Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to wish everyone an early Happy Halloween!

Below is a little ghoul parade done in the style of Tim Burton.

The feeling in my thumb has almost completely returned!

It's going to get crazy after Halloween.....

My Thumb is Numb

So this weekend, I've been sleeping at 3am every night because of some huge assignments that are due this week.

Mainly, a complicated animation and a silhouette project.

This silhouette project was extremely grueling. But what kept me going was knowing that it was going to look really cool in the end.

I just finished it today, as I have been cutting away at this thing today for almost 10 hours straight with a #11 x-acto knife :P

And while I was doing so, my thumb and index went numb. My thumb and index finger kept asking me why I was torturing them and what they did to deserve this punishment.

I told them... because I am a student at CalArts and this is just what happens.

After I finished, I put the x-acto knife in a place where I can't see it because I'm kind of traumatized.

At least my silhouette project turned out the way I wanted it to!

It is 5 pieces of 9" x 12" black paper put together which makes it 9" x 60"

I'm glad all this silhouette hullabaloo is over because I need to focus on my character designs for the guest lecture workshop held by Shannon Tindle and Shane Prigmore!

This week's workshop was cancelled. It's sad.. but also a good thing because now I have more time to work on my character designs without the silhouette and crazy animation waiting in line.

(I will post this crazy animation next time)

Speaking of the guest lecturers... I had Shannon and Shane sign my sketchbook.

They're the nicest guys ever and they gave a great lecture. I'm super nervous to have them critique my character designs but it's going to be a great opportunity.

My character designs are kind of weak, so I hope to get some good feedback from them.

Don't know if they will come back this week, but we'll see.

Also, I had Mark Andrews sign my sketchbook as well!

He's also super nice and I'm so glad that he gave us that lecture about story.

I don't even remember when his lecture happened... everything's happening so fast ;__;

His lecture made me realize that I have a lot to learn and to be patient.

And I agree that story can be hell...

I'm still doing Chinese painting as well. It's kind of tough balancing the Chinese painting and school stuff but I'm managing. I had to cancel class this weekend though :(

I wanted to post my recent paintings of some koi.

They look much better now! I remember posting my first painting of a koi and it looked like some kind of flying lizard...

I'm also posting a painting of a lucky bok choy!

I can't believe it's November already!

I'm barely catching up with posting on this blog -____-

Next time, I will definitely post the box fold animation that kept me up until 2am on Friday!

a month gone by

A month of school has passed by. And again I can say, with confidence, that I am getting my butt kicked.

But in a good way. Because I am learning so much and I'm surrounded by soooo much talent.

It feels like it's been a year!

I remember when I was at Otis, I took a maximum of 7 classes. When my friends told me they wanted to take more I would talk them out of it because 7 classes was already kind of tough :P

But at CalArts, the minimum amount of classes is 9....

To summarize...

1. 2D Animation - I really love class :) I thought I would suck

in this class, but turns out I'm doing pretty well. I guess I kind of have the instincts and gut for animation. My teacher Scott Wright is really cool. I'm so glad I have him as my 2D teacher. But when I think about animating my student film I freak out @_@

2. Digital Methods - A chill class about computer programs and file management. My favorite part is when my teacher Fran shows us different films. We are learning about Final Cut Pro right now. We'll be going over Photoshop and other programs soon.

Here are some links to the animations that I have seen in this class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR2nUYLFmNw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPPtxyubCoI

3. CG Foundation - Just another intro to Maya class. This class is a little more slow-paced because Maya can be difficult to teach.

4. Color and Design - This class is mostly about homework. I really like Brooke Keesling. She's a very sweet teacher. We end up doing a lot of work for this class because the assignments are a bit time consuming. But at least the assignments are fun to do.

5. Story - This class was hell for the first 3 weeks. We were required to draw storyboards and animatics for our student films within 2 weeks without much instruction. We were basically getting thrown into the assignments just so we can do it and feel what its like. But now were slowing down and really learning about story now. Whew! This class is fun but it nearly killed us the last few weeks.

6. Writer's Color - This is my critical studies class. It's really interesting because it's a cultural studies class and writing class. And my classmates are really intelligent. It's refreshing to take a class like this amongst all my other crazy character animation classes.

7. Character Design - I am having trouble with this class. My teacher

Rik Maki is extremely harsh and so far doesn't really like my work. In fact, he doesn't like the majority of the work that the class does. This class is frustrating but I'm learning a lot. This class is really good for me because I need to push my character design. The main issue I need to work on is shape design. This class also demands a lot of work. But I know that I will definitely improve by the end.

Rik Maki is harsh but he's super nice at the same time.

8. Life Drawing - Fun class! It's a 6 hour class that is about anatomy during the first half, and experimental during the second half. This class is also pretty chill and my teacher is super nice.

9. CG Character Animation - I really like this class because of my teacher, Robert Domingo. This is my 3rd night class and he makes it very bearable because he's super nice and a great teacher. We're just animating some very simple objects in Maya right now and developing a sense for timing.

I really want to post as much as I can. The next time I post, I want to post about a certain event that happened at CalArts, but I want to make sure I have permission to do so :P

Also, I'm posting a picture of the night the freshmen camped out for the animation cube sign ups. I took this picture from my fellow character animator Amanda Candler. (i love youuuu amanda!!) I don't know where I am in this picture...

Also, I'm posting my bouncing ball animation. I'll try to post my 2D animations because they are definitely a landmark for me. I think I can say this is one of my favorite classes.

I know the bouncing ball is nothing special, and my teacher added a few corrections...

but all the animations I have done for this class are very special to me :)

Bouncing ball animation from Tammy Chang on Vimeo.

More to come later!