methodology stop motion

It's the big debut! My first attempt at stop motion is now ready for viewers. (You can view it larger on vimeo.)I created this to compliment the poster I designed for my senior show theme, which became a promotion piece. It's an animated journey through the creative process via paper cut outs and frame by frame animation.
I spent a weekend printing and cutting out all the little pieces and then signed up to use the lighting studio. They have this great contraption that is made for documenting 2D work and allows you to attach the camera facing down and has even lighting. My friend/roommate Amy Miller volunteered to help and so on a Tuesday night we went to work. As I mentioned before, this was my first attempt at creating a stop motion and I learned a hell of a lot from the process, for example:

• Determine early on how long you want your animation to be and how many frames equal one second (I originally shot for 15 frames).
• Think about the music beforehand. Amy had created a song that was perfect for what I envisioned and was also willing to help make the music fit the animation for timing.
  
• Consider if some things need to move faster than others and how many frames are appropriate.
• Having a friend is incredibly helpful, especially one that is good at counting/documenting
• Lighting is difficult to get exactly right unless you really know what you're doing. The lights ended up blowing out some parts of the animation, which in the end appeared as a happy accident rather than a disaster.
• Go with the flow.
• Don't rush.

So in 8 hours of shooting, we got almost 800 pictures that would equal out to about a minute. I was so thankful that we completed it in one night, because if we hadn't finished before the school closed I would have had to clean up and risked the next batch of photos looking different from the first. It took another weekend to edit all the photos (Thank God for Photoshop and Automate Batch) then to dump them into iMovie and make it work together. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and am excited to work on another one.

color film

I finally got my rolls of film developed from my trip home a few weeks ago. I had been itching to go explore and capture some photos on my old camera and so anytime I saw something interesting, I snapped a photo. I love old signs and buildings, so often they'll catch my attaention. I love to imagine the stories and history of them, who used to work there or who built it. I'll post a few here, but there are many more. Check them out on my flickr!

i'm employed!

Great news! I've been offered a job at redpepper as a production designer. I'll be working part time until graduation and then jump in full time in May. It's such an honor and a relief to have a job with a company I love and know that I will be challenged at. I'm so excited!
But I must admit, I'm really ready for the semester to be over already. It's the last month and while I'm not too super stressed, I am ready to have portfolio and the senior show off my plate. Only a few weeks to go, and I know it'll be over in a flash.
My website will be ready to go live soon, so I'll post it when the time comes. Best of luck to everyone in the last month of the semester.

Johnny Kelley - Animator

I have been doing a lot of research in preparation for my stop motion project (which will be filmed tomorrow) and was especially inspired by Johnny Kelley.
The first animation I ever saw by him was The Seed, a combination of simple line animation and 3d paper art stop motion. These days, it's really nice to see such a beautiful animation that doesn't heavily rely on computer graphics. And it tells the story of a humble apple seed in such an incredible way. Watch it here. You can also check out the making of on their site too, which is also a fascinating behind the scenes look.Then I came upon his graduation film from the Royal College of Art called Procrastination. It is awesome, and incredibly pertinent for every single person on the earth. Click the image below to watch it too.

eight weeks.

In eight weeks from now, I will be a college graduate. In six weeks, I'll have my senior show. I must admit that my brain is in a somewhat constant seesaw of thoughts and feelings. I'm stressed, I'm relaxed, I'm confident, I'm freaked out, I'm exhausted, I'm refreshed. Those are normal feelings in life, but suddenly with the end of Spring Break looming, they seem to have hit me all at once. I still have so much work to do. And I'm having to realize that I may have bit off more than I can chew with some projects I wanted to complete by April 30th.
For example, I was planning on creating an extensive Flash animation and was super confident about it. I started and applied my basic knowledge, but ran into numerous road blocks. And then I realized today that I don't realistically have the amount of time before the Senior Show to teach myself how to really use Flash to create the animation that I visualized for my Methodology illustration. There are a lot of other projects that need to be reworked and revised. So how do I animate it without using Flash? I'm thinking of doing it old school and creating paper cut outs and animating it using frame by frame animation. I've been wanting to do that for a long time as a fun project anyway, so I'm actually looking forward to it more now. So, hopefully I will have something impressive to show for it within the next few weeks.
I've also been doing a lot of research for job opportunities and feeling hopeful. I'm fighting off procrastination and doing my best to stay on track. Everything will get done.
On a parting note, I'd like to share this animation from John Kelley called Procrastination.

welcome spring, I am ready for you.

Life is still going well in my part of the woods, moving forward with my portfolio, working hard at school and at redpepper. I'm trying to focus on self promotion and researching future job opportunities. There is so much to consider, and what I send to potential employees will likely change based on who they are and the type of work they do. I'm working on a flash animation as a way to catch attention and drive people to my website (still under construction). I've been working on my resume, and designing business cards. I want to do something a little different and I found an idea through AIGA about recycling old Pantone swatch books and using them for business cards. Since you're suppossed to get new Pantone books every year (the color fades and doesn't remain true) I figure it's a great way to reuse a very job specific item as a promotion piece. Not to mention the fact that I can utilize all the great colors in the swatch book.
I'm currently home for my best friend's wedding this coming weekend. It's nice to have a change of scenery and see old friends and family. It came at a good time with Spring break starting next week so that I don't have to rush home. I'm hoping after the wedding festivities to get a lot of school work done next week. I'm also planing on taking lots of photos. I've had such an itch to go out and take photos with my film camera lately, so I bought some color film and snapped some on my drive through TN, GA and SC. Too bad it's rainy here today, or else I'd be out exploring all the great things around. I'm trying to make a sincere effort to be creative in other ways that have nothing to do with schoolwork, clients or deadlines. Let's hope the sun comes out soon.

hurrah.

Congratulations are in order to all the WCAD students who took home Student ADDYs! We claimed 26 total, silver and gold and even Best in Show went to a Watkins Student (Ligia Teodisio). I was awarded a Gold for my editorial spreads for Context Magazine, an assignment I completed in Typography III with Professor Sweeney-Obryan. It was a great night, regardless of the laryngitis I suffered from last week (I lost my voice for 6 days).
In other exciting news, the senior show plans are moving along nicely. We've secured a venue and this year's senior exhibition will be held at Terrazos in the Gulch. I'm still plugging away on my portfolio, polishing old work and creating new. I'm part of the committee for designing the space and its been fun to think of how we can modify the event space. It's pretty raw but we have a lot of fun ideas and plan to be resourceful. The official theme is Design Fighter: Portfolio Attack! and was designed by Andy Gregg. He's illustrated all of the graduating seniors in a Street Fighter-esque style and it's fun to think of how we can apply that to the space. It's only 10 weeks until the show (April 30th) and I know it will be here in no time at all. I feel as if I will awaken tomorrow and it will be the big day. I'm psyched.