School!

This blog has been quiet for some time. And it's because of school!

School has been kicking my butt yet again and keeping me busy, but in a good way.

I am enjoying my second year at CalArts very much. My classes are awesome, and the people there are awesome. I really couldn't ask for anything better!

I want to post some of my assignments, but will need to wait because they either need fixing or I need to get them back :P

Because I'm so busy with school, I'm going to have to reconsider Chinese painting :/

My teacher is actually resting right now from a small surgical procedure, but when I start classes again, we're going to have to discuss my schedule.

I might go to class maybe once a month or so.

I haven't posted a Chinese painting in a while, so I scanned some shrimps that I painted a while ago.

The paper is rippled because of the wet ink that I used.

I like painting shrimps :)

It's also nice to change up the medium from time to time because I've been working digitally most of the summer.

I am also posting some sketches that I did at the LA zoo today for Life Drawing class.

(I broke Bosco's arm.....)

Apparently, zebras have a very unique marking under their belly. It looks like a pair of lips!

I also want to use this post to talk about some of the classes that I've really been enjoying.

Animation Layout - This class is one of my favorites. I am learning so much in this class and the assignments are really kicking my butt. I have a lot to learn from this class and I'm glad it's during our first semester because it will definitely help out with films. Dan Hansen is an awesome teacher and I'm excited about this class.

Character Design - I am not a very good character designer. I love it, but I'm not the best at it :P So I'm super happy to have Andy Suriano as a teacher because he's from Cartoon Network, so he can draw some seriously crazy characters. I know that I'm going to learn so much from him because he'll help me push my designs.

Story - This year's story class is amazing. It makes me think about my first year story class and how much I didn't really learn because we focused more on our films. We are going over story fundamentals and I already feel like our films are going to be 10 times better this year. Also, we had our first story assignment that we had to draw on paper and pitch traditionally with a stick and everything. Pitching was so scary, but my teacher, Jim Hull, is a committed teacher and gives very thorough and constructive critiques. I'm not the best story person either, but I know that I will be learning so much and improving on the little story skills that I have.

CG Character Animation - I've always enjoyed the CG animation classes. Our teacher this year is Eric Deuel, and he is also really awesome teacher. We will be focusing on animating a few shots this year that could potentially go on a demo reel. So I'm very excited to have him as a teacher and build a CG reel because he gives really good advice on acting, animation, and much more.

Screenwriting for Animators - I was really nervous about this class in the beginning because I am not a very good writer and I've never really written a script before. The teacher, Nicole Panter, really emphasizes script formatting. And we are also learning about character development and story through her critiques. I haven't written a script for this class yet, so we'll see. But so far, I've learned a lot from this class as well.

Film Workshop - I'm really glad we have this workshop class this year. I feel like our story class last year was more like a film workshop class, and not quite a story class. I'm really enjoying the workshop sessions because we can really discuss our film ideas and focus on the things that we are having trouble with. My second year film is already becoming more and more solid because of the help from Brooke Keesling and my classmates. Our class size is very small so we have more one on one time.

School has been a bit overwhelming, but I'm enjoying it for the most part.

The tough part is adjusting to the new classes and schedule, and the workload can be crazy.

But it will only get better from here!

I'll do my best to post more work and document my experiences as the year goes on, as there will be much to share :)