The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

This film feels like it will be the death of me. I still don't really have a title for it... I'm not really good at naming things anyways (*note lame blog title that is pending yet another name change)

Good news: Animating is actually kinda sorta maybe possibly a little fun. Go figure.
Bad news: I suck at it!!! :(
Ugly news:

(click on image)

Lovely Little Lilly

Lilly is starting to really like me, probably because she is realizing that I have a lot of cool stuff in my room and I am more then willing to let her smash everything in exchange for her love and admiration. This was an impromptu recording session just because she was doing some of the funniest things and because I just about rather be doing everything other then my homework(s).

I wanted to cut the footage together, but I was having some quality issues....

So here are just some of clips of the evening's shinanigans:

This one is probably my favorite video.

Giving Thanks

I've been thinking about what I am thankful for and among the usual blessings in my life there are two big things that really stick out this year that I am IMMENSELY thankful for:

1. It's my last year of college. I mean it just feels like a long time coming (Almost 18 teens years counting head-start, pre-school, and kindergarten). And although I'll always be a student of my craft--it will be nice to start working on making a life of my own that doesn't revolve around being a student in the classical sense. I'll probably go back for my Master's before I am 30, but I'll deal with that when we get there.

2. The ImagiNations competition. The year started and I had no real expectations. I thought it was just going to be one of those "let's hurry up and get through it" years but when we became finalists, it turned out to be one of the most memorable summers ever.

Next year, however, I have high hopes for all that is to come. First things first: I need to get through this semester. With a film to finish animating and several storyboards to finish, I have my work cut out for me. But there is NO WAY that I will not be graduating next semester--so I will get this stuff done. No matter what.

Pearls of Wisdom: Public informational #3.14

(photo courteously stolen from The Bui)

Occasionally the family likes to stuff their faces (by occasionally, I mean every an any occasion). And while I ponder the irony of why they insist on always arguing over who in the family is fatter than whom when we are standing in a buffet line--I don't say anything because I am not willing to be guilty of the same crimes. I also don't say anything because, as a rule of thumb, I tend to avoid conversation with them (avoiding eye contact and appearing to be deep in thought helps facilitate my minimalistic views on intra-familiar interactions). I am, however and probably always will be, a sucker for a free meal no matter how shoddy the line-up may be.

Although the local Hometown Buffet may have some pretty good corn bread, everything is usually over cooked and their breakfast taste like cardboard. With that said, I was quick to ready myself after receiving the invite to my late breakfast.

The man who sat directly behind me at Hometown Buffet had quite the comb-over. I wanted very much to let him know that his attempts of hair compensation only drew attention to his baldness. In fact--I don't even remember what he looks like! I was far too enthralled with few strands of protein that cascaded atop his scalp to pay attentions to the specifics of his visage...
I was reminded of this Mitch Hedberg joke:

"When I get a cold sore, I put Carmex on it, because Carmex is supposed to alleviate cold sores. I don't know if it does help, but it will make them more shiny and noticeable. It's like cold-sore-highlighter. Maybe they could come up with an arrow that heals cold sores."

Once my fixation from his lock-less monstrosity (is that a wordplay or a pun?), I noticed that he was eating alone. Which is kind of... sad. And before I am called out on my hypocrisy because I know I have openly admitted to dining by myself, I never do it in a buffet.

Granted, the buffet is just the place to do it. If you think about it, it is the least social of all dining scenarios. You seat yourself, you serve yourself, you leave your crap on the table--other people just slow and complicate the process. It's not like at a sit-down restaurant where its nice to have someone there to tune out when you are waiting for your food (this is how the majority of my dates go).

But there was just something about the man sitting behind me with his comb-over and collection five-plus emptied plates that struck me on a gut level. Although it may have been the crazy mixture of foods in my stomach from my creative combination or maybe I just saw my future and was filled with lonely brunches at buffets...

It wasn't the WORST (or I could also make the argument of BEST) comb-over I have ever seen. No, not by a long shot. Because that title belongs to this guy:
This was taken with my old phone, which means I had to get real up-close and personal to snap this gem of a do. I was sneaky like a ninja (paparazzi + ninja = endless douchy possibilities!)

When engaged in what is commonly accepted as a social activity all by your lonesome, it is important to realize how pathetic you may appear to other people. If you don't care how you appear, then kudos!, you have quite the self esteem and self confidence that the majority of us have had verbally beaten out of by our parental(s) and or by various other means. BUT if your insecurities do get the best of you in this situation, remember to look toward your better qualities and try to supersede the defect you call your person. Chances are people will still think low of you, but it will be lowered proportion to how you appear as a whole. So remember, when you try to hide something, you could actually be drawing more attention to it.

So when opting for the comb-over remember to NOT instead. And when eating at a buffet alone, leave a half-eaten plate in one of the empty chairs, that way it looks like someone is there with you.

From the Lost Reaches of the Digital World

This was the attraction poster I did for the ImagiNations competition. We had it blown up real big for our presentation.

And here I thought this was lost forever! Luckily it wasn't hard drive failure, it was only operating system failure. I don't know what other goodies are saved on that hard drive, don't really have the time to sort through it..

Looking at it now, I feel the stamp is up too high. But that's all done with. This Summer's memories just makes me... smile.

Here is the color thumbnail I did for it:
As you can see, the final stayed pretty close to the concept.

Today in Sketching: Art for Art's Sake

So today was an odd day in sketching to say the least. I drew this on the back of my receipt at Panera's while having lunch with some of my class chums from animation class. The girl who took my order is a bit of an odd ball yet awkwardly pleasant. She is always overly eager to take your order and she leans her body (lead by her head) toward you when she asks questions. She did remember me though--she tagged me "the artist"--and after a briefly confusing conversation (which was purposefully confusing on my behalf) she comp'd me one free drink.

Then I have been drawing these creepy ogre-looking things (*note the green mistake in the last post). The one on the right was actually drawn fairly large on bigger paper. Why? I don't know...

Then it was off to life drawing for animation class!
It was another model-less day. So my instructor did some quick poses for us. Because the class needed the practice in drawing cargo-pants... Okay, joking aside, I give the man credit for really putting an effort out there to give us something to draw (I had an instructor once who made us take turns in modeling on the stand).

My instructor does get pretty inventive though. He ran out and grabbed a plastic tiger mask and a plastic pink flamingo (probably a lawn ornament--btw how were those ever popular???). Instead of drawing a man in a mask, I decided to transform him into an actual cat:
These were fun and I wished we did more of them, but all of a sudden, things took a turn for the weird.....

When we first walked into class, we were told to fill a page with random marks. Later were told to return to that page and were verbally handed a laundry list of things to do to it. It was like 20 minutes of creating abstract expressionism in a LIFE DRAWING class for ANIMATION! I mean who forces contemporary art onto people? WHO? Sometimes my instructor's fine arts background rears its head in class and just likes to ruin my day. There is a time and a place for that kind of stuff--really, I don't hate it--but seriously not when I am trying to work on my draftsmanship.

Then again, I wouldn't have made this masterpiece:
This is the image of my brain checking out.
We went back to gesturing right after. For our last drawing, he wanted us to create tension in the pose and gave us about 15 to 20 minutes with it:
I didn't even bother to get a clean paper and gave it about a minute of my time. I spent the rest of the class time making caricatures of some of my classmates (they were pretty mean exaggerations and didn't have much likeness of their respective subjects). The class had to turn our drawings around for everyone to see, as we occasionally do, and I clearly didn't spend as much time on it then the rest of the class. Hah!

I was having such a good day too! I was in bright spirits. Having a modest amount of social interaction with my peers. Cracking some jokes. But I felt the life just get sucked out of me in that class. Days without models are the longest.

Thursday we don't have a model. So we will be field-tripping to PetsMart for some cafe sketching. Except last time we went, it was one of the most stressful cafe skecthing I have ever experienced. I hope I don't get placed in front of the gold fish this time...

*FACEPALM*

French Fry Factory

Just playing around with coloring in TVPaint.
Better get some sleep--lots of drawing to do tomorrow! (and a lot more on top of that for the next handful of weeks...)

Pearls of Wisdom: Public informational #3.1

(photo courteously stolen from The Bui)

A good way to judge how employers treat their workers is by seeing what kinds of toilet papers are stocked within the stalls of their respective water closets.

An empty dispenser acts as a metaphor for the lack of care in the workplace.

One-ply meets the minimum requirements much like the minimum wage the employee earns for every extra minute spent extending his break time on the porcelain thrown.

Two-ply demonstrates the teamwork needed within the workplace to really get the job done.

Quilted two-ply is the icing on the cake if the icing were clouds of wonderfulness and the cake was your bum. (the thought did occur to me however that a better metaphor would be one that removes the caked on icing from the pastry...)

Three-ply is quite literally the ménage à trois of papier toilette in every sense of the word--you have two doing most of the work while one underplays their duties. Not to mention it's a damn waste of paper.

When I was younger, mother would call anything above one-ply a luxury as well as a waste. Similar paper products in this category included napkins and paper towels. She is quite the conservationist in that respect (more so of what remained in her wallet and not of the Environmental variety). Regardless, it was a reflection of the bitter hardships of life.

A problem does arise when having extended visits with friends. Because sometimes you'll have friends who take greater pride in their wipes (sometimes they are scented!) and you'll be too late to realize that the proper amount of one-ply that has been formulated after many years of trial and error does not equal the proper amount of two-ply. One would guess the amount needed is half and while that is closer to the truth, life gets tricky when it is quilted.

It is common to be enthralled with the quality of paper goods on your first visit. But always remember to mindful of your portions. And always always always carry a plunger with you because no matter how much advice the mind can retain, some things are just meant to be learned the hard way...

Rainy Day Special

So every now and I again I make a drawing and I can see where my skills are leading me toward. And when I did this super-woman drawing in my life drawing class, I got that feeling again. It was my last drawing of the day and after the 3 hours of so of doing life drawing, my instructor asked us to do a quick sketch of a cloaked figure from imagination (we had been focusing on drapery/cloth on the model).

In the 3-5 minutes we were given, this is what I came up with. I approached it like I approach every drawing and I feel like it's a culmination of everything I have been learning and practicing when it comes to life drawing:

Quick armature lay-in from head to toe, simple shapes for the large portions of the body, keep the figure balanced, keep the energy flowing on the page

Now, this is a gestural drawing, meaning it is more a focus on action, movement, life, energy, emotion, and mood. And on my good days, I can get 5 min drawings of the model to be far superior to this one--but because this was a quick sketch from imagination, I could really see how far I have come. And well, I know I still have quite a ways to go to get my skills up, drawings like this one make me feel like I am on the right track.

The only problem is I find myself drawing things that make me feel like I digressing more then progressing. Example: Only really feel good about work that am I doing in 1 out of 3 of my classes......

With that said, here's more life drawing!

Life in IT: The Call Back

So two or three hours later I get called back to the same room for the same non-problem...

Life in IT

I doodled this cartoon at work (based on true events of course). What I should be doing is homework and not in my office watching Hulu while scribbling on my computer. I've been wanting to upload some other stuff, but it's such a pain to scan now with the setup I got...

I'm so unmotivated lately...

This was the first attempt at the carton with a mouse on MS paint.
I actually really like it.


Probably as good as I'll ever hope to be. :(
Haha.

The Abstract of the Final College Semester

Earlier today I registered for classes for the Spring '10 semester. These three classes are the only things between me and my college degree. I can always add/drop later but as of right now, this is the 16-week battle plan. And then? Well--we'll address that when we get to it.

ANYWAYS! The classes of my choice are as follows (along with my abstract expressionistic interpretations of said classes...)

Sculpting Life Forms

Pictorial Background

Advanced Digital Illustration

Potential adds: Character Animation, Independent Studies in Life Drawing, Independent Studies in Animal Drawing, Internship.

Boarder's Block

So... I have a story board for Tarzan due Wednesday, and I don't know what the hell I am doing! Then I have two more Tarzan boards the following week...

The assignment: Tarzan and Terk meet Tantor for the first time and I have to make three boards--one comedic, one dramatic, and one scary.

On Wednesday we have to "pitch" one of our boards to the class--which I am fine with. I think I'll do the dramatic one, and I know more or less how I want to do it but I'm having such a hard time putting it to paper...

In other news, I am sick. I didn't go school nor will I probably go to work tomorrow, so that gives me extra time to get this board done.


Maybe the Dayquil is getting to me...