animated detour

things just got REEL

2011-08-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

haha.

Here's my reel from third year. I hope to have all new stuff by the end of 4th year though.

dinosaurous

2011-08-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sky Waltz - Third Year Film

2011-08-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hello world! Well, I finally got around to uploading my film, WAAY later than I had intended. Realizing you lack some vital software needed to re-render stuff kinda sucks, but finally- patched together and partially animated, here is my third year film! Enjoy :)

A big thanks to my composer, Jake Smith and musician Alexy Shant Yeghikan for their brilliant work. And of course my awesome voice actors Megan Rippey and Michael Auriello. Writing dialogue, casting, getting an original score taught me a lot (like how I definitely need three clones of myself to organize all this stuff)

OH CRAP IT'S 4TH YEAR.

Jelly Thangy

2011-06-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

This is just a thing I did for the Producer's show intro. Take-a-looks:

Here's the intro itself, it turned out awesommmme:

Coming soon: My Film!

2011-05-27T00:58:00.000-07:00

Yep, I still haven't uploaded it yet. But it's coming soon, I promise! Like, within the next two weeks soon. I've been (extremely slowly) coloring some unfinished scenes. Summer can be so distracting..

Here are some screencaps in the mean while :)

daily doodie - baseball lady

2011-05-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'll *try for one of these a day.

* I may be lying

some doodlez

2011-03-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, now back to my film, ahhghghg

coming along

2010-11-21T05:08:00.000-08:00

Hello world! I'm still alive and well into third year. I've also started work on a certain third year film maybe, so hopefully I can finish it this time. But it has voicework and is four minutes long so I'm also screwed. Although I can definitely say I'm enjoying myself with this film more than last year's, so that's good. Anyway, here's part of a shot that won't be totally visible in the final. No worries, there are no animated crowd shots this time, haha...

Until next time! Hopefully soon. And hopefully I'm coherent.

Moving on to third year!

2010-09-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Welp! Didn't finish the film, but here it is anyway. It's in a place where I could still pick it up anytime and potentially complete, but for now it's time to move on to third year, woo! So hurr it is:

I want to take this chance to thank all of the amazing people that helped me out along the way of this crazy film's production:
Coloring: Sunmee Dong, Jiyoon Shin, Jeff Liu, Matt Braly, Ashley Nose, Amelia Lorenz, Tahnee Gehm, Marcos Cohen (color keys)
Bg Assistance: Ashley Nose, Michael Herrera

Ahhg I hope I didn't forget anyone, I have the memory of a fragile grandma.

So with that it's third year time! I'm really excited for this year- I'll finally be doing a dialogue film. I''m feeling confident in my film direction, so hopefully I can start soon on it. Until then stay tuned and hope I don't criminally abandon this blog again.

Hey Yallllllllls

2010-09-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna post my film up soon (don't get your hopes up, it's unfinished!) But in the meantime, here is some early concept work from 2nd year I did for it:

AHHG!! THE BLOG WITHOUT A SECOND YEAR FILM!!

2010-06-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Where's the promised film from this year? Where!? It was kidnapped, that's where! There's nothing I can do, sorry.

Ok, nobody will believe that.

So here's the real story! Most of the film is done, but not completely! It wasn't fully finished by the deadline... But my plan is to hopefully finish it entirely, then post it, since in my imagination it doesn't need too much work to be completed... But if laziness overcomes me, (which is likely, with videogames nearby and all) I might just post a quick reel of what I've already done. It was a rough year with workload, but I learned a lot along the way! So onward to third year, where I hopefully have a better grasp of reality.

So may your summer be filled with much rest and many trips to non-oily beaches! Until next time! (hopefully soon...)

Film Madness: Chapter Deux At Calarts!

2010-03-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

Wow, just yesterday it feels like it was November, and now suddenly we have just under two months before films are due, hahahahaaa...ha... AHHHGG! DAMN! CRAP! I made the mistake of falling into the 'second year epic' with my film, and what a curse it is. I don't know how, but I'll just work and work and see what I get by the finish line. But it's fun along the way, just wayy, way more involved than last year's film to say the least. But who can complain about getting too much to animate though? Anyway, here's a slight preview of my film. Not animation or anything, just some teaser artwork. Stay tuned till April!

Crack of Dawn - 48-Hour Lockdown Film (with sound!)

2009-11-28T22:24:00.000-08:00

Here it is, my lockdown film for this year... (which wasn't really made in 48 hours... shhh..!) This year's word was night, and it produced a really awesome lockdown show. My short however premiered without sound for some reason I'm not smart enough to understand, but it's been fixed now. Anyway, enjoy!

Flies and Monst'as

2009-11-20T02:38:00.000-08:00

Things have been busy!! Also, it's the 48-Hour Lockdown week, so look for a lockdown post in the near future! If I'm still conscious.

Cooking up second year.

2009-09-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

Okay that was an awful post title, but I have chef drawings here and there was no other choice.

So a summer of fun, learning, and back breaking labor has ended! I couldn't have dreamed of a better experience, and there's no way I can thank those enough who helped me grow over the break. But now it's back to school at Calarts as an official second year!

It's been great getting to see everyone again and people seem pretty pumped for sophomore year, and even more have film ideas ready to go. Woo! I really wanna focus on my animation this year... So the faster my story and stuff solidifies the better.

And so here are some chefs from an assignment in character design class with Rik Maki (TAKE THIS CLASS. IT IS FANTASTIC)

A post from the Past.

2009-08-08T02:04:00.001-07:00

...uhhh... Got nothing else to post, so here's a bunch of old film stuff!

Recently my harddrive went berserk and caused the destruction of all my files. I found some videos of rough animation and old story reels of my film as I sifted through my back up drive, so I thought I'd upload them! And most of my files are intact thankfully, film included.

First off are some images from my portfolio with some Leonardo, cat and dog development. Also some drawings of the city.

Here is the first story reel pass from my film. The entire beginning had to be restructured. I liked the pacing of this intro better, but in reality, there was both no time and no seconds to spare. The actual animation went way over time from the reel, which was a huge headache to trim down from what I had planned.

And here is the entire second semester of my life, animation! Or 70% of it. Here is most of the pencil test animation from my film, some parts rushed, some parts even more rushed. Would have done a lot differently looking back on it.. namely with better drawings =P.

If you notice in the animation where Leon is running with his back turned to the screen dodging traffic and what not, he is not holding the plank of wood in his hand after having picked it up from the fence near the dog. After I had cleaned, scanned, alpha channeled and composited one of the longest animation sequences in my film, I made the horrific discovery he was missing the damn plank of wood. I had to go back, erase and redraw that arm with the plank in his hand, rescan, re-alpha channel, and re-composite again right in the middle of crunch!! Somehow I lived.

First Year Film: Leonardo's Chase

2009-04-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's still crunch time!!

2009-03-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday some of us dropped by Disney Studios for the Inspire Days held there. We got to attend various panels covering everything from 2d and 3D animation to Layout and Story. The highlight however was the visit to the Feature Animation Studio, and my freaking God. It was awesome. I haven't felt so happy and giddy leaving a place since my first trip to Calarts. We saw Mario Furmanczyk's cube and his Princess and the Frog footage chart, and man, it was amazing to see how far he's come. Once a student at Calarts and now animating on the feature bringing 2d animation back to the big screen. It was amazing! We also saw Jen Hager's chart, another graduate from 06.

It was really super inspiring and I'm set to work as hard as I can to improve! Although I'm unsure I'll always feel this way... I think I want to become a feature animator! But I need to learn how to draw better first- my draftsmanship is sorely lacking... But eitherway, I'm inspired as hell and all of you should be looking very forward to Princess and the Frog, coming this November!

Anyway, I need to get back to film production. It's still crunch time which means more sleep deprivation than usual. With that, I'll leave this post with my animation assignments from last semester in Mike Nguyen's class.

It's Crunch time! Five Weeks Left...

2009-03-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it's still my first year at Calarts, but I'm pretty sure we've entered what seems to be the beginnings of crunch time. Everyone is stressing over their films, myself included. I'm just barely at a third complete of my film, and yet so much remains to be done with only a fraction of the time. I'm either going to have to work harder than I ever have in my life to complete one of the largest projects I have ever undertaken, or leave the year with an incomplete film. Personally, I am promising myself to avoid the latter at all costs. How exactly I'm planning to do that, I have no clue. But what I do have is this: a short, short snippet of animation from my film. Needs some more editing, sound and music, but visually it's near-final. It's using the background from a couple of posts ago. Sorry no story details or any more previews for now, but stay tuned till April to see Leonardo's adventure in Venice in a (hopefully) finished state.

AHHH. A late, LATE update!!

2009-02-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

GAHH. CRAP. I haven't updated in forever.

Well, second semester is in full swing which means there's lots of work to go around. It's film season people! Everyone's working hard on their films, busy boarding, thumbnailing and animating. First year films have to be under 90 seconds long, and I'm personally having tons of trouble fitting my film under that limit. I'll probably just make my 2 minute target film and cut the fat out to 90 seconds once all is said and done.

Anyway, a quick recap of the semester so far. A LOT OF AWESOME CRAP HAPPENED.

To start the year off with a bang, we had a 2-week, 4 part lecture from James Baxter himself animating a scene using Giselle and a rabbit from Enchanted. It was really informative and interesting to see a professional's workflow in animating a feature-quality scene.

Amazing animator! Thanks for the lecture!

The director of Kung-Fu Panda, Mark Osborne dropped by for a lecture too, and let a lot of insight into his experemental background and approach to directing KFP.

Thank you for making an awesome Dreamworks movie.

We also had the awesome, awesome Shane Prigmore and Shannon Tindle give a 2-week lecture on character design and their work on Coraline. What's even better is that they assigned us to make character designs based on Oliver Twist characters. Shane's awesome work.

Shannon's awesome work.

They came in and reviewed EVERY SINGLE DESIGN late into the night. It's not enough that these guys are crazy talented, but they're even nicer too! I'll take this chance to plug Coraline. Seriously, go see it. CORALINE. GO SEE IT. My horrible work. This is my take on Oliver.

John Khars and Clay Caytis from the animation podcast came down from Disney to give critiques on any animation we had, along with some people from Pixar. Needless to say I learned a ton from both my critiques and thier insight from others too. For my animation they pointed out that I need to act out my scenes, and note how body parts move in motion. And they're totally right! I usually animate without acting out anything before hand, but I'm slowly trying to researh motion and acting into my animation. AHHHG~ I LOVE ANIMATING. Ahem. John Khars is also coming down this week for a lecture too, exciting!

Dan Holland from Pixar came by this year to talk about character design too. If you've stuck around my blog for a bit, I wrote about Dan Holland coming last year too when I came to visit Calarts. It's freaking crazy that a year ago I visited and was totally blown away by the students, the 48-Lockdown and a Pixar lecture. A year later, here I am making a first year film. Damn awesome. But hard ass work.

Anyway, I'm really happy about the support we're getting from Disney animators coming down to critique our stuff and help us improve. Shane and Shannon may also return during Film crunch time and lend a hand.

My own film is onto the animation stage with some partially completed scenes. I'd say I'm about 30% done though, so there's still shit tons to do. But I'm having so much fun with this film, with my main character Leonardo, learning how to animate quadrapeds, painting the backgrounds... it's freaking fun. I just hope I can finish it, heh. Anyway, I'll post again with more details on my film. And maybe some partially complete footage too. For now, Here's one of the many watercolor backgrounds for my film I'm doing. More to come! Hopefully.

Final semester animation

2008-12-19T13:51:00.001-08:00

Yar! So here it is, my final semester animation. I wish computers were friendlier with me while they rendered these things. Damn things crash to much. Dammit.

Sometime soon: my animation VHS footage.

Run Cycle tests

2008-12-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

Just doing some quick run cycle tests for my film character. It's hard animating a run in this perspective! Had to kinda lay out a stencil beneath the rough and so forth. Still needs some work.

I'm really much more comfortable animating on paper. But in the meanwhile away from school, I'll do tests in flash. Here was my process:

And so Semester One comes to a close!

2008-12-16T01:09:00.000-08:00

Calarts is an animation boot camp. Period. You're picked up, thrown to the ground, and just when you're trying to get up, you're suddenly hanging upside down trying to juggle pianos with on arm behind you're back. Metaphorically speaking of course. Or somethings.

Um.. sorry, what I meant to say is.. it was a freaking huge ton of work. But I loved it all! It was an experience like no other. You're pushing yourself to do better, and others are pushing you. The talent pool here is insane, and it really humbles you, but the drive to improve is increased too. Say goodbye to your bed, sleep, and even daily showers, because the Character Animation program at Calarts will drag you through the rocks and back. You'll never work harder in you're life. But in all, it's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. I already miss the school.

And that's my summery of Semester 1. Bring it on Semester 2!!

I wish I had more of my work scanned to post... but yeah, the flight back for break left little time to do much. Anyway, here are some old perspective assignments. Stay tuned for my Animation Semester Final Assignment thing. And my reel perhaps.

I think I'm set for my film idea, and after extended feedback from classmates and teachers, I think I'll be able to refine the story and boards by the end of the break. Hopefully I can begin animation by January. You'll be seeing a lot more of Leonardo soon.

Possible first year film character.

2008-11-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

His name is Leonardo.

Might just be my final character. Maybe. Need to do some animation tests first..

48 Hour Hair Spectacular.

2008-11-11T22:39:00.000-08:00

Lockdown film.

So here's the rundown,

2008-11-06T23:37:00.000-08:00

Well usually I don't post because I'm really forgetful or enslaved with work, but this time it's because of an entirely different reason. In a nutshell, medical reasons threw me into the hospital for exactly two weeks, and amongst the post release, recovery and catching up with school work there just hasn't been time to keep up posting. But in time I should have a lot more content to post. I hate that I missed two weeks, but I'm totally better now and happy to be in full swing back at Calarts.

And of course the lockdown! It's been Calarts tradition for the past 5 years or so to hold an event called the 48-hour lockdown. Here you have 48 hours animate a short film. On the eve of the lockdown there's a drawing of a word from a hat that reveals the lockdown's topic. This year's word was "hair", and you guessed it, you need to animate up some hair. Actually you can pretty much do whatever you want, as long as hair appears in a frame of the film.

The drawing was the week I was let out of the hospital, and being the nut that I am with all my backed up homework, I did the film anyway. I'm happy to say it's finished and awaiting to premiere with some other hilarious stuff this Saturday. I'll post it here after the Lockdown show.

Here's a preview still:
Stay tuned for the upload this weekend. STAY TUNED DAMMIT!!!!

Life drawing action!

2008-09-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

Off to a shaky start after a long break from life drawing... Need to get better. We have awesome models here. They put the ones you find normally to shame. Anyway, here are the drawings I didn't hate.
If they look kind of janky, it was because they had to be pieced together from the scan. All are 15-20 mins.

Arrival at Calarts: I love this place so damn much.

2008-09-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

Although free time is really short, and homework is quickly piling up.

Anyway, Calarts is frikken amazing and the people here are so goddamned talented...! It's really the place to be if you want to push yourself to improve. Only here can you have spontaneous sketch sessions while watching the Iron Giant on the big screen. The people are super cool and friendly and you can finally have those nerdy animation discussions you've been aching to have.

Student films for freshmen are locked at exactly 90 seconds, credits included, no synched sound or dialogue. Sophomores get 2 mins, Juniors 5, and Seniors up to 7. Classes are about to finally pick up steam next week, but so far they seem pretty cool. Our storyboard teacher works at Disney, our CG teacher is currently working on Bolt, and our Animation teacher was one of the animators on Hogarth in the Iron Giant and is currently working on a 2D soccer film.

FC100A02	BEGINNING ANIMATION	Nguyen, Mike	1.50	T 7pm to 10pm	PALACE
FC101A02	BEGINNING CGI ANIMATION	Aquino, John	1.50	Th 7pm to 10pm	A108
FC105A02	INTRO TO DIGITAL PRODUCTION	Lebow, David	1.00	T 9am to 12 Noon	A108
FC110A	BEGINNING LIFE DRAWING	Mitchell, Michael	3.00	Th 9am to 4pm	PALACE
FC115A02	BASIC PERSPECTIVE	Hansen, Dan	2.00	M 9am to 12 Noon	PALACE
FC140-02	COLOR AND DESIGN I	Hobaica, Leo	2.00	T 1pm to 4pm	PALACE
FC155A02	BEGINNING STORY DEVELOPMENT	Lee, Chong	2.00	W 7pm to 10pm	PALACE
FC371-02	STORY FOR ANIMATORS II (SOPHOMORES)	Meeks, Chris	2.00	F 1pm to 3pm	A221O

Apparently there are going to be 10 guest speakers this semester alone, although a solid list of dates have yet to materialize. So looks like an exciting year ahead, and everyone seems anxious to start, I know I am.

I guess I'll try to post more artwork too, I have a habit of not doing that. Here's this perspective thing I did.

Portfolio Guide is up!

2008-08-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

For me, it was tough to search the web for solid info on how to make a portfolio. Especially one as ambitious as a Calarts portfolio. So alongside finally uploading my atrocious work online, I tried to write a thorough guide to provide as much info as possible on this endeavor. It has almost all the useful information I can recall learning from others, students, teachers, and myself in my tribulation in creating my first portfolio.

Calarts Portfolio Guide

It also has links to other guides that are really useful as well, so check it out!

I'm a bad person.

2008-07-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

I said I’d update this blog, I yet I haven’t. That... makes me a liar. Or lazy.

^I’m good at this.

Ok, so maybe it’s harder to consistently update these blog things than I thought. But anyway, yes, I’m asleep at the wheel.
BUT! There have been exciting developments! For one, Calarts has finally blessed me with my hideous portfolio back.

^It’s back! And yes, It flew me home.

A little late, but everything’s intact, blood, tears and all. And, as promised I will post the entirety of my portfolio’s contents online, probably on a separate blog link. I know how useful it is for those looking to apply to Calarts to look at other’s work as a point of reference, so within the week it shall be uploaded. But personally, although it got me accepted, I’m still not totally happy with my portfolio. Looking back on some of it is cringe worthy in areas. Perhaps I’m being my worst critic, but I have so many areas to improve on it’s overwhelming. But ehhh. Enough of that.

Looking at the calendar reminds me: It’s freaking August already. Like, Jesus. Where has the time gone. I’m really leaving my hometown, my family, and everyone I know in a month. It’s a massive pool of anxiety and excitement for the future. But I’m not here to spread my angst, no, none of you want that. Instead, look for a portfolio post very soon.

Damn mean orcs.

2008-06-06T00:53:00.001-07:00

I've wanted to enter the Chades Challenge for a while now (CHAracter DESign), so I finally got around to jumping in.

This week's challenge was mean orcs. I think these are what orcs look like. Orc children. Yeah.

2008-05-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Got this for my birthday a few weeks ago. Seemed fitting. Might need to sell the black beast beside it if I don't have enough money soon though.

There are $26 inside, if you really wanna know.

Some old character designs lying around.

2008-03-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

spinning

2008-03-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

I still can't really believe it, but somehow, I GOT IN, I was accepted to Calarts!!!

I'll be sure to post my full portfolio online when I get it back in (May?) I''ll also put some of my sketchbook work up too, coupled with my animations.

I want to thank Mario at animatedbuzz.com and everyone from the forums, they were a huge component of this crazy race to the deadline. Thank you, all of you =)

Weird, the Animated Buzz forums are broken..?

2008-02-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a few days it's been down. You can still gain access if you do a google search with the cache on but that's pretty useless since you can't click on anything =/. If I've learned anything from this is how much I miss going to those damn forums.

But don't worry, I've dispatched the Excelsior Brigade to handle the situation.

Be nice to them. (Update: Looks like they fixed it! Good

job guys!)

I'm going to try to update more often. School hasn't been too kind on the work load.

So, here's the mediocre animation I promised:

2008-01-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

After a ton of deliberation, I decided that it was in my best interest to make my animation submission completely hand-drawn. Although I did put the individual frames together using flash, I really wanted to stick to traditional hands-on-paper animation. It was really labourous as an at-home project *especially the watercolor*, but well worth the effort. I learned a lot.

So yeah, there are two films. The first is the watercolor film, which looking back on it, is extremely slow-paced and recycles animation far too often. And also, the hunter in the beginning is holding a shotgun, not a stick, and the bear has already been shot. A lot of people seem confused by this, heh. Blame my sub-par ability of story telling =)

The second film I made in about 5 days, give or take scanning time. Some parts look really crude, but I tried to do some challenging things like running and hand animations just to see how it would come out.

So there you go, two home-made traditionally animated films, just like mom used to make! I wish I hadn't included the first on the DVD, but at least I tried a different approach.

Calarts Portfolio 2007: The ride of a lifetime!

2008-01-07T13:57:00.000-08:00

What a shame I've been unable to update for so long, but spare time has become pretty hard to come by as of late. But I'll try to summarize my experience of putting together my portfolio up to this point.

For one, I wish I had found out about the school a lot earlier. I found out about it in mid-April I believe, but unfortunately that was far too late to apply for CSSSA, which would have really helped I think. And to have more time to put together a portfolio would have been great too, but seeing as I had the little time I did, I focused the remaining months into life-drawing. That early in the game I had no clue as to what I was going to include in my portfolio. I really wanted to make an animation to include, but I didn't want to do it in flash in favor for a more traditional approach. How I would get that together I had no idea, but that would only be supplement stuff for later if I had time.

I was also battling the idea of which deadline to send to, early or regular. On one hand, early is cheaper and you have fresher eyes to look at your work, and on the other, the late deadline allows for your absolute best and latest work to be submitted. I decided to aim for the early deadline, and if I wasn't fit to send, I'd postpone until mid-December. So Summer approached and I worked as hard as I could to get my act together for my portfolio. So many classes, so many late nights, so many new approaches, so many challenges, but all in all it was a great summer to draw!

The deadline always seemed to be breathing behind my neck, but when school started, the pressure really started to kick in. The November deadline seemed closer than ever and I didn't have nearly the amount of portfolio pieces I wanted, nor did it look like I was going to get an animation off the ground. In early November though, I was blessed with the chance to visit the school to meet students teachers and make it just in time for the Pixar lecture. Plus I got to meet a ton of Animated Buzz posters in addition to some Calartian Bloggers. An unforgettable, inspiring three-day weekend that I can't thank my parents enough for. I got some good pieces for my portfolio from that visit, and the inspiration to really tackle my ambition to include an animation.

So I took a couple of days off from school to really make sure my portfolio was ready (plus getting a flash-format animation into video form was harder than you could believe, at least for me..) Thankfully it worked out just in time.

The week before handing in the portfolio was pure hell though. I'm really indecisive, and I was so split on what to include, in what order, what to throw out, including too much or too little... it was a hectic 8 days~ Luckily fiddlinartist at the animated buzz forums was at hand at the last minute in the forums to help me out, thanks again!

The trip to the mail office was so nerve-wracking. I couldn't stop thinking how this was really it, I was actually sending off my portfolio. The week waiting for it to arrive to Calarts was also stressful, God forbid it got lost in the mail... It arrived on the 29th safe and sound, and then the waiting began... and continues...

Although I worked very hard on the portfolio, I can't say I would have left it without changes. I wish I could have taken out some things among other alterations, but for now, I'll have to wait and see. Regardless of what happens, I'm ramping up for my 2008 portfolio, ready to double my efforts for this incoming year. After sending it in, I did take a month-long break, but now all focus is on seeing what I can do to improve.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures of my final portfolio due to time constraints. When I get it back, I'll upload pics. I do have my animation to show off on my next post, so stay tuned for that.

Time to visit Calarts!

2007-11-07T21:54:00.000-08:00

Well, my flight is in a good 12 hours, and this will likely be my last access to a computer for the next five days. Can't wait to get there and finally see the campus and the artwork. I'm going to take tons of pictures and bug as many teachers with my awful portfolio as possible. Whats even better, all of this is occurring during a lecture from one of the animators at Pixar and someone else at an advertising animation company!

A weekend full of critiques, life drawing classes, lectures from professionals and animation lockdown! The holiest of combinations for any animator. Man, if one weekend is like this, imagine what being enrolled at Calarts for a whole year must be like! :D

Dear world, I'm in portfolio hell.

2007-11-04T19:49:00.001-08:00

*various grumbles among swear words*

The Preferred deadline is like, right here almost. It's just three weeks away! Whats worse, I don't think my portfolio will be up to snuff by that deadline. Nothing I have in it really has a punch in it, at least I think. Add in the stress of college applications and you have yourself one hell of an exciing month coming up. Oh well, I'll get profesional pointers in little under a week, during my trip to Calarts which should be pretty damn exciting. But really, putting together a portfolio while getting piles of homework done is a horrible, horrible thing. Remember kids, get your crap done early!

I'll upload some portfolio considerations given the time. Right now... I got a biology report that needs doin'.

Movies you may have missed! : A Boy Named Charlie Brown

2007-10-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, I'm going to dedicate a post to some of my most beloved animated films that may have not necessarily been the most visually stunning or popular films but are still true gems to behold. These movies deserve to be checked out for their merit even without visual fidelity.

I'd like to start this hopefully continuous series of posts with the motion picture, A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

Featuring the theatrical release in 1969, this movie has seen a number of cable-TV re-airings in recent years (well, if you count the early 90's recent). As a child, Charlie Brown was a major influence in my drive to draw, and many of the specials and movies I saw heavily guided my artistic direction early on. Charles Schulz's charming cartoon for this reason is very near and dear to me. But in particular, I feel this movie stands out from many by far.

Not only does it feature a charming story that never needs to go over the top to stay interesting, it is well paced and humorous without needing to be edgy, something modern animated films have trouble grasping. In addition, it features some of the most memorable musicals on par with Disney ones. Vince Guaraldi's Skating with Snoopy and Schroeder's rendition of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata stand out.

Most importantly, as with many Charlie Brown specials, this film taught a very important lesson: failure. It would be hard to find a modern animated film that didn't have the usual happy or favorable ending serving as the crowd pleaser. But a Boy Named Charlie Brown has the main protagonist fall flat on his face at the end of all his endeavors, but teaches that regardless of one's failures, the world doesn't end. One of my most favorite animated films, A Boy Named Charlie Brown is not a movie to miss.

New Batch.

2007-10-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

Well, not new exactly, this is all partially August early September stuff. I'm hoping my next batch is more experimental. Here's the dump anyway-

2007-09-11T17:52:00.001-07:00

Don't know how much you guys might follow videogames, but Valve has been releasing trailers promoting their newest game, Team Fortress 2.

However, these trailers stand out from the standard video game trailer in that they feature stunning CG character animation, an attractive style, and tons of humor. These are real gems. Take a look.

2007-09-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

While browsing over John K's blog and his interesting perspective on cartoons, I found this french CG cartoon. while the lip syncing is laughable, it's pretty hilarious. I don't know why, but I must have watched it 7 times already.

Holy crap, it's been two months, hasn't it!?

2007-08-29T00:48:00.001-07:00

Massive update time! Here's all my stuff from July. I'll have some more recent stuff up soon, but for now, here are some mixed sketches and life drawings. (this is about 30%-40% of all I did)

Some of the proportions are off by a deadly margin in my life drawings. In addition, they aren't... well... creative enough. I gotta make sure to pump some more personality into these! More experimentation!

Feel free to leave any and all critiques!

Rabid Simpsons fan makes a post

2007-07-08T23:09:00.001-07:00

That rabid fan being me.

And my excitement for their feature film only mounts with every passing second. As of this very moment, only 18 days remain until one of my most anticipated movies ever. Sure, the show doesn't carry the charm and comedy it once did at it's peak (the '93-'98 era) but I'm hoping the movie can bring back some of what made me love the series so much to begin with.

...I'm so sorry, my dear Tablet...

2007-07-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

What a shame. I've been shunning my tablet as of late. Felt it was only necessary to give it some use.

A tale of two Classes.

2007-06-30T00:52:00.000-07:00

Ah, and so arrives the much needed update.

So, one might recall my excitement in entering my first environment of formal art education in 5 years; that being my life drawing class at SVA. Well, that class finally came, and I left... confused. I expected to walk right in, sit down, and sketch down a model, quickly and simply. My hopes were soon shot down, as I found my self an hour deep into the discussion of organic and inorganic lines. When we finally commenced drawing, each other, we were confined to using a solitary line to construct our drawings. This rigid, strict approach seemed to stray in a polar opposite direction of the loose and lively work I intended to produce.

But even so, I thought, this was only the first session, one of ten. This was probably going to lead up to the class I had envisioned... sooner or later. God knows I needed somewhere to get my loose portfolio work from, If I planned getting into a certain animation college. Besides, maybe this rigid line work is something I need to become a better life drawerer. Hell if I know, the basics is what I need, and I am only a student after all.

Right, so the following week, I entered the class with a new attitude. Today we draw models! And low and behold, we are again, restricted to using rigid and simple lines. More precisely, we had to form shapes out of these lines. Not spheres or cubes and whatnot, just flat, 2d shapes, to construct the composition with. If anything could get farther from what I needed for my portfolio, it was this rigid, abstract approach to drawing.

I was in panic. As the class soon reached it's third session, I realized it was surely not going to give me anything loose enough for my portfolio. I had paid in full, so I had to continue to attend! But the summer was going to slip by me with nothing useful for my portfolio! And the deadline is nearing closer with every day. That week following the third session, I made it my goal to find a proper live modeling class.

It was 4 am, and my head was buried in pages and links from Google on the computer. I was determined to find the type of classes I'd so often read about on forums and message boards concerning the same interest. Somehow, I would find the class that would let me produce the type of work I needed for my portfolio. After hours of searching, I found this magical link:

http://www.nyfew.com/information/ateliers-figure-drawing/nyc_drawing_workshops.html

This was a Godsend. It was exactly what I needed. I chose to go to the National Academy figure drawing class. $12 for each 3 hour class, not bad. As soon as I entered, it was precisely the environment I wanted from the start! A nude model, completely uninstructed, leaving me free to pursue my own creative approach to my figure sketching! And the best part is that it was held twice a week. This couldn't possibly get any better.

So there you have it. I am now taking 3 model classes a week. That's 9 hours a week of model drawing! That, I hope, should help me improve somehow right? Perhaps by the end of the summer, I can emerge from my training with some worthy portfolio pieces.To go back to my first class at SVA, I really do feel that it is a good class. The only reason I felt disappointed is because we were heavily restricted to what the instructor told us to to, that being mere straight lines. We were pressured to avoid a "loose" approach, and stick to merely constructing 2d shapes to draw the composition with. But 6 sessions still remain, and I feel that I will benefit from anything I learn in that class. I feel I also may have been wrong in having assumptions as to how an art class would be orchestrated. After all, I am a student.

So, if you've made it all the way to the end, two things I'd want you Calart pursuers to learn from this is to search thoroughly for what you want, and and open mind to what you can find. Take initiative on getting to your goal! Those classes wont find themselves!And where are the sucky drawings I've made so far? Right below, just scroll on down.

Uninstructed Sketch class: RESULTS!!

2007-06-30T00:28:00.000-07:00

So, as crappy they may be, I hope with the new found modeling class to improve from here, and get more creative and risky with medium and all that. But this was my first class, so i did with what I had. No SVA work to show yet, that is locked away in a distant land.

2007-06-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

My very first model drawing class ever is in a couple of hours! I'm a bit nervous but excited too. Lets see how it goes and what I can learn.

Dont upset the licorice man

2007-05-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Don't do it I'm tellin' ya.

Hooray SVA.

2007-05-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

Nothing new much. Busy week. Here's some of my recent cartoon-type stuff though.

And fortunately, I found a live-model art class in the NY area down in Manhattan at SVA (School of Visual Arts). They have lots of other classes, starting early June. if anybody in the area is interested, check the Continuing Education part of the website:

http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu/ce/splash.html?sid0=3

Life drawings: The start

2007-05-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well, actually, I'm lying. They aren't exactly from life, more than they are from a catalogue. But its something right? I'll need to get to parks and zoo's to start drawing from real life though. As soon as I get this damn SAT out of the way, coming up this weekend (Calarts doesn't even look at SATs, do they?) I'll get right on it. Until then, JCPenny catalogue, here I come.

This one above though, is from my bus to work.

These are some recent sketches, displaying my current level. I hope to improve immensely from here, but how, I don't know. What I do know is that I dont like the empty, expressionless faces (or lack therof) that I scribble in. I need to tackle faces too, but I'll leave that for another attempt. For now, life drawings.
I'm also hunting around for summer art classes, particularly those offering live models. But I'll take what I can get.

I want to get into Calarts.

2007-04-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Calarts of Valencia California. Luckily for me, my artistic skills are no where near the level of accepted students, meaning I need to get to work!! Which brings me to the point of this blog. I'm currently a Junior in H.S., and the ache to get into this top-notch school has me scrambling to improve my skills, create a portfolio, and overall, stop sucking at art to stand out among 10% that get accepted. What a burden. A fun burden though.

BAD ART! THE TOILET

IS WHERE YOU GO!

But it must be done. It is a journey I must embark upon! And yes, you can join me. Watch me improve (or destroy) my art in the period following now until that final portfolio submission. The questions immediately arise! Will my art improve? Will I get in? Will I get utterly rejected? Whatever happens, I hope his blog can be used as a reference for other hopeful animators such as myself who have targeted Calarts as their future, expensive-ass college.

If I get rejected, look at my art as a reference of what not to do and how not to draw for your portfolio!
But hey, if I get in, you'll have a step-by-step reference of what you should do to get into your dream school.

SOMEONE GET THIS KID A MEDAL. NEVER HAVE I SEEN SOMEONE TRY SO HARD.

But hey, what do I know? I still have a lot to learn and no brain mass to learn it with. Damn.

HEY!! WHO UPLOADED MY X-RAYS!?

Well then. The clock is counting down! I officially have 3/4s of a year to get my act together! I'm going to work my ass off drawing until goodness is achieved!

IF ONLY HE COULD READ...

Next time, I'll upload some life drawings for judgement. Stay tuned. Please?