Squidley. The Flying Squid.

I'm finally starting work on a project I've been wanting to do forever. I wrote the concept and did some rough boards about three years ago (before I'd ever done storyboards or took a camera class or anything important like that) and they were AWFUL. But the concept was fun. I spent a day reworking the story, another day reworking the boards, and about four hours last night designing characters - some cute and cartoony, some realistic, and one that was just abstract and weird.

I took the designs around to some of my animation buddies, and with some feedback I settled on a chibi-ish and kind of derpy character. Once I get to a good scanner, I'll upload some of the doodles that didn't make it to the animation board.

New Software!

Got Toon Boom in the mail the other day. I finally had a chance to sit down with it and try it out. My first task was very simple - make a very basic animatic. As of now, it's entirely on one's... and backwards.

Ah well. This is what you do when you get new software, you break it. That's how it goes, and that's how you learn. I think for the sake of getting it done on time, though, I might have to take it into flash.

Toon Boom!

Toon Boom came in the mail yesterday! Installing it was easy peasy. Figuring out the program might take some time, though. It's similar enough to Flash (only a million times better) and the only drawback here is that I don't have someone who knows it already to sit down and teach me. Ah well, that's what internet tutorials are for.

Rest assured, as soon as I figure it out, you're gonna see something AWESOME!!!

Checking out the studios

The Women in Animation student chapter took a trip to Burbank yesterday to visit Disney and Nickelodeon studios. I'd already visited both before, but why turn down an opportunity, right? And I was lucky I went. We got to sit down with Eric Goldberg - yes, you read right - and he walked us through the challenges of designing and animating Louis the alligator. He's a fun guy, doesn't take himself too seriously. He looks like a walking caricature. I decided that drawing cartoons for several decades must have that effect on a person, and I started wondering what I will look like when I'm old.

We also went back to Nickelodeon. I got to sit down for a few mintues with Peter Bennett, who hand paints the backgrounds for spongebob. I started out as an oil painter and switched to animation a few years ago. Now don't get me wrong, I think it's the best career I could ever have, and I'd never want to work outside this industry. I love animating. But if I could take a job doing traditional painting, I'd be so stoked.

Honestly, I love the atmosphere at Nick, but I don't really like some of the shows they're putting out. *cough*fanboyandchumchum*cough.* But I loved the Butch Hartman shows, and I hear a new one is coming out. And if they can come up with something amazing to take the place of Avatar, I'd want to be a part of that. If they did it once, they can do it again.

The internship application deadline is coming up soon. Wish me luck!

Nosey Paul

In November, I started pre-production for a short animation that I'm still in the process of doing. I showed my brother and sister the character design, (he has a giant schnoz) and simultaneously one of them asked "Is his name Nosey?" and the other asked, "Is his name Paul?" Thus, Nosey Paul was born.

I spent my entire winter vacation painting the backgrounds with oil paints. I'm really happy with how they came out. All together, there's... I think 19 of them.

I'll upload both backgrounds and characters as soon as the paintings are dry.

CTN expo

Just got back from a 3day trip to Burbank. The expo was AMAZING!!! I got to shake Don Bluth's hand and talk to Gary Goldman. I met tons of people and I got to see their art, their animation, other student projects... It was really, really inspiring. It's a little depressing, though, to see the standard that other schools have, and look at our own stuff that we're doing at Aicasd, and realize that it's not gonna cut the bacon. I need to step it up a notch.

NEW PROJECT TIME!!!

Aaaaaanyway, while I was there, I also got to meet Fransisco Herrera, the character designer for an unreleased dreamworks movie, I got to speak face to face with a recruiter from Nickelodeon, the guy who did the maquettes for kung fu panda and coraline, I got to speak with Lou Romano (for those of you who don't know, he's the production designer for a lot of pixar movies, and also the voice of Linguini) ....I got to watch Andreas Deja animate Mama Odie. In sharpie. SHARPIE.

For anyone who missed the 2009 CTN animation expo, I'd definitely recommend getting a ticket for 2010. It's worth every penny.