Final Blog Post.

1. In general, what did you like most about this class?
Overall the thing I liked most about the class was the people, which is something I never thought I would say. I was nice to be able to work on projects and have a sense of comradery when everyone's projects were presented to the class. I loved working with flash and doing what I do, but the people made it very enjoyable to work with. I looked forward to coming to class to work by myself and to still be able to chat every now and then. I also had the freedom to ignore them with headphones, which was nice as harsh as it may sound.

2. What was your favorite project and why?
My favorite project to do was the Rotoscoping project. It had good specific in what needed to be done and while it was painstakingly long and hard to do, I also found it was one of the easiest because it was mostly tracing over film. I fell in love with it.
A close second was the 11 second project, since the audio was provided it was very easy to animate to because of it. It was short, sweet, and to the point.
I enjoyed the final music animation video, but oh my it was long.


3. In general, what did you like least about this class?
The deadlines, the rush to get everything done, the projects assigned halfway through doing another one. It drove me slightly more insane. The year has defiantly gone by far too quickly, I don't even believe it's the end of the year. Sometimes other students are loud and obnoxious, but I'm just chalking that up to my low blood sugar making me irritable. The stress made me very reluctant to get back to projects, but that's not something you can ignore if it's a job. So I guess I'll just have to learn how to adapt to it. 


4. What was your least favorite project and why?
3D, if for no other reason than the fact that I was completely unfamiliar with the program and how to work it. It was very beneficial to me, I learned to think of things in a sense of 3D when drawing, but I didn't enjoy it. I prefer 2D animation for sure.

5. What are your future plans upon graduation?
Complete panic. In all seriousness, I really hope to go to college and find a job. I really hope to take a few drawing classes over the summer. It's just very frightening, thinking this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, for work, that this is all there is, and it's nerve racking. The years will go by quickly and I will be happy to have a few more hours in the day over the summer, but it's just so much different from what I'm used to. I am hoping for the best.

6. Do you feel that this class will help you achieve your future academic or career goals? Please give specific examples.
Absolutely this class has helped me career wise. It's helped me in every sense of the world. It where I learned camera angles and other cinematic techniques that are required in animation and drawing. I finally got to use and work with Flash Professional and now I have it at home to use whenever I wish, and I plan to. It has provided the opportunity to enter contests and encouraged me to show off my work. It has shown me what it will be like when I go further into the field of animation and an example of the type of working environment I may be in.

7. What advice would you give to incoming students?
Animation and drawing while fun, is still a job. It is not something to be taken lightly or too seriously, but it isn't easier than any other job to do. You have to be able to enjoy and love doing it because you won't make it otherwise. I adore it and I still find it tough to do sometimes. Work on it everyday, even if it's just a little bit, because you will regret it later when you've waited to do it later. Listen to the teacher, she knows what she's doing.

8. Additional comments:
It feels as though the year had gone by too fast, but I have enjoyed my time in class. I enjoyed leaving regular high school to come in everyday and work on things I love doing. I will miss the class dearly, I am hesitant to leave. I give my best wishes to everyone and anyone involved.

Monday Part 2

Well, I have a half hour to sit here, so I'm going to do a post of interest.
It's about an animation I have watched for a while, at least a year or two.

It's called Neurotically Yours, which is a web comic and webtoon created by Jonathan Ian Mathers. The central story line revolves around the interactions between Foamy (a pet squirrel) and Germaine and, on occasion, their relationships with other characters. Made with flash, from the looks of it. It's better known as Foamy the Squirrel, and most of the time, it's not appropriate to view in the workplace. However, the animation is decent, the dialogue brings up excellent points when ranting about a specific topic, and has greatly evolved since 2003 to the present.

 First Episode

There are at least 200 official episodes, some just rants, others talking about a specific issue, and also blending with a storyline that deals with character development and story arcs. If you get past the language, cartoon violence and all else, it's a pretty good web show to watch. 

The Website is here: http://illwillpress.com/

Monday

I really do not like this day. This is a terrible day. The day is dragging on solely for the purpose of prolonging my misery associated with this day of the week. Mondays are terrible, I have bad luck on Tuesdays, and I could never get a handle on Thursdays. Bah! The weather is intolerable. I hate it, It makes me irritable, I also hate it because it makes me irritable.
I don't know, I'm just completely flustered... by EVERYTHING.
Too many things are going on, I have no idea what, by back hurts, I am somehow suddenly behind on just about everything, I hate anything to do with college, jobs, school, I haven't really drawn or written anything since I've been focusing on assignments, there's no time to juggle everything and nearly every person I know is repeating over and over on what I need to focus on, I am constantly feeling ill... everything is just chaotic. I wouldn't care if I had many things to do, if this damn anxiousness would just leave me alone, I'd be fine. But no, everything is just in a state of disarray and I hate it.

Friday part 2

Well, time to write the last one for the week.

This week I learned sand animation was a thing. Odd, I don't believe I've seen it before. Though it looks interesting. I would like to learn about about independent animations, I think a few of them would be decent, heck that's how South Park started. 

I got to be lazy for a few hours, watch the new movie The Devil Inside Me on paper view. I liked it, until the end. The ending was kind of dumb. 

As for a post of interest: 

A rotocope of someone skateboarding, it gets pretty detailed at one point.

Ciao, I'm going.

Friday.

While I am glad for the weekend, I am a little disappointed.
I have yet to do anything that is even close to be considered productive or important to contributing to the continuity of my goals. But enough about how great I am at procrastinating at the most dire of times. I'm trying to get Adobe Flash Pro, my only hope right now is to get the student & education edition. Only. Hope. I hope it won't become tedious, I hate paperwork and jumping through hoops.

I cannot for the life of me think of anything particularly interesting for the post of interest, so I guess I'll just do a little lecture of traditional animation for it, cel-animation to be precise. Not that cel animation isn't interesting, I find it fascinating. Here we go.

The two people anyone should know about when dealing with cel animation is John Randolph Bray (who produced the second animated film in color, The Debut of Thomas Cat (1920)), and animator Earl Hurd (known by creating and producing the silent animated short, Bobby Bumps). Hurd and Bray are jointly responsible for developing the processes of cel animation, and were granted patents for their process in 1914. It is a part of traditional animation where each frame was drawn by hand, the drawing is then transferred from paper to a thin, clear sheet of plastic called a cel, a contraction of celluloid (the original flammable cellulose nitrate was later replaced with the more stable cellulose acetate). It was then inked and when it dried, on the opposite side; colored in with acrylic paint or something similar until technology advanced to the point where it could be inked and colored in digitally.

One cel typically contained one character, another sheet to another character and the background was the bottom image, then all the layers would go on top of each other, a glass sheet on the very top to flatten any irregularities and then photographed by a special animation camera (also called rostrum camera). Each cel has registration holes, small holes along the top or bottom edge of the cel, which allowed the cel to be placed on corresponding peg bars before the camera to make sure that each cel aligned properly. If the cels weren't aligned correctly, the animation, when played at full speed, would appear "jittery."

Sometimes, frames may need to be photographed more than once, in order to get camera effects. Pans are created by either moving the cels or backgrounds one step at a time over a succession of frames (the camera does not pan; it only zooms in and out). Once every scene in the production has been photographed, the final film is sent for development and processing, while the final music and sound effects are added to the soundtrack.

Cel animation, despite the long process of creating it, saved a lot of time and labor from previous animators. In very early cartoons made before the use of the cel, an example being Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), the entire frame, including the background, characters, and items, were drawn on a single sheet of paper, then photographed. Everything had to be redrawn for each frame containing movements. This led to a "jittery" appearance; a scene of drawings, each frame slightly different from the one before it.

When not everything is redrawn, such as a head or body of a character that is talking, and only having their mouth moving (a style Hanna-Barbera is known for), is referred to as limited animation and was frequently used for small budget cartoons. Limited animation is also well recognized for animation loops, where the background scene repeats itself. A promotional music video from Cartoon Network's Groovies featuring the Soul Coughing song "Circles" poked fun at animation loops as they are often seen in The Flintstones, in which Fred and Barney (along with other Hanna-Barbera characters), supposedly walking in a house, and wonder why they keep passing the same furniture over and over again.

A personal favorite of mine since I was little.

Thursday

Well, we went over our final projects.
I liked a lot of them and I plan on finishing mine as soon as I possibly can.

I also have to work on Journalism and a Government project. I hate the gov project, it replaces the big exam at the end of the year, but I would much rather take the exam. That's just me though.
Hurt my back playing gym, which is stupid. I keep thinking there has to be something more productive to do then fricken capture the fricken flag. But no; no alternatives and a 0 for a grade if you don't participate. I can't run, I can't dodge, I can't get people out, the game is so pointless for me to do and I just end up making a fool out of myself. I get it, I'm not athletic, can we please not make it a public event? I must have twist or turned the wrong way because it hurts to get up and down. Dishes are going to be a pain in the *** to do and it's not like my lazy sister is going to help me. Gah.

I'm going to go home, I would like to watch TV but I will settle with watching clips on my computer. It's hard to focus when every five minutes lazy fricken sister someone is yelling and bitching on the phone. I'm finding people a lot more irritating today. Oh well.
Um, I would type and submit something with more substance, but I really don't have anything right now. Which, I suppose is good timing because we have to leave in a few minutes anyway. Bell is about to ring, and stuff...and things. Now I'm just babbling. I should stop before it gets worse, the sentence should end abruptly in the mid-

Tuesday.

Well, yeah.
I don't even know anymore. I'm very lethargic today. Feel like I'm in Limbo.

Well the test assessment ting is over. Was glad on the animation and visualization score, not so much on the television and video production, in which case I didn't like the questions. And people still feel the need to talk while others are concentrating, *sigh*. Whatever.
Have an hour left of class. This day has been very off for me.
I think I will go clear my head, starting to get a headache. Oh well. Good day.

Chuckimantion

Well, I really don't feel like scouring through everything to find something new and interesting, so I'm just going to briefly talk about Chuckimation as a post of interest. 

Chuckimation is is a type of animation created by the makers of the cartoon Action League Now!, which was created by Tim Hill. The characters and props are thrown, or chucked from off camera, or wiggled around to simulate talking by unseen hands and was combined with traditional stop motion animation. It was originally part of All That and then KaBlam! on Nickelodeon, and was later spun off into its own short-lived show.

 

A full episode was generally around five minutes long and while it is very primitive compared to other forms of animation, it is easily the least expensive, least time consuming, and most simple to do. It had 11 seasons and consisted of 49 episodes in total. I find it impressive how they move the props and the use of camera angles to conceal how they move the toys by hand. Action League Now! was also the only segment that was on every single episode of KaBlam!, a show I loved when I was younger. I can appreciate the script and lampshade hanging now that I've studied it.

Wednesday.

Well, I couldn't wake up this morning and ended up oversleeping. I didn't get to regular school until later, but hey, I'm pretty much caught up on everything. I'm planning on going home and taking a nap and then working on... well, everything. I'm going to see if I can do anything to help my neck, it's rather distracting now.

Tuesday Night.

Well, it's Tuesday night and I am working on my autobiography. Still have to do the resume, so much work to be doneeeeeeeee!. Pffffft.

.:Edit:. Finished autobiography. It's only past midnight, no big deal. Not sure what I am going to do next. Really want to go to bed, but the final project is hanging over my head so I don't know what to do at the moment. I mean, even if I sleep right now, I'll still be tired tomorrow and will still have work to do and the week will already be half over and deadlines will be closer and dear deity this is driving me mad.
Well, that's life. Meh.

Monday Afternoon

...About 22 minutes after noon to be precise.
Anyways.
Turns out I didn't save before transferring some FLA files over to my flash drive, nothing big, just everything I fricken did last night. PFFFFFFFFFT.
That's what I get for not going to bed earlier.
Meh, I just want to go home and watch a movie. I hate it when I have things hanging over my head, I can't keep track of them all.
It's really annoying since I have to constantly fight with Flash at home. It hates me, I'm convinced.
Oh well, the only thing that's really bugging me at the moment is my neck, hurts like you wouldn't believe.
Got to go, ciao.

.:Edit:.
Woah, published on 2:22 ... that's odd.

Monday Morning.

...Really early in the morning.
I got up at 10 today and started working on all the homework that needed to get done. I tried doing it yesterday, but it backfired and exploded in my face. I basically wasted three hours of my life. And it has been stressful getting the portfolio in ASAP since the college I'm looking at demands it and I've been working on that since Friday. Which is good, just tiring. Since I've been working all night and called it a night an hour ago, then lost track of time browsing the internet, I figured, why not just do a post. I end up forgetting about them anyways. Pffffffft.
Here's something of Interest.
Yes it's typography. I will be sure to pick something different later this week.

On a completely unrelated note I went out and saw the "super moon" Saturday, it was epic. It illuminated everything, you could even read a book outside. I thought it was awesome.
I'm leaving now, I have to be up in about 4 hours and I realized my sentence structure is abhorrent when I'm tired. Ciao.

Friday.

Hello,
I since I have many things to do I am going to make it short, sweet and to the point.
Something of interest:

A Stop Motion Animation Fight By Samxma Productions

Samxma makes many stop motion videos with clay and hundreds of pictures to make a very smooth animation. A lot of the videos involve black comedy, but I find it hilarious.

This week we learned about portfolios and how to present them to get a professional look to them. Something I want to learn is how to speak basic German. Why? Because it's such a beautiful language. ...OK, it isn't but still, being bilingual is said to raise your IQ so it can't be a bad thing to learn.

Thursday

Well, so far this week is going splendidly. I'm really enjoying it, yesterday I went out and got a milkshake. It was awesome. Though, I'm going to be busy for the next few days. I have to finish the animation and regular school. Most importantly I have to create my portfolio since the college I'm applying to is requiring it and I have to get it in as soon as humanly possible. Pffffft.

As a Post of Interest, I'm going to do Star Trek again, if for no other reason than the fact that I cannot think of anything else at the moment.

Star Trek: The Animated Series

The animated series followed the original series in the 60's. Better known as Star Trek TAS, it aired in September of 1973 and ran until October of 1974. It had two seasons with a total of 22 episodes in a 30 minute air time. The animation was fair at best due to budget restraints and frequently used stock images. Occasionally, there would be quality animation. The voice actors did not perform together, typical for animation and recorded their parts separately to avoid clashing with other voice actor's mistakes. 

The production company's of TAS was Norway Productions & Filmation. From 1960's to the 1980's, the only real competitor of Hanna-Barbera Productions with TV cartoons was Filmation. Filmation later went on to create He-Man (1983–85), which occasionally used modified character and set designs from TAS mostly as background material. 

The characters of TAS.

TAS has had many influences on other Star Trek related works, such as the same dialogue being found in the 2009 movie as a reference and Kirk's middle name being revealed as Tiberius, answering the question of what the 'T.' in his name stood for in the original live action series. However there are many "canon" mistakes and it is unclear whether or not if if TAS is officially considered to be part of Star Trek. Star Trek: TAS was named the 96th best animated series by IGN. They declared that although the series suffered from technical limitations, it allowed the writers far greater freedom and creativity than was possible with the original live-action series (though you still gotta love the silly costumes and cardboard sets).

Monday

I spilled my coffee before I could even get out the door... it was my last one too.
Well, the last one that anyone knows about.
Other than that the day has gone by OK enough. Nothing much today, did work, somehow got more than when I started, but that's school for you. Animation is going OK. I just drew out sketches today which I'll go over at home. I have been working on this thing night and day and it seems no progress has been done and now I have no caffeine. Pfffffffft.
Don't feel like doing anything, but what else is new, eh?
There's been a big overcast today, rather ominous if you ask me. For what? I don't know, probably nothing. I'm going home and eating a bagel. Good day.

Friday.

Well, this is what I'll be staring at every half hour when I take a break and try to write something that has any significance. I'm trying to get things done but dammit I'm lazy. Need to stop procrastinating, I think it's the only thing I'd like to change about myself.
Pffffffft.
I learned Flash can be annoying to handle sometimes. For example, editing a symbol will effect every other symbol it came from. Which I did and now I have to fix it. ASDFGHJKL. And hearing the same thing over and over and over again is maddening.  But worth it.
Would like to learn how to use the 3D effect in flash. I'm gonna look into that.
Good day.

Thursday

I could never get the hang of Thursdays.
I have been so tired lately. This morning I just accepted the fact that I was going to be late and took my time getting ready. At least I got in at a reasonable time and got the work I needed to make up. Animation is going well, slow but well. The due date is already creeping up on me, due the 11th next month, but I am not even 1/4 of the way done yet. So... I'm working on that.
I have people hounding me to look for a job, they made me sit down and fill applications out but chose to constantly distract me so I made mistakes because I was flustered. Now I have no copies and mistakes all over them. Fricken thanks. I wanted to do them at home so I could fill out the references and make copies, but noooooooo. Frick. I know I need a job, I'm fricken on the case and they're only succeeding in ticking me off.
I'm just taking a break, it's been about an hour and a half but I've only succeeded in a couple a frames. I need to work on this at home more. 
Ah, my blood sugar is low. I shall take my leave, no point of working myself up into a tizzy. 

Nearly Forgot...

It's Monday, which means there's a new Top Gear on tonight. My excitement know no bounds when it comes to that show.

Only thing in the way is handing my college essays in, what a mood killer that is. Oh well, responsibility should outweigh what people want to do. Still, not as enjoyable as relaxing though.

I'm a little tired seeing as I stayed up half the night watching Eddie Izzard, but worth it. I didn't get to finish the program though, which is a good thing in my opinion, need more sleep.

Post of interest:

It's typography again, only well done and well thought out. Brought to you by the fact that I find this man amusing. Enjoy.

I never liked Mondays.

Well, it's Monday. And Raining. And I forgot last week's blogs. So I might as well do this entry right now. No time like the present, as some people say.
Ok, a quick post of interest.
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (The Pirates! Band of Misfits)
Is a new animated film that is coming out, scheduled to air in the U.S. on April 27th.
The Pirates! features the voices of Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman, and David Tennant.
Trailer

I'm hoping that I'll convince my friends to see this PG animated film with me on the sole fact that David Tennant is in it and is the voice actor for Charles Darwin.

Any who,  the trailer makes it out to be dramatic, but there's other trailers that make it out to be almost a slapstick comedy. Either way, it's 3D/stop-motion and it is based on the first two books from Gideon Defoe's The Pirates! series. It has received positive reviews so far, plans are already in motion for a sequel, it looks funny and a bit crude, I'm planning on seeing it.

Friday Part 1

Well, I'm getting into Star Trek. So don't be expecting me for a few days.
Um, I've been doing a lot of my homework on my new typewriters now, it makes so happy that a 8 year old on Christmas has nothing on me. 
Working on the Final project story board since it's about 4 minutes long. Only have about a page done, but it is progress.

Point of Interest:

 9_9;
Well, Today's Wednesday, yippee! Monday was a horrid day. Just awful. It's starting to get humid... oh how I loathe humidity & heat. I honestly can't stand it, would rather live in an igloo.
Something of Interest:
Has all the classics, Stop motion, claymation, dancing aliens...Anyway, here it is.

Wednesday March 14th, 2012

Well, I think things are looking up. Monday was hectic, which in my opinion it didn’t need to be. Tuesday was equally troubling and I’m still kicking myself  for missing the field trip. Though I hear from a classmate that the movie wasn’t that good. Which is hilarious because The Lorax has been commercialized to hell and back. They made shoes for it for pity’s sake. At least I was able to get some work done. I think I’m finally getting back into the groove of things... maybe. I’m doing a bit better anyways. Though health wise, I still have this aggravating cough. I’ve had so much that I’m going to get abs if this keeps up and now my sister is sick. I’m hoping it’s not what I had because if she does then there’s nothing I can do except to tell her to prepare for a week of hell.

Animation is coming along. The 11 second club project is going OK and handed the storyboard in. A lot of people had a baking/cooking idea, ahahaha. Which I think is fine, if everyone thought outside the box then someone would have to think back inside the box and so on until total confusion. I looked on the website and it seems that a lot of people are doing 3D. 
http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=4
Hmmm.
Anyways, yeah.

Fri. 2; The Sequel

Well, I'm glad it's Friday. I can't wait to watch the brand new Psych that's recorded on my DVR. Yay!
Still working.
...
Yep.
11 second video is coming also nicely. Would like to learn more about lips synching, but I suppose I can just look it up later on the inter-webs.
...
goodbye.

Fri.

Still feeling ill.
blrfhfhjkfdgjkhdfjkhsd...
Meh.
Interest: a little animation I found. Short, simple, & to the point really.

Thur.

Well, I got nothing for today, except for something of Interest;
It's not animation, but it's a beautifully done comic; Romantically Apocalyptic. It deals with a post-apocalyptic world with very little romance. It is made through a combination with real people photography, green screen, Photoshop touch ups and actual drawings. To see it CLICK HERE.

"Me and my last squad: pilot and sniper, live in the wasteland ruins of tomorrow.
This is my story.
I am captain."

I think it's a wonderful comic. Certainly new with all the different ways they put it together.

Wed.

It's finally nice out for a change. I may have to find one of my old summer jackets for such an occasion.
I've been increasingly unproductive and now it's kind of coming back so I can criticize my self and my laziness. This must be the senioritis or whatever BS you want to label it as. But I think it's true, 4 months and that's it! That's it..
The 11 second club project was introduce for lip syncing. I think I'll be fine with it. Again, the problem lies with just coming up with an idea, and putting it into action should be no problem. I'll probably come up with character designs tonight, since I don't have tuberculosis anymore (more or less). Though I think it's a nice change from the 3D.

Pffffffft.

I really don't like how that of I want to see any classical works or concerts I have to drive an hour away. Spending +80 minutes trying to find a place that's affordable, includes music I like, isn't in a scummy part of town and close enough to me only to cross every place off the list. And when I finally narrowed it down, it just doesn't seem worth it tonight. It's Friday and I felt like going out to do something but there's nothing in the newspapers and I'm not really finding anything enjoyable to do. I know I should probably be doing paperwork. I know I'm going to say "I'll just do it Saturday or Sunday." and then when the days go by I ignore everything.
Meh.
Just... a few... hours away- the weekend needs to be here now!
This week was the most unproductive yet and it needs to be over so I can sleep for over 48 hours and get my brain to function properly again.
This week I learned about abstract art. I was never particularly interested in abstract, with some piece I think that they're only famous/important because people put too much meaning into it. One is just a black square on a white background. Now I don't want to be called closed-minded but it's like that with any piece of artwork, it's only important if you find meaning in it. If someone was to give a lecture of the black square on a white background and try to give it some depth for me, I'd listen. Of course if it sounds like they're just blowing smoke then I'd probably just leave. I like some abstract art, some pieces looking really well done and I think they're intrinsic. I'm having extreme difficulty trying to make an idea for the animation I have to do, it mostly has to be lines or objects, but they're not really supposed to mean or symbolize anything. Just have to put a visualization to how the music sounds, and that's very difficult in my opinion. I'd like to learn on more audio programs, I find them interesting.
I think I'm suffering from another art block. I don't know what's up, I think I need to find new sources for inspiration or practice more because I'd like my ability to do anything correctly back, thank you very much. 

Here's a music video with a bit of animation. I rather like it.


It's like they put my thoughts into musical form, except for the diet cola part. In all seriousness I freak out the same exact way, I love it. I knew about the anemone too... I haven't found a song I liked this much since I was little and had House of Pain's Jump Around on the TV for a Pringles commercial...still my favorite.

Gorillaz Animation

Well, my day has been made. I shall now do everything while listening to this:

(COMIC SANS!! ;; >__o *shakes fist*)I was so happy... so very, very happy. I thought that Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett were done with Gorillaz, but I was wrong. Best-being-wrong-situation-ever! They've been working on this music video for a while now ^_^

CLICK HERE, JUST DO YA THING

Oh Gorillaz, I never have the fainest idea on what's going on in your videos and for that I love you. It's just weird because everyone's like; "Whatever," And I'm just over here like:

Wow, What a Post

Oh My...
Well, I suppose many things have happened since I last wrote. I don't know what to talk about and what to leave out 'cause I want to get to work on all the things I missed yesterday. Well, nothing happened Monday... really, nothing. The Internet was down in my house, I watched so much that I grimaced every time it turned on, couldn't concentrate enough to read a book, homework was equally stubborn and I didn't really enjoy anything. I've gotten into ruts before but this one was just awful. I didn't feel right and wasn't myself, so I learned how to knit from my Grandmother. Not particularly exciting, I know, but I will never have to worry about loosing mittens again.
Wasn't well Tuesday. I didn't move from the couch more then 5 times and I just sat/laid there doing whatever work I could without the computer. But Good news! I have the Internet back at my house and it's better than ever. So, yeah... productivity will probably start today.  I don't want it to. I want to be on Tumblr all day and knit, but it is sadly not meant to be. Because of this whole cluster frick and due to my natural talents of being a procrastinator, my grades are down. ... *rage* Which is the exact opposite of what I need! ASDFGHJKLASASDKLFBDKHLSJKHDFGSHJS!#@$#$
I didn't fall asleep until 4:00... I only got about 2 hours of sleep. Quite tired, I am.

Also, Dear Universe,
     I know you're conspiring against me.

         

    




Sincerely,

It's Tuesday again...
Meh.
I was gone yesterday because I had to go get my learner's permit to drive... or something. I don't really enjoy driving, it's nerve racking. Oh well, everyone says I'll get used to it. Ain't that a joy.

Quick post

This week I learned about Tim Burton and his peculiar artistic style and I hope to learn and study more about other directors and producers. I'm glad to watching The X-Files and I hope to finally get my computer working properly. Ciao.

Post of an Interest; Shadow Play

I have always been fascinated with shadows that relate to art and animation. I've seen hours worth of Shadow plays and the idea of getting involved with the storyline, the setting, and especially the characters without actually seeing them is fascinating. You can see the outline of everything, but there aren't any details and you focus more on the story or what the characters are doing and how they interact. You aren't focusing as much on how they look. You see the character and along with the story you can become emotionally involved, however you know and can feel that there's a barrier between yo and them. They are"hiding" behind something, which makes you close to them, but also far way. Figuratively, of course.
Shadow play can be viewed as simplistic as you usually don't have to worry about color schemes, unless of course you add colors. You can also continue a story much easier. For example, in this commercial;

You can see around 27 seconds in that it changes from the woman, to a cut out. That's why I enjoy cut out shadow plays. You can still draw & sketch on paper what you want to happen, and then you can keep working and cut the designs out and make a story.
Animation dealing with shadows could and can be made with flash or any drawing program, and I would love to do that. However, there's something more... not old fashion, not authentic, but something that I find more interesting in creating a tangible thing and using it to tell a story, hand shadows aren't bad either.
It originated from West Asia and has greatly influenced me and my works.

It also has this rather interesting version of Jaws;

Blogs

Yes.
Anyways, it is Monday, which is odd because it is going surprisingly well. I'm completely swamped with work from missing last Thursday and Friday, but at least... well I don't know what to put for as the "at least", but when I think of it, I'll let you know.
Sudden realization of the obvious: It's already February. Geez, time is just going by faster and faster isn't it? I don't like it.
On another note; I shall be celebrating this Valentine's Day by being single & eating chocolate. I don't like how commercialized it is and I grew up with Valentine's Day celebrating not just romantic interests, but the platonic ones too, such as friends and family. So there's that. I shall be doing nothing but writing for the next few hours when I get home and while I am not looking forward to it, I really have nothing else to do and it will be a fine excuse to not have to listen to my roommates complain constantly, and then get all sappy and ask me a fricken' million questions when people get ticked. Who else wants to shout from the rooftops "YOU'RE COMPLAINING. I DISLIKE YOU NOW." Ciao.

Wednesday

Meh, Wednesdays... I don't like them too much. Oh well.
Another Post of Interest:
It's a Mario Game, but in 3D and first person point of view :D

Monday

Well, all I can say is that it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I'm glad things should be settling back down now. Or, you know, it probably won't. Oh well *shrugs*.
Anyway, I don't know where to start.
I'm applying to a college, which is good. I just can't seem to make any headway with the essays I have to write. I don't know if it's a mental bloke, fear of not writing the right thing or presenting myself to wrong way (since more often then not things tend to sound better in my head than on paper), or what's up. I'm not sure what's slowing me down, but I don't like it and I have to hand everything in soon.
A professor had asked me to send some drawing samples of my work and I was finally able to send some pictures over. Though I'm dreadfully nervous about whatever he says, my work was cartoon-ish and only semi-realistic. He may be more interested in figure drawing or landscapes and I'm just hoping I sent over at least some decent pictures. "All of which makes me anxious, at times unbearably so." 
On the bright side, I'll hopefully get into a summer art class that will help me a lot.

I'm going to say that it has been a good day so far. Yes.

Post of In-ter-est:
It's a parody of Portal, the video game, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the stop motion movie. I thought it was really well done and at the very least, it's in 3D.

Concentration is out the window today. It seems that as soon as I sit down to do one thing, I have to get up and do something completely different.
And when I do manage to sit down, in my head I'm just going: 

How some people can deal with paperwork, I will never know because it is driving me mad. Have a lovely day.

Monday, How I dislike these days...

Well, I don't know what to write really.
So much to do with still, so little time and by head is at a standstill right now.
At least Finals are going easy enough. I'll have to focus on Economics for right now...
E-mail isn't working....
*RAGE*
Anywho...
At least there's a good side to everything right now.
I went to an open house for Daemen College's Animation program and let me tell you, it was astounding. I loved it, I'd live there, I want to go there. It's honestly other-worldly there. I love it.

Deadlines are closing in and I still don't feel like I accomplished anything today. *sigh*
On the bright side; I bought chocolate, so all is well for now.

Render-Render-Rendering

Oh, it takes so long,
So much that I've thought of a song;
Oh, woe is me,
For this shall take an eternity;
Oh, starts with an object,
I'm sure, I have double checked;
Oh, watch the clock,
The time it takes, comes as a shock;
Oh, what a neat program,
It's so nice then- WHAM!
I'll have to start, all over again.
-HH

*bows*

My "Day Off"

I put quotations there because I have to work like crazy today. Finals, the end of the marking period, projects and just about everything else is due next week and I want it both to never arrive and finally be over, at the same time.
Things I learned today:
a) If you set an alarm at 9:30, you should probably set a 2nd one just in case you sleep through it and end up waking up at 14:22 >_<
b) It is easier to add holes to a belt by a nail & hammer then it is to do it with a knife. Now my index finger on my right hand, the one I use, has a cut on it & hurts, and it is a pain in the butt to type, write, or do anything without using it. However, that is what I get for being careless with a sharp object like a knife. >_O;;
c) I hate economics as much as I dislike the scummy part of the world. We have to do a project that revolve around the idea that if we were to be kicked out of the house with no high school degree and would have to find a a place to live and work, but it's completely impossible in this state. Any place that is affordable, is surrounded by convicted offenders, and any place safe costs three times as much! It's impossible and I have no idea how I'm going to finish this kind of project along with the rest of Film Studies and Animation. I really don't want to have to retake any classes and I'll have to if I don't pass these projects. Not to mention I'm constantly worrying over everything else. Jeez. I guess I have the January blues or something because everything just seems to make me slightly depressed.
On the plus side, I'm going to look at a college soon for their animation program, I really hope that goes over well :3

Post

Well, I am so happy that it is Friday. It's been a long week. I'm glad I can just have a night night in and watch The Shining. :D
We learned about particle emitters which makes me remember using it in Motion, I loved using it.
Post of Interest:

Tv Static

This is just a long post of me complaining, basically: I'm feeling overworked. There, just saved you a few minutes. Continue on if you want.

... I do not think I am having a pleasant day. 

I have been getting so worried about college, projects, finals, tests, family, and just about everything else under the sun that my brain has simply stopped. I find myself staring off at a wall, my head somewhere miles away but not thinking about anything and I really haven't been registering anything that's being taught to me even when I do pay attention.

Maybe I just have so much to do that I simply do not know where to start, I don't know, but now I'm always tired and reluctant to do anything, that is beginning to annoy me. I'm tired of being tired.

I tried to go to bed early but I didn't until around 23:45, and when I woke up I could barely walk without stumbling over myself. I stayed home, wanting to sleep for another hour, hoping it would make me feel better, but when I woke up, I was already late and it was 10:30. I had to already be in class by 10:00, so I had to rush over and that really didn't help anything. I missed classes I really shouldn't have and now I'm regretting the choices I made this morning because it didn't help anything.

I'm starting to become stupid from the sleep deprivation.

I'm still tired and indifferent to just about everything. I have work to do, but every time I try to at home, my siblings just distract and annoy me to the point where I don't get anything done or I just want one moment of peace that ultimately leads to procrastination in the form of chores or pacing the room.

3D is starting to worry me, there's just so much information on it I can't remember it all, no matter how much I study. I go home and re-read everything, re-write the notes, go on the forums and help guide, but nothing makes much sense when I finally open the software. Everything in my head just goes blank, I feel like I'm looking at a foreign language and I hate that. I'm just getting the hang of the earlier lessons and I feel like I'm behind. It only add more stress when I think about colleges looking at these kinds of projects to see if they'll accept me, so I have to be good at it because doesn't everything in the future determine whether how good I am at something now? Not to mention how I'll pay for college in the first place, financial aide makes no sense and I have no money coming my way anyways. I haven't even applied for a college in the first place, or for a job for that matter. I don't even know where to begin to make that happen.

...I'm going to forget about that job application paper I got, in order to get credits for boces or something like that... Note To Self: I have to ask about that later.

So I have no job, no college that I've applied for, can't drive, and I can't seem to hold my head above the water long enough to learn something or even get enough sleep. I keep telling myself it's not as bad as it seems, and it probably isn't. But I just can't seems to shake this uneasy feeling, I feel as if I'm slipping and I'm afraid of going forward, but I have no choice but to do so. I'm running out of time to do everything, deadlines are coming in just a bit over a week and no matter how many times I tell myself to at least get started on something, I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. I want to, I need to, I believe I have the ability to, so why can't I? I'm willing to "take the first step" to get everything done if only I knew how or where to. I don't know what's stopping me, and I guess that's why I'm so melancholy at the moment. Maybe I'm having a mental block or something.

I'm trying to take things one step at a time, but all I can see is where that step leads to and so on like that until everything just begins piling up again. I just want to sleep and not feel so tired, but I'll just loose time, loose another day to get things done and I can't help but feel that not only will I crash & burn... I'll fricken explode.

Ka-boom.

Post of interest, yes

It's not in 3D but it was very well made and I have always loved listening to this song xD

Well I had a good day. I was running late this morning, but since I had nothing but study halls I wasn't too concerned and I took my friend out for breakfast. Then there was just regular school.
All the demos are crazy, it's like the stuff that's easy to get is in English, but anything new and it's like it's a foreign language and I'm like:



Very frustrating, but interesting.
...I got nothing. Ciao.

Posts of Interest

Since we're learning about 3D, I'd figure I'd show a fan made Dr. Who opening scene:


And this one of a kiwi:

Bla-Dah-Dae

Well, this week we were introduced to 3D, which is AWESOME.
We learned about objects and I have to say the effects of it all are pretty neat, albeit hard to get at first.

I saw that Cheetah had particle emitters as well and I would love to learn how to use those, if they're anything like the ones in Motion they'd be pretty neat.