I <3 CALARTS

Seriously, this school is all kinds of awesome.

I'm not really sure what to talk about first!

Well, I guess if any of you are interested in seeing some of the stuff i've been working on, I've begun posting assignments and figure drawings at my portfolio site --> sckportfolio.blogspot.com

Next up, I started moving into my cube today (finally!) Katelyn and I painted the green walls yellow and situated the animation desks. I'm snug in the back corner and it's very cozy!

I actually was the first to put anything on our walls. It's a poster version of an older, but still very cool, Spiderman cover.

My wall is soon to be adorned with concept art from the movie "9", from the Art of 9 book I just got. There is some really beautiful stuff in there.

and THEN, we had one of the most AWESOME lectures tonight from Mark Andrews.

(Please ignore how fat I look in this picture)

His lecture, which was actually just him drawing storyboards for three hours, was SO entertaining and incredibly helpful. This guy has worked all over the business, from Live Action to Animation. Not to mention he is one of Brad Bird's right hand men, apparently, so he had a lot of tales from Ratatouille, Incredible, and The Iron Giant.

He taught us a lot about how to use effective angles and perspective to let the audience connect with the film. He spent the lecture story boarding a story that his daughter told him, turning it from academic to EPIC and explaining to us the best way to achieve that.

The most entertain portion of the night, for me, was when he singled me out. The first time was when i was whispering something to Brittany about how much he cussed, which was hilarious on its own, and he noticed and pointed us out and then looked at me and said, "oh, and I like 2112 too." lol he had heard me talking about it before the lecture started.

The second time was the best. As the night went on, I started sketching him working. He was just sitting there drawing and doing his lecture when all of a sudden he stopped and looked at me and said "ARE YOU SKETCHING ME?!?!?!"

I almost crapped my pants. But I had him sign the sketch I made of him yelling at me afterwards.

All and all, the lecture was great! I can't wait for the next one!

Later on, when I have more time, I think that I will post about my classes!

Schedule and 9

First of all, my mom wanted me to post my schedule for y'all to see.

Classes enrolled in

Class	Title	Instructor	Units	Schedule	Room
FC100A01	BEGINNING TRADITIONAL ANIMATION (A-K	Nguyen, Mike	2.00	Th 7pm to 10pm	PALACE
FC101A01	BEGINNING CGI ANIMATION	Aquino, John	2.00	T 7pm to 10pm	A109
FC105A01	INTRO TO DIGITAL PRODUCTION	Metzger, Ethan	1.00	T 1pm to 4pm	A108
FC110A01	BEGINNING LIFE DRAWING (A-K)	Brown, Steven	2.00	Th 9am to 4pm	A221O
FC115A01	BASIC PERSPECTIVE (A-K)	Hansen, Dan	2.00	M 1pm to 4pm	PALACE
FC140-01	COLOR AND DESIGN I (A-K)	Hobaica, Leo	2.00	T 9am to 12 Noon	PALACE
FC155A02	BEGINNING STORY DEVELOPMENT	Lee, Chong	2.00	W 7pm to 10pm	A221G
FC377	HISTORY OF CHARACTER ANIMATION	Furniss, Maureen	3.00	W 9am to 12 Noon	BIJOU
		Total Units	16.00

I was going to take my Humanities class this semester, but the one I wanted was basically limited to upper classmen. Since have so many transfer credits, the academic adviser said not to sweat it. So, I have a pretty simple schedule. I also have work study in the Nurse's Station a couple hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

NOW.

I FINALLY got to see 9 last night. I was incredibly excited and kind of nervous at the same time because the what I had heard so far had been a mixed bag.


Simply put, I really liked it. It wasn't perfect, but it was still good. And I appreciate the good it will (hopefully) do for the animation industry.

Not so simply put, it was interesting to see the reaction's of the rest of my group. Brittany thinks that some of us may not have liked it as much because of how much a ticket cost, but we had two resounding "mehs" and two "liked its" and me.

I know a lot of people have problems with the ending. I didn't mind it and I, unlike others, don't think that it just ends with death. I think that the ending gives hope for new life. You need to see it to understand exactly what I'm talking about. I also have to say, I was pleasantly surprised that the movie still went in places I didn't expect, despite the fact that I have seen the original short numerous times, and that it wasn't just a straight rehash.

My biggest complaint was that there just wasn't enough. I would have liked the movie to be a bit longer so we could see more of certain characters, especially 6. I thought he was incredibly interesting but his character wasn't explored enough. Well, I have to admit none of the characters were really "explored", which I'm actually kind of ok with. I read something where someone said that there wasn't really anymore to the characters than what the movie showed us, because we see their entire lives from the beginning, there is no backstory that we are missing. It still would have been nice to see more of 6 though. Oh, and 3 and 4 are the most adorable things ever.

The biggest thing was though, I followed the advertising and marketing for 9 like a hawk. Which meant that I often visited 9exeriment.com which explained the entire prologue of the story. I think that I got more out of the movie because I knew more about what was going on.

In conclusion. Even if the movie isn't perfect, it's still the perfect way to open up new doors in the animation industry. Just go see the movie and get your own opinion.

WOW. That's a lot, anyone who read all of that, give yourself a pat on the back.

Day 2!

Well, I am all moved in to my dorm! Brittany and I are simply as cozy as a bug. ... yeah that doesn't make sense.

But here's some pictures of our dorm!
This is my sweet-bippy pillow case from my vintage Transformers sheets! This is our view! (we get a TON of sunlight in the mornings)

This is my desk, or at least how it was yesterday.

We even got an awesome sauce corkboard!
A privelege that I abuse, often.

Besides that, I've been through one day of moving in and one day of actual orient..tating?

It's been some pretty intense stuff. I've met a LOT of the other animators and they are all sooo cool. I actually just got back from a gathering where a bunch of us just sat in the lobby of the dorms and drew each other while people from other departments observed in awe (ok well, not really more like. "cool. people are drawing").

And while that was happening, a group of musicians just started a random beat that turned into a musical extravaganza outside. I love it here.

I'm ready to start classes!

T-1 day...

.. until move in at Calarts

Today, my mom, grandma, and I drove to Valencia, with all my clothes and a little bit of my dorm stuff (we are buying most of it while im moving in).

We stopped at Jamba Juice before we got going. One of the gifts of California that isn't available in Indy!

and then. We drove. and drove.

We stopped at another Cali exclusive gift, In-n-Out Burger! YUMMY.

And now we are in a hotel in Valencia. Chillin' out. I got to go to Church at the new Parish I will be attending (which is awesome by the way!) and I successfully created my pull list at my new Comic shop! :D


In a more art related note, after seeing a commercial for ANOTHER vampire related romance thing-amajig, I was getting really frustrated with the popularity of sexy vampire guys. I was thinking about how to do the vampire thing in a different way and I came up with these two.

The concept of these guys is that the Vampire Girl grew up in a super conservative family that taught her all about how vampires and werewolves are natural enemies. The Wolf Boy on the other hand, grew up in a much looser family, who never told him that he was supposed to hate vampires, so he doesn't know any better.

I didn't realize it until after I drew him, but the wolf boy's design is TOTALLY inspired by my buddy Miguel. Flannel and crazy hair and all. (I mean well Mickey!)


OMG. I MOVE IN TOMORROW. :D!!!

Away We Go

I have a one way ticket to California and I'm using it tonight! I've been around so long, I feel like I slept in the day that everyone else went to college and I missed out! I'm happy to finally be leaving, but pretty stressed out as well.

I'm going to be using this blog, not only as my sketch/art blog, but also to let my Indiana brethren know what kinds of fun stuff I'll be up to!

Hey, you guys wanna see the DVDs and Comics I'm gonna have in Cali?



You should all read Scott Pilgrim. It's amazing. yes.





("Away We Go" is a great movie, btw)

George Winston Take 2

Second in the series. Set to the song "Woods"

I wanted to try something new and Brittany suggested paper cuts outs. So, I decided on this mix of cut outs and colored pencil. Not exactly what I wanted, but pretty darn close.