Manganese

My trip to Prague! Part 1

2012-01-06T21:58:00.004-07:00

Around June 2011, I got the chance to spend two weeks in Prague with a group of CalArts students. This was a joint mini exchange with FAMU (The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague). It was an amazing experience and the first time I was in a foreign country.

Before I went I looked up more information on the whereabouts of Jiri Trnka puppets at this wonderful blog. http://czechproperty.blogspot.com/2009/10/jiri-trnka-filmmaker.html
I never got a chance to see the Trade Fair Palace. (Another reason I need to visit Prague again :D) to make sure that they were there. I talked to Bretislav Pojar and he said most of his puppets and sets were in a private storage somewhere in an unknown place. It was quite disheartening to hear this, but I got to see Mr. Pojar's puppets up close to make up for it.

Just a week after my school year ended, we headed to Prague. It took about 9 hours on the first flight to Amsterdam and then an hour to Prague. We stayed in FAMU's dormitory.

My FAMU dormitory

The gorgeous view from my window.

I really appreciated my stay there. It was about a 20 minute tram ride away from the main downtown of Prague. FAMU was in a nice historic building...mostly everything in the Czech Republic was in a beautiful building.

We had many lectures on Czech animation. It's amazing how much wonderful animation comes from this country. Here are a couple of animations that are available on youtube that really impressed me.

A Drop Too Much by Bretislav Pojar

Revolution in Toyland by Hermina Tyrlova

Duel by Pavel Koutsky

The Vanished World of Gloves by Jiri Barta

We also had a chance to visit Jan Svankmajer's Studio Knoviz. Sadly, he wasn't there, but we got the chance to sneak around his studio. His studio kind of startled me because it was more like a mysterious attic with lost relics from his film. There were dark nooks and crannies that were illuminated by the natural light. If you watched his films before, his studio's look fits perfectly.

Studio Knoviz in the countryside.

Production notes for Surviving Life

Cut-out animation from Surviving Life

The flatbed where he edits his films.

I believe this is from his movie Faust.

The actual Little Otik!

I think these are mouth replacements for Little Otik. He's getting hungry.

His ceramic work

The two characters from Punch and Judy.


A plethora of film canisters!

Fall 2011

2011-10-27T15:30:00.001-06:00

I am now in my final year at CalArts. It seems like an eternity has passed since I was a first year at CalArts. Here is my Fall semester schedule:

FC315A	Life Drawing for Animation	Sechrist, Rad	1.50	T 7:30pm to 10:30pm	PALACE
FC360	Visual Development	Keene, Lisa	2.00	F 4pm to 7pm	A108
FC400A01	2D Character Animation IV	Haycock, Randy	3.00	M 7pm to 10pm	A116
FC455A02	Advanced Story	Favela, Eric	1.50	W 7pm to 10pm	LANGLY
FC465A02	Professional Preparation IV	Ventura, Valerio	1.50	Th 2pm to 4pm	A109
FE303	Alternative Stop Motion Techniques	Dyer, Eric	2.00	Th 9am to 12 Noon	BB#4
FE360	Intermediate Concepts of Stop Motion	Brooker, Musa	3.00	Th 7pm to 10pm	BB#4
FE361	Art of Animation in Czech Tradition	Furniss/Hobaica	2.00	0am to 0am
TP030-08	Sewing Basics	Potter, Karen	2.00	F 10:10am to 12 Noon	COSTUM
TP607	History of Fashion	Mickelsen, David	2.00	M 9:40am to 12 Noon	D309

As you can see, I added a lot more stop-motion classes this time around. It's hard for me to grasp my change in focus since I came in wanting to do more 2-D animation. I still love 2-D, but I don't think it is my strongest asset. I'm not the best draftsman. I like putting in holds more than I should while animating.

I feel like every year I change my emphasis a little bit. I did more CG last year and tried modeling in Maya for the first time. It's interesting but I miss feeling a real object. I will still keep animating in Maya for practice.

I'm finishing my blog post about my trip to Prague over the summer. I got to meet some amazing stop-motion studios and individuals there. It might be the reason why I changed.

Hi there blog

2011-02-19T17:28:00.002-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't been updating my blog. I look at the amount of posts, and I only posted 3 times last year? I feel very shameful about that. I decided to post a little bit about my third year film Preservation. I'm very fortunate this year to receive advice from Thurop Van Orman and Phil Rynda this year. A lot of elements from my film has changed for the better because of their advice.

The first two images are boards from my film. I'll leave it at that since the film will be online at the end of May (crossing fingers). The third image is the first color script for my film. I'm trying to finish the emotion and location changes of my script this weekend. I want my backgrounds to be done in watercolors this year. This digital work is going to help me with my color choices. Hopefully, all of this isn't too ambitious...hehehe.....0.o

And now I want to end on a random note for this post. I usually have the most fun in my non-major classes. I think it's because my focus is on learning and not the pressure of being exceptional in it. I am certainly a very bad puppeteer lol.

3rd year at CalArts

2010-09-27T12:13:00.000-06:00

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

2010-06-27T20:02:00.000-06:00

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

2010-05-10T10:01:00.000-06:00

The Conductor from Ellen Yu on Vimeo.

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

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T19:09:00.002-07:00

I hope 2010 is a better year full of conducting guinea pigs!

Iron Giant Reunion

2009-11-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

I was anticipating the film in 1999 by looking at their movie website. At the time, I was excited about anything that was a non-Disney animated feature. I'm not sure why this was the case, but I'm guessing it is because I was sick of musicals. I remember I saw the Iron Giant on August 7th, 1999. I still have the movie ticket stub. I knew right then I had watched an instant classic.

I can't believe it has been ten years since this movie has come out. I re-watched the movie right before going to the reunion lecture, and it is still just as funny, fresh, and beautiful as the day I saw it (which is sadly not the case for Anastasia).

I wrote down notes during the lecture which was being held at the Stephen J. Ross Theater at the Warner Bros. Studio Lot down in Burbank. I was really sad a lot of my fellow CalArts friends couldn't get tickets. Here is a summary of the lecture:

In the beginning, Brad Bird was working on a project called Ray Gun, which was supposedly an action and sci-fi animated movie. When Turner merged with Time Warner, the project was dropped. This movie was supposedly supremely awesome. Warner Bros. instead gave Brad Bird an optional to do a movie based on pre-existing stories they owned. One of them was Ted Hughes's book, The Iron Man. Brad pitched to the executives a question: "What if a gun had a soul and didn't want to be a gun?" They liked the idea, but there were several more obstacles he had to face.

Pete Townshend from The Who already was heavily involved in the project and even wrote an album The Iron Man: The Musical. Yes, the Iron Giant was going to be a musical. Brad finally had to tell Pete that he was dropped from the project. A musical would not fit a movie about a town in 1957 full of innocence and paranoia. Warner Bros. finally green-lit the project one day after Brad was going to leave the studio.

The movie had about 48 million dollars for the entire budget. At the time, they made elaborate story reels using after effects to get scenes approved faster. The color palette of the film was inspired by Thomas Benton and Grant Wood. They had a warm autumn palette that went to cool colors for the end of the film. One interesting fact for the flashlight scene in the forest is the layout team had to make a night and day version. When he flashes his light, the day layout would appear.

From the start, Brad Bird knew the Giant would be CG. The problem they had to overcome is to make the computer less perfect. They used the beta version of Maya and created line textures to mimic the wobble in the line that traditional animation has. When they were animating, they had to take out frames from Maya to make the Giant feel like he's on 2 frames per image. Based on who was the focus in the scene the traditional animation would either be done first or last. When Hogarth is in contact with the Giant's hands, one of the animators actually drew the hand in the animation to connect the two together. Usually they would get printouts of the CG and animate over it like a layout. This is why scenes with the hands and Hogarth have so much warmth. They don't feel like separate mediums.

Fun tidbits:

Four Calarts students got the chance to animating some scenes and do rough animation. Shane Prigmore, Pete Sohn, Eddie Rosas and Andy Schuler were the students. They got the chance because they asked Brad Bird to lunch and, he remembered them from that meeting. Shane wrote about it here.

Ted Turner cried when he saw the movie.

Brad put Eli Marienthal's (voice of Hogarth) feet in a bucket of ice cold water for the swimming scene.

Hogarth Hughes's last name is a tribute to Ted Hughes.

Brad always intended the Giant to be alive at the end, which makes sense. He set up the Giant's ability to repair himself at the beginning.

One idea that was cut from the movie was Kent dancing to Pat Boone's version of Little Richard's Tutti Frutti. He was suppose to be dancing and confrontational in front of Hogarth. Brad wanted to keep this scene because he knew it would be great to see Teddy Newton animate it.

A feeling I got from the lecture was everybody who worked on the film loved working on it. Even if their work was down, they still came in to try to help make the movie work. This such a rare feeling in the entertainment industry or in any job. You can really feel it in this movie.

Well, that's it. It's amazing how much thing have changed in ten years. My first year animation teacher is Mike Nguyen who was a supervising animator on the movie. I never dreamed I could meet people who worked on this amazing film. I had a wonderful time at the lecture and for five seconds I met Brad Bird.

24 Hour Comic Challenge and more stuff

2009-10-12T21:21:00.000-06:00

It's been a while. I'm back at Calarts with all the pressure and stress that comes with it.

I managed to take part in the 24 Hour Comic Day challenge this year. I went to the event that was being held at Brave New World in Newhall, CA. We started at 12pm, and I roughly finished around 9am.

I put The Treachery of the Eye up on Comicspace. I thought up the story based on the distortion of sight after someone has cataract surgery. I thought this would be a great movie idea, but I later found out that there is already a movie like this called At First Sight. Plus, Osamu Tezuka has done a much better rendition of visual agnosia in the 6th volume of the Phoenix. Oh well, I might as well do it as a comic for the challenge.

My Calarts schedule this year has been like this:

CS249	SUPERHEROES IN POLITICAL THEORY	De Boever, Arne	2.00	Th 4pm to 6pm	LANGLY
FC130A	BEGINNING CHARACTER DESIGN	Maki, Rik	2.00	M OR W 7-10	A217
FC200A02	INT TRADITIONAL ANIMATION (L-Z)	Perkovac, Gary	2.00	T 7pm to 10pm	A216
FC201A02	INTERMEDIATE CGI ANIMATION (L-Z)	Jones, Mike	2.00	Th 7pm to 10pm	A108
FC205A02	INTRODUCTION TO SOUND DESIGN (L-Z)	Huff, Ben	.50	M 9am to 12 Noon	A108
FC210A02	DRAWING FROM REAL TO REEL (L-Z)	Gomez, Jon	2.00	F 9am to 4pm	PALACE
FC235A02	INTERMEDIATE STORY DEVELOPMENT	Hull, Jim	2.00	W 7pm to 10pm	PALACE
FC270-02	BASIC ANIMATION LAYOUT (L-Z)	Hansen, Dan	2.00	F 4pm to 7pm	A217
FC377	HISTORY OF CHARACTER ANIMATION	Furniss, Maureen	3.00	W 9am to 12 Noon	BIJOU
T 820	TRANSFORMING TEXT I: PUPPET THEATRE	Geiser, Janie	2.50	T 12:40pm to 3pm	BB#2

I think I overloaded myself again. All the classes have been interesting and will hopefully help me out with my film this year.

I'm going to the CTN Animation Expo and if everything works out, I will have my portfolio ready by then. I have a sister blog up now just for my portfolio.

Thanks for reading. I hope to post more often this year.

Knight

2009-08-07T20:44:00.003-06:00

Hello there! It's been a while.

I really had fun using india ink and pen nibs today. I usually avoided nibs because I had the problem of splattering on the page. I think my hand is steadier since the last time I used nibs (middle school). I shaded the image with good old sumi ink.

Summer has been a wonderful vacation away from CalArts. I still have the horrible habit of staying up late lol. I go back in less than a month. I'm really thankful that I get to go back again.

Shark Week is this week and I have been doing the shark challenge that Kristin Campbell started. I'll post the results at the end of this week.

Favorite films this year!!!

2009-05-14T01:29:00.003-06:00

I was really proud of the shorts this year. I wanted to make a list of the films I enjoyed. Nine freshman got into the Producer's Show this year....so now you know why I was so damn nervous this whole year lol.

LIFELINE by Andres Salaff

Madame Babette by Marcos Cohen

Ad Astra by Elle Michalka

Who's Hungry? by David Ochs

Leonardo's Chase by Carlos Romero

The Thirsty Gargoyle by Sabrina Cortugno

A Werewolf Film by Noel Belknap

Study Hall by Jeff Liu

I got your nose by Skyler Page

Captured by Jennifer Harlow

Kiss Cam by Benett Kim

l'elevatore by Janine Chang

Value Blind by Tahnee Gehm

Tight Robots by Nick Desimone and Clay Fessier (I'm one of the Asian animators.)

Beautiful Night by Kristina Mikhail

This one time by Nelson Boles

This one time... from nelson boles on Vimeo.

There are definitely more that are not online yet including mine hehe.
What a great year!

A test of courage

2009-05-01T01:39:00.005-06:00

April 20th has rolled on by and things are finally winding down for my first year at CalArts. Making a film here is a lot different than last year. The three days before films were due was the most excruciating, heartbreaking, and amazing experience. You sit in a Mac Lab for 15 hours straight with other upperclassman. As you struggle to compose your animation, you gain a strong will to keep going.

For the lack of a better comparison, making a film is like war. Everyone comes into the battle together, but not everybody makes it out. It is a bittersweet experience. I hope technical difficulties and low morale will be less next year.

My film Remember When played at the Open Show. It was a fun evening to see everyone's films. I didn't get into the Producer's Show because there were so many great films, and my film was unfinished. I'll post links to my favorite shorts this year after The Producer's Show.

I will post my film when it is completely finished.

Here's a screen shot to keep you happy lol.

Oh and yes our group won first place for PSAid contest :D

PSA Entries and film update.

2009-04-01T18:20:00.006-06:00

For Hobaica's Color and Design II class, we entered a Public Service Announcement contest to promote that "Cash is Best" when donating for international disasters. I think the judges will pick the top five and have the public vote for the winner.

Vote for whatever PSA you like the best. Thank you and I hope you enjoy them!

Both PSAs are up for viewing. Please post links to them and share them wherever you can as part of the voting is influenced by the number of views and comments.

Dragon

Heart

Right now, I'm in crunch time. I've never had so many all-nighters in my life. The process of making your own short film is an amazing learning experience. It is exhilarating and painful at the same time. April 20th is the due date for the Open Show and qualifying for the Producer's show. I know right now my film will not be as complete as I want it to. Clean-up is a long process and I want to give a little extra to the performance of my characters. I'm a little depressed it won't be shiny complete by the Open Show, but I will work on this over the summer and polish it up for festivals in the fall.

I must be a choo choo train and climb up that mountain. :D

Animating time!

2009-02-15T22:54:00.008-07:00

I have a lot to recap since the last post.

Our department received a visit with Dead Man's Bones to collaborate on a music project with them. I hope I will be able to because their music is really beautiful and soulful. I want to work on this during the summer after my short is done.

The James Baxter lectures were great. I'm sad I missed the last one because he explained how to animate four-legged animals. And I think everyone at the lecture will remember this line at 1:59.

Shells!

Shane Prigmore and Shannon Tindle gave a character design lecture. Everybody had to do the characters Fagin, Oliver, and Dodger from Oliver Twist.

For Dodger, I wanted his sleeves to barely be able to roll up. He uses clothes pins to snap them up. I tried to model him after James Cagney.

My Fagin was the least successful. They suggested he was closer in mannerism to Dodger. I need to make him more grotesque.

They said my Oliver was the most successful although the patches may look like a pattern. I wanted Oliver from the start to be emaciated. I looked up starving children with their rib cages exposed.

Both Shane and Shannon were character designers on Coraline. Their designs were translated beautifully in the film. I went to the panel at Nucleus Gallery. I didn't get to see much because it was so crowded, but I did get to meet the artists. I'm embarrassed they posted pics on the gallery's website. I'm in some of them with my friends lol.

I'm finally animating my short. Ahhhhhh!!!! I'm beginning to realize I love animating, but I'm really slow at it. My short will be around a 1:12. I want to avoid the 90 second mark so I can have more time to polish the film.

Hourly Comic 2009

2009-02-02T02:59:00.001-07:00

Thank you for this event John Campbell!!!

Semester 2

2009-01-20T23:19:00.003-07:00

The second semester has started out a little bit more relaxing. I have less classes that involve late nights of essay writing. All of my classes are geared toward my finished film. The big deadline is April 20th. I'm excited and very anxious at the same time. My goal is to have a finished short that I enjoy. I'm not concerned about the Producer's Show. I want to enter my film into film festivals. My film idea so far is about a father and son going to a playground. The dad is too big and clumsy for monkey bars, slide, and the animal seat ride. I felt this way when I visited my elementary playground.I was so intimidated by the monkey bars, but now I easily touch the ground. I'm saving my guinea pig for another time.

Our first lecture this year was Mark Osbourne! He was the director for Kung Fu Panda. What I did not know until the day before was that he also created the short More.

He made the short using CalArts facilities during one summer. I remember watching this film on the internet. It is a surreal feeling to meet the man who made such a memorable and beautiful short. He directed Kung Fu Panda in order to fund his upcoming film, which is awesome.

The second lecture that I saw was James Baxter. He most recently did the animated part of Enchanted and the incredible opening to Kung Fu Panda. The fourth year animation class invited him over to do a four-part lecture series. For the lecture, he is animating Gisele talking to a rabbit while doing a turn. It's amazing to see how he plans the scene and acting so it is believable.

Also this Thursday, if you are in Valencia. The Character Animation Department is having their art show. I put four pieces up. The art is quite breathtaking and inventive. Please come by if you can!

Some perspective

2008-11-24T21:54:00.005-07:00

I felt really bad for not posting any of my work. I have been really busy, and I feel that my work is not the best.

To begin with, here are just a couple of perspective assignments:

This was a one-point perspective assignment at the beginning of the year. The requirements was to have a scene where the character touches an object. I did a Saloon!

This one was fairly recent. The assignment involved stairs and a chase scene. A huge guinea pig chasing me is like a dream come true!

This is the most recent perspective homework. The first one I did in color! The window ellipse still needs to be fixed, but otherwise it was successful.

I will upload my SD card soon with life drawing pictures, my silhouette project, and of course my animation assignments.

Friend's 48 hour animation

2008-11-11T23:50:00.002-07:00

Sorry folks...this is not my animation. My animation is still tightly hidden on the pencil test machine. My friend Carlos kicked ass on his first 48 hour film and put it up on Youtube.. He completed it right after he got out of the hospital. (Shaking fist!)

This is the competition and talent here at CalArts, which is awesome and scary at the same time.
Enjoy!

November November

2008-11-10T15:19:00.002-07:00

Finally, it is November and the infamous CalArts Halloween party came and went. I had fun dressing up a little bit as a guinea pig. I had bunny ears crumpled down and Michael painted an awesome nose on me.

The night before I had an all niter doing a pitch for story. My group did a parody of Snow White as Snow Grimson. Basically, Snow White gets manipulated into killing maidens after Prince Charming cheats on her. Again, it was a long night.

The Halloween Party was a drunk and drug fest. A lot of crazy costumes and naked people. I'm beginning to see a trend here at CalArts. People do crazy things and nobody gets in trouble. Just recently we had a screening of 48 hour films for this year's theme hair. My favorite shorts this year were Jeff Liu, Carlos Romero, and Henry Yu films. During the screening, someone barfed all over the stairwell near Keane Street where my cube is. Our janitor wasn't going to come in until Monday. Me, Carlos, and Ashley grabbed cleaning supplies and bonded together while cleaning up barf. I feel proud that I cleaned it up...just a weird feeling like slaying a dragon :p
I just hope this doesn't happen again.

Class wise everything is great. I'm improving each week. My artistic caliber is not as high as my classmates, but at least I'm improving. I'm thinking Wednesday before Thanksgiving I'll scan my most recent work. I hate not showing any of my art on this blog.

The big assignment I'm looking forward to at the end of the semester is my mini animation as me as a six-year old. My activity will be using chopsticks.

Our recent guest lecturer was Don Hahn who is the producer for Disney animation. He showed us the final feature film is always revised. Elton John's original Circle of Life sounded like pop music, but was revised to the African soul song of today. Hahn is also publishing Walt Stanchfield's lecture notes on gesture drawings for animation. It's a must buy and will come out this May in two volumes.

I'm going to try to see Fred Seibert of Frederator Studios this Wednesday. I'm willing to skip my critical studies class to see his lecture. I want to be an independent short animator, and it would be great to meet such an influential person in this department.

Last time on...

2008-10-27T00:52:00.002-06:00

Last time on Ellen's blog....

On Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day, I went to see Sita Sings the Blues at Redcat with some great upperclassman. The film was really interesting with the three storylines surrounded Ranma and Sita. I love how Nina Paley combined her own life with this myth. The animation is limited in its movement, but I really can't blame her since she made the whole movie by herself!
The best part of the night was a surprise encounter.

While we were waiting for the film to start, I looked back and thought I saw Craig McCracken (creator of Powerpuff Girls and Foster's) and Lauren Faust (worked on Iron Giant and Foster's). I learned about CalArts through an interview with Craig - on I think a PPG dvd. After the movie was over, he was standing off to the side. I nervously went up to him and shook his hand. All I could was that I was from CalArts. I didn't ask for a picture because I found out there is a unspoken code in L.A. to not be a fangirl. To tap off the night, we ate ramen in Little Tokyo. It was really good and had huge portions. This always reminds me of Tampopo. :D

My CalArts friend is now out of the hospital. He finally got out after two weeks! Now he is catching up and kicking ass.

We finally did Hobaica's silouhette project where we cut five scenes with exacto knives. A lot of people went all out with tiny miniscule details on balcony columns. I liked how mine turned out. It is not the best, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

I'm still struggling on storyboards. Now our teacher is allowing us to add cuts and angles to the scene. I must keep at it!

Trad. Animation is still magical. My timing is really slow still, but I still get excited when things move.

Our recent visiting artist was Mandrews aka Mark Andrews. He was the head of story on The Incredibles and Ratatouille. He is an extreme and funny man. He showed us the majestic qualities of the triangle and talked about what movies suck. I learned all good storyboard artists watch bad movies to learn why do these scenes fail and how to fix them. Michael Giacchino (wrote music scores for Lost, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille) tagged along for the lecture! It was a great lecture and I think he comes every year!

Sadly, I didn't do the 48 hour lockdown, where you animate a film with the picked word and make it in 48 hours. You do post production for one week and then turn it in. The word this year is "hair." I really wanted to do a dancing guinea pig, but the homework was too much for me. I promise you people, I will animate a dancing piggie someday!

Hourglass...sand is leaking

2008-10-11T18:22:00.002-06:00

I have no idea how Jennifer Harlow updates her blog so frequently. She is a time management goddess!
http://artofjen.blogspot.com/

I think I have been avoiding my blog because of the task of uploading and resizing pictures...so I have decided to use this as a journal for the rest of the semester. I'll post pics once winter break comes along.

CalArts has been a whirlwind of busy late nights and work, work, work. This is wonderful but it has been really hard to keep in touch with my family and friends back in Colorado. I think I'll save all the sharing when I see them during break. You do give up four years to this place. A trade that is really worth it because I fee like I'm improving everyday.

My favorite class so far is Dan Hansen's Perspective and Traditional animation with Mike Nguyen. Perspective with characters is a lot of fun compared to the classical perspective taught in art school. I feel I'm improving the most in this class. Mike's animation class is great! I really want to intern with him over the summer to help with cleanup on My Little World. I asked him about this, but he bashfully said that I probably wanted to work at Disney or Pixar instead. He's too humble ;) He's also working on a really cool project with Robert Duncan called Land of Zi. It's a children show that teaches kids how to write Chinese characters. They're trying to find a distributor. Man, I would love to work on this show. I have the most fun animating. I still want to become an independent animator, but I do want to work at companies at the beginning to get more experience.

Speaking about career choices, I'm beginning to think I'm not going to head down the job of story or design. The idea of pitching just gets scarier. I don't have a tough skin. The process is not as spontaneous. You have to go through so many revisions and even the best version may be left on the cutting room floor. Character design is something I need to work on. For so long, I tried to capture realism in my drawings and accurate proportions. Now it is the complete opposite. You have to exaggerate and vary shapes in a character. I need to keep pushing it. Its very uncomfortable for me.

On another note, we had some great visiting artists already. One was Ben Balistreri who worked on Danny Phantom and Foster's. He gave us good advice and tricks on character turns and designs. Then, we had Lisa Keene who is the Art Director for Enchanted and Rapunzel. She showed how she morphed photo references into her layouts. Last night, Jeff Snow visited and talked about storyboarding. He worked on Tarzan and Over the Hedge.

We already had a health incident with one of my good friends. From what I hear, it is quite common for students to visit the hospital for carpal tunnel, pneumonia, and back problems because of stress. I have been visiting him at the hospital during my free time. I can't get any work done if I don't visit. He'll be out soon thankfully. :D My health has been normal. I had my first all niter this week for my Story for Animators class. I'm terrible at sitting down and writing on the computer. I saw the sun rise, which was really beautiful.

That's everything so far in a tiny nutshell. I've met some really amazing students here, and I can already tell I found some additional life-long friends.

Up ahead for me: I'm going to see Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues on Monday night. And work my butt off. :p

Favorites of 2008 Producer's Show

2008-09-13T20:42:00.003-06:00

Last Duel of a Lost Era
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHJFW5AQxyc

Paranormal Roommates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cSktJ0QxDc

Boyhive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO1mNe2EbrM

Everyone Dies in 90 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGiM_Onk640

Doodlebeats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhMWGGEhH1k
(This song is addictive.)

Umbrella
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Vkk7msTLU

The Airship Danger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak-26zxvO44

Rubber Woes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-FaF7_heX8

Dead Meat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lI6R45HFsI

Damned Cute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvdIKjkHYK8&feature=related

Extreme update!

2008-09-13T20:10:00.002-06:00

CalArts is really wonderful and is like a dream. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and be back home lol. Valencia is very hot and CalArts sits on top of a hill. Suposedly, the CalArts area is the basis of the Edward Scissorhands movie. Weird lol!http://laist.com/2006/12/18/edward_scissorhands_lived_near_los_angeles.php

My dorm is really big and has lovely storage. I'm thankfully on the quiet hall. People are known to run through the halls screaming (acting majors lol). My roommate named Disa is super sweet and is a very good match. The window looks out to the pool, which is clothing optional o.o I got to visit Santa Monica as a field trip and finally got to see the ocean for the first time. There were a variety of stores and I finally got to eat a British meat pie!

Very interesting people go to CalArts and are extremely nice. The animation room or The Palace has cubicles on top where we need to work. The cube sign up sheet was actually up at 6:30 pm the day before sign up. I was doing laundry at the time and didn't know. I came in at 7 am the next day because I wanted to sleep in my bed. Everyone else camped out in the halls for no reason. I guess for tradition :p I got number 39 lol out of 49 or something. Luckily, I got a cube #3 in the main building. I'm on Keane St. and Dejas Rue :p (Animator street signs around the cubes). I'm sharing with 3 other people.

My desk is a bizzare story.... It has graffiti and paintings on it. Your allowed to paint the walls and desk in your cube. Mine had unicorns painted on it with Lisa Frank and the cabinet....someone drew men's privates in it. o.0 I later found out that a junior named Henry had this cube. His classmates played a prank on him over winter break and painted horrible things in his cube. The funny coincidence is last year no one got the desk, but I got it this year. Henry's last name is Yu lol. He is now my long lost brother lol!

I have Dan Hansen as my Perspective teacher. He started on the Rescuers. My traditional animation class was awesome. My teacher Mike Nguyen was so enthusiastic. He started to show us how to flip in the last part of the class when he finally mentioned he was the Supervising Animator on the IRON GIANT! Everybody gasped! So I have to learn how to flip with his Hogarth walk cycle. I love CalArts!!!!!

Side note:
I've found out about some websites for those who can't make it to CalArts or are interested.

Mike Nguyen
http://rainplace.net/

Chong Suk Lee (My storyboard teacher)
http://chongtoons.com/

Chris Meeks
http://homepage.smc.edu/meeks_christopher/

My Schedule

2008-09-07T23:48:00.002-06:00

This is just for future reference...plus you get to see how much stuff I'm taking!

CLASS DAY
BP –Basic Perspective Mondays: 9am-noon
IDP –Intro to Digital Perspective Tuesday: 9am-noon
C&D1 –Color & Design 1 Tuesday: 1pm- 4pm
BA –Beginning Animation Tuesday: 7pm-10pm
Doubles- Doubles, in art and culture Wednesday: 10am-1pm
BSD –Beginning Story Development Wednesday: 7pm-10pm
BLD –Beginning Life Drawing Thursday: 9am-4pm
BCGIA –Beginning CGI Animation Thursday: 7pm-10pm
SFA –Story for Animators Friday: 1pm-3pm

Holy crap lol! I start tomorrow ^^ and will battle for a cubicle on Tuesday. Freshman get the leftovers and since our class has 44 people (reguar is 25), space will be limited.

CalArts arrival

2008-09-02T22:42:00.002-06:00

I arrived safely at Calarts in lovely Valencia. It has been really hot, but the scenery is so beautiful. The students are really friendly, and I think Ron Perlman's son is attending CalArts.

Chouinard, my dorm, is way bigger than I expected. The rooms are huge. I regret not taking some of my dvds. The pool here is clothing optional lol.

I'll put up a better report with pictures. This week has been pretty busy.

Here's a Pictures for Sad Children by John Campbell that I simply love!

ASIFA-Colorado workshop animation

2008-08-27T20:22:00.002-06:00

I didn't realize they posted this on Youtube. I did this during the Starz Film Festival during a workshop.This was done before I did Check the Label. I started with a guinea pig animation then gave it to another participant. The next person animated my pig as being blown up o.0

My drawings are at 1:10 with the dancing leaf, 1:13 with my piggie, and 2:14 with the flower head.

I didn't get to see this compiled together until now. I had to go see the screening of Persepolis ;)

From Olympics to the DNC

2008-08-25T20:05:00.004-06:00

These past two weeks I have been staying up watching the Olympics. Normally, I never watched the Olympics. I think I ignored the last one in Athens.

I felt so much pride and excitement that it was taking place in Beijing. My whole family and a lot of other Asian cultures seem to be excited and celebrating as well. We rooted for China and gasped at the beautiful venues for the Olympic Village. World Records were breaking with the help of the Water Cube's design. China finally showed off, which is wonderful since people associate China with lead paint and pollution.

Now the spotlight is on Denver!

The pic above is me on the light rail Saturday. Media trailers were covering everything.

I'm a little sad the Democratic National Convention had to happen the last week I'm in Denver. Roads are closed off and the media is going crazy. Most of my friends who live in Denver are hiding in their apartments. Protestors are at their footstep. Where the convention is held, The Pepsi Center, is right across from university I went to. I can't believe their using the campus as a security checkpoint :p

Well, I leave Colorado this Friday on a road trip to CalArts. I feel nostalgic and sad that I'm leaving such wonderful friends and my beautiful home I grew up in. I'm leaving behind my precious baby Xiao Bao. I hope to gain new experiences and develop into a better artist and person. It's an exciting transition. California here I come!

Cul de Sac

2008-08-06T10:35:00.003-06:00

Hmm...I don't dress my guinea pig like a cowboy.....all the time.

Any comic with a main character as a guinea pig gets extra points.

GIMP Test

2008-07-07T17:43:00.003-06:00

Much easier than Photoshop and is free!

Oh yeah I have a blog...

2008-06-19T18:51:00.002-06:00

I finally graduated with a BFA in Drawing. Sort of bittersweet since I have four more years at CalArts. I have been looking for a summer job. It is an odd situation when you have a college degree that pretty much doesn't matter at all in the job market. Oh well, I enjoyed my stay at CU Denver.

I'm posting the ever popular guinea pig portraits! My teacher John Hull just kept telling me "more" guinea pigs. My whole independent study was just that....guinea pigs :D Out of that great experience I created my comic zine Fight or Flight. My study was during a painting class where I did portraits of my friends.

Richard and Nancy

The paint guru Lisa!

My friend Sean with his many acrylic jars...

As a farewell gift to John Hull, he was moving to Charleston, I made him a guinea pig. Lots of inside jokes in this piece.

The newest of the drawing is my guinea pig portrait I gave to the Flight of the Conchords when they played at the Ellie Caulkins. True bliss I have to say because I got to give it to them.

The very sweet and tall Jemaine Clement!

The also very tall and sweet Bret.

And because I am lazy....my thesis art...the one with the pandas can be found at my new deviantart account. I mainly got one because all the CalArts peeps update that thing like crazy. I think when I probably post my thesis art on this blog, I will discuss that I hope people don't consider my art "furry art." I just think people as guinea pigs is silly and fun.

Thanks for reading ^^

Check the Label

2008-05-07T13:59:00.002-06:00

Finally uploaded my animation on Youtube! Originally it was going to be a 12 second project, but ended up 1 minute and 40 seconds.

The film is playing on a plasma at my thesis art show and at the Starz Film Center.
I entered it in our school competition "Digital Visions" and won Best Animation! :D

Thesis Postcard

2008-04-23T20:58:00.002-06:00

My fancy postcard!

Come if you can to my thesis reception and see my work!

CalArts it is!

2008-04-23T14:06:00.002-06:00

I finally made my decision. I'm going to CalArts Fall 2008. My scholarship appeal didn't go so well. Money is tight for education and everything right now. CalArts has no more money to give. I just have to be happy with my $1000 scholarship.

So I thought to myself since the apocolypse is coming, loans shouldn't be too much of a worry :p My parents practically gave me the ultimatum of DO NOT FAIL! MAKE MONEY! I'm really lucky to receive help from them.

To save money ramen will become the ultimate food lol. This is a pastel work from Denver local Riva Sweetrocket Comfort Foods.

I will be leaving my precious guinea pig at home. No pets allowed and he practically lives like a king in my home. My parents are setting up a webcam for me to help ease the seperation anxiety.

My dream has finally come true to go to CalArts! :D

The Great Pause

2008-04-12T14:49:00.002-06:00

I mainly have just been running around the past few weeks. I got to go to Kansas City to visit KCAI over spring break. Really nice town although everything closes at 7pm. The school was quite nice. I regret not going to this school for my first bachelor. They have a different working space for each year you attend. Plus, the school is situated near the Nelson-Atkins Museum and the Kemper Comtemporary Museum.

So in the end surprisingly...I got into all of the schools I applied. I recieved a mere $1000 of scholarship from CalArts -.-
USC MFA program hasn't sent my award money yet. KCAI gave me a $15,000 transfer scholarship o.o. I'm shamefully using it as leverage to get more money from CalArts. I appealed my scholarship in hopes for more money.

I've been debating which school to attend. In my heart, CalArts is the place I want to go. All the faculty from USC and KCAI seem to have come from CalArts lol.
My brain is the basic problem. If I go to CalArts...I'll be eternally poor ($47,500 a year for everything) and no MFA degree. I applied to Character because I like what is coming out of there and the department is legendary.

I have to make my decision soon. Wahhh!

Yayyyy!!!!!!

2008-03-17T17:37:00.002-06:00

I got into CalArts! I slowly opened the mailbox today and there it was. The flamboyant envelope of acceptance lol! I screamed when I saw it.

I'm in a daze. It really hasn't sinked in yet. Unless USC offers me a ton of money, I'm going to CalArts this fall.

*faints*

Peek-a-boo Mailbox

2008-03-10T14:03:00.002-06:00

The application waiting game is making me crazy lately. It has been reported through forums that the envelopes are out! I think I won't know about KCAI or USC until April since the deadline was February. I get a mild heart jolt every time I open the mailbox. I don't want to get anymore generic envelopes from the schools. My hands start shaking only just to find out the letter was about financial aid. >< I really want Xiao Bao to be my letter opener.

I need to post my portfolio pics on flickr asap.

Thesis work has been fine. I think everybody is on the same boat with holes and slowly sinking into the abyss that is the sea :p I have about 6 or 7 seconds of animation done. Hooray!

Of course as soon as I find out about CalArts, I'll spam everyone with the news! Good or bad!

Project after project

2008-02-14T14:12:00.003-07:00

I started animating for my independent study last week. I did a pencil sketch, then ink, and then ink wash for one second of the entire piece. Three times I had to work on this. I met with my teacher, and she said I needed to get two seconds done by next week 0.0.

The short is going to be 12 seconds. So fast for soo much work. It seems like I'll be animating in Photoshop CS3 (amazingly they have an animation feature). I'm starting to panic a bit. I have to do final pieces for my thesis as well.

For now, I know how this guy feels:

Hourly Comic Day

2008-02-02T21:11:00.001-07:00

I participated in Hourly Comic Day created by the awesome John Campbell. I had to create a comic every hour I was awake. Kind of like a diary. It was a really fun event and less daunting than the 24 hour challenge.

Blogger is giving me trouble with the pictures. You can read them better here: http://www.tencentticker.com/msgbrd/viewtopic.php?t=710
If you were wondering, what the party was in the comic. I was at the book signing of The 24 Hour Comics People party that I participated in. Whoo hoo! The Squids did great readings of their work. I couldn't read mine due to my sore throat. The book will be available online soon!

My thesis

2008-01-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

I started my last semester at CU Denver this week. Everything has been scary and exciting at the same time. I have to come up with a proposal in the next week explaining my concept and necessary gallery schematics. It's faster than I expected.

Choosing the topic of my thesis is daunting. A lot of my colleagues want me to incorporate guinea pigs in my show. I feel like I have already accomplished this with the comic book. I need something with a serious concept.

I've been avoiding topics about being American Born Chinese in my artwork. It is a hard subject to tackle with personally, and it does not help that my art is influenced by Japanese ink drawings. The style and concept just don't connect. I'm more comfortable in incorporating the subject of anxiety in my art than my ethnic background.

A lot of ideas pop into my head when I think about the topic, so I know it's a good one. It seems many people with multiple ethnic backgrounds have problems with fitting in like I do. Not understanding the language. Neither Chinese or American. I haven't decided if I'm emotionally ready to give my all to this topic.

I always wondered why Amnesty International's Universal Declaration of Human Rights said:

Everyone has the right to a nationality.
No one shall be arbitrarily
deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

I didn't understand how someone can change their nationality. I now see nationality is based on your influences. If you feel at home with a certain culture, it's fine to become a part of it.

I guess I'll give it a shot.

2008 kick-start

2008-01-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yes...that's a guinea pig buffet....

It's been pretty hectic the last couple of days, but I finally sent the portfolio to CalArts. Whoo hoo! The due date was Jan 4th (a paticularly bad time to ship things) but it made it there safe and sound.

All I have left to do is send image discs to Kansas City and USC. CalArts is the only brutal one that wants the real thing XD. I'll post my whole portfolio once the Feb 15th due date passes by. I'm a little unsure if anybody would steal anything from me. Although that would be flattering lol.

For USC, they need me to take the GRE for the MFA program. Nobody ever told me about this lol...kinda was a footnote to the whole process. Important note to anyone getting a Masters: you'll probably have to take this test even though it has math...which my degree only required one class. I'm digging up the old high school math.

Now the all important worry time about getting in. I may not get into CalArts, which is alright with me. I may not like animation...really have not had much practice with this. However, I do love to create comics. It's an unknown for what is in store for 2008.

What I do know is in 2008:

I graduate :D
I have my BFA thesis show...with cheese and crackers
I have an independent study on animation. I have to make 15 sec of hand drawn goodness. The faculty will look at me in bewilderment because we have a computer animation program lol.

Things that should have happen:

Getting my comic bookbound...I will get this done Rarrrr!

Everybody have a great 2008!

This is an advertisement?

2007-11-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

My lovely Squidworks posted the cheap version of "Fight or Flight" on their website. It's $3.00, but if you can wait a bit longer and pay a bit more, there will be a nicer edition.

Nicer edition will include:
Fancy paper
Fancier resolution
And even fancier Japanese book binding (stitched by me lol)
I'll even sign copies to make it feel more special.

How much will it cost? No clue yet. It will depend on the paper and printing cost. Yes folks stitching will be free! It will be done as soon as the semester is over. Finals are evil!

This was a really poor advertisement. Moral of the story...I guess wait for the nice copy. :P

30th Starz Film Festival

2007-11-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the shows I'm going to:

Chicago 10 (Brett Morgen in person)

It's 1968. The war over there is causing chaos over here, where the spirit of revolution fills the air. When the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago, a television audience of over 50 million watches as protestors clash with police and bring the city to a standstill. Eight men are held accountable for inciting the riots in what will soon become known as the Chicago conspiracy trial – and as a media circus whose ringleaders and clowns, political-tightrope walkers and sideshow freaks represented Americans on both sides of the divide.

Animation Station workshop

All in this Tea (Blank and Leibrecht in person)

Blank’s new film with co-director Gina Leibrecht, All In This Tea, constitutes a similar sort of departure in its portrayal of a subject as consumed by his passion as he is driven by the pursuit of its perfection. In this case, we’re following not Herzog (who nonetheless makes a cameo appearance) but David Lee Hoffman, a tea expert and merchant from Berkeley, California. Obsessed with locating the world’s best handmade teas, Hoffman travels to the farmlands of China to work directly with the few remaining practicioners of an ancient but dying art.

Adventure is Where you Find it (For shorts :p)

Persepolis (sadly Marjane Satrapi not in person)

With her remarkable multi-volume graphic novel Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi parlayed the stuff of her life in post-revolutionary Iran into art-critical acclaim and pop-cultural fame. First published in the United States in 2003, Persepolis operated on multiple levels - as a disarmingly funny bildungsroman, an exposé of Iranian society under totalitarian rule and an example, à la Art Spiegelman's Maus, of the ways in which comics are expanding our notion of storytelling.

What I Did For Love? (For Georges Schwizgebel's Jeu)

It's going to be a fun two weeks.
http://www.denverfilm.org/festival/

Halloween

2007-11-01T18:03:00.000-06:00

Xiao Bao dressed up as Clint Eastwood this year and no he is not going to paint your wagon.

NDK pics

2007-10-31T22:17:00.000-06:00

I uploaded my pics finally of NDK 2007 at my Flickr account.
So go check it out!

Last weekend was the 24 hour comic challenge. Really brutal this year, but I finished! It's going to be published in our Squidworks anthology soon.

I've been really busy lately so I will upload these pics to a better page later. Otherwise you can check out the pics at our forum.

My profile in the anthology will look something like this:

Ellen Yu grew up in Aurora, Colorado. Her obsession with guinea pigs, Japanese ink drawings, and animation scares many people especially her family. She is currently attending The University of Colorado at Denver for a BFA in Drawing. After she graduates in 2008, she plans to attend an animation school which would lead her to a lifetime of 2-D and experimental hijinks. Her most recent comic "Fight or Flight" uses anthropomorphism of guinea pigs to describe a panic attack through ink washes.

"The Tooth Courier" debunks the myth of tooth fairies. The 24 hour comic is chapter one of this idea focusing on Issac. A boy born without wings, and his struggles in a tooth centered society.

I will hopefully post more in November. Oh yes! I've narrowed down the schools.
1. CalArts
2. USC
3. Kansas City
4. RMCAD

I'm working on the applications now :p

Sketch Cast

2007-09-24T23:16:00.001-06:00

This so much fun.

How it went!

2007-09-23T20:58:00.000-06:00

Yay! National Portfolio Day went pretty well. It was extremely crowded lol, but it was mainly crowded for RMCAD (Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design) which is odd because they have tours all the time.

I was a little odd there because most of the attendees were from high school. There was even one gujy in 11th grade checking the place out. Everytime I came up to a table, I told them I would recieve a BFA before going to their school. They were a little estatic when I said that lol.

I got to talk to CalArts and got great advice. They love the guinea pig comic lol. Sadly even though I will have a degree, I would still be at CalArts for the full 4 years, but with some extra room due to credits. No folks...the price wasn't reduced lol.

Then I went to look at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver. Remarkably cheap $10,000 and I will only have to go there for three years. Still have to check out their students work though.

Next, I went to see the Kansas City Art Institute. Wonderful fine arts college, but I didn't know they had animation. They looked at my portfolio, and Iwas approved. I was surprised they approved portfolios here lol. It was quite a shock lol. Their student work wasn't too bad, so it's a possibility.

Rhode Island College of Design was nice too. However, this school is definitely out of the question. I can't get any scholarships because I will have a bachelors, and they were the most expensive school I saw.

I tried to see Minneapolis, but the line was extremely long.

Great day! Kansas City was the biggest surprised. I literally thought my portfolio was crap lol. I'm happy. I feel more confident.

So the next steps....
Keep working on sketchbook to the extreme. Animals especially
Need to make a flipbook
Take digital and regular slides of work...CalArts will be the only one to get the real deal.

On another note....
Enoch, I'm glad the comics came. I hope you enjoy them.
As soon as I get the special edition guinea comic done, I'll send one to you ^^

Review Portfolio tomorrow

2007-09-22T20:09:00.001-06:00

Well tomorrow is the day I talk with some representatives. The craziness....I'm bringing mainly my huge sketches, comics, and sketchbook. I'm not nearly done or feel satisfied with my progress so far.

NDK was last weekend. Pretty awesome! I got to meet Mr. Shin Itagaki & Mr. Hisashi Abe. Poor Itagaki-san was sick because of the drastic change in altitude, but kept coming to panels anyway with his poor surgical mask on. It was an extreme delight to meet Abe-san. He is a legend and has worked on so many shows. He did a lot of character animation designs for CLAMP.
I'll post pics soon with the stuff I bought. Darn those CLAMP 3-D land figures. Collecting obsession!!!

I finished "Fight or Flight" aka Guinea pig comic in time for the con. It was a crappy version. I'm trying to get a nicer version on paper with Japanese bookbinding. :D I'm just glad I got the comic done.

Other news, I tried to get my comic gig back at "The Advocate", but the new editor thought "Breakfast at Tivoli" wasn't gritty enough...too high school he said. I thought about it because this time I actually would get paid, but I declined. It's just not my style.

I'll update again about the results tomorrow. ^^

Must See Museums

2007-08-23T14:53:00.000-06:00

To pass some time and to dream about the future, I wanted to compile THE museums I must see. Just the not the extremely famous ones like the Louvre, Guggenheim, Tate, or the Met; which I hope to visit someday.

Tezuka Osamu Museum
Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum
Cartoon Museum in London
Van Gogh Museum
Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art
Mucha Museum
Studio Ghibli Museum
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (will have to visit multiple times...they have Yoshitoshi right now and Tezuka :O
National Cartoon Museum
Cartoon Museum SF
MFA Boston (over 700 Hokusai prints)
Cartoon Art Museum SF

This list shall forever expand. Tell me if I missed anything.

Meh

2007-08-21T21:04:00.000-06:00

New pic of me. Might put up a different one after a while with color.

I kinda liked my old pic better, but I needed the change.
Plus it has the pig!

Bulletin 2.0

2007-08-17T22:39:00.000-06:00

National Portfolio Day

Animation
Major :
Academy of Art University (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
Atlanta College of Art (computer) (UG)
Carnegie Mellon University, School of Art (computer) (UG) (GR)
College for Creative Studies (traditional, computer) (UG)
Cornish College of the Arts (computer) (UG)
Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Fashion Institute of Technology (computer) (UG)
Grand Valley State University (computer) (UG)
Kansas City Art Institute (computer traditional) (UG)
Laguna College of Art and Design (traditional) (UG)
Maryland Institute College of Art (computer) (UG)
Massachusetts College of Art + Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Minneapolis College of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
Mount Ida College, School of Design (computer) (UG)
Otis College of Art & Design (computer) (UG)
Ringling College of Art and Design (UG)
Rhode Island School of Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Rochester Institute of Technology (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (computer, traditional) (UG) (GR)
School of Visual Arts (traditional) (UG) (computer) (UG) (GR)
The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
The University of the Arts (UG)

Concentration:
Academy of Art University (traditional, computer) (UG) (GR)
California Institute of the Arts (computer) (UG) (GR)
Cleveland Institute of Art (computer) (UG)
Columbus College of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
East Carolina University, School of Arts and Design (computer) (UG)
Fashion Institute of Technology (computer) (UG)
Laguna College of Art and Design (computer) (UG
Maryland Institute College of Art (computer) (UG)
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Parsons School of Design (traditional, computer) (UG)
Pratt Institute (traditional, computer) (UG)
Purchase College, SUNY (computer) (UG)
San Francisco Art Institute (traditional, computer) (UG)
FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (computer) (UG) (GR)
The Cooper Union School of Art (computer) (UG)
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (traditional, computer) (UG)
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (UG) (GR)

I have a bad feeling I'm going to be flashing my portfolio like crazy over these colleges.

Big Kahunas

CalArts
San Jose State
MCAD (remarkable good showcase of work)
and if all fails I could check out the local RMCAD...still not sure.
Who knows one of the other colleges might be a perfect fit.

Avatar Season 3 Promo

2007-07-28T20:36:00.000-06:00

Wow O.O

Sneak Peek at portfolio

2007-07-23T17:21:00.000-06:00

All this summer, I have been working on the portfolio. Right now, I have 37 of the big drawings on newsprint, drawing, and watercolor paper. I still need to work hard on the sketchbook. Animals are quite tricky.

I have been neglecting my blog, so here are some of the sketches that might make it in.

I'm still working on the guinea pig comic that might be called "Fight or Flight." It will be included in the portfolio as well.

Ratatouille

2007-07-01T12:24:00.000-06:00

Black Angus!

Ratatouille is beautiful! Of course the animation is beautiful, but the story is wonderfully crafted. It brings a smile to your face. Remy's point of view is breathtaking. When this comes on dvd, a scene by scene analyzation might be necessary because the movement was flawless. I got a warm fuzzy feeling at the end of the movie. Brad Bird really raised the bar on this movie. Ratatouille may even be better than The Iron Giant.

From some of the Rotten Tomato reviews, the main complaints were they couldn't get over the rats in the kitchen concept and they thought it had too much dialogue. My goodness, the rats in the movie clean their hands! Brad Bird's dialogue is complex, but kids will treasure it when they are older. It wasn't sexual innuendo that they will soon discover, but ideas about labeling and pursuing your dream.

Go see the movie ^^

On another note, I was quite surprised whe I found out Camille did a song for the movie, which was an additional plus.

And yes, the movie reminded me a lot of my little guinea.

Now I have a hankering for some Ratatouille. Xiao Bao bring the eggplants and the zucchini!

Sir Slade

2007-06-04T22:37:00.000-06:00

I love The Fray not just because they went to my university. So I thought this article was incredibly funny. What are the chances?

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/music/article/0,2792,DRMN_54_5567348,00.html

My favorite quote form the article:
"Sir Benjamin said he suspected the singer is descended from relatives in central England, who founded the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art at University College London.

'They were very artistic ones, so I think it's likely he's related there,' he said. 'My branch of the family were only interested in fighting, hunting, drinking and killing the French.'"

Also an interesting article deadly karaoke:

Karaoke is deadly
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070531/lf_afp/philippinescrimeshot;_ylt=Arkp3FuUNVwBsOsWYY331hjMWM0F

Yes.....when hearing excrutiating karaoke at wedding banquets, the thought of clubbing the singer has crossed my mind. I do feel bad for this fellow. The security guard should have learned to use earplugs.
Sinatra is deadly.

My goodness some of this news is right out of a movie.

CalArts Producer's Show

2007-05-17T10:09:00.000-06:00

I really had to post these. For those who don't know CalArts every year picks the top 20 or so short films and show it to producers at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood.

Here are the openings for the shows ^^

Yes there is still debate whether or not CalArts is still the place to go. Great blog that has comments about this.
http://sewardstreet.com/2005/05/17/is-calarts-still-a-good-idea/

Bulletin for me

2007-05-15T09:18:00.000-06:00

Sunday, September 23
Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design
1600 Pierce Street
Lakewood, CO 80214
800-888-ARTS
303-753-6046

National Portfolio Day of Doom

CalArts deadline January 5, 2008 supposedly
San Jose....no clue yet

No clue. I bet the NPD will clear up everything....too bad CalArts only wants originals.

Due date for comic with guinea pig July 1st. No exceptions!

I'll hopefully keep all of these promises :p

Why Spiderman 3 why?

2007-05-05T21:47:00.000-06:00

I went to see Spiderman 3 Friday in spirit of Free Comic Book Day (which was simply fantastic). Purely disappointed. Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi should never be able to write a screenplay together ever again. The whole movie was full of cheese and incoherent plot and character development. I'm aggravated because the first movie was great and the second was even greater.

I really do like Tobey Maguire...but there is this really stupid scene with him dancing. I wanted dark Spiderman to be violent and not have value for life. In this movie, they just made him a complete jerk.

The cartoon did a better job.

Red+yellow=orange

2007-04-15T18:23:00.000-06:00

I had a bit of an emotional breakdown this week because of concern of a friend at school, and my piggie's pee being orange. He went to the vet Friday and found out he had bacteria and blood in his urine. Yikes, a urinary tract infection! He was bitter about the whole experience because they put him on a smooth counter top (it's like ice skating for him), and they gave him an ultrasound and x-rays to make sure he didn't have a kidney stone. He didn't have any...not to sure why he has blood in the urine then?

Now poor Xiao Bao has to take antibiotics twice a day. He's still just as feisty. I get way too emotional over these things.

On a lighter note, 3 people bought my 24 hour comic! Hooray! Plus, I'm in an article that Bruce MacIntosh wrote. It's for a small newsletter, but it's pretty cool. It talks about the Squidworks group. I'll post when I get permission.

Right now, I'm working on a really personal comic for class (John is the greatest for letting me do comics as art). I hope it gets done by the end of May, but John says not to rush things lol.

Otters

2007-04-06T10:42:00.000-06:00

I am now blind from cuteness.

Kotatsu!!!!

2007-03-24T18:59:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the abscence lately. Life has been chaotic, and I thought I could get things done during spring break >.>

hehe I swear this blog is becoming a video blog.

I'm in love with Nodame Cantabile right now. The manga, live-action drama, and anime are all fantastic. Someone quickly license these so I can buy it. Hehe this my favorite scene with the Kotatsu. This series makes me love music again. I use to play the flute and stopped because I felt it was a chore. I really relate to Nodame...of course I'm not that wacky lol.

TAS 3 Finale

2007-02-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome time with my friends from school and Al in the Squidworks group. Sadly, Don and Rob couldn't make it out, but it was fabulous anyway.

Rob was glorious enough to post my report on the TAS journal. I drew three comics detailing the flyer process. See the pics I took as well.
http://www.animationshow.com/Journal/coloradowraps

I'll post the comics on comicspace later this week.

Cheers!! :D

Flyer Special Year 3!!!

2007-02-18T21:25:00.001-07:00

Extreme!!, originally uploaded by Sheau-Sheau.

I have been flyering around Auraria Campus and Denver for the past week. I had a huge help from my friend Dan. But the battle lives on! Everyday flyers get pasted over each other. A religious group already took over some of the bulletins.

I stapled a poster with an envelope full of flyers.

I still have soo much left lol.

I'm going to do one more round this week and use some chalk. I have 452 seats I want to fill and so far I only know about 20 people for sure that will go.

Go see TAS3 if it comes through your are!

More photos here:

http://flickr.com/photos/32106219@N00/sets/72157594543688208/

Happy Golden Fire Pig Year

2007-02-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

Due to zen calculations and this particular year, we get a super lucky combination that only happens every 600 years.

Maybe I should buy some lotto.

So here's to the lucky pig year ^^

Hair High

2007-02-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

I finally saw the movie "Hair High" by Bill Plympton at the Starz Film Center. The exaggerations and caricatures in the movies are spot on. All I can say is Go Fighting Cocks!

I did some flyering last weekend for the Animation Show Year 3. I'll post those up ASAP.

Kuroko Technique

2007-02-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

I know most have you have seen this technique where people dress in black and puppet the scene with people, but it is just too cool.

Extreme Ping Pong

Scissor Sisters "She's My Man"

Garrr!

2007-02-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

I finally uploaded all 52 of my "Breakfast at Tivoli" comics. I've been doing this comic since October 2004 0.o

Currently I'm having a little problem with the newspaper, but I'll keep doing whether or not they publish it.

Check it out in all of its glory:
http://www.comicspace.com/manganese/

More comics!

2007-01-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

Wow! Comicspace finally put up their comic feature. It's great! Nothing special mind you, but for someone who has terrible web skills, it's wonderful. Plus I can have multiple comics hosted. I'll load up all of my "Breakfast at Tivoli" comics over the weekend.

My creative juices are bubbling again....amazing how the thought of not dealing with technology makes me excited.

Animation Show 3 is coming. So once again the good old blog will be filled with flyering pics.

Spring Blues

2007-01-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm....this semester is starting out on a rocky road.

I get to meet really amazing people because I go to a commuter college. This year I'm going to be losing some good friends and mentors because of college politics and illness. I personally understand how it feels to not be able to go to school because of health problems. I have anxiety attacks that make it hard to travel or go out in the public.

One of my favorite professors is leaving this year due to financial need and not being appreciated enough with the administration. I feel like we're losing a gem in art education. My college is starting forget the needs of the students. One example is a our thesis show only has one spot that can barely fit ten students. I feel really lucky and thankful that I get to have him as my professor one last time.

I'll talk about animation in the next post because it cheers me up.

Animation Show Year 3!!!!

2007-01-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

Animation Show is putting on a grand opening with a partnership with MTV2. It's just like the good old days when MTV showed shorts.

Tomorrow on MTV2 they will be showing a recap of the past two tours and a sneak peak at this year's tour. It's at 5pm et.
Check out the website for clips!
http://www.mtv2.com/#series/22412

Finally shorts are reaching the masses ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15V4cH1Fyk

Crap

2007-01-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

Say it isn't so.....

A trilogy of "Avatar" films directed by......M. Night Shyamalan.

Why couldn't it be someone else? Dear God!

Is there suddenly going to be a "twist ending" where Shyamalan appears and pokes the Fire Lord's eye out?

New Layout?

2007-01-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Finally switched over to the New Blogger...a color change was due for the new year!

I hope it's not to dark. I'll keep tweaking it. :D

Cranberry?

2006-12-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

You Are a Cranberry and Popcorn Strung Tree

Christmas is all about showcasing your creative talents.

From cookies to nicely wrapped presents, your unique creations impress everyone.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Blizzard and comics???

2006-12-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

Denver Blizzard of 2006
Originally uploaded by mag1c3y3.

Every three years (it seems to be) Colorado gets hit by a blizzard that causes several feet of snow. The last couple of times it's been during March or February, but this year it's a Holiday Blizzard.

We got about two feet, but I'm still stuck at home due to lack of huge SUV lol. This one wasn't as bad as 2003, but with the holidays approaching, I'm worried the airport is going to be hellish. Be careful Bemmie!

My Squidworks compadres persuaded me to sign up for a Comic Space account. They just opened a few weeks ago and, it's a very cool site. Much more appealing than myspace. It will soon have the capability to show comics. Depending on how easy and pretty the comic page will be, I might upload my "Breakfast at Tivoli" comics. If it is really awesome, I'll re-upload "DayDream" on there and make that site it's new home.

Happy Holidays everyone and be careful when traveling to any destination ^^

Rest in Peace Joseph Barbera

2006-12-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

I found out from the Nightly News with Brian Williams that Mr. Barbera. I'm glad they found out and reported this on the air.

He died quietly with his wife by his side. Jeff Harris has a wonderful thought about his passing.
http://www.thexbridge.com/joebarbera.html

Thank you Mr. Barbera

Comic on sale!!!

2006-11-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

UPDATE!!!
I hope Enoch didn't buy too quickly, but my comic is available on the Squidworks website here. It's a lot cheaper and helps out the group a bit. :D

Hurray! My 24 hour comic is available for sale through Mile High Comics! A tad pricey for my meager plunge into insomnia.....

I'm going to post the link up anyway, but I believe later on the Squidworks website will have it with cheaper shipping (Is it okay to say this lol?). $6.00 is a bit too much for my taste. If you're in Colorado, swing by and bug them.

And if you are really low on cash...
I might put up a smaller version up on the internet :D

Here's the link:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=list&title=37962938842&snumber=1

I'm just really happy I have a shopping cart for my comic. Novice happiness....^^

Realism?

2006-11-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Really terrible quote:

“And even though we are featuring live-action characters, it still had to be done the Cartoon Network way. Re-Animated has proven to be that kind of project.”--Michael Ouweleen, senior vice president, programming and development for Cartoon Network

Jaw droppin stupid quote...

From Toonzone:

"The Hollywood Reporter states that Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D earned $3.3 million in its opening weekend, raking in $291,000 at the El Capitain Theatre in Hollywood to break the house record previously held by Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Buena Vista distribution president Chuck Viane was quoted as saying, 'There is no question now that digital 3-D is having an impact on the box office.'"

These two quotes were just some of several that made me slap my forehead. I swear I have bruises for slapping so hard. Today, I found a quote (more like a paragraph) that made my animation soul flicker.

"Representational art has a place, but it's not for me. I'm more interested in drawings as psychology and expression, a subjective way somebody might see the world. I like little flaws in art because they reflect the flaws in life. I like children's drawings, not just the freedom and imagination in them but the painstaking struggle in the lines. There's conflict and tension there. There's so much richness and personality going on before you even get to what the story is.

CG models and perfect life drawings leave me cold. All that a realistic, representational drawing of a bicycle tells me is, "bicycle." There's so much more mood and psychology to bring to the film if your artwork communicates more than just nouns. It's why photorealism in animation is usually so boring and pointless. It's all nouns. Ninety percent of CG animation is all nouns. I can't feel anything going on behind the image.

The point of this medium is you can do literally anything, you can show us amazing things we've never seen before. I want to see animators change the language of cinema! Seriously, we have the means. Push animation deep into the wild new places where the surrealists took their reaction to photography. Rock the damn boat. If you're going to strip animation of all its subjective power and just show me what things look like in real life you might as well be shooting live action."--Don Hertzfeldt

Don just said everything I ever wanted to say about the animation industry and the educational system in a couple of paragraphs. Heck, this quote can reflect life in general. People always strive to be perfect when it is not necessary to be. I hated my high school self because all I cared about was to have perfect academics in all subjects. Only in college did I realize challenging yourself and building yourself was what mattered.

In art especially, you wonder if talent out weighs hard work? I've been struggling with this for quite a while. I could never draw realistically without pulling my eyes out. Maybe I wasn't meant to be an artist. The one thing I could do well was gesture drawings and drawings in brush pen. My professor John Hull helped me figure this out and told me Hokusai can never do Rembrandt and Rembrandt can never do Hokusai because that wasn't their style. I really thank him for such wonderful advice.

In a round about way, animation may have room for someone who can't draw realistically.

Sorry for such a weird and long winded post.....I better end with a Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-18T23:46:00.000-07:00

Avatar Shipping

Zutara fans are crazy....

2006-11-18T23:37:00.000-07:00

Man, Avatar as of late is just getting so crazy....but so addictive :p

I wasn't too sure why at the beginning fans were already pairing Zuko and Katara. They barely meet except in fight scenes.

Aww poor Aang....he better not kill Zuko for this.

I'll blog above the very hilarious Avatar shipping panel at Comic-Con. I'm still rooting for Foamtara lol.

Seat is waiting

2006-11-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm currently waiting for my chance to see "Brief Encounters of the Animated Kind" at the Starz Film Festival. It sold out...so I'm waiting if somebody doesn't show up. This year their main focus is Canadian films. What's better than the wonderful NFB!

I struggled through my flu this weekend to participate in the Norman Mclaren: Animation Workshop. He's really quirky and a wonderful animator. All of these techniques are no walk in the park. He really had talent. I got to take clear film and draw animation on them with colored markers. Then, at another table I got to scratch and color on regular film, which was really difficult. Finally, I got to do pixelation or stop-motion with a camera. They used a device called a "lunchbox" connected to a digital camera to take single frames.
I was thinking to myself..."my god! This is the solution to my animation problems. I've been trying to find a single frame camera."

I found out the box cost roughly $7000.....><

I made approximately 3 seconds of film lol. They screened it the next day, but I was too sick :( It was of my Xiao Bao too....can you imagine him on the big screen XD I have pics of the film strip that I will later post. Sadly, I didn't get to keep the film.

Oh yes and I'm also seeing a short later tonight by Chel White. Gosh I hope I get a seat. On one hand...a sold out show for animation is awesome! On the other....I want to see it.

Here's some Mclaren:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dNzefjYxeEI

The oscar winning and favorite film "Neighbors":
http://youtube.com/watch?v=X6x-Hf9GSfc

Finally NDK 2006 Report

2006-11-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

I'm trying a new thing here. I use to just upload pics on Imagecave, but this time I created a Flickr photo album of my photos from NDK. I couldn't upload all the pics because of a limit ><. If you get confused with all the name blurting, here's the guest list and also the slideshow gives more info.
I had a wonderful time this year! I didn't get to go on Friday to see Opening Ceremonies because of printmaking craziness. I think they showed a trailer of Satoshi Kon's Paprika.

Saturday

I started off with the Madhouse Fan Panel (little did I know they would be there lol). For some reason, I had the courage to yammer my head off as to why Madhouse animation represents such quality work. Not to many people came so Umehara-san asked us to bundle together. I got to sit right next to him 0.o. We mainly talked about whether Japan will slowly go to 3-D like the U.S. Mizushima-san said they're so use to flat images like manga that it won't likely happen. We also discussed the difficulty of the transition to cel then digital to make the work. I like how they described missing the air between the cel and the camera so the color was much different. Also we asked if their studios had any rivals. In reality for Japan, animators work at multiple studios and often collaborate with each other. I guess no Pixar and Dreamworks rivalries lol.

I quickly went to see Fullmetal Alchemist: Conquerer of Shambala movie. I had to leave 10 minutes before the end for my panel :( thankfully my sister stayed for the Mizushima-san questions. She said the best part was when Umehara-san slowly came up and said in broken English "Please would you have an anime in Denver?" Mizushima-san cracked up and said no more questions lol.

I was part of the 24 hour comic panel where we retold the comic kinda like a storyboard meeting. A lot more showed up this year and I think people enjoyed it.

Then I went to the Piano Squall concert. Great musician with a great cause.

Sunday

This day was mainly for getting autographs and waiting for the closing ceremony auction. We were lucky enough to win the auction for Mizushima-san's signature with Al. Meeting Madhouse this year was one of the most rewarding experience I've had. Although I bet meeting the Animation Show crew will soon top that lol.

The auction was awesome. They raised around $4000 for Piano Squall's MS charity and $7000 for breast cancer. Umehara-san's sketch went up to $2000. It was a really cute sketch. I was right behind him and he was shaking and sweating lol. He came up to each person who bought his sketch and bowed.

This was a group shot with the two people who auctioned to $2000 each.

This is the banner the guy bid on. As a thank you gift for both they got the entire library of Manga Entertainment and lifetime pass to NDK. They both looked pale lol.

This is Sato-san, Mizushima-san, and Umehara-san

All of the guests...Spike Spencer (va for Shinji from Eva) is the one with the sunglasses lol.

My goodies!

Top: Piano Squall poster
Left to right per row: Umehara-san's sketch of me, Mizushima-san's Al, Stan Yan's sketch he gave to me
2nd row: CCS dvd Sat0-san signed, FMA dvd Mizushima-san signed, CD Lisa Furukawa signed
3rd row: PSME dvd Michael Dobson signed, Samurai Champloo dvd Darrel Guilbeau signed
My sister got he Eva figure signed by Spike Spencer which is not present in photo lol.

Check out my pics with Madhouse and more in my Flicker set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32106219@N00/sets/72157594359328314/

What a great year! I missed you Will if you're reading!
Can't wait for next year.

Tumbleweed

2006-10-23T20:58:00.000-06:00

Yup....sorry for the abscence. This weekend I'll try to post up my pics from NDK and if willing and not lazy my 24 hour comic.

I'm not sure if I announced this officially yet, but the cool opportunity that happened is...

I'm now an internet intern for The Animation Show!!! One of my jobs is to write about animators' upcoming works. I posted the first one on Jonathan Nix ("Hello" 2006).
It's all to get ready for Year 3!
http://animationshow.com/journal1.html

I hope everyone bought the Bitter Films Vol 1 dvd. It was truly awesome to behold ^^

300 NDK

2006-10-05T22:08:00.000-06:00

Martial art Spartans...awesome graphics...and Frank Miller...
What more could you want?
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/

NDK is this weekend...although I may have to compromise in order to finish my printmaking project, but I'll definitely be there for Saturday and Friday. Come see my participation in the 24 hour comic presentation.

I'm a little sad my friend Will won't be there. Everytime we try to meet it is foiled lol.

I'll give a little report on the con.

And a report on DAM....it was so beautiful. Let me just say 3 Damien Hirsts, Janine Antoni's famous "Lick and Lather", and a very sophisticated installation "Engi."

http://www.ucdadvocate.com/media/storage/paper538/news/2006/10/04/PhotoEssay/Dam-Good.Art-2331775.shtml?norewrite200610060017&sourcedomain=www.ucdadvocate.com

I will say nothing about the exploding anime chick. :p

2006-10-05T01:00:00.000-06:00

Tales of Ba Sing Se - Iroh's story

The creator's tribute to Mako...you can tell a certain part of the episode his voice changes. I'm assuming that's the voice of the replacement. It was pretty close to his tone, but it just didn't have that hoolow growl. Rest in peace Mako!

24 hour marathon

2006-09-30T00:20:00.000-06:00

Updated throughout marathon:

9:30 pm-Start time of course after Avatar

11:47 pm- Couldn't resist petting Xiao Bao

12:16 am- Geez I have about four pages penciled. For the first time, my story might be too short to fit 24 pages. I feel like I'm already stretching it lol. So watch out for monologues!

1:37 am- On 8th page....man I'm bad at this. I already have the urge to sleep.

2:30 am- 9th page....I'm starting to think in gibberish. I'm definitely a dinural animal. I'm beginning to think I have a disadvantage since I started at night. I'm taking a snooze til 7:30 am. I'll be behind about 3 pages, but I'm hoping my inking skills won't fail me.

9:50 am- Well, past the half mark.....I'm really behind now. I'm on the 10th page. I had to drive with my sister to an interview. Hopefully, I can get some work done before I get to the gallery. Now working on 4 hours of sleep ....><

11:01 am- On page 14,I finally picked up some speed. Geez, I'm sure making a damn depressing story, such a drama queen lol.

11:34 am- Only 11 pages to go....seems a lot but the last couple of pages are going to have wider views...yes cheating. this might be my last post for a while. Don't know how tied up the computer will be at the gallery.

.....

10:00 pm- included driving time

hehe I finished! I was very exhausted and had to bring in my sister to erase lol. Thanks to the Squids for such a great time. I'm prinitng my comic for NDK, so if your there buy!!! I might also be doing a powerpoint narration presentation on the comic on Saturday at 4pm. Don't worry...I'll post it after mid-terms :p

On a final note...best memoriam to a voice actor...look above.

24

2006-09-27T12:27:00.001-06:00

A lot of craziness has been going on lately. This weekend the Squidworks crew is having a 24 Hour comic Marathon at Capsule Gallery. It is a week ahead of the official date due to NDK being on that same weekend. So if you're in Denver come and watch me become a zombie. The sad thing is I have to start earlier than everyone else due to DAM opening. Pedestrians will get to see the side effects in advance. I'll post my comic ASAP after the event.

The Denver Art Museum opening is a gigantic event. I heard the new contemporary wing is fantastic. Who knew Clyfford Still and De Kooning was in storage this whole time? I'm really curious to see how the slanted walls affected some of the paintings. As you can see it is rather slanted :p

In addition, you may see some design changes on this blog. An awesome opportunity has arised that requires me to post on another journal. So this one may become experimental to improve and work out anything on the other blog. I'll tell you the good news once I make my first post ^^.

Scream with glee

2006-09-01T11:12:00.000-06:00

Word came across all art classes around the world...The Scream is found! A lot of people thought this artwork was truly gone, due to the fact this painting was made on cardboard. Oslo police recovered close to two years from the date it was stolen.

It's quite rare for a piece of art to be recovered. What is rarer is the irony and just bizarre coincidence that follows this recovered work.

Just last week M&Ms made a promotion to give 2 million dark M&Ms to the person who recovers the stolen Munch. Many thought this promotion was just for show and a guarantee for the Mars corp. to never have to deliver their promise. Then boom...the work is returned lol.

M&Ms is keeping their promise. If it is truly the missing Munch, Oslo police gets to have lots of M&Ms.

http://www.typetive.com/candyblog/item/dark_mms_offer_reward/

See...there is a sweet reward for bringing back artwork....now give me back those Rembrandts!!!

Rejoice!!

2006-08-27T14:00:00.000-06:00

Whoo hoo! Here's my entry for Nan Desu Kan's Anime Artistry contest. Not sure if I can beat last years, but I really had fun with this. I used watercolor pans to create the color.

I haven't named this image yet....and yes Heidi is a terrible name for it. I got inspired by Earthsea...lots of goats in that book lol.

Back at school as well. I have a little cart with me to help move my art supplies. I look dorky, but my back is very pleased. For those who care, I'm taking Printmaking I, Watermedia I, Advance drawing, Intermediate Life drawing, and Contemporary Art History.

Great things are starting to happen in Denver. We FINALLY have our own Claes Oldenburg sculpture! http://www.amnnews.com/press.jsp?id=2842

Earthsea/ Gedo Senki

2006-08-14T19:55:00.000-06:00

When I heard the next Ghibli movie was going to be based on The Farthest Shore part of the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin, I picked up the first book The Wizard of Earthsea after I got off work. Coincidently, this was around the same time my back gave out and I became bedridden for a couple of days. I was expecting nothing special in particular, but what I found was a beautifully crafted world built on history, languages, and culture.

There wasn't a theme of good vs evil or an overuse of "crazy magic" like in Harry Potter. The character Sparrowhawk/Ged has to literally face himself showing how human beings carry their own good and evil. Throughout the whole six books there is no one who is truly evil, just people with basic human yearning for power and control over death. Magic in fantasy is often a gift that can be used without regret. In Earthsea, magic is based on balance such as if a wizard creates rain for an area, it could cause a drought where the rain was destined to be. Magic is used when absolutely necessary. The power of word is more powerful than magic itself. Every element is governed by their originally name. Each character have different aliases to protect them.

I don't even think I accurately expressed the profound and beautiful affect this series has brought to my mind. I feel greatly ashamed I only found this series just because it was turning into a movie.

Gedo Senki came out at the end of July in Japan. Reviews have been mainly good. From what I hear people are most disappointed because it is quite different from the book, the style, and that the characters' mannerisms and skin color aren't the same. I believe I will enjoy the movie when it comes out in the US. This movie is darker than most Ghibli films and IT IS NOT a Hayao Miyazaki movie. I think Goro Miyazaki should get applause as a first time director. Adapting a book to a movie is a difficult process and I heard the movie was made quite quickly compared to other Ghibli films. I hope he makes more movies and understands that the movie is his own now and shouldn't feel terrible if the author didn't like the outcome.

I made this excrutiatingly long post because Le Guin finally saw the movie and posted her feelings on the web. I read forums and read some negative feedback toward her opinion. People need to understand this series has been always misrepresented which made her very protective of her work. Her characters have darker skin and are never represented in this way; on book covers, crappy Sci-fi mini series, and even Gedo Senki.

The makers of the American TV version, while boasting that they
were "color blind," reduced the colored population of Earthsea to one and a
half. I have blasted them for whitewashing Earthsea, and do not forgive them for
it.
The issue is different in Japan. I cannot address the issue of race in
Japan because I know too little about it. But I know that an anime film runs
smack into the almost immutable conventions of its genre. Most of the people in
anime films look — to the American/European eye — white. I am told that the
Japanese audience perceives them differently. I am told that they may perceive
this Ged as darker than my eye does. I hope so. Most of the characters look
white to me, but there is at least a nice variation of tans and beiges. And
Tenar's fair hair and blue eyes are right, since she's a minority type from the
Kargish.

I'm glad Ms. Le Guin stated this. Japanese animation often has characters that are Japanese but have attributes of Europeans. This might have been because of World War II. It may also be the yearning to be white. I've heard of surgeries on Asians to make them look more European or normal. Whatever the reason, I do believe Ged is dark in the movie, but Arren is not(he has a bronze shade to his skin in the book). It is not completely obvious which might have been a major disappointment. The only main problem I could see from the character designs is Therru wasn't more scarred or mangled, but that might scare too many people.

I recommend anyone to read Le Guin's whole opinion on the movie.

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html

And to also read Goro's journey through this film with the translated blog.

http://nausicaa.net/miyazaki/earthsea/blog/

Sadly due to Scifi holdings on the rights, the movie won't come out until 2009.

Read Earthsea, Watch Gedo Senki and thank you for reading this incredibly long post.

2006-08-12T18:09:00.000-06:00

Knights of Cydonia

The best music video I've seen in a while. I would pay to see this at the movies.

Knights of Cydonia by Muse
Director Joseph Kahn

2006-08-03T21:14:00.000-06:00

Xiao Bao's Birthday

His first birthday, which we celebrated on July 27th after my birthday. He was probably actually born earlier in July.

Sorry for the high pitched singing. I go into cutsy mommy role when ever I see him. And yes, he practically ate all of it (parsely, carrot, cucumber, green pepper, and a critter berry treat) and then slept in his fancy new polka dot pouch.

2006-08-03T21:10:00.000-06:00

Glorious Xiao Bao

Now you can see Xiao Bao in action. We were trying to tape him doing his cleaning ritual, but my Dad just kept sneezing. That scared Xiao Bao a bit.

Farewell Mako

2006-07-24T18:01:00.000-06:00

So depressing....just checking on Comic-con reports on Toonzone when I stumbled upon this news. Mako Iwamatsu died of esophageal cancer at the age of 72 on Friday.

He's known for his voice work of Aku (Samurai Jack) and Uncle Iroh (Avatar: The Last Airbender). Also he played as the wizard Akiro in Conan. Notably, he recieved an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in The Sand Pebbles. He has such a bold, deep, dragon-like voice that sounds strict yet endearing.

He will be greatly missed.

Up to date

2006-07-21T12:17:00.000-06:00

I am turning 20 in 5 days and yet this happens....

1 month ago I quit my job due to back pain and problems bending. I thought it was an irritated sciatic nerve. Just two weeks ago my mom suggested to have an MRI....oh boy do I hate MRI's...well I found out I have a herniated disc between L5 and S1 (for all you medical buffs out there) with an extrusion through a wall that protects my nerves. Remember kids...picking up frozen bake goods can be quite deadly.

I'm quite fine. I'm going to see a neurologist to check again if I need surgery.

The good news I get to spend more time with Xiao Bao. Enoch, I really need to find a pimp outfit lol. Although this site has...a fez lol!!!!

http://cuddlycavies.homestead.com/Hats.html

Currently I'm obssessed with You Tube. They have rare cartoons and bizarre things to share on the web. Joecool85 posted Grimm's Fairy Tales that use to be part of the Special delivery block on Nickelodeon. I watched this when I was in kindergarten yet it still beats the crap out of any kids show shown today.

http://youtube.com/results?search=delivery%20fairy%20special%20tales&search_tags=Search+Videos

Sorry, I knew this post was going to be long, but I really need to say this as well.

I have an odd attachment to the country of Lebanon. I did a project about this country in middle school and ever since then I wanted to try tabouli, a famous dish of Lebanon. This country was going through reconstruction and seemed to be building itself back together. It is just heart breaking to see what is happening to this country right now. Whether both sides are guilty, the innocent always suffer. Mazen Kerbaj's blog is a real outlook of the current situation through drawings. Sadly, all we can do is read and wait.

http://mazenkerblog.blogspot.com/

Their workplace

2006-06-28T13:47:00.000-06:00

I'm not surprised Mokona is wearing a kimono lol. In press pictures and in their art, she always wears a kimono. And well the bottles of wine.....that's CLAMP alright.

CLAMP

2006-06-28T10:57:00.000-06:00

The goddesses of manga are coming to Anime Expo this year. I can only imagine the attendance this year will triple and fans are lining outside just to see this quartet.

I'm extremely jealous to those who get to meet them. I have almost every manga that is available in the US. Their work is an addiction. From their lavishly drawn works to their intriguing storylines, it is nop wonder CLAMP is known throughout the world. The most miraculous aspect is that for more than 15 years four women worked together (without any assistants) to create such work. To accompilsh this for most of their career they lived together and only just recently moved out seperately.

I hope CLAMP has a nice time and visit the US again soon. Maybe in Colorado?

Cars

2006-06-10T11:17:00.000-06:00

Sadly I agree completely with this review:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jun/09/animated_cars_lacks_drive/?arts

Something was really missing from the film. The main meaning of the film was to step back and enjoy the journey in life. It's hard to really feel this when cars represents humans. All I could think of during the movie was "Man, they must have higher gas prices than us." and "Can you imagine how much pollution they have? An average 14 farts a day from these cars would be disasterous."

Go see the movie to support Pixar, but there is something missing, and it bugs me.

Three in a row

2006-05-30T08:47:00.000-06:00

Bad things usually happen in threes.

My summer drawing class was cancelled leaving me with no model for the summer until I can find a substitute class. I'm really tempted to yell at my Dean about this since they cut nine classes.

I injured myself doing lifting at work. I feel like Hank Hill in the "diminished glutes" episode. Yes, sitting can be difficult lol.

Thankfully the last one wasn't too bad. My car got egged. It may have been a large swooping bird, but I doubt it lol. If anybody has any remedy to getting this stuff off, my guinea pig will do a dance.

Now the dreadful three has passed. Hopefully something good will come up next. Maybe I should buy some lotto lol.

Crunch time

2006-05-19T21:40:00.000-06:00

I finally put up the FCBD 2006 pages I did. I feel really bad how much I neglected my webcomic. I'll try my best to update during the summer, but the looming portfolio will keep me busy.
http://manganese.comicgenesis.com

Everybody have a safe summer. I'll update this blog as soon as I get started on the portfolio. I have a major task of cleaning my work area first lol.

Note: I am so getting a Nintendo Wii. It would take me five paychecks to buy a PS3. I'm just glad God of War II is on the PS2.

FCBD 2006

2006-05-04T09:03:00.000-06:00

Although this year's Free Comic Book Day is the weekend before finals (the agony!), I will make it out there. Comicgenesis sent me five free copies already. My comic looks a little stretched, but I feel happy it came out alright. The only problem in the table of contents they spelled my user name Magnese o.0 I will post my un-altered comic after finals are over lol. So hopefully I'll get more people reading my comic. If not, it's just a neat idea someone on Saturday will read my comic.

I might enter this juried show at Space Gallery. My chances of getting in is practically zero, but it's nice to try anyway. The best in show gets their own exhibition in 2007.
http://spacegallery.org/JuriedShow.html

hehe My sister is currently part of this livejournal group called "rate your piggy." Well Xiao Bao is currently winning the theme Gross looking piggy lol. You can see the pic here: http://community.livejournal.com/rateyourpiggy/267050.html

It's amazing. He's still adorable even when he's eating poop lol.

Final note:
Well the last post I made a huge mistake. I mistakened Goro for Nayochin lol. I was wondering why Mr. Miyazaki looked so young lol.

Bizarre fun!

2006-04-27T12:18:00.000-06:00

*Update correction: I knew I didn't understand Japanese lol. The guy who I mistakened as Goro is Nayochin, he does ads for Ghibli. You can read about him in Goro's blog (Nayo also updates for Goro now.) His nickname is pretty hilarious.
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/earthsea/blog/blog61.html

I'm beginning to think until summer my blog is becoming "the bizarre and fun facts" blog lol. I just keep coming across interesting stuff that other news sources haven't emphasized yet(cough Cartoon Brew).

This one blew me away. Bill Plympton is teaming up with Kanye West....again! In Time Magazine:

"ANIMATED KANYE
Scoop up a few Grammys? Check. Rant about the President on live TV? Check. Launch a line of preppy duds? Check. The next item on rap star KANYE WEST'S to-do list is to create a book in the style of Japanese manga comics with animator Bill Plympton. Plympton, best known for short films that appeared on MTV in the '80s, met West when drawing the raw, smudgy animation for the hip-hop star's video Heard 'Em Say. After the two hit it off, they decided to collaborate on a book based on West's lyrics for Simon & Schuster. Can a Kanye West line of baked goods be far behind?"

I'm a little scared and intrigued at the same time. Bill doing a manga? I mean if it was just a comic sure, but a manga....with Kanye West? I mean something like his regular comics such as the one in the new Flight 3 book. http://www.flightcomics.com (Sorry little ad there. I just love this anthology too much!)

And last but not least,
The website http://www.ghibliworld.com is just too awesome. They have insider information on Gedo Senki and just some really great videos and pictures.
Yikes my mistake this guy is actually Nayo-chin. He's a really funny guy. I swear if I ever met him I'll give him Pringles to ease his pain. I'll find a picture of Goro Miyazaki later. (Yeesh, even the video knew. I'm such a nutcase.)

They have a video where it shows he's a pretty quiet guy and seems to get along with Producer Toshio Suzuki very well (almost like a father figure).

http://www.ghibliworld.com/professional_suzuki.wmv

http://www.ghibliworld.com/makingofgedosenkitrailer.wmv