Jerry in Blunderland

I get to set things on fire for my job

2011-12-22T16:07:00.003-05:00

I need to figure out how to spray fire at things. Anyone got any good online resources?

I'll make another ACTUAL post next week about how things are going (I've been pretty darn busy) next week when I finally have some time off!

2011-10-25T01:51:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMajO0VctD4

I got back at midnight and my brain wanted to try a quick animation test :I

random pictures + amateur food porn

2011-09-23T00:44:00.005-04:00

life's been busy, yadda yadda, have some random pictures.

Candy Calzone: First attempt

You could really only eat little bits of it at a time because it was so freakin' rich.

fusion short ribs with jalapenos

baked chicken with ramen (and bacon)

not food porn. They did have fried dough at the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield though!

I love the concerned looking crowd behind the bike

I'll admit that last one was pretty creepy

Dr. Sketchy's Northampton

2011-09-03T13:43:00.009-04:00

Aww yiss.

Awesome time last night at Dr. Sketchy's anti-art school in Northampton!

I should mention that I got FIRST PLACE (YEAHHHHHH) in the "best sketch of the night" with this one (selected by the lovely models, of course):

I definitely have room for improvement, but this isn't bad for a 10 minute drawing in the dark :3

Other drawings:

And yeah, I won this awesome poster (drawn by Carly Monardo, Kate Beaton, and Meredith Gran)

Awesome night. I even got to hang out with the models afterwards! Definitely going back to the next one :D

And some random shots of Rhode Island last saturday before the hurricane. The waves were maybe 10 feet fall before the storm hit

PART OF YOUR WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDDD

[fwooosh]

Lack of updates, ARCELIA NOW LIVE!

2011-08-29T00:46:00.003-04:00

Whew!

Again, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy trying to do TOFA reviews, wrap up production on games, make new games, attempt to coordinate a vfx team, life, etc.

guh. being an adult is HARD.

Anyways, BIG NEWS!

The game I worked on is now LIVE!

heck yeah! It's THE SECRET OF ARCELIA ISLAND!
(it's a hidden object game. Think Mist)

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/13956/the-secrets-of-arcelia-island/index.html

I dunno, I spent the past 8 months animating effects for this thing. I think it looks pretty snazzy, and the artists I worked with are godly amazing at painting (and the programmers and designers do magical stuff that's amazing)

So yeah, try the demo! see my animations! I'm proud of it! :D

A TRUE AMERICAN

2011-07-05T01:02:00.002-04:00

I spent July 4th eating sushi and drawing the french chef.

yeah yeah it's pretty bad, I know. I'm teaching myself to draw again. Also yeah, it's Julia CHILD :|

TOFA round 1 entries

2011-06-17T00:43:00.002-04:00

http://tofa.munchymedia.com/round1.html

and you can read my official-critique-judge-walls-of-text here: http://tofa.munchymedia.com/round1-reviews.html

Blunderland Studios (i.e. my new bedroom)

2011-06-05T23:53:00.003-04:00

dirty laundry never looked so cool B]

As far as the squiggly blue lines go- I havent' decided what shape I'm going to put that in. I might leave it, I might turn it into the bat signal logo for all I know. I'm currently taking suggestions.

Pixar trolling me from beyond their studio

2011-05-18T12:16:00.002-04:00

Go ahead and remind me every day that you're there but I'll never actually be able to use you for anything. Way to go Pixar. Way to remind me that I'll never be special enough to use that format ;____;

....seriously though, I think I saw this back in Photoshop 6 as well and I don't think I've figured out why I would ever use it. Is there something special about the .pxr format?

bitten by the animation bug

2011-05-08T03:02:00.005-04:00

So this is the first time in months that I've been really inspired to do something animationy on my own, which is awesome. Unfortunately, that awesomeness is offset by the fact that this is timed to an awful ke$sha song.

☼_☼

I suppose it can't be all bad though. At least this will help keep me (sort of) sharp, as far as character animation goes

After I figure out how to lengthen this to 16 seconds of dancing I'll neaten up this rough pass

Also, anyone who actually knows how to dance (unlike myself) is free to give suggestions

An actual post!

2011-05-07T02:02:00.005-04:00

Wow, I haven't written an actual post in a while!

I have a good excuse! Actually, a couple good excuses. Okay, maybe one good excuse and one lame excuse.

Work is ramping up at Hitpoint. My job description says "animator" but the past couple of weeks I've been a programmer (I do suck at programming.) and now I'm getting into game design. A few weeks ago I was asked to come up with some mockups for a football game (WITH A TWIST!). I'll see if I can get permission to post those up here.

One of the cons of getting to work from home is that I pretty much am working all the time. For working at a game studio, I really don't have that much time to play games (besides the odd play-testing every once in a while, but even then I'm a bit busy for that).

So yeah, time is an issue. I haven't actually drawn for myself in a while. Not to say that this is bad because I really like my work, but my own personal work has taken a backseat to what I do for the studio (on the plus side, it almost sounds like I know a thing or two about game design. I blame reading internet blogs)

Okay, so that was the actual excuse. The lame excuse is that I've lost my ability to draw in what used to be my own style.

The thing about my "style" is that, like acting, I need to be able to FEEL what I'm drawing. Each line I drew had a certain quality of energy to it because I felt that energy as I drew it. Unfortunately, due to certain events in my life (I'll leave it at "no word in the English language does justice to how vile this person is"), I've completely lost that energy. It's kind of weird, actually.

Exactly one year ago, the defining quality I'd say that described me would be "Dreamer."
Today, I have no idea what that quality would be. Doesn't mean I still can't push myself really hard to make good work, I know I'm just lacking the same energy as before, like I'm stuck in reality. Maybe it's part of growing up.

Wait a minute, does this mean I'm old?

Gun Bros

2011-05-04T12:22:00.002-04:00

http://apps.facebook.com/gun-bros/

You should totally play this game because the studio I work for maintains this on Facebook B]

(also it's fun! None of that farmville crap!)

Mighty Dog Adventures - now online!

2011-04-02T20:08:00.001-04:00

Hey so I did the character animation for this game

http://www.mightydogadventures.com/

animating dogs is hard :P

Zoo photos

2011-03-27T22:22:00.004-04:00

Roger Williams Zoo, 18 March 2011. A huge thanks to Christine, Audrey, and Katie for coming out there with me!

the zoo.

2011-03-19T00:24:00.002-04:00

I went to the zoo today

more pics/sketches coming up soon!

this is a legitimate way to design a roller coaster.

2011-02-26T01:08:00.005-05:00

Okay so I took the rough track design I had for the THEM! coaster I sketched and tried to (sort of) re-create it using Roller Coaster Tycoon.

So I'm already hitting some design problems. I'm not quite sure of what the acceptable number of lateral Gs is, but as far as vertical Gs go, I'm pretty sure astronauts take 4 Gs during liftoff and I'm skirting dangerously close to that number.

The lateral Gs mostly come into play in the turns right after the first drop and are a bit more intense than I thought they'd be. The whole idea of the first drop was that, at the end of the lift hill a giant ant animatronic would come out and "attack" the cart, causing the driver to slam the gas pedal to the floor and kind of careening off into a dark passage.

Then the "convoy" falls out of the incomplete onramp in an "oh shi--" sort of moment and you plummet into the ant hive, where you kind of careen about avoiding more giant ants

The problem here is that the first drop works great (like I expected it to), but then it builds up a lot of speed. The ant hive bit is supposed to have a lot of tight turns to kind of add that frantic feeling that you're in a really bad place.

-BUT-

Tight turns with high speeds means high G-forces. From a story perspective, the ant colony HAS to come right after "Here we are heading to the rescue oh crap" bit, but from a design perspective, it might be a little too intense.

the RCT way of doing things would mean that I just add brakes to the bottom of the first hill, but if this thing were to actually be made, that would make no sense at all. So it might be that the underground ant hive I originally envisioned will have to be indoor and above ground in a kind of sound stage, which means I'll have to re-think the opening "oh here we are going to the rescue oh crap" bit.

I think otherwise, this just looks sloppy, now that I see it laid out.

...wait a minute I just used a video game to be productive WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME

oh also it's my birthday today! Woo!

Unwarranted Feedback

2011-02-23T23:10:00.002-05:00

Being that I am the "critique judge" (i.e. I am going to write walls of texts for entrants in an attempt to try and help them improve their skills) for the upcoming Tournament of Flash Artists being hosted on Newgrounds, I started writing some stuff for Adam Witt/Nitwitt, the tournament's manager(?)

http://munchymedia.com/feedback/

The name of the column(?) is "Unwarranted Feedback" because that's what I feel like I'm doing, giving artists unwarranted, completely subjective feedback on how to improve their work. We'll see how things go, but I have a feeling that a lot of these guys are going to be way better than me.

:3

2011-02-13T19:22:00.002-05:00

It was then that he got on one knee, looked her in the eye, and said the magic words:

...well, most of them

(LOL REFERENCE HUMOR)

My beef with Flash cs5

2011-02-10T21:13:00.006-05:00

I have to say, some of the UI design decisions made for Flash cs5 are pretty frickin' dumb. For example:

In order to work fast, I need fast access to adjusting the tools. Again, I usually work with lines from .5 to 10, so I really do appreciate the ability to go extra fine. And while it's cool that I can make a line 200 px (or whatever their measurement) is thick, I really don't need the slider to go all the way up like that. In fact, if I want to make a line 2 px (or whatever.) thick, it either takes me forever to pinpoint the spot on the slider or I need to type it in, which takes a lot longer than adjusting the slider (especially if I need to constantly transition from holding a stylus to typing).

Oh and by the way, the default way to select colors is by the red value. Yes, you can switch it and it's dandy that you can do that, but it makes no frickin' sense as to why it's on by default (really, can you make any sense of this color picker?)

I can rant and rave about how much this UI is terrible, and yes, some of it can be attributed to me not being used to the layout, but a lot of it is just bad design decisions, as if they're trying to make Flash look like something it's not, which in turn makes my work flow slower

Draw a Dinosaur Day

2011-01-30T22:33:00.005-05:00

I just found out that today was draw a dinosaur day
http://drawadinosaurday.com

take a break and paint something, pt. 2

2011-01-26T21:05:00.001-05:00

I don't know why I keep on going to the "enter a dark room" shot but I like it

that darned cat

2011-01-16T23:51:00.000-05:00

I'm supposed to be animating a dog (._. )

Elliot splash page

2011-01-10T22:57:00.003-05:00

Did you know I was writing a crime noir?

Okay it's more like a father/son story set in a crime noir

in a circus.

Anyways, I'm planning on painting "splash pages" for the characters, sort of like movie posters. This is how far I've gotten with the main character, Elliot (definitely not finished yet)

minecraft rocketeer skin

2011-01-06T11:50:00.003-05:00

Someone asked me to upload the rocketeer skin I made for minecraft, so here it is!
(you can see how low res it is. Each pixel REALLY has to count)

I need a text trail to follow this character around that goes WOOOOOSH

alternatively, this song:

a couplah things, pt. 42

2010-12-29T00:46:00.002-05:00

1. I take back what I said about Tron Legacy. Not the part where I said I liked it, but the part where I said I didn't know what I'd do differently (I'm working on a new crappy plot synopsis/breakdown). I'm still not completely sure what would be different, BUT I can say for sure that it involves the internet. Also, unattainable goals.

2. Doing "research" oh various coaster car restraints, I can say with 100% certainty that lap bars are definitely the way to go for my roller coaster project based on the 1954 sci fi thriller "THEM!"

(this phase of research has been phenomenally fun)

3. Hats off to the team that designed this ride:

it is AMAZING

Tron Legacy mini review

2010-12-18T05:55:00.005-05:00

I'm currently wired on caffine and can't sleep right now (it's a long story.) so why not be productive AND BLOG? B]

Tonight I saw Tron Legacy

First and foremost, I can't stress how gorgeous Tron Legacy is (see above pic for case and point). If you're going to see it, don't let me build up your expectations too much, but WOW. It's all eye candy. Delicious, delicious eye candy. The visuals are really what carried me through the movie, if anything else, and I can't say that for Avatar, at least for me.

Describing the soundtrack is impossible in family friendly terms, in the good way. Just listen:

Now, I've been reading a lot about the how the plot is boring and the movie is lengthy- these are partially true. At its core, Tron Legacy is an action movie with some father/son action built in. The pacing left something to be desired as well; The beginning of the movie is very action heavy, so when it gets to the middle part, it starts to slow down. Don't get me wrong, the slower stuff is absolutely essential to understanding the plot and the characters (and I loved it.), but the contrast between the balls-to-the-wall action sequences (Did I mention that this movie is gorgeous?) and then the slower middle bit makes it feel lethargic. This, unfortuantely, stretches out to the end as well, which isn't to say that the end is boring, but compared to the beginning, it's slower.

The problem, in my recent-college-grad opinion, is that it hits too hard too fast at the beginning. As a bad analogy, think of it like this:

You're going scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef. The moment you jump in, a huge school of manta rays, great whites, and the legendary Kracken form a school around you and shortly depart, leaving you with the reef. It's not that the reef itself isn't also beautiful, but compared to the sheer excitement of what you just saw, it kind of dampers it a bit.

That's how I felt about Tron Legacy; it's not that the middle and end are boring; they're paced like any other action movie would be. It's just that the opening is so exciting that, in comparison, the middle and end FEEL like they drag.

HOWEVER, having said that, I don't know how I would have done it any differently to make a more solid plot or a more solid pacing. The slower bits are, again, absolutely essential to understanding the world of the grid. The end wraps up everything and our heroes finally confront the villains. Besides maybe extending the conflict/fight at the end to make it more satisfying and add more tension, for all of its problems, I wouldn't change a thing about Tron Legacy. It's not the greatest script/plot in the world (the first Tron had a pretty cheesetastic script/plot as well), but it's still a very good movie.

I am going to see Tron Legacy again, perhaps twice. I rarely want to see movies in theaters more than once, but that's how good I think this movie is.

minecraft?!

2010-12-12T02:23:00.003-05:00

So I bought minecraft.

And then the first thing I did (besides get blown to bits by an exploding zombie thingy) was to make myself fashionable. Like the Rocketeer.

http://www.minecraft.net/skin/skin.jsp?user=zenmastacunfuzd

(I am such a nerd)

Coming up with this was actually pretty hard, especially that helmet. For those of you that don't know, minecraft's player meshes are pretty much limited to just blocks- you can't actually add on anything on top of it for more detail. Also, textures are limited to a 64 by 32 pixel image, so any notion of details is pretty much out of the window.

texturing for something that small is almost like doing a really low poly model- each pixel counts and needs to display a hundred times more information than a pixel in a higher res image.

But, of course, limitations leads to creativity. Star Wars (the only 3 star wars movies ever made!) came up with some pretty damn ingenious methods to do effects (starfighter animation especially; moving a camera around a stationary object? BRILLIANT!) because they didn't have computers. The most distinct feature of the Rocketeer helmet was the fin; I actually ended up hacking a hair overlay to display the top part of the fin, which makes a huge difference in its sillouette from the front to 3/4 angles

Them! first layout

2010-12-10T01:09:00.005-05:00

I can pretty much tell you off the bat that this layout isn't going to work/isn't final, but hey it's a start. I can't quite poinpoint WHY it won't work yet but once I start building the set in 3D I'll have to made changes to the track/path

Oh yeah I also need to calculate how fast this thing is going to go. And how many Gs this thing is going to pull. And if the human body can take those Gs (this is the part where I say "GEE I AM GLAD I PAID ATTENTION DURING MY PHYSICS CLASS!")

Updates are slowing down now because I'm busy juggling work, freelance stuff, lack of life, hopes, dreams, and this adorable baby image

Seriously look at that baby

take a break and paint something

2010-12-02T23:18:00.002-05:00

So I've been animating/illustrating for about 10 hours today. I decided to take a break and paint something

seriously what is wrong with my brain

one year

2010-12-01T21:38:00.002-05:00

(Work on THEM! has come to a slight halt as I juggle 6 different animation tasks right now)

Warning: failosophical/slightly angsty post ahoy!

A lot can happen in a year

One year ago today (well, one year and about 12 hours) my life was completely turned upside down, this hopeless romantic finally found a girlfriend. Three weeks ago, that relationship was ended because one side didn't want it to go on. Things change. Situations change. People change. If I could go back, I would, but who she is now is drastically different than one year ago, and who I am now can almost be called unrecognizable

If you asked Jerry from one year ago what he wanted out of life, the answer, straight away, would have been "Go to Pixar. Animate. Write stories. Direct films." If you asked Jerry today, Pixar, Disney, and Hollywood as a work environment isn't as important, not so much because that's what EVERYONE want to do, but because I can do cool stuff with local studios.

(let me get this straight: I would still LOVE to work at Pixar. I would LOVE to get the old school Disney training)

Within that year, I've had my point of view completely flipped. After 21 years of being a hopeless romantic, I found love. I learned what it meant to actually live as a human being, to live a life for someone else. I've written, produced, directed, and animated my own short film, pouring my soul into a 5 and a half minute short. I've graduated from college, won a couple coveted school awards. I worked on a production crew as an animator, I've lived by myself for the first time ever, and I've known what it means to be truly alone. Over the past year, I've been the happiest in my life (perhaps the only time I've ever really been happy) and I've also been the most miserable.

I've applied to over 100 animation and graphic design jobs. I only heard back from 3 places. I'm currently working at Hitpoint Studios. The work is awesome.

And though I've gone through all of these experiences, emerged from the protective shell of academia and into adult life, I feel as though I really should have learned something profound, some huge life lesson and wisdom I can impart on others. The truth of the matter is that I haven't really learned a damn thing from all of this besides "Life happens. People change. Get over it."

If you ask Jerry today, he still really misses that girl from a year ago.

pink elephant?!

2010-11-23T01:16:00.003-05:00

minor break from the roller coaster thing (I'm still working on it but I felt like drawing something else)

I've had an idea for a father/son story set in a crime noir that stars a pink elephant as a private eye (ear?) for a while now and I'm writing the script out for that (feature length film? One can dream). Here's a really quick/crappy sketch (mostly because I can't sleep)

THEM! (script)

2010-11-22T02:18:00.002-05:00

Do you write scripts for roller coasters? Here's a list of the design elements I hope to hit. It's pretty much like how I make shot lists for cartoon projects:

[act 1: This is bad]
1. Pull out of station
2. Ride by viewing area (photo op for families)
3. Tunnel/onramp (lift hill), false end
---3a. Ant lights up (pictures taken on ride)
---3b. Launch (small boost over the top of the hill)
---3c. Fall through hole in the tunnel
4. Dark tunnel

5. Emerge outside
6. Descend into the ground, pass by 2nd guest viewing area
7. Dark tunnel (still falling)

8. Emerge in underground hive
---scenery: worker ants, glowing grubs, queen (last thing the riders
9. Escape through sewer hole

[act 2: This is worse]

10. Emerge outside in city (via concrete canals) ß Terminator 2 reference goes here, MAC truck with top half cut off
11. Ride through scenes of ants attacking the city

[act 3: the US Army saves the day!]
12. As riders go on, they see more and more of the army
13. Ride past scenes of the army destroying the ants (start with seeing the fronts of tanks behind the ants, end up behind the tanks)s
14. Scenes of the army victorious (dead ants)

15. Return to station (animatronic flying queen on side of the building right before riders enter station for unloading)

Naturally I'm going with a 3 act structure because they're easy to follow and 3's a satisfying number.

Of course, now comes the design phase. I started sketching a route of the track and I'm wondering if it's actually possible to pull off everything in that script, especially the part where I want to have the trains pass by a viewing area where riders can wave goodbye to loved ones before heading off on an adventure. Working in a first drop that's visible to people riding by the ride is also proving to be a bit tricky

THEM! Jeep cart

2010-11-17T20:41:00.005-05:00

This is pretty close to the feel that I want it to have

For a more intimate experience, each train will only hold 12 people, with 3 carts of 2 by 2 seats. Each cart is separated by a jeep nose, which opens up more space for passengers to see stuff (as opposed to the back of other people's heads). Hopefully it'll also help push the idea that they're in a convoy of people getting evacuated from the city of LA.

Naturally, I hit another design decision: How long should the nose of each jeep be? Should they all be the same size? Full sized jeep noses between the carts would make the cart too long, so I shortened it a bit for the ones behind.

But now the noses aren't the same size, which kind of looks funny from the side (see the above 2 pics). I want the space in front of the riders to be more open so that they can see more, but it can't be too long or it'll just be a waste of space. For now I'm going with snub noses in the middle, and a full nose in the front (I think it just looks better that way)

Another design consideration I need to look into is if the wheels for the coaster (not modeled) that glide along the track are spaced out far enough or if they're too close. How do you figure that out anyways? :P

And an action shot!

As far as the feel that I want this coaster to have, this is what I'm hoping to avoid:

The ride's called "Terminator Salvation" and the ride itself has little to nothing to do with the namesake. I think they play music there, but for the most part, if I were to mute it, it'd be generic coaster #402 (Not saying it's bad, but how else can you describe this besides "wooden coaster"?)

These are kind of close to what I'm hoping for (though THEM! will be longer)

So it'll be more about zipping through enclosed spaces than speed and height. The thrill will be from flying through an environment rather than "Oh crap I am 300 feet up"

THEM!

2010-11-17T01:23:00.010-05:00

The first dream job I ever had was to be a roller coaster designer. I'm not that great at math and I have no idea how I would ever get a job as a roller coaster designer (really, how many coaster firms are there beside Intamin and Bolliger & Mabillard and Disney Imagineering?).

Of course, that hasn't diminished my love of roller coasters. The end flying sequence of my thesis film D was pretty much just me designing a roller coaster (putting the hours I poured into Roller Coaster Tychoon to good use!)

I've been particularly tickled with the idea of using rides as narrative devices (see: just about every ride at Disney World), and I've been itching to make my own roller coaster the past couple of weeks, so I'm going to design a roller coaster based off of my favorite 1950s sci fi thriller, THEM!

I'm not completely done with the cart design yet, but the first big design consideration I hit was what kind of harness I would use.

At first I modeled some shoulder harnesses, which allow for riders to safely experience some insane acrobatic tricks (pretzel rolls, corkscrews, and my favorite, the snake roll)

(coolest coaster ever: get launched out at 40+mph, immediately descend into a snake roll)

And inversions are always fun, so the first obvious choice was to use shoulder harnesses.

--HOWEVER--

As I started modelling the shoulder harness, I quickly realized that riders would have a hard time seeing left and right. Being that I'm trying to work a sort of narrative aspect into this ride, being able to see your environment is going to be essential to the storytelling, so the shoulder harnesses went out and lap bars went in. Of course, this means that I won't be able to pull off my more favorite coaster acrobatics, but that makes designing this coaster more of a challenge: How do you make a roller coaster thrilling without the use of inversions?

started up again

2010-10-22T00:38:00.002-04:00

Dee got put on the backburner, partially because looking for jobs is a top priority, partialy because my life got weird and crazy.

Also because the layout I was working on wasn't working and I kept on trying to force it and last night I said "screw it I'm doing page 2 over again"

:I

webcomic?!

2010-08-26T02:20:00.001-04:00

http://junkyardkid-comic.blogspot.com/

I started up a webcomic.

You should check it out.

Nature comes up with cooler stuff than I can, pt. 800

2010-08-24T23:09:00.003-04:00

of course, I sent my scanner home yesterday, so here's a crappy under-lit picture.

Really stoked that I can draw again.

Kinda.

I still have a lot to learn. But I digress! My brain and my arms are talking again

still works (you might have to resuscitate it with mouth to mouth every once in a while)

2010-08-23T19:33:00.001-04:00

slightly new reel!

2010-07-20T18:19:00.002-04:00

demo reel summer 2010 from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

the only things I can't claim in here are the music and some bits from Caldera (namely the turtle animation + models + rigs of the fish scene and the scene with the model/layout of the girl staring at the camera at the end). I did, however, animate 70+ fish for the turtle shot and I did animate the girl in the next shot.

epilogue

2010-07-20T00:56:00.005-04:00

Dee found himself alone in the junkyard again. It had all seemed so real, but in the end his fantasies faded to whisps and nothing more. Ah well, he thought.

It was time to hang up his cape and return to the orphanage.

The walk back was long and lonely. He knew the junkyard like the back of his hand; he grew up there, among the detritus of society. Turn left past the Saturn 5 rockets, straight through the Merlin engines and old trains carts that used to ferry people across the country.

The orphanage was a little ways past the rows of cast iron coal heaters. Deftly he slipped back under the fences and back through the window. His footsteps were muffled by the damp, rotting wooden floor (though he didn't have to worry much about waking Annie, the elderly head nurse. She usually was able to sleep through anything).

Up the creaky stairs to the top floor, down the long row of empty beds. His was the third-to-last one on the right, next to the window. Another day, another disappointment he thought, throwing his helmet onto a bedpost and spreading his makeshift cape back into a blanket.

When he collapsed into bed, he was startled by a tiny shriek and rolled over, getting tangled in the mess of a blanket. Dee scrambled to get free and found himself face to face with a tiny green creature. Any other kid in his position would have screamed, but she seemed oddly familiar.

"Dee! Dee! Sorry about hiding under your pillow, but we need your help!"

"Is it Mr. Deleo?"

"yes! He's about to find the-"

Dee didn't let her finish. He whipped on his cape, threw on his helmet, and kicked the hidden trap door in the wall open. Dee grinned. He knew this would come in handy someday.

"Let's go!"

oh dear god

2010-07-16T23:36:00.002-04:00

so I'm doing a test animatic for the Tell Tale Games job application and I draw this

what is wrong with me

blue test anim

2010-07-14T22:43:00.002-04:00

Here's a pose test for another math tutoring project I'm working on called "4mality"- as far as I know it's geared towards elementary/middle schoolers

https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/jgchan/estella_fly.swf

I don't know why, but black is a sacred color to my brain/drawing arm so I usually end up roughing stuff out in blue.

fish fish fish

2010-06-16T21:26:00.001-04:00

You ever try to animate 50 little fish on screen at once?

I think I'm going blind and crazy (though the Bit Films crew is probably the best thing about this internship)

Also, hire me please!

Demo Reel Spring 2010 from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

gallery pics

2010-05-31T23:54:00.002-04:00

Man. All-weekers are NOT fun

(me on thursday morning, trying to catch a nap on the lab tables. They're not comfortable at all)

4:00 AM, Friday: My arm + carpal tunnel is killing me, I'm falling alseep standing up, and I need to get this gallery space set up before I can finally pass out

7:00ish AM: It is finished!

I saw the sun set and rise at least 6 times that past week. Probably the most intense I've ever worked on a project and the furthest I've pushed myself so far in my life.

A little info on the gallery space: I HATE the way most art galleries are set up. Setting up things next to each other neatly on a white wall with black matting really removes that human element from the art and makes it cold and clinical, so my lovely girlfriend Sarah helped me tear off the face of a big piece of cardboard and I used the corrugations as a backdrop for my original concept art

Graduation, BEST IN SHOW!

2010-05-16T10:06:00.002-04:00

I got Best in Show!

For my thesis film, silly. Every year, the UMass Art Department holds their "Junior/Senior Show" where d was selected for third place (studio arts) and tied for first place in best in show.

Wooo!

d online!

2010-05-05T11:09:00.001-04:00

d from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

(one week only. Then it comes down again while I do a film festival run.)

d animation process

2010-05-03T01:58:00.007-04:00

So I entered d into the Cartoon Brew Student Film Festival. Unfortunately that means I can't post it online/premiere it online here :[

"GEE JERRY, HOW DID YOU ANIMATE THAT WONDERFUL CARTOON OF YOURS?"

Thanks for asking! :DDDDD

Ever seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I followed their production model... mostly. That is, Shoot an invisible man film first, then draw the characters on top later

Phase 1: 3D production

The first step was to build and all the 3D assets seen in the film, from mountain tops to airships to robots. Think of it like building a set for a film or for a stage. Next, all the 3D actors (i.e. spiderbots) were placed on the sets and animated. A camera was placed on the set and the action was shot as if there were an invisible man as the focus of the action. After lighting the scene, I rendered the file and wound up with something that looked like this:

The next phase was to draw in the character. I imported the 3D renders into Macromedia Flash 8 and roughed out the action (if you're wondering why I used blue, it's because black somehow became a sacred color in my mind and I can't ever be messy with it. Blue allows for me to make really loose drawings, mistakes be darned)

With the action roughed out, I cleaned up the blue lines and used the final colors for Dee's o

I duplicated that layer and used that to add in color

I sandwiched another layer below the outlines layer and above the color layer for the shadows (good ol' fashioned painting/drawing techniques used here, if you're wondering how I figured out where to place the shadows)

After this was done, I exported each pass by itself and compiled everything using After Effects.

And the final product!

d is about 5:30, putting it at over 7000 frames. I didn't keep count of exactly how many frames I drew, but I think I was getting carpal tunnel towards the end of production (horray hand stretches!)

d stills

2010-05-02T01:58:00.004-04:00

I've also entered d into the Cartoon Brew Student Film Festival, so here's hoping it gets put up there.

However, if you'd like to see it (and me) again, there will be another screening of my film at the CKC Computer Science Showcase, this Tuesday at around 6:00 at the Computer Science building (very north-west corner on the UMass campus). Hope to see you there!

d premiere!

2010-04-27T03:09:00.002-04:00

If you're in the Amherst area, you should totally drop by the A+ Senior Showcase this Friday at 5:00 (Mahar Auditorium)

I'll have original concept/production art up at the Studio Arts Building too!

Also, FREE FOOD!

Also, the event is FREE!

Bring your friends!

Please?

animation progress 3/30

2010-03-31T07:34:00.001-04:00

d 3-30 progress from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Animation progress, pt. 20: The Electric Boogaloo

2010-03-26T04:01:00.004-04:00

I have less than 5 weeks to finish up my thesis cartoon and I'm at around 35 of 50 shots animated in 3D.

To put that in perspective:

Shots 1-6 are hand drawn; no 3D required
Shots 7-43 involve lots of 3D elements
Shots 44-50 are hand drawn

The most 3D intensive shots are shots 22 to 43; 3/4 of these are animated
The most intensive hand drawn shots are shots 13 to 24, which I have not started yet

The cartoon's length is about 3:30, excluding credits. I have about 2 minutes of that animated so far in 3D (2D has about a minute's worth of animation that is getting compiled on top

I should be able to finish this cartoon on time, though whether or not it's up to the quality that I want it to be is a completely different question

animation progress

2010-03-08T01:14:00.003-05:00

I'm at around 10/50 shots right now and about 2 weeks behind schedule. I might be a bit behind schedule (2 weeks), but all of the shots I've worked on so far are the trickiest of the 3D stuff and I expect to fly through the other 30ish easy 3D shots once I get these ones finished

animation progress 3-7 from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Alice in Wonderland review-ish

2010-03-06T01:30:00.003-05:00

Before I start off this review, I should add that I am a college senior in animation/film. I have zero experience in the field and I don't know what it's like out there, so take these words with a grain of salt (or the whole mine).
____________________________________________

I really wanted to love this movie, honest! But there's something terribly unsettling about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

No, it's not that it's not the traditional happy-go-lucky Disney film that everyone seems used to. I love the fact that it's an original look at Alice, ADDING to the story rather than retelling it. And no, it's not a terrible movie (with the exceptions of some funky fresh dancing). It's just an okay movie. Not great, not bad, just okay. I'm honestly not going to remember this movie in a year.

To understand why I can't call Alice in Wonderland a great movie, let's look at a really, really crappy cam rip of the opening of Serenity (sorry, it's all I can find)

Within the few minutes of being introduced to each of the characters, I at least get such a strong sense of their relationships to each other that I understood each of their characters even without having any prior exposure to the Firefly series. Mal and Jayne's first interaction with each other in the movie clearly establishes Jayne as a trigger happy/ shoot-first-then-shoot-some-more kind of guy. Mal's the leader that's seen better days (but he's used to it), and so forth.

Serenity has a bunch of things going for it- an excellent script, good directing and cinematography, and most importantly, ACTORS THAT UNDERSTAND THEIR CHARACTERS. Rather than merely reading out each line at the correct time, the actors did their homework and created backgrounds and motives for their characters. Everyone has different values and motivations beyond "stand here, point gun this way, say this line"-- good ol' fashioned acting.

The reason why I can't call Alice in Wonderland a good movie is that the characters aren't NEARLY as developed. In fact, they're all pretty flat; no one has much motivation for any of their actions beyond the fact that they're supposed to say it. Does this mean that the actors didn't do their homework? Maybe they did, but it certainly doesn't come through at any point in the film.

(Ah the dangers of green screen acting)

Character interactions never seem to go beyond just saying the lines they were told. Just listen to the voice of the White Rabbit-- absolutely no hint of subterfuge of subtlety in his voice. No frustration as he says "no no! stop!" Alice doesn't look like she's thinking at all- her reaction is more "Oh I'm growing. again. woooo." The Red Queen doesn't seem surprised at all to see a giant naked girl appearing out of nowhere in her garden, yadda yadda, NO ONE HAS ANY EXPRESSIONS IN THIS FILM. A majority of the characters have no life in them at all, just forced expressions, unclear motivations. Even the motion in each character is limited

Compare this acting (and all its wonderous 3D) to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (skip to 8:30)

There's absolutely no aversion at all in the White Rabbit. His cover is about to be blown and he's standing RIGHT NEXT TO THE QUEEN THAT CUTS EVERYONE'S HEAD OFF. Show some fear man! Or some life!

Look, I can understand being frozen in fear, but this is acting 101- getting your body to tell the story. I suspect the rather limited acting on everyone's part is because they're all acting in front of green screens without any hint as to the environment they're situated in (or the live actors at least. I don't know what was up with the animation-- perhaps it was really rushed? I'm going to give the animators the benefit of a doubt and assume that they were put up to a nearly impossible production schedule and had to cut corners)

Besides the limited acting, my biggest beef with Alice in Wonderland is that it has too many characters. No so much "X number of characters is too much!" because Serenity had what, 9 main characters (counting the villian) and that still had a really tight script and solid character relationships. "Too many characters" as in "Burton spent so much time juggling Alice around with the supporting cast that none of the characters could develop, or even express the existence of a believable/real relationship." I wasn't so much as experiencing the movie as waiting for her to get passed off to another member of the cast. At no point in the movie did I fear for her safety (I know I should have) nor did I cheer at her accomplishments; the lack of solid, believable characters in this movie made the movie flat and anticlimactic. Really anticlimactic. It doesn't help that they spoil the ending to their own movie many, many times ahead of the actual ending.

Alice in Wonderland is a pretty straight forward film. See it for the often times spectacular visuals and the novel concept, just don't expect much else.

animation progress

2010-02-28T03:19:00.001-05:00

d rough animation progress from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Regulus touch up

2010-02-20T23:20:00.003-05:00

Reactive armor always looks cool

Regulus vs. Aethon

2010-02-19T01:10:00.003-05:00

Keep in mind that the Regulus has a wingspan of about 1.5 km and is 700 meters long

Tonight I rigged the Regulus, the giant airship that attacks Dee. I should be ready to start animating act 3 by tomorrow

Regulus progress

2010-02-18T20:58:00.001-05:00

I still need to work more on that landing bay, but now this thing looks scary

Maya crashing

2010-02-18T14:19:00.002-05:00

Just to be clear, even though Maya crashes on me every once in a while it doesn't mean that it's a terrible piece of software.

On the contrary, it's probably the most stable 3D packages I've ever used.

Animation Master... now that's a crappy piece of software!

Crashing every 15 seconds to make this (I did the mouse cursor in Flash afterward)

Compared to this, in which I had no crashes at all

So is it a pain in the butt when maya crashes? Sure is! But there are far worse options out there. In fact, I dare say that Maya is actually pretty fun once you get used to it, especially for animation

Spiderbot test rendered from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Aethon rigging

2010-02-18T01:32:00.004-05:00

Rigging the Aethon right now.

Also I'm using a pitch counter now to count how many times Maya crashes on me now

Also I haven't had a crash in the past couple of hours since I turned off the toon outlines

I need to go to sleep earlier!

2010-02-17T03:37:00.002-05:00

My, how the hours between midnight and 3 AM fly

d hand drawn comp test from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Here's a test on how I plan on attacking the hand drawn aspect of d. Basically I'm copying the workflow of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1. Film/Shoot the movie like an "invisible man" movie
2. Find keyframes. Draw Dee in
3. Inbetween
4. Color
5. Shade (+ post production)
6. Composite

The biggest difference between me and the WFRR crew is that I don't have access to a giant optical camera and that I'm doing this all out digitally. Honestly, I'd rather do this on paper but I simply don't have the time to do that

problem half solved

2010-02-12T01:49:00.004-05:00

Looks like the problem was that the normals were flipped (thanks dudes @ conceptart.org)

But now there's a thick black outline at the end of the wing now. Not quite sure how to figure that out

[edit]

Problem solved! Apparently you can't ever have a negative scale in Maya, which was causing this thing to get all messed up.

And also there's no documentation on this ever so yeah, thank god for 3D teachers

[/edit]

toon shader's acting up

2010-02-10T20:09:00.005-05:00

Got a slight problem with the toon outline

It looks like half of the wing (not affected by lights at all) turns really dark. Not quite sure why either- I know it's not the lighting because I shifted the light over and it's still just as dark (like my soul)

Actually it happens in the mountain flyby too

update: The tail's been shaded/textured. The last remaining thing to be mapped/textured is the engine

mountains + cloud test

2010-02-10T09:00:00.001-05:00

d cloud valley render test from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Zephyrus progress

2010-02-08T15:21:00.002-05:00

Well I managed to render these files before Maya crashed.

In fact, it looks like my save files were also corrupted

Missing:
-middle blimp
-one full tail, half of one tail
-3 support columns connecting the 3 blimps
-(weirdest one) The default lambert (texture) that covers everything

aethon

2010-02-04T13:55:00.004-05:00

Gettin' old

2010-01-28T01:15:00.003-05:00

Sign you're getting old: Wishing those darn kids upstairs would quit playing the drums past midnight

Oh and here's more work on the Aethon

Aethon progress

2010-01-26T00:34:00.004-05:00

This is the Aethon, Dee's smaller airplane that launches from the Zephyrus. Or part of it-- I'm still modeling it RIIIGHT NOW

(FYI Aethon is Latin for one of the horses that pulled that pulled the sun across the sky)

edit:

Apparently I didn't take into account the propeller size of this thing (somehow it worked on paper). Easy fix though!

This feels about right

cloud test render: 33m

2010-01-24T01:51:00.001-05:00

there has GOT to be a better way to do this. This one render took 33 minutes and there's not that much going on!

animatic

2010-01-22T03:25:00.001-05:00

d revised animatic (third pass) from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

reference photos

2010-01-04T13:57:00.005-05:00

You know, "collecting reference footage" is the perfect reason to go outside and play in the snow.

So how DOES it feel to fly around mountain tops? I don't have the budget to hire out an airplane/helicopter, but I can make do with snow and my point and click camera

re-boarding

2010-01-01T23:29:00.003-05:00

xmas

2009-12-25T02:03:00.003-05:00

(for Sarah <3)

Education Week WAYANG feature

2009-12-23T13:29:00.002-05:00

Wayang Outpost, the experimental math tutoring system that I'm animating characters for, has been featured in Education Week (with my name completely omitted from the article! To be fair the article is more about the affect of the characters rather than the characters themselves)

Anyways, check it out if you want to see what I do for my quasi day job (plus a really pixelated image of Jane):

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/12/22/16tutor_ep.h29.html?tkn=QXXFSJRgRQHkqCd9J5CxKA2oNJglEVtV4Zis

A high school student is working on a geometry problem with her tutor, “Jane.” The student solves the problem incorrectly and expresses frustration. Empathetic, Jane shows momentary frustration, too.

Then she responds encouragingly, “Let’s read again what the problem is asking.”

This scene would not be out of place in most educational environments were it not for one important detail: Jane is a character on a computer screen.

Developed by teams of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Arizona State University in Tempe, the computer tutor in this scenario is part of a growing number of research projects around the country looking to build a social and emotional support system into intelligent-tutoring systems. Powered by artificial-intelligence technology, intelligent tutors have been around for decades, and some are beginning to make their way into regular classroom use. Cognitive Tutor, one of the oldest and best known of such programs, for instance, now operates in 2,600 schools around the country

spiderbot mostly finaled

2009-12-09T19:13:00.001-05:00

Spiderbot test rendered from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

spiderbot fully animated

2009-12-08T02:32:00.001-05:00

Well that was a fast turnaround time

D spiderbot test animation from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

I need a hissssss at the end

higher res: https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/jgchan/blast8.avi

spiderbot pose to pose test

2009-12-08T01:24:00.000-05:00

D spiderbot animation test- pose to pose from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

rigging = hard :[

2009-12-07T22:49:00.003-05:00

Works fine with the rotation tool

Mysteriously breaks when I input a number manually!

test comp

2009-12-06T03:02:00.002-05:00

not too sure if I like the way Dee looks

Spiderbot- mostly finished

2009-12-04T16:36:00.003-05:00

this is probably the closest I'm goign to get to finaling this model. Time to rig!

spiderbot progress

2009-12-04T14:09:00.002-05:00

Don't mind me, just modelling a flying spiderbot

D new animatic progress

2009-11-21T22:58:00.000-05:00

D animatic (21 nov) from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Regulus, take 3!

2009-11-14T20:53:00.003-05:00

Redesign of the Regulus with a scale mock up of the Zephyrus for a size comparison

Regulus redesign

2009-11-14T01:09:00.001-05:00

No engines on this yet, but how's this look? (note the scale)

Side

Front

Back

Top

3/4ish front shot

d08 + Regulus progress (feedback needed!)

2009-11-13T22:17:00.003-05:00

d08 animatic from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

Any feedback on the Regulus's design would be greatly appreciated. Keep in mind that the Regulus has a wingspan of 2000 meters

OLDER MODELS:

flash boarding

2009-11-11T22:44:00.004-05:00

into

d_01 flash board from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

So I went to Hampshire today and, once again, was schooled by Chris Perry, who pointed out that the drawings in my last animatic were unclear, cluttered, and terribly timed.

It just doesn't work.

I was going to redo them anyways so they're getting done in Flash now

D animatic

2009-11-10T19:07:00.003-05:00

D animatic from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

The first animatic pass on my BFA thesis is done! Or it has been done for the past week and I've been too busy to post it up here.

Changed to follow:
-Get an ACTUAL composer (I'm meeting with someone this Thursday, actually)
-Redo the whole thing (seriously-- a lot of things don't work in here)

As a first pass, I guess it's not bad, but it's definitely not up to where I hoped it would be. The biggest problem is that, for an action cartoon, it's not exciting. As Jed, my 3D animation teacher last year put it, an action cartoon needs its share of "OH SHIII--" moments and this is clearly lacking in all of those.

BUT, work continues!

Also I had a great time at the Pittsfield animation event (I got the autograph of the guy who did the EENVEEHSABLE PREAHDATUR MAUNSTER effect; it still astounds me how those guys did all those visual effects without the aid of computers)

Storyboarding- 1st pass done!

2009-10-27T01:15:00.002-04:00

About 46 hours ago I finished the first pass on my thesis film, D

About 45 hours ago, I realized I still had to practice/memorize a 10 page script (dialogue, mostly)

In 8.5 hours I need to perform this script (with my group) in front of my class.

I need a flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts :docbrown:

Oh also I managed to enlist this guy (Michael Goulian) to act as a consultant on my thesis project:

and by "consultant" I mean I sent him an email asking if he'd look at some footage I've yet to produce and give some feedback-- but, now I've got an (awesome) professional stunt pilot to pester! [cackle here]

Also I need a soundtrack for this thesis film. More details to follow once I get the animatic finished.

MOTIF first meeting + FAPOOOSH!

2009-10-02T21:42:00.001-04:00

Maybe 30+ people showed up for the first MOTIF meeting. Horray!

And a third of them left after they found out Song of the South wasn't a racy cartoon in any way. In fact, it was pretty boring.

I want to call this picture FAPOOOOSH for some reason

Drawings skills!

2009-09-30T19:14:00.002-04:00

I think I'm getting better

The time I've been waiting for!

2009-09-27T18:07:00.003-04:00

If you're reading this and you haven't seen Cloudly with a chance of Meatballs, shut down the computer and run to the theater and watch it. Now.

http://jgchan.blogspot.com/2008/04/future-of-3d.html

About a year and a half ago, I talked about the potential future of 3D. Having just seen Horton Hears a Who, I wondered how long it would take for the other Hollywood studios to pick up on the fact that they didn't have to copy Pixar to make good films.

Apparently that time is now!

Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs is an absolutely terrific movie, no doubt about it, and I absolutely love it. The aesthetic is strictly cartoonish- no attempts at photo-realism (except for the food, which looked delicious), and the animation was terrifically cartoony-- fast moves, really exaggerated poses, the stuff I absolutely love in 2D cartoons. The takes and double takes were all absolutely outrageous too, some of the wildest I've seen in a 3D cartoon.

So the movie's great, no doubt about it. But, the other reason why I'm so excited is because I'm graduating from college this year, and I'm heading into a field which has started to diversify. Disney's starting up their hand drawn stuff this year. Imageworks and Blue Skies figured that they don't have to follow the Disney/Pixar formula to be successful (Dreamworks soon to follow?). It's an exciting time, and I can't wait to get into it.

Chalk Pastels?!

2009-09-21T00:29:00.002-04:00

Drifting Dreams storyboarding

2009-09-16T20:50:00.003-04:00

I started to thumbnail out the action sequence in the cartoon

Production of "Finding Jesus" is over for now. Patricia, my advisor, said she'd rather have me spending time on my BFA rather than trying to salvage that dumb cartoon.

2 more shots to animate + BFA character redesign?

2009-09-01T23:56:00.004-04:00

2 more shots were finished today:
https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/jgchan/jt_032_07.swf
https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/jgchan/jt_032_10.swf

2 more shots to animate (one of which is a long walk). And then it's another pass to add more details into the backgrounds/sets/whatever you call it.

Also, I'm being MANLY and pumping iron today and watching cartoons (Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Lab, to be exact) when the thought hits me:

Why am I always drawing Dee like this, kind of a pseudo rip off of Disney (and failing)?

what's to say he can't be geometric and simplified?

And now he's SUPA KAWII CUUUTE. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this, though (he is a lot easier to draw this way)

Jesus Toast progress + Disney buys out Marvel

2009-08-31T17:56:00.005-04:00

Hammering away at this still.

Current progress: https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/jgchan/jt_030.swf

Juggling 3 cartoons at once is hard :[

(this is an older version/animatic, but I'm about halfway done with the character animation and hopefully I'll move onto the effects/debris work by Thursday)

Toast progress from Jerry Chan on Vimeo.

So many jokes... so little time...

Chopstick T-Rex

2009-08-22T23:32:00.004-04:00

Bill Tytla?!

2009-08-13T18:07:00.005-04:00

So I'm being productive and watching cartoons on Youtube when I stumble across this:

(keep in mind I'm working at the same time here, listening to the audio)

I was clicking on random cartoons in the related list and I didn't know what I picked, but by the sound of it and by the aesthetics it looked like I was watching some sort of 1930s color copy of a Disney cartoon. So I go back to check out the date on the cartoon when I notice the supervising animator is Bill Tytla.

Yeah, Bill Tytla. The same guy who did this

The Noveltoon was made in 1950. Fantasia was made in 1940.

So what happened to Mr. Tytla? I thought he would have reacted against the Disney style like the other ex Disney artists who formed UPA did!

More importantly, why do Famous cartoons of the 1950s look comparable to 1930s Disney/WB cartoons?

And look at this!

This looks like it's just a copy of Hanna-Barbra TV cartoons

My experience in Bit Film's Tower 37

2009-07-29T13:42:00.004-04:00

http://bitfilms.com/tower37.html

The Incident at Tower 37, a student film I was on the production crew for one semester, is up for some awards at Siggraph. The following is an email of the experience I sent to Dan Inkeles, the producer for the film about my experience (hey he asked for it!).

To those who don't know about Tower 37 (or Uprising as we called it), it's a 3D animated short directed by Chris Perry, a Rhythm & Hues director turned Pixar TD turned Hampshire College animation professor. We used professional standard software (Maya, Shake, Renderman) as well as some in-house (house? school would be more accurate) file management software called HELGA (which is now being used by some local animation studios for their own file management).

But the fancy software doesn't really matter- what DID matter was that this class was an actual production. To my knowledge, no other school teaches students of different backgrounds how to work together as a group-- yes that's right-- Just about all the footage in Tower 37 was produced by students, and it looks pretty darned good (if I do say so myself).

I still can't get over how great of an experience it was and if the professional world is anything like this, I still have much to look foward to

____________________________________

As the absolute newbie of the group, I stepped into Chris’s Animation 3 class with absolutely no experience in the field of 3D animation, and the little I did know (character animation and acting) didn’t prove to be much help when I was assigned animation and paint fixes. I didn’t know anyone in the class either, so the first couple of weeks I sat in my little corner, huddled over the graph editor doing my own work, regretting the fact that I was taking Computer
Animation 3 without having taken Computer animation 1 or 2.

And then disaster struck. Chris, for reasons unfathomable to my mind, was suddenly busy with other work and now I couldn’t pester him to look at what I was working on! What would I do? Per the suggestion of Dan, I timidly creeped up behind one of my classmates and managed to stammer out if they’d be willing to look at my anim fix.

Lo and behold- they actually stood up and looked at my work and actually gave me feedback. This sort of interaction was unfamiliar to me; so far in my art classes, classmates would often just sit and look at a piece I was working on and say “Cool” or “Neat” never anything I could REALLY use, but now suddenly I was receiving useful feedback.

Suddenly I found myself peering over the shoulders of my peers, learning the lingo of compositing and lighting, asking how to do this and if they could show me that thing they were working on. The best part about it were the many, many different perspectives I was getting, since, as an artist, I normally never get to work with programmers or technicians, especially in classes.

By the time the class was finished, I had actually taken part in a PRODUCTION as part of a team. It was at that point I learned the importance of cooperation and that being a one man show was neat and all, but having a bunch of specialists come together, attacking the goal from different angles, would turn out a better product. And, as if to drive the point home, the next semester I worked on a music video with a class back at UMass; Sure, the whole team was talented, but because of a lack of diversification in our training, we were all hacking away
inefficiently and ineffectively at the same problems, and production soon fell into a free for all, with the final product being visually incoherent and drama arising between crew members due to a lack of communication. The entire time I was working with that team, I could only think back to the prior semester where I was actually working with other students.

The biggest thing I learned from Chris’s Animation 3 class was how essential the team was to any production and how all these seemingly unrelated perspectives and backgrounds can come together to produce an awesome film. It was an honor to have worked on this film and I can only hope to spread the joy of community that I found in that lab.

Lights Out!

2009-07-28T10:16:00.002-04:00

Havin' some framing/composition problems in the next shot :[

Roger Williams Zoo

2009-07-19T00:13:00.010-04:00

I feel so much more comfortable at a zoo than at a fine art museum. Does that make me weird?

the lighting today was pretty terrible so a lot of these pictures are blurry (!$!%)

I can't get over how incredibly frickin' cute the red panda is. This guy could probably disembowel someone and bystanders would all say "D'awwww!"

(check out the guy on the right... he's sitting in a stone recliner)

Waaayyyy too cute. Also they're fast. And elusive. Whenever I tried to sketch this guy he managed to duck into a hole in the wall (where he's fed I assume).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAbuKblNHoE <-- prepare for cute overload

And, finally, Radiated Turtle Demolition Derby

Scene 5

2009-07-17T00:53:00.001-04:00