What a good Saturday

Today was a guest lecture by two of SJSU's graduates, Andrew Harkins and Januel Mercado. They are an animator and storyboard artist from Dreamworks Animation down in Glendale, CA.

I have to say it was quite awesome.

The Shrunkenheadman Club had a costume contest before the lecture, and there were some pretty creative ones that were really good.

And on with the lecture!

So during the lecture, Januel and Andrew talked about their work on Kung Fu Panda 2 and also gave some really good advice. 

They both said how important story was to anything, whether it be a drawing, storyboard, or animation, there has to be story. 

not tome mention, PUSH IT!!!

Oh and they both signed my sketchbook! See it?

:D

My day ened with some baking (more on that later) and dinner at the Wu Zoo. Now I guess it's time to work on my brick drop animation....

Thursday oh Thursday.

The past few days have been pretty awesome.

On Thursday, my teacher dressed up as Thor and modeled for our gesture drawing.

Pictures of the "God of Thunder"

Then, there was a guest lecture by one of my favorite artists, Pascal Campion

My "notes"

One thing he said that really appealed to me was that he "tries to get people to smile at least once a day." He likes to tell stories with his drawings and that's what I really would like to do. 

He also demoed for us and showed us how he goes about with a drawing. It was interesting to see how he worked, as it was spontaneous for the most part. He would just add characters as he saw fit or if he feels like it.

This was what he drew for us during his demo. It was done on Adobe Flash.

I wanted to get his autograph at the end of his lecture, but I unfortunately had to leave early. Speaking of which, it was my younger sister's Senior Night Volleyball game, so I felt that it'd be good thing to be there. And well, they won. Awesome game Angie!

Also check out this video of Pascal Campion made about a year ago. I came across it through my friend, Jon, and it was definitely inspiring. :)

Puss in Boots!

Yesterday I had the fortunate opportunity to see a free early screening of Dreamworks' "Puss in Boots." I took one of my housemates, Jeiji, and we both loved the film. The writing, the animation, music, and everything else was executed beautifully. 

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of Dreamworks. "How to Train your Dragon" was my favorite and "Megamind" was pretty good too. But all the other films never appealed to me or affected me in such a way that Pixar does in their films. When I first heard about a spin-off about Puss in Boots being made, I thought to myself, "Oh great, just another opportunity to make money. It's probably going to be bad." 

Boy was I wrong.

"Puss in Boots" will be released in theatres this Friday. I definitely recommend watching it! :)

And I hope this wouldn't be too weird but here is the trailer for Pixar's newest upcoming feature film, Brave. :)

Super excited!!!

Ball Bounce!!

We finally have our first animation assignment. It is to do two ball bounces of different sizes. 

Here is my first one.

I know it's a little fast at the end and maybe too high. I'll fix it if I have time. Here is the second one.

It was hard and time consuming, but oddly enough, I had fun with it!

Sketchdizzle

A few pages from my sketchbook....

Ignore the weird spiral thing...

Also, I wanted say thanks to my friends Jon and Diem for helping me out with gesture drawing. I think it finally clicked for me and I realized I REALLY have to push my gestures. Hopefully I'll get better the more I do it, and be awesome at drawing like everyone else.

Not only that, I decided to buy The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection today. 

I have never played ICO, however I hear many great things about it so playing it will be a blast. As for Shadow of the Colossus, it is more than a game, it is a work of art. I played it on PS2 and playing it again in HD is well worth it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. :)

I don't play games as much anymore and I probably won't get to for a while, but when I do, it's always fun, plus there's nothing wrong with getting some inspiration by its artwork right?

And speaking of artwork, the Official Shadow of the Colossus Artbook and Guidebook can be found here. 

It was never released outside of Japan, unfortunately. :(

Meeeeeeeeed-Teeeeermssssss......

Hi all!!!

It's that time of the semester for midterms!!!!! I only have two midterms to worry about, one in Ani 28 and one in Ani 55. 

In 28, we have to turn our sketchbooks, everything is accounted for so I'm not too worried about it. Hopefully I do well.

Our final Word of the Week was assigned too. The word was "miniscule."

Here's what I did....

We started off with thumbnails....

....followed by 4 value renderings....

...and voila!!!!

For 55, we have a portfolio due on Friday. More to come!!!!!

Wow 2 and More!!!

Our second Word of the Week is "Dangerous." Quite frankly it turned out better than the first one, however I had a much better idea that I only just found out I could've done.....but oh well. 

Here it is.....if you couldn't tell it was partly inspired by Shadow of the Colossus, (which is a great game by the way, I HIGHLY recommend it.) :)

For location studies, we did six, three interior and three exterior.

This is the cover of a comic that a classmate of mine illustrated. It's really good and only $3. 

Colleen Peck, check her out!! 

10/6
The Lion King Diamond Edition came in today!!!! :D

 I'm probably also going to get the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection for PS3 sometime later this month. Not only that, I pre-ordered The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Limited Edition and that will be out in November. Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be out January 31st, 2012 so I'm also getting that, but not when it comes out. :P

Yes it is a good amount of money, I should really be saving money but these purchases will definitely be worth it......and will probably be my last purchases for a long time. 

The Lion King

Last Thursday, my friends Jonathan, Patrick, Kathy, Jessica, and I went to go see The Lion King in 3D in theaters. I must say it was quite awesome. I especially got chills during the stampede sequence. It reminded me of when I watched The Lion King on Broadway at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. I loved how the stampede was done and not only that, the music is so breathtaking. It's no surprise that I keep listening to the Original Broadway Cast Recording of it all the time.

Anyhoo, here is a sketch I did back in July of a mannequin of Scar.

 ....and here is the photo I took with the mannequin of Scar. :)

I also ordered the Diamond Edition of The Lion King on Blu-Ray so I should be receiving that this week. 

Fun stuff!