3rd year at CalArts

 I had wonderful time at July Films over the summer. I feel more confident when I animate, and I now know I need to take the time to do good animation. Thank you Mike ^^

Here's my schedule for this year....and yet again I have a full load. I added more CG this year. I remember when I first entered CalArts and vowed to shun against CG. It's amazing how one person's point of view can change over time. Animating in CG is getting easier. A better rig makes the animator's life a whole lot easier. I still have a love for old film techniques and paper animation, but reality is starting to hit me. CG is here to stay while, older techniques like film stock is dying out. This became apparent when a film stock I was using for my Optical printing class suddenly became discontinued. I still have in my possession two 16mm B/W reversal 500T.
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/05/celluloid-lovers-alert-save-plus-x-2/
Also standard definition television is gone, so no more NTSC format. My film will be in HD. It was sort of nostalgic to use a tv monitor to check the image and routing wires to patchbay. However, we still use a lunchbox to shoot pencil tests.

I still have a passion for 2-D and stop-motion. I will use these as my main tools for film making, but I need to keep my options open.

FC202A01	CG Foundation II	Bac, Andrew	1.50	M 9am to 12 Noon	A109
FC300A02	2D Character Animaton III	Wright, Scott	2.00	T 9am to 12 Noon	E58
FC301A02	CG Character Animation III	Kelly, Morgan	2.00	M 7pm to 10pm	A108
FC304A	Digital Methods III	Rude, Bill	1.00	F 1pm to 4pm	A108
FC311A01	Advanced Painting	Hormozi, Marjan	1.00	Th 9am to 12 Noon	A221G
FC326A05	Film Workshop III/IV	Van Orman, Thurop	4.00	W 7pm to 10pm	D206
FC430A	Advanced Character Design	Rynda, Phil	1.50	Th 7pm to 10pm	A217
FC460A	Directing for Animators	Petkov, Rumen	2.00	F 9:30am to 12:30pm	D206
FE117	Lighting and Camera for Exp Anim	Sun, Helder	2.00	T 4pm to 7pm	BB#4
FE410	After Effects: Compositing	Emery, Myron	2.00	T 1pm to 4pm	F105
		Total Units	19.00

I have been pondering over what my third film should be. I know I have to start it earlier this year....way earlier. My goal this year is to add more texture and atmosphere to my film. I think my last year film was to flat and I relied to much on After Effects and Photoshop.

Hooray for the start of a new school year and a new opportunity to do something interesting.

Urban Jacaranda

I'm in California for an internship this summer! It's at a little independent studio called July Films, such a beautiful studio. I feel like I can take the time to animate and redo things until it is right. I'm really grateful to get a chance to intern here.

I'm not accustomed to such a variety of plants and trees. In Colorado, I only see maples, aspens, and cottonwood trees.  I went through Pasadena to get to the nearest bookstore and went through neighborhoods filled with jacaranda trees. It was an interesting contrast to see the fragile purple petals scattered across an urban landscape of telephone poles. Wouldn't it just be creepy, in a post-apocalyptic world, these trees still bloom among an urban rubble? My writing is too dramatic lol.

I've been trying to write a post about my second year at CalArts. I keep re-reading it, and the entry sounds really moody. I felt like it was a tornado of a year. This was partially my fault for taking so many classes during the second semester. Oh well, here's to self-discovery and experimentation in the third year!

Here I am at my first day interning. I am trying to animate a traveler's palm. :D

My 2nd Year film

The Conductor from Ellen Yu on Vimeo.

I told you I was going to make a guinea pig conducting film lol.