Motivational Meme

I found this while briskly browsing some of my routine internet stops. I found it quite motivational. This image and other meme-themed (hehe, that rhymned) goodies can be found at memebase.com.

A Little Under the Weather Lately, But Still Animating...

Hey there everyone, I apologize for my lack of posting in the last few days. There really hasn't been much to say other than I'm recently recovering from a nearly 10-day-long stretch of chronic coughing, nose blowing, tea drinking, nap taking, and medicine dosing. I usually get sick around this time of year so I can't say that I'm surprised by this. But all in all, I kept up on the animating (at a slightly slowed pace) and had a lot of fun working on the shots of the acrobats. I'll have some videos posted as soon as I shoot all the animations. Thanks for all the well-wishing and care taking, my friends.

This is how I felt. True Story.

Winter Break. Winter, yes. Break, NO!!

The goal for winter break is to pound out the rest of the digital backgrounds in photoshop. So far 6 have been tackled.

And to help me work on my backgrounds is Miss Kitty the Filmmaking Productivity Calico. She keeps my lap warm and makes it difficult to leave my chair so I have no choice but to sit and work. I hope the rest of my classmates are staying warm and inspired. Whether you're relaxing or working, have a good break everyone!

End of the Fall Semester

Whoo boy, one semester of production down, one to go. I still plan on working over the 3 week winter break. In fact, I'll have to double my planned work load. I was just going to concentrate on coloring backgrounds but I'll also have to finish keying the remainder of the film too because I fell behind schedule. Looks like my Christmas vacation will be a working vacation.

Hopefully my current work reel for Dark Circus will be up here on the blog within a few days. I'm planning on asking my Sound Design professor if I can use a few tracks from his latest CD. So once I get his 'okay' I'll post the current work reel with the new audio.

This is My Desk

In the senior production class, everyone gets their own desk. I sit here.

Keyin' Like a Crazy Person

Great googley moogely! It's been almost two weeks since my last post! I'm sorry everybody, I've been thinking so much about key frames and animation that I sort of forgot to tell you all about it!

Shot 20 key frame test

As far as how much is done with keyframing, the first two scenes are as stands:

Scene 1 (Macey's Bedroom at sunrise): Keys completed

Scene 2: (Family in the Bakery): Keys 80% done

I'll have some more tests up here on the blog soon once I get them all shot and rendered to video. Finals are creeping up on me but I'll do my best to keep the updates rolling. Speaking of updates, it's snowing! I'm surprised that we didn't really see any until the first day of December. I love snow, it puts me in a working mood and makes coffee taste even better. Also, the fall semester ends on December 18, which means that the school year is almost half over. In a rush to get as much done before winter break as possible, the goals for the next few weeks are:

1. Key Frames for Scenes 1-4
2. Updated Work Reel
3. Theater Promo Poster
4. Artist Statement
5. Artist Bio

Wish me luck!

So I Lied: MORE BACKGROUNDS!!

Okay, okay. I know what I said. In the last post I promised that I was done with backgrounds for the semester and that I would do nothing but animation stuff until winter break but I have a legitimate excuse! My cats don't let me animate! It's true, they sit on my light box whenever I try to animate at home so I can only animate comfortably when I'm back in Detroit. So instead of animating the weekend away, I photoshopped up another handful of backgrounds and I'll get right back to key framing once I'm at school again. These two backgrounds are from the beginning of the film so the first few seconds of Dark Circus are almost done! I'm getting a little silly now.

The Culprits!!

Baby Cat (upper left), Stubbins (in the box), Miss Kitty (lower right)

Progress Charting

I finally found a use for Microsoft Excel other than making silly pie charts. I made a table listing off all the shots and what work needs to be done. I have them color blocked according to what's done, what's not, what's started, etc. When this whole thing turns blue and black, then that means that the film is done. Hmmm, I recall a friend of mine saying that life is all about filling progress bars..

Art Display! Hurray, Hurray!

Student work, ahoy! For the last few weeks, some concept and production artwork from Dark Circus as well as some work from my anatomy studio class have been hanging around on the Wall of Winn for all to see. Also gracing the wall is some work from the super talented Kevin Ingrassia, who is working on a 3D game design called The Locker for his senior thesis project. I don't know how much longer it will be up there, so to all you CCSers, go take a look if you haven't gone to see it yet!

Kevin and I divided the Wall of Winn 50/50. It was interesting to see work for a traditional film and a CG game juxaposed beside eachother.

Kevin's awesome art

Background Layouts Complete! Another Checkpoint Reached!

Awesome Possum! I finished my background layouts for the whole film. There are still some background images that need to be drawn like the stock views of the city and some other things but all the layouts pertaining to animation are done!

To no one's surprise, it's 4 in the morning and I am all tuckered out. Time for bed. Hmmm, i'm getting a strange sense of dejavu. Wait a minute, does this picture seem familiar?

Oh yeah, that's because the same thing happened with my last film from junior year.

Me after finishing the layouts for Enviosity in 2009

Some Things You Can Find On My Desk

My work space in the dorm definitely wouldn't be getting any standing ovations for organization or overall prettiness, but it's my zone of amazing creative brain explosions! There are typically anywhere from one to four beverages sitting around somewhere and drawing utensils scattered everywhere. Tonight on this fine evening of drawing layouts, my lowly desk is graced by the divine presence of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Whoohoo!!

It was so delicious!

Bakery Layouts

Here's a sample of the new batch of layouts for the bakery in Macey's Windmill. There's a few more to do so I felt the need to stop by one of my favorite cafes to grab a bag of "inspiration"... ^^ Yummy, yummy inspiration!

Whoa boy, doesn't that pecan roll look good!! =D

The Most Important Filmmaking Supplies

Over the summer I began stockpiling the necessary tools and supplies I would need for working on this film. I think this might get me through the preproduction....

Now I just need some French Vanilla creamer.