Gretchen, you colorful thing.

An environment created for my gorgon, Gretchen. It depicts her bedroom and her great big open door looking out on her bright, fantasy flip-flopped world:

And three characters that could appear alongside Gretchen. First, Cerberus the puppy. Second, Gretchen's best friend Harriet, who is a harpy (and whom I have to fix so she doesn't look so much like a girl in a bird costume). And last, the evil mastermind Sparkles the unicorn. He looks rather dashing, but that's the point. He's a very arrogant villain.

Ok, that's all for now.

Oh and did I mention that I was offered an internship at FableVision? WELL I WAS! AND I'M SO TAKING IT! Their studio is fantastic, both in what it creates and why it creates. I'm so glad I'm getting the opportunity to learn from them over the summer. They use a lot of Flash (which I really want to learn). Browse their website when you get a chance! www.fablevision.com

Ok and now I'm done. :D

Cheers everyone, have a good week!

Tentative Backgrounds

Alrighty, all. I need some feedback. I had originally planned to do watercolor backgrounds for my film, but due to me running completely off schedule, I'm considering going digital because it's easier, faster, and cheaper. The top picture was my first attempt, which is fairly normal and includes bright colors. But I have the problem that the background colors might wash out the character. I tried dulling it down, but then I wasn't happy with that either. Then I started thinking about the Xerox age, when they used a very small color palette and didn't really worry about lines or small objects. I think I like the second better, because it's different for me and can be really expressive in color. But what do you think? Any suggestions?

Some Inbetweened Shots

I've decided to upload some inbetweened shots that are sitting on my jump drive. I need to show more of my animation, and not sit on it like a chicken waiting for an egg to hatch. I threw that analogy out there off the top of my head, but I just realized that I really DO treat my work like that.

This one (Shot 6) has actually been updated since I exported this .mov. For instance, the fabric falling down into the basket is now inbetweened, as is the basket being kicked away. My friend, Dave Rappoccio, is coloring the character for me as we speak. I animated this shot completely, no inbetween help. It's kind of my baby, and I'd like to really perfect it after this is all over so I can use it on my demo reel. I've wanted to do this specific movement since the idea birth of this animation.

And this one is actually kind of neat, because Brett Wilson inbetweened the fat cat while Elizabeth Cardella inbetweened the cook and the skinny cat. My only worry here is that there's too much going on, and so you'll either miss the adorableness of that fat cat licking the spoon his master just put down, or the neat eye roll that the skinnier cat does when his master starts to fawn over the fatter cat, or even the general movement of the cook, Rosie. I've also wanted to do this movement since the very beginning, though it's changed a bit and it didn't end up the way I had imagined it would.

And then this last one, which I just kind of threw in for kicks. It's certainly not one of the most elaborate, but it got finished today and it has the cute fat cat in it again. Elizabeth Cardella also inbetweened this one for me.

What to do, what to do...

So the most recent assignment in my Character Illustration class was to put our character into three different cartoon universes. I chose X-Men, Disney, and South Park. The X-Men one is my favorite, Gretchen looks "bad-ass" enough to fit in (which is funny considering her original design). Disney was a little disappointing, as it came out looking a ton like some cheesy fan art piece. At least I learned a little about constructing "princess" faces. And well, I spent too much time on the first two so I just did South Park in the end. Though I might redo it in a different style if I have some extra time.

In other news (and more importantly as well), I found out this past week that I was accepted to the Vancouver Film School as well as the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I declined Vancouver after finding out about the Academy, but now I need to decide whether to go to the Academy or not. Attending the school would give me a reason to go to San Francisco, would better my skills, and would give me an MFA in Animation so I could teach later in life...but it would also be a huge financial set back for me. Especially if I can't get a job. I'm also waiting to hear about an internship that I'm really, really, REALLY hoping to get. And my family is pressuring me to go into Art Education. So I have a lot of paths waiting to be explored at this current moment in time.

Come summer time, I've decided that I'm going to dedicate my spare time to learning Flash and finessing my drawing skills via 11 Second Club. I'm really excited for this option, because it'll be nice to be able to do animation for myself and at my own leisure, and not for a class.

Oh, and the thesis is coming along. My composer sent me some music which I really like. I hope to be done with breakdowns by the middle of the week. I've also recruited a couple of friends to help me color the character frames. So as of right now, it's looking up.

If anyone has any advice on San Francisco or the Art Academy, feel free to post :)

Good luck with the week, everyone.