What the– you’re building a cat?

Yes, an Arduino-powered one at that! One that won’t cause allergies or disgust its owner with hairballs. Petting CAT will make it react positively, purring at 50Hz (a healing frequency), giving the same benefit as a real animal. This is achieved through conductive thread/fabric and a vibrating motor. Many more surprises are to come; new Arduino shields and other fun parts will be in my mailbox soon! I’ll get some video up during the week, along with a few design/layout paintings too

Yup, had a few rips in my face.

Gee, you’d think he’s scared of his creations or something! We’re only brain-eating zombies!

Stephen wins for coolest hat.

Yours truly, pushing all the right buttons.

Aaagh! Zombie lurkin’ in the phone booths!

One chef down…

And that’s the wonderwolf — er, werewolf on the right known as Michael, with a beaten-up Carlos keepin’ his cool.

The CalArts Institute of the Insane halloween party this year rocked. Well, technically the first couple of hours were spent getting gorey’d up, but upon arrival… good music, a full variety to dance to, pretty flashing lights, and more unique/scary/brilliant/ridiculous costumes than you could shake a tree at!

And, on a non-Halloween note, John and I got to meet Henry Selick! He’s suuuuuuper friendly, very enthusiastic and overall a crazy cool artist/director.

Anyway,  I thought this would be a good opportunity to put together a list of things I’ve learned at CalArts, either by observing other people, classes, lecturers, or personal experiences.

• Don’t, under ANY circumstance, open up a refrigerator that doesn’t belong to you or a close friend. Especially if it’s by the pencil test machines by the windows.
• WORK HARD
• Sleep every night.
• Freshmen, prepare to survive off of a maximum of 4 hours of sleep your first semester. That translates into getting as much sleep as you can NOW!
• Freshies, ALSO prepare to lose all social activity, spare yelling over your cube walls. Sounds harsh, I know, but if you want to get your work done, you’ve got to focus on working more than partying.
• Shower at least three times a week. Don’t end up all greasy and gross!
• Exception to last rule: during Crunchtime, deodorant and perfume might get you by.
• CHEWING GUM IS YOUR FRIEND! It’ll keep you awake when your eyes start seeing double and you’re supposed to be focusing on deep philosophical thoughts for class.
• Recycle animation paper!!! Any bad scenes get ERASED and REUSED!
• Col-Erase is your friend for roughs. I learned this TOO late in the game.
• Callouses between your fingers from flipping is a valid source of pride.
• The bench by the cubes/main gallery door is cold and will suck out your soul if you try to sleep on it.
• The life drawing teachers know your names, so participate for at least an hour if you can.
• Choose your critical studies by talking to upper classmen and hearing who the coolest teachers are!
• Cubing by the main gallery door = DOOR MONITOR DUTY!
• Avoid the flat noodles in the cafeteria.
• Order chicken tacos WITHOUT sauce. It’ll burn your tastebuds off and you’ll be breathing like a dragon for an hour!
• Monday-Friday from 11:30-1:30 = SANDWICH BAR. Wheat bread + mayo + mustard + roast beef + pickles + onions + tomatoes + provalone = DELICIOUS!
• Get away from your department every two weeks if you can. Go see a music performance in the ROD! Go on a Grand CalArts Adventure! Go chill in the subfloor!
• The best Thursday Night is the Character show. Boooooooyeah!
• Don’t microwave an aerosol can.
• Multi-functioning cameras = FRIENDS! (Sound/video/picture recording!)
• Moleskins are awesome for drawing on-the go. 11×14″ sketchbooks are awesome for drawing in class and in the cube
• Get your story settled and animatic’d by the 2nd week of the 2nd semester at the VERY LATEST! Then it’s worktime
• Flash = lean mean animatic-makin’ machine.
• Make friends! You’ll be stuck with all these people for the rest of your life!
• PC laptops don’t even BEGIN to compare with Macbooks.
• Be nice and use the library’s printer to print up long documents… save the NICE paper for artwork!
• Valencia’s weather has severe ADHD.
• The catwalks in the Mod are scarrrryyy!
• There’s a dragon that lives under the school and breaths warm breath at night.
• Cramming ~20 people into a dorm on the 4th floor will get security from the 2nd floor to tell you to be quiet (as it’s the ‘quiet hall’)– even on Halloween.
• Popcorn is a perfectly valid dinner.
• >Especially when the cafeteria serves smelly green kinda-leafy stuff!
• Pirates are SOOOOO cooler than ninjas!
• Every animator says the word “wonky” at least once in their lives– and certainly during guest lectures!
• There’s a haunted staircase that goes up to nowhere and somehow sprouted grass. Don’t ask me; it’s art school.
• Play-Doh bounces off of walls when you throw it hard enough.
• 4 AM is a perfectly regular bedtime.
• Ukuleles are popular.
• Eating is not a priority, projects and animating is.
• Sleep is optional on occasion.
• If you’re sleeping in your cube, sleep on your desk and not the floor. It’s cozier and you’ll have more room… and then hope your friends will offer you a cot
• Bring shorts for the Spring semester– else you’ll melt.
• Bring jackets for the Fall semester– CalArts likes to cryogenically freeze students with the air conditioning.
• CalArtsians will = your closest friends!!!!

That’s all I can think of now. I may add more in the comments… feel free to comment whatever you learned at CalArts! Annnd a BIG CONGRATS & KUDOS TO THE GRADUATES OF ’09!!

Super Stoked!

Last weekend was a blast– nearly 7 hours of films and the LA Renaissance Faire in Irwindale! (Hence, the geeky super-red-riding-hood photo). The Open Show had about 143 films! It started at 2:15 and then we had a break sometime between 6:30(ish) and 10(ish). I think the show ended at 1:30 AM. It’s actually a good thing that the break WAS that long, because coordinating 15 people (or more specifically, “animators”) for dinner and Starbucks apparently takes an unbelievable amount of time.

The next day, another massive group of us all headed to Irwindale for the Renaissance Faire! Got a bit of a late start, but it was all good in the end– got to see a pirate band play, listened to all sorts of strange accents and got to look at lots of amazing (and silly) costumes. Some people clearly could not hide their geekdom, others looked like they had access to a time machine a long time ago and felt that they fit in best in the ren faire atmosphere. It was pirate weekend, so most of us dressed as pirates.

Then, after getting out of class early last night (missed the Milt Kahl special, dangit!) the list of films that made it into Producer’s was up– and I’m one of them!! Yayy!!! The Producer’s Show is on May 7th in the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre at 8. Gonna be fun! I get to hand out programs

Okay, okay– so by that, I mean a regular, non-CalArts status of noise will be flowing through the cubes. Countless workaholic sleepy animators are currently slumbering away in their beds (AND RIGHTFULLY SO!)

I turned in my film at approximately 11:57 PM on Saturday, the 18th. Right before that I got my final soundtrack mixed (but certainly not mixed-up)– all that went without a hitch and I’ll be the 13th film in the Open Show!  (That’s within the first 25 minutes, so…. show up at 2 PM on Saturday the 25th– yes, this Saturday– before things get TOO wild and crazy– and you’ll catch its premiere)!

I would like to encourage you to compare my storyboards with some final screen captures. I’m amazed at how “refined” it turned out

Though I finished a couple of nights ago, I couldn’t resist but peek in on the smelly Mac labs two hours before the deadline today at 5 PM. Smelly? Why but OF COURSE! When you cram two dozen animators into a warm room filled with computers for 3+ days straight, it’ll get to the point of knocking you over if you’re not prepared for it. I’m quite surprised Matthew didn’t go in there and attack the air with his can of Lysol, like he did when someone cracked open one of the moldy refrigerators last semester.

BUT THAT’S A WHOLE ‘NOTHER STORY!

All that matters is: the Open Show deadline hit; complaints were filed about the servers going a-wonk; the deadline was stretched an hour and some people made it, and others didn’t. In the end, I think we all learned a lot– if not by making our own film, then by helping with other’s. (I got to animate some bats for Jushtin, which was cool). Celebrating with sushi was the perfect way to celebrate… And now people are wandering around, reminiscent of zombies, wondering: What do we do next?! Our films are done and turned in!

Fortunately I’ve got designs, illustrations and visdev in progress for a children’s book I wrote. My current goal is to get a deal with a publisher, then work on my book over summer! (Just a hint– it’s about color theory).

I’m really pleased with VALUE BLiND, the film I turned in this year. (I suppose I had time to slap together a 2nd film, but by the time I HAD time to make it two weeks ago, I felt that what I did in VALUE BLiND was satisfactory enough for my first year at CalArts!)

Here’s to an AMAZING Open Show on Saturday! Congradulations to all who made it, and to those who didn’t– you still had AMAZING work, and I hope to see your films sometime… soon

This is a drawing I made on the wall across from my cube. So much is to be learned in the Character Animation department! And watch out, those Animators suuure look like zombies!

On a side note, I should mention that I’m back to school– watch out, Semester 2! Looks like I’ll be at about 19 units this semester (which still has a possibility of changing, depending on homework loads). I’ve got two films boarded out and timed in Flash animatics (those of you animators who don’t know how to use Flash, FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF! They’ll have a few workshops soon, it sounds like– go to these, and then think of the ways that you can use Flash to board out your films! In fact, I may even make a post dedicated to that because it’s been extremely efficient for me). Don’t expect me to go uploading these full animatics to this website– you won’t get to see anything until the finish product is submitted for the Producer’s Show (deadline = April 20th)! I’ve still got some quirks to work out about these films, and I’m now starting to think that I may completely focus on one and then work on the other with whatever free time I may have. (“Fail fast, fail offten”– words of wisdom from Don Hahn; I plan on working as fast and efficiently on my film(s) to get the best product in the end)!

Anyway, it’s good to be back at school. The dorms still smell the same, though I swear that the dorm water got grosser over break (morning tea would be the primary indicator of that). Thankfully, the work order to fix Niagara Falls went through, as the shower isn’t leaking anymore. So far, no one’s been stupid enough to open those @#$%^& refrigerators in the cubes!!! (They haven’t been plugged into a wall… in… I’m going to guess, over a year. And there’s food in them. One second of open Cube refrigerator = half an hour of Lysol and crying olfactory senses).

Good luck to all the kids that submitted their portfolios for 2013– may I suggest that you start NOW on stocking up sleep (and eating delicious home-made food and taking showers in the privacy of your own bathroom). And stock up on your sanity too, you’ll need lots of it when you get to CalArts