Tuesday, March 28, 2006

California Dreamin'

Yay! I'm back from California. I got to visit many things on this trip such as:
CalArts
Frank Gehry's Disney Music Hall
Getty Art Museum
Chinatown
Monterey Park

I'm going to post a better review of the trip with pretty pictures later this week.
I had a great time (my first artsy oriented trip).

But I've decided....CalArts is the school I want to be in. So on this blog I'm going to try something out. Over the course of the summer I'm going to be drawing my butt off. I'll post my sketches here and in the end I'll have I guess a comment poll on which sketch should go into my portfolio and which sketch should be re-worked. I need all the help I can get.

I'm trying to apply for Fall 2007 as a transfer student. In the more likely case that I don't make it in the first time, I still have my drawing degree to finish.

Thanks everybody for your support.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

CalArts baby!

Hooray! On Sunday I'm flying over to California for a week of pure relaxation....lol not really.

I made an appointment on Monday to go to Calarts and visit their film department :D I'm really excited. It's quite odd when you already decided your dream school without ever being there. Everything will be great until we get to the topic of.....financial aid....and crappy portfolio lol.

Yeah...my portfolio isn't great right now. I still have huge problems with proportion and anatomy. Oy, even my art critique in class pointed this out 0.o
I still am not sure whether to transfer or finish my degree. I will probably figure it out this summer when I cram and make my arms bleed. I have a plan...if I don't improve this summer greatly I will finish my degree.
I shall: take summer drawing classes, get a pass for the zoo, do "master" studies of cartoon stills, draw people until they are annoyed, and break dance :P

And now random stuff that is happening in Colorado currently.

HOV lanes and Tilly
http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=fa783fbc-0abe-421a-0004-f1a90731c39c&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf
Poor Tilly at auction lol
http://cgi.ebay.com/TILLIE-THE-DUMMY-HOV-LANE-PASSENGER-TILLY_W0QQitemZ7751812682

And morbid but intriguing Body World: I'm bringing a barf back to this.
http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/home.asp

Oh and before I forget :D
New Avatar: The Last Airbender tomorrow
I'm still debating whether to buy the dvds because I wonder if there will be a season pack someday.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Gendo Senki

I'm enthralled with the production and family disagreements with Studio Ghibli's new film Gendo Senki or Tales from Earthsea. The film is based Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea" series. I've looked up summaries of the books (I will read them soon :p) and the movie will focus on "The Farthest Shore." It will have bits and pieces from the other books.
The most interesting part about this movie is that it is directed and storyboarded by Miyazaki's son Goro. Hayao Miyazaki is against his son's directorial debut and they haven't talked since production. At the beginning, I thought it was because he had no previous animation experience (he's actually an architect), but after reading Goro's blog http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/earthsea/blog/ you begin to realize how much he loved the books and how he is careful at every step of the process. He has the whole Ghibli staff helping him. My goodness look at that image...simply beautiful.
Pages 39-41 of his blog reveals his relationship with his father. Goro practically didn't have a father. With animation production consuming Miyazaki, he barely spent time with his family. Goro watched his father's films to discover more about him. This is a problem that happens to a lot of people involved in the industry. I often thought of the sacrifices I will make to pursue my dream and whether it's worth it?
I have full faith that this movie will be a masterpiece. It will definitely be a better adaptation of a book than Howl's Moving Castle. The animation is reminiscent of Nausicaa. I think the movie would have less spectacular action scenes and focus on the teaching and relationships of the characters. The first trailer is available on-line. http://www.catsuka.com/news_detail.php?id=1140663861 Click on the link and keep refreshing until it downloads.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Oscar 2006 Quickie

I was at work and only got to see the last half. Wallace and Gromit and John Canemaker winning was no surprise to me. I wish Corpse Bride could have won something. After watching it a second time, I realized I enjoyed it a lot more than W&G (gasp). I was fortunate enough to see all of the short animated nominees (thanks to Starz Film Center.) My family loved the gothic Jasper Morello while I thought it was a bit slow at the beginning. I did like the Moon and the Son a lot better than last year's winner Ryan, but too long. Alas, my favorite was the one that wasn't nominated Fan and the Flower by Bill Plympton. I swear someday they better give this man an Oscar. Badgered and One Man Band was cute and enjoyable. 9 was okay, but really this shouldn't have been nominated.

hehe everybody in Taiwan cheered when Ang Lee won the Oscar. The whole news the next day was just about him winning. Poor guy. They interviewed his school teachers and they brought in the..... grade book lol. He was an average student while they thought his brother was going to be famous.

Crash winning wasn't too surprising since the day before Ebert predicted Crash would win.

Thank goodness they got rid of presenting the awards in the crowd and bringing them on stage for the minor awards. That was such a bad idea last year. I was also glad the recipients can now see how much time they have for their speech and that they cut off anybody.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Guinea Pig Randomness

Here are some random guinea pig fun that is odd and may cause cuteness seizures:

Nick Jr. has a new show starring a guinea pig. Very annoying singing show, but the guinea pig is quite cute.
http://www.nickjr.com/home/shows/wond_parents/index.jhtml


In the UK, they have created a robot guinea pig that recharges from the remote carrot you give it. It has it's own hut and interacts with other robots. Guspi.....the robot of the future


Sooty the guinea pig who is defined as the pimp of all guinea pigs. Xiao Bao...thankfully hasn't learned his skills yet.
Read more here:
http://usera.imagecave.com/HBThingy/1137373097214.jpg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1048327.stm

And the icing on the cake from "Cute Overload"
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/03/prepare_for_you.html

The cuteness....the cuteness