Letting Go Update

Hey guys,

I was able to animate a shot for my senior project today. I think I would have gotten further along if I had used a different program. I spent at least three hours changing and adjusting things to get my frames from flipbook to work properly in Pencil. Once I was somewhat happy with the animation I tried to export it out as an image sequence since the movie function doesn't work on the Windows version of the program. It looks like that doesn't work very well either. All of the frames came out negative and at random sizes. I wasted more time fixing them in PS so they were visible, only to find out that the save function doesn't work on the windows version of pencil either.


To my horror, the shot I spent all day working on wouldn't open. I had to import each frame individually and then register them properly despite the resizing. I tried again to save the project without any luck. So I finally went over to the mac side and redid all of that. Thankfully the save function on the mac version works, lol. I don't think I'm going to use Pencil anymore, but if anyone else is thinking of trying it avoid using it on Windows!

I think I'll try out Plastic Animation Paper next. Anyway, here's the rough animation. I'll do a polish pass on it later.



I really like this version of the shot MUCH better than the original. While working on my Disney assignment, my mentor kept telling me to push my poses further. I kept that in mind while I animated this shot. I think it's a 200% improvement from the original.

For some reason blogger has cut out the last few frames of the shot. I'm going to have to add more time at the start and end anyway, so hopefully that will be resolved after I do that.

First Day at Disney

Yesterday was my first day at Disney, and man was it amazing! We got a tour of the studio lot and got to see the original animation building. We also went through the ink and paint department and learned about the cell creation process from blank to fully painted. At the end of the day we went to the famous wizard hat topped building...

I was blown away by the gorgeous artwork that was all over the place. You literally couldn't look somewhere and not see beautiful drawings. I know I'm going to love working there. During lunch a clean up artist spoke to me about his experience at Disney. He had been there for 20 years and loved every minute of it. He said its such a great environment that 10 years will go by without you even noticing. Lol, I really wish was here for a job rather than an internship. I'll have to make sure I get a call from Disney when I finish school in May!

I wont go into more detail due to NDAs but believe me when I say Disney's feature animation studio is an outstanding place. Being here is really a dream come true, and that was just my first day! =D

Kung Fu Panda

Hey guys,

I just got back from seeing kung fu panda...it was amazing!!!!!! I think it's Dreamwork's best 3d film so far. Everything about the movie is gorgeous. I especially loved the art direction, the color and lighting choices reminded me of golden age disney films. Everyone should see this awesome movie! Huge congrats to everyone at Dreamworks for a job very well done.