I'm not dead!

Although it would appear that someone is.
Mr. Hyde is a cute serial killer. :3 Yes you is. YES you is!

Summer blues

This was a small commission and I think it marks really the first thing that's been decent since I got back from Italy because well, the girl it was meant for liked it. XD Actually I like it too, as I am prone to do of anything new, but he does look a lot like Muntz, doesn't he? I really like Muntz (one of my favorite Pixar villains, I think), but I don't like the prospect that every skinny old guy I draw is likely to turn out looking like him. D:

Well, here's a kind of fat old guy?
A preview from the Japanese music video I'm working on, although really I'm beginning to lose confidence a little.... :x The idea was that I would focus on the design aspect and have more of a "moving image" rather than real animation. That's because the whole thing is 4 minutes long--originally it was a relatively small segment of animation and the rest was footage, but the situation has shifted rather out of my favor in that department. :x

I'm doubting my ability to do a proper job in the time allotted, and I'm wondering if it's going to pay off in the end. This leads to all kinds of troublesome contemplations.... am I wasting my summer? What am I supposed to be doing with summer, actually? What do most people do with summer? Why can't I think of anything better to draw (seriously)? To make matters worse I'm supposed to be seeing Thief and the Cobbler (Recobbled) with a friend this weekend, which is not exactly a movie that tells you, "Hard work will pay off in the end." (Well, not the movie itself, but the drama surrounding it.)

A nasty week.....

I got WICKED ILL the last few days. . . . I was fine, and then this cough started, and it's been downhill from there. . . .

I hadn't had the energy to draw at all. :( It's awful. Plus, just coming back from vacation, I had a lot of time to stew over what I'm not very good at. A lack of confidence seems to have driven back my design sense into the STONE AGE. . . . I finally drew a little today, but I couldn't hit anything on the nose, like "Ah! That's how I want it to look!"

But I did TRY. . . . A VAMPIRE!!
Oh btw, it's a creepy old vampire. :P And little Former, a much younger vampire, in cute bat form!!

I was rethinking an old character I had.... an old, very traditional vampire named Mr. Wilson who is like a mentor to little Former, who is so awkward he can't get close enough to a human to suck their blood. Wilson's new incarnation is an old classy charmer . . . however, on this first pass I'm getting a bit too much gayness. 8|

This iiiis the moment . . . when I collapse from exhaustion

Loads of things! Here's the last ten drawings from the artslam character challenge. :3 I was Jekyll and Hyde, obviously.

Updates on LIFE: I just finished a two-week design job (EEE!) and have gotten invited back to do work later in the summer. :D

I'm going to ITALY on a 10-day family vacation! BRB, ITALY.



MAKIN' UP A SONG ABOUT COOOORALIIIINE

1st year retrospective : D

My first-year film. :D I was lucky enough to have it included in the Producer's Show--actually a record number of freshmen got in this year. Watching the show is very surreal, though. The open show is very loud, which has the charm of removing the awkward to some extent--in the Producer's Show, a string of animations can go by with only a lukewarm applause at the end of each one, especially if you're lagging into the second half. I got intensely flustered about my position between three senior films and went spinning off somewhere and couldn't focus.

With that Show ended, the year is basically over. The only thing to do in Character Animation is to creep through abandoned cubes and go through the motions of trying to enjoy all the performances and shows you said you were going to go to once you were done with your film.

Here's some things I think I know:
1. As soon as you get to Calarts, the astounding achievement of having gotten into Calarts becomes immediately unimpressive.
2. Color and Design is a weird class. I'm still not sure I learned anything except how to follow strict instructions.
3. Story by Robert McKee was actually worth reading, but Story for Animators isn't so much worth taking.
4. Storyboarding is mysterious. So is storyboarding class.
5. Sometimes a bad rig happens.
6. Figure drawing is pretty creativity expression time, not learning time (unless you force yourself to learn).
7. BIGGEST REGRET: being stuck with the cafeteria food!! It's not awful, but the monotony of taste makes it absolutely unbearable.
8. Some people have REALLY GREAT music libraries.
9. If you went to CSSSA, the weather in the first three weeks and the last weeks of school will be very disorienting. It feels and smells much like CSSSA.
10. Interaction with other departments is optional.
11. Love Sushi has the cheapest, best sushi in possibly the whole world.
12. Getting out of critical studies classes is a good thing.
13. People are nice but it takes a long time to figure that out. It takes me a long time to figure that out.

Fake inkwork

Films done! Now to plan other films 8D
Some designs for a music video project. They're not done yet, lawl.

Apparently my mom ran into Ben Balistreri at the LA book fair without knowing it. @_@ She was saying, "So I ran into this guy at the comics section. He'd written this comic. He went to Calarts apparently...." And she bought the book and it was Seaweed and when I saw it I was like, "OMG YOU MET THAT GUY"

I missed his lecture at Calarts this year. D: Maybe he'll come back sometime.

Chickens!

A character design assignment I dreaded! Chickens, possibly the only animal I fear drawing more than squirrels. Why? Because they're viewed so typically in American animation as being "cartoony" that it's hard to come up with something that isn't cliche failure. :\ They're funny, but so overdone. Plus I was way too tired to do anything non-film related and sketched these out during my Maya class.

....and surprisingly I like them. : D Then, inevitably, whenever I draw anything I'm proud of for that class, no one shows up. 8|

In other news I am SO SICK OF AFTER EFFECTS. No matter how long I work on it there's always more to do. I have zero faith in my film right about now. :\