I am loving Maya. And Animation. And building stuff.

"Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls."
- Ingrid Bergman, Swedish born American actress, 1915-1982

This is the first playblast of the room I've been working on for the past few weeks. (don't blink or you'll miss it) I'm in the process of modeling some more furniture and finding textures to use on the different surfaces (couch fabric, stairs, carpet, possibly a rug, easel..) I'm also working on a twisty handrail for the second level and stairs and I need to decide where to put the "gallery" Somehow, a teacup found its way onto my coffee table.. I guess I'll let it stay.



The professor of this class (Craig Kovacs) is very awesome and everybody seems to be picking up this modeling stuff fast. I'm just glad I'm finally getting to make things. The night before our first Maya lesson I had a crazy dream where my computer caught on fire and exploded, and all I had done was open the program!

So far, I haven't exploded any computers at SCAD. Praise God.

PreHysterical by Joe Pitt

A Character Animation project- made by Joe Pitt (2007), for OPEN SHOW: an EIGHTHOUREXTRAVAGANZA at CalArts. Beautiful.

ch ch ch changes... and cuh cuh cuh couches...

lots of hours later.. i think this'un's bettuh

Storyboarding

First storyboarding assignment: The Establishing Shot: Riverstreet.

First Couch in Maya

to be continued...

keep watching for this in later postings! should be soon :)

Lucasfilm at SCAD

LUCASFILM came to SCAD to present internship and job opportunities and talk about demo reels. Their entry level internship program is called Jedi Academy. Wow.

Madeleine L'Engle's The Small Rain

I love being in Savannah.
I got a library card the other day.

Now, I have access to TWO expansive (and filled with windows-thus, natural lighting) three story libraries within walking distance. One, the Jen Library- is entirely filled with art books galore... never ending. And the Live Oak- I'm not exactly sure how many stories it has- (and by stories, I mean floors), but it's got either three or four.

I just finished Madeleine L'Engle's The Small Rain.
I began reading it on a Saturday trip to the beach and finished on the next Saturday. (My roomate took my first "author photograph"- you know, the photo that's on the back flap of books. I'm not an author yet, but someday.... someday.. I was wearing my white and red Sunday-Morning-in-New York City-dress with the billowy red hat)

During the first week, when we had sooooo much work to do, I got used to being busy again and I LOVE that feeling, so this week- after I used my time very wisely- and got most of my homework done during class workshop time. I do not like to waste time anymore. If I have spare time, I want to invest it in a book by one of my favorite authors. Before I came to school, I spent a week or two reading the manual to Maya. No more unnecessary naps for me! If I do need to take a rest, though, I rest.My room is facing west, so in the afternoon, the sun graciously comes and warms up my bed for me so it's nice and toasty just in case I may need a nap. We also have lots of butterflies and dragonflies flitting around outside our window.

Oh yes, back to The Small Rain. Madeleine L'Engle wrote it when she was about my age.(20-ish) I've decided to begin at the beginning of her collection of writings and read chronologically up through her growing up. I enjoyed her first novel very much, though it was filled with a lot of pain. Her main character, Katherine is a very dedicated pianist and goes through many losses, including the death of her mother and other significant people in her life. I feel like, that through this book, I grew up with Katherine and we got through everything together, so maybe after this, I've grown up a little bit too.

"Mother said when you were unhappy or confused, Bach was the person to play. With almost everybody else you can think, but with Bach there's nothing but the music. It's true, you know."

p. 67 The Small Rain

Poster Project

just finished - Adobe Illustrator Project for Advanced Computer Applications.

This is a poster that is to be featured in a 3-dimensional room created in Maya. A Tribute to one of my favorite artists whose kind and creative heart helped lead me to see the world differently and to also to see the Artist who never changes.

Ira Glass on Storytelling

After watching the Fall of 08 ScadAnimate Senior Animation Short Film Projects, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about story. Looking everywhere for a story.. filling up my little book of small one sentence snips of things that could possibly be stories later...

I don't know when I'm graduating from SCAD- I have an appointment with my advisor coming up in the next 2 weeks. Since seeing the Senior Short Film projects, I was struck with the urgency of gaining a repertoire of stories- so I'm not panicking when I need one for a storyboarding project, animation, illustration, etc. Last year I found myself getting discouraged when I had an assignment due and I knew that I had ideas floating around in my head, but the unsureness of what my message should be in my drawing or what story to come up with .. actually made me become frozen and I think I lost hope in my creativity in the face of challenges that seemed bigger than me.

So, every day, I am going to make a story. It could be one sentence, It could be a page. But I'm keeping it in my book that stays in my pocket (just in case a really good one smacks into me on the bus) and by the time Senior Projects roll around, I'll have a good sized stack of stories to choose from!

That being said: Here's a nugget of wisdom, not only for animators, but for any creative person or storyteller.

movie night... i mean.... study group

Last night marked our third week at SCAD and our third movie night in Studio 265! We've watched Monsters Inc., Back to the Future, and last night: The Fall. Definitely one of the high points of my week!