San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival

Yesterday was the festival and a friend and I went to go have some fun. It was a very nice day. Earlier in the week it was said to rain yesterday but there wasnt a cold in the sky upon waking up. I was very happy.
I have both a kimono and a yukata but I let her borrow the yukata so I was pretty hot through the entire festival. Luckily I bought a cheap little fan to help me stay cool. We went into a shop and had someone professionally tie our obis and this looked really nice. The food was delicious and I ran into a lot of people I knew. There were so many temping things to buy but I was trying to be careful with money. the two major things I bought was the obi and the butterfly hair clip. I might go back for another yukata later.
The parade is always nice but most of the good spots were taken, still we managed to see everything. The children are always so cute in the parade, they look like they didn't get what is quite going on. I also liked the women dancing, it was so beautiful and well timed. By far my favorite had to have been the drums. As they passed by I could feel me whole rib cage vibrating with the beat. Your literally pulled into the music. Very good music too. We arrived at around 10am and were having so much fun that we didn't leave until 7ish. It was probably the most crowded I had ever seen Japan Town. I will most likely be coming back for the next years festival as well.

The Past Week

sorry I have not posted at all this week. Lots of big things happened but of course there was school too so I just forgot to write about it.

first thing up to talk about was Wonder Con. I got to have my portfolio looked at and made a few contacts. I also learned more about Linkedin.com which I now have a account for and am trying to gather connections. The panels were pretty good. I got into the Disney/Pixar one a little after it started. So far the movies look like they are going to be very good. I would show you pictures but honestly my camera is not that good. For 3 days I helped out at the Con and it was a lot of fun. I was helping with line control which doesnt sound exciting unless your not afraid to put a lot of energy into it. My roommate and I made it fun by making sure to smile, say "Good Morning", and shout to get the crowds excited to be there. I think it was my favorite job there.

After that is was right back to school and working on the short film. I only have 5 weeks left which basically means I need to pump out about 2 shots a week in order to get it done or fair the class. I really hope I can make it. I wanted to get more done on Friday but the problem was I ran out of paper. So far I only have.... 3 our of 16 shots complete. URGH I'm really feeling the pressure.

I also have a creature to finish for Digital Imaging class. I decided to take on something furry...bad idea. This creature is killing me. I like certain area's of the fur but not the whole thing. Here is a in progress picture. It's due this Tuesday and needs to be printed out on glossy paper. This is my main project for today. I'm going to work on this.

Model sheets for animated short

I got these done awhile ago and just kept forgetting to share them. Meet Hunter and Cat. I have no special names for them. I wil be using them in my short animated piece which I will be (I hope to be) finishing this semester.

Digital Imaging Class

Oh man the people in this class are talented. I kept looking around me in awe. I've never done a piece like this people. Must fo the time my images are very graphic, not those beautiful illistrations you see in comic books, or concept art. Well I guess thats why I'm talking the class but man a lot of students were going at it like pros. Just puts into prespective how much better I need to become and how hard the market is right now with so many other people going for the same jobs.

This is one of those death horses from Harry Potter # 5 I had a really hard time with it. Like I said it was my first time attempting something realistic. I could probably pull something better off on paper but photoshop is a whole different element.

Few days before the First day

So I got two e-mails last night. They both stated that Ed, my favorite teacher was leaving the Academy. I was in shock. I'm still not sure of the reasons bu the director of the animation department is going to be at our class to answer questions. Ed was a fabulous instructor. He was always willing to help, even with things outside of his class. If there was a festival, or protfolio project you need to get in he would give you advice. He helped me put together my pieces for the CTN Expo. It would have been a mess without his inputs. I'll be taking the second half of a class he started for the first time just last semester. It's going to be very odd to not have him a the school anymore. I'm sure a lot of students feel. Where ever he goes I hop things go well for him. Most of all I think I'll miss his demos. They were so much fun to watch, I wish I had asked to have a few more.

So I wonder who my new teachers for those two classes will be.

CTN in a nutshell

With only an hour and a half before class I will try to tell you all I can. However so much went on that I'm not sure I can even get it all down or remember it all!!

Friday, the lines for getting in was very disorganized and I ended up changing three times just to get in the right line. They also gave us wrists bands instead of badges, which really bugged me. I was constantly messing with it. The guests got badges though which helped to find a few people for "importance". I was also a little bit disappointed in the "Speed Talent". From the way the website made it sound it was going to be "100 industries" at tables. The website said registration on site. What it turned out to be was you looked for people with a yellow "speed Talent" button and walked up and asked them to look at your work. I didn't like this, booths became so crowded and getting up there was hard. Also by the second day I noticed almost no one was wearing their button. So when the doors finally opened I went into the vendors room to see the guests and who was selling what. So many great artists and books! There was one amazing this that happened on Friday. As I was heading back to my room I noticed someone doing a live demo. It was Tony Bancroft from Mulan. We watched him for about 2-3 hours I think and then my class got a picture taken with him.

Saturday was book buying day. I bought 3 books and Don Bluth's animation DVD. It was really hard deciding what I wanted. The Draw to Life books had been taken already so I got. There were also a lot of panels I went to. I wasn't very impressed with the panels here. Most were 20-45 min and once the speakers were done introducing themselves had barely any time to go over the topics of the panels. There was a late night panel for "Secret of Kells" which was a great movie! The animation was so smooth even though it looked like Samurai Jack.

Sunday I didn't have much time as they were going to kick us out of the hotel room soon. I woke up with a sick feeling in my tummy but by 10am finally started to walk down to the convention place. I went back into the vendors room and bought a sketch book. There were a few other art books I wanted but couldn't decided or while the work was amazing didn't want to pay that type of money. A lot of my class mates were there which I ran into at random parts of the con and kind of attached myself to once in awhile. I wish I could have spent more time with them but I still feel like a third wheel. They were all very nice though and let me get in line with them. So we all got to see a bunch of big name animators. Eric Goldberg is like a cartoon character himself, he's funny.

Special Guest! PART 2

This time not at our school. Our teacher piled us all into a bus last night, just his class and we set off for Berkly where Brad Bird was talking. It was an awesome night and a little bit silly. The theater had a stage set up that looked like we were filming for the Ophran show. when they first introduced the event they didnt even mention Brad Bird and honestly I was scared we were in the right place. But sure enough out her came. Really funny guy! The whole time I found myself laughing as he talked about movies he directed like Iron Gaint, Incredibles, Ratatouille! I wish I wrote down some of the lines he mentioned like how an new idea is like a baby deer. It's wobbly, wet, and gross, but with proper care it can grow.
after it was down I managed to snag a photo of him. I really wanted to take one with him but we were in a rush.