Finals - 12-8-11

So, this semester was a series of objectives not met.  Part of that had to do with the amount of revisions the course required which kept me from moving on to bigger and better things, and part of that was simply all the things that went on with me this semester.  Towards the end, I feel like I finally started meeting my goals again, until I got to this week.  I actually would have made the deadline fine, except that I have to code three websites this weekend, which took a significant chunk out of my time to work on Senior Studio.  So, I've made peace with the fact that I haven't met my goals, and moved on.

What I have completed is all my backgrounds.  That was another aspect that put me back in the rest of my work.  The 4-5 hours I would spend making a single background (no matter the size) cut into my time that I got to work in Illustrator on the rest of the assets.  I still think working on the bulk of them over Christmas would have been a better idea, but what's past is past.

My goals for the break will be to round up what's left of the assets and get those finished.  Then I plan to get all the scenes with the news stand and the thief out of the way.  My main goals for the break is to have everything up to the fight scene done.  Preferably, I'd have the fight scene animated too, but I'm afraid the chase scene may take some time, especially since she's more active now.

I plan to deal with all the dialogue and the ending next semester.

I'm not sure how realistic this goal is because I've never had to animate in HD on my computer before, but I hope it works out.

As far as web presence goes, I just remade my youtube channel, and of course I also have a Professional Blog.  I won't post my vimeo account just yet because I haven't had a chance to clean it out yet, but I'll have it ready too eventually.

Here's the test animation:



I had some issues with getting her purse to show up the right way, even with the strap divided onto two layers, so that's something that I'm going to have to resolve when I have more time. Until then, I turned the layer off. Otherwise... little by little, I'm getting there.

More Delays

So, this weekend wasn't good.  I worked something like 35 hours on stuff for my classes and I still didn't get even close to what I wanted to get done.  I blame it mostly on web design.  So, I can tell you already, I don't have what's due today.

A) For the work-in-progress, honestly, I haven't even had a chance to touch the animation since I made it.  It worries me that I may not get a solid chance to touch it much even before next Saturday, which at this point would be completely meaningless for this semester.  On the plus side I now have every background done for this animation (a quite tedious task in itself, believe me).  The assets are the real problem at the point.  I planned to have the Illustrator files for all of the assets done by now, but I found that its just not going to happen before Tuesday night.

This is not the week to be behind... but when the shit hits the fan... well, you make due I guess.  I'm desperately hoping that things go faster on Tuesday and Wednesday.

B) Here's my outline for the presentation.  I plan to edit it a bit between now and Thursday.

At the start of my college education ->

-       Deeply influenced by the fantasy and science fiction genres because it gave room for imagination. – Willow, Lord of the Rings (first look at behind the scenes work and making behind the scenes seem more of an interesting journey than the film itself), Star Trek

-       Because of my wide imagination, I like to experiment.

-       Because of my love of film, I started to work with film. (film demo reel)

-       Because of my love of imagination,  I then began to work in animation. (animation demo reel)

-       Currently in my BFA, I am just beginning to animate.  I’m starting to locate where some of the potential issues may be as far as moving a character a certain way or framing them the same way as the animatic.  I finally have all the backgrounds done (in itself an extremely tedious process)

-       Show all assets

-       In the future I see myself in a few different places.  My first choice is video editing.  I like being able to affect how a story is told, based on a series of choices.  The next choice would lie inside the visual effects field.  As I said, I love imagination, so vfx would be a dream job.

C) Web Presence Development - This is a place I'm actually not doing too bad with.

I actually already have a:

- Professional blog

- vimeo

- Youtube

(obviously, they all need to be cleaned up a bit before I can claim them for professional purposes, but they're there.)

I also just got done coding my entire portfolio website.  All I need to do is get it on the web when I'm not broke.

Anyway, that's where I'm at.  Somehow... it'll all get done.  I'm not quite sure how yet... but it'll happen...

Internet Censorship

This is a very important issue guys.  There's a bill thats on its way to passing that will take the free Internet from Americans and flush it down the toilet.  It will ban certain websites w/ copyright content and throw certain people in prison for use of copyrighted materials (including people who make amvs, mmvs, and any other fan based video that holds copyrighted content.).  Here's why you should be concerned:

If this bill passes, here are some of the things you may want to expect:

- If you're an amv, mmv artist, expect to have your video channel banned at the very least, and prison time at the very worst. Up to 5 years of prison per video.

- If you read copyrighted materials online (manga for instance), expect those to get banned

- If you watch anime/tv shows online that were not posted by the network, expect that to go away too (sidereel.com, crunchyroll.com, etc.)

- You'll have to watch what you post: No longer will you be able to freely post copyrighted images or videos as examples if you're an artist (this will be a big issue even for professional artists who keep a blog).

- fan sites featuring materials based on copyrighted materials may be banned or censored.  This includes but is not limited to: deviantart.com and fanfiction.net (both with members ranging in the thousands)

- some remixes of copyrighted music (such as those found on newgrounds) may be thrown into question

- Anything: video, web page, etc. with a copyrighted music track could be at risk for being banned.

- For teachers & professors who use youtube as a teaching resource, some of the content used for lectures, examples, etc. may be banned based on copyright policies.


And yet though the worries that have caused for this bill to be proposed are not unfounded, there are even bigger reasons to oppose it.  Namely because everything in our society is a remix of something else.


Everything Is A Remix: THE MATRIX from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.

 Also, under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.  This new law would conflict with the Copyright Act of 1976, in the way that ALL use of copyrighted content by another party would be prohibited.

Furthermore, it would give the government the confidence to start proposing other bills to take even more freedoms from us.  And if you think it isn't possible, look at our current government policies regarding airport search and seizure, detaining of possible terrorist members, and phone and e-mail tap procedures.  If the government isn't stopped here, with this bill, there is no telling what they may take next.

Don't let it happen without a fight: StopCensorship.org

Calendar update 11-22-11

22nd - have street views completed, have thief completed (done)

24th - Thanksgiving (work on stuff for other classes)

29th - Have thug 1 completed, and alleyways completed, start loop animations

Dec 1st - Have news stand completed, begin smaller item assets

6th - Have shop by shop view completed, Thug 2 & 3 completed, and all items completed.

8th - Have first 5-10 seconds of animation completed, have presentation ready.

Let's just hope this actually works out...

BFA work

So.... somehow everything got done by Thursday that I planned for this week.  I changed Lee/Gusty up a bit.  I like him a little better w/ black hair.  Also, this is the assets for the clerk.  Two more background images done.  I had originally planned to do the news stand instead, but I ended up painting the wrong one by accident, and doing an extra.  So at this point, I'm actually one background ahead.  Hopefully things will continue to get done...

Career Objective Notes

1. To obtain a full-time position in the field of cinema production with an emphasis on video-editing; special interests include filming, 2D and 3D animation, and a thirst for knowledge about new developments in the industry.

2. I am interested in obtaining a video-editing position, in a challenging environment that focuses on the art of detail, an ever changing environment, a chance to learn and put forth new ideas, and a vision of shaping today’s culture.

3. To obtain a movie production position specifically dealing with video-editing, sound-production and editing, or 3D animation.

    So, I'm not exactly sure how some of these work w/ the job stuff.  If I had to pick one though, I'd pick the 2nd one.  It makes the most sense.

Calendar Update 11-17-11

Nov 15th - Have Lisa, Gusty, & shop keeper completed (done)

17th - Have dry cleaner's completed (done)

22nd - Do loop animations, have street views completed, have thief completed

24th - Thanksgiving (work on stuff for other classes)

29th - Have thug 1 completed, and alleyways completed

Dec 1st - Have news stand completed, begin smaller item assets

6th - Have shop by shop view completed, Thug 2 & 3 completed, and all items completed.

8th - Have first 5-10 seconds of animation completed, have DVD portfolio ready.

Let's just hope this actually works out...

Calendar update 11-15-11

Nov 15th - Have Lisa, Gusty, & shop keeper completed

17th - Begin loop animations, Have news stand painted

22nd - continue loop animations, have street views completed, have thief completed

24th - Thanksgiving (work on stuff for other classes)

29th - Have thug 1 completed, and alleyways completed

Dec 1st - Have dry cleaner's completed

6th - Have shop by shop view completed, Thug 2 & 3 completed, and all items completed.

8th - Have first 5-10 seconds of animation completed, have DVD portfolio ready.

Let's just hope this actually works out...

Inventory for Animation

[Asset Inventory:

Characters (multiple views) - Lisa, Gusty, Thief, Thug1, Thug 2, Thug 3, shop keeper (torso up)

Backgrounds (some may be merge-able) - news stand, street view of news stand, bust stop, side-street view, extended shop by shop view, alleyway - front, alleyway - back, dry cleaner front, dry cleaner back

Items - hand, hand w/ coins, newspaper open, newspaper folded, watch w/ arm,  purse, piano w/ stationary characters (2 views), construction sign, knife, bat, air clouds, door, dry cleaning ticket, superhero suit.]

So, what's really going to kill me here are the characters... That's a lot of people that  have to draw and articulate.  So while I have a lot of small assets too, my main concerns at the moment are the backgrounds and the characters.

Behanced Stills

So there are are crazy amount of these--just warning you now... So I'm going to do them by project:


Bad Day:

Butterflies & Rainbows

Elimination State

Kitty Blues

Love Sock

The Mouse Awards

The Race

Teddy Bear Wars

If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post, congrats. :)