Meh...

Yeah, still not much more than before, except now I think I'm going to do my zombie giraffe for this class and something else for senior project; I highly doubt any of you have heard of Agua Fria Freddie, but I think I'm gonna do it on him. He's the west's version of Punxatawny Phil, pretty much, and he predicts the opposite of his shadow. That's about as much as I can say for now, because I haven't really worked out all the details just yet.

I also have no idea how to go about creating characters or backgrounds in Flash... So... What I end up doing with this new information about my story and Flash will be interesting. Because I haven't the slightest idea of how this is going to end up. I really wish I had some working knowledge of the program before I took the class, at least then I wouldn't be flying blind.

My stylus pen should be here today... I could go to the cage, but I am tired of having to go through them for crap. If I absolutely have to, then yeah, I'll do it. But until then... I'll wait. Yeah, it'll probably catch up to me when I rush to get the tutorials done, but oh well. That's my own doing.

Other than that... Not feeling too great today and I seriously hope I'm not coming down with something... I started getting a sinus headache yesterday. Plus, not really having the greatest start to the week and the day has barely even started. Yay.

Progress? ... Not so much

I still don't have any idea what I want to do for this class... And on top of this, I also have to come up with a concept for my senior project, or at least a rough idea, by tomorrow and I have no clue what I want to do for that either. I seriously thought I'd have a lot more time to figure this out than just a week and half... I also have another story to write for concept and after today I will have another story to write for Script Writing, too... How the hell did I think these classes would be easier than three studios full of drawing?! I miss the drawing!

My brain is fried of creativity... I never really considered myself all that creative to begin with, especially compared to a lot of people here. I can't just "come up" with something... In the past, it's taken weeks and by the time I do, it's one or two days before the project is due or it's not a very solid idea. I really am trying my best to come up with something, but it's not happening, and I can't just force it. I over think things too much, and I can't just not think, so it's a viscious cycle. I don't get my stylus pen in until Monday and even then I have no idea how to use it.

Dude... It's the second week of school and I'm already stressed out... Not to mention I didn't have the greatest start to the school year either and I hadn't even gotten to Savannah, yet. So it's like... "Yay! Awesome summer!" and then I get hit with "And now the shit starts to hit the fan..." again. I'm just really concerned this is going to turn into another Stop Motion II thing where I pull 22 or more all nighters, hallucinate from lack of sleep, don't leave Montgomery Hall except to take a shower and maybe eat... I'm trying to avoid that, because I know too ambitious a project over a ten week period is NOT enough time to adequately produce an animation. I reached a breaking point after that class and now I doubt my abilities more and question my judgement.

So perhaps this is too personal for a production blog, but I really don't care right now. I'm stressed already, therefore I just vented. It's not like a whole bunch of people are going to read this anyway.

Digital Cel Project

I honestly have no idea what I want to do for this project. I have wracked my brain for an answer, and I still don't have one. I have some ideas, but none of them are anything new. I've done them before in previous assignments. The characters, that is. I've used them seemingly a lot, just because it was easier to use a good idea I already had then try to come up with a new one. I have nothing to go on, nothing required of me, other than making a flash video and I have no idea where to start. I have also never used flash before, so I have no idea what limitations there are with the program. I've learned from past experiences that giving yourself too ambitious a project can almost kill your sanity.

So... With that being said, here are my few ideas that are already created. One of them is zombie giraffe. Zombie giraffe is a little giraffe who broke his neck when he tried to balance on a little red ball. Now he is slowly decaying and nobody wants to come near him, so he is very sad. We had to create a children's story in my intro to sequential class, so I took my giraffe from stop motion and made a sequel to it. Since then I've wanted to animate him for quite a while, I just wasn't sure how or when I'd get the time to. I'd probably make a continuation of the story if I chose to do this idea.

Another idea would be to take my characters from my Layout and Design class and create that story. However, those characters are rather complex to draw so I'd probably have to simpify them somewhat before I'd use them. I'd also change the main idea of that story as well, because it was a little weak.

I could also use some characters I've had for years, such as Aislynn, Bailey, and Luna. They are also fairly complex and there isn't really a general storyline for them except for their back stories. Also having more than one character would make that a little difficult and it's hard to get anything out of them if it's just one.

My Favorite Animation

Okay, so I am like behind on these since I had to go to Asheville last Monday and wasn't able to make that first post... No excuse, but anyway.

As far as my favorite animations... Again, favorites are hard for me to pick. I love all the Disney and Bluth animations, they are all absolutely gorgeous. I also like Nightmare Before Christmas... It's too bad that's so popular now it seems cliche. *sigh* Favorite Pixar film is definately Finding Nemo.

I suppose I could post some links or something to some animations I like, since everyone else seems to be doing that.

My friend John sent me that link, it's called "Tais Toi Mon Coeur"by Dionysos. It's a music video. It looks like Stop Motion, but the motions are so complex I think it might be CG meant to look like Stop Motion. Either way I really like it, especially the story that goes with it.

I love Kiwi! It's so cute, but it's so depressing. But I really thought the idea was very original. =)

This is probably my favorite Pixar short. "For the Birds"

My Best Work

The majority of my stuff is either at home or it's on my external hard drive, so... All I have available to me at the moment is whatever I've posted on DeviantArt or YouTube. I also have a hard time picking favorites, so I decided to just pick three for a couple reasons.

The first one is probably one of my best drawings. It was a copyrighted image, sadly... However, I think I did a pretty damn good job of rendering it in my own way. It's a picture of Michelle Kwan skating in her Vera Wang outfit for the 2004 Worlds. It's prismacolors on black paper. I look at it and wonder if I could still make something that good again... I haven't used prismas to that extent in quite a while; no time for it sadly. But, overall, I am very proud of this.

The next would be my stop motion I final. It's not the greatest animation out there, but I absolutely love it. Everyone I've ever shown it to loves it. And it always makes me happy when I watch it. Thank you, Kyle. Lol... I was originally just gonna have a cute little giraffe, Kyle helped me make it... Different. =_=; There was a comic that stemmed from this as well, about a zombie giraffe, which I might make into my film for this class, because I'd really like to animate it, but I'm not sure yet.


So... I hope this suffices for now.

First Post

So, I was a little late getting this thing started. My car crapped out on me 30 miles north of Asheville, NC, so I had to jet after class. My mom and I drove back up to Asheville (which is about 4.5 to 5 hours from Savannah), get my car, stay the night, get up early, and drive back in order to be here in time for my 2 pm class. I was a little exhausted at the end of the day, so I figured I'd catch up when I got to class...

Anyway, about me? I'm 21 years old, an animation major, sequential minor. I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have a golden retriever back home named Molly, but we call her "Molly Girl." My dad is a former marine and retired photojournalist, and my mom is a pediatrician. Um... I'm not very good with these things unless I have specific questions to answer. =_=; I'm a fairly quiet person in class and around new people, but once I get to know people, I'm a lot more open. Those who know me well enough can attest to that. ^_^

I had a very good summer, probably the best one I've had to date. Got together with some friends from high school I hadn't seen in forever and pretty much spent the whole summer with them, aside from working part time. It's going to be hard to get back into the groove of doing schoolwork... It feels weird to be back, honestly. I was in O-House the past two years, and now I'm in Barnard and it doesn't feel like I'm at SCAD... That and I have people back home to talk to, which I haven't had forever (aside from my parents).

As far as the project in this class, I'm not sure what I want to do. I have never used flash before so it will be an entirely new experience. I also have Concept and Comic book scripting at the same time, and the amount of writing I have to do so far is a little daunting... Plus, it's hard for me to come up with ideas for things like this, and having to come up with multiple at the same time... Yeah... Hopefully I can conjure up something decent.

I suppose, that's about it for now. Kind of need to pay attention to the lecture. =_=;