Shrek, eat your heart out!

So this summer my conscience, Lauren and I got a gig working for this guy. He recently gave me the go-ahead to post all of my progress up on this blog, so that's what I'm doing right now.

I doubt anyone who knows me well would believe it, but I'm decent at drawing anthropomorphic animals. Probably not as good as some, but passable. I'm not an animal person by any stretch of the word and don't really know how to respond to people who show me pictures of puppies. I'm far more inclined to publicly wondering what these puppies would taste like with a side of fries, but I digress. Despite this I've drawn five little pigs (bacon sounds lovely right now), three blind mice (a little on the scrawny side for that, except maybe the fat one), and...a newscasting fox.

(Oh, look, it's Elton John after too many Twinkies.)

I'm still working on figuring out which nursery rhyme that last one's supposed to be from. I'll keep you updated if I make a breakthrough on it.

In the meantime, I'm also cranking out fire effects for Fate Saga, shadow effects for Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti, and the 2D character for April, which unless I'm mistaken doesn't have a blog attached to it. There's other stuff I'm working on too. Lots of other stuff, like voice acting for The Story Ship and concept art for a game development project that's seeking a 3D modeler at the moment.

I will be drinking a lot of coffee in the near future.

If I drew you yesterday and you're looking for my blog, you found it.

Congrats. In celebration, here is a picture of my friend Melissa and her kids at a kid-sized town far, far away from Georgia...and me in a Reptar suit trashing it. She's going to have another kid soon and I've decided the new one is going to be so intellectually advanced that she can identify and want to meet Reptar through her mom's stomach.

The Longest Break EVER

I don't know about the rest of you, but this break has been dragging on and on and on. And on. And I feel like I've spent most of it either writing e-mails or waiting on them. I've also been working a lot from Tonio, and even though he's got a tablet screen and the entire CS3 production premium suite, I miss Monty and have been counting the days until it reopens.

It must be the work environment. I don't work well when I'm isolated in a single room without anyone to run into on my way to grab something caffeinated, and it shows. I should grab a ferry to the Civic Center and go lounge about at that posh hotel for a day or so while the library's closed. It's not like they pay attention to who's staying at those hotels or anything. It'd sure be nice if the city didn't shut down every day at sundown. Some rain would be nice too, and I'm talking about the sort of rain that cools things down, not the kind that blows in for an hour and then leaves abruptly like nothing ever happened. I swear, the last time it rained, the city was totally dry again no more than fifteen minutes after the sun came out.

At least my tiny apartment has killer A/C.

My Latest Ingenious Revelation

Well, kids, last week during a well-deserved vacation to Disney World and Islands of Adventure, I discovered that I have a physical condition that an extraordinarily small number of individuals my age exhibit. I've named this condition "Theme Park Tank Syndrome" and will be forwarding my findings to the medical community along with a nice "please don't admit me to an asylum" cover letter.

Throughout my twenty-odd years of theme park excursions, I've found that I can go from the time the park opens to the time the park closes without eating, drinking, or using the bathroom without having to worry about passing out or peeing my pants. At first my parents assumed I'd grow out of it like most normal humans, but to their dismay the condition actually developed further through my teenage years, turning me into a veritable theme park tank capable of skipping roller coaster lines in rapid succession and eating away valuable minutes of my less-thrill-ride-savvy companions' vacation time.

After five years of research into the condition, I've drawn a conclusion that my digestive system, upon entering the gates of a theme park, freezes completely. This would account for both my resistance to normal hunger and thirst and my resistance against extreme gs, hairpin turns, and corkscrew loops. Upon exiting the park my innards resume their normal functions. I've yet to find a theme park that's open long enough to test exactly how long the effects can last and see if there are any negative side effects that stem from remaining in Theme Park Tank Mode for too long. Until then, I will be hopping lines and wearing my fastpasses thin running circles around the Floridian roller coaster circuit, hoping that all those government grants I've applied for will go through and I'd be able to afford to continue my studies.

Honestly, if I find the source for this, I could be saving millions of adults money on park food and barf bags, and billions of hard-earned hours waiting at roller coaster exits for their kids to finish their rides.

Self-Critiques Don't Usually Go This Well

This occurred at about 1AM in the midst of Finals Weekend. Since those days all blur together I'm going to guess it must've been this past Saturday.


Anyway, that was me watching the shadows I animated for Matt Doering's drop-dead gorgeous film, Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti. One day I swear I will create a proper spoof of it starring old ladies, but for now I'm up to my eyebrows in 2D effects...and hooked on Irish riverdance music.

I kind of wonder how I'd react to my own work if I saw it after a good night's sleep...because I seriously didn't remember it looking that cool when I put it in my reel.

Jacquestar

...Well, here's the last two years of my life...er...not all of the last two years of my life, exactly...anyway, bet you can't tell which parts I did in 2008, which parts I did in 2009, and which parts I did last Thursday!



Incidentally, this is the first time I've ever pulled an all-nighter making fun of a professor in animated short format, but I did have a deadline to meet. Jacques is moving to NYC after this, so I had to have it ready before his sendoff party. It's really more of a Lacoste joke if anything--Andy Moxon (voiced badly by yours truly) was the photography professor while I was in Lacoste, and in the first week he told Jacques that he could walk to the next town over in less than thirty minutes if he followed a Roman road just outside of town.

Naturally, Jacques missed it entirely (it was pretty hard to miss once we did find it) and wound up taking all of us through the woods for about three or four hours. And from now on, Jon and Lauren and I have been calling airplanes Jacquestars.

So yeah, Thursday went well.

Hypnotic Washing Machines

So the dorms got new washing machines this week.

They invested in the kind that opens in the front and lets you watch all your clothes spin around while the machine runs, and it makes me wish I weren't graduating quite so soon because I feel like I'm missing out on something spectacular. Honestly, I didn't want to leave the laundry room while the machine was running simply because it was just asking for me to stare at it for hours on end.

Nothing takes the edge off midterms quite like spinning laundry does.

Business Card Designs

I have done it! I've found the most cost and time-efficient means of printing out double-sided business cards and it serves its purpose quite well. Adobe InDesign rocks.

In other news, I am now working on effects animation for two very high-end, high profile SCAD productions: Base14's latest project, in which I did a series of water splashes that I am very proud of, and Matt Doering's senior project, where I'm animating two shots of shadows. I really do love effects animation, working through this stuff has been a breeze. Especially the splashes, which I'm cleaning up and coloring. I wish I could post that stuff up here, but seeing as these are high-end, festival-quality projects, we've got to make sure to keep this stuff under wraps. As soon as they hit the online airwaves, there will be links!

Looks Like My Spring Break's Over...

Man. Last spring break ever, and man did this one fly. I kind of wish they'd make 'em longer. I still don't think I've totally caught up on my sleep from the end of last quarter.

I aced EFX and finished my senior project, though "finished" is kind of a loose term here since I didn't quite get all the sound I wanted to have. I pulled through literally just in the nick of time, like an animator Indiana Jones sliding under a metaphorical stone slab doorway barely fast enough to get through without being flattened. But I did it with the help of my ever-supportive friends. And so the day is saved once again!

Now I'm looking to finish Jacquestar before my star takes off for New York, finish my guest comic for Lexy, and make a nice, professional promotional package. Oooh, I like the alliteration on that.

I need a time machine. I need a time machine sooooo much.

Bit Teaser Shot

Here's about what Bit's going to look like when it's done. Man, I hope this one actually plays right.

Oh, and the music is sounding REALLY good, hats off to Chad Boyles for the composition!

Another Timely Warning

Save early, and save often.

Thank you for your time. As consolation for any files you may have lost, ever, here is a picture of Debber holding a baby hamster.

Social Networking App Fever

Ever have a random idea pop into your head that won't go away until you've drawn it out? That happens to me more than it probably should. And with that I bring you the gag of the All-Nighter...VilleVille.

Snow...?

So it snowed in Savannah tonight...last night...this morning? The rain from yesterday morning kind of ate the snow up though. It was kind of slushy, but still really cool. Like how it snowed in July in the first episode of Digimon. Sadly, I didn't wind up finding a glowing digital apparatus land at my feet during a freak meteor shower and teleporting to an alternate reality with six random strangers, but at least I cleaned up and colored a good chunk of the scenes in Bit while I was waiting for that to happen. C'est la vie, I suppose.

When you're EFX, You're EFX All The Way

...And you have barely any time to do anything else for any of your other classes. On the bright side...Bit is only forty-seven seconds long.

The above is a perspective ball bounce. Just look at that ugly messed-up layout of a room. The counter is in different perspective than the table. The tabletop is in different perspective than the table legs. And the whole thing made me want to tear out all my hair and eat it. And THE TONES...I will be fighting tone consistency until the day that I die of being overworked and underpaid. For some reason I love it anyway. Anyone who loves animation has been there, guaranteed. To top it all off I still can't seem to beat my rival. I tied with him last time, but that's about as close as I got to beating him all quarter.

Having a nice rivalry keeps things interesting and keeps me on my toes. It's great motivation! Rest assured, it's a friendly rivalry, and he's well aware of the fact. I'll just keep hacking away at it for now.

Errrr...well, at least the EFX song is out of the way...

I've finally got a cut of the Effects Song out of the way that doesn't involve me spazzing out thinking I'd been blacklisted! Next song for Monty! is probably going to be a parody of Monty Python's "I'm a Lumberjack," as suggested by Andrew Coppinger. You know, "I'm an animator, I'm okay, I work all night, I work all day..."

Bit's chugging along. EFX is just as much of a beast as I'd predicted and then some. If I'd been able to take it fall quarter it would have been so much easier...but alas. I'll post stuff when I get time to breathe I mean post stuff.

Also, rather appropriately, my conscience is writing the Jesus Flick of the Class of 2010. She does consciences proud. When I become a real boy (it's looking to be sooner than I anticipated) I'm going to have a lot to compensate for.

The Penultimate Showdown!

This...quarter...is...going...to...kill...me.

Effects + Senior II =/= sleep! And I have to go re-shoot the EFX song before it all gets out of hand. And I never got to finish Jacquestar.

(Okay, okay, breathe. Sit back, listen to some showtunes, and knock Bit's clean-up out. You'll thank me later.)