Sent in my Nick Fellowship Application this morning. That is the end of another major project in a short window of time. I'm starting to dream up new projects to do. The one I'm most interested in is a re-edit of the new Tron film. I think it has a good movie buried in it but is surrounded by about 45 minutes of crap.

They listed the people accepted for pre-screening for Studio day. My name was not listed. I made a story reel though and I don't believe they were screening for story artists. I signed up to speak with WildBrain and Lucasfilm though in the morning. They are supposivly sending some story people over.

Here is another character design. This is Slash in scared faces:

I've been scrambling to get my fellowship application done. I finished it today but the post office was closed. I need to get it to the USC post office Monday or I'll be inelligible.




Friday the director of Toy Story 3 came by. He gave a good speech and showed some cool behind the scenes looks at the movie. There was one part where they showed how much they editted a few lines from Tom Hanks. Almost every other word was from another take. I tried to speak with him to get a trip to Pixar but he wasn't able to help much.

I've been working on making concept art for Slash's various emotions. Here is concepts for his serious face:

Here are my character designs so far for Slash and Burn. For the knight I started by drawing actors who would be good in the role for Slash. I chose Jack Black as the best one. Later on I tried simplifying and exagerating him until I got a good design.

I spent a few hours today on character design. I'm starting to get a good, unique design for the knight Slash. I started from a picture of Jack Black but slowly simplified and exaggerated his face. He doesn't look too much like him now but has a cool cartoony look. I haven't done any modeling yet though.

I'm still struggling a bit with Nuke but I feel like I'm getting better. I know a good amount of the basic functions but some things like 3D cameras are out of my comprehension right now. I'm going to ask some classmates for help this week.

SHARK COP!!!

Shark Cop is done... kinda. I have added music, finished off the shots, edited it and finalized the after effect looks on it. Its a complete film but I need to do titles, archiving and pay my composer. This is why I don't like post-production, the film is made but you still have to work on it. I don't care though. Its done, I like it, time to focus fully on a new project.

Nuke homework today went well. Its mostly guessing and asking my classmates what to do. I've gotten advise from four different classmates today on the project. Class is at 7 tomorrow so I'll probably just experiment on it a bit before then.

I spent a few hours today drawing the knight in my thesis film as Jack Black and Jim Carrey. The results were frightening. I realized by researching the two that Jack Black always faces the camera. Meaning that not only is he looking at the camera, you can also see most of the front of him. Also, he keeps his arms out and waves them alot. Pretty much it is his goal to take up the most amount of screen space as possible.

I've given up on my Fan Boy and Chum Chum script. I can't waste any more time on it and I need to have more scripts by the 28th. I have another idea for a Spongebob script. I've learned alot from the first one and I think this one will be easier.

I spent a good chunk of the weekend working on Shark Cop. I finally was able to get in contact with my composer and he says I can have the music on Tuesday. I really want that project to be done by Friday. Its more extra baggage that I don't need right now.

My spec script hit a road block. I wrote about half of it and I don't know where to go from here. On Saturday I spent about an hour staring at a blank screen trying to figure out what to write. I wrote two lines, deleted them and then gave up. I'll try to write something today.

I'm re thinking alot about the characters in my Thesis. Today I'm re-drawing some boards to make the knight a more wild character and make the dragon more reserved. I think it brings more humor to the film.

I'm writing a spec script for the Nick show Fanboy and Chum Chum. I'm not too familiar with this show, I've only seen about ten or so episodes. Its a tough show as the main characters are difficult to find differences between. Mostly I'm making up the characters traits in my script.

Life drawing was good today. I had a good model and overall I was drawing fairly well. I need a few hours a week of drawing.

Variety

My first issue of Variety came yesterday and apparently it is a daily magazine. Pretty cool. It came with a DVD about why I should vote Inception for best picture. There are a few articles about animation in it. Overall, it is a good tool to keep up with industry news.

For thesis I'm finished with story. At least for a while. Now I'm focusing on character. My professor, Mike Patterson, has asked me to research comedy actors to see how they would take on a specific scene. I'm going to show my research next class.

Had a pretty productive weekend. I finished my Spongebob script, I'm thinking I'll do a Fan Boy and Chum Chum one this week. Saturday Matt and I had a director's meeting for the TUT project and finished the story and basic storyboards for the film. I'm confident we can move forward steadily from now on. I also finished a good draft on my animation reel. Right now it is only stop motion but its pretty solid. I edited it to under a minute.

I've been able to keep up with the rest of my projects as well. I often get the urge to neglect one while I work on others but I've been good lately.

Fellowship

This month I am going to attempt to get the Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship. If accepted I'll be an assistant writer at Nickelodeon for a year in Burbank, CA. My goal is to have a few good spec strips by February 28th, the due date of the application. I've started writing a Spongebob Squarepants script. I think it is turning out alright but I won't post it until after the 28th.

Compositing is tough. My class is very technical and mentally draining. I'm learning a lot from it though and can see practical uses for the class later on.

Columbian Animation

Today was fairly long. I had a meeting with a video game student I'm doing art for. The meeting was at noon so I was in my studio at 10am finishing up work for her. I had previously done mostly robot animation with a set model but this week I was able to do frame by frame hand drawn animation. Its been a while since I did it so it was fun. Here is what I showed her today.



I worked on thesis a bit after lunch and at 630 for seminar we had Columbian Experimental Animators. While it wasn't my favorite type of animation, it was interesting to see.

Here is the script I wrote earlier this week.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_uqQ1LjPndlZWFhNWJlZWEtYmM3YS00YzgyLTkyOGYtMjBhNzhjZGUyODNk&hl=en