Tales from the WICK

#7

What is my daily practice like? Mind blowing! Because I spend a lot of time just thinking. Thinking about ideas, compositions, and how stuff is done. Typically my brain hurts on a daily basis; it doesn’t have an off button anymore. When I watch animated shows I don’t get sucked into the entertainment anymore I sit there thinking about how the animators made the show. I’m just like whoa what programs are they using and how long did this take?! Cartoons are probably temporarily ruined for me until this class is over. I think a lot about perspectives now. I spend a lot of time drawing crappy doodles that challenge my brain. Instead of drawing a crappy zombie I’ll draw less crappy zombies in a room wondering how things in the room should look, like tables and couches. My imagination hasn’t experienced this much exercise since I was five and had an awesome beanie baby collection to animate with my little creative hands.

I think about programs a lot, but I need to be more hands on. Thinking about after effects will only get you sooo far. I have no idea what I prefer yet between after effects and toon boom animate, and my 30 day trials aren’t getting any longer. I think about practicing using the programs a lot, but between will power and weekly exercises, the weekly exercises will probably make my use the programs. Ive used after effects more than toon boom so far, but after so random change of heart I started to make my first film in toon boom. It is very new feeling. By Tuesday I don’t think I’ll want any more program practice, I will probably just want a drink.

I plan a lot. I think about what days to start projects, how, when and where. I usually get violent and angry when people get in the way of my plans so I also practice not being so moody towards my work loads. Not waiting until the last minute to things has taken a lot of will power, motivation, and practice. It has been difficult throwing the habit of procrastination down the drain when it has kept me warm for so many years of school work. I actually waited until the last minute to do this blog post, but that ok I have a good excuse. (I was working on my movie in toon boom!)

#6

If your recent films that you’re referring to were played during your brown bag talk, then I didn’t really see them. I’m 5’1” and could only find a seat in the back row, so I stared at the backs of peoples head the whole time. Your films sounded interesting though. I would like to get a better view of them sometime though. I saw I man driving a street cleaner, a Japanese girl wearing a mask, some foreign kids, and what appeared to be the puke of a rain bow. I wasn’t able to see enough of these images to understand concepts, due the having to constantly shift around in my see to see around the backs of people’s heads! Living life while being vertically challenged is difficult. I can’t see around a lot of people or reach very much stuff.  

Story Board for "Couch Fuzz"

#5

                Why am I doing this anyways? That’s a broad topic. Well for first off I am doing this certain assignment because its graded. I want a two for all of the assignments that a two is the highest grade possible for. As for why I’m doing animation? Things just clicked. I had all of the prerequisites and the class fit my schedule perfectly. Just excellent timing. My schedule matches up with my sister’s schedule and we share a car so now we don’t have to wait around on one another because we get out of class at the same time and can just go home. It’s a real pain to share a vehicle with someone when your schedules don’t match. I can’t leave this animation choice completely up to faith though, even if it did fall into place perfectly.  

                I wanted to take this class to learn about new animation programs and to see what I could do. To expand my horizons a little and boy have they been expanded! After effects is one crazy new program that has entered my life and found a place to stay. I’m so proud of the bouncing balls that I’ve made on there. I still feel like a noob, but also proud.

                I was starting to feel like my brain was stuck in a rut, I needed a new form entertainment for my brain. I wasn’t liking any of the ideas that I was coming up with and I thought that maybe animation would make me think about all sorts of new stuff. That goal has been accomplished because now I think about new types of ideas all of the time. I can’t seem to stop thinking about stop motion ideas for film #2 now and I’ve never thought about stop motion in my life before this week.

                Even though I entered the class not knowing what to expect I’m getting what I wanted out of it so far.

#4

                Last week I pitched my first animation idea but as I was talking about the idea of my character falling out of a tree I was thinking that it was a dumb idea. Usually I hardly spend any time at all thinking of ideas so open ended subject matter works best for me because whatever randomly pops into my head tends to fit the topic. When we were split up into groups talking about our movie ideas I realized that I have a cat named Oscar who has given me a lot of scars and scar is in his name. Boom. In that 30 seconds my animation movie to be “Oscar” was born.

                Recently I noticed that I have no process for coming up with ideas so last week I tried to develop one. I walked around campus focusing on coming up with ideas and revising ideas for “Oscar” but I didn’t have any luck. I just ended up walking into the wrong classrooms. Later I took a bubble bath and spent a lot of time soaking but I couldn’t focus on animation stuff. I kept zoning out and getting off topic. I got an idea for “Oscar” to become better when I was doing a terrible job listening to my friend because I zoned out when the funnier idea just hit me.

                So far having ideas just instantly hit has worked but I feel like I should keep working on developing an idea process. Where did the idea for a girl taking a shower when all of the sudden a cat is on top of a shower head and smacks her in the face come from? I have no idea. I would like to think that ideas come from things around you, so maybe when I was taking my bubble bath that idea entered my subconscious. It’s possible that my subconscious is a collection of excellent ideas, but judging from my recent dreams my subconscious has a lot of issues with homeless people and zombies.

"Oscar" story board