First Week of CalArts

I am proud to say that I am now officially a BFA-1 Character Animation student at CalArts.

Only because I survived the first week and it was already a crazy hot mess.

But in a good and awesome way :)

The first week was very hectic and I am already sleep deprived.

And it's good knowing that my fellow animation students are on the same page.

I'm very lucky to be among a group of awesome and talented classmates.

I kind of feel like the apple super hero in the picture below.

But I'm pretty sure I'll be feeling like this real soon:

I probably won't be posting as much, as I never did :P

But I want to share my experience at CalArts as much as I can.

Being at CalArts has made me realize how fortunate I am to be who I am today.

So I will definitely live up to my own expectations and kick butt at the school!

Let the work begin!!

CalArts Orientation

This week has been kind of hectic with all the orientations at CalArts.

Orientation is basically 3 days long including class sign-up.

It's been a blast and I've been meeting all kinds of people, especially fellow character animators.

I'm really excited to start working with my peers.

They all seem so talented, it's really intimidating. We're all saying how we all think everyone else is better than ourselves.

But it's going to be great.

I'm pretty much just waiting for school to start now and to finally begin my journey at CalArts.

But until then, I will be going to the Toy Story 3 panel at Gallery Nucleus this sunday :)

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/event/274

There's a really big smile on my face right now because I'm really excited to go.

And what better to way to start the school year?

I'm definitely looking forward to speaking to the story artist James Robertson.

I want a signed book but I don't know if I can afford it at the moment :(

School and art supplies are a priority right now...

I'm almost thinking of taking my Toy Story 3 poster there to get it signed by the artists.

But the poster is obnoxiously big...

I'll figure something out!

Otis

Today is the first day of school at Otis.

And I just wanted to wish my friends at Otis a wonderful junior year.

I hope they work their butts off and be proud of the awesome work that they will create!

I'm kind of sad that I will not be returning to this campus.

Even as I look at these pictures that I found online :P

I reminisce on how every day I would walk through those automatic doors to go to class and my friends.

But I will be at a new school in about 2 weeks making new memories and friends.

I'm getting even more antsy now

I kind of want school to start already at CalArts :P

CalArts Schedule

My CalArts schedule came out kind of a while ago but it's made me just that more excited to start school.

I'm especially excited for the story class, the character design class and life drawing.

I transferred a lot of units over so I won't be taking as many critical study classes.

But I'm considering enrolling in the creative writing class.

Fall semester is going to be crazy :P

I also did a sketch recently in photoshop of me and my boyfriend.

I'm pretty sure that's what I would look like if I were a monkey.

For some reason, I've always been interested in human-animal interactions... maybe it could be a short film?

I'm currently experimenting with colors because I'm not very familiar with painting in photoshop -___-

So it might take a while.

And lastly, I wanted to share the trailer of an animated film that is coming out later.

It looks interesting and is also about a human and animal :)

It looks like it might be sad too... it better not be sad!!!

1 more month of summer

Keeping up with a blog is kind of tough :P

But I have some time to post up a very small amount of pictures that barely summarize the most chaotic part of my summer. Comicon, Siggraph student volunteering and moving to another apartment all within 2 weeks.

I got kind of sick after all the commotion because I wasn't getting enough sleep.

But it was all very fun. Except for moving -_____-

There's one more month left of summer before I start school at CalArts.

Ahhhh! I'm definitely excited to go but scared at the same time.

I hope I can live up to the school and my peers.

But until then...

I now have 4 gentlemen phone cases. None of them properly fit an iphone :p

So I have one more on the way that I'm slowly working on.

I spotted this painting at Comicon. I want it so bad.

But it's about a thousand something dollars or more ;__;

Isn't it so badass :)

I also met with Dan Paladin, the creative genius behind synj.net and all that goodness.

And he signed my Behemoth chicken. I actually wish I got a picture with him but I was scared...

The next few pictures are a summary of my time at Siggraph. Being a student volunteer was definitely a great experience. I want to continue to become a volunteer whenever Siggraph is in LA. I believe it is in Vancouver next year. So I don't know if I'll be volunteering.

I'm also very happy that I was able to get a Renderman teapot this year. I thought I would not be able to because of my shifts. But on the last day of Siggraph I ran over to the exhibition hall and stood in line for the teapot. I thought my sandals were going to break. It was a long line but I got one!

I feel like I've been focusing a lot on my Chinese paintings this summer. I've been sketching here and there, but Chinese painting has taken over my summer :P

It's a good thing though because I won't be able to focus on it during the school year.

I've been continuing my practice in dyeing the paper and adding snow or the moon.

I would like to post a screenshot of my CalArts Fall 2010 schedule for my next post.

I'm actually really really excited for school. Sometimes I still can't believe that I'll be attending CalArts.

And I didn't think that I would be getting a Tuberculin and Tetanus shot for the mandatory physical exam that needs to be done before school starts -____-

But as always, I'm looking forward to the journey ahead :)

iPhone Creature Cases

Summer is a very seductive season and switches on the vacation mode.

And by vacation mode... I mean crafting some iphone creature cases!

I don't have an iphone, but I found a bunch of small pieces of fabrics in my closet that I wasn't using.

And I decided to put those pieces of fabric into good use.

I hope to make 3 or 4 of these phone pouches. I'm naming my series the Gentlemen's Club :)

Because these creatures are well dressed and presentable. Not because... of the strip club thing...

So far I have made 2. The last one is a special one.

The hello kitty gentlemen is a present for my friend.

I'm kind of disappointed with the hello kitty pattern because hello kitty had a very hard time showing up.

The reason why I made the hello kitty gentlemen is because my friend likes hello kitty.

But hello kitty doesn't show up very much...

Also, the owl gentlemen is a bit smaller. So his face is covered when he is carrying a phone.

I hope to make 2 more before I start school.

I don't know if I will be posting anymore this month.

I have to move to my new apartment, and I will also be a student volunteer at Siggraph the last week of July.

So the next time I post anything, it will probably be August :P

Chinese Painting Exhibition Pictures

I'm posting a sample gallery of the Chinese Painting Exhibition.

There were almost 100 paintings! My internet will die if I try to post them all :P

But here are a handful of the paintings that were up. And a group photo of my teacher and the artists!

Notice that the last painting is a very very large version of the paintings that I'm doing now.

(that painting is taller than me!)

I always fail to capture the size of the paintings -____-

Some of them are very large and taller than me!

I also noticed that I did not take pictures of my own paintings :P

I'll have those up soon!