Sunday, October 25, 2009

Vulpix!





Pokemon fanart! Woot!

Film concept ideas




Some concept art for my final film! I've got the story roughed out in my head, I need to really review it a few times and maybe do some sample boards before I have a clear definition of what's going to happen in my film. I've got the basic plot roughed out though, so I'm pleased. :)

Anyways, this guy is going through a bit of a makeover until I can find a design that works well for motion and animation. It should be fun animating him. :)

Friday, October 23, 2009

Go back to the source!

Figure it's time for an update.

Things have been going smoothly. I've gotten used to having a huge pile of work at any given moment, which is great because of the content of the assignments. Why else would I be going here? I really feel like I'm improving by being around so many different artists, all talented in different areas and passionate about the same thing, all under the same pressure. Pretty exciting. :)

Tonight, Shane Acker, the director of "9", and Joe Ksander, the animation director, are coming as visiting artists and giving a lecture. This should be awesome - I really enjoyed the visual look of "9", so it'll be cool to hear the process.

So far, the visiting artists at CalArts have been:

James Gurney, creator of Dinotopia
Birgitta Hosea, program director of Character Animation at Central St. Martin's
Mark Andrews, storyboard artist at Pixar
Tina Price, host of the 2009 Creative Talent Network Expo

Rumored visiting artists in the future:

Pete Sohn, director of Pixar's short "Partly Cloudy"
Glen Keane, director of the upcoming film "Rapunzel" and Disney animator


Speaking of the CTN expo, I got a free ticket for being one of the first 25 people to come to the Tina Price lecture. There are going to be some big names at the expo, some include David Colman and Don Bluth! I can't believe how many people I'm meeting, and am going to meet. This is a dream come true. :)

On another note, I've decided my final film and begun designing the main character. I'll make sure to post some sketches soon.

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Have I really already been here a month?

It's amazing how time flies when you're animating.

I plan on posting some animations soon, once I've figured out how to get them in the right format.

Anyways, thought I'd post some pictures of the cubes. This is where I spend my all-nighters at CalArts.











Sooo yeah. I'll finish up with a drawing for my story class.


Sunday, October 4, 2009

An update from art school...

Yo.


So CalArts is awesome. A little quirky, but awesome. The workload is starting to pile up, but that's alright. It's what I came here for.

Classes have been good. There are some that I wish would pick up a bit, and others which I think are AMAZING(traditional animation = <3). I sat in on a character design class Wednesday and was awed by the amount of critique given. Basically, the teacher wasn't afraid to say which designs worked and which flat-out didn't. It's not a class I'm registered for, but I plan on sitting in anyways. There's so much to learn. :)

On a side note, as weird as this might sound, I never thought I'd enjoy animating so much. I mean, I know I'm going to CalArts for character animation, but before coming here I mainly wanted to be a character designer. Now that I enjoy animating so much perhaps I can do both. :)

Today I plan on seeing "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" with some of the other students. Should be fun, maybe I'll post a review here after. I'll take my camera with me because because I've been neglecting it ever since I got here. And maybe some art. :)

See ya!