a germaphobe and is instead so depressed about the death of his wife that he's become a recluse. I'll see if I can post some updated animation later today.